So in a few days, it'll be my second month of being in South Korea! I haven't been taking many photos since the last update a month ago because I've kind of fallen into a routine and there's not many new things for me to write about or take pictures of. I've just started to live day by day so I never really think about recapping my previous experiences. My blog has gotten about 2000 views since the last update a month ago so I'm starting to feel guilty for not putting out fresh content, so here it is~ I'm going to be writing about Inkigayo, Ilsan Flower Garden, Children's Grand Park Zoo, and Jeonju!
So when I last updated, I actually had my monthly evaluation. These are used to monitor and gauge our progress to make sure that we're not losing motivation and are continually improving. If the program notices a decline in our scores, we'll be subject to receiving a warning.
I decided that since I was off of school that Monday, I should spend it studying before the exam. On my way to the cafe next to our Korean classes I bought these rice balls that a lady named Ga Young always sells on the corner. I used to always buy one when I walked by the first week that I was here because she was always really kind, but since we started school, I never had a chance to come back until that day. She told me that it was the last day she would be selling them since she's looking for an actual shop instead of a stand. After exchanging Facebooks to keep in contact, she sent me off with a free rice ball (curry and eggplant filling). Keep an eye out for Goldfish Riceball~ I absolutely love these things, but I haven't had them in about a month...
After sitting down to study for a few hours, I had to meet my director for our monthly lunch where we would catch up and discuss any issues I may be having. Since I was the first one to have my monthly lunch, when she asked me about it, I thought that I was in trouble haha. I asked her if we could go out for some Vietnamese food since I was really missing my mom's cooking. After lunch, I came back for Korean class to find an empty corner where Goldfish Riceball used to be.
Later that week, I had some free time off to go visit one of the other NSLI-Y kids where she lived in Ilsan. Although it's over an hour from me, I figured I should go see the area at least once. It's actually a really nice place since it's on the edge of Seoul and there's actually room for new buildings. The thing about Seoul is that most of the buildings are pretty outdated. Since there's not much room and the population is so dense, buildings don't get remodeled very often. There's some really nice buildings, but overall most of Seoul is pretty unpolished in the metropolitan aspect. We went to grab some KFC from the local outlet mall and headed out only to find out there was a flower festival.
After the flower festival, we went out to grab some rabokki (ramen & ddeokbokki) before walking around the lake and finding the flower garden.
The next day we went to Inkigayo! Since her host dad is friends with the producer of the show, she got 6 tickets for us to go the next day and also get GD's signature. I spent quite some time getting ready to be honest since I wanted to look nice for my first music show! Enjoy the before and after transformation from ghetto pajama street rat to wannabe idol.
Once we got there, we just had to call the producer and let him know that we'd arrived. He came out to walk us to the front of the line and let us in for the preview. Basically, the first part is rehearsals where we sit in the audience and watch the groups practice or pre-record their performances. During this time, official fanclubs are allowed to stand by the stage, but have to leave after their group is finished performing. Once rehearsals were over, we were asked to leave and reenter the line. We were walked to the front again and let in, this time standing right up against the stage (you can actually see me in GD"s performance of R.O.D with CL). Since we're not allowed to take photos at Inkigayo, I couldn't take any while I was at the front of the stage, but I snuck a few when I was in the seats.
The following Monday, I came to school to find that we got varsity jackets to wear at sports day the next day. Unfortunately, I didn't know these were for sports day at the time, so I didn't even wear mine to the stadium haha.
The next day, we had off for Korea's national holiday, Foundation Day. It was also the day of the Gangnam Fashion Festival, so I planned to meet some friends up there. Before the even started, I met up with a friend from school and we went to Co-Ex Mall to watch a movie. After the movie, we bumped into some friends and went to get dinner together before splitting up. The fashion festival was actually pretty boring, so we left and went to the nicer areas of Gangnam instead. I finally got to use one of those fancy media poles!
My host mom called me out of my room one day to show me the sunset outside of the window. She said it's the pretties that she's ever seen the sky and she was freaking out haha. To me, it looked like a normal sunset in Texas so she got upset when I wasn't as excited as she was. ==
The next day, I had made plans to go out to Itaewon and Namsan Tower. Honestly, I've never seen so many foreigners before than at Itaewon. The area itself is actually pretty sketchy if you veer off the main road, so I definitely don't recommend coming here alone or at night. We visited the mosque before heading to Namsan.
There's not much to say about Namsan Tower except that the view is really pretty. We didn't have enough time to go to the top this time, so we just chilled at the top of the mountain, but at the base of the tower. Dinner here was pretty expensive and below you'll see my $12 tonkatsu omelet rice... The view from up here was gorgeous, especially at night when you could see all of Seoul lit up. My only advice is: DON'T COME HERE IF YOU'RE SINGLE. Literally everybody here was a couple and it was so awkward being single. ==
We went to Myeongdong after Namsan tower. I bought some street food for me and my friend, but he thanked me by photobombing my half-eaten kebab... He showed me a few places to find some really nice clothes before we split up and headed home.
The next morning, I went to a café to study a little bit since my host family was out of the house at church. It's a cute little coffee place tucked into a small area that has really good coffee and waffles for a great price. The caramel macchiato itself was $3 while the waffle was $1.
