Solo Adventures in Seoul

So today was really fun and exciting because I got a chance to do something I have only ever done once before here in Seoul. I actually went out on my own and explored by myself. Now I know that may not sound super fun for everyone, but for me, as someone who do not go out on their own/ like to go out on their own all the time, it is very rare for me to go out by myself to do things (esp here in Korea, the very couple/group oriented country that I live in). But I did it, I went out by myself, actually last week I ate out by myself, so I guess I am getting to do a lot new stuff while on break....

Anyway, back to the story. Kaitlyn had messaged me about a pop up store for UKISS in Myeongdong that she wanted me to go check out for her. I also wanted to see it, because well it is UKISS (One of my top kpop groups) and I really needed to get out of the dorms and walk around.  I have been too much of a sloth lately.

So I went to the pop-up store and got a shirt box and two free posters then walked across the street into Myeongdong's heart and walked around. H&M was have a very big sale so I went in and got three tops and a hat/scarf set all for a little under $18 US. After getting the new clothes, I just wondered and people watched. Myeongdong is always an interesting place because the people are always changing. What I mean is that sometime when you go, there is an influx of foreigners, while other times the number of Koreans is far greater. It was one of those days where the Korean population was greater than the foreigners. I stood out, the lone foreigner taking photos of the shops with her camera all by herself. But for once I was ok standing out. I did not care that people were giving me weird looks because i was breaking out into a wide smile after I took a picture of a life sized preppy bear that would put the boys at my home university to shame.

After walking around Myeongdong, I took to the underground shopping areas just to wander around and to head back to the subway, but I accidentally went into the one that does not connect to the station, but instead I ended up walking from Myeongdong to City Hall via the underground tunnels.

Once I go to the split in the tunnel, one way going to line 1 (Itaewon) and line 2 (Sinchon), I had decided to go back to the dorm and maybe take a nap because I did not really sleep all that much last nigh (new roommate, different sleeping habits), but right before I went down the stairs to go to the gates leading to the platform, I suddenly had the urge to go above ground and to walk around. When I came up, I knew right where I was. It was the same place that I had been a few times before (see: Lantern Festival, Seoul Scavenger Hunt, Kyobo Bookstore, and Gyeongbokgung Palace) but never from this direction, so I just walked and took some pictures.

It actually turned out great because I had planned on going to the line of statues/Kyobo and then taking the subway home from there so I just kept walking straight. So as I was walking and got to Deoksu Palace, I came at the right time to watch the changing of the guard. I watched them until they left to do what ever they do after the show, and then continued on my way heading to the subway. But the funny thing was that I inavertally started to follow the parade, but from the other side of the street. So to sum it up, my day ended with me stalking a Chosun Dynasty marching band!

But something that really made my day was on the subway home, I felt like I belonged. I knew all the trick on how to not fall down when the car suddenly lurched and I was able to navigate the subway like it was my second home, just like the native "Seoululites". It was interesting to see some of the tourists stare at the map and look lost on the subway with the flurry of Korean that hits you as the speaker overhead announces the upcoming stop (they repeat it in English, Chinese, and Japanese, but not I tend to tune out after the Korean, unless the subway stop is something other than its English name).

This city is starting to become a part of me.

광장시장에 갔어요~ (Adventures in Kwang Jang Market)

So this was my actual first planned adventure of the New Year. When I arrived back in Seoul, one of the Seoul Mates had asked me if I wanted to go thrift shopping with them on the 6th of the New Year. So I actually had a plan that required me to wake up before noon!!!

Like I said I woke up at 11 am and got ready to go out and then blogged/tumbled on Tumblr/ journal-ed/ ate lunch (normal break stuff) until 3:00 when I left the dorm to go met the others at the 이대 subway station. But the funny thing was that I was strutting down the street, like I am prone to do when I am jamming out to my ipod and pretending to film music videos in my head, when I saw a group of three girls in front of me. One especially stood out because of her died hair and really tall height. I knew then that I had met up with my group, so the ear buds came out and I sneaked up behind them at the crosswalk while they were waiting for the light to change.

Leah, June Young, Yu Jeong, and I then walked over to the station together and just chatted away getting caught up on what we were had done since we had last met right before the semester had ended. I even told June Young about my trip to Hong Kong and suggested somethings to her to do/eat since she is going to be going to "The Pearl of the Orient" for three days with friends in the upcoming weeks.

