Friday Favourite V 13: Soju

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the backhanded and insincere compliments and here is this week's... .

The unlucky thirteenth Friday Favourite on Drifay 13th, I decided to dedicate it to something that could be any foreigners demise whilst in Korea... Soju.

Soju is probably best compared to vodka, although it used to be made out of rice and is half the percentage of vodka. It still has some weird bewitching affect on people, that will have their mouth, body and mind totally out of sync in no time at all.

The Koreans love the stuff, and who can blame them when it's only 60p a bottle? The first time I bought it mistaking it for a bottle of white wine. By the time we went to meet our friends, I knew exactly what I was saying in my head, but any declaration I made was maet with confused, blank stares. Eventually someone asked what I'd drunk, I explained the bottle and logo, and then their faces brightened knowingly and added 'ahhh that'll be soju'.

Since then I've refrained from drinking it neat and drinking it with a mixer instead. The only time we do drink it neat now is when at a BBQ, washed down with Cass. Tasha and I had a crowd of Koreans around us when we sat outside at a restaurant in Haeundae, every time we downed a shot of soju, roll up for the freaky waygook attempting to drink this native Korean drink that's probably good for stamina. (Just like every other Korean food is).

We've found a bar in Nampo that does an amazing strawberry soju cocktail, with a cute youn waitress who shuffles around in her flip flops that are 5 sizes too big and bellows 'I LOVE YOU! WELCOME TO KOREA' Whenever you leave the bar.  Soju has also created many funny memories for us so far in Korea, especially when someone is around to record the consequences...see the video below.

Many a night has been spent in KSU, sat outside Family Mart, having a swift bottle of soju if the night's not turning out as planned. This is one thing I will definitely miss when I move home, and I will never fail to have a little respect for the old guys in Korea that down Soju like it's a bottle of Perrier water, like a boss!

Here's to hopefully another great weekend filled with good friends and happy memories at Boryeong Mud Festival, powered by soju!

Friday Favourite V12: Compliments

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was Coupling and here is this week's... .

The other day I walked into a classroom of 5th grade boys. The cutest boy walked upto my desk and from behind his floppy man bangs he looked at me with big brown eyes and said 'Teacher, you're so pretty". I'd love for the story to end there but, after being here a few months, I've now become well aware of the fact that most compliments you receive tend to have a not-so-hidden agenda. He closed the sentence with "...game?" and looked at me expectantly with big puppy eyes.

I mumbled maybe and sent him back to his seat. As I handed out the worksheet for the lesson I noticed the boys whispering amongst themselves. It was only when I heard them count 'One, two three...' that I knew there was some massive conspiracy against me that was about to happen.

'PRETTY TEACHER GAME!" They started chanting. I don't know if I should feel mad that these compliments are so throw away, but I find it hilarious. I never hear them use this tactic on the Korean co-teachers, so I don't know if it's because they think I'm soft, or whether they genuinely believe all westerners have a massive ego that likes to be fed.

As mentioned earlier, I have been here a few months now, so I'm not as much of a celebrity as I first was. The kids don't pull my face close to them to stroke my 'high nose' or 'oooh and ahhh' at the colour of my eyes anymore, the gifts, sticky and warm from the kids' pockets have almost dwindled away. Yet these compliments are fired in both mine and Tasha's direction numerous times in one day.

'Teacher, today your hair looks like rice. I love rice. Rice is nice...Game?" Umm...okay.
'Teacher you're so smart, you're so clever...game?"

Yet, it seems as though the adults haven't noticed the advantages they could get from complimenting people, and just shoot them at you, without wanting anything in return. The music teacher here seems enchanted with us and tries in broken English and the power of mime to get her message across. It usually has something to do with the size of our eyes. Apparently our faces are small too, I never realised that was supposed to be a compliment until I learnt that many Koreans have a fat face complex due to their bone structure. Strange.

