An Ode to ArtBox

I have decided to dedicate an ENTIRE blog entry to Korean stationary because I LOVE IT SO MUCH and I CAN'T EVEN DEAL WITH HOW CUTE IT ALL IS!!!! I have always been a fan of handwritten letters, but once my friend showed me this place, it was game over.

ArtBox is a magical place from heaven.

It's a four-storey paradise that contains so much sweet and cute and adorable and lovely that my heart is filled with joy when I'm there. It isn't puke-cute, it's happy-cute. It focuses on celebrating love and friendship. Although they have tons and tons and tons of great stuff (home decor/art supplies/office supplies/toys/bath supplies/gifts/trinkets etc), I have completely fallen in love with the writing paper. I usually don't even like shopping, but I could spend hours and hours at ArtBox.

Here are some snaps from inside this creative paradise.

First, let's talk about the stationary itself. OMGGGGGGG! So precious and lovely and hilarious.
Each letter set contains heartfelt messages such as:

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Love is something eternal. The aspect may change but not the essence.

On this day I want you to know that you are a very special person.

You are the rainbow of my life. Being with you makes me feel so happy.

and 

Please know that I love you more than anything else in the world.

There are insanely cute cards that you can color. Duck envelopes with bow tie stickers. Little bunnies you can write on. And tons and tons and tons of love-themed things.

I also discovered that ArtBox has these hilaaaaarious and random stickers and I WANT TO PUT THEM ON EVERY SURFACE. The Korean translations are hilarious. The little sticker folks are saying things like "Tiger Power!", "I'm already doing nothing but I still don't want to do anything" and "Laser vision! Must buy!"

Obviously we're excited to go here.

Now that I've essentially opened Shila's Korean Stationary Workshop (I feel like Santa's little elf or something), I often wander into Moseulpo, the closest town nearby, and sit in this cozy cafe to write. On my way back to campus I swing into the post office. The guy there knows me now and even though he has zero English, he says "Canada?" when I hand him my stash.

It's a really lovely way to spend my time (and the lattes are to die for). Sometimes I also just set up camp in my room and write.

And even though the international snail mail takes ages and ages (upwards of 3-4 weeks sometimes), I think it's worth it. It makes me happy to have so many pals to write to and I think it makes them happy too!

 

And to those of you who have taken the time to write- THANK YOU!!!! I have gotten mail from both expected and unexpected places which is super fun.

A special shout out to my love Rory for being amazing and sending me a couple care packages, especially when my hunger level was getting dire. Rory is very great because he sent both the delish things I was missing as well as some very practical snack choices like beef jerky (protein, thank god), and cliff bars.

Chengcheng also gets endless gold stars for being the bestest friend and sending me exactly what I needed most: fuzzy peaches and my fave chocolate. The description of this parcel is THE BEST!

As you may recall (because it's just SO easy to memorize), here is my current address:

Shila LeBlanc

Korea International School (L214) 34 Global Edu-ro 260beon-gil, 

Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, 63644

(my postal code has been updated but the old one will totally work)

If you weren't previously sold about writing me a letter, I hope that this post inspires you to join the train because your response from me will be hella cute.

In conclusion:

Busan

About a month ago we had our first vacation. I was VERY excited to see more of Korea since my only time on the mainland was during our connecting flight to Jeju. We went to Busan and it was, as expected, TOTALLY gorgeous! We spent the majority of our time scheming what to eat next, seeing the sights, and leaving lots of time for lattes and SpaLand. Here are some highlights of our time there.

The flight to Busan is a tiny one-hour jaunt. Here we are at the gate.

One of our biggest goals was to find Lush. Busan has one of the largest shopping malls, it is GIGANTIC, so it took some searching to find the place. I am a HUGE Lush fan, and to find my favourite magnaminty mask in all it's glory here in Korea was a massive highlight.

We went to the aquarium. I saw some African penguins which was mildly depressing considering I'd seen them in the wild in Simon's Town, South Africa a couple years ago. These little otters were awfully cute though!

Eek! An eel!

I couldn't get over the zillions of Korean kids in their matching jumpsuits.

Here is our lovely hostel. Blake and I were bunkmates and his feet didn't hang off the end. A Korean miracle!

We went to the Museum of Modern Art. I know nothing about art but appreciate looking at it nonetheless.

It's pretty common to see hilarious English translations. Mr. Dutch, for the record, is a coffee shop.

Busan at night!

We visited two temples. The first one, Beomeosa Temple, was very old and VERY cool to see. It was originally built in 678!

                         

The fortress of doom and Blake's twin.

That very same day, we decided to check out this massive fortress wall that runs for 18km around a mountain. It was... a challenging time. We were massively underprepared (no food, no water, no map), so we wandered aimlessly deep in the woods for quite some time. We were all getting a little hangry (hungry + angry) and the amount of stairs and hills were ungodly in our compromised state. We did, however, make it to this lookout, which gave us quite the view of the city.

Post-hike we got back to civilization and DEVOURED some stale fast food that was in hindsight gross but our hunger transformed it into the best meal we'd had in ages. That very same day (it was a busy one) we made it to Yonggungsa Temple as well. This temple was unique because it's on the water. It took a lot of transit time to get there but it was well worth it.

THAT VIEW THOUGH

I really enjoyed this little nook.

Finally, to wrap up a longggggg day of transit (and millions of stairs), we came to Busan's downtown area to check out the famous Busan bridge.

The lights change to the K pop songs being played.

We finished the night off with some drinks in a hilarious little convenience store.

After a good sleep, we set out again. This is Haeundae beach, which was a few minutes from our hostel.

We also did a MASSIVE trek to try and find my favourite stationary store. The streets were packed and crazy and winding and it was intense. SENSORY OVERLOAD!

Last but not least, we visited a place which I would say is the equivalent of heaven on earth. We spent quite a bit of time there. This dreamy place is called SpaLand <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Let me tell you about SpaLand.

First of all, it's BEAUTIFUL. SpaLand is a place that I wish existed in every single city. I hate CNN but this article is very accurate about it being Korea's craziest spa. For roughly $15, you can do a whole bunch of saunas and baths and relax and wear these weird pjs and eat and it's HEAVEN. HEAVEN!!!

It was my first time ever doing the Korean baths and Kat and I were originally pretty awkward about being ass-naked in a room full of Korean women. I'm a pretty avid skinny dipper but it was a little daunting. The room was huge and filled with people bathing in pools of various types/temperatures.

I stood out for a handful of reasons, mainly: being a foreigner, having many tattoos, having piercings, having visible leg hair, and for being a size 12.

It kind of felt like everyone did this:

And I was like:

But it was fine, whatever. Within 10 minutes of soaking I was wayyyy over it. Kat and I did a lot of bonding after being naked together for days. There were also these OUTRAGEOUS chairs that would give you a 15-minute full body massage for only $2. The first time around was a little alarming since it seriously locks in all your limbs and squeezes your entire body. But once I realized it wasn't going to kill me, it was THE BESSSST. Here's what it was like (minus the hat thingy). CRAZY RIGHT?!

We used those a lot.

They even had bingsu, aka Korean ice cream. HEAVEN.

It was, as you may have guessed, an excellent trip :)