This week saw a flurry of social activity. The previous Saturday I ran into Chi Miggi, the personage behind the Swaypro parties, at a swank wine bar in the Itaewon back alley called Above. I never really had a proper conversation with her before so I sat down to join her for a drink. She was with a very entertaining Korean-American guy named Jun who was in k-pop band called GOD. Apparently it had been a year since he went somewhere without his bodyguard because he gets mobbed all the time. That drink turned into several drinks and eventually Jun left, a big entourage joined the party (complete with boytoys of differing sexual orientations) and we all ended up dancing the night away at Del's Disco.

The following Wednesday I caught up with my friend Jiwon at The Park restaurant where she was having a flea market. We ended up having dinner and I met her older son who lives in the states. His biceps are the size of my head. He's 16 going on 21. It was funny to see her two sons together. One big boy and one big baby. Her 3 month old is so big, he's wearing 1 year old boys clothes. He's a very cool baby. He never cries and he just kicks back observing life. His head and body are quite proportionate which is odd for a baby. Usually their heads are bigger than their bodies.

The following night there was a big Audi launch party, and the following night I had a SIWA Working Woman's dinner as well as a going away party for two veterans of Seoul. It was a big week.

This weekend, we went out to the Pentaport Rock Festival to check out the Black eyed Peas. It was raining cats and dogs on friday so we didn't go to see Jason Mraz and the Yeah yeah Yeahs. When we arrived on Saturday, the entire field was a mud pit. It was like the Boryeong mud fest all over again! It felt like you were stepping in quicksand. However we discovered an amazing band from Japan called Dragon Ash. Their music is a mix of just about everything. Hip Hop, Punk, R and B... After seeing them play, we concluded that the lead singer is super hot. He kind of looks like someone that would be in a Mexican gang, but he's still hot. A chubby Korean guy performed after that named PSY. He was good, but we wanted an encore of Dragon Ash. The Black eyed Peas put on an incredible show! They are superstars through and through. They did alot of improve raps and Fergie was doing one handed cartwheels on stage in her skimpy outfits. Quite impressive..

On a very sad note, a person I knew who was on the local DJ/ party promo scene died of cancer on monday. I'm not sure how old he was, but he was less than thirty years old for sure.
A few weeks ago, he had stomach pains and thought he pulled something. He got diagnosed with cancer and the doctors told him he had a month to live. He died 3 weeks later with not much suffering fortunately.
On the day of his funeral, the sky opened up to a torrential rain. I had a Penataport Rock ticket giveaway at Bar Nana in Itaewon and that was his favorite place to spin. His parents came. It was very sad.

I always think about dying and it scares the crap out of me BUT, it's the one thing all of us are destined to do. I think that's why I try to have a positive outlook most of the time. It's really not how you die, but how you live. So try to live your dreams, make people around you happy and don't spend time hating on others or worrying about trival things that don't matter. Forgive people who hurt you and let the past go. The most important thing is living the moment to the fullest extent possible and appreciating what you have instead of moaning about what you don't have.

Here are a few photos from Pentaport.

Biarritz is one of Europe's legendary surf spots and the wedding crew decided to head out to the Pays Basque for a week of party with all the cronies. We were originally on the way to Dubrovnik, but ditched the idea to hang out with friends instead. Biarritz is located in the South-West of France, so it's away from all the glitz and glamour of the Cote D'Azur and Provence. This area has it's own distinct style. There are alot of old buildings that look like haunted houses. It's kind of tudor-style, you know the buildings that have towers on the sides? I kept imagining Rapunzel up there in one of the towers waiting to let her hair down. It's weird to see all these bohemian surfers camping out in their vans with these haunted house buildings in the background.

Anyway we had a blast catching up with our friends and making some new ones as well. It was truly a week of bonding and togetherness. We drank alot of rose wine by the sea, tried our hand at sufing and boogie boarding and did a fair share of beach-bumming and shopping. We even got to go to Spain one day for tapas and a raid the big ZARA shop! It was really sad when we left. Everyone was in front of the car waving goodbye. Good times eventually turn into good memories, but it all goes by too quickly doesn't it?