Tasha has had to request a male escort to buy hotteok as the man serving her just couldn't stop saying 'Oh My God, Oh My God' at her to the point where it did start to feel a little creepy.

At school it is often at the expense of the other teachers that we get these compliments too. When learning how to compare, my Korean coteacher told the kids to compare us to each other, with very awkward consequences. The kids love nothing better than pointing out to the homeroom teachers, who are like the alpha males of the school, how much taller I am than them. Slightly uncomfortable.

Most of the time the kids are cute enough to not really need to compliment to get what they want, if I hear them trying their hardest to talk to me in English then I'm a bit of a sucker. And hearing their inventive ways of getting what they want never fails to cheer me up, no matter how insincere.

But I think this idea that cuteness and complimenting gets them far is something that viewed as agreeable in Korea,especially for the girls both young and old, and I guess they're just getting some practice in early.

Here's a video showing Korean Aegyo - the skill of being cute to get what you want and I think the girl in the video is already cute to start with.

Friday Favourite V11: Coupling

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was Homeroom teachers and here is this week's... 

There is something quite charming about this Korean habit, even though I don't think it could be replicated in any European country without the lovebirds getting completely destroyed by their friends.

Coupling is a Korean way for a couple to show how dedicated they are to each other. They do this by wearing the same outfit. We've seen it as subtle as wearing matching (not so subtle) neon trainers, to the extent where they are dressed completely the same from head to toe.

I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help but go 'awwww' when I see a coupling pair walking towards me hand in hand. Public displays of affection are severely frowned upon here, so I guess it's the only way they can show to others how much they like the other person.

You can even buy matching underwear sets in most of the shops. My favourite is a particularly gaudy leopard print one in the underground shopping centre in Nampo.

Cutting from a magazine showing pictures

Coupling shorts in different colours

Coupling jackets

Coupling neon trainers

I'd love to know what other Koreans think when they see a couple dressed the same. I'd also like to know how it's logistically arranged. Young couples will live with their parents until they are married, so do they call each other up every morning and discuss what to wear? Is it the girl who plans the outfits, or the guys? Do they do it every day?!

I asked my co-teacher and she said it's something that was traditionally done on Honeymoons, but younger people have adapted it. I asked what she thought and she said she liked when they were smart about it (?!).

I know it's a bit creepy that the only pictures we have are when we have taken snaps of unsuspecting couples, but i really wanted to show people back home!

Look how happy the King and Queen are in this 4th grader's
book report. I think it's all down to their coupling shoes

Friday Favourite V10: Homeroom Teachers

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was living so close to my best friend and here is this week's... 

Homeroom teachers are the equivalent of England's primary school teachers. They teach kids the majority of subjects, apart from languages, art and music. They spend most of their day with their class, they teach in the classroom, eat their lunch with the kids in the classroom, and make sure the children all do their daily chores...in the classroom. Their role goes further than this though, they're a hodge podge of mother/father away from home and a disciplinarian figure. This isn't why I like them though. I like that as the months go on,  I can distinctively see how their personalities differ and how they deal with this role, which is quite hilarious to an observer.

They're these elusive individuals that loiter in the classroom while I teach. Always trying to look inconspicuously busy so as not to get asked a question by the English teacher. From what I can see, there are three different roles they adopt.

1. Terrifyingly strict

2. Don't give a hoot

3. Fatherly and affectionate.

The strict ones hawk eye the whole lesson. If any student dares to even breathe too loudly, the homeroom teacher will bark at the child, who will instantly shut up. There was a strange wooden instrument, which I thought was a recorder, on the front desk of the 6th grade class with the most stern homeroom teacher. I picked it up while asking the kids what it was and was met with a laugh when they answered 'beat stick' and they saw me throw it back down. Recently I had two boys that just wouldn't listen in class, I'd tried to quietly chastise them, in the hope it wouldn't draw the attention of the homeroom teacher, but it was too little too late. He stalked around the back of the classroom with stealth movements comparable to a prowling cat, grabbed their heads and banged them together! Ouch! 

