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It is raining - pee-gah oh-neh-yo 비가 오네요
Carpe The Hell Out Of The Diem |
Candace Kimi Sakamoto
캔데스 키미 사카모토 カンデス きみ 坂本 |
I am finally paying for all the gorgeous weather I enjoyed during my stay here in Korea. It began raining yesterday afternoon and when I woke up this morning it is still pouring rain (and is forecast to still be raining tomorrow) /sigh. Since it was raining I slept in then bundled up to go fetch breakfast from somewhere outside. Dunkin Donuts is a HUGE chain here in Korea for some reason. My friend even said she had originally thought DD was a Korean chain haha since it's so popular here and not so much in America. It's like Starbucks; they're everywhere! I finally caved and got breakfast there (I've been trying to avoid chains I can find at home and try new Korean places). I got a jalapeno bulgogi ciabatta roll, an almond mocha donut, donut holes (Bavarian cream and oreo chocolate crumble!), bagels, and a walnut pastry cake. Since it's so rainy I wanted to stock up for lunch too, so I don't have to suit up to go back out into the rain again :) I also got a green tea latte. I will SERIOUSLY miss the wide availability of green tea / sweet potato lattes when I return to the States :( I had some thank you letters and postcards to mail so I asked Jessie to find me a post office on her phone yesterday. Turns out there a large one not far from my hotel so I ventured out to find that as well. It was HUGE. It looked like one of those huge business towers, with lots of floors and two sub-basement floors. After wandering around lost for a bit I located an information desk and she directed me to the correct floor and station number for my needs. Hilariously, they have a ton of GLUE STICKS on the packaging tables! They glue the package flaps closed and the stamps on. It was so fun haha, and different from the US. I plopped my mail stack in the 'International' mailbox and went on my way! The rain was only getting harder and it was starting to get windy so it wasn't as fun walking around in the rain as it had been when I first set out :/ I passed a bunch of street vendors on my way back and one caught my eye... Probably the BIGGEST thing I had a desire to try when I came here was the popular hot dog on a stick deep fried in batter or french fries. They eat it with ketchup here or mustard but I hate both so I got it plain. Somehow in Gangnam they didn't have street vendors with this so I had never had it! I can't even explain my excitement when I got back to my room to eat these haha; it was an EPIC moment ladies and gentlemen. FOR REALS :))) They were so good! Just like how I imagined they would taste, all warm, crispy, and delicious...ah heaven on a rainy day. ![]() Bottom left: I've noticed that here in Korea, every single hotel and resort I've seen has towels with their name woven on it. I don't know if I never noticed or what, but American hotels don't do that lol. They are usually just plain white towels...while here, ALL the towels, from hand, to washcloth, to bath towels have the names neatly on them. It gives a nice little professional charm to it :) --- Also, the room slippers they gave me ALMOST FIT. This is novel. Usually (like in Vegas) when they give you room slippers they are always massively huge haha because they are accounting for the tall males and its one size fits all. Here however...the one size fits all is roughly a women's size 8 apparently haha. I feel like a Big Foot giant. I had planned to go to Myeongdong (the central area) to do some sightseeing and exploring today but the rain has effectively put a damper on that...so I'll kick back, drink my tea, and watch movies today. It's a shame because I am leaving Korea so soon, but I don't have an umbrella and don't want to buy one since I can't take it with me. Ah well. I'll be back :) Post office - oo-cheh-kook 우체국
It is raining - pee-gah oh-neh-yo 비가 오네요
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I had such an incredible day with Jessie 언니 today! We used to work together at Sushiya back in Santa Barbara while she was doing a year study-abroad program at UCSB. Today we planned to meet up in Shinchon (she attends Yonsei University, just like Yeji!) to eat KBBQ. I had scoped out my neighborhood yesterday to familiarize myself with subway entrances in the area, so I THOUGHT I knew exactly where I needed to go. Although my hotel is called Hotel Cozy Myeongdong, I'm actually closer to the Hoehyeon subway station. Once I left today to meet Jessie though, I realized the Hoehyeon station entrance I had noticed the day before was actually the entrance to the Hoehyeon Underground Shopping Center -.- Wrong part of the Hoehyeon underground. I speed-walked all over the area, using various underground shortcuts to get across multiple streets without waiting for lights, and managed to get wholly lost haha. Needless to say, I was going to be late at this point so I called Jessie to let her know. Somehow after wandering around for awhile I managed to find signs to point me towards Myeongdong station and just walked a long ways aboveground so I wouldn't get lost @.@ New areas are so confusing... I eventually got to Shinchon and found Jessie. Upon hearing that I hadn't made it to Hongdae yet she decided we could go eat KBBQ in Hongdae just as well as Shinchon, and then I could check off the last destination on my list of places I had wanted to go in Korea :) Yeeeeeeee Hongdae was so much fun!! It was so lively, with lots of people (especially young) and colorful shops lining the walks everywhere. What was notable was the type of shops there; Hongdae is known for their young crowd so almost all the shops were ones that catered to my generation. Shops and eateries we passed were all playing familiar music to me, and there were lots of nice in-building shops as well as street set-up shops. Hongdae in general is known for its clubbing, shopping, and nightlife; I've heard famous celebrities are often seen partying here haha. As we wandered, I picked up some warm thick arm socks and some stuff at Innisfree and SkinFood that I wanted to stock up on before I came back to the States. Shopping here in Korea is literally everywhere you turn, I have no idea how all the girls here don't go broke. I actually asked Jessie that, and she just laughed and said they were used to it. So it didn't have the same effect on them as on me, and they don't really notice the shops and goods everywhere in your face. Amazing... It