Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Doctor Fish Experience (Featuring Joann Lee)

Before I get into this next post, I just wanted to let everybody know that I passed my training yesterday, and I start teaching in Ilsan on Monday. It was a crazy week and I'm pretty exhausted, but I'm excited to finally start teaching and get the full experience out here. Now with that out of the way, on with the story.

The other day I was hanging out with some people in Gangnam, just walking around. Out of nowhere my friend Joann asks if we know about doctor fish and if we've ever been to a place that had them. I'd only been in Seoul for a few days so I barely even knew what doctor fish were, and it was a little too late at night for an adventure of that nature. But the next time I met up with Joann, I asked her about the doctor fish place, and she said that there was a spot nearby.



So we go to this building, and on the second floor there's a cafe. In the front, they had different kinds of bread with a mini-oven and you could order frozen drinks, coffee, etc. And in the back were doctor fish tanks. Oh wait, you guys probably don't even know what doctor fish are.

So they're these little fish, some people call them nibble fish or little dermatologists. Originally, they were used in Turkey in outdoor spas to treat people with psoriasis or skin disease. The fish eat at dead skin and leave healthy skin to grow. Nowadays, you can find them in spas and resorts in a lot of different places, even in the U.S. It's supposed to be quite the experience, so I had to see for myself.



So after we had toast and strawberry smoothies, we went over to the "Dr. Fish Zone" (I thought that sign was funny). The guy tells us to wash our feet in these little basins by the tanks and sets a timer for 15 minutes. Joann keeps telling me how weird it's gonna feel and that I'm gonna freak out. Now we all know that I'm too cool for that, but I definitely dipped my feet into the water slowly.

The second my feet got into that water, those little fish started swarming.



It's such a weird feeling. It's like a bunch of little hands grabbing at your feet. And it tickles. A LOT. We were sitting there laughing uncontrollably for like 5 minutes. Actually, I think I was laughing uncontrollably and Joann was just laughing at me. Either way, there was a lot of laughing involved.

After you get used to the fish, it's actually a pretty relaxing experience. There's cool music playing in the cafe and you sit on these cushions looking out the windows at Seoul. And Seoul is beautiful at night time when it's all lit up.



So that was a pretty cool experience, and I'm thinking I'll have a lot more. Maybe not with swarms of therapeutic fish, but cool nonetheless. Big shout out to Joann for the blog appearance, and the trip. I think the next post is gonna be about our last trip to Rainbow. It was AMAZING.

Stay tuned...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

First Encounters

Alright, so I've been in Seoul for a few days now and I've had some pretty cool experiences. It's definitely been an advantage knowing people who live it, and there's also a lot of cool people in my training program with CDI. Honestly, I love it here. I may never come back. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but I really do love it here. The food is amazing, and quite reasonably priced. I've been eating pretty well. It's kind of hard to put into words, but it's just such an inviting place, and I've really been enjoying myself.

During training, most of the trainees are staying in the Coatel Hotel in Gangnam. It's a really cool district in Seoul, and there's always so much going on. Sometimes, I'll be walking up the street and see a marathon of people jogging down the sidewalk to catch the bus. I mean, old people and young people, women in heels and men in suits, EVERYBODY. I like the subway here a lot though. It's cleaner, quieter and faster than the trains in New York and Chicago. They get really crowded at certain times of day, but it's no big deal. Seoul is like New York on steroids. Bigger buildings. Wider intersections. More people.



Traffic over here gets pretty ridiculous too. When people have somewhere to be, they get there. It's to the point where sometimes you'll see a police car or ambulance with their siren blaring, but they're stuck in traffic because no one will yield to them. I think the most hectic areas are these side streets that have a really narrow road and really narrow (or non-existent) sidewalks. It turns into this mashup of cars and people that gets a bit scary. it's gets even worse when people come zooming buy you on scooters. Luckily, I haven't been hit by a car, bus or scooter yet.



There are also a lot of restaurants and stores over here that I'm used to seeing in the U.S. Dunkin' Donuts is HUGE here, you'll see one on every corner. I've also seen Cold Stone Creamery, Krispy Kreme, and of course the regular Starbucks. Coffee is huge here too. Folks are addicted to caffeine like alcohol. By the way, they don't play about alcohol either, but I think that's for another post.

Anyways, I obviously didn't come here for food that I could easily eat in the States. So I called up my boy Ben so we could have lunch at a Korean restaurant.



