A Chick's Guide to South Korea before I Ramble On.

As I am soon (in two weeks) ending my stint in SK, I thought I would send out helpful places for anyone needing some expat guidance.  It's not nearly as fun as my Colorado list or Chiang Mai Top 12 list (I came here for the money, not the party...and my ankle kind of got in the way of extensive exploring, but with the way things are going on that front, there will be much and more of adventures - non-South Korean ones - to come!).

So, without further adieu, here is my helpful/useful South Korea list - for those of you who want to AVOID Itaewon and it's higher, foreigner prices:

Gringos Burritos!
I first have to give a shout out to Gringos Burritos.  As a Colorado native, I know Mexican food pretty damn well.  I'm convinced that my ma filled my baby bottles with green chili and salsa.  Saying that, living in Asia, it's difficult to find some authentic Mexican goodness.  That's where the Gringos guys come in.  One hails from my native Colorado.  One hails from Canada and is a sport nut.  Good guys making good burritos.  They're based out of Ilsan, but they ship glorious burritos all over Korea.  They spend the weekdays teaching the Common Tongue (like myself) to wee ones, and spend the weekends making burritos (not like myself).  The burritos come frozen to your door!  (Lucky me, they hand deliver mine as I live quite close to them...so we get to chat up all things sports and all things Colorado).  They offer breakfast and lunch/dinner burritos, and also sides like re-fried beans (which are great!), salsa (yum!), and red bean chili (some of the best red bean chili I've had...admittedly even better than my own, and I pack a mean red bean chili...).  Check out their menu and find them on Facebook.  If you're craving some Mexican...these dudes are the closest you'll get to it in Korea!  Thanks Mike and Mark for satiating my Mexican appetite over the last year!

My tip for heating the burritos - I will thaw the burrito in the fridge overnight.  Once it's fully thawed, I put it in a frying pan on low heat, turning it every few minutes and slow cooking it so it gets hot in the middle.  When it's hot, I'll crank the heat up for about a minute or two while turning it so the outside gets slightly crispy.  Nomnomnom...

My favorite from the Gringos...Carnitas oozing with cheese!
(FYI: That's not their salsa...that's my salsa)

Lucy Hair!
Ladies...I know you can relate to this one.  Where in the hell can a foreign chick get a "foreign chick" haircut in Korea?  I had yet another disaster (not nearly as bad as the one in Chiang Mai) with my hair when I went to Juno in Ilsan.  I had read on a Facebook group that a stylist at Juno spoke English and did a good job, so I decided to check her out.  First of all, she barely spoke English.  Second of all, she treated my "white girl hair" like "Korean girl hair".  So basically, she fried the living shit out of it.  I wanted my hair darker, I ended up with near platinum blonde locks so dry they made straw seem moist and lovely (the only upside...the cut was really good).  After a few months of sporting dry, weak, seriously damaged hair - and trying EVERYTHING I could think of to get the moisture back in it, I decided to chop it all off to start over again.  I heard about Lucy Hair in Sinchon from a co-worker.  Lucy was trained at Tony & Guy in London, speaks near perfect English, and most importantly knows how to color the hair of foreign chicks and dudes.  Ladies, if you need your hair done...I highly recommend Lucy.  Check out her Facebook page.

Awesome cut.  Awesome color.

EZ Shop Korea!
I don't know if you know this, but I love cheese.  And good cheese is hard to come by in Asia.  Therefore, when an acquaintance with a car offered to take me shopping at Costco, I didn't pass that up...

Costco = America = giant blocks of cheddar cheese!  

If you're in Korea for a while and have access to a car, getting a Costco membership is plausible.  Although I've been here for over a year, I don't have a car and didn't fancy flagging down taxis to get home from Costco.  That's where EZ Shop Korea comes in.  They have many Costco products - and you don't need a Costco card to shop with them - and they deliver it to your door.  The delivery costs can get pricey, especially if you're ordering refrigerator items, but it saves with the hassle of getting there and back, and like I said, you don't need a Costco card to shop with them.  Also, they have Lucky Charms.  Giant boxes of Lucky Charms and giant blocks of cheddar cheese.  (Also you can get a giant bag of delicious tortilla chips to help you consume your Gringos salsa!)

Cine in Korea!
I'm a film nut.  Lately I've been completely crazy about the magic of Marvel films. Recently, I've been thinking of our species as homo-sapiens and how obsessed we are with entertainment.  I often wonder what other, non-Earthly entities would think of us if they observed us from afar with our entertainment obsessions.  I think they would think we were weird...Anyways, I digress.  Koreans also love the cinema.  If you want to see a film, you're pretty much shit outta luck if you show up to the cinema to buy your tickets in person, and 30 minutes before the film starts...you know, like humans used to do pre-Internet days.  Therefore you English-speaking-and-reading person, I suggest you head on over to Cine In Korea for all of your cinema needs.  They have all the show times at all of the cinemas, and you can buy your tickets online, from the comfort of your bed, without worrying about only finding seats in the first row of a giant screen and that neck-ache you'll encounter afterwards.

Yonsei Severance Medical Center
If you're in need of an international clinic, Yonsei Medical Center has a great one!  The GP's are good and very thorough.  The GP at YMC told me more about what was wrong with my ankle than the actual orthopedic surgeon I saw in the emergency room in Chiang Mai.  She referred me to YMC's ankle specialist - who I didn't actually like and I ended up going with my surgery at Samsung Medical Center.  But saying that, the International Clinic and YMC is great if you're needing a doctor that is guaranteed to speak English.  They also have volunteers in the clinic to help you get around...YMC is massive, so they hooked me up with an English-speaking volunteer to take me around for X-rays, MRI's, orthopedics...you name it, they helped with it (something that wasn't offered at Samsung MC).

