I bought eggs then realized I need oil to cook them in -.- All I could find is soybean oil lol. Also bought Korean dumplings (they have pork, veggies, and japchae in them!) and Korean-made Mentos. They have Rainbow and Grape flavors here! More than us with boring regular ones. Also, if you don't already know, Grape is my favorite artificial flavor so I love this. Yes, I know I'm weird, but hey, it means I get all my friends grape Skittles when they don't want 'em :) At this resort, I am simultaneously too old and too young. The only people here are adorable toddlers or swaddled infants w/ parents, and grandmas & grandpas. I stick out purely because I am neither teething nor have dentures. Swell. No wonder everyone looks curiously at me lol. I thought it was because of my English when I'm Skyping or Facetiming, but they stare even when I'm just typing...even the babies stare at me!! O.O
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I totally just had a moment of true Korean hilarity. I'm sitting in a wifi spot outside one of the elevators when a group of old Korean men (I'm talking gray hair here people) comes strutting/dancing out the elevator with PSY's Gangnam Style BLASTING out of one of their smartphones hahaha. I was utterly shocked at first watching them, but they just kept on trucking all the way to the front door, like nothing at all was strange. Yea, a bunch of old grandpas have got an international kpop song WAILING out of your tablet-sized smartphone as they Gangnam-Style out the front door of my fancy-shmancy resort. I am SO in Asia... I'm exploring the resort more today; the sign in the lobby says there is an Aquarium on the lower basement level, a Library, a Marina, the OceanSpa and of course the beach. So far I've found what seems to be the Library. It's got books, benches, and a row of computer desks. There was supposed to be a cafe of sorts but I can't seem to find one...there's also two fancy restaurants but I don't know if I'll end up dining at those. Not necessary haha. I'll check back in when I have wifi again and have found the rest of the place :) -Also, for those who understand this: the host at the front of the fancy restaurant "Ashley" in my hotel keeps walking around the lobby calling the next people on the waiting list. I almost fell out of my chair the first time he walked by me because HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE KEY. He walks like him and his voice sounds just like him. His hair is like Key's during the "Hello" era in color and style. I am tripping out right now. Put him in a waiter uniform and sports blazer with FBI-like earpiece and he is strolling by me riggggggght noooooow. Wtf??
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 Ah the irony, it's never far away. I spent this entire trip trying to get myself to sleep in later instead of wandering around at 4am, and staying up later instead of falling asleep at 3pm. And now for the first time all vacation, I have to set my alarm clock to wake me up at 7am. I have to get a cab from my hotel in Gangnam to a bus stop in Jamsil where a resort bus will take me at 9:30 all the way to Gangwon-do. It only runs once a day since the distance is so great, so I am waking up early and taking no chances. I will be in that taxi by 8am. Jamsil is only a few subway stations away from my Yeoksam station (~10 mins by subway) but since I have all my luggage with me, those epic subway stair sets are going to be a no go! I was chatting with my unnis and oppas at the front desk this morning when they suddenly realized I was leaving tomorrow morning :( They were so sad. I made such good memories here, in the hotel and in the area around it. I finally know where everything is and can make my way around when I need something or want to go somewhere, aaaand I'm leaving. /sigh. I bought boxes of cookies for my staff friends and for the cleaning crew who took care of me so well this whole trip and wrote my favorite hotel attendants a card. I had Dajeong translate what I wanted to say into Korean so I could write it down :) These are my three favorite attendants here :) You have no idea how INCREDIBLY fond I am of them. It must be something to do with the fact I've never traveled abroad before to a strange country, but I feel like they really took care of me while I was here, like real older brothers and sisters (which is the meaning of unni and oppa, often used among friends or those you are comfortable with). They ordered all my deliveries for me over the phone, chatted with me everyday on where I was going and what I was doing, helped me out when I was lost or needed a translation, and always greeted me every morning and afternoon with a smile and a laugh at all my shopping bags/grocery bags/excited tales of what I did that day. Apparently they think I'm super cute for being happy all the time and so energetic, greeting them everyday and sharing my stories. I guess they don't get many people who stay as long as I do, who will get attached to them lol. It's the strangest thing, but I will miss them so much :( Looking back on my trip thus far, I had a random thought about shopping in Korea. I think the reason I end up buying much more than I expect I will is because in these small Korean shops if there is something I like, there is often only one of them and chances are it'll be gone next time if I don't buy it now. It's an impulse-buy-or-nothing kind of shopping going on. I know you're all thinking "but you always buy a lot". Contrary to popular belief, I am a careful shopper! I have a Costco of a closet but its carefully accumulated :D I don't usually buy expensive clothes or ones that aren't on sale, and I try to limit what I buy at one time with some exceptions (E.g. I am halfway around the world and a $5 silk button-down top is staring me in the face). My Usual Method of Shopping 1) See something I like, 2) Check the price, 3) Judge mentally whether its worth the price; if its worth the price, 4) Judge mentally whether I need it and/or already have others like it, 5) If I STILL want it I view items in my head I would/could wear it with and 6) judge whether I'd wear it enough to justify buying it for the price and quality If it passes all these trials, I buy it. If it fails at one of them, I move on! Now y'all know what's going through my head when I'm staring silently and intently at an article of clothing while shopping hahah. This is why I prefer to do any real shopping alone, to spare my shopping companion :) I also met a new friend from Saudia Arabia today in the elevator!! I finally meet a friend my age, who speaks English, is staying in my hotel, HAS A ROOM ON THE SAME FLOOR AS ME, and its my LAST DAY HERE. Life, why do you do these things to me?! -.- We had a spirited conversation on the way up to our floor and we talked so long in the hall, her family poked their heads out to see where she was lol. Her little brother came bounding out too, all shy and smiley. He didn't speak English but happily responded to my wave and bow. They were so cute :) She excitedly introduced me to her parents as well, as "Candace from America!!!". This struck me as so funny, since I've never been anywhere where it was cause for excitement or where you had to explain you were from America before. If my parents were there, I would've been equally excited to introduce her as my friend from Saudi Arabia!! It seems like such an exotic and far-off place, but I guess to everyone else, America is also a far-off place. That's so interesting to think about for me; I'm learning all sorts of things I've never thought about before. This is another reason I wanted to come abroad, to learn more about the world and how other cultures think and act. We live in a bubble in the US, and I want to know what's outside it. This is a first-hand chance! But I digress again. Sorry, I got excited lol. Going back to my friend, we commiserated about not understanding the sentences Koreans tried to speak to us, although she has mastered English as well as Arabic, so she's way ahead of me linguistically. Her English was really good too, completely natural and fluent! I was so impressed, I wish I was bilingual lol. I can't remember her name, much less spell it but it was really pretty. It sounded like Riyula or something. I will leave her a note on her door before I leave, with my email or something. Maybe we can still be friends and penpals :) Time to tuck in for the night, after my favorite probiotic Asian drink :) These things are so darn good and are healthy for you! It's a win-win. Unlike in America, when you buy these here they give you mini straws. This is because they are properly supposed to be drunken all in a row (see how they are packaged), with a straw on top to drink it through. I got made fun of so much in college for drinking it like this hahah, but seriously it's way more convenient than drinking each tiny thing individually and peeling off the foil top for each one...Asians always have it right, whether it be chopsticks as the ultimate eating utensil or ways to drink probiotics :D
