Sick Day

I'm taking a sick day today. I don't even know if I get sick days. But I have been feeling really awful. Yesterday I had a fever. I don't think I've had a fever since middle school. I didn't even remember what having a fever felt like. It was awful.  My asthma was kicking up all weekend. And my nose is running like a faucet. I won't describe the pile of tissues next to me that keeps growing as the day goes by. And my head just feels swollen and every time I move too fast I get dizzy and light headed. I went to the doctor this morning, of course by then my fever had broken and my asthma had died down. The doctor didn't look too concerned, but he didn't like the sound of my cough. I got a new cocktail of drugs, plus two inhalers (mine from the states was long expired and wasn't working so well anymore). With the two inhalers it became by far the most expencive drug store visit I've ever had, but, even still it was only 20,800 won. That would have been much more expencive in the states.

Then the boyfriend treated me to breakfast of juk, Korean rice porridge. I'm so lucky to have someone who takes care of me when I'm so far from home <3

Beirut Restaurant in Itaewon

Welcome to Beirut Restaurant,  Seoul's first Lebanese restaurant. It's just a hole in the wall kind of place, but you can expect everything to be made in front of you with fresh ingredients while you wait. The owner is a friendly, talkative kind of guy who can give you recommendations on what to eat, especially if you're like me and know nothing about Lebanese food. As it is more of a take out place, he serves mostly sandwiches, Lebanese style wraps and falafel. Everything is priced right, our two wraps were only 4,000 won each.

Preparing each wrap by hand before baking in the oven.

 Making perfect, flat dough circles to prepare the wraps. 

 Herb and cheese wrap with delicious mozzarella cheese

Enjoying the herb and cheese wrap

Lamb wrap with veggies and spice

If there is a new place you want to try in Itaewon, this should be your next stop. As it is a new restaurant, the word needs to get out about this place. Stop by for take out, or eat in one of the small tables inside. It's authentic as it gets here with an amazing chef!

To get here, go up the hill in Itaewon past hooker hill and homo hill and turn left down the next street, heading toward the Mosque. It will be on your left. Check the map for more details.


View 베이루트레스토랑 in a larger map

Tomatillo

I made my way to the famous Tomatillo by Jonggak ex. 6 yesterday. It's a pretty decent Mexican food restaurant which is reasonably priced and right downtown.

Yummy chili

Yummy nachos

 Yummy chicken burrito

And don't worry, I didn't eat this all by myself.... Yay for yummy food!

DRIPAN Community Art Walk

My friend Eric was performing at another art event in Seoul, so I made my way to Haebangchon tonight to check out his performance and some of the other things going on over there. The first location was the Laughing Tree which was a small art studio.

From there it was time to watch Eric's performance at The Local's garage. We had a drink while we waited for the performance to start. 

As usual, Eric's performance was strange and interesting. He took photos of people on his way to the event, compiled them all into one movie showing each face for a fraction of a second. Then he voiced over the people's thoughts as they walked down the street. 

Then some mysterious bags of paint dyed water came out and we didn't quite know what they were for, but everyone wound up with a bag in their hands.... 

You'll have to watch the video to find out what it was all about. Warning, language is a little strong...

Then we followed the man with the bell to Philly's where we watched some musical performances in the basement. Some excellent free style rappers and reggae artists called The Space Rhyme Continuum performed some very entertaining music for us and then a rather eclectic selection was performed by GT Arpe

The event continued, but I'm sick and the smoky bars was making me feel not so hot, so we bought some meat on a stick from a man outside and then walked back to the subway and home. In fact, it's probably still going on right now (11:30 on Saturday night) if you happen to be in Haebangchon and want to get out of your house.  It's a good time!

It Snowed...

It snowed on Monday.... but I missed it. This is the only snow I saw. Everything else melted.

Night at the JJimjilbang: Itaewon Land (이태원랜드)

To fight the terrible coughing and breathing problem I've been facing lately we thought a trip to the jjimjilbang was in order. Jjimjilbangs (찜질방) are public baths/saunas. I wrote a rather extensive post on the subject back when I used to go to the jjimjilbang with friends after work at my old job, but I haven't been to a proper jjimjilbang since my first 6 months or so in Korea. Though, I've been to a few oncheon which are mineral baths so they have similar bath amenities, just generally less sauna options. We chose Itaewon Land (이태원랜드) not for any particular reason other than the fact that we've passed it a few times and it is fairly convenient to our house.

When we checked in, we just requested 찜질방 2 명 (Jjimjilbang for two) which includes the use of the bath, free towels and clothes to change into so you can enter the common areas and saunas. Contrary to any logical English thinking, if you were to request 사우나 2 명 (sauna for two) you would not get to use the saunas at all, but only the bath area. Jjimjilbang literally means a steam room. And for some reason, sauna means bath to Koreans. So, if you're looking for only a bath, and no sauna, then you can request a sauna and get a bath for a cheaper price. Is that confusing to you? It's confusing to me.

