Mexican and other foreign things in Seoul

i did get cool shades today, but these aren't them. these are the cool shades that katie got.
coffee bean coffee. (l-r: katie, eunice, esther)

our plates at the vietnamese restaurant were all women in these great poses. we did our best to imitate it. :)
YUM. go vietnam!
the Mexican restaurant didn't even have Korean on the Menu. it was entirely in English. where am i?
good ol' korean style mexican: Poncho's
they celebrate st. patrick's day in seoul, by the way. well, at least the non-koreans were.
real chips. real salsa. real burritos and tacos.

Somehow I had been under the impression that there was not Mexican food in Korea. I was wrong. On Saturday, my Korean friends (Katie, Eunice, Esther) went with me to Seoul with me seeking Mexican food. The funniest part was that none of them had ever had it before. Try explaining a taco to someone who doesn't speak English. And, they kept saying, "this is so spicy, it's such a different kind of spicy". It was quite amusing, considering that korean food is some of the spiciest food i've ever had. To me, the food hit the spot I had so badly been craving (because, let's face it, all the kimchi in the world will not satify one's need for salsa). As for my korean posse, they say they liked it, but i'm not so sure that they loved it.

A word about the neighborhood of Ietaewon. This area is where we ate the Mexican food. It's an area I had heard much about, but had never been to before. But apparently, this is where every other non-korean in Korea migrates to. I had heard it referred to as "the little america" of Seoul. But, i was not prepared for the culture shock. I've been in Korea for 6 months and have seen maybe a total of 50 non-koreans over that time. In Ietaewon, I counted 50 in about 15 minutes. I confess, I resented all the foreigners. I kept saying, who are these people, why are they all in Seoul? It was fun to see so many familiar american old-faithfuls (Hard rock cafe, Burger king, Quizno's, etc...) but, the people i could have done without. because, though i miss a thousand things about america, obnoxious drunk american military boys shouting profanities out of a bar is not one of them. i kept apologizing to my friends.
after our mexican lunch, we did vietnamese for dinner. we could have chose anything. within one block, we saw french, thai, indian, american, mexican... i honestly didn't feel like i was in korea. actually, it felt a lot like london for some reason. and honestly, i wasn't ready for all the unkorean things. it made me feel weirdly violated or something.