Next stop was Insadong! I really love this little area of Seoul with all the hustle and bustle, and quaint shops everywhere. It was AMAZING getting to see the more traditional and cultural goods of Korea's heritage. There were hand-carved wooden utensils, traditional hanboks (Korean cultural garb, like the kimono for Japanese), Korean candies and foods, pottery, statues, metalwork, and even a traditional Korean paper shop! There was so much to see! I could have stayed for much longer, but we only got about 40 minutes before we had to meet back up. It was still a fun little journey into what felt like the real lifeblood of Korean culture. I also got some great gifts and souvenirs!! I'll post pictures later of what I got :) Next up was the Amethyst Factory. They have a mine right here in Korea apparently. Everything in there was priced too high for my student budget of course, but it was nice getting to look around at the beautiful jewelry and items. All the rest of my tour group was older and primarily from Canada strangely enough lol, so they looked more interestedly than I did (since they could probably afford some of these things). Finally we got to Namdaemun!! I was in heaven; now THIS is what I imagined doing when I first thought of my shopping in Korea during this trip. I imagined outside shops for as far as the eye can see and in every directions possible (seriously, some of these intersections split off into like 7 different little streets haha). In the middle of the thick lines of shops on either side were kiosks selling MORE stuff in the middle of the street. Needless to say, it was very packed and cramped and moving was impossible without shoving into someone or pressing up against someone else. Our tour guide led us around in a quick small circuit of part of the market (since she said this place is so huge, you can easily get lost) then let us go off on our own. It was so much fun wandering among the mind-blowing amount of goods and shops that were there. There were clothes, shoes, bags, watches, wallets, socks, belts, boxers, scarves, warm food vendors, grocery stores, cosmetics, hair accessories,jewelry, fresh fruit stalls, purses, jackets, etc. My head was LITERALLY on a swivel this time, I thought it was bad before in the underground shopping areas. The scale of this market is so impressive, you can't even comprehend how far it goes in all directions haha. Our tour guide tried to explain it then gave up. We came in at Gate 8; she said this ENTIRE thing we just circuited was only a portion of that Gate, and there were 7 more. Criminy. I did a little shopping for stuff I had noted on our guided circuit before, then headed back to the tour bus in time to head home!
I went on my first tour today, an afternoon Seoul City tour. It not only included a hotel pick up for me but also a hotel drop off at the end! Itinerary: Hotel Pick up – Changdeok Palace – Insadong Arts and Crafts Market - Amethyst/Ginseng Center – Namdaemun Traditional Market – Arrive at hotel. Insadong is somewhere I've been wanting to go to for ages! It's a market street area that specializes in traditional and antique crafts and goods. My Korean teacher highly recommended it to me too. There's lots of street vendor food as well, and shops down every alley to be seen. Namdaemun is also well known, along with Dongdaemun, for their shopping! It was also on my list of places to visit when I came here. So now after this tour all that's left on my list are Myeongdong (where my next hotel is once I return to Seoul) and Hongdae (where all the young people congregate for food, meet-ups, clubbing and bars). I want to go but I'm not going to go by myself hahah. There was a mistake with the time they sent me by email on when they would pick me up, so I wasn't at my hotel when the tour bus came. After clearing it up with the agency, they sent a taxi to take me to meet the rest of the group at the first stop, the Palace. Taking a taxi there was the weirdest thing ever. I feel like I haven't been in a car in like a year hahah. Also it's terrifying and not for the easily carsick, because people walk all over in the street and I begin to see why drivers have to be so aggressive towards pedestrians. Otherwise they would never get anywhere because the pedestrian stream never ends! It was also weird seeing the same familiar streets I frequently walked everyday from the view of the car...it was a bit like watching from the other side of the glass, like deja vu but seperated from what I remember. I got MAJORLY carsick in the taxi...like I'm talking on the verge of throwing up -.- My driver for some reason drove the entire way with a tap tap tap puuuush tap tap tap push on the gas pedal kind of driving. You know the kind you do when you're teasing your car mates so everyone's heads bobs back and hit the headrest over and over? I DROVE FOR A HALF HOUR IN A HUMID CLAUSTROPHOBIC TAXI LIKE THAT. I was hanging out my open window trying to focus on breathing by the time we arrived at the palace. I was dry-heaving by like the 10 minute mark. Jesus criminy. No wonder nobody drives here. Additionally, if I hadn't been so carsick I would've been afraid for my life; people drive in the middle of lanes all over the place and cut across and in front of everyone so people are constantly slamming brakes and like 2 cm from sideswiping each other. I have an awesome respect for these Korean drivers who drive in this utter madness and still don't hit the other cars. AND there's motorists everywhere adding to the craziness and people serving and cars driving on sidewalks...yea. Life lesson: don't drive in Korea if you can help it. ![]() Left: This tree going by the original stone bridge leading to the palace was 350 years old!! It has really expensive and rare mushrooms growing on it (you can see the lighter colored discs growing out of the bark - Top right: Our tour guide said that Kyungbok palace loos like The Forbidden Palace a lot, but this Palace is all Korean and so uses different colors and styling. Most notable is the swirling yinyang looking symbol, which symbolizes three colors (meaning harmony of humans, earth, and sky). - Bottom right: Korean houses utilize floor-heating to heat houses, but what do they do in summer? They utilize floor-cooling systems! The holes in the bottom of this building were located on both sides so air could flow through the floor of the building :) Super cool! Floor heating systems were usually connected to kitchen to do double duty and be efficient.
![]() In the main hall/throne room, we had a surprise awaiting us. For some reason, today they were allowing visitors INSIDE the hall! Usually we just get to peek inside and snap photos from the threshold (like I did at Kyungbok Palace), but today after we removed our shoes, we were allowed inside to gaze at the colors, tapestries, architecture and throne. It was amazing inside! Our tour guide was beside herself, all excited because she had NEVER led a tour where they were allowed to do this haha. Lucky us :)
Changdeok Palace was incredible! I will type most of what I learned in the subcaptions of each picture set. The styling of the palace is so beautiful, and the scale on which everything is built is breath-taking. They really paid attention to colors and nature when building this palace. ![]() Top: A special building set aside just for the pregnant queen (whenever she was with child). There was an abalone-shell covered bench foremost in the sitting room of this building. - Bottom: The last two kings who ruled at this palace had cars. Therefore, in front of their main living quarters, they had a driveway! It looked so funny lol, kind of out of place. They also had a garage for their cars, which has since then been converted into a cafe and trinket shop today.