Natasha has the sternest homeroom teacher in the school. We once saw two boys at lunch time, squatting in the stair well with their arms held above their head, just as we wondered what was going on, we rounded the corner to see him hunched in the threshold of his classroom door, messily shovelling food into his mouth. He watched the boys, without even blinking, to make sure they remained squatted.

The second type are the ones that don't really care all that much, they're just happy to have 40 minutes where the little cretins that bother him like a rash all day are my problem. These are who I find the most annoying, they make phone calls, they play music and they sing to themselves in a weird way I've only ever heard grandmas do. Not only is it completely distracting as a teacher, but the kids are fully aware of the indifference and do whatever they like.

The final ones are my favourite, who swing between being strict, they want their kids to be the best, yet  have the tendency to shake their heads at some of the things the kids do. Especially when it's something that only a parent could possibly find cute or funny. I find that the children with homeroom teachers like this tend to be the better behaved, and are the ones I always look forward to teaching. 

This week I had a little (by little I mean young, he was by no means small) boy who wouldn't stay sat in his seat. I asked him to sit down and so did the homeroom teacher. He did, but then started conducting some imaginary orchestra with his Rilakkumma highlighter pen, whilst humming rather loudly. When I pointed at the book to suggest that he follow the story, I noticed he had gone through the whole book and smothered every word he could find in orange highlighter. The homeroom teacher stood up to see what I was looking at, when he saw it, he walked around his desk, calmly lifted up the boy's tshirt, grabbed his pale flabby body and did what I can only call a glorified chinese burn on the boy's torso. This then developed into a jiggle, which made the boy look like he was doing an involuntary Truffle Shuffle. The boy sat there and took it, and 2 minutes later was back in charge of his invisible orchestra, at which point the teacher just shook his head and laughed.

Sometimes these guys listen. other times they nap quietly or slip from the room. I think my favourite homeroom teacher by far is one of Natasha's. He drives to work on a moped, wears a shirt with flamingos on it and dons a lovely red polka dot apron to serve his kids their lunch.

By spending a little time with them outside of school, I've realised that most of them are just little boys in men's bodies. They still jump at the chance to play volleyball with the gusto shown by some of my 5th graders (who live for volleyball).  At a recent dinner, after a few too many shots of Johnny Walker Blue, it turned out that most of them can string a sentence together in English, and they gathered everyone round, asked us all to put our hands in and chanted '1,2,3. I LOVE YOU!'

It's funny to see them at work, and the weird voodoo magic they seem to have over the kids, that makes them behave like angels in their presence, in comparison to the jokers they are when the week's over.

Tasha's been invited for a dinner meeting with her homeroom teachers in the next few weeks so no doubt we'll have a story to tell following that...wish us luck!

Friday Favourite V9: Living Opposite my Best Friend

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the street food and here is this week's...

I remember when we were at uni, and all of my closest friends lived within 2 minutes walking distance from me. You could look out of your kitchen window and wave at some of your best friends as they poured themselves the first Caribbean twist of the night, or made themselves tuna pasta.

I remember one friend refusing to come out for a night out, so before she could type me another lame excuse on MSN about why she wasn't coming, I'd poured her a G&T and was knocking at her door thrusting a drink into her hand...how could she say no?

Getting ready was always exciting as people would be coming and going as they popped in to borrow things or lend things or ask advice on an outfit, and arranging to meet for lunch was never a problem as you could always just agree to meet in the courtyard. There was never the problem of 'I just need to pop home and pick this up before we can go here or there,' which might sometimes take hours for a friend to reappear, by which time it's too late to do your plans.

The morning after there was always someone to laze around with and watch Monk or Shipwrecked on the small TV sets we squeezed into our tiny rooms with the mattresses that were made out of some horrible plastic material.

After we graduated, meeting those friends became a logistical nightmare, work and money commitments got in the way and sadly it seemed like it was once in a blue moon I got to see them. We'd spend weekends away and I'd always miss the time when we wouldn't all have to whip out planners to scout through the pages to see when we could all hang out again.

