Peter is coming in 11 hours

The BF is coming tomorrow morning 5:30 AM so I will not be Facebooking, gchatting, or Blogging for 5 weeks.

Either that or the BF will be annoyed that I am Facebooking, Gchatting, and Blogging while he is here.

We'll see how I do.

So farewell until October 20th. While you are slaving in your cubicle I will be galavanting around Korea, Bali, and Osaka.

Muahahahha

NY Fashion Week

NY Magazine's links for the Fashion Week slideshows are broken 55% of the time.
Ugh, who is running this damn website? Fail.

My thoughts on Fashion Week, I will try to keep it limited to Asian designers to keep it somewhat relevant I guess. Besides Marc Jacobs because I had to.

I want to like Richard Chai. But his women's collection. Ugh, the clear pieces, why?

Usually I like his layering, but I didn't like most his looks.


Hideous:

Clear Pants ew:

This look is quite pretty, the top is gorgeous:

He himself looks very cute though. Love how he's bringing the 90's shirt on waist look back.



Marc by Marc Jacobs. I loves his eye popping colors. The men's looks were very dashing.

Great yellow

Amazing jacket:


Model looks great in this color:




Nips out at the Thakoon show. Loved the sunglasses the models were sporting throughout the show.

Dreamy dress:

This. model. is. gorgeous.

Swoon, love this dress.

Love the shades:


Doo.Ri

Interesting print, like the draping:


What I want to wear when I am 40 although I think I will never be tall enough to pull off these pants:


This silhouette looks effortlessly chic:



I don't love Jason Wu because I just think of Michelle Obama.

While she is my favorite First Lady, I feel his looks look old much of the time. There was one excepton for me in the show, this dress is below is just OK. I am still not thrilled by him. He just doesn't tickle my fancy.



Phillip Lim 3.1 had some creative looks.

Is this a tie? It doesn't look connected to the dress but it is cute. Like the look.


Like the cut of the top:

Cool trench:

Hands down my favorite dress out of all the collections:

Derek Lam Overall my favorite for Spring 2011.

Stunning.
Stunning.

Want these shoes really really badly.

Hot.

Jo Kwon needs to come out already!

My two loves in one, Jo Kwon doing the Miss A dance.

You seriously can't claim to be straight with moves like this.

Definitely a bottom.

Sistar

Sistar has a new single out.

I am posting "Push,Push" even though the song is kinda old. I still love dancing to it at the clubs.

I called this

Se7en's third single off Digital Bounce will be "Im Going Crazy" the video is being shot this weekend. I called that when the album came out.

I can't wait for the video. Not a dance tune but so catchy.

Makgeolli

This was posted on my friends fb and his friend commented
Jin Yap is this dessert or soup?

This is ALCOHOL. Yes, looks like squash soup or maybe some creme caramel but it is actually an unfiltered rice wine called makgeolli.

I hate makgeolli. I think it tastes disgusting and also the drunkeness creeps up on you. It is fun in a kitschy way because you drink it out of a bowl.

Its a rustic old school Korean alcohol, wiki says "However, it has recently started to become more popular in cities, especially with the younger generations."

I do notice it being consumed a lot around these parts. Not like soju because soju is still number 1 here but it has a presence.

This is actually the first thing I ever got drunk of of. My grandfather gave me this when my grandma wasn't looking when I was 6 years old.

Thanks grandpa. Way to force your alcoholism on your only grandchild.

Life Lessons From Seoul

These are things I have learned living in Seoul (mostly coffee related)

1. An umbrella should be carried everyday from May-September
It does not matter if you wake up to a beautiful, clear morning. It will be monsooning in 2 hours time.

2. Surgical masks do not always mean the person got plastic surgery.
They may just be paranoid about the Yellow Dust from China. Yellow dust is airborn dust originating from northern China from their dust storms. Always the damn Chinese. However, 85% of the time, a surgical mask does mean that person got a nose job.

3. True Religions are not just for guidos.
They are still cool here. Fact.

4. Starbucks and The Coffeebean and Tea Leaf are for hood rats.
Americans complain about $5 lattes all the time. I can't count how many times I have had a $12 Americano here. Add some dairy product like into a Latte this can go upwards to $15. Koreans take their coffee seriously.

5. Ground up used coffeebeans make excellent ashtray fillers.
How ingenious for the Koreans to use up the remnants of their coffee consumption in another love of theirs: smoking cigarettes.

6. Drinking coffee at midnight is not a good idea.
Even though it is tempting to get a chocolate iced latte at midnight because you are people watching with friends on a trendy street, it is always a bad idea. Get the green tea latte instead.

7. Where Urbana Champagne is
Never heard? Yeah, me neither. I now know. Koreans studying abroad love to go to the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne like whoa. If you are friends with fobs, then you def have a friend who went to this school. Princeton Review has probably sent 30 people here last year. Who knew?

