Cats and New Piercings...Another Weekend Conquered

I've lived in Korea for over seven months.  Seven months!  I can't believe it!  Time passes so quickly.  Anyway, here's a breakdown of last weekend...just in time for this weekend :)

Maria, Diane and I journeyed to Hongdae with intentions of visiting a cat cafe.  (More on that later.)  Maria also wanted to get her ear pierced because the hole in her left lobe had closed.  We meandered through the streets, window shopping and looking for the piercing parlor about which Maria had read online.  Piercings in Korea are great.  First, they're super cheap.  At The Crow (the small shop is right next to Lush in Hongdae if you're interested, and even if you're not :) ) Maria paid 2,000 won ($1.75) to get her ear pierced and an additional 1,000 won ($0.75) for the earring!  Crazy! And there were walls upon walls of earring from which to choose.  Also, because body art is still somewhat taboo, you see some real interesting characters in and around piercings shops.  I could people watch there all day long!  When the time comes to get down to business, they don't mess.  It's in and out, real fast.

Anyway, as Maria was getting her ear pierced, Diane and I were feeling... inspired.  Just last week, we had both talked about wanting to get our ears pierced and I've really been missing my nose ring lately.  So, it happened.  New piercings for everyone!  It turned out that Maria's ear was, in fact, still pierced, but now she has a shiny new earring...  Diane got her cartilage pierced and I conquered the tragus (the little flap on your ear close to your cheek) on my left ear.  I couldn't believe how quickly everything happened.  I told the woman I wanted my tragus pierced, I picked out a seafoam green barbell stud and was led to a bench.  The most adorable Korean girl with ripped black tights, combat boots, t-shirt, big pink hair bow and clear plastic braces (!) pierced my ear.  Not only was she adorable and nice but she was the best piercer I've ever had!  Whenever I'd gotten my nose pierced, it felt like it took forever to happen, between the needle being inserted and the ring being put in.  This time, I kept waiting for it to hurt but it never did, which was extra surprising because I've always heard tragus piercings are very painful.  Nice.

After our piercings, lunch, finding a pharmacy to buy the required cleaning ointment and a quick dash into Baskin Robbins (I had blueberry aloe vera ice cream.  I know it sounds weird but it was oh so delicious :) ), we found our way to Tom's Cat Cafe.  Here's the deal:  immediately upon removing our shoes (my socks had dogs on them...ironic?) and getting doused with hand sanitizer, we paid an entrance fee that also included one free drink.  Then we were led to a table and told to put our belongings into white bags to protect them from kitty mischief.  Then, a girl with impeccable English explained the rules.  The cats with red ribbons were kittens so we weren't supposed to pick them up and carry them.  Cats with blue ribbons around them were mean and should be left alone.  If a cat didn't have a ribbon around its neck, we were free to pet it, play with it, pick it and carry it...you name it.  So, we sipped fruit smoothies and played with cats for a couple of hours before dinner.  No big deal.  Totally normal.  There were between 15 and 20 cats roaming the cafe at any given time and let me just tell you, people watching at this cat cafe was almost more entertaining than the cats.

Cats sitting on the counter, supervising the drink preparation...no big deal.

We named some of the cats...  Behold:

Feisty kitty.

Tired kitty.

Aloof kitty.

Latte art kitty.

Aside from the whole situation being a little weird, it was a really fun atmosphere.  All around the third floor cafe were several types of perches on which the cats could hang out.  It was super clean and cute, but the idea that these cats just roam around the cafe all days sort of weirds me out...  Maybe it's because I'm more of a dog person.  Maybe it's because I wouldn't want a cat watching me make a latte...  I don't know...

At my language exchange the next day, Yeeseul was telling me that there are all sorts of different kinds of niche cafes like this in Korea: dog cafes, dress cafes in which you essentially play dress up as you drink coffee, cakes/cupcake/dessert cafes and there were others that obviously didn't leave a lasting impression on me because I can't think of any more examples...  I love how the idea of cafes in Korea is so new but once the idea caught on, it spread like wildfire in every possible direction.

Also, Bob's birthday is Sunday, and since I probably won't blog again until next week, Happy 65th Birthday, Sir!  I hope you have a magical day!

P.S. Thanks to Diane for letting me pilfer her pictures :)