Tonight Dajeong took me out again for more exploring! We went to Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam, the top-selling department store in Korea! It's huge, with 10 floors and offers classes/workshops like the YMCA. We ate an early dinner at a place called Odles on the tenth floor of the department store; it was like an Asian fusion place with noodles, sushi, pastas, salads, rices, etc. Delicious :) As beforementioned, department stores here are not like department stores back home. The very top floor was all restaurants while the first basement belowground level was the "food court". Let me tell you this "food court" is not what you are thinking of with pizza and fries lol, it was like fancy and white and silver and like a market in some areas (packaged goods and foods). Think of like a department store but for food and thats what the food court was like. It was EPIC. After we had browsed through all the floors and eaten, we went down to the basement level floors where there is essentially another HUGE underground shopping mall to rival Gangnam Station's. I flipped out lol. Sometimes I think Dajeong takes me to these places just to amuse herself with my ridiculously overexcited reactions to small stuff. We stopped at a cafe down there and I got a Green Tea Yogurt Flatcino. I had no idea what it was but it sounded good haha; turns out I was right! It was bomb. Next stop was the Han River! She had remembered that I had said I've always wanted to go there :) We walked from the department store and went through some gnarly underground tunnels to get there. Upon arrival, we walked over to the floating island on the Han River and strolled around on it. We also discussed how it's actual purpose is unknown yet it costs billions of dollars to complete lol. Dajeong said because of this, it's collectively known as the "floating trash island" or something along those lines to Koreans, because it's such a waste. The Han River was BEAUTIFUL! All those gorgeous twinkling lights I've always only seen from the train or bus were now right before my eyes. It was crowded in the beginning, because lots of people come to watch the wonderful water and lights show that goes on every 15 minutes or so. They play soothing, lovely music and the water jets rise and fall as they change colors. It slowly emptied out though over time. We walked to the convenience store located along the river and Dajeong said that lots of people come here to have picnics in the summer (because it's cool). In the winter though, its so bone-chillingly freezing nobody can survive down here. She also said the entire area floods often during the rainy season, including the tunnels we had come down through. What a mess that must be, since there's trees and grass and stuff along with playground down by the river that get all covered with water...Another thing she mentioned and that we saw in action, was that a lot of people get food and beer delivered to them here for them to enjoy. Apparently the delivery guy just brings it, calls the person, and meets up with them somewhere there. That's CRAZY haha I love it! Only it'd never work with me cuz 1) I don't have phone service here and 2) I don't speak Korean (T.T) A quick bus ride back to the Yeoksam area of Gangnam led to the next part of our night; the bars! Before leaving the Han River/Department store area though we returned to the underground shopping mall. I was wearing really high wedges and after all the running around up and down the department store and all around the Han River, my feet were hurting. Only here have I ever had the wonderful experience of "oh you need shoes cuz your feet are hurting? Here, just go buy a pair real quick and wear them out". I bought the cutest pair of ballet flats from a little shoe store for $10 and wore them the rest of the night :) I HEART KOREA. We ended up at this cool little upstairs bar, where we ordered this delicious sweet and tangy chicken and some udon-like broth. I am obsessed with this dish, whatever it is. And I have always wanted to have beer & chicken, a favorite match over here. Apparently the Koreans always eat food with their alcohol, because it makes the alcohol taste better. Haha I love how ours is reversed; not only do we often not eat food with alcohol, when we do its generally wine, and the purpose is to add taste to the food. We got beers (I wanted to try the Korean types so we got Cass) and soju (which I've been dying to try for ages haha). It was great! The beers are very light in general here Dajeong said so it wasn't hard to drink and it was tasty. The soju was AMAZING; I was expecting something like vodka but while it smelled similar, it had ZERO aftertaste. I'm serious, like zero aftertaste. No chaser needed. This blew my mind lol. It was like water; no wonder they like to get so drunk in the dramas. I had been taking them like shots (thinking it was like hard alcohol here) until Dajeong told me they sip it lol. Whoops. So that's why they sometimes yell "ONE SHOT!!"...that's when they take it all at one time :D Thoroughly buzzing, we left the bar after awhile and headed to a cocktail bar called Pandora where Dajeong said they had a deal: $15 and you get unlimited mixed drinks! Talk about a deal lol, in dt SB you'd be lucky to get one mixed drink for $15. And it would be tiny too. On the way I made her stop with me at a coffee machine so I could get a 30 cents cup of milk coffee, like I've always seen on the shows!! I apologized for being so excited about every little thing here, but Dajeong said she liked my enthusiasm haha since it made her excited too. I guess I can understand since I had study abroad friends in the US who were thrilled over landmarks, places, and things I took for granted. It opened up my eyes again and made me want to visit those places! We got our first drinks (White Russian for me, Vodka Cranberry for her), and went up to the terrace. It was gorgeous and simple; we also had the place to ourselves since it was a little chilly outside! It was like our own secret little personal nook in the middle of all the other buildings on all sides. We could see all the lights and everything so clearly, it was stunning! The mixed drink list was impressive and it was fun making our way down it :) We played games of pool and darts and had way too much fun just being silly together! You know those stereotypical two drunk guys, walking home from the bar at 3:30AM singing and joking loudly and laughing at everything? Yea that was us, except we were little and Asian haha. Dajeong had had a little too much to drink so we both went back to my place and called it a night!