had begun raining while we wandered around, just lightly at first. It eventually turned into a gusty pelting kind of rain so we stopped by a convenience store and Jessie bought an umbrella. We had a good time chatting while we got lost and turned around several times trying to find the gosh darn BBQ place in the rain (lol), but once there it warm & dry. We ate samgyupsal and had plum wine to go with it. I am in heaven here lol, I LOVE KBBQ. It makes me so happy inside, literally and figuratively :D Jessie was so much fun to hang out with and so sweet! All my friends here have been so so good to me... I am lucky to have such friends :) She also said my Korean is very good and natural-sounding as did the cashier at SkinFood! However this is starting to depress me at this point, because I am getting good only to leave Korea :'((( Then I have to start all over in Japan, and unlike Korea, I can't read the signs in Japan. In Korea, I can read everything; even if I don't understand it all, I can at least recognize names, stations, or cities. In Japan though, they use kanji their signs and I won't be able to understand the kanji mixed in with the hirigana and katakana :/ I smell trouble looming... After our delicious dinner we wandered around in search of coffee for dessert and we ended up at a place Jessie liked, called Rabbit. IT WAS ADORABLE INSIDE. It was also huge, wide and two stories tall. It's somewhere I would love to come and study or crank out essays because it was so comfortable and pretty inside. Think like the kind of atmosphere of Starbucks, but bigger and cleaner. Funny story: I was sitting on the subway heading back to my hotel when a nice older Asian gentleman sat down next to me. He had a big backpack on and looked like he was either from out of town or a traveling hiker or something. Being my normal self I smiled at him as he sat down and thought that was that. He kept looking over though and eventually asked me which stop we were at in Korean. I showed him on my phone's map which stations we were at and replied in Korean. Funnily enough, he was super happy and reached into his pocket bag of peanuts and offered me a handful! What the heck?? :D This has got to be the most unique thing that's ever happened to me with a stranger here...actually that's the strangest thing that's happened to me with a stranger ANYWHERE lol. If this had happened to me in America I would never have eaten any and thrown them away immediately...but since this is Korea and people are still nice, honest, and trustworthy here I felt okay to eat some. They were yummy :) I thanked the gentleman and then we proceeded to have a conversation half in Japanese and half in Korean. He seemed to think I was Japanese so he spoke in Japanese but that made ME think he was Japanese hahah, so I was trying to respond in kind until I asked him if he was Japanese in Korean @.@ So confusing. He was in fact Korean so I clarified I was American. He was so cute and funny! He then thanked me for some reason and his stop was the next one so he got off. You meet all sorts abroad... It was still raining when we left Rabbit and Jessie walked with me to the Sangsu subway station entrance before leaving for a meeting she had. Thank you so much Jessie for taking me out, I had such a good time!! :) It was getting late by now so the subways were quieter than usual (still busy of course, I just mean it wasn't Jurassic Park in there like it usually is). Upon exiting Exit 7 of Hoehyeon Station and reaching aboveground, I realized I knew EXACTLY where I was in regards to my hotel. If I had only turned RIGHT instead of LEFT earlier today on my way to meet Jessie, I would've reached the correct subway station entrance and NOT gotten lost for 30 minutes and been late -.- I. Am. A. Fail. That is all. ![]() Entrance and lobby area with elevator of my hotel. It's really cute!! The walls following the stairs u have this cute palace mural on the glass with a Welcom(e) to Korea message along with the hotel logo. Those stairs are death though, there's 2 and a half sets of those I took a picture of and I almost cried when I arrived and realized I had to lug both my giant suitcases up them. Taking them down isn't going to be that fun either, come to think of it... Pretty (informal) - yeh-ppoo-dah / yeh-ppoh 예쁘다 / 예뻐
Cool/handsome (informal) - muh-shee-suh-yoh 멋있어요 Special cup used for drinking wines and such (looks like a small teacup or short round shotglass) - chahn (I think, can't remember lol Jessie correct me!) 찬 ![]() Round 1 & Round 2! I only took a little bit the first time around because I didn't know what a lot of stuff was or how spicy it was. I found out I really really liked the spicy sweet & sour fried tofu cubes; they were my favorite dish! The nice waitress passing by was laughing at me because I was tentatively poking my tongue at the tofu chunk at first, totally absorbed in my spiciness testing :D
Whoa the restaurant here is FANCY. I utilized one of my free breakfast vouchers this morning and went to Restaurant Maybee on the 10th floor. A sign pronounced that it was still in its Grand Opening phase so it must be new! It was gorgeous inside, all glass, light wood, and chic colors. It was a buffet served catering style in separate dishes. There were separate dishes with pastas, seafood like calamari and giant prawns, broccoli and squid dishes, bulgogi, fried rice, sliced meats, etc. I was in awe. All the dishes were plated SUPER fancy, like the cooking shows you see on tv lol. I was scared to touch them but my stomach decided otherwise (I didn't get to eat lunch or dinner yesterday what with all my traveling hassle). I just took a little at first because I didn't know what some stuff was or how spicy it was. They served me a fancy little coffee as soon as I sat down. I wish I could've taken photos of all the food but I thought that's be pretty weird in such a nice place so I refrained haha. The really friendly host talked to me for a bit after I sat down. He studied in America for junior high he said, which explained why his English was so good! I had brought along my Genki 1 Japanese textbook to read over while I ate so he noticed it and said he was studying it too. In fact, he was holding a sheaf of Japanese study questions right then lol. He asked if I could read them but I sadly couldn't read it all. Gosh darn kanji.... A quick aside about my room: dude. Whatever this room lacks in size it makes up for with the World's Coolest Appliances!! I already waxed poetic about