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Continue reading →: Finding John Reichard (Woodland Cemetery)It isn’t a trip home if there’s not at least one visit to a cemetery. This visit was a little different than most, as we were going to check in on a new gravestone. My mom, a genealogy aficionado who keeps fake flowers in the trunk of her car “just…
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Continue reading →: Take Me Home, Country Roads
I left Korea last week for a two week trip back to the US to see my family, who I haven’t seen since Christmas of 2019. The first flight, the long-haul one, was alright. I had an aisle seat, which I liked, and I was sitting next to a mother…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: UnicoffMy current favorite café is Unicoff, located near Uijeongbu Station. I believe credit goes to Mine for finding this café and saying something along the lines of “it looks like it’s your type of café,” meaning they offer hand-drip coffee. Ever since I realized that I’m lactose intolerant, cafe trips…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Blue Bottle, YeouidoSet in a sky garden (35,583 ft2) on the fifth floor of the Hyundai Seoul skyscraper, in the vicinity of the National Assembly building, our cafe offers respite to urban professionals and residents in Seoul’s bustling financial center. Filled with natural light, trees, and pathways, the atrium invites people to…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: “Tower,” Bae Myung-HoonI went into Tower rather blindly, and was tickled by what I found. Beanstalk is a 674-story building with 500,000 residents and exists not only as a building, but also a sovereign state. It’s referred to as a “modern-day Tower of Babel” by detractors. Each story is about a part…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Café Onion, SeongsuCafé Onions seem to embody the space in which they’re located, and there is no better example than the Seongsu location. Here, the drab gray of unfinished walls reflects the light streaming in from large windows, and the floor features the yellow paint of another time. At once there is…
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Continue reading →: Makgeolli 101Back in April, I was one of twelve lucky people chosen to partake in a special event held by the Royal Asiatic Society Korea and Gastro Tour Seoul, and located in the Korean Food Grand Master Center in the Bukchon area of Seoul. It was entitled “Korean Traditional Alcohol Brewing…
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Continue reading →: Unboxing “Colors” the First Mini Album from Ars, Choi Youngjae
After not getting a Youngjae photocard from my purchase of Got7’s latest mini album, I decided to go back and buy Youngjae’s mini album. I bought both versions, with the only difference being the photobook and random photocards.
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Café Onion, AngukCafé Onion in Anguk is probably my favorite café in all of Korea. Located steps from Anguk Station and constructed inside a traditional wooden Korean house called a hanok, it serves up great coffee and pastries baked in-house with an amazing atmosphere. Come early or expect to wait for a…
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Continue reading →: Unboxing Got7’s “Got7” Mini-Album
There are several kinds of Kpop fans (also known as “stans”). There’s the “I only like This Group” stans. The “I Only Like This Member in This Group” stans. The Only-Boy-Groups stan. The Only-Girl-Groups stan. The Music-Only stan. The I-Collect-Everything stan. The I-Spend-Thousands-of-Dollars-on-Albums-to-Get-Photocards-Which-I-Then-Trade-or-Sell-For-a-Profit stans. The same kind of stan, but…
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Continue reading →: Restaurant Review: Potala Restaurant
Located in a basement in Jongno-gu is Potala Restaurant, a Tibetan/Nepali restaurant owned by a Tibetan. You can take a look at the menu in the doorway before you walk downstairs. The restaurant seems to pride itself on being tourist- and halal-friendly. When I went at 5 pm, I was…
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Continue reading →: The Latest South Korean Craze: Pokémon Bread
“Teacher, you must wait. And wait. And waaaaaiiitttt.” Apparently you have to wait a very long time in order to get your hands on the elusive Pokémon bread that’s been a craze in South Korea for the past two months. I’ve gone into a convenience store where the clerk was…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Finger Coffee
There’s something different about this café… I just can’t put my finger on it… Not only is it open 24 hours, but it is an automatic, unmanned café. You insert your card (even transportation cards work!), get the cup corresponding to your order (either a hot cup or a cup…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Blue Bottle SeongsuToday’s café review is the first Blue Bottle café in Korea, located in the Seongsu neighborhood. According to Blue Bottle’s website: “The neighborhood of Seongsu—for which our very first Korean café is named—is changing. In what was once an industrial pocket of the South Korean capital, cafes and galleries are…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Enough You
Take a ten-minute walk behind Yangu Station (Line 1) and you’ll stumble across a pretty little café called Enough You. The café has amazing croiffles with a variety of toppings and the interior is quiet and calm. There are tropical trees, round mirrors, soft lights, a billowing white sheet hanging…
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Continue reading →: KakaoFriends Store: Gangnam
The first thing I did when I moved to Korea, after setting aside my suitcases, was download KakaoTalk. There are two different chats for all the teachers at school–one for general information, and one for pictures of the kindergarten students that later get sent home to parents. I have a…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Blue Bottle GwanghwamunThis was the first Blue Bottle in Korea that I visited, and one that I’ve visited a few times since then. According to the Blue Bottle website: In the center of one of Seoul’s three business districts, our Gwanghwamun cafe sits at the bottom of a 20-story office building at…
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Continue reading →: Books I Read in 2021
My goal this year was to read at least 25 books. In the past, my goal has been 50 but I hardly ever reach that, so I thought that 25 would be a good goal–it averages two books a month. This year, I beat my goal but definitely with some…
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Continue reading →: Café Review: Blue Bottle SamcheongApparently I have made it my quest to visit all the Blue Bottles in Korea. I have been to the one in Gwanghwamun Square and on Jeju Island, so it was only appropriate that I introduce the new teachers to Blue Bottle in a new-to-me location: Samcheong. The Blue Bottle…
Welcome to Koffee & Kpop, adventures of an errant American barista living in South Korea.
Koffee & Kpop 