It didn't get any easier with my friends in Sheffield either, dotted about the city it was always hard to work out who's house we should go to, whether I should drive or take a taxi, and as I lived so far from the center, sometimes it was just not worth the time and effort just for a cup of coffee.

That's until we moved over to Busan, into our teeny studio apartments up on the 6th floor, painted lemon and swathed in an odd baseball themed wallpaper. Now, I'm 10 seconds away from one of my best friends and can bound into her room whenever I feel the need to tell her something important (Oh my god, why have they turned Nick's character into a crazy in New Girl?...) or borrow something off her (it's absolutely vital that I paint my nails that shade of lilac that you happen to have or else my outfit totally won't look right).

More often than not I forget there are other people in these apartments around us and many a time have nearly been caught dashing over in my towel or underwear as I try and borrow something...cringe. It's usually the moment where I have hit the half way point in the hall, and have the fight vs flight moment, whether I should try and catch my own door before it closes, or quickly punch in Tasha's code and vault into her room, that's always the riskiest option... Probably the worst time I was caught by a neighbour is when I was in a pajama set, with my hair that I'd let dry naturally. For those that have never seen my hair dried naturally, the only way I can think to describe it is imagine if Jonathan Creek and Mugatu from Zoolander had a love child...

Getting ready to go out is my favourite part of the night again, putting on shamefully cheesy music and drinking whilst doing some ever important last minute tweaking makes me feel like I'm 18 again.

Being late is never a problem, as frequently Tasha will come into my room to see what I'm playing at, and impromptu Gossip Girl sessions or meals out are easily arranged.

It's also nice, whenever you feel like you miss home, to have a little piece of Sheffield right there with you, so you can talk about moments from home with someone that will toss their head back and laugh, rather than do  a polite chuckle. When you remind yourself of the time one of you (not mentioning any names) broke a chair after a roller derby game whilst trying to do some odd, non erotic lap dance to the other one (me) or want to drool over the breakfast from Bungalows and Bears that is the perfect solution to an alcohol induced achy head. Sometimes I don't know how other people have come all the way over here without someone they know relatively well to just relax around.

I decided to make this my favourite this week after a Skype session with my other best friend, Clare who told me the exciting news that she is soon to be joining me in Korea with her boyfriend. Even though Seoul is a little further away, it will still be nice to have a home from home from home. Excited!

Friday Favourite V8: Street Food

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the ice cream shop Baskin Robins and here is this week's (a little late)...

Imagine playing russian roulette with food, that's the only way I can think to describe street food in Korea. You never really quite know what you're getting or how good it's going to be, until you take the first bite.

Living near Nampo, I think most people would be surprised that it's only in the last month or so that Tasha and I have started eating it. Nampo is packed full of food stalls. There's the international market, the back streets of Nampo and also the stalls packed into PIFF square. They're brightly lit with lots of people milling around, grouped together and eating food. Running down from the square there are these tiny tents, all with mini seats and tables where you can pick your food and drink and take a pew.

I that love late at night when we walk home from Nampo we walk past these tents that are dotted through the backstreets, which're sometimes zipped up. You can hear the revelry of the business men inside, but it kinda feels like a private, soju induced party that we're not invited to!

So far we've tried BBQ'd chicken which was pretty good, waffles which Tasha is a massive fan of, fried shrimp, fried hard boiled eggs and kimbap 김밥(sushi rolls) which I could take or leave. My two absolute favourite things is pajeon 파전 which is a savoury pancake/omelette with lots of greens and meat in it, and the best thing I have tasted so far is hot-tteok 호떡 which is a sweet, deep fried pancake that's stuffed with nuts, which unsurprisingly always has the biggest queue for.

Pajeon

My first try of hotteok

Tasha with hotteok

In one of the tents eating fried shrimp

Friday Favourite V7: Baskin Robbins

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was pity gifts and here is this week's...


