2012 Korea Open (Pt I)

Update already!? Yeah, I think I will try to update more often but shorter posts, instead of the incredibly long post once in a while! Something like a longer Facebook status, but with pictures. I think every blog post needs some kind of media, so unless I find a picture or video, I probably won't write anything. Anyway, let's get started :)

I flew on the 30th from Vancouver and would arrive in Incheon on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately for me, jetlag got the best of me and I fell asleep long before it turned into the New Year. I finally got to upgrade to business class, as the last few times were unsuccessful, but it was a pleasant flight even though it was like, 12 hours. I had a lot of food and watched a lot of movies, including The Change Up, Puss In Boots, and Driver (or was it Drive)... anyway, my favorite movie had to be The Change Up... mainly because of Olivia Wilde heheheh...

A wonderful snack in Business Class on Air Canada

Soft fluffy clouds!

So there hasn't been too much happening. The tournament is about to start so it's just practice here and there and hanging out in our own hotel rooms. We aren't staying at the tournament hotel, as Kim was able to find us a cheaper place closer to the stadium. We can actually walk there, but it's quite cold outside. Only Grace and I are here at the moment, but Alex and Michelle will arrive tonight.

Main Venue

Practice courts

Well, that's pretty much the end of part one... or is it?! Let's have a little fun and do some Korean product review :)

This first product is pretty much like a Febreeze air freshener, although you can also spray your clothes and other things. It's also endorsed by Kim Yuna and costed about $4.50 CAD for 500ml of spray. It smells pretty nice and a few of us Canadian players are already pretty big fans about the spray. Definitely beats deodorant spray hahaha... definitely a product I will buy again if I can.

On the left, we have Pocari Sweat, a popular sports drink from Asia. On the right, we have a lychee apple juice by Minute Maid. The Pocari Sweat has a grapefruit-like flavor and is quite light. It's good to chug as it doesn't feel like you have a mouth full of sugar after you drink a lot of it, unlike Gatorade and the odd Powerade. The Minute Maid juice is pretty standard, but the flavor is quite rare and it tastes pretty good, especially mixed with a bit of soju hahaha =P

Both drinks are just drinks that contain a lot of Vitamin C, if anything 10x your recommended daily allowance (RDA in Canada). The one on the left is uncarbonated while the one on the right is. The flavor is actually really good, as it's quite lemony, but not super sour. As it contains 1000mg of Vitamin C, I'm pretty sure you don't want to drink more than a bottle a day. However, it's just awesome as it puts Vitamin Water to shame. The Vitamin Water here doesn't even give you 100% RDA of Vitamin C in a 500ml bottle.

This is a really good instant noodle flavor, introduced to me by Lee Haeng Ham the last time I came to Korea. It's like a clearer soup broth but with a jalapeno spiciness to it, so it is actually spicy. The noodles from Paldo are similar, but these instant noodles are actually a pretty decent quality. Definitely recommend it if you can find it. I think it's called "kko kko myeon".

This is a yogurt drink from the brand "Maeil" (I think it means... "mae-il" or 'everyday') which happens to also be endorsed by Kim Yuna. I don't know if I bought it because I wanted the yogurt, or because I wanted... uh... the box? =P Anyway, I got 8 bottles for about 5000 KRW (~$4.50 CAD), with 4 plain and 4 apple. Unfortunately, I prefer their regular yogurt as I feel this drink is a little to thin.

Korean pears! A must to have in Korea as they are super sweet and super juicy :) They also have different qualities though with the cheaper ones costing about 1000 KRW (~$0.90 CAD) each, but going up to maybe 3000-4000 KRW (~$2.70-$3.60 CAD) each.

Of course, I went and bought some more fabric softener / dryer sheets. I will buy more later, as I don't want to carry it everywhere with me, but since I saw this as the last box and it was a limited Christmas Edition, I kinda just bought it without thinking. Wow, guess that's the 3rd item I bought blindly from Kim Yuna. Guess those adds really work hahaha... Regardless, the sheets do smell really nice and makes whatever you use them for smell really nice too. Definitely recommended.

Last but not least, these are chocolate wafers from Korea that are really good! They are very light wafers with chocolate inside at just the right ratio, so it tastes quite spectacular for a chocolate cookie. They are called "Choco Hime" in Korean. They also have ones with white chocolate instead, called "White Hime" and is in a blue box instead. A box of 15 costs about 3000-4500 KRW, so that's about $2.70-4.05 CAD per box.

So that's it for my quick product review. I might add more later but I guess we'll see... until next time!

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