Thursday, December 9, 2010

Girl Pamper Day

I've been browsing through a lot of people's blogs lately and I've realized that I write in a very fobby way. This is going on not only in my blog, but when I tweet or write anywhere in cyberspace. I'm okay with the ^^s, the ~s, the ㅋㅋs, etc. when I'm chatting, but I'm going to refrain from this fobby madness in my blog. Can I still accurately express myself? I hope so!
This past weekend, Jessica and I finally had the Girl Pamper Day that we had been planning for weeks. Our group of two turned to four once we found out that our friends wanted to get their hair done too.  The morning started off with brunch, coffee, tea, and something special at 나무그늘 (Na Moo Geu Neul). I'm definitely going back to this cafe. The decoration is very cute and the atmosphere is homey; seems like a good hangout or study cafe. There's also a library for people who go there to read and two computers for people to surf the web. Plus, if you order a drink, you have unlimited access to their breakfast bar. It has coffee, tea, jam, butter, and a variety of bread. My friends and I totally filled up on the bread there. After we ate and chatted for a little, we were ready to do Dr. Fish! My friends and I went to that cafe specifically to try it out, and we were not disappointed! (For those of you who don't know what it is: it's a spa treatment by fish that eat dead skin cells.) The worker had us rinse our feet before we started. There were two pools: one had tiny fish and the second pool had bigger fish. Caroline and I bravely started off at the pool with the bigger fish. We stared at their excited eyes and gaping mouths eagerly waiting for our hovering feet and we chickened out. We joined Dee and Jessica at the pool with the smaller fish. It was still hard to get our feet in the pool. (Maybe we were scared of being eaten alive?) We were screaming and giggling loudly, but I think the other customers are used to it because nobody seemed disturbed by our ruckus.Once we got our feet in, we started to enjoy it and take pictures of the fish nibbling on our feet. It's the sensation of vibrating feet.. Before we left, we tried out the pool with the bigger fish. They kind of hurt. The only reason we could do it was because the fish were distributed among four feet. If they were all nibbling on my feet, that would scare me. You can feel their fat bodies, so it's a little more nerve-wrecking!
After we put our shoes and winter gear back on, we set off to Myeongdong to get our hair done! I made reservations for us at the JUNO hair that I went to back in September. We spent about two hours there because we were getting hair treatments. Ooh la la. (This was definitely a girl's pamper day.) Both times I was there, I got male stylists. I actually wanted my first stylist to help me, but I lost his business card when my purse got stolen, so I couldn't request for him. I got another one from him on Saturday though! Anyways, I feel like the male stylists are always a little flirty. I think it's because they want their female customers to come back again. It's a pretty good business idea.
After hair time, our group of four turned to seven! Our group ate dinner in Itaewon, so I finally got to see Itaewon. it is definitely "foreigner district." Foreigners are everywhere in that area: walking on the streets...eating in the restaurants! There's a Taco Bell and lots of sports bars that you can't get anywhere else in Korea. These sports bars are run by Koreans, but about 98% of the people in them are foreigners. We ate at a Thai restaurant called Buddha's Belly, and it was not good. I've never been to a restaurant where they messed up with Thai food until last Saturday. It was too bland and not greasy enough, seriously. I don't think I'll be going back there again because my friends tell me there are lots of other Thai restaurants in Korea.
One thing I love about my experience here is that I get to meet so many new people. Most of the foreigners and English-speaking Koreans are super friendly. (Even at 나무그늘, we met two girls from New York. We had a good conversation with them as we all squirmed in the Dr. Fish area.) After our group said our good-byes for the night, I went with Dee to her friend's place so she could stop by to say hello to a friend she hadn't seen in a while. We ended up hanging out for a couple of hours. Foreigners in Korea are that cool.
Sunday morning, Dee and I randomly went out for breakfast, so I have another new Find  in Korea (i guess i'm starting my "Finds" list with this entry): Butterfingers, and it's too good to be true! They serve American breakfast foods: buttermilk pancakes, sausages, hash browns, eggs, omlettes, bacon, salad, orange juice, and more. The items are pricey, but the portions are big enough for two girls to share. It's at Gangnam Station (near exit 6).
On a side note,  I'm getting sick. I have a runny nose and a sore throat, and I get so tired. I've been sitting in my apartment a lot, hence the frequent blogging. It's too cold. I thought I was going to die from the cold early November. I was wrong then, but now I know I am going to die from the December cold.

2 comments:

  1. Along with a good book (to keep yourself occupied during those cold December days so you don't die), I'm thinking about sending a package over to you. Any requests? Let me know asap so you get it by Christmas. :)

    Keep warm, Johnna, and eat good foods -- none of that heavy American breakfast stuff like I had at IHOP yesterday morning -- though I'm sure Butterfingers or whatchamacallit has a much more yummy selection than IHOP. Anyway, I've been realizing more and more that illnesses like pneumonia can afflict young people more than you'd think.

    Love you,

    Unni

    ReplyDelete
  2. ooh, dr. fish, I heard some bad things about that, it's not too sanitary.

    ReplyDelete