the toilet and room accessories. However, the sink and showerhead duo are literally the coolest thing I have ever seen, including the toilet. I've never seen something like it so it took me about 5 minutes of poking, turning, touching, switching, and pulling in the bathroom while freezing my butt off before I figured out how to turn the shower on. The showerheads are linked to the sink! There is a level on the sink that turns it on and hot or cold depending on how far you push it up or down. I finally located a twisting section on the end of the sink spout that was in Korean but I twisted it anyway. It closed off the sink the sent the water to the top showerhead! I twisted and pulled out another knob on the showerhead thing and that split the water so it flowed to the second (removable) showerhead as well. LITERALLY THE BEST SHOWER I HAVE EVER HAD. That includes all the fancy hotel suites I've ever stayed in in Vegas and the old luxurious ones in Mammoth (my family will remember those). I have sort of a pet peeve with showers so I'm going to ranmble on about this for a bit. Unlike most hotels these days that have 1) dinky little showerheads so nothing comes out, 2) decent showerheads but water-savers on them so only a trickle comes out, or 3) no hot water, once I turned it on I was literally drenched in a deluge of hot water that came out of the wide showerheads. You know when you're in a shower and you can face front and have your back cold or put your back towards the showerhead and have your front cold? Well the removable showerhead solves that for you and you're warm all over, all the time. It was HEAVENLY. Then when you put the removable showerhead back on the wall post, you get a DOUBLE deluge of warm water all over. And the top showerhead is realllllly high up too for all you tall people (I know Dad's had issues in some hotels because for some reason, they always put the showerheads really low in a lot of shower. Even I have to crouch sometimes to wash my hair and I'm only 5'3. Come on now hotel architects!) Restaurant (eating place)- sheek-dahng 식당
Water - mool (but sounds like bool) 물 Japanese (language) - eel-bohn-uh 일본어 Breakfast - ah-cheem 아침 All the nights I've been here I've seen and heard fireworks going off on the beach below. I wrote briefly about them previously, but it's seriously so cool watching from the balcony. It's like a private mini-fireworks show every night! The fireworks are the white exploding type and are mini, since they only explode not far over the heads of the people launching them on the beach. They must be safe, since it's usually families with kids that are launching them. I wonder if they are expensive... I'm finally getting settled in here and I have to leave again soon. This is the problem with traveling haha. At least I was not here long, so packing will not be the day-long process it was back in Gangnam. Now I just need to eat all the rest of my food here in the next day!! Quiet - cho-yohng-hahn 조용한
Outside - pahkk (eh) 밖(에) --- "eh" is the "place" marker, like "de" or "ni" in Japanese. Waves - pah-doh 파도 After the horrific nightmare of the last two days, some peace, calm, and quiet was all I needed. And that is exactly that I get here. It's possible I could get bored soon, because it's so quiet here compared to the city. But for now, it's just what I want. The bright sunny skies and sound of the waves crashing reminds me of Santa Barbara; it's really the most beautiful place out here. If I need some fresh air, I just walk out onto my balcony (I always have the doors open to catch the nice breeze) and watch the ocean. The temperature is just right too! It's remarkably warm for end of October, since it should be full on-autumn right now, and starting to dip into winter soon. I'm just in a light long-sleeve and jeans, and I can stroll around comfortably all day. I wish you could all feel the cool wind on your face and smell the fresh, salty air with me...maybe if you try reallllllly really hard my thoughts will reach you :) After three weeks of nonstop people around me, people in the subway, people in my hotel, people at the restaurants, people asking directions, people in the malls (you get the picture), it's really strange to have such an absence of people right now. It's neither worse nor better than when I was in the city, it's just...different. You know? I hear children playing on the beach all day, and families lighting fireworks on the beach at night (apparently here, fireworks are totally legal for recreational use! I saw some by the Han River the night I went there with Dajeong. SO COOL. I suppose Korea's residents must be more responsible with such things than Americans lol, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed). Eating curry and rice for dinner was the awesomest thing ever. I feel like I haven't eaten a solid meal in a week, but really it's only been two days lol. It's really nice having a stove and sink for a change. I made do in my last hotel, but this is much more efficient. Also, is it weird that I am now cranky that I have to walk so far to the bathroom? In the last hotel, the room was a single room with bathroom attached (like usual hotel rooms). But this is a resort unit, so it's more like a mini apartment. I now have to walk through the living room, through the kitchen and into the bathroom...this feels so far for some reason hahah, maybe I'm turning into a true Korean used to limited space. I spent my afternoon and evening watching movies on my laptop and drinking tea out of my nifty new teapot. I really love this thing, it's well-made and such a cool design. It also doesn't drip at all, a problem that I have found with a lot of teapots I've used in the past. Once you pour your drink, it drips from the tip of it's spout so I have to keep mopping it up or keep a towel under it. This one is drip-free :) Today while I was sitting in the lobby typing this up, about 5 or 6 adjummas and halmonis (grandmas) came by and sat around me. Unlike most that I have thus encountered, these ladies were really friendly and very nice. The grandma sitting down next to me said something in Korean and then sat really close to make room for her other friends. I can't understand her but I knew enough to happily move over to make room for everyone else. They were staring fascinated while I typed on my blog and when I finally got up, all finished, they tried to say something to me in Korean. I apologized similarly, also adding that my Korean was not good. They went "ahhhh" and kept looking on with interest so I felt obligated to say more lol. I told them I was 23 and I was from America, at which, they all went "Ahhhhh" and looked at me with MORE interest and lots of smiling haha. It was the funniest thing. I bowed plenty of times and then said my appropriately respectful goodbyes in Korean for their age group, and made my exit. Usually the adjummas that I have encountered here in Korea are NOT friendly and not nice to me. I don't know why they hate me so much, but it really feels like they do. Most of the young people I have tried to interact with are friendly and try to help, as well as the adjusshis (middle-aged men) and grandpas I have met. Lots of them think I am a gyopo (a native a Korean who lives in America), so I have to set them straight by telling them about my lineage on my father and mothers sides (which includes zero Korean lol). Many of them even try to help me further than my one question I was asking, curious about me. But my tourist experience with adjummas is not good, not good at all. Lots of them just turn their back on me, or stare at me like I'm a bug and then curse about me to their adjumma friend (or that's what it sounds like anyway lol). Meh. I'll stick to the young 'uns and grandpas, thanks. rice - pahb 밥
grandpa - hah-rah-buh-jee 할아버지 grandma - hahl-muh-nee 할머니 ocean - teh-yahng 대양 tea - chah 차 Today, I cheated. On food!! I've been enjoying a wonderful diet of amazing food, but today I just had this inexplicable desire for a BURGER. Not a teriyaki or marinated meat burger, just a good old boring fast food burger. So...I went to Burger King!! Haha like I mentioned before, the fast food places here are not like the ones back home. They are all sit down, since there's no drive through obviously and are really nice inside. There's fancy glowy lights everywhere and cute cafe-like chairs. I had my food for here, but I saw the take-out bags they use: they're sturdy paper bags with handles and stiff frosted plastic bags to hold your drink. Seriously?!? We get flimsy, grease-soaked paper bags all scrunched up lol. I got a Whopper Jr. meal for 4,400 won, which is $3.95 in dollars. I had the hardest time trying to explain to them I wanted no sauce on my burger hahah, the older woman helping me just stare at me then smiled and looked embarrassed. She motioned for me to wait, then waved her young male coworker over to talk to me. This happens a lot; if they are older and I inflict my English on them they look scared or embarrassed and go find someone younger to speak to me haha. I know it's cuz the younger generations have had more schooling in English and are more open-minded towards it; for them, a high level of English speaking is cool. They also don't give you receipts or call numbers, which confused me when they finished my order and just turned to the next person. I tried asking how am I supposed to know when to get my food but it was hopeless lol. I watched for awhile and noticed all the (business suit wearing btw) men and women were waiting by the counter. I guess they just stand and wait? Also how weird is it that this place is frequented mostly by power suit wearing women and suit-wearing men?? I did see one kid here and his mom, but that's it. They also give you your drink for here in an actual cup. I've noticed that everywhere; even for water cups they have a counter set up with a water machine and glass or plastic reusable cups for you. Then a container to put your dirty water cups in! So classy. No wonder there's barely any trash cans around, and a conspicuous lack of litter lying around...they also had this funny little trashcan looking thing with cup holder suspended above it. It took me minute of curious staring at it until I realized it was to dump out the contents of your cup, then place your cup upside down to drain before they collected them. I LOVE THIS. Way to eliminate the nasty liquid in trash bags things. Restaurant (diner) = sheek-dahng 식당
I journeyed back to Itaewon again today to catch the last day of the festival. The crowd of people was like a million times bigger than when I came on Friday!! Even more of the streets were closed down and there were packed people everywhere on the sidewalks and spilling into the streets. There was a bigger parade today, with what looked like cultural dancers and exhibitions from different countries. It was really interesting to watch! For lunch I went to a place called Rotolo's. They specialized in these cool things that were like half pizza slice and half calzone. I got the combo rotolo which had like ham, olives, lettuce, pepperoni, cheese, etc. in it and it was BOMB. All crispy and thin on the outside and yummy on the inside :) After lunch I went back out to the main street in time for another parade, of historical and cultural costumes of Korea it looked like. I also made a new friend Hyojoon, who was the random person next to me that I asked to take a picture (of me and the cool costume guy!!). It turns out he speaks English and he doesn't even study it!! I was impressed. He is one year older than me and lives in Itaewon, so he says he just picked it up from listening around town. We had fun following the parade down the street until there were too many people and we couldn't see it anymore :( Darn foreigners...heh. On a side note...they're already on Mario Kart SEVEN here in Korea?!? What? When did this happen? Or are we just lagging hardcore in America?? Festival = cheh-chuhn 제전
Friend = cheen-goo 친구 Foreigner = ooee-gook-in 외국인 (for that first sound, it's like putting 'oh' and 'ee" together...almost like a 'w' sound) Gooood morning :) Today as I was crossing a major street, the little green man was up but for some reason I saw people sprinting across the road, not walking. So I did what all people who have no idea what they are doing should have done- RUN FOR MY LIFE. Once I'd reached the other side almost immediately cars began flying past me. Turns out this little man didn't have numbers to count down on it and apparently all Koreans are born with a built-in counter and know when to saunter slowly and when to haul ass. So moral of the story- when in a foreign country, monkey see? MONKEY DO. And do fasssssst... @.