8. Everything I forgot in middle school
SOHCAHTOA. Law of Distributive Property. Properties of Chemical reactions. I got that on lock. Unfortunately I can't parlay this new knowledge into my next career.

Dork

I just saw my teacher's photo and blurb on The Princeton Review Korea website. I look like such a tool. Um also, since when is a Marketing degree a Bachelor of Arts? Never.

Lia - New York University, BA in Marketing & International Business - TPR SAT Instructor

I want Pie

I want to eat too many different things to live in an Asian country.

I woke up craving pie like whoa. Pies and Thighs will be on myto do list the first week I get back to NY.

The picture above is a pie that my roommate Hyemi made from scratch. I then took this pie to Thanksgiving dinner and told my entire family I made it with love.

I can't believe I am missing Thanksgiving. I need to find sliced turkey and Stove Top in Itaewon.

Love this Song

Kinda emo, but I suppose I am kind of emo.

The strings are so pretty and the drums are interesting.

Shitty Bank

I have a Citibank account here.

Whenever I get an email from them I chuckle because the way they spell it in Hangul is read as 'Shittybank'. This is the from line in the email

한국씨티은행

Sounds pretty accurate. Although I have to say the Korean Citibank is less 씨티 than the American 씨티 Bank.

Why you ask? They have an ice cream freezer for waiting customers. Free ice cream!

Also, unlike NYC banks, the employees are polite. Yes, polite.

I have heard horror stories of people banking with KB and Shinhan banks (the big ones here). I think the key is to join an American bank in Seoul. They want the US dollars.

Korea is the 15th best country in the world

According to Newsweek. The US is 11th.

I'll take it.

Ranking of "Best" Countries

This list bothers me slightly because Finland comes in at #1.

Fine, it is the best country to live in (supposedly).

However I feel like they should take 'contribution to the rest of the world' into account if you are going to say that Finland is the 'best country' in the world. The only thing they have contributed to the rest of the world has been Nokia phones (which haven't been used by non-Finnish people since 2001) and lingonberries.

In the past 30 years the U.S has given the world the internet (no big deal), Apple products, GPS, and Prozac.

South Korea in the past 30 years has contributed high quality LCD TVs, MP3 players (we invented them in 1998), cell phones, and Hyundais (they come with a 10 year warranty, come on son).

According to Newsweek, China is only one spot worse than Thailand (!?) and two spots better than...Kazakhstan.

Some Chinese people are going to be pissed.

I need to go here

My second to next travel destination (not the first because I neeeeeed to go to San Sebastian Spain like ASAP).

Tangier looks so beautiful.

Link: New York times Slideshow much better than the above photo

Korean Vogue

I love buying fashion magazines here. Seeing asian models rock the looks is great.

I remember being in middle school and trying to learn how to do my eye makeup from American fashion magazines and just not being able to adapt. We don't have eye lids so it's hard to figure it out when it is new to you.

Now I know how to do my eye makeup but seeing it on Asian models in a magazine is refreshing.

Also, because Koreans love free stuff you will often get a free lotion or a fashion book with the purchase of a magazine. I guess it's one way to boost magazine sales.

These photos would be much better seen larger however I forgot how to make my images bigger . I am the worst blogger. Oh well.

Very pretty photo:

She's like coneheads are so hot right now:

MMmm meat:

Nice fall look/colors:

Her makeup is very striking:

King Sejong statue

King Sejong 'invented' hangul (Korean language). They have a statue dedicated to him in Sejong center in Gwanghwamun.

They have a museum underground (enter through the back of the statue) dedicated to him, hangul, Admiral Yi (guy who invented turtle boat), and some other Korean artifact stuff.

Definitely worth going to if you are into history.

I took a lot more pictures but they didn't upload right. Oops.

Wedding Pictures

You always always see people taking wedding pictures on the streets in Seoul.

We literally saw 3 couples on this same street getting their wedding photos taken during the course of a meal.

This couple needs a stylist but they are in love so I will refrain from criticism.

I guess it's cute either way.

Sky

Over Chungdam. I love being able to see the Sun and the Moon here, never happens in the city.

St Augustin

St Augustin is an Asian fushion and wine restaurant on Garosugil.

I did not eat there but had wine and they are pretty generous with the pours. It is nice because whenever I order wine in Seoul it is always on the light side.

The inside of the restaurant is pretty and the waiters were nice. I wanted more cheese and they gave me a bowlful.

Sure the cheese was the cubed Laughing Cow kind (they love that cheese here, not sure why) but there is something very satisfying about cubed cheese that is basically just cream cheese.

Call me a fatty, whatever.

Recommended if you want western alcohol on Garsugil.