Even though my supposed 'holiday' was filled with all kinds of manual labor (like hemming drapes and lugging tiles from the DIY shop in 100 degree heat) My husband finally got to town and we had a week of pure vacation!
My husband was a groomsman at his best friend's wedding. They live south in Toulouse, where just about everyone works for Airbus Industries. It's a very hip place and it was even mentioned recently in Newsweek as a great example of a small city. There were alot of art galleries, vintage clothing stores and Indian or Arabic looking places where you could smoke hooka pipes. The wedding took place at this old French church and afterwards the bride and groom rode off in and extremly cool vintage Aston Healy. Alot of the girls were wearing fancy hats and I had hat envy!
The reception was in an old family famhouse the the middle of the countryside. We had to drive through massive fields of sunflowers to get to our pension. Our pension used to be a convent and there was a long gravel driveway leading up to the house. There was an English garden and the swimming pool had endless views of the Pyrenees. The lady that ran the place treated us like guests in her home. We had freshly squeezed juice and warm croissants every morning.
The sun sets around 10pm these days in France and the long days are so amazing. Imagine sipping champange in the dusk of twilight with all these glamourously tanned people dressed in their wedding best. There was so much love and hapiness in the air, however the groom did look somewhat dazed by it all. The party continued till the wee hours and ended with all the boys sopping wet from being thrown into the pool. We left at 6AM just in time to catch the first rays of dawn.

I'm back from France! It was amazing, enchanting, romantic but it was one of those vacations that you need a vacation from. Plus there was a severe heatwave and the old-fashioned Frenchies don't really believe in airconditioning. There weren't enough people in the hospitals to take care of all the people who were suffering from the heat! It was in this infernal chaleur that I had to do all the decorating and renovation for our new apartment next to the legendary Notre Dame chuch in Paris. I spent a solid week with my in-laws trying to get by with my rudimentary French. After several days with my brother-in -law doing 'DIY' stuff for the flat, I think my French really improved! Plus my brother-in-law is now very motivated to learn English so he can pick up American tourists at Notre Dame......
One day we spent 15 hours buying an IKEA kitchen, drapes,beds, and all the electronic stuff needed around the house. By some superhuman feat, we manged to fit an entire kitchen into the trunk of my Brother in-law's car!
I'm not going to lie, these situations can be very stressful and I was radically irritated quite a few times, but I think at the end of the day, I was closer to my in-laws because of it.
I don't know if it's because my French has improved wildly, but these days I find French people to be much much friendlier than before. It's a village feel. Everyone says hi to each other and tries to make small talk. It's a good atmosphere. However in Paris, there's still alot of frustrated people. Things take alot of time. You get stuck in traffic,taxis are immpossible to find, deliveries take time, there's alot of red tape in general. You really have to kiss people's asses to get anything done. In business, alot of people don't want to go the extra mile because most of their salary is going to the govt. in any case. Needless to say, there are alot of three hour lunch breaks going on. Other nationalities may find this inefficient, but French people call it 'enjoying life' or having a good quality of life.

Whatever it is, Paris is pure magic. It's hands down the most romantic city in the world. Every building is a monument or museum and the government is really vigilant about keeping the city clean and liveable. All though the month of august, the city of Paris can enjoy Paris Plage, an artifical beach that spans the Seine river. There's a pool, cabanas, volleyball tournaments and they bring in all this artifical sand so you can feel like you're at the beach. It's soooo cool! If anyone wants to rent our luxury apartment in Paris, it will be for rent as of august 17th and it's close to every attraction imaginable. You can walk out of the flat and have Paris plage at your feet. You can even see the gargoyles from Notre Dame from our kitchen and you can hear the belles ringing! There's shopping, cafes, restaurants. It's really an incredible location.
contact me at seoulstylenews@yahoo.com if you would like to rent the flat for a week or so and I will give more details.

On a small side note, I must say I was really surprised at how chic and stylish all the old ladies were in Paris. Many were slim and had really imaginative yet elegant outfits on. Not one of them had a perm nor a visor and everyone had a unique and individual style. Some were even sexy! I will definetly not be taking the ajuma look with me into my old age. (Sorry Korea) For that, the Frenchies are the best!