@ On the sidewalks, there are deliverymen who regularly zoom around. They are fast and they are aggressive so you just have to learn to notice them and avoid them. I've also heard about how the Korean standard of personal space is different from the American one...this is very very true. They get riiiiiiiiight up in your business in shops and stuff, while I'm mentally squirming away in discomfort. It's not that they're being weird or anything, it's just different than what I'm accustomed to. For example, when I'm waiting in line the people behind me will be so close to me they are putting pressure against my backpack...and not moving. I keep turning around because I think they are tapping me to get my attention or something lol; in America you don't stand anywhere near close enough to be pushing against your back constantly. On the sidewalks too, people will pass you by brushing up against you even though there's plenty of room on the sidewalk. It's not that they are being rude, they just don't think a deviation in their path of walking is necessary. When I'm waiting at a crosswalk I've turned to my left or right and been startled to find a man or woman literally in my face (I'm talking like the kind of close to your face you reserve solely for your boyfriend/girlfriend/grandma here; I could count the nose hairs in this guys nose once he was so close -.-). They are usually just peering around me at something or gazing off at something, but I was disconcerted to find that even when I noticed they were there, started a little, and looked at them, THEY DIDN'T MOVE. They just chilled there, far too close to my face for comfort, apparently completely at ease. What. When I walk down the stairs of the subway I've often had to shoot quickly to the right or left to avoid incoming adjummas or adjusshis who are zooming haphazardly across the stairs like diagonally on a collision course for me. Instead of walking straight down to give others room (think of like a ski slope; you hate those slow people who zoom alllll the way horizontally across the slope, then allll the way back, effectively preventing anyone from passing them) they just walk down whichever way they want, even if they end up practically on top of someone's back or at their elbow. I've been startled a few times to notice someone was like on top of me and I've instinctively moved away so they had more room to go down. I don't know if this is making any sense, it's kind of hard to explain this concept without seeing it for yourself. It's just strange to me...keeps me on my toes haha. Also, they don't say sorry when they bump you or push against you by accident. I was expecting this since a lot of my Korean friends told me this. It's not that they are being rude or anything, it is just such a common and unavoidable thing in such a busy, crowded city that the people take it as normal to be jostled or run into. My friends told me I'd be looked at weird and thought of strangely if I said sorry when I ran into people, but I can't help it lol, even in American society I'm super polite by nature. I say "chue-song-hab-ni-da" before I even realize I've said it -.- Whatever. Better to be that weird overly polite foreigner than that super rude foreigner, right? Subway = chi-ha-chul 지하철
Store = soh-jahng 저장 It's not very late but I'm tired out from today. Time to shower and pamper my face!! I've accumulated quite a collection of face washes, scrubs, toners, etc that I've never used in my life because I'm lazy and all that stuff is expensive to buy regularly. Here though, really good quality and fancy brands are affordable so I can try them out and use them. The stores themselves are so attractive and adorable that I just like going in there and browsing :) My favorite is still SkinFood but Innisfree takes a close second. I've been in several Etude House stores and TonyMoly and Nature's Republic but haven't bought too much from there. Yet. I should start shopping for my second suitcase to bring all this back @.@ Additionally, I am fascinated by these extendable straws they have with their caffe little drinks (the ones that look like mini coffee cups and come in like caffe mocha, caramel macchiato, etc). They come all tiny and cute and then you pull and it shoots out!! O.o Yea yea, we all knew I was easily amused lol... Goodnight everyone, tomorrow is a new day :) Night = pahm 밤 So it rained this morning but then stopped for hours, and the ground was completely dry. It was only a little cloudy. I was getting ready to go on a walk and out of NOWHERE it starts pouring! And I'm not talking gentle pitter-patter of lady-like droplets; I'm talking omg-its-the-freaking-apocalypse kind of deafening rain. You couldn't even see very far out because of how thick and fast the rain was falling- it was raising mist on the ground from hitting so hard! Within seconds (I kid you not) the entire rooftop next to mine was completely flooded and exactly 2 seconds after the rain had just started it was thundering and lightening-ing. Is this normal?! I happen to like the rain so I phoned the front desk and asked if they had umbrellas I could borrow. They did and I set off to get some coffee. I ended up at Holly's, this little coffee place I pass a lot tucked in with a bunch of giant office buildings. I got a sweet potato latte, which if you don't like sweet potatoes, will sound disgusting to you. I happen to love them so it was epically delicious; rich and creamy and sweet! I've never had anything like it. It even had little shaved flakes of sweet potato in it to give it a little nuttiness. While I was in the shop, it had stopped raining...and not just stopped, it was pretty much beaming sunshine and bright blue skies everywhere you looked! It was like the sky was sying what, who was hurricane-ing on you all less than 5 minutes ago? Not moi...pfft. Maybe weathers always this bipolar here. And I thought Santa Barbara had it bad- but Seoul, you are totally inland! SB was bipolar cuz it was by the ocean...what's your excuse?! On my way home I stopped by a street vendor I've been eyeing for a few days right near my hotel. She was selling what looked like tempura!! Huge stacks and the smell was incredible. Having no idea what they all were, I inspected the piles carefully and then ordered two of what looked like fried kimbap rolls (think delicious but commoner style sushi), two of what looked like giant elongated fried dumplings, and one big round thing that looked like potato. There was one that looked like sweet potato but I don't trust anything that is any shade of orange or red in this country. It is bound to be mind-blowingly spicy, whatever it is. Once home I tried them out and they were so yummy!! The lady thougtfully cut them all up into bite-size pieces for me with scissors after giving my