Pampering Perfection in Seoul

With the stress of the Holidays and our pending visit back to the States, my Korean girlfriend suggested a day of pampering in Seoul. We had been to this hair salon a month ago for perms and a touch up on highlights I had done a week before at the hair salon at Home Plus. For some reason, Home Plus stylists won't highlight down to the root so when it was completed, it looked like I had a month's grown already.

Hellena told this salon to touch up my roots and to give me a perm. The stylist used a curling iron to curl my hair into tight curls, then applied the neutralizer... I told Hellena as he proceeded to curl my hair that it wasn't going to work but the stylist was afraid to damage my hair and refused to give me a "normal" perm. I had to relent. By the time I arrived home, the curls were completely gone. The cost of touching up my roots and the perm was 170,000 WON ($125 US).

This time Hellena was insistent and I got the Korean perm with the heating hair rods. No charge. While I was getting hooked up to the perm contraption, I felt like I was in a science fiction movie and my entire head would be fried. The stylist was constantly checking to make sure I was not getting burned. I would definitely have said something if it did happen.


Another view of the perm machine.

We were at the hair salon for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours so we were hungry when we left. Hellena found a Korean style restaurant close by that was known to have great food. This is a picture of the fish. It as delicious but I'm always so scared of fish bones so Hellena used her chopsticks to remove the bones as she gave me pieces of the fish. She always takes good care of me.

We also had kimchi jjagae.

The sides were also delicious. We are definitely going to go back with Curt.

The next stop after lunch was at a nail salon. I had a pedicure and then a manicure. This guy was sooo funny. The only English he knew was the word WOW and he would get excited and then just yell it out.

He was a very talented artist and I decided to have two of my nails painted.

Here we are after my nails were dry.

He put teddy bears on each of my thumbs. A manicure was 10,000WON ($7US). It was an extra 10,000WON per each painting. He showed me his cell phone where he had pictures of other nail designs that he had done. I had a blast and will definitely go back.

It was one of the best days I've ever had. I am constantly being amazed at what Seoul has to offer. It has everything! I'm still discovering things even after being here a year and a half. Everything we did was in the Hongdae area of Seoul.

A Night in Hongdae ( Hongik University)

We decided to spend part of the weekend in Hongdae which is also called Hongik University. The best time to visit is at night when the streets are packed with young people. It is also only at night that the street vendors are out and you can buy handmade items especially jewelry. I bought some incense and an incense holder.



We ate at a restaurant famous for a spicy chicken soup. It was so good. The wall was lined with pictures of famous Koreans who had eaten at this restaurant.




We found some business names with the oddest English names.



Here's another one.



The Hongdae area of Seoul is known to be a hangout for young people. We saw a ton of Westerners also. The streets are lined with the most unique coffee houses like the one above.


Our course, we had to visit a noraebang. This is Curt (hubby) with all my Korean girlfriends.


Hannah and me.


I was singing the new Wonder Girls song "Nobody." Curt was helping out with the tambourine along with deciding what to sing next.

This is Jennifer singing.

This is me with our view from the noraebang room.

Hannah went outside and took a couple pictures of us.

We had a blast!

After an hour of noraebang, we went and had some snacks. This is Jennifer, Hellena and Hannah.

That's me and Curt. We ended up leaving Seoul on the last subway run at 12 midnight. We would have had to take a taxi if we had missed it. The bus line from Sadang to Suwon was still pretty long even though it was pretty late. We had a great time!!!