After you pay, you can enter through the door for your gender (men and women don't bathe together after the age of 7 or so) and take off your shoes and put them into a locker. Here at Itaewon land you are assigned a certain locker. But, other jjimjilbangs will just let you choose your own shoe locker. Then, take the key to from your shoe locker up to the changing room and you can find the corresponding locker number for your belongings. At this time it is time to strip down to your birthday suit and go into the bath (sauna for Koreans)

 

I didn't think I'd be able to take a photo in the bath area, since it's usually full of naked women. But just by shear dumb luck I walked in for a moment and no one was in the bath. I snapped this as quickly as I could before anyone noticed the weigookin with the camera and dashed out again. 

The bath area here wasn't as nice as the one in Wangsimni actually in my opinion, but it was still very nice. Three pools seemed to be the same temp and same style, plus there was one extra hot bath and two cold baths (one cold pine bath, one normal cold bath). Before getting into the bath, though, you need to wash up. They have soap there you can use if you don't bring your own. You can also buy all sorts of shampoos and body scrubs outside the bath area if you like. Once you're clean you can relax in the tubs.

Once you've had enough of the baths, it's time to make your way to the public area where you can relax in the sauna or enjoy any of the other amenities available at most jjimjilbangs.

 

First I want to introduce to you my favorite sauna. It's the hottest one. On the floor the temperature is between 90˚-120˚C (remember that 100˚C is boiling). If it were water, you'd be dead, but as it's air, you can sit in there for a while, just not toooo long. They say that the temperature of the at the top of this room is between 800-900˚C, but it's shaped like a dome and fairly high, so you won't find your head up that high. Temperatures this high are supposed to heat not only your skin, but raise your internal temperature. They say that this draws toxins out of your body through sweating. I don't know if it's true, but if it were, it would be pretty darn cool. I can definitely say that sitting in this room made my sore lungs feel wonderful and my skin felt amazing after coming out. It is so hot inside you shouldn't bring electronics in, but I brought my camera in to try to snap a photo. It was a bit too hot and steamy for photos, though. This is how it came out. I kinda like it.

Me after the 100˚C sauna

Usually we don't think of cold rooms as being saunas, but at all jjimjilbangs I've been to, I've always seen the cold room. While there is ice on those pipes, it's really not that cold feeling. It is a bit refreshing to go in there after sitting for a long time in the hot saunas.

Besides the superhot sauna, this is my favorite. The clay room. We can sit here for a while as it's just perfectly hot enough to sweat a bit but not be uncomfortable. Notice that pillows here are made of wood. They're not as uncomfortable as you'd think, but there is a trick as to where to place them on your head. Sometimes I just use my towel to cover it and make it more comfy.

 

 Another nice room is the charcoal room. Not very hot at all, you can chill out here for a while, and some people just come in and sleep. It's not really my favorite, but I'm sure the Koreans will tell you that charcoal has some benefit for your body.

 

Here is the salt room. It's a very dry heat as you'd expect, but not very hot. The salt room is supposed to be good for blood circulation and preventing blood clots. I don't know if it's true, but it can't hurt I guess. 

Most jjimjilbangs will have snack bars and restaurants. Here you can get anything from Korean food to pizza. The price seems to be similar with typical restaurants outside.

At Itaewon Land, they have a huge manga (만화) selection. You can see people renting out a stack of books (300 won per book rental) and reading for hours.

They have these amazing massage chairs, if you don't feel like shelling out the won for a real massage. For 1,000 won for 10 minutes it is definitely worth it. But, there are two types, these in the photo and another one which pounds your body. I don't recommend the pounding chair, it was like a 10 minute torture chair and every time they beat my back around my rib cage I started another coughing fit. Not fun.

Itaewon Land also has a small gym and fitness area. While the price is nice, as gyms tend to be expensive here, you can't wear shoes,  it's not really a great idea for using things like the treadmill, elliptical and bicycle machines.

Jjimjilbangs should be fun for the whole family, so you might find some bored teenagers (or adults) playing some video games on the arcade machines or playing Starcraft in the PC room. We also caught the end of the movie Ajosshi in the movie room on the 5th floor.

But, it seems that what is universally appreciated in the jjimjilbang is just hanging out on the floor in the common area. Take a nap, watch TV or drink with friends it's the place to be. Just grab a mat and get comfy.

Itaewon Land (이태원랜드) is located at the top of the stairway across the street from Macaroni Market and Praha on the main street in Itaewon, about 300 m from Itaewon Station ex. 3. They also have valet parking service if you drive. We paid 8,000 won at night time, so it may be cheaper during the day. Going at night means you can spend the night if you wish.

Move Over Kia, Ford Is Coming to Town...

The NY Times reported today that the US and Korea finally reached a free trade agreement that would allow American auto makers into the Korean auto sales market. Check out the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/global/04trade.html#