I am currently on a hiatus from eating Baskin Robbins for a month, after having ice cream cake for breakfast and dinner two days in a row following Natasha's birthday. My favourite flavour is the candyfloss flavour. Mainly because it's an amazing mulch of pastel colours and has POPPING CANDY in it, always a winning recipe. As soon as this month\s finished I am straight on the ice cream fondue.


Meanwhile...Natasha's challenged herself to try every flavour before the year's out. She swears by the chocolate ice cream and loves to eat it with a cone- which i think should be avoided at all costs as cones only come with drama (spillages, breakages etc). Cups all the way!


Not only do I love BR for their amazing ice cream and cakes, but i love that they give out free lego ice cream trucks if you spend enough in one transaction... I'm not quite that hooked yet but maybe one day.


The only negative thing I have to say about it is my inability to spell the name. I am consistently inconsistent at the ways I spell Baskin Robbins and have noticed it's been called a number of different things throughout the posts on this blog! From now on I'll just call it BR to save my poor brain.

Friday Favourite V6: Pity Gifts

My coteacher, Jinny, who loves to give!
The concept's pretty easy; at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was drinking hot drinks with straws and here is this week's...

If you're not lucky enough to be our friends on facebook, then I think it would be pretty hard to guess that this week it was only Natasha's birthday and not mine.

Before I came to Korea I read about this weird gift giving ritual and etiquette that existed over here; accept the gift with two hands, don't open it infront of the giver, never give the gift of homemade cooking to someone whose house you're attending or else they'll feel obliged to return the container filled with something similar...the list goes on and on and on. Since we've been here the only gifts I've been given were presented by a small, sticky hand accompanied by puppy dog eyes, and they don't really care how you accept their weird drawing or orange segment, as long as you take it.

We arrived at work on Monday morning (having just eaten a massive part of the Baskin Robbins ice cream cake for breakfast) to be serenaded by our lovely co-teachers who presented Natasha and our other English speaking teacher a massive cheese cake and gifts (it was also his birthday). They forcibly crammed massive bricks of the cake into paper cups and shoved them into our hands, complimented with a pair of chopsticks. Even though I had just eaten a big breakfast of ice cream cake, I thought that it'd be rude not to eat this piece of cake too...

As soon as the bell went for first class and Tasha trotted off, one of the co teachers shuffled over with a sachet of instant coffee and told me to take it. When I asked her what it was for she said something about feeling bad about Natasha getting so many gifts and me not getting any. I assured her it was ok, but she was pretty insistent, and knowing how much they get offended when you don't accept a gift offering, I popped it in my drawer. 2 minutes later, another of the co workers came over with a handful of coffee sachets and plonked them down on the table, within 10 minutes I had a drawer filled.

We went for coffee with Jinny, my coteacher, and she pulled out two neatly wrapped gifts, handed one to Tasha and one to me. She explained shyly that she'd decided to buy me one as she'd been feeling sorry for me because of Natasha getting so many gifts.

However much I feel like a toddler who has to be bought a special present on their siblings' birthdays so they don't start throwing a tantrum at the new sparkly bike and gift wrapped presents, i do secretly quite like it. Honest, I do enjoy watching others get gifts though.

Then there're the freebies you're given in make up stores...I'm sure they pity the state that this hot weather's driven my skin to and put a few pity face masks in the bag when I'm not looking. I've bought 2 face masks since i've been here, somehow i have 5 left...hmmmm.

The only downside to these pity gifts is that after reading my Culture Shock book, I've just noticed that the majority of the time, they expect gifts to be reciprocated. I'm going to end up bankrupt!

Friday Favourite V5: Hot Drinks With Straws

The concept is easy; at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was beach naps and here is this week's...