While I was out studying, my friend from high school messaged me asking if I wanted to hang out. Since I didn't have any plans, of course I said yes haha. He took me to a place called Pumpkin Restaurant to eat Korean barbecue and ohhhh man it was delicious. After eating, we went to a little park that overlooks the Han River. The view was really amazing and I'll definitely come back here just to clear my head. We chatted for a few hours before heading back to the subway.
I didn't really do anything for the rest of the week, so I don't have any photos until the next weekend when I went with some friends to Dongdaemun.
After walking around and not doing much, we got bored and headed to Hongdae. I took them to my favorite bubble tea place called Tapioca Factory where it's only ~$3 for some milk tea. If you ever go here, I recommend the hazelnut burn milk tea.
I heard about this place called Condomania... I won't go into detail, but it's interesting. :)
We went out for froyo and had a competition to see who could make the prettiest one. I didn't actually get a prize from them... but I still won.
We walked around a little longer and grabbed some burgers from this delicious streetfood-esque shop. It's only $3.50 for one of the best burgers I have ever had haha.
We went to watch some street performances and found my favorite performer, Mint Plug. I had originally heard him my first night that I was exploring Hongdae and loved his singing. He sang two of the songs that I had heard him sing the first night and the nostalgia hit me pretty hard. It was hard for me to believe that I had been a month since I'd first seen him perform.
The next day, we went to Inkigayo again! This time we got to meet Lee Hyunwoo, the host of Inkigayo and also the actor from "To The Beautiful You". He didn't say much since there was quite a large language barrier. He teased the girls I was with because started shaking after meeting him. I didn't take any photos this time other than with Hyunwoo. It's actually kind of funny because some of the girls at Inkigayo point and stare at me while whispering to their friends, but when I look at them they always turn away. I think I might actually be able to pass as a backup dancer one day. I caused a commotion coming out of the backdoor where idols park their vans and fangirls wait outside for them. Basically they thought I was someone famous, but had no idea who exactly I was haha.
We went out to a buffet place called Gogi (Meat) King afterwards where you can pay $15 and you get to pick raw meat from a deli counter and cook it up at your table. It was sooooo good and filling, but I felt so unhealthy after eating all that pork, beef, and fat.
It was our resident director's late birthday, so we bought her a cake. Apparently, it's a Korean thing to make someone really sad or worried and then surprise them with a gift for their birthday. We asked our Korean teacher to tell our director that one of the girls was crying. I waited outside and pretended to be really worried and helpless when she came up. The others were hiding in a room, huddled around the cake/girl pretending to console her. I walked our director in and when she walked over to see what was going on, they all stepped aside from the table with a cake in the middle. Surprise!
Later that week, my school went to the park to volunteer and clean up. My friends were all going to Children's Grand Park, but my class was going to a kind of boring area so I asked if I could just go with my friends instead and I'm glad I did! The place we went to had a whole zoo!
The other exchange students from America, Chile, and Japan (respectively left to right)
We took a photo together. :)
It felt like I was in Harry Potter...
Kind of sad... They're so fat because they can't exercise.
We waited for one of our friends to meet us so we could go out after the whole park thing was over with. We decided to go to Insadong and just walk around. I don't have a lot of pictures since it wasn't too interesting. We just walked along the Cheonggyecheon stream and then went to find a place to eat. I posted a photo from the same place called Crazy Ddok. It's really good there and it's a pretty good price, so if you're ever in Insadong, find it!
Please excuse everything about me lol. It was a long day with lots of walking.
The next day was the birthday of one of the girls on the program. Since the other kids on the program don't know her that well, me and a boy from my school decided to take her out for coffee and cake in Hongdae after class. We spent the night just walking around and watching street performances before we called it a night and headed home.
That weekend, we took a two day trip to Jeonju for our monthly excursion and TOPIK test. I packed my bags the day before so I was able to wake up, hop on the subway, and meet up with everybody on time. We ran to Dunkin' Donuts to grab breakfast before boarding the train to Jeonju. After arriving, the first thing we did was split up into groups and take a cab to Jeonju Hanok Village. Our director took us to eat some of Jeonju's famous bibimbap at a local restaurant. It was a little too spicy, but I finished it so fast! We were also treated to some soft serve ice cream for desert afterwards by Jihye-saem!
We had a bit of free time for about 40 minutes, so me and one of the others went around the area just to look around and kind of sight see. The area was a mix of newer buildings and some really rural touches here and there. One street was really pretty though, but I never actually took a picture. It was actually nicer than most of the streets that I've seen in Seoul.
"This too shall pass." Aside from the typo, I really like this!
After meeting back up at the park, we went to check in at the hanok (Korean traditional house) that we would be staying in for the night. The following photos were not taken by me but I pulled them from the group page. After checking in, we went kimchi making (which I couldn't take photos because my hands were dirty with pepper paste).
The next morning, we checked out and took a cab to a local university where we were taking our TOPIK test. After a grueling 3 hours of testing, our director took us to eat lunch. We finished up and took cabs back to the train station to head back to Seoul.
Now Playing: ?!. by Jazzyfact (ft. DJ Pumpkin)