chosen pieces a quick fry to crisp and warm them up. They do that at kbbq places too, and on Korean cooking shows. The kimbap rolls were amazing, with seasoned glass noodles inside them with vegetables. The dumplings were stuffed with yummy pork and various cabbage, carrots, etc. The potato was tasty as well, and nicely familiar to me. The batter she used was very good, not too heavy and with herbs in it so it looked appetizing. I couldn't even finish the whole bag, it was so much! And it only cost about $2! I can tell this is going to be a favorite of mine already...Dangerous. Verrrrry dangerous... Weather = nal-shi 날씨 Street vendors = po-jang-maht-cha 포장마차 Umbrella = oo-sahn 우산 Delicious (to be) = mah-sshi-da 맛있다 Tried the pho place right by my hotel. Of course, its very cute and sparkling clean inside. Will I ever find a place here that isn't nice and sparkly clean? Perhaps not in Gangnam lol. When you eat out, I've noticed they give you the check right away, pretty much as soon as you order. Another thing I've noticed at the places I eat out is they give you your own pot of iced water or hot tea without needing to ask for it, and even though I'm by myself. I love it, the tiny pots and pitchers are so adorable! Okay I know I'm retarded but I am FASCINATED by bathrooms in Korea for some reason. They are so nice and clean and I love the tall, pretty, solid doors. Each stall is like a cubicle. Not for the claustrophobic to be sure, but I love how private they are. I always hate the super low ones in some public places in America where people can practically see under your door or through the cracks and see you :| The insides are different too; no toilet seat covers but I was prepared for that, and the layout behind the toilet resembles like a built-in shelf or bar to put your stuff on I'm assuming. After eating I hiked up to the supermarket around the corner from my hotel. And by supermarket, I mean market that is roughly the size and shape of my hotel room. Possibly smaller. It's amazing what they can do with such limited room lol, it was packed in there! I bought a good amount of snacks, noodles, rice, porridges, and drinks so I can start to eat in- I can't be eating out every meal and dropping 10,000 won a pop. As the lady was ringing up my giant basket of goodies, she hands me a small plastic bag to put my stuff in. Ummm, lady I don't know who you think you're dealing with, but this little thing aint gonna cut it. After she finishes she looks up confused at me and my tiny packed bag and mountain of stuff on the counter. She goes OH, BIG! and hands me a giant plastic bag. Ah, now that's more like it :) I stagger back to my hotel and the receptionists greet me with amusement because the top of the bag goes higher than my head. Yes yes, I may be small, but I eat like a horse with mad drunchies!!! I have been getting more friendly with the receptionists and various hotel workers who are around. You have to pass the front desk to go in or out of the hotel, and I always smile and greet them or wave. They looked confused and surprised at first, but now they always smile and greet me on my way in or out. I'm sure they rarely (if ever) have people staying as long as I am, and I doubt they are ever foreigners...might as well be friendly with everyone if I'm going to be living out of here for awhile! I'm sure I'll start calling them unni and oppa soon, they are all so nice to me and look after me well :) Hello = ann-young-ha-seyo 안녕하세요 Goodbye (you are leaving) = ann-young-hee-kye-seyo 안녕히가세요 I've decided that every morning I will try a different cafe/coffee shop located around my hotel. There are so many to choose from! Today's is a cute little thing (let's face it, they're ALL cute little things T.T) called CafeBetweenUs. It's airy, spacious and clean inside, with a cozy, exposed red brick wall and pale wood kind of decor. It feels like walking into a favorite college hangout or a comfortable reading den; I automatically love it of course haha. Ordering food that I can't just point to and say 이거 주세요 (this please) always makes me nervous. Miraculously I managed to hold a mini conversation with her for about 30 seconds without her realizing I was American!!! My accent and pronunciation must be marginally improving. While my conscious was running around inside my head pumping her fists in victory, I finally slipped when she said something about "service". While bummed I couldn't keep up with her Korean anymore, I was however really pleased I was getting more free things haha. She was so nice about my not understanding her, so many people I confront with English words are grumpy to me. I think it's cuz they're scared and are hiding it by being gruff but its still nice to still be smiled at after speaking English. I've passed other foreigners in the streets and hear them trying to say thank you and such, and I always cringe thinking that that must be what I sound like when I attempt to speak Korean. Perhaps all my practicing in my head is paying off. The cashier lady finally got across that she was going to give me my latte for free and only charged me for my ham and cheese panini! Ballin. Speaking of grumpy people, that reminds me of this young shopgirl I bought a scarf off of yesterday at Gangnam Station. She was another of the few who still hung around me and tried to me help even after finding out I was American. I've noticed that the more of their Korean I can understand and reply to, the happier they are lol. Anyways, she said something about how I was always smiling and cheerful after she'd followed me around the shop and talked to me for awhile. I told her it was because I was happy! She said I was so lucky and smiled. So maybe the gruffness of the people I've been interacting with is just natural and the norm here? When I'm walking around the streets, my instinct is to smile at every person I pass and say hello if they smile back. But here they don't make eye contact or anything :( I know it must be the culture difference. Another thing I'm learning to do out of necessity is to drink my coffee black. Firstly, there is no such thing as a "coffee" in Korea. That is known as a "hot Americano". Secondly, they do have creamer or milk anywhere, unlike America where they have it on a bar of stuff for you to make your magic potion (Mom I'm looking at you). At Caffe Pascucci, the first cafe I went to, I was so confused I simply asked for a little milk from the barista. She cheerfully complied, even frothing the little tiny espresso cup