I don't know if it's because I'm some tall, gangly moron, or whether this is a common problem, but I find walking while simultaneously drinking literally impossible. It doesn't matter what drink it is, or what kind of a container it's in. If I don't stop to take a sip I end up with the drink all down my top. Hence me having to stop whenever I take a sip, which is not only annoying to the person behind me who crashes into me, but it's annoying for whoever I'm with when they discover they've been chatting away to themselves for the last 10 paces. This is why having hot drinks served with straws is one of my favourite things about Korea.

I love the coffee shops over here, they all have that little something extra that would make a coffee shop really unique back in the UK, but here it's just the norm. Whether it's drawing bunny faces into the froth on top of your cappuccino, covering the floor in faux grass or serving your drink with a fortune cookie, I love the little things that they do here. I think my favourite coffee shops are 2F and the Pink Elephant in Nampo-Dong and the chain Coffine Gurunaru.

The first time we were handed our hot chocolates, with a straw by the side, we cautiously looked around to make sure we weren't making some terrible social mistake. We slooooowly dipped the straw into the drink and took a sip. And just when we had that Eureka moment of realisation that straw + hot drink = a match made in heaven, no one pointed at us or laughed, or even peered over the screen of the Ipad they're usually fixated with.

So the next time we were in a cafe and we were given a straw, we dunked it in straight away without any hesitation. At first we made the rookie mistake of sucking the drink straight up, which is unbearably hot unless your mouth is made of asbestos, But now we coolly wait, playing with our straws, until a decent time has passed and the heat is bearable.

Our love for these straws is so strong that it's got to the point where if we're not given a straw, there's a minor uproar. I've seen Tasha get seriously indignant if that hot chocolate isn't served with a straw. She was also super happy to see that the Korean equivalent to poundland, Daiso, sells these straws, so she can take this new habit home with her.

Many a time I've been ridiculed for my straw usage, why's it so wrong to drink a can of Strongbow or a bottle of Koppaberg with a straw? Where's it written that a Jagerbomb shouldn't be sipped as a long drink through a straw? Everything tastes better with straws. This may have something to do with my overly sensitive teeth and my lack of drink to mouth coordination while in transit, but I don't like to get weighed down by the negative things. On the brightside it means less backwash and perfect lipstick all the same time. It also makes sharing a hot drink easy too, and if I haven't pointed this out already, the Koreans love to share!

Friday Favourite V4 : Beach Naps

The concept is easy; at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the cosmetic store Etude House and here is this week's...

Perfect after big nights out. Or walks across bridges. Or just after the ordeal of getting to the beach. Or just to cure pure laziness. Nothing makes me happier than a good nap on the beach, especially when the sun is shining.

We've become seasoned pros at these naps and have got the method down to a tee. First of all you evaluate how you feel and how much you need a nap. If you really need one you need to get as far away from the mass of people as possible. Secondly, you need to avoid wet sand so stay away from the sea, but don't get too close to the walkway as the people walking past will keep you awake. Once you've laid down you need to do a bit of a wriggle to ensure maximum comfort. Finally, if you're wearing a dress, before falling to sleep place your bag on the hem of your skirt to avoid embarrassing exposure caused by the sea breezes every now and then. Taking a towel is optional because you might not want to lug it around with you all day, noone will notice the mass of sand in your hair. Honest. Of course, if you're lucky enough to have a bag carrying man around, they might also not mind carrying your towel around all day too. In that case I would always take a towel.

Normally these beach naps are brought to an abrupt end, either by a white rat dog who's been dyed neon and forced to wear a coat, or by the giggles of some Korean girls near by taking a million self photos - but it doesn't matter because it's 20 minutes of sleep that I wouldn't have had anyway. I always wake up feeling 100% better and ready for our next adventure.

Natasha commented that although we have visited alot of Busan's beaches, she doesn't feel as though it can be crossed off the list until we've tested its napping credentials.

My favourite is Haeundae. I like it because it's generally hot when we go there, it's big enough to avoid people if you want a hardcore nap, and it's also busy enough to be interesting to people watch if you find that you're suffering from a bit of nap insomnia. Whenever we have visited Gwangali beach, it's always been far too blustery to have a good solid nap, so this is a no for naps in my eyes.