At the station, we met up with Dan, one of the other program students with me who has been staying with his mother's family here in Seoul while on break. Once we were all counted and accounted for, we hopped on the train and did what any other group of college aged friends seeing each other for the first time in a few months would do--we started talking about anything and everything, to the point that we missed our stop and had to find another transfer station...Yeah, we're cool like that!

Well we got out of the subway at at Jongno 5-ga and walked a little way to get to the market. On the way, Yu Jeong was helping me remember my  Korean speaking skills by asking me what I wanted to buy and then have me describe what I wanted (ie color and numbers). I was able to do it fairly well, the grammar was there, but the vocab needed to be help a little bit. But I was still able to communicate, which was great after speaking English for a while now.

The outside view of the market from where we entered. I had to use a picture from the Korean Tourist Board website, because my picture did not transfer to my computer cleanly.

We rounded the corner on the sidewalk, and I got to see my first sight of the market. When I found out that it was Kwang Jang Market, I was super excited because this was on my "Korea bucket list" of things that I wanted to do while here in Seoul for the year. This market is one of the oldest and largest in the city and a great place just to wander around if you are in the area. Walking in the open aired entrance was so exiting I was like a kid in a candy shop. I wanted to start taking pictures of everything, but had to restrain myself for fear of freaking out all the venders/shoppers and embarrassing my friends!

First views of the market

And this was just the beginning!

The first thing we did was go up stairs to the clothing area since that was the main reason that we had come to the market. The stalls were everywhere and it was literally a labyrinth of clothes that would be the dream of any thrift shopper.

There were boots and shoes of every color of the fashion universe as well as flannel out the wazoo! But the top sellers seemed to be the coats and sweaters. We wandered around and then got split up/lost multiple times walking around in circles. I actually found a black and white checked flannel that had a leather collar and sleeve cuffs that I wanted to get, but the price was 20000 won that was brought down to 15000 after some haggling, but I wanted to see if I could get it down lower to maybe 12-10000 won, but the shop owner would not get any lower.

Us girls hamming it up for the camera while Dan tries on shirts at the stall. If you see the black and white sleeve in my hand, that was the fated shirt! **Picture Credit to June Young 언니

I decided to walk away, but if the shirt is still there next time I go, I might just get it, only if though. I ended not getting any clothes, but had a blast just wandering the isles and having all the young sales guys and shoppers say hi to me in English shyly and try to get me to go into their shop. Lol, I almost did not respond when they spoke, because I was not able to comprehend that they were speaking English at first, but rather was trying to remember how to say that I was not interested in buying in Korean!

After finally finding the stairs again after wandering around in circles a few times (and saying hello to my new friends a few times) we made it back to the first level and then want to the food section of the market. Now this is what I was looking forward to! I had read about this part in all of the blogs and guide books that I had read before I came to Korea, way back last year.

Heading to the food area

There were so many cool things being sold; fresh and dried seafood being the main attraction for me, along with buckets upon buckets of fresh vegetables that were is various stages of being fermented and "kimchi-fied." There were also so many ajumas making 빈대떡 (bean sprout pancakes) and other fried street foods. It was heaven to the nose!

Fresh veggies anyone?

So good. These are the 빈대떡 that we had for lunch

an automatic grinder to turn the beans into a paste

Other fried foods for sale

Some rice cakes and other traditional snacks

Dried fish just hanging out

We were all getting a little hungry at the time, so we looked for a place to sit outside int he market area, but there were no seats to be found, so we when into a little side restaurant that was serving the same things outside and had to go up to the third floor to find a table big enough to fit us all. Once seated and situated, we ordered two of the 빈대떡, one seafood and the other normal, and also a bottle of 막걸리 ( rice wine) to share amongst all 5 of us. It was so good!!!

The menu

My bowl of 막덜리 and the 반찬 of fresh onions in a soy/sesame sauce that we also used to dip the pancake in

the normal bean pancake

Seafood pancake!

The crew! Leah 어니, me, Dan, June Young언니, and Yu Jeong 언니

 **Photo Credit to YuJeong

After our dinner/snack we went back down into the market and wandered around a little bit more until we came out the exit on the opposite side from where we entered. Dan needed to go to Sinchon to teach his class, so we all headed to the subway to head back towards campus, Dan to Sinchon and us girls to Hongdae (but of course we had to stumble into the underground shopping, not the subway and get turned around again!).