Check out what it's like to stay in a Korean hospital (Samsung MC) here.

Dentist
This one is specific to the Goyang area of Seoul (however, I've seen another branch of this dentist at Digital Media City, so perhaps it's a chain).  The Zi & Mi Clinic in Hwajeong is great!  I first went to the US Dental clinic near the Yongsan Army Base as I had heard good reviews...but I thought it was shit.  It was really dirty in my opinion and although the hygienist was good, the main doctor was not very gentle and put me off returning for a cavity filling.  A friend in Hwajeong recommended Zi & Mi.  The doctor speaks English, although most of the staff do not.  I ended up needing a root canal (which cost me a grand total of $18...thank you, Korea National Insurance!), and further needed a crown on a tooth I chipped.  The doctor was very gentle and explained EVERYTHING he was doing.  If you're in Hwajeong, his office is in the Lotteria building (next to McDonald's) on the 4th floor.

Chiropractor
I've always suffered from lower pain and need a good snappin', crackin' and a-poppin' from time to time.  Saying that, I've had a very difficult time trying to find a proper chiropractor anywhere in my area.  They all tend to be some kind of needle-poking acupuncturists, which do fuck all for my back.  After spending 6 months hobbling around on crutches, I needed a proper adjustment and this eastern remedy shit was NOT cutting it.  I could no longer avoid going to Itaewon.  After my trip to Singapore a few weeks ago, I've been suffering with some pretty horrible back pain.  A friend of a friend recommended Itaewon Wellness.  Again, I think there is a lot of traffic of Army dudes there as it is relatively close to the Yongsan Army Base.  I've gone 3 times in the past week and my back is finally starting to feel better.  It's a bit pricey, 50,000 won per session, but I honestly haven't been able to find any other chiropractor around...not a place that poses as a chiropractor, then sticks you with a bunch of unhelpful needles.

That's all I've got for you for now.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it to the list.  Hopefully this will help any of you foreign lads and lasses in, or coming to, South Korea.

As for me, well, it's time to Ramble On...

Happy Trails!

Related blogs:

Check out my Chenggyeonggung Palace Photo Blog.

Or, check out my Gyeongbokgung Palace Photo Blog.

Words of advice: Never transfer through China

This is what I've learned: China is whack. Like the daddy mac. If at all possible, I will never, EVER transfer through this whack place again.

Perhaps I've been fortunate during my travels and had never previously encountered flight problems before. But every flight I've had this trip to and from Singapore has been delayed. Coincidence? No, I think it's just whacky China.

First, I get up at the ass-crack o' dawn to catch my flight to Singapore via Shanghai. I had a 10 hour layover in Shanghai, so I was planning on exploring the city to pass the time. When I get to Inchon, the line to check in is horrendously long. No on-line check-in, no self check-in. After about 30 minutes (the line moved surprisingly fast considering), I get to the counter, only to be told my flight is delayed and to come back...and stand in line again...after 2 hours.  WHY someone didn't think to tell the people in line that ALL flights to Shanghai were delayed because of military training at the Shanghai airport is beyond me. So after 2 hours, I'm back in line again. This time the line is moving much slower because the flights were no longer delayed. After going through security and making it to the gate, we're told that the flight is delayed AGAIN. After we finally board, (can you guess what I'm going to say?), we were delayed on the Tarmac for another bloody hour! For fuck's sake!!

So we finally made it to Shanghai after a 6 hour delay. Most of the folks on my flight who were transferring had already missed their connections. Lucky I had that 10 hour layover. Unlucky because my day exploring Shanghai was now shot.

Shanghai airport is shit. The signs are misleading and confusing, the workers unfriendly, and most of the time it looks like you're walking through a fucking underground bunker to get to your gate. AND ONCE AGAIN, my flight is bloody delayed! They finally called for boarding. As I'm standing in line, (5 minutes after calling first boarding) they call "final" boarding and start rushing everyone through...only to be DELAYED ON THE TARMAC AGAIN!!!! Aye yei yei!! Seriously, what the fuck?

I FINALLY made it to Singapore...which was completely lovely (I'll write proper blogs on Singy later...for now, let's keep talking about how shit China is to transfer through).

Leaving Singapore, I had no problems...but I was looking at 2 transfers through bloody China on my way back to Seoul (hey, the tickets were cheap and I'm a poor, wanderlusting lass). I get to my first transfer...of which we're NOT changing planes - 1 hour layover - you'd expect to just sit on the plane, right? That's what I thought because I've done that before. Nope. Get off the plane, go through immigration, security and the likes, then told the flight is delayed. Should I really be surprised at this point? 

I finally make it to my second connection in Qingdao, where it's now 11am and they're shooting fireworks (or gunfire...) outside of the airport. Why?? There is no signage for international transfer anywhere. Information folks are a joke. I try to go for a coffee and when I walk in, one of the workers held her nose and went to the other end if the bar. Yeah, I probably smell a bit, but that's your fault China, for delaying every fucking flight to and from your country and ultimately delaying my well-needed after-travel shower. So lady in the coffee shop, go fuck yourself.

Also China, you need to figure out your pollution problem...cause damn! We were flying into a brown bubble of dirty China nastiness. 

That blue-ish strip between land and sky is haze. Nasty haze.

Haze and green sludge in the ocean (which I really hope is algae...)

Hazy, brown Qingdao.

Sorry if this blog is negative, but I had a negative experience transferring through China...so much that it put off any small desire I had to ever visit the country. Maybe I will one day, but China has dropped to the bottom of my list.

At least it wasn't enough to put a damper  on my trip to Sunny Singapore. Blogs on that wonderful wee country coming soon!

Happy (but not in China) Trails!