Always At Home

Where: Daegu, South Korea
When: April 2011

Believe it or not, the dog you see in this picture -- he's mine, by the way, and his name is Baldy -- was the third-largest dog in the my neighborhood in Daegu, which meant people reacted one of two ways, with very little in between: abject fear or unbridled curiosity. Thankfully, Seo Young (pictured) and her mom Mi Jin, who owned my favorite coffee shop in the city, fell into the latter category. Quick thing about the coffee culture in Daegu: There are tons of coffee shops but (unless things have changed) they don't open until 10 or 11 a.m.; those in need of an energy boost before a typical 75-hour Korean workday settle for coffee in a can. As for me, with a work schedule that didn't begin until mid-afternoon, I would somehow crawl out bed for my first walk with Baldy around 10:30, after which we'd stop at Mi Jin's shop, At Home, for my normal breakfast: bagel with cream cheese, cafe mocha and two complimentary bags of mini pretzels -- one for me, one for Baldy. OK, so make that our normal breakfast.