This time we made sure to get off at all the proper stops; Dan got off at Sinchon and us girls got off at Hongdae (thank goodness that is was not too crowded), exiting at exit 9 making our way to the center of the neighborhood. We really did not know what we wanted to do, because non of us really wanted to go clubbing but also did not want to have to go back to our homes either. But we did agree upon that we wanted something sweet and I took us all to Snow Spoon, a really good frozen yogurt place in Hongdae that I first went to when I went to the Trick Eye Museum with Kaitlyn last month. While we were eating, I asked them about the interviews that they conducted with the volunteers who had stopped by to see if they could be new Seoul Mates for this upcoming semester. My three 언니들 also wanted to know what I think the Seoul Mates should do with us program participants this upcoming semester and if I had any suggestions to what type of people they should allow in as New Seoul mates. June Young also promised to take me to a 짐질방 (a Korean sauna/steam bath place) another thing I wanted to do while here in Seoul!

My yummy froyo. Red wine, Blackberry, and Raspberry with cherries, peaches, and dark chocolate sauce!

The ice cream gang! ** Picture Credit to June Young 언니, even though Yu Jeong 언니 is taking the shot :)

 After froyo, we just wandered around and looked at all the shops. YuJeong and June Young took us all to the hipster part of Hongdae (if Hongdae was not hipster enough) and we went shopping there as well. I never knew this area existed! I think I may have been one of like 4 foreigners in the area and the crowds that you would expect from Hongdae were non-existent. Truthfully I have no idea how these businesses stay open, because there was not much foot traffic back in the alleyways that we were walking in. Maybe it was only a place for the locals to go, because there were these cute little coffee shops had boutiques that reminded me of the Avondale area of Jacksonville, Florida. There were also a whole bunch of little gourmet ice cream shops that we kept passing. We all agreed that we needed to go on an ice cream tour in the future where we could go from one ice cream parlor to another to try all the flavors!

Found my sorority letters in Hongdae!! Kappa Delta/ AOT <3

But there was this one funky store that they took us to that had clothes that were kind of my style, but also at the same time, made you scratch your head and wonder if anyone actually wore them other than those that were ahead of the fashion game. But I did find a really cute pair of long thing dangle earrings in the shape of crosses, which was great because I had really wanted to find a pair! We looked around the store some more, mostly in the makeup area, but no on e else bought anything, so we left and started walking down more hipster alleyways.

My new ring and earrings!

We passed by a lot of small boutiques and bars like I mentioned before and even found one that had a box of mismatched rings out front that we stopped at and looked at for a while; just trying them on and talking about random things. I found a crown ring that I just could not put down. I think the owner saw that I was attached to it, because when I asked how much it was he lowered the price form 7,000 won to 5,000 won for me! There was also a sign in the store that Leah, Yu Jeong, and June Young had seen and were laughing at, but when I tried to read it, Yun Jeong said I should not and block my view. All I caught out of it was "Hongdae people..." I guess they were trying to keep me from learning some bad words, that is if I was able to understand them, lol.

We ended the night there, walking back to the station to head home. On the way to the station we saw  motorized bar, pretty much an old VW van like bus that drives around and sells cocktails. It was really cool,  becasue non of us had seen one actually drive around!

All in all it was a really fun day that I would not mind repeating again in the future!

We're off to See the Movies

Yesterday, I got to go to my first ever 4D movie. I had woken up at 3pm (don't judge, I am on winter break!) and was just in my floor's lounge on the computer just getting ready to start watching Dexter when I got a message form two of my program mates who are also staying over the break that they were going to go see Ender's Game in 4D and would I be interested.

I really had nothing else planned other than watching about 4 hours of Dexter in my room and I had wanted to go see EG because I remembered that my sister and dad had read the books and both thought that I might be interested in the storyline. "Why not" I thought and then went back to my room to put away my computer, grab my coat, and purse and then went down to the Lobby to meet up with Saida and Leslie (program mates) and Saida's friend from school Danielle.

We ended up going to the CGV at the Olympic stadium, because that is one of the theaters that has the 4D theater in it. We got there and quickly had to choose our seats because the tickets were selling out fast. Yeah, here in Korea when you buy movie tickets you have to choose an assigned seat when you buy the tickets. Thankfully we were able to find four seats in a row and did not need to split up in the theater.

