What a Hip Cafe: Caffe Pompi

So this is a new blog feature all about cafes in Korea. If you are unaware, as I was before coming to Korea, cafes are a huge part of Korean life! So let's get into the first of hopefully many editions of... What a Hip Cafe!

So our first Cafe is Caffe Pompi located in Ajungli, just off the main drag across from Hyundai. It's tucked just off the main road allowing for a nice calm environment to sit for hours and do some work.

Aside from having a good environment, the decor and service are awesome. When you get your coffee you also get homemade sunflower seed cookies. How do you know they are homemade? Because if you sit there long enough, like I did, you start smelling the cookies baking. You can even see the girl behind the counter making them if it's a slow time of day. The cups are adorable with the pops of color, kind of like those velvet pictures from the 70's that you would color in with felt tip markers. Are those still around? If so I want one.

On to the Decor! Let's start with my faves, the hand painted walls. Of course I am in love with this painting in particular because...well...it's the little prince, and if you know nothing of me you should know that my love for vintage thing is only surpassed by Le Petit Prince.

Another lovely painting is the name of the cafe on the wall just below a collection of goodies they serve here; makes me want a french press so badly!

I really like the layout of the cafe too, right as you walk in there is a little patio so in the warmer months you can sit outside and enjoy the neighborhood. Too cold to enjoy at the moment but once warmer weather comes around, I tell ya!

Oh, and probably the most exciting part of the cafe is something that would NEVER happen in the states, manicure station. Not only do they have nail polish, remover, and little nail goodies; but they let you use it for free and without "supervision". One of the coolest things about Korea is that they are all about the community so it's not that they trust you not to steal, it's that you just don't because then someone else won't benefit equally. Pretty neat right?
So of course I couldn't help but paint up my nails with a nice yellow and a bit of bling :D

Wicked stoked to go back and do my nails again...maybe tomorrow? We'll see. I have a long vegan stint coming up just for funsies and I am off to Japan on Friday!! I have more concepts for blog posts, so hopefully one a week I can do things like this. I mean, I go to enough cafes and take enough useless pictures of my coffee so why not?! Until next time, keep groovin' to the world.

-Sara

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First Phone Blog

Recently I have been finding that I use my computer less and less and use my phone more. Because of this I am going to try to keep up with my blog through my phone as well. So here is the first blog from my Galaxy Neo!! Not much in the way of excitement has happened since my last blog, though about half the family is now gone, super sad face to that. It has been a rough transition so far, and the 6 days without everyone has seemed like weeks. So to catch you up on the sadness lets go to the last week in January. We had a big goodbye gathering with the family on the 21st and 22nd. Then it was my dear friend Deanne's birthday on the 23rd. The only downside being it was Lunar New Years and most everywhere was closed and we were low on cash. So we found a cafe and had smoothies and honey bread... ...Followed by a dinner of snacks mekju and ramyun!

Fast forward to about a week later and it was my first short break. By day 2 I was going a little nuts after laying in my apt doing nothing. So my friend Yo and I had another epic adventure, this time with our friend Joon. I headed off to Bukdae, the college near both of our homes, and found a new favorite cafe called 10 gram. Super cute place, it has a tree in the middle of it and is a vintage lovers dream.

After YoHan and Joon came to the cafe it was about dinner time so we went to the vader burger place that you may recall from one of my earliest posts. Well I GUESS the name is Star Burger. Either way it was still delicious and we made a yummy mess!

After Star Burgers we went bombing around town to get some things printed for me, and then some dessert and drinks. There is a cafe, oddly enough directly across from 10 Gram, that serves cake and wine! So we stopped there but Joon had to run home to finish packing so Yo and I were left devour the goodness by our two-sies until our friends met up with us.

Fast forward again to about a week ago and I got the nicest care packages from my aunt, cousin, dad, and gram. Such a thoughtful thing to do, I am really grateful that they would send me a little slice of home during the winter season.

Not long after, most everyone left for the states. So now I am finding ways to occupy myself to keep from getting too sad. Mostly it just consists of sitting in coffee shops and getting personal work done.

Well that is the update for now. Check back in as soon as I can. I hope the world is treating you well.

~Sara