birthdaegu

Of course I'm a whole month behind on posts.

The last weekend of September the crew reunited in Daegu for Jaimie's birthday. 

Need I say it? Fun times were had.  Duh.

Birthday girl and Erbear

Mini bling blingin'

Ginna checking out the prizes in the game machine Sean is so addicted to

Photobomb success

Crosswalk confusion

Konglish 101: "Born in Canada, Made in Italy"

I spy a man in that box

Up, down, and around - so much to see! Just as crazy as Seoul.

People watching is definitely a huge part of downtown Daegs. Tonnes of well-dressed and/or cool looking young things. Wish I'd gotten some street style shots.

Hey Mario.

Mopface 2.0! Sisters.

Good hair, bad hair.

This man looked like he walked straight out of a movie. He lit up a cigarette and let the smoke billow around him - sad I didn't catch a photo. (Too much eye contact and it got a little awkward.) Strangely enough, we had a second run-in with him after dinner.

Sunlit clouds are some of the most beautiful.

Then we started getting hangry. (For those who aren't in on this: hangry = hungry + angry. This happens a lot with us I've noticed - distracted with all the sights and then all of a sudden we realize we're starved. Also one of my students always says "Hangry!!!" with a pained expression as he rubs his stomach each time I ask the class "How are you doing today?") So we began our search for a place to eat. After giving a couple "Coffee + Spaghetti + Steak" cafes the pass, we found this spot:

Such a good random pick.

Can you say: yum??

Digging in

Bday girl at round one (that hair!)

Typical side dish aftermath.. tenfold. This is maybe half our table.

Ginna and giant hot pink backpack. Would be practical to lug life around in.

Jaimes and Nate being cute

Capturing a capture of a capture?

Don't you know by now that Kevin and maps go hand in hand?

Guess what we decided to do as a digestif? Or rather, where ballsy Taylor and Nathan creeped up to and naturally where the rest of us followed suit? The roped-off rooftop of a department store, where we were treated to bird's eye views of nighttime Daegu.

Yup.

So not allowed to be here

After getting our fill of delinquent rooftop hangs (so good, by the way), we ventured out to find a spot for round two. En route, we happened across some performances - some of which included a jazzy (singing) girl group, a funk dance duo, and this:

Mini "pungmul" performers! I swear we've seen a group of folk dancers at least once on nearly every trip I've been on in Korea.

We decided on a cafe that looked ambiguous from the outside, but was a gem on the inside.
Can anyone remember the name of it?

Checking out the cafe facade for signs of coolcatness.

White on white

Ominous next door neighbs.

We opted for the patio upstairs, but here's a view of the interior from outside.

Lucky Strikes were purchased and consumed.

View below.

Erick pondering as Tay reads poetry out of one of the cafe books.

Bday girl at round two.

Want an ice cream cone? Nope! You've got to wait a good five minutes first as he puts on a lengthy show of not giving it to you and scaring you instead.

After walking in and out of a couple bars (we're snobby like that), we finally settled on a grimy basement bar with scribbly walls, serve yourself beer, and an in-house golden retriever that pees on the floor.

Again, so good. And so inebriated by night's end. We had an island to ourselves and played King's Cup.

Choose what you want and bring the empties to the counter at the end of the night to settle the bill.

Check what's creeping in between Nate and Sean..

Ha!! By far funniest photo of the weekend.

Hilarious..

Hahaha Ginna

Cuddles!

D'awwee.. adorbs

The Korean beer repetoire

Bday girl at round three! Six bottles and counting...

The ceiling of one of the hotel rooms Jaimes booked for us.

The next morning we nursed our hangovers and hanger pangs with a late brunch at a Korean-style toast place. It took a while to get our orders - the wait wasn't fun but the food in the end was very satisfying.

Sitting on the escalator.. so hangry and tired.

The brunch spot we finally settled on: T morning.

These poor guys had to handle ten separate orders in a row

After brunch, we did a bit of vintage shopping (which is one of the many reasons I want to head back to this city for) and then headed over to the Daegu Photo Biennale (Photographic!). Some really great work here. Unfortunately for Sean and I, we had to catch a train for our program-sponsored cultural trip that afternoon, so our exhibit experience was cut short. Really bummed that we didn't manage to reach all the floors of the space.

Up?

Creepin' on Erick

Haha awkward portrait - the kind Erick hates the most (as you can see here, he ain't impressed).

In the midst of finding people in the multi-level gallery space to say our goodbyes, we hopped on a taxi too late, and with mid afternoon traffic to boot, Sean and I missed our train. We stepped out of our stationary cab and took the two stop subway ride back to the train station, got a semi-refund, and made our way to the bus terminal. Despite the headache, it all worked out in the end! We had a place to sleep in Gangneung (a city on the coast of Gangwon province where a large clump of scholars have been placed) and all the TaLK scholars who had congregated there trekked to the port together the following morning.

Snapped this as Sean and I literally ran towards a cab.. had to.

We had Indian for dinner as we waited for our bus at one of the more ghetto terminals I've seen. Legit.

Dokdo & Ulleungdo photos are up next!