The ticket for all four of us

The ticket counter is the counter on the left and the seat checker is the black box on the far left

Since we were a little early and non of us had really eaten all day, we went a head and got our concessions from the concession area of the main lobby and then waited for them to finish cleaning the theater before we could go in an find our seats. Before we could finish the popcorn that we were munching on, we were allowed to go into the theater.

Our dinner for the night

It was really good! Regal needs to pick up their game

The three different concession stands. One was for classics like popcorn (Carmel, Butter, Cheese, and garlic flavored), one was for more substantial things like hot dogs and sandwiches, and the one on the left was for fresh salads and juices

We could also eat ice cream and go shopping for cosmetics at a make up store (green thing that was cut off)

Coffee and cake anyone?

The theater that we were in was pretty small there were probably only about 7 rows with 8 seats each, with a middle walk way that separated the rows into 4 and 4. Anyway, when we got to our seats, we all saw a button on one of the armrests that allowed us to turn off the water. That is when  I started to get nervous, just how much water was going to be sprayed on me during this? At that point we were all getting nervous because since we had never done this before we were not sure if we should scarf all the food before the movie in case the seats were going to go wild, or if we should have food at all!

Before the show started, we were showed the warnings and rules for the theater. Much like a simulator really: 1) no eating or drinking--that one was out of the question because we ALL, the whole theater, had food and the seats WERE MADE WITH CUP HOLDERS!! 2) Do not watch in 4D if pregnant, suffering from motion sickness, or injured 3) don't leave the theater in the middle of the movie. All of us were just sitting there like "what had we gotten ourselves into!?!?!"

We were the only ones freaking out though because not one of the all Korean audience was flinching or shoving food down their throats, just sitting there calmly and chatting away. But right after the warnings, there was a little "trailer" for the 4D viewing and it was not bad at all. the seats moved, but not really fast or suddenly, the water was more like a light mist, the wind was cold but bearable, and the perfume smelled really nice and was not too over powering. Even the extra lights that flashed during the "fight" was not too bad. So we calmed down and got ready to watch the show.

 Ender's Game  was really good. I have never read the books before, but I love the storyline and really want to read the books now to see what they had to cut out of the movie to make it fit in the time frame that they needed it to be in. If you get the chance to, you should go see it. And if you have the chance to see it in 4D, definitely go see it in 4D! It was really cool because during the space parts, the seats slightly moved around to create the effect of feeling like you were actually in zero gravity with the actors. It was just so cool, because my other senses (other than sight) were engaged during the movie, when I think back on the story, I kind of feel like I was in the movie itself.

Man, if only I had seen the Hobbit in 4D!!

After the movie we went to the arcade upstairs and fooled around up there for a few hours. And all you Southerners should be proud, I totally won a car racing game in classic NASCAR style!

On the escalators heading down to the subway station

We had to leave around 9 though, because Danielle had a long train ride home and we were getting hungry again (well at least I was), so we went to Edae and got some really good cheap pizza. I even bought one large pizza just for myself to bring back to the dorm to have to eat for the next few days, and man has that been great! And all for under 6 dollars!

tl:dr movies are amazing if you see them in 4D and I eat way too much to be healthy~

It was a New Year Thriller

Happy New year everyone!! May 2014 be amazing and filled with happiness and good health!

So being over here in Seoul means that I am not really getting all of the normal holiday celebrations that I am used to doing back home with my family in the States. Like it was the first time for me to be away from my family for Christmas, but I had a blast in Hong Kong. I still had some of the familiar Christmas two days later on the 28th when I opened my presents that my parents, aunt, and grandmother had sent me a few months before that I had kept wrapped until I came back from my trip. I had wanted to open them with my parents and sister on Skype, but because of complications  had to live texted them through Facebook chat.  Got a lot of good things and some food that I had been craving!

The same goes for New Years as well. Usually for New Years, I am helping get our house ready for the New Year. I also usually have to go pick up the Chinese food and then go off to either a friend's house for the countdown or stay at home and watch the ball drop with my family. But because I am halfway around the world from my family and friends I had to spend it a little differently than I normally do.

I had made plans with Ida, a really close friend of mine and also one of my fellow teammates that I met when we did the live filming of After School Club way back in September. Ida and I are both official Melodies (fan club name) for BTOB, the boy group that we were in the filming with. BTOB was going to be having a stage on the end of the year concert performance for MBC Gayo Daejaejun. They were going to do the live performance as well a a prerecording that they allowed the fans to go to. So Ida and I brought all our fan merchandise ( Me: membership card, album, and slogan; Ida: card, slogan, and light stick) and headed out to Ilsan to get to the venue. Well we got there by 2pm and were able to get a good spot in line. But then the waiting started!!! We had to wait until 5:30 for them to organize us in lines. So from 2pm to 5pm we were moved into different lines depending on where the fan staff told us to go, all while we were freezing as the wind started to pick up.