Be warned, some people have no grasp of the concept of personal space, so you may wake up with someone's feet right next to your head, which makes you feel like they've been watching you sleep.

Pretending to nap can also be a tool to avoid Korean boys who're soaking wet from frolicking fully clothed in the sea who then like to ask to have their picture taken with you.

So in conclusion, once you've nailed the technique beach naps are definitely one of the best things about Korea.

Friday Favourite V3: Etude House

I've decided that at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the man bags and here is this week's...

Etude house is enough to make me sick with happiness, and it would be sick made of rainbows, lucky charms and unicorns. Imagine the love child of Benefit and Barry M, pimped out by Boots No.17. That's the only way that I can describe Etude House to anyone that lives too far away to experience it.

Etude House is a cosmetic shop which's a pink, shabby- chic, doll house-esque boutique. It looks like the perfect setting for the sleepover of a sweet 16 birthday party. With products in pretty packaging at a price that makes me stand looking at the tag, converting to pounds, back to Won and back again, and then gasp 'No way' to myself.

Plus, super added bonus, is that all the directions have English instructions too. Awesome!

I find myself making needless excuses just to go. So far I've tried face wipes, face masks, cleanser, nail varnish, nail art pens, hand cream and a lipstick. What makes it even better is that every time you buy something you are given a sack of freebies as well (I may be exaggerating a little here). I bought one face mask the other day and they gave me three free.  That's three times as many as I originally bought if you can't do the maths. I snuck out, expecting them to stop me and tell me that they had made a horrible mistake, but instead I had cotton wool pads thrust into my hands on the way out. More Freebies.

The nail varnish costs roughly 60p, comes in too many colours for my head to comprehend and it didn't budge off my nails all week. My favourite colour so far is Tasha's matt lilac one. The nail art pens were £1.20 and I've wasted many an hour drawing ridiculous baby pink patterns on my poor claws. The lipsticks, although they don't wear quite as well as my favourites, come in a cute pink tube with a bow tied around it. At £4 they aren't as cheap as some of the other products, but they're cheap enough to keep in my bag on a night out, and I wouldn't shed a tear if I lost it, unlike some my Mac ones.

Lipstick and hand cream

Whenever I walk in, one of the lovely service assistants will trot upto me, and cue a fun game of charades as I try to explain to them what I'm after, or they attempt to hard sell me something. Not happening. My favourite girl works in the Nampo branch on the main street and seems to love to use me as a tool to better her English.

If that wasn't enough reasons to love the store, they use guys for advertising probably 60% of the products. It never fails to make me laugh immaturely to myself when I see the 6 foot cut out in the door of a guy applying lip balm. Currently they have a K-Pop boy band, SHINee! As the face of their brand, asking Korean teens 'Wanna be Sweet?'. The other face of Etude is the stunning Sandara Park who's an actress and girl band member of 2NE1.

The only thing I'm super wary of is the fact that they put lightener in some of their skin products and foundations. One too many times I've seen a grandma rocking the six months dead look. Step back from the skin whitener, no ajumma, no!

Friday Favourite V2: Bag Carrying Men

I've decided that at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the cat cafe and here is this week's...

How many times have you seen a guy stood outside the changing rooms in a shop, with a zoned out, flat face expression as he stands (or sits on the man sofa that’re always conveniently placed outside these places), still as a statue, awkwardly holding a handbag? It’s almost as if the stance has been designed by males to demonstrate very clearly to others of the same sex that this most certainly is not his bag. It also communicates that he would rather be scratching out his own eyeballs than holding this bag. I think this trauma can only be equalled by recording over the final of his favourite sports match with an episode of Glee/ accidentally spraying him with perfume / asking him to buy tampons when he pops to the shop.

