A Saturday in Seoul

Hello from the Kelleys!!

On Thursday my friend Soo Youn and I went to check out the newest building in Gangnam. She is in the architecture industry and this Urbanhive building is quite interesting. They have a cafe at the bottom called Urban Coffee. I had so much fun there and it has such a cool atmosphere that I wanted to take Patrick there before he went to work on Saturday. This building really stands out because it looks like a beehive.

This morning we got up and headed over!! The coffee is average but you get to have all you can sample breads with butter and jelly for 800 won (80 cents). This is my kind of Saturday morning hangout!! The have all these vines and pictures from all over the world that hang from the ceiling.





Patrick really liked all the bread but couldn't truly appreciate the building because he thinks it's ugly. I think he was sad that he had to go to work today. He really wanted to go with me to get my hair trimmed and stop by the cleaners. Say cheese hun!! This is Patrick after he ate about 10 bread rolls.


I am as happy as a clam because I have coffee in my hand and I didn't have to dress up today.



It was a good morning in Seoul. We both are now on block shifts for October. I have a morning one and Patrick has an evening shift. We probably won't see each other too much but during the week it's busy and we usually met for lunch or a nap. I guess no nap dates this month. Hopefully in November or December Patrick can move over to a morning block.

I can't believe how early I get to work. Back in Salem I was pushing the snooze buzzer until 6:30. Here I push the snooze buzzer until 5:35am. Can you believe that? I, Maria Kelley cross the street to Pagoda Tower in work clothes, hair done, make-up on, and coffee in hand at 6:20am to teach a class at 6:40. How is it possible for the last two months I have made it to work on time and never late? I honestly have no clue. This month I get to curse Patrick as he sleeps because he reports to work at 12:30pm. It's nice to feel like some things never change.

At 10:30am I left Urban Coffee to go to a new hair salon. One day I was walking around and I stumbled upon this find. It reminded me a lot of something I would see in Southeast Portland. I went inside and got a price list, very reasonable. Hair cuts are extremely cheap in Seoul, $15. This place also came recommended from a student of mine, I like her hair so I was willing to take a risk. I am very satisfied with my trim and she managed to tone down the vibrant red highlights the Aveda salon put in last month. I wanted to experiment, now I'm done. I'm perfectly content with my natural hair color.



After the salon I hit up the cleaner, nothing too exciting. The building isn't anything picture worthy, however, I learned this week that you can get your pants altered any way you would like. If you like a pair of jeans and the leg is a flare, they can make them into straight legs. How amazing!! After I got home I started to finish our wall decorating. We found these cute branches at our local dollar store and thought it could add a little something extra to our beige overload.

We are started to feel our way around our neighborhood. Bit by bit we are discovering little things that make life easier. It's still hard because Seoul is massive. Last night we tried to go back to the area we stumbled upon last month and ended up walking around for 1.5 hours!! We gave up and went to a wine bar at the top of our hill. There's always next weekend to try again.