It's been a long week, and I've been working like 11 hour days at my school and coming home straight from work, so I was ready to get OUT this weekend. I didn't make any big plans, but I thought doing something outside would be nice. Originally, I had thought about hiking...but as it was so hot and so humid this week, I thought, veto, let's go swimming. My friend Hoonee and I arranged to meet up, I got a maple latte, and away we went.
I did not bring an umbrella, hoping my enthusiasm for the pool would surely ward off any rainclouds. It had already rained enough this week, right? Surely, it will not rain on my 1st day at a Korean pool. Surely not.
I get to Tteoksam Station a little bit early, browse around the environs...where I noticed some sort of mass community flea market going on under the subway. Koreans don't mess with tables or stalls though, they just place down hundreds of mats. Easier clean-up, right? I meander around a little bit and then head back to the station to wait for Hoonee. And what does it start doing? It starts raining. In fact, it starts pouring.
OK, no problem, I'm thinking, it's Asia, it's summer, this will pass in like 5 minutes. It takes a little longer than 5 minutes though. By the time Hoonee gets there, it has let up to a light sprinkle. We decide to go ahead and go for it. It's already downpoured once, so surely it can't downpour anymore.
We get changed and scope out our place on the pavilion. Here is what's interesting...there are no tables or chairs setting out...but there are hundreds of umbrellas and families just spread out mats underneath them. Many people had pop-up tents. Mind you, this is not because of the rain. This is because of the 1% of sunlight actually making it to earth. Koreans take skin care seriously.
So, we're girl-talking, because we haven't seen each other in a while and I have *so much good news!* They announce a swimming break, and we decide we'll get in after the break. Then what happens? MONSOON! Giant mutant raindrops start falling from the sky, and they are cold! We huddle under the umbrella to see if it lets up, but oh, it doesn't. Finally, we just decided to leave.
So again, my plans to be a Coppertone Kid are thwarted by rain. However, the cosmos seems in full support of me drinking endless amounts of espresso-based drinks.
After getting cleaned up, I headed up to Hanti to meet my friend Sui. Hanti is a neighborhood close to my school, but I don't explore it very often. Sui found a knit cafe the other day, and as we are both fans of yarn, it seemed like a promising activity. It was pretty cute. The decor was very relaxing AND the lady gave us free americanos. After 2 drinks there, we headed over to the Panda Cafe. I have heard Sui and Kristen talk for months about this Panda Cafe, so I was pretty excited. And it really is a cafe that loves pandas. There are panda signs and panda toys and panda seat cushions. The owner doesn't speak much English, but Sui goes there often enough that she knows everything about it. 
All in all, although swimming was a failure, getting coffee from the Pandaman definitely made up for it. I'm so excited to have such a cute cafe in my part of town!
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