of milk in the frothier for me so my milk was warm and bubbly. It made my coffee DELICIOUS. But otherwise, it's such a bother to ask every coffee place I go to for milk. I haven't sat down in many cafes like this yet, but I've been getting coffee from everywhere to help me manage my jet lag. Due to this excessive drinking, I therefore concluded that I just have to learn to drink it black. Coffee = kuh-pi 커피 Coffee shop = kuh-pi shyop 커피 숍 Breakfast = ah-cheem 아침 (A) smile = mee-so 미소 Milk = oo-you 우유 A little milk please = chou-keun oo-you ju-seh-yo 적은 우유 주세요 Adventurous as ever, I choose Thai as my lunch of choice today. I venture down into the Yeoksam Station where there is a pretty fancy mall located underground! Good thing I chose to wear a dress today haha. As mentioned before, the subways stations here are located underground and therefore have many flights of insanely steep staircases to traverse before you can hit ground zero. Now this is not so much an issue going down (although it gives you the impression you will trip and fall 30 feet on your face pretty much with every step you take) but going UP that is the problem. On the real, I could rock-climb up these damn things. Anyways, I managed to order everything I wanted using my little Korean and when it got to me, the food looked amazing. The smoothie was AWESOME, like the smoothest, freshest, most pure mango anything you could dream of, with a hint of spice in it. With this promising start I turned to my dish. The waitress had said something in Korean and indicated the gigantic pile of red pepper flakes sitting on my plate so I assume she meant if you need it more spicy, there are flakes for you. Thanks girlfriend, but I am the wimpiest of wimps when it comes to spicy and I won't be needing those. I must have left my brain in the US because I paid dearly for forgetting that Korea is the CAPITOL OF SPICY SHIT. They are very proud of their little peppers that supposed to be like a thousand times hotter than ours. Well I can now attest to that :/ Literally ONE noodle and a small piece of basil chicken later, I was diving for the water jug, choking (I'm not kidding here), beading perspiration, and simultaneously stealthily glancing around me to make sure none of the other perfectly fine and happily munching Koreans around me had noticed my near brush with Dante's inferno on my plate. HOLY MOLY. I know I'm a baby but this was hot. Like burns your eyeballs and your insides and sears through all gazillion layers of skin you've got in your mouth until you're sniffling like mad and your face literally feels like its turning permanently bright red. Which it did. I have never had anything so hot; you could eat 15 bags of flaming hot Cheetos EXTRA HOT and it wouldn't come close. And the lady wanted me to put more red peppers on this stuff? SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE YOU KOREANS MADE OF?! Naturally I didn't want to be rude by not being able to eat it and I didn't know how to ask for mild so I started eating with the strategizing skills of a general. I would eat one small bite and chew; as I chewed I drank some water on my left, swallowed quickly, immediately slurped some mango smoothie on my right, swallowed, sucked air in and out of my mouth quickly, did a little "I have hot coals in my mouth" body twitching, then did it all over again. Finally I couldn't eat anymore because my stomach was burning and rather ticked off at me so I asked for a box and paid. My nose was runny from the heat so I went to the restroom to blow my nose. It was such a trial I came back to my room to rest for a little instead of going shopping afterwards. But never fear, there is very little in this great, big world that could keep me from shopping for very long... :) Bathroom = hwa-jang-shil 화장실 Food = eum-shik 음식 Lunch = chum-sheem 점심 Stairs = kye-dahn 계단 Whew. Well ladies and gentlemen, you'd better strap in & hold on tight cuz this is gonna be a long one. I'm splitting my last day into two to make it easier to read haha. After a most exhausting and awesomely fun day yesterday, I got back to my room at around midnight here meaning I effectively pulled an all-nighter because I slept at 7:30 AM US time @.@ I fell asleep on the subway back like 5 times, so embarrassing. Probably because of that I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning, much later than usual!! The jetlag is slowly getting better. I met 다정 (Dajeong) at 강남역 (Gangnam Station) at 4PM, and we set off from there to Kyobo Tower, where there's a big bookstore, music store, etc. I lost track of all the different areas we went through since I can't pronounce most of them properly (but I will!! Eventually...) and I bought some single-trip subway tickets since the shops in Gangnam Station were out of the sturdier T-cards, the reloadable charge cards used for subway rides. On my way to meet her I had stopped in Daiso and bought an energy drink, because I knew we would be out late and I'd have trouble staying up...I had been sleeping around 8-9PM here, which is 4-5AM back home. Surprisingly the nice adjumma (middle-aged woman) tried to indicate to me to go get another one saying "Servisu" and "1 plus 1". I've heard of the "service" thing, which was like a free promotion to the customer from the shopowner. So I essentially got a free energy drink in addition to my own! She was so sweet :) Maybe she recognized me from yesterday when I went shopping in there. I heard they love repeat customers. Since today is the last night Kyeong-bok Palace is open to the public at night, Dajeong kindly offered to take me, saying it was too beautiful to miss. We had such a fun day!!! I am so grateful to you 다정; if you are reading this, I had a great time :) She is seriously the sweetest, most patient, and easy to get along with girl ever. Also in case any of you were wondering, we are twins. QUITE LITERALLY. Case in point: 1) We have the same exact birthdays, September 1st except she was born one year earlier in 1989 and I'm in 1990. Weve both never met another person with the birthday of September 1st. 2) We both have little brothers (남동생) who were born in 1993 AND in January (her brother's birthday is January 20, while my brother's is January 17!) 3) We are both short and love to wear heels. All. The. Time. And we love Kimchi Jigae :D 4) We both have mothers who are elementary school teachers! 5) We are both going to be taking classes for our teacher's credentials & taking the teacher's exams. 