But once 5:30pm  showed up, the fan staff came over to us and looked at our cards and gave us numbers, We were in!! So we went into the building and were then told to wait for another hour while the other performers were finishing their runs. We saw Nicole, another friend of mine from Germany there and we were texting her telling her what was going on because we were in front of her in the line. She was amazed that we were able to get in and have such high numbers because we only had three of the four fan merchandise requirements! So Ida and I were really luck to have even gotten in, much less have really high numbers!

When we got into the auditorium, my group was place right at the right side of the stage. I am not going to go too much into what happened, because I am not exactly sure if I am allowed to talk about what went down during the recording because after we left there was a post in the fan cafe saying that we should not talk about what happened during the recording until a certain amount of time passed or fans would not be allowed to attend pre-recordings any more. Let me just say that it was a really good stage and I loved the dance break in the middle that they added to the dance.

BTOB had promised a high five event for the Melodies that showed up to the recording if we were about to have more than 500 people show up; we had 600!! So as we were leaving, we were allowed to high five the band members and thank them and wish them a Happy New Year. My group was the last to get released from the little pins that we were in, so we were being told to hurry and quickly leave the stage area so that they could set up for the concert later that night. So I was quickly going down the stairs when suddenly a wild Sungjae appeared! It was Sungjae, Ilhoon, Hyunshik, Eunkwang, Changseob, Peniel, and finally Minhyuk. Since we were being really rushed, I don;t really remember everything that happened, but I do know that Eunkwang recognized me and that most of them were wishing me a Happy New Year or just slightly bowing.

After we were released form the studio and made it back to our side of Seoul, it was already 9pm, so Ida and I went to the Noodle Box to go eat noodles, because I had told her of my family's tradition of eating Chinese for New Year Eve dinner so I normally eat Lo Mein noodles ( I having them for as long as I can remember). The Noodle Box in Edae is really good! We both ordered the Pad Tai and omo it was super delicious! But we had to eat fast because they closed down the store at 9:30, so not pictures of the noodle-ly beauty that was our dinner. Because Ida had paid for our dinner because they had a discount for Edae students, I paid for dessert at the Bubble Tea shop that I like near by. At that point we really did not want to head back to our dorms so we hung out in the student union building on the Edae campus, but they were closing that down early for the holiday so we then moved to a 24/7 cafe near the subway stop.

I got some cake and coffee so we could stay in the warmth and wait the hour and a half that was left of 2013. We talked a lot about our families and the various traditions that we do back home for all the plethora of holidays that we celebrate. We both had in common that family is a really big part of what we miss about not being home for the holidays. One of the traditions that she told me about was that her family and her all stand on chairs and the couch and jump down when the clock hits midnight; jumping into the New Year. I thought that it would be fun if we did that for her since we had noodles for me.

My super delicious red velvet cake and Moroccan Mint Latte. Sweet things to start of the new year!

So once the clock got to 11:58 pm, we packed up our things and went outside to the stoop. Since we did not have a count down clock, we watched Ida cell phone until it changed to 12:00am. As soon as the numbers changed we jumped off of the stoop and into the New Year! It was really fun to jump in the middle of a deserted Edae, because there was no one there and the few people who were walking bye just stared at us crazy foreigners giggling and hugging each other. While walking back we were talking about what would happen in the new year and how excited we were. I have a feeling that this new year is going to be amazing!

So here are my goals for the New Year:

1) Create and maintain a fitness plan
2) Be more frugal and spend less money on the things that don't matter
3) Reduce my time on the computer for non- school related things (aka Tumblr and YouTube)
4) Journal everyday and put out one blog post per week
5) Make at least two Korean friends who are not affiliated with my program or my language exchange.
6) Order take out in Korean before I leave to go back to the States (trust me, it is harder than you would think)
7) Smile more
8)Curse less (more so in writing than speaking)
9) Be more positive
and lastly
10)Say at least three positive things about myself every day

Ok world, here are my goals! Let's hope that I meet them and that I have good health in the New Year!! Here is to a great 2014!!