Since its something I noticed right away and still marvel at everyday when I'm walking, I thought I'd post about how people dress here. It could totally be just me, but it's completely fascinating! Like I mentioned in my previous post, it really catches my attention how different styles and things are acceptable here or not acceptable here, compared to back home in America. Style and fashion are EXTREMELY important in Korean society. How expensive or what brand your clothes are symbolize how wealthy/cool/impressive/fun/intelligent (and pretty much any other character traits you can imagine) you are. MALES Men: nearly always in nicely cut and tailored suits, polished dress shoes, briefcases Young adults: usually cardigans, polos, windbreakers, or sweaters, with jeans or slim-fit khakis and colorful sneakers or sperrys, backpack or side slung bag Kids: school uniform, or colorful windbreaker/sweater and skinny jeans wearing with brightly colored sneakers and sports shoes Scarves are also common for men and women (although obviously in different colors and patterns lol). FEMALES It's tougher to distinguish between ages groups of women than with men. They all seem to dress the same regardless of age, with one notable exception. Schoolgirls (up until college) seem to dress more like the Asian fobby look we are used to. They have tights, baggy sweaters with skirts, loose jeans and running shoes, oversized polos and long khaki shorts. Their hair is short, in pigtails, or a ponytail. By contrast, once they hit university age the girls always wear heels, long coats, pencil skirts, tights, and blouses in pastel colors. They wear their hair in a bun or down. The women here wear heels everyday and all the time. That or colorful sneakers. It's so strange... like polar opposites. They are either in scruffy flannels, sport sneaker, and jeans or tight pencil skirts, chiffon button up shirts, and shiny high heels. They also have a habit of wearing sheer tights or stockings with running shoes too... I was like ??? the first time I saw it lol. They will wear them with ballet flats and peep toe heels too (full foot-covered stockings). Compared to what I am used to, they wear the most interesting combinations of clothes here, seriously; the stockings and sneakers thing is just the tip of the iceberg :D I am still surprised daily. I also have never once felt short here like I usually do back home, something I just noticed yesterday when I went to Itaewon (and was among people of other nationalities again -.-). I also don't feel like I'm being viewed as young, which I also do back home cuz I look like I'm 12. Here though, everyone does so they either are better at distinguishing ages and just accept it all as a lost cause and assume everyone's old. Maybe that's why they dress so differently once you hit college lol, to determine whether you are older or younger? What you almost never see however are sandals. Even their heels are usually closed toe. This is definitely my kind of society lol, except for the baggy jeans and strange fitting flannel look. I can and do wear wedges and heels almost everyday and all I get are curious or admiring glances not "who the hell does she think she is?" kind of looks like I'd get back home if I wore them out to coffee or the store lol. AWESOME. I could live like this (with another 4-5 inches to my height).
Started off my morning with another trip to a bakery & got two delicious cheese focaccia buns, an mini apple tart (JUSTINE!), a cream-filled bun, and a cool yummy focaccia chewy bread pretzel thing with olives in it. With black olives!!! How random is that? It's like my dream come true haha; for those of you that don't know, black olives are favorite thing ever to eat on pizza, by themselves, etc. The cakes looked delectable as always (I can't believe these are real things lol, they're so perfect it looks like they're fake!). I want to buy one so bad but alas I have no reason to :'( I took a different path today and wandered off, just enjoying the neighborhood and crisp autumn air. My initial goal was to try to locate a Homeplus store that my friend Yeji had looked up for me, but I eventually admitted defeat -.- I had wanted to buy a suitcase there since I will be leaving Gangnam at the end of this week. After a full week of careful research on the Internet and reading of reviews, I have finally gone out and bought my SkinFood products of choice. There's so many to choose from and so many lines! I think I've covered all the bases of what I wanted though. As I've talked about before, I have never done anything to my skin except face wash because skin care products in the US (the good quality ones) are usually pricy and I'm super lazy. Now that I'm here though, in essentialy the new cosmetics capital of the world, good quality beauty products are not only plentiful, they are affordable! And cute as heck, which never hurts :) I've had my Acocado Rich Toner from Skinfood for awhile now but I also picked up a Parsley & Mandarin emulsion, Lettuce & Cucumber Water Drop Essence, Fresh Juice C Serum, and Peach Sake BB Cream. I also got my samples and a cute fabric pouch they gave as a gift I'm guessing because I'd spent $45. What I love about shopping here is that they give you tons of free stuff and services! It's meant as an enticement to come back and it totally works on me. If I leave a store feeling happy and pleased towards it, I would definitely want to go back when I next have a need to. At SkinFood they allot you samples based on how much you spend I'm guessing. E.g. When I bought my toner for $8, I got 5 free samples (which are all adorably packaged as well, in cute egg, honey-pot, water bottle, etc. shapes and cute colors). The free bag they gave me is also surprisingly high-quality; I was expecting one of those flimsy, cheap pouches they give out in stores in the US but this one was double layered, good material, lined on the inside, and had a good, sturdy blue zipper on the top! I also made a stop at Nature Republic because they are having their apparently annual huge 50% sale right now. I bought 3 of my favorite Breeze-In Body Lotions by them (in all three scents, Amercian Garden, European Garden, and Asian Garden!) for $3 each, what they call Herb Dressing Purple Honey Cleansing Cream (for make-up removal; I asked the saleslady and she said the purple one in this line was for oily skin like mine), and a cool new loofah. I also got free samples (oil essences), free toner cotton pads, and two free facial masks! See how well they treat you here? That's a good $5 they just gave me in free goods lol, and I'm just one customer.
On my way out, I passed a NesCafe (over here, these are actual cafes not just a brand name lol. It made me do a double-take the first time I saw one). They were doing a promotion apparently and were handing out free 4-packs of new Nescafe instant coffee! I got two because the second suited-up guy didn't notice I had already gotten one. Guess I'll try this in the morning :) -Disclaimer: A lot of my posts I make partially while I am actually doing the activities/traveling there and the other part of the post I finish up when I get back to my hotel for the day. So while I try to catch any past/present tense mistakes when I get back, there's going to be/has been a ton of discontinuity in my writing that I apologize for :/ Sorry for any confusion!! Tonight I made my long-awaited trip to Namsam Tower (The N Seoul Tower, officially the CJ Seoul Tower and commonly known as the Namsan Tower and Seoul Tower, is a communication and observation tower located on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, South Korea)! It's a famous place with shops, food, and a breathtaking view of Seoul. Because of this, my friends advised me to go at night. I asked Dajeong how to get there because my teacher had told me it was difficult to navigate to. Thank you Dajeong for helping me out so much!! I couldn't have done it without you. I kind of panicked when she mentioned I had to take a bus at some point, because I had heard that when foreign in Seoul, you should never take the buses unless you know exactly what you are doing. Dude, I JUST conquered the subway (which is cake compared to how complicated, confusing, and unstructured the bus system is)- there is no way I am capable of taking on the buses O.O First things first though! I've never ventured around on the subways after dark; I usually just walk if I'm going somewhere at night. I have now reached the conclusion that this is the time when I should be riding it. No wonder I get stared at when I ride the subways all the time during the day. It