Wednesday, February 20, 2013

daegu 2.0



I was just about to wish everyone a happy February when I realized we only have a week of it left - why is that no one told me that it would fly by so fast? Between returning from Bali at the end of Jan, celebrating Lunar New Year with my mom's side of the family, and turning twenty-five (wait, what?!), this month has felt like a kid on rollerskates going down a hill. NO BRAKES.

Bali photos will have to wait! There are too many and I wanted to get these ones up before the end of the month so, here goes. I promise the Bali post(s) will be up after the Garosu one.

At the end of January, we said goodbye to two of our family members: EmJem and Nate. Farewells were bittersweet - we got to say goodbye to Em by spending five days with her in Bali, and Nate we were lucky enough to see at the airport, as we were returning from our trip and he was leaving for his adventure in Thailand. They are dearly, dearly missed, and our first get together without them this past weekend certainly wasn't the same. However, we still had fun, and Saturday evening we venue-hopped our hearts out in their honor.

We congregated in Daegu for our Ginna from Jinju, whose beautiful illustration & mixed media piece had been published in the February issue of [b]racket magazine, a small Daegu-based art publication started by three expats there. It was also a pseudo-celebration of my birthday the week before, but there's something about celebrating your birthday when it isn't your birthday - it's not your birthday! I was happy enough just being in the company of my friends.

We did a bit of city exploring by day and discovered an alleyway of abandoned mannequin parts. Of course I was over-excited about the find - how often do you get to see something creepy-cool like this?

Tay doing what he does best: laying on vertical benches
Fall in down ... banana? Huh?
Basement cafe called Coffee Factory
Kung Fu Panda goes to Arizona
Ginna Lambert, page 22!
Enjoyed the colors in this piece by Kristopher Kotcher
Kevin & Map, No. 17
What in the world?! Just nappin' on a corner..
In yellow it reads, "Good Design"
A little piece of Bali in Daegu... of course we had to stay here!
Whoa. Could come in handy for something like this
Yue Minjun, is that you?

We had dinner at The Holy Grill, where we treated our buds to some nachos, burgers, Philly cheesesteak, and Mexican bibimbap.

Taylor pointed out that the framed painting was the original cover of Cervantes' Don Quixote (which I happen to be reading) - we looked it up and he was right! Done by Picasso.

And then while I went to use the restroom, this happened. Props to Jaimes for lugging over these banana bread bears from Sancheong! I have great friends.

Haha nice shot of the makeshift cake
We walked into this bar, a favorite of Kev's, sat down for thirty seconds, and walked out. The place unfortunately smelled of sewer that night.

We opted for this place instead - does it look familiar? Turns out it was the same basement dive we had been at for Jaimie's birthday! Remember the spot with the scribbles and serve-yourself beer and the golden retriever? Beer Factory.

Haha Erick and his faces!
First sucessful "candid" of the Tay! Wowza.
Knocking back a cold one
The lady  of the evening

It was then time to migrate to Urban Lounge Bar, which was hosting the [b]racket party.
The event itself was an interesting mix of (mostly) expats and Koreans, with a playlist which wasn't to our liking but was certainly a throwback to the early 2000s, and other fares: raffle draws, darts, and evenutally some live music.

Eoin had a go at the darts against Taylor
Discussing strategy perhaps
This sweet girl had a soulful voice, pleasing to the ears.

We topped off the night with some makgeolli and anju at Makgeolli 3000, and some dancing at a nightclub (!) nearby.

We witnessed this interesting fashion statement in line at the club - three foxtails on one Korean boy.

The following morning, we ate our fill (hanjeongsik-style), discussed ideas over coffee, and said our goodbyes.

Jaimie had her key copied and Kevin his shoes polished in this little booth.

I met up with Kevin in Seoul the following Monday, where he showed me around a super cool neighbourhood.. the post of which is up next!


No comments: