Sundays at Seoul Forest

I'm really settling in to life here in Korea, although I acknowledge that I am still very much in holiday mode. The hasuk I live in is really convenient and comfortable and affordable (I'll write more about it in a separate post later) and I'm spending my days studying and just catching up with friends - before I have to knuckle down for this intensive language course.

On Sunday Amy and I went to Seoul Forest (서울숲) - which is in the eastern part of Seoul. The new Bundang line actually has a subway stop for Seoul Forest (but the 2014 map I have from the Korea Tourism Office doesn't show it).

Advice: Use the Metroid app everyone! It's your best friend when exploring Seoul ^_^

Anyway, the forest was... well... not as wild as you might think. It was more like a botanical gardens, but with less signage about the names of the trees and flowers etc. There were lots of families and lots of couples riding couple bicycles and wearing couple tees (couple culture in Korea is also for another post), and we also saw a photographer and a couple taking their wedding photos there. In Korea, you take a lot of photos BEFORE the wedding (without the wedding party). This set-up often comes as a package where the photographer provides the photos and the use of several wedding dresses and tuxedos - so you might have three or four really good wedding photos for your parents/in-laws/your album, but the bride might be wearing a different dress in each one, and that dress might be different to the dress she wears on the wedding day. These photos are also sometimes used as your wedding invitations.

We took a track out of the Forest that led up to the Han River. It was a gorgeous day so we just kept walking along the river towards Seoul (being careful not to get smashed in to by cyclists who are allocated 90% of the path) and ended up at Oksu station. Amy noted that we were on the same line as Jellyfish Entertainment, and I hadn't been there since this time last year so... why not visit? We got off at Apgujeong and then walked straight past the matchmaking agency, the McDonalds, through a few backstreets, and then, voila!

Unfortunately the Rock Ur Body ute seems to no longer be part of the Jellyfish entourage, but there was a new addition - a vending machine! Here's me trying to buy a can of rice soda... but sadly my chon won was rejected.

 

Amy said that last time she was at the building (with her middle-schoolers in tow) a man came out of the building and told the girls to move along. Perhaps VIXX had some obsessed fans just hang out there for a while and so they've upped the vigilance. However, being there on a late Sunday afternoon, there was no one there to tell us to get lost.

After staring at the building for just long enough, we walked back towards the station - stopping at a playground on the way to get a stone out of my shoe (ahem, no, we did not go on the slides).

After Jellyfish we still has some energy and daylight left, so we decided to look for the Codes Combine shop Amy swore she'd seen in Apgujeong Rodeo, so (after about half an hour of trying unsuccessfully to figure out the bus system) we walked in that general direction. And there it was.

Unfortunately, my brilliant idea of buying the men's boxers and wearing them as pajamas didn't eventuate because they only make boxer briefs -_-. Here's a photo of Minseok anyway.

And because it's still relatively warm here (27 is warm for Australians) and because I never turn down the opportunity to have dessert for dinner, we stopped at Caffe Pascucci for Mango Bingsu.

 

We also found the new Johnny Walker flagship store! Apparently they are still finishing some parts of the building, and the rooftop bar is only open to members at the moment. New goal: be a member of Johnny Walker Korea. The photos of the shop and of the forest are on Amy's camera, so whenever I get the photos from her, I'll add them to this post.

Yep, good times ^_^

Skin Food - Brown Rice Oil Deep Cleansing Oil Tissue

So, while I'm here in Korea I want to make the effort to try lots of the beauty products available. In Australia I never really spent time or money on make-up (I'd often just use whatever products came in the free gift that my mum would receive when she bought her good Lancome cleanser or Clinique moisturizer -_-). But here in Korea there are lots of brands that make very good products and won't break the bank, so I'll endevour to buy one or two products a week and write about them here.

First purchase - Skin Food's Brown Rice Oil Deep Cleansing Oil Tissue.

This product was recommended to me by my friend Amy, as she said they are gentle on her skin (she has very sensitive skin - to the point where she can only wear gold or silver earrings) and remove all make up - even eye make-up - very well.

I have to agree. Perhaps it's because it's an oil-based tissue, even my liquid eyeliner (Innis Free) comes off right away and doesn't leave as much of a stain on my eyelids as usual. To remove my mascara (Etude House) I just put the tissue over the pads of my finger and thumb and gently pinch my eyelashes, and this tissue seems to remove most of the mascara without me having to really tug on my eyelashes. I can't say how it fares for removing the glue from false eyelashes though.

The tissues themselves are quite small, so you definitely have to utilise every spare inch if you want to get all your make-up off with just one. As I said, the tissues clean extremely well, but they do leave your skin with a oily sheen. It says on the package that you should cleanse your face after, but normally I remove my make up just before I have a shower, and instead of using another product on in the shower (which to me seems like overkill), I just rinse my face. But, everyone's different.

On the back of the package it has some information in English:

SKINFOOD Brown Rice Oil Deep Cleansing Oil Tissue

Oil-based makeup towelettes that contain rice bran oil remove even the toughest makeup without irritating or drying out skin.

To Use: Gently open the sticker and pull off each tissue one by one. After removing color makeup, gently cleanse your entire face.

There is also a list of the ingredients in English (beginning with: water, glycerin, ...) so if you want the full list, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you. One day I might try and translate the rest of the information in Korean on the back. Maybe. Just for fun.

I bought my pack of 40 tissues (170g) for 4500 won from the Skin Food shop (one of... three?) in Myeongdong. The samples/freebies (but here they're called 'service') I received were the Quinoa Rich Body Wash and the Secret Recipe Tangle Tangle Volume Serum (not 100% sure of the official name because I had to translate from Korean).

OK, that's it. If you want any more information about the product, just leave a comment. ^_^

Welcome

D-10

Countdown to Korea.

My name is Sophie and welcome to my blog about life as a student in Seoul. From September 2014 I'll be studying Korean language at the Yonsei Korean Language Institute (Yonsei KLI) - that means classes 4 hours a day, five days a week, for at least the next seven months.

I've been interested in Korea and Korean language for the past three-years, but until now I've had to focus most of my efforts on finishing my degree - a Bachelor of Languages with a double major in Japanese and Linguistics. However during that time I had the opportunity to visit Korea on several occasions (mostly just cities i.e. Seoul, Busan, Ulsan, Daegu) and while I was on exchange in Hong Kong, I took Korean as a subject.

Now that I've graduated, I'm a free agent, and while there is money in my account, I'm going to be living it up - like a poor student - in Seoul!

Feel free to ask me anything about travel, exchange student life, Korea, language - I love talking about the things I love ^_^