is flooded with tons of kids my age now! With their cool haircuts and hair colors and bright clothes :D I feel so much more normal lol, and more comfortable than I usually do on the subways. Usually the majority is old people or men in business suits. I'm fascinated all over again by the subway crowds haha, I love the fashions and different styles of what's acceptable here and what's not compared to back home. That being said the crowds themselves are also IMMENSE. Because now they've added the entire 25 and under crowd of Seoul to the usual mix of grandmas, grandpas, business people, and mothers. I came down my first escalator into the Orange line subway and my eyes like popped lol. You can't even see the floor anywhere, it's just a sea of people for ageeeeeees. Rush hour indeed. When I actually got on the subway, there were so many people we were packed standing, like sardines!! I was shocked. So THIS is where the Korean idea of personal space (or lack thereof) stems from...I was sandwiched side by side to one girl while my face was like in the neck of another shorter girl to the front right and my left front side was smushed against the chest of a businessman in a suit. Behind me were two women pressed against my back and breathing in my hair. I had no idea it was realistically possible to be this inappropriately close to 5 different complete strangers at one time lol. On the real. This is what I get for growing up in the fake city of Los Angeles; I'm used to everything spread out and within its own space. In my 30 minutes of discomfort however I found some amusement watching the heads of everyone around me. It's pretty funny when the subway lurches to a start again after each stop and everyone simultaneously lurches and all the heads wave together back & forth like a batch of seaweed. Yea yea, I'm going loony in here okay cut me some slack haha. Daehan Theater is where I came out of the subway and caught the Namsam Bus! --- this blue bus wasnt my bus, but I couldn't get a picture of my own due to the mad dash for seats that occurred when it arrived lol --- the announcement board for the bus stop! Awesome. It talks to you!! The bus stop not only has an LED sign announcing incoming buses and how many minutes until their arrival (every public transportation here seems like a mini-airport to me, its so complicated yet organized) but it also VOCALLY ANNOUNCES THINGS. I can't understand them cuz there in Korean but it coincides with bus almost-arrivals so I'm assuming its announcing bus numbers and stuff to let you know it's incoming. Once on the bus, it's just like the subways; it announces incoming stops and current stops in Korean and English overheard. I got on the number 2 bus to Namsam Tower outside exit 2 from Chungmuro station (off the Orange line!). The seats in the front of the bus are single seats and reserved for the elderly, pregnant, or handicapped. Just like the special rows of seats in the subways set aside for them, you are not supposed to sit in them unless you are one of the above. Me being a genius I got on and sat in one of them and THEN noticed the small gray sign with the symbols on them for the reserved seats. Face palm. One thing I did find out though; these reserved seats RECLINE. Yes, I said recline. They get to bus ride in style haha first class. Seriously?? The elderly are like gods here in Korea haha, they ride public transit free, they always have seats (since if you are younger, you are supposed to give up your seat on the subway or bus for them), they never get opposed in anything they decide, and they get whatever they want basically. No wonder Asians live forever :D Left: my first glimpse of Namsan Tower where the buses dropped us off at the bottom of the hill! Right: cool patterns in the floodlights that lit the path up to the Tower. Even their public lighting is cute! We went up and up and up windy roads until we reached Namsan Tower. I totally have lost track of days here and forgot its Friday :/ No wonder the bus is so packed. I had wanted to come when it wasn't so crowded but I guess I can always come again. Too late for regrets now lol. I will cover only half of Namsam Tower today, and the rest next time. I knew the walk up there was going to be steep; I've seen enough shows with people moaning about it as they walk up before. But man, was this thing STEEP. It was practically vertical!!! I was leaning forward just to walk straight O.O The views were breath-taking!! These pictures don't do it any sort of justice. The air is so clear and everything so bright up here. The lights of Seoul just go on and on in all directions.. can you see the dark swath in the lights that the Han River makes? Beautiful! Namsan Tower is ridiculously huge that it makes you feel so small and awe-struck when you're standing underneath it... Namsam Tower features A Teddy Bear Museum, restaurants, gift shops, observation decks, and more (the revolving restaurant rotates at one revolution every 48 minutes). You can go up to the top of the tower for a fee as well, where the spectacular views are 360 degrees! There is also the famous Locks of Love fencing up there, where people go to hang locks. All of this I will cover next time though...just wanted to tease you all :) Top left: the side view and wooden fencing along the path up to the Tower Bottom left: a pagoda atop some stairs where visitors can sit and relax! I got a Choco Latte (whatever that means) at Coldstones (Coldstones does coffee??) at the top of Namsam Tower after wandering around, admiring at the admittedly spectacular view, and doing some damage in the gift shop. They have the cutest things!! I didn't want to miss the bus back (they stop running at 11pm) so I headed back around 10. Walking around here was the first time my whole trip I've felt really lonely over here...I had also forgotten that Namsam Tower is a popular place for a date so it's filled with couples and groups of girlfriends. I miss my family & my boyfriend :( Nonetheless the sweetest thing was seeing elderly couples holding hands and clinging to the wooden fence on the sides of the road up with their other hand to climb up together. In fact, it was pretty cool too that I saw so many elderly people out tonight hiking up there- enough to make a steady line along the wooden fences on the sides lol. Well, I'll come back on a weekday and see if its any emptier. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Namsam Tower and all the stuff it has up there (including a revolving restaurant!!). Time to call it a night. Edit: I was so distracted on my ride home that I totally rode the subway in the wrong direction for ELEVEN stops (thats a good half hour) before I realized none of the stops names sounded right. My first mistake on the subway...just when I was getting comfortable using them all. I got off at the next stop and took the opposite subway back home finally lol.
I tried the pizza place, aptly named Mr. Pizza by my hotel today after taking a nice long evening walk around Gangnam. Like I mentioned before, I had heard that pizza is done up and gourmet over here so I was curious. I found that it is beyond gourmet lol, they had like 7 different crusts including Cookie (European scone) and Nude (cream cheese filling). Seriously?!? They were pricey, around $27-30 on average for a regular and more for a large. I played it safe and got what they called the New York Special, with bell peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, ham, etc. they had all the normal stuff, like Hawaiian and Meat-Lovers, but also crazy seafood-based ones and ones with whole pieces of steak or rice cakes or chunks of potato on it. It was nuts looking through the huge menu lol. ![]() I DIED when they handed this thing to me lol, who the heck gift-wraps their pizza?? I LOVE this culture, it's like my fantasy world lol. They even gave all these sauces and stuff with the pizza, my favorite of which was this like garlic cream sauce that was AMAZING on the pizza. I ate it with the crust it was superb.
Holy moly HOW FREAKING CUTE IS MY PIZZA?! They pretty much handed me a gift boxed and ribbon-tied pizza and gift-bagged my sauce. YES they gift-bagged MY SAUCE. Why do I not live here?? I know I say a bunch of stuff here is cute, but come on, this is unreal. The box itself is adorable and colorful, and has all the dates of when it was established in Korea, China, the US, and Vietnam (1990, 2000, 2007, & 2008 respectively). I was gushing about it to two of the desk ladies when I came back in and they were laughing at my reaction. Ah Korea, what more happy surprises do you have up your sleeve for me...?
