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
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.
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...
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.
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/9/13295515/1094188_orig.jpg?1)
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
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