Rainbow

**Another encounter... in case you're not expecting them anymore.

I've been to a couple of shisha bars in Seoul, one of them being Rainbow. This place is 100% hippy and is a great place to sit around with friends and unwind. Unlike the shisha places in montreal, the decor is extensive and they even have live music on weekend evenings when the place is a full house.

My friend and I ordered a white peach shisha and sat against a wall near the DJ booth. It's a very well organized place, they even have workers walk around and check on your coal. After some time, a guy came to look at our coal and started touching our shisha. We sat there a little confused but figured he was just a worker. He was not. He looked up and said sorry, took a step away, and then came back to fiddle with the shisha again and then apologized again. Then all of a sudden he dropped to his knees and started chatting up a storm in korean to my friend.

He then came up to me:
-"Where are you from?"
-"Canada"
-"OMG NO WAY! MY FRIEND IS FROM OTTOWA!!!" *extremely overexcited"
-"oh cool I used to live there"
-"SERIOUS?! no, your lying"
-"no...actually i'm not..."
-"SERIOUS?? RLLY? YOU SURE??" etc etc etc...

**Insert more talking on his part here**

 "You see my friend over there?"
-"yes"
-"he is my left arm, you understand?"
-"yeah, sure. He is your buddy"
-"NO! NO HE ISN'T!...I will tell you what he is but don't tell your friend..." *whispers in ear* "He is NOTHING!"
-"...oh...i see..."
*my friend looks at me blankly and so I start telling her in french what just happened but get cut off by a hand smacking onto my mouth to shut me up*
-"I SAID DON'T TELL!!!"

**Insert more talking on his part here**

-"You have such a nice nose! there is so much bone...can I touch it?!?!"
*before I could answer he had his hands on my face and then started measuring with his fingers and comparing to his own*
 "Such big nose and eyes"
-"I'm white!! We have big features okay?!!"
-"Oh. yes. you are right...just like Osama Bin Laden =)"

*wtf? seriously? compares white people features to a dead terrorist...*

He left our table...came back with a bongo 10 minutes later...left again...came back for a picture...kept closing his eyes so then he took one with his eyes forced open "like a white person" (i quote).

Here are some pics!

Jamaican/Peace sign play on the Korean Flag

Thanks for the bongo pal...

Juliette

Juliette is this beautiful patisserie in Seorae Maeul (서래마을), a french district in seoul, that is owned by one of my best friends' mother, Juliette herself. As soon as you walk into the bakery, you are warmly greeted by both a mouth watering smell and by the lovely workers, Mr. Hong and Madame Jang (also Juliette when she's there!). I really admire this place for its beauty, originality, and amount of personal contribution visibly put in. 

Look how nice!!

From left to right: Mr. Hong, Juliette, Madame Jang

"Professor" Jo Guang Geun (조광근)

** This is another post involving an old man... seriously, they need to stop taking over my blog but they won't leave me alone!

Last night I went to a pojangmacha (포장마차) which literally means "covered wagon" in Korean. If you've ever watched a korean movie or drama you deffinitely know what this is. They are the tents that people go to at night to eat and get shwasted so that the super hot guy in the show can carry them home.

After some time, three old men come in and have clearly already been drinking (If you're wondering, men of every age getting wasted at night no matter what day of the week is pretty normal here). As they walked by our table, one of the men waved at me and yelled "OH HELLOO!!". Everyone in the tent turned around and I turned extremely red. They sat at the table next to us and then after about 5 minutes of gawking, he invited himself to our table. This started a long conversation where he would say a sentence or two in korean to my korean friend and then she would translate what he said.

Here are the next chain of events:

-He claimed to be a professor and a writer that had won the nobel prize but got no recognition for it.
-He Began a huge philosophic speech about korean people, culture, and their big hearts...and then about embracing the future... and then about this analogy of your heart being a tree and the bigger the tree the more people it can cast a shadow over to provide resting place for them. It was pretty nice actually.
-He kept pouring beer into HIS cup and making us drink it.
-He wanted to take a picture with me and then copped a kiss on the cheek...it was a wet one.
-He kept talking and then I realized he was bleeding from the mouth...A LOT. And when he made a face and stuck out his tongue, it became clear that he had bitten a huge gash into it. I thought I was gonna vom cuz he also spits when he talks....so it would be like bloody spit. oh gawd.
-He then went back to take care of his dying friend. but actually. His friend was passed out on the hood of a car... one word: classy.

Aftermath: We looked him up on the internet... HE IS A FAMOUS PROFESSOR WITH A BUNCH OF PHILOSOPHY BOOKS!!! still don't know about the nobel prize part...

(Here is a video of him given a lecture if your curious as to what he sounds like (click))

Boa Sorte

I'm on my way to Koreaaaa!

