Me & The Subway are Getting Tight

I have realized that I really only write about things I do on weekends, but the weekends are the only times I ever do anything interesting. Last Saturday and Sunday I made a quick trip up to Uijeongbu to see my friend Kim again, since it had been a good six weeks since we had last seen each other. I took the subway up again, arriving Saturday afternoon in time for a late lunch. In the evening we headed off to downtown Uijeongbu, which has a big shopping district with lots of cute stores, restaurants, and cafes. We walked around for a while and I purchased the mother of all fleece gloves- made of thick cream-colored fleece with furry stuff around the wrist and lining the entire inside of the gloves to make them doubly warm. Yes, the cold here is bitter and inescapable.

After shopping, Kim introduced me to the ultra-Korean pastime and confirmation of friendship: sticker pictures. You and your friends go into a shop with lots of little picture-taking booths, where you proceed to make funny faces as a camera randomly snaps pictures of you. You can choose to put on weird wigs or clothing, but we opted out of that one. After you take several shots, you use a computer screen to decorate the pictures, adding happy backgrounds, little icons, or writing. Then the computer prints them out on sticker paper and the attendent covers them with plastic and cuts the pictures apart. They are very small, about an inch long. Some of ours turned out pretty cute. I will figure out a way to put them on here later.

We ate dinner at a cute cafe. Now, when I say "cute cafe," you must realize that Koreans have a completely different idea of that than the Spanish do. Koreans take "cute" to a whole new level, miles above the rest of the world. This place was called Ann House, and was without doubt the girliest restaurant I have ever set foot in. It was kind of like a doll house, with pink wallpaper and waitresses in aprons, etc. You sat on couches in a private little area enclosed with swinging doors and decorated with little-girl chandeliers and lamps. What can I say? It was cute. And fun. And the food was good; we split a Korean meal and a mango smoothie. (Due to a strange set of circumstances, the pictures I took that night are now in Hong Kong but will return shortly, at which time I will obtain them and append them to this post.) After returning to Kim's apartment, we watched a movie before going to bed. I really liked downtown Uijongbu. It has lots of people and interesting things and... civilization!

On Sunday, I went to church with Kim and then out to a Chinese restaurant for lunch before hanging out for the afternoon. I came back Sunday evening. Yes, it is a long subway ride but I had a good Agatha Christie book so it went by pretty fast. And now, we have 4 days off for Thanksgiving! I do not have any plans yet since my friends in other places will be gone, but I'm sure I will find something to do. I'm dying to take more pictures!!! Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!