Usually I'm tired out from my daytime adventuring and rarely go out late at night, but today I stuck around Gangnam so I had energy still. Late-night walk it is! There are literally SWARMS of people out at night, at least 3-4 times as many people as are out during the day. I see why so many restaurants and shops stay open so late; it's all bright and lit up and lively! I really like it :) One of the most popular things to shop for here is apparently phone covers since I see street stands and fancier phone stores all dedicated to phone covers. Like I mentioned before in a previous post, Koreans tend to have these colorful clip covers, with a pocket on the inside to hold your credit cards and cash. Super handy. I officially joined the Korean ranks when I bought a cute one today, for a measly $9. My plain silicon no-frills blue one costs $25 at Verizon!! -.- It'll be useful for when I don't want to carry my phone purse with me and I can just put my essentials from my wallet in there...this would've been helpful when we went dt all those nights in college lol. Although I never once lost any cards, phone, keys, or camera without finding it later, so I still have a stellar record!...Knock on wood. ![]() I am obsessed. It's like a cute little diary with multiple functions! Now I don't have to haul my whole big wallet out everytime I need my T-card to swipe against the turnstiles when I get on and off the subway!! I usually have my phone in my hand anyway since I'm listening to music so I just have to set my phone on top of the turnstile and I'm ready to go :)
Hold on tight guys, cuz this one's gonna be another whopper. Today I wanted to go to the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park, which has historical exhibits, interactive stations, and wide open resting areas. Originally I was planning on coming to Dongdaemun for the massive market shopping area that surrounds the station (which is what I know it for) but upon further investigation I found there was this awesome brand-new park area with art exhibitions and a history museum here I could stroll around in the middle of the city. Its so new, only half the park is actually open lol, construction is still ongoing for the rest. Shopping can wait, I do too much of it anyway lol. I got a mid-morning cupcake & iced coffee from this little place called Manoffin that has been teasing me every single day when I walk by it on my way back to the hotel. It has the cutest most delicious looking cupcakes ever in its window...and I happen to hate cupcakes. A lot. They are too sweet, I hate their sugary frosting, and they're impossible to eat without getting frosting all up on your nose and mouth when you bite into it! Nonetheless despite my grievances against the common cupcake, I couldn't resist the cuteness and finally caved. I got a cupcake they had dubbed 'Black Tea Prince' and it was delicious. The frosting was really airy and thin on top, unlike the thick nasty stuff I usually find at home. This was my first time getting on the Yellow subway line, called the Bundang line, during a transfer from my usual Green line (called the Circle line). I've posted a map of my path to Dongdaemun today! I transfer twice but only pay once (at the beginning when I get on the Green line for the first time) and then rub my wallet against the turnstile scanner when I leave the subway at the end before ascending to the street (so it scans my card again and knows I got off). For those of you who are used to riding subways and may be familiar with all this, bear with me. I've never experienced it so I'm fascinated by every little thing haha :) I also had an adjusshi call me "agasshi" for the first time!! This won't mean much to most of you haha but it means a polite "young miss" in Korean, which you hear on all the shows and dramas :D Brief background of this place: The Seoul Metropolitan Government recently launched the plan to establish the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park with the aim of reviving the historical significance of the Dongdaemun Gate and its adjacent area (on the former site of the Dongdaemun Sports Complex consisting of soccer and baseball fields). This park will promote the design industry, which is regarded as a key factor for the city’s industrial competitiveness, over the coming years, and provide its citizens with a public space for rest and relaxation. The plan was officially launched on April 28, 2009, and certain facilities east of the Seoul Seonggwak (Fortress Wall) and Igansumun Sluice Gate were opened to the public on October 27, 2009. The newly opened facilities include two exhibition halls displaying archaeological features discovered at the Dongdaemun Sports Complex Site, restored relics of the Seoul Seonggwak (Fortress Wall) and the Igansumun Sluice Gate. The Dongdaemun History Museum displays a collection of artifacts discovered at the site, the Dongdaemun Stadium Memorial Museum guides visitors through the history of the Dongdaemun Sports Complex. The Design Gallery and Event Hall holds year-round design-focused exhibitions and events are held all year round. The park’s site was also the location of the Seoul Fortress wall and Hadomateo (a military camp site) in the Jeseon Dynasty. ![]() Top left: This AWESOME dog/creature statue thing that's made/covered entirely with flattened empty plastic bottles that are nailed on. It has a tail of all green Sprite-like bottles, and so on for other parts of it's body. It's SO COOL, I was walking around it staring at it for awhile lol. How creative!
It's such a peaceful place!! There's Jason Mraz playing softly from hidden speakers by the edges but in the serene middle parts of the park it's silent except for birds. It's so zen-like in architecture and beautiful. All the walls and buildings are designed so gracefully; I could sit here all day and just think. Which is probably what some people do lol. I had such a pleasant experience in all the museums!! In the history museum this super sweet and friendly adjumma who seemed to be a curator of sorts helped me around even after she realized I didn't speak Korean. She tried anyway and I tried to understand her Korean :) She played all the games and stuff with me in the TONS of interactive exhibits in there too! The coolest of them being the floor panels in the entrance that changed scenes and season then the fish would scatter or the snow would part if you stepped on it (!!! I was like a little child with a new toy when I found them, the receptionist lady was SO laughing at me). ![]() I asked an older gentlemen if he could take my picture but he was a smart one and noticed I was holding out my iPhone. He managed to convey that he didn't know how to use these things and apologized. I felt bad for asking lol, I should've known better. He just didn't seem that old...the trickery of Asian aging. However, this kind gentlemen did go to the front entrance (where we were near) and talk to the young desk girl. Apparently he told her about me and asked her to help because she showed up in front of me and said she'd take my picture for me! How sweet :) Thank you unknown Korean gentleman, and nice desk lady whom I could understand her Korean enough to answer her questions about where I was from, etc.