Putting all excitement aside for this post while I patiently wait for my next connection, I'm listening to a song that makes me feel intense nostalgia. Boa Sorte, good luck in portuguese, is a beautiful collaboration by Vanessa da Mata and Ben Harper. I heard this song in a cafe by the ocean in Israel a few weeks ago and now I can't help but listen to it and picture myself there.

Give it a listen!

Hosted by kiwi6.com music upload.
Download mp3 - Upload music.


Btw. I don't own this song, I'm just sharing good music =)

Lonely without a Balmain jacket

A few days ago 2ne1 released their new music video "Lonely". I've been listening to it nonstop and will probably do a cover when I get back to montreal. Oh, and for those who don't know, yes, it is korean. I like k-pop. and korean dramas. sorry.

Moving onto the important point here, which is of interest regardless of whether you like the song or not, the outfits in this video are drool worthy. Most of the jackets and outfits are from Balmain's S|S 2011 collection. Check out some screen shots I took from the MV on youtube (<--- click to watch the video)

PS. My birthday is this monday. I know its short notice but feel free to get me ANY of these...preferably the black studded one though.

PPS. see what I did with the title there haha. im so cleva...

*See more pics if you click "read more"

Tel Baruch

Tel Baruch beach is a hidden gem. It's very close to many other popular ones but I've never seen it busy like the others. The reason may be that most people are still in school and its not yet tourist season but I'm not complaining...Especially since no old men approached me today (Win!). 

What I love?

- This beach is right next to a very small airport and you can watch planes flying right over you when your lying on the beach. 

- They have a beautiful cafe/resto 

- You can see the old port, the Namal, in the distance

Also. This greek salad was beyond delicious. Like, I bet it's better than greek salads in Greece. But I've never tried those. So please let me know if I'm wrong because if that's the case, I will move to Greece tomorrow and eat those greek salads for the rest of my life. 

Balagan.

Last night I went to Florentin in Tel-Aviv to celebrate Israel Independence day. Many streets were closed off and every block or two had a DJ with a huge crowd of people going ape shit crazy...it was a huge balagan (hebrew for mess/chaos).

What marked the night?
- How happy everyone seemed to be
- The creativity some people had when it came to outfits
- How keen everyone was to have their picture taken
- People holding bottles of any kind of alcohol and drinking out of them freely on the streets
- The people spraying white mousse all over people, cars, and anything actually

speaking of that white mousse spray... I got chased through the crowd by some guy who finally caught up and covered me in it. thanks mang.

Israel Independence Day

Independence day in Israel is one of the biggest celebrations of the year. For weeks preceding the big day, there are Israeli flags of every size all over the country.

The day before Independence day, however, is not so festive. Memorial day is dedicated to all of those who have lost their lives for Israel. I went to a ceremony in the evening at the community centre near my cousin's home. I was surprised to see what seemed like the entire community gathered there and at 8 pm multiple sirens all over the country went off for one minute and the whole country stopped everything they were doing to pay there respects. It's really incredible, even people driving on the highway stop there cars get out and stand with their heads lowered for that minute. The next morning the siren went off again for 2 minutes. Then, that evening, the whole country celebrates Independence day until the next morning (I am going out soon to celebrate and will post about that next!)

Look how festive!

*Please take note of the parking...

Fried Feta

Today I wanted to relax and give my burnt skin a chance to recover so I went over to The Hilton hotel on the beach and spent the afternoon on one of there shaded terraces. I ordered an israeli salad (diced cucumber and tomatoes, and fresh lemon dressing) however this one also had fried feta. SO GOOD.

Of course, my day couldn't have been complete without a 70 year old man approaching me with a mouthful of unswallowed food mush inviting me to grab a coffee with him. Then, a half hour later, "making an offer I couldn't refuse", going down to the beach bar for a drink, which i did refuse.


Quote of the day when I said I was burnt and wanted to stay in the shade:
"Barbecued meat is delicious you know?...Barbecued women is also very beautiful"

oh gawd.

The Hilton, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Israeli Salad with Fried Feta

Israeli Lifeguards

Don't get too excited...


I had been on the beach maybe 15 minutes reading my book intensely when I heard a man's voice ask "can i get you some coffee?"...He looked like he was hitting 40. grey chest hair. gold chain...do i say more?
I spent the next 5 minutes answering his questions with the shortest answers possible trying to get him to leave... turns out he's been a lifeguard there for 12 years... and that he was off that day...aka he wasn't going anywhere and lay down on the beach chair next to me.


after our 3 hour conversation (mainly him telling me his love life history)
I can briefly tell you that he:
-was married for 4 years to a russian woman but got divorced 6 months ago and has a blonde child with blue eyes.
-once had a great love with this gorgeous spiritual Italian woman who taught him how to make love and how to properly ride a bicycle "like out of a book" (not sure what that means...i thought you just needed to peddle)
-is now looking for a best friend that he can marry


and the conclusion after only 3 hours is: A really horrible burn sexy tan