We walked around Gangnam for a bit and stopped in this restaurant that served dak galbi. Dak galbi is a stir fry-type dish with chicken in red pepper paste and mixed with vegetables and rice cake. It's DELICIOUS. I was already a fan of spicy foods, but Korean food takes it to another level. And this huge dish was only like $14. Did I mention that there's no tipping in Korea? Because that contributes to how little we paid for so much food. If I don't start working out, I'm gonna be fat by the time I come back home.





I've been to some other great restaurants that serve good dumplings and kimbab (rice and vegetables rolled up in seaweed) along with a really good Vietnamese place where we had pho. I also went to a hip-hop club and a really cool hookah lounge, but I didn't take pictures of those places. Maybe I'll revisit those in future posts. But I think walking around Gangnam and eating dak galbi was a good start to my time in Korea. I also bought a pretty nice watch from a street vendor for like $7. We'll see how long it works.

Shout out to Ben for making a cameo on the blog and be on the lookout for my next post with another friend making a special appearance.

Be easy y'all

Friday, May 21, 2010

Clear The Runway, Baby!

Originally, I intended to make a post before I left, and then a post once I got here. But I couldn't use the wireless in Detroit or LA's airports, so WELCOME TO SEOUL!!!

Let me take you through everything.

Yesterday, I was all over the place, making sure I tied up every loose end before leaving to the airport. Got a haircut, made some last minute visits, even bought some sleep-aids for the plane. So I said my goodbyes and "I love you"s to my parents and went off on my own. One of the biggest things I'd been worrying about this week was my luggage being overweight. You're allowed two bags, but they both have to be under 50 lbs. Otherwise you get a $120 fee. Funny story, my big suitcase weighed 49 lbs. So getting in and out of Detroit was easy.

After a bearable 5 hour flight from Detroit, I had a layover in LA. The only thing that bothered me there was that the Korean Air terminal was in the next building, so I had to walk all the way over there and stand in line forever to get through security. But all things considered, everything went fine. But the best part of the whole trip, had to be flying with Korean Air.

Last time I took an overseas flight, I was a baby so I don't remember it. And the longest flight I've been on since then was that 5 hour flight to LA, so I thought taking this 13 hour flight Seoul was gonna be awful. But flying Korean Air is great. First, they had these TV screens in the seats so you could watch whatever movie or TV show or even listen to music on your own.



I watched The Book of Eli, an episode of Friends, and listened to some classical music. So I was entertained the majority of the flight. I've also never had airline food, and all I know about it is Seinfeld jokes. But Jerry Seinfeld has never eaten on Korean Air. We had two meals. For dinner we had bibimbap, and if you know me, you know that bibimbap is my FAVORITE Korean dish. There was also kimchi, seaweed soup and a glass of wine. I was so excited that I was halfway through eating before I thought to take a picture.



After that I took a nap. I have no idea how long I slept because I couldn't keep up with the changes in time. But soon after, we had breakfast and that was pretty good too. We had scrambled eggs, ham, potatoes, yogurt, a muffin, and some fruit. I was pretty well fed after that flight, and I barely paid attention to how much time we spent in the air.



So after all of that, I hopped off the plane. converted some US currency to Korean, then took a bus and a taxi to my hotel. Right now I'm in Gangnam which is a business district so there's a lot of big buildings and businesses all over. This is what one of the bedrooms looks like in the hotel room.



There's nothing really exciting to tell yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to tell in due time. I get to chill this weekend, but we start training on Monday, and from what they tell me, it's gonna be INTENSE. Pray for me.

Peace

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Have A Nice Trip To Korea. You're Passed.

That's what the guy at the Korean Consulate in Chicago told me after my visa interview. So they're gonna process my visa, stamp my passport and mail it back to me at the end of the week. In case you haven't heard, I'm getting things in order. I bought a big suitcase and compression bags to squeeze in my clothes. I bought a power converter and adapter for my electronics. And I'm in the midst of booking my flight.

HOWEVER, that whole thing about arriving in Seoul on May 15th...not happening. A minor setback will have me arriving in Korea on May 22nd, a week later, instead. My visa won't be processed in time for me to leave this week, so May 15th isn't feasible. Pushing my arrival back a week shouldn't be a huge problem though. Honestly, I NEED this extra week to get my whole life in order. I'm not freaking out or anything, but yo...I'm going to KOREA!!!

Anyways, I just wanted you all to know that it's happening. It's REALLY happening. Just a week later than planned. I might go into hiding for the next week. Get nice and cozy with Netflix, until I'm forced to leave and cancel my account. Or maybe I'll sneak out and see a few more people before I leave. I'm terrible at goodbyes.

Look out for my next post around flight time.