Food and Fun over the weekend

Hello all! This is Haley!!! I am guest blogging to let you know about our weekend experience from my point of view...

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to lunch at this side dish place. It was a very traditional style eating - basically you get a bunch of little dishes of different types of veggies and share it with everyone at the table. I took some pictures. It was a tiny little place that had like five tables (almost every restaurant here has that), and you could either sit on the floor, or on benches - always on a pillow. The walls had Korean writing and the ceilings were old wooden beams that looked like tree branches.
Then we went to a coffee place (we go to a coffee shop at least twice a day), then to Hil's church. After church, we went to Meyeondong, which is a huge area with a bunch of shops. Unfortunately, it was raining, and was extremely crowded, so we kept getting poked in the face with umbrellas, because our faces were at the level of everyone's umbrella!
After that we went to a restaurant with a bunch of Hilary's friends - whom are VERY cool. Very nice, friendly and easy going people. We had to wear bibs! This was another family style seating where they cook the meals in front of you. They made us a sort of pizza type thing. It tasted like spicy spaghetti without the pasta. There was sauce, spices, chicken, sauce, peppers, onions, sauce and cheese. VERY saucy :).
Then we all went to Doctor Fish. This place was CRAZY! We went up to the seventh floor of this crappy building and when we walked into the spa, it seemed like we walked into a different world. It was so nice and had an instant relaxing atmosphere. Everything here has either wooden or bamboo floors, and this entire place was covered in bamboo. We took our shoes and socks off as soon as we walked in the door and put them in lockers. There were beautiful ficus trees with lights everywhere, an L shaped pool in the middle - raised above the normal floor - and chairs and tables for seating. We ordered some tea and smoothies (I got a mango smoothie- mmm) and then went over to these sinks in the ground to wash our feet off. After we finished washing our feet, we went up to the pool. You look in and there are little fish swimming around. You stick your feet in these pools and the fish EAT the dead skin off of your feet. They come up and swarm around your feet and legs and just start munching away. It felt SO WEIRD. It tickled and pinched and ... I don't know all at once! We kept our feet in there for as long as we could, took them out, wiped them off and sat down for our drinks. We talked for a while and then went back again! This time I put my hands in the pool along with my feet. I could really feel them biting on my hands. When they were eating your feet, it just tickled, but on your hands, you could almost feel their little fish lips rubbing your hands. WEIRD! Then we put our feet back in the sinks in the floor in hot water with some lavender oil. This was called aromatherapy. I felt very relaxed after this! Once we were done with this, our feet felt sooooo soft!
Then we went for ice cream at this little cafe at a neighboring building. It had bananas, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple jello, ice cream and ice in it.

Today (Monday), we got up and met one of Hilary's former co-teachers for coffee. After coffee, we met Hil's friend Jessica for lunch at a place where you get something called shabu shabu. This style of eating takes over an hour and has three stages. Once again, they cook the food right on your table, but this time it had broth instead of sauce. I guess shabu shabu is actually Japanese food. It had very thin slices of beef, broth, cabbage, onions, bokchoy, dandelion leave looking things, fish dough balls nuggets EW (we didn't eat those) and sprouts. You dip some of the food in some hot sauce that reminded me of tobasco, but thicker, mixed with garlic and hot peppers and then mmm eat it! After we cooked and ate the veggies, we got noodles to put in the broth. It thickened. After we were done eating the noodles, we get rice and egg put in the remaining broth and cook it up. It turns into a kind of porridge or risotto. I mixed that together with my spicy broth and ate it! YUM!
Now we are resting at one of Hil's friends' houses before we go hiking. We are going up to Namsan Tower. nam = south, san = mountain. Hil and I are hiking up to the tower and mom and jess are going to take a cable car up. I'll take lots of pictures!
After that, we're meeting some more of her friends for dinner. Every meal is an experience, so I'm pretty excited.
I hope you are all doing well! Mom and I are having a blast here experiencing new cultures and experiences! Some of the sights are WONDERFUL and amazing and some are downright weird!
We still have four and a half more days of great times, and will keep you all updated!
:)
Haley