Our apartment ... the living room

Someone requested photos of the apartment we're living in. As the opportunity arises, and the light is good, and there's no junk in the way, and the maid has cleaned, I'll take a few photos.

This is our living room area. We have a small couch, two chairs, a coffee table, two side tables with lamps. Next to where I'm standing when I took the photo is the TV/radio cabinet, which also has drawers and places to stuff things.

Down the hall is the master bedroom. Off the hall, on the right is the bathroom, and to the left is the guest bedroom.

Fall Foliage (1)

Last Saturday (October 25th), I took these photos because the leaves are just starting to change color here. Today (Sunday, 11/2), it's a touch foggy, so I can't see the trees from our apartment this morning. Maybe this afternoon when it clears up a bit I'll be able to see if the trees have changed any more.

Jonny Dumpling's -- Lunch

Jonny Dumpling's is on a side street in Itaewon. Next door is the Peruvian empanada place (still have to try) and a Korean restaurant. Across the street is Trevia (Italian) and the Wolfhound (Irish pub).

The menu at Jonny Dumpling's is simple and straightforward -- dumplings. Steamed or fried, large (10 pieces) or small (8 pieces). These contain a combination of pork and shrimp, and the shrimp were good sized chunks. I think there was also a pork and vegetable option. There was also a large steamed meat bun and a bowl of dumpling soup on the menu.

In addition to the dumplings, we also received a dish of pickled radish. And on the side there was soy sauce, red chili oil, and a black bean vinegar to mix in a dish to dip the dumplings in. Forks were available for those struggling with picking up or spearing their dumplings with chopsticks.

The highlight of the weekend...

We saw Cirque du Soleil's Alegria yesterday! Like all the Cirque du Soleil shows I've seen before, this one was amazing. We had excellent seats, and could see the faces of the performers, particularly when they came and stood at the edge of the stage near us. For two hours yesterday, I was completely entertained and amazed.

If you have the opportunity to see one of their shows, I highly recommend it.

Amigos - dinner

We had dinner at Amigos in Itaewon last night. The sign says hot food, cold margaritas, and live music.

The margarita was good -- decent sized, good flavor. The chips were decent, and so was the salsa. It was made with fresh tomatoes.


The presentation was nice, with the sides elegantly displayed. This was the burrito.


This is the taco dish, which comes with rice and refried beans. The tacos had shredded beef, which is good. It's often hard to find shredded beef, it's usually ground beef, and I much prefer shredded beef. There was lettuce, tomato, and cheese on top. The beef had a nice spicy flavor, and was hot. Everything else on the plate was a bit on the cold side. The taco shells fell apart a bit too easily and I ended up with bits of taco all over the place once when I bit in and it fell apart.


In between the live music, they played real salsa music. The musicians played a range of music, including Lionel Richie. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to tell what the song was, and occasionally took me some time before I recognized the song.

There is a world outside of Seoul...

I actually got to go outside of Seoul the other day for work. There are trees and fields out there! At some point, I hope to actually take a trip to another part of Korea while we're here.

Dongdaemun Wandering

As I wander around town, occasionally I see logos, or signs, or other things that catch my eye, either because they are so different from what I'm used to, or I think they are amusing or entertaining.

This is a chicken restaurant sign in Dongdaemun.

And these little guys were just outside one of the Dongdaemun Stadium subway station exits.

Dongdaemun - East Gate

This is Dongdaemun, the east gate, one of the few surviving gates from the Joseon period. Dongdaemun is also a huge shopping area, with a toy and stationery area, a shoe area, and several large stores. We didn't find the food market, but that's on our list, because apparently you can find just about anything you ever imagined as being edible there.

Cheonggyecheon

Last weekend we went wandering around the Dongdaemun area. At one point, to cross the street, we decided to go down to Cheonggyecheon instead of crossing on the street. We had to walk down and cross on some rocks in the middle of the stream.

Cheonggyecheon is one of the urban renewal projects in downtown Seoul, and is a stream that runs through town. It has been cleaned up, with art and historical plaques scattered along the route, with benches and seating areas. There are fountains and rocks, and plants also.




This is a frog statue in one of the fountains along the side of the wall.

Seoul wandering

After dinner, we wandered around. We actually wandered all the way down to the next train station on Line 6. But it was all downhill, and there was no way I was going to turn around and go back up the hill all the way up to the Itaewon station.

This little guy was begging at this restaurant until someone tried to get his attention. Then he scurried away.


I just liked the 4 little mice in this display window. This is the display for a Japanese food restaurant, and includes some of the plastic food samples.