Or how about when you need to tie your lace, so you ask the guy you’re with to hold your bag for a moment, only to find that the milisecond you start to manouvre into upright position, you suddenly have a black eye because the bag has been thrust back in your face with such force and apparent disgust? Or perhaps it’s balanced precariously on a dog waste bin, or a wall covered in the remnants of a kebab which has already been devoured once, just so he can avoid holding it?

Just the other night Tasha and I were in a bar, playing darts with some British guys. Tasha’s turn comes around, and she asks one of the guys to hold her clutch while she threw an awesome shot, only to find she was greeted with high tens all around. Noticing the said boys’ hands were suspiciously free to give out these congratulatory slaps, she looked around to find the bag dumped on a nearby table in a puddle of beer.

Well look at this girls, the guys here voluntarily carry their other halves’ bags. The first time I saw it I thought it was cute, the second time I swooned, and then I noticed that every guy seemed to be at it. It doesn’t matter if it’s big, gold and glitzy with a baribe doll charm hanging off it or small, sleek and Chanel, they’ll happily hoist it over their shoulder.

Admittedly I think the Korean guys are a lot more in touch with their feminine side. I’ve seen pink phone covers, polka dot umbrellas and gadgets covered in glitzy stickers sported on a daily basis. There are cardboard cut outs in cosmetic shops with guys enthusiastically applying lip gloss, and the only time I’ve seen a guy NOT carrying his girlfriend’s bag, is when his own manbag is bigger than hers.

A lot of Korean girls we have spoken to (and guys) tell us that the English guy is very romantic and ‘gentle’. I imagine they’re thinking of someone that has just walked out of a Jane Austen novel, and they simply cannot believe it when their ideas are met with a doubled over laugh. I’ve seen the light in a few Korean girls’ eyes go out forever when we tell them about white vans, wolf whistles and football.

I guess it’s the fact that I'm accustomed to how highly the British guys value the perception of the ‘manly’ image that maybe makes this small gesture such a big deal in my eyes. I’m not saying that British guys or Korean guys are better with their small quirks. I for one would rather not share a cherry flavoured lip balm with my other half. But I guess it’s the demonstration that you care about someone enough to not really give a fig how others perceive you that I like.  

Friday Favourite V.1: With Cat, Cat Cafe

I've decided that at the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. I'm a bit late this week but here goes!

When I was six I had something that amalgamated two of my greatest loves into one thing. It was my pet cat, who I’d had the privilege to name, and I named him Moonwalker. Moonwalker was an over weight black furry bundle of joy that would remind me of my favourite singer and film every time I fussed him.

That was before the days where Michael Jackson had all the surgery and all the kid stories started floating around. The film is still pretty awesome though. As I’ve got older, I’ve got other things that I’ve discovered and grown to love, like tea. Many an afternoon I’ve spent with a good brew, pondering over how the hell Jacko did that weird leany thing in this video 7:16 mins in. But cats have always been a constant love of mine. 

Imagine then, how happy I was when I discovered that here in Korea there are Cat Cafes. It was rainy and dismal here in Busan. But as soon as we stepped into the cat café I was in a pastel paradise. A massive array of teas were on offer, served in teapots (I’ve not seen enough of them here!) which you could enjoy while having these cats struggle for your attention. 

 There were big ones, small ones, fluffy ones, bald ones, dressed up ones, Siamese ones, ones with weird lacey collars on and a grotesquely fat one. 

 I had read before I came that these weren’t the best places for cats, that they had their claws removed so that they couldn’t scratch the school girls that loved to pull their tails and taunt the cats, so I was a little suspicious of the place at first. As soon as we got there I was happy that the owner warned us that they may scratch, that the cats trotted to greet us promiscuously seeking out our attention. I was also relieved when I heard them purr. 

Needless to say I’ve come home super happy, although drugged upto the eyeballs on anti-allergy tablets. All I need to do now is out smart the cat lord on my next visit who was loitering there with his cat treats, obviously having had a bath in cat nip scented bubbles and had them swarming around him like minions…jealous much?