6) She is so comfortable to be around! She is so easy to talk to and a wonderful host/knowledgable tour guide. Anyways, glossing over our eerie similarities in...well life in general, we stopped in various shops along the way from station to station as we traveled towards City Hall & where Kyeong-bok Palace is located. There were such cute things in the shops!! I wanted to buy everything haha but I restrained myself...kind of :) There are these things called "Media Poles" on this one main street, in which you can take pictures and email them to yourself, among other things! We had fun taking silly photos because we could never get the timing right on it. We settled on a funny one and we agreed to take a better, normal picture next time :D Inside Kyobo Tower it was like a giant Barnes & Nobles meets Blockbuster meets FYE meets Westfield Mall meets Costco. Except instead of food samples, there were people with little tables of electronics or cameras or hairdryers or something lol. The revolving entrance door was funny because apparently with all such doors in Korea, you cannot ever touch the door or it will stop. So when Dajeong went to Las Vegas, she tried to get into a casino through a revolving door and just stood there. However we have to push most of our revolving door haha so the security guard finally told her to push when she asked for help :D She is too funny!! Inside I finally bought a book I've been wanting for awhile "Children of the Sun". I also bought the I AM documentary in excitement before belatedly realizing its region code 3, so I can't even play it in America lol. We are region code 1 :'( Ah well, its released Nov 6 in American I think. As we walked further, we found people all walking in one of the huge streets and noticed it had been closed off. It was the Hi Seoul Festival! There were firecrackers and music and a procession down the street with performers with blue on their faces and even a rockband on a moving truck haha. Dajeong said it was so strange to be walking in the street of such a huge major street, but this was a special occasion. For dinner Dajeong took me to this awesome little KBBQ place. It looked nothing like the KBBQ places I'm used to going to in LA; there were lots of little coffee shop-sized tables with a deep pit in the middle and a hose-like retractable chimney above it. You could move it all the way down to almost touching the meat! So much more efficient in whisking away all the nasty smoke and KBBQ smell you usually get when eating there :) We had yummy pork, some kind of pickled, sweet seaweed salad, and the most amazing kimchi jigae I've ever had in my life. It was called 칠분 김치 찌개, or seven minute kimchi stew because it is cooked in seven minutes! It's spicy and savory and has such an awesome flavor. Dajeong said it was eaten in a different manner than usual in this restaurant; we mashed it in with our rice and put dry strips of seaweed over it and mixed it in. SO GOOD. Everything was, we left stuffed. She taught me how to say "I'm full" but I don't know how to spell it haha. I think it is something like 배 불러요, or pae-bu-reu-yo. In Japanese it is おなかがいっぱい, or onaka ga ippai. Julia taught me that one when she was visiting the US from Japan :) I will see you soon Julia if you are reading this!
On my morning walk today I chose a different street and direction from yesterday and set off. I figure this will be my routine everyday until I have a good idea of how this area lays out with all the locations of stores, eating places, and most dangerous crosswalks T.T Today I found a Korean KFC! All these fast food places here are so much nicer, cleaner, fancier, and of course, not drive-thru lol. It's weird seeing them sitting on a block in between a Samsung store and a bakery. The weather is again beautiful, a crisp 73 degrees and the sun is out with blue skies to accompany it. After wandering for awhile I stopped in one of the many convenience stores for something to drink and got myself some banana milk and mocha drinks. They're the real ones!! Not the Americanized versions I'm used to. Nobody will understand my excitement for this banana milk except maybe Waylie, Jessica, and a few others haha. Most unusually, the cashier here seemed to know intrinsically that I wasn't Korean and didn't speak it even though I hadn't spoken any English. Is it the way I dress?? Someone told me people would know I wasn't from here by the way I dressed...Hm. I'm going to be all self-conscious now. Anyway he held up his calculator with the amount due on it for me after rattling it off in Korean. To be fair, I DO know all my numbers (both sets, the native Korean and Chinese ones) but I can't keep up when they speak so faaaaaast. It's so frustrating. Usually anyone I interact with here assumes I am Korean because apparently I look extremely Korean and start lightspeed-talking to me (??? All the Asians I knew in SB along with most Asian people I've met for the first time thought I was full Korean. So did the adjusshis [middle aged men] I sat with on the plane. Is that what happens when you mix Japanese & Chinese?!). It's quite inconvenient. I listen politely, put a blank look on my face, and then have to say "Sorry, what?". They immediately either look fearful of me (scared I'll speak more English to them b/c they don't understand it haha) or they look apologetic and try to speak Korenglish to me. I actually had one woman legitamately RUN from me in a 7-eleven when I came in to ask for directions, it was pretty funny. I said "hello" instead of 안녕하세요 for some reason, and she immediately bolts and ducks behind her male coworker, who dutifully and bravely looked up directions for me on my phone. Thankfully Wona 선생님 and Diane 선생 taught me directions and how to ask for them so I understood when he told me to walk a block north than make a left and walk two blocks before making a right, cuz his Korenglish was more just straight Korean with a few "yes?"'s thrown in :D Otherwise, I might still be wandering around out there @.@ I decided I'm going to start including relevant Korean words at the end of my posts, so everyone can learn a little bit! It will help me learn more too, since my Korean is still shaky :)
-To drink = ma-shida 마시다 -Drink (beverage) = eum-ryo-su 음료수 -Convenience store = pyun-i-jum 편의점 -Korean (nationality) = han-guk-een 한국인 or han-guk sahram 한국 사람 -Korean (language) = han-guk-go 한국어 -American (nationality) = mi-guk-een 미국인 or mi-guk-sahram 미국 사람 -person = sahram 사람 |
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