The Korean Cafe

Photos by Michael Masulli

I'm writing this from my third cafe of the day. Cafes are plentiful in Korea, no matter how small your town is. There are literally streets of them, one after another (just like the beauty stores here!). It probably doesn't help that Gongju is a university city, so someone is always looking for coffee and a place to study or hang out with friends. It's one of my favourite things about living in Korea, second only to cheese hotteok. 

Cafes are the social gathering place. First date? Cafe. Thirtieth date? Cafe. Studying? Cafe. Bored? Cafe. They're cheap, and plentiful (but seriously, they're cheap. I can get a panini (with a ton of Camembert!) for all of 7, 000 won). Which is what I do, every Sunday. My weekend routine usually starts off at Comma, enjoying my honey camembert panini and catching up on my favourite blogs or watching Dr. Who (or since that ended, BBC's Sherlock) with some friends. Then we do our grocery shopping for the week, and head to Gongju National University to take my blog photos. I'm so lucky Mike found me on the bus my first week in Gongju.

It was really funny, because him and Joe were super noisy, and I wasn't really paying attention when I first got onto the bus from Yugu to Gongju. All I heard was English being spoken behind me. Ghosts, right? Apparently, Joe kept asking Mike who I was, that day, but no one knew. For the record, Joe and Mike are my usual photographers. We all live within a block of each other, and we're always on the bus together (we all work in Yugu, so...), so it's hard not to be good friends.

Unfortunately, Mike is leaving us next month after our vacation to Japan and Taiwan. So sad (but I'm going to visit him once he's moved to Japan. Haha sucker's gonna have to give me a place to stay, and take pictures of me!). I don't know what's happening with Joe, as his contract is also ending in a month, so who's going to take photos of me?! All the more reason to find myself a photographer boyfriend for the rest of my time here I guess. I'll try and take a lot during my time in Japan and Taiwan (we all have winter camps, so we've been too busy to take photos lately), and tour around Korea more so I can tell you about everything there is to do (and by do, I really mean eat), here.

Anyways, back to Korean cafes. You don't just drink coffee at a cafe. For starters, there are themed cafes. Cat cafes, dog cafes, there's even a sheep cafe! Blankets, books and magazines, and board games are also provided at many cafes. Some even have video games! As I'm writing, there's a group of girls chatting (girls' day?) and a couple playing board games. I'm going to miss this back in Calgary. 

Sweater: Aritzia (similar here)

Skirt: (similar here)

Boots: Sam Edelman (similar here)

Watch: Michael Kors