At the end of the museum there was an area where you could sign a virtual guestbook and leave your photo! It then displayed it up on a big screen above the "guestbook" that you were typing into. It had an application where you stood back in an on-screen frame and fit your face into that of an old-time Stadium official's clothing (like those cardboard cutouts where you stick your face in), but I couldn't figure out how to get far enough to fit into the small on-screen circle while still being able to see the screen, which was tilted upwards towards the ceiling -.- So I just took a normal guestbook picture and called it a day haha. Also tied for coolest was the interactive floor panel that led to various parts of the history here like the construction of the wall, etc. You tapped it then selected a colored scroll, then had to dig through a layer of dirt (by touch), then pickax through some stone (by tapping) and finally sweep through a layer of soil (sweeping hand over screen) til you got to the end piece of information about a cool part of the museum. It was AWESOME, I felt like a little kid again. Which I mean, I still am, I just got better at pretending otherwise :D I wanted to take a picture with her because she was so funny and helpful, like an insta-grandma who doted on me; I didn't know if that would be appropriate though lol, since I don't know how strict they are about their jobs professionalism here or if it'd be rude since I'm younger :/ When I left the Dongdaemun park, I wandered around the area searching got somewhere to eat. I must've have stumbled into the sports area because every single shop was a sports shop, mostly tennis stuff. I guess they love their tennis here haha; there were tennis shops right next to each other for whole blocks. How do they make money with all that competition?? Instinctively I think going to eat kbbq by yourself is just not normal, since its such a communal group thing...but I passed by a bunch of places and nothing sounded good until I landed here at a kbbq place. I dithered for awhile outside, debating internally with myself about how weird I wanted to seem like eating alone, but in the end the "the heck with it, I'm in a foreign country and I want my darn BBQ" side won :) I feel kind of bad since they always give you a ton of side dishes but since I'm the only one eating, they'll be kind of wasted :/ It was BOMB though, glad I went with my gut...literally lol. The adjusshi and adjumma waiter and waitress kept thinking I didn't know how to kbbq (yes I'm using it as a verb now) so they kept coming over and taking care of me (putting my meat out and telling me when to take them off, etc). I think I ate so happily I was amusing them haha, they tried talking to me in Korean & random English everytime they passed. There's nothing like Korean BBQ for grilled meat, seriously. It's so so good.
I met two guys who were from Slovakia too! They were eating in the same restaurant and we had a friendly chat after we'd finished eating since we were the only non-Korean speaking people in there. I had been miming and speaking random Korean words to the waiter and waitress to try to get my meaning across so I was clearly not Korean lol. After that I left and ventured back home via subway. Another successful and wonderfully fun day out :) Whew. Still with me? Good. Game face on for tomorrow ladies and gents! :) ![]() Top left: egg tart!! My dimsum favorite :) Now I can see how the Korea versions taste... Top/bottom right: yummies to pick from in the bakery! Bottom left: Their version of a PB&J. They call them "Sand"s and they come with all sorts of cool fillings inside! They are perfectly pressed on the edges, with no crusts. I LOVE ASIA. I can say quite truthfully and earnestly that I could LIVE in the bakeries here. My favorite is called Paris Baguette and they are a relatively large chain here. There are shelves and rows of baked goods and packaged goods, from buns to rolls to bagels to cakes to croissants etc, and all in various flavors of mocha, honey, almond, peanut, garlic, red bean, green tea, cheese, rice, and sooo many more! You get the picture though. I couldn't take a picture because my hands were full, but when you walk in you grab a tray, with a cute little rice paper covering on it and your own pair of mini tongs. Then you scoot around the various racks, walls, and display booths picking out what you want. Once you've finishing drooling...I mean picking, you take it to the front and they wrap each one individually for you in a bakery bag if you are taking it to go. It's adorable! I've only eaten the pizza at the time of this post, so I can only comment on that. It had this herb-filled crust that was delicious, and unlike regular pizzas, had this seasoned herb, doughy stuff in the middle in addition to the tomato sauce. It had onions, bell peppers, edamame and other vegetables inside it too. Definitely not your average mini-pizza lol. After picking up some food at the bakery I went down to the Gangnam Station shops again to search for a peacoat. I finally found one!! It's the other style of peacoat I've been wanting, besides that first one I posted (which I will still keep an eye out for something of similar style). It's warm and thick, and has a hoodie part that's button-on in the back (so detachable). Also picked up some scarves, a cardigan, and a sweater dress thing I can wear with leggings. Super warm :) Gotta prepare for this epic Asian winter!
I stopped for a boba from a new place (I've been trying to go to different coffeeshops and boba places everytime so I can try them all...although I've been to Caffe Pascucci several times because I'm addicted to that darn bulgogi panini). I got a sweet potato boba this time! They really love their sweet potato here don't they? Sweet potato latte, then allt he sweet potato baked goods everywhere in the bakeries, and now a sweet potato BOBA?? Guess there's a first time for everything lol, and I do love sweet potato! This one was delicious: cool, sweet, and creamy. 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
Riding the subway back to Gangnam has become a daily ritual for me now at the end of my day of exploring/shopping/getting lost lol. I never get tired of looking out at the passing scenery since its still something new and different to me! Here's the Han River pictures I promised :) After I got off at the Yeoksam subway stop, I took a little walk around the neighborhood instead of heading straight back to my hotel. It's really nice out today, humid as ever but the temperatures nice. Sadly I went to COEX today to pick up a peacoat I had been wanting but they were all gone :'( There was only one left in the store window but it was pink and navy blue, and I hate pink :/ I did pick out some fun nerdy glasses to wear around though :) Back at the hotel I was officially tired out from my explorations today and I ordered delivery again. This time I got kimchi jigae, and asked the receptionist helping me order to have them lessen the spicy a little lol. I really shouldn't be surprised at this point, but I was still shocked when I opened the cooler and pulled an entire thing of practically still bubbling jigae, stone plate and stone bowl and all. For those of you who don't know, their "jigae"s or stews are usually cooked in these stone bowls, so when they are brought to the table they are still bubbling and piping hot! How these delivery men manage to travel & deliver these to our doors in such containers, the world may never know...
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 I know I've been here for a week and all but I still have this stupid little smile on my face that I can't help when I go out on my morning explorations. Because everyone walks here, you see the most interesting mix of people from harried scruffy students with backpacks and sneakers, polished office workers in pencils skirts and tailored suits, giggly schoolgirls in knee high socks, fashionable schoolboys joking around, a few little kids followed by harassed looking mothers, loud food sellers on the sidewalk side, and grandpas/grandpas out running morning errands. I'm not quite sure how to explain it but just walking down the street surrounded by the Korean stores and Korean signs just feels so different! A major difference in their architecture is that I see a lot of shops that are located underground, like that Mad For Garlic restaurant I blogged about earlier. You see the storefront on the street, turn in and immediately go down a set of steep stairs. Way to be efficient when you have limited space lol, we could totally learn from this. Today's coffeehouse was a place called Java City Coffee. It was a lot pricier than I was expecting but the mocha was really good :) The Kimchi Museum is located on the 2nd Basement floor of the COEX mall. I couldn't find it the first time I went, so this was my second attempt lol. It was 3,000 won for admission (a little over $2). I had a lot of fun :) I was super fascinated by all the exhibits and displays considering I actually hate kimchi. I won't eat it, although I have tried. The only time I can handle it is in kimchi jigae. The museum was here to show the history of kimchi in Korea's past and present, and its evolution throughout the years. It was also meant to showcase the various types of kimchi, when they are made and eaten, and for what purpose. I also found an area at the end that had a kimchi tasting area (I passed over it lol) and a microscope focused on a drop of kimchi liquid. It has all sorts of good bacteria in it that keeps you healthy and is good for your body! So interesting...I loved all the different pickling pots and realistic displays of the various kimchis with certain meals. Kimchi is so engrained in Korea's culture...no wonder they dedicated a museum to it :) I learned a lot for something I don't even like to eat!
