Let Sleeping Lions Lie

Still recovering from my recent stint with "bronchitis," I had a fairly easygoing weekend. On Saturday, the J-man and I went to the zoo. Unfortunately, we woke up at 3 so by the time we got there it was already 5:30, and they kicked us out at 6:30. Also, by that time most of the animals had already gone back inside their enclosures and were fast asleep. So we resolved to return again at a later weekend. But from what we did see, the Seoul Zoo, located about 3 subway stops away from Pyeongchon (at Seoul Grand Park), was awesome.

Here's an awkward picture of me, squinting into the sun as it sets.

There was also this giant tiger, in honor of the year of the tiger, at the entrance. Someone got a picture on its paw so when that picture is uploaded I will steal it and put it up here.

Here are some of the animals we were able to see:

Since many of the animals were in their enclosures, it was hard to photograph them because of the thickness and opacity of the glass. However, I had to snap the lions because they were fast asleep and looked adorable. For some reason we could only see male lions (we assumed they separated the males and females, what with it being mating season and all).

This guy was twitching. He was probably dreaming about chasing a zebra.

The area all around the zoo was pretty and with the sun setting around us, I couldn't resist taking some of these pictures:

There's also an amusement park called Seoul Land nearby so perhaps there shall be a later all-day visit to this "Grand Park."

Not wanting to waste the lovely weather of last weekend, we spent Sunday searching for a supposed river not far from my apartment building. I had heard about this potential river from my friend, La Toya, so I checked on a map and sure enough there it was. 

It's nice to know this place exists in Pyeongchon. One thing that is a little bit stifling about Seoul and its surroundings is the lack of nature. There is a park, dubbed Central Park, which I pass through on my way to work, but it's mainly concrete. This river will be a nice getaway or place to run when I'm feeling overwhelmed by the city.

Wow, I went that long without talking about food. So here it is: we tried out a Thai place called Buddha's Belly located in Itaewon. It was awesome. Spicy, but awesome. Then, as we were walking back to the subway, we saw this cute cafe called Bella's Homestay. It was filled with random American nostalgia items like Cambell's soup and maps of the US. I ordered a hot chocolate with marshmallows and we split Bella's homemade chocolate cake.

The menu looked like a scrapbook.

It was a nice little diversion and another excuse to consume chocolate.
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We also saw Clash of the Titans on Sunday but that was decidedly meh.

Week 6 is upon us, which means we are halfway through the term. And pay day is this Friday! Whoopee!