December 21- Dr. Fish

Our agenda was pretty packed for today. So much to do, and so little time! Lyndsay was determined to keep us on schedule. She seems to think we get slightly side tracked when we’re in Seoul. Hum, wonder where she got that idea? Anyhow, try as she might, I still held us up a little bit. In my defense, I had too! Look what I saw in the subway tunnel?! A Salvation Army ringer! I couldn’t believe it! More and more in the Christmas spirit…
And look what I saw at our next stop! Two Korean Santa Clauses! Okay, are those two of the most pitiful, and skinny Santa’s you’ve ever seen, or what?
One of our first stops of the day (actually, there were a lot of inconsequential stops before then) was at Dr. Fish Café. This was certainly a café experience like none I’ve ever had, or ever hope to have again! It took a little searching, but we did finally locate it!
The inside was a lovely little café, decorated very femininely with twinkling lights and pretty shades of pink…
We ordered delicious peach and lemon teas and decadent Belgium waffles loaded with caramel sauce and cream…
We took pictures of each other…
We finally found a waitress who spoke enough English we were able to ask her to take a group picture for us….
Maybe I should give you a hint about what happened next. Does this plate help you any? (This is about to be so not funny.)
If not, maybe the “menu” will help you a little. And no, we're were not eating sushi.
The spa looks lovely, right?
First we had to wash our feet. I should mention now that this was all Lyndsay’s idea.
Then we moved on to…the fish tanks? Oh yes, that’s right. We were about to let hundreds of hungry fish go to town eating the dead skin off our feet.
They look all innocent and sweet now. What’s so scary about a school of fish? We can do this, right?
Don’t let them fool you! These fish were hungry! They clearly hadn’t been fed. Ever. In their entire lives. Our feet looked like juicy steaks to them! They went crazy! Attacking our feet from all directions as soon as we got up the nerve to actually put out feet in the water (which took several minutes, and false starts, counting to three, etc.).
C’mon, show me your fish faces!
I think this had to be one of the most unnerving things I’ve ever done. It’s so hard to physically force yourself to sit still and let these little fish eat away at you. It goes against every grain of self preservation you have. It doesn’t necessarily hurt. For the most part the best I can compare it to is hundreds of little cat tongues licking at your feet. Until one gets overly ambitious and pinches a little too hard. Ugh, it’s horrid! I think I’ll probably have nightmares about this for the rest of my life! I thought I could handle it, but I couldn’t. It took everything I had in me not to scream out in the middle of this very beautiful and peaceful café. Even still, as hard as I tried, I think I was trashing my feet around pretty violently. One fish went belly up, and I’m not entirely sure his demise wasn’t my fault.
These fish were very well trained. Or very hungry, which ever you look at it. As soon as your foot would begin to near the surface of the water, they’d begin schooling, and jumping, trying to start their feast.
Like my pretty Christmas red toes? I think they just made the fish madder, like waving a red flag in front of a bull. They were like a bull’s eye or something!
They actually started a timer for 15 minutes. None of us were brave enough to keep our feet in for the entire duration. I’ve never seen 3 ladies hop up from a pedicure so fast in my entire life as when that buzzer rang!
After our interesting experience at Dr. Fish, we set out to find Dos Tacos, a restaurant we’d heard about through the grapevine. I can’t believe that we actually found it, tucked away down some obscure alley, but we did! This picture makes me giggle, because the dos tacos arrow is pointing directly at Sarah’s belly, which looks like she’s merely swallowed two tacos, when she’s actually 6 months pregnant! I look like I swallowed a lot more than two tacos, and I definitely don’t have any bambinos on board!
Can you believe after that yummy Belgium waffle at Dr. Fish that we managed to squeeze even more food in our bellies? And why do I keep taking pictures of food everywhere we go? Bet this looks real appetizing if your reading my blog at 7am.
Sarah and Lyndsay stop to pose in front of a shopping plaza in Seoul all dressed up for the holidays. It’s so much fun to see Christmas lights here! You take them for granted in the states, but here it’s a comforting piece of home.