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 Good afternoon Seoul, it's lovely to see you too. I found some more fun things on my walk today, including a cool stair set and funny NO SMOKING PAST THIS LINE strips painted across various areas, usually in front of subway entrances. So cool. Seeing as I hate smoking I wish we had some of those around CA. I found a Papa John's, TGI Fridays, and California Pizza Kitchen today! I'm sorely tempted to go try the CPK to see if they make their pizzas the same. I've heard they do pizza up here; none of the sausage and pepperoni business, its like fancy, yummy stuff on there!
Today I wanted to both return the I AM documentary I mistakenly purchased and do a little shopping near Sinnonhyeon Station, along Gangnamdaelo (a big street). I wanted to go back to Artbox, which is essentially sugar, spice, and everything nice made tangible. It's the cutesy-est, girliest, most adorably awesome store ever. It even has its own little row of Jelly Belly bean dispensers so you can buy jelly beans if you want. I bought a mini humidifier I'd been eyeing since Dajeong took me here the other day. It's adorable and will be perfect since its so compact. Maybe it'll help with my allergies.
On the walk home I stopped by what was termed and labeled a Pharmacy on the sign outside. However, this was not a pharmacy as we know it (CVS, Walgreens, etc), but one that looked like it went to Sephora boot camp and came out all pretty, polished, and shiny. I also stopped by a SkinFood, which I've been dying to go to for years now. Their products are supposed to be very good, and very high quality. I've been needing a toner so I browsed around for awhile and landed on the Avocado Rich Toner. It smelled WONDERFUL and was reasonably priced at 11,000 won. All the prices I've found it for online have been around $20 or higher, while this was less than $10!
On the way home I stopped by another media pole and played around with it. I found a button that would change it to English so I could understand it. So much fun :) I felt like a little kid playing with it, although slightly self-concious because people are constantly walking behind me lol.
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 Since it was nearing 5AM to my body, we stopped in a coffee shop (Tom Tom's Coffee, a chain in Korea. Think like Starbucks, which by the way is OBSCENELY expensive here). They had a long line so after we ordered iced coffees they gave us a buzzer! Like a restaurant haha. And to my surprise, it started played David Guetta and showing a movie clip!!! So high-tech. All we get are boring buzzers with shining red lights when it is ready lol.
Kyeong-bok Palace was just as beautiful as I imagined!! There were SWARMS of people there, Dajeong and I couldn't believe it. I'm assuming it was because it was the last night. We almost thought we wouldn't get in because they won't allow people in after 9 (it closes at 10), but we made it to the front of the line and sprinted (both in heels, nbd) across the courtyard to the entrance haha. It looked straight out of the movies or dramas, same architecture, colors, design, etc. Everything was so large and grand, it was awe-inspiring and beautiful. Dajeong says when she has serious talks with friends or wants an introspective moment she goes to the palaces just to walk and think and talk because it is so peaceful. It was dark when we went but I could see how all the water, green trees, wide open spaces, and tall colorful buildings could be nice to sit and think around :) I wish we had such things. Mostly if I need to think I plop down in my room, assume my yoga pose, and go at it :D
There was the main entrance and then a courtyard and another entrance (I kept thinking of the scene in the Curse of the Golden Flower where the girl panicks and is running away towards the end after (during?) the failed invasion of the Golden Flower warriors and gets speared with a thrown spear or something in the entryway of the palace. It looks identical to this one!! Sorry if that was gruesome lol. There was a big main pavilion with a throne room inside it. The stone steps going up it on all sides were HUGE; like seriously I could rock-climb up these damn things. I ended up kind of jumping and springing up each one, nearly falling on my face when I finally got to the top haha. Ever the graceful one, that's me.
There was a huuuuuuuge wide courtyard around this area, with gates spaced periodically. Just wandering around in the courtyards with the huge slabs of stone set in floor was inspiring- you feel so small. Dajeong told me that there was ten gates I think, and that they were always barred in times of war to protect the king. Heading out on one side through a walkway, we came out into an open area with trees and more buildings and a giant pavilion that looked like it was floating on the water! It was the King's pleasure pavilion, where he had his food, music, and women. The reflection on the water of the lit up pavilion and trees around it make it look like there were two :)
Finally when it was time to go we took pictures outside of the great walls that surround the palace. Apparently the area in which it is situated is very famous in dramas. She said particularly if you've seen IRIS (Mom & Dad!) the ending shooting scene is filmed here. I made a panorama so you can see! We walked down the large wide path in the middle of the freeway-like main street and went by statues of the King who created the Korean language and a samurai-like Korean general (? can't remember lol) who protected Korea against the Japanese invasion with his turtle ship. There was a replica of it in front of his statue; it was badass with a covered top to the ship and long, sharp spines coming out of it! We passed a plaque with old Korean on it (like old English! You know, with weird words and spellings and pronunciations. There is "old Korean" too, and it looks totally different, with some now-obsolete characters). There was this cool little wheat maze that ended with a black iron dome in the center too. As mentioned before we rode the subway all the way back to Yeoksam, where I am staying and I fell asleep several times lol. It was only around 11PM here so I tried to reason with myself, but my body was having none of that. All in all, such a fun day full of new experiences!
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 Waking up at the lovely hour of 2AM having gotten about 4 hours of sleep. I tossed and turned for about an hour before giving it up as a lost cause and watching Korean tv on this remarkably large flat screen. It seriously tickles me how actors and idols we are used to seeing only on YouTube are like EVERYWHERE here. I turn on the tv and first thing I see is a coke ad with 2PM and another ad with Shinhwa. Then the drama comes on and it's Personal Preference with Lee Minho :) Not one of my all time favorites but it wasn't bad. Changed the channel and some random hospital drama came on with the hot gay doctor from To The Beautiful You and the annoying angry dad from Dream High!! We are so isolated in the US :/
Anyway now that I've gotten my super Asian moment out of the way, it is time to continue my aimless wanderings around Gangnam. I love being up so early, when the light is all clear and freshly minted. Everything around me is still so new, I feel so playful and excited just walking around! Even in my uber-jet lagged state @.@ Also as a side note, I just discovered my hotel room has a doorbell when the staff brought up more tissues for me. YES, A DOORBELL. It's a very pleasant, musical one too not like the DINGDONG ones back home; just loud enough to hear clearly if the tv is on or youre running water but not loud enough to startle. When I turn the tv off too it has this little charming musical riff as it turns off, like its saying byebye! :) Why does being in Korea make me think about how every single inanimate thing is being cute?!? |
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