Clubbing in Hongdae

10/25~10/26 This weekend, my friend had invited me to go clubbing with her in Hongdae. I also had invited a couple of my friends to come along. I believe the more the merrier. I have to say I was a bit skeptical on how clubbing worked in South Korea. I wanted to know if it was similar or different from the States, so I went to check it out. I love going to Seoul but that requires me waking real early for the train. It is a bit dreadful waking up that early on a Saturday but  I don't mind it because I would be so excited for the day. The cheapest train ticket for Seoul would be Munghwa which is roughly aroun24,800 won ($25), the slowest train and it takes 5 hours. I usually buy the ticket for around 5:49am so I would get there around 10:49am. I get the earliest ticket because I want to get out of my town, explore Seoul more since it has so much to offer, and to catch up with my friends that live in Seoul. My little town doesn't have much to do. This Saturday morning, I had my alarm for 4:30am but the snooze button.... I snoozed my alarm until 5:10am. I stayed up late to catch up with the latest season of Grey's Anatomy. I just couldn't stop watching it because it left you off your seat at every episode like any other good drama would do. Anyhow, I quickly got ready and slab some makeup to make me look half awake...I'm a walking zombie if I don't get enough sleep...by the time I was finish getting ready it was already 5:37am. I quickly grab all my belongings and ran out the door. I thought I had enough time so I just powered walk to the Main Street. The Main Street has dozens of taxis swarming around this time of night but for some odd reason, the streets were dead, not a single taxi. I was like f@&$! So I was walking around literally looking out for a taxi to drive by and I was like I don't have enough time it was 5:40am. I quickly went into the GS25 and use the universal hand signal for a phone call and I blurted out taxiiii. I tried real hard to make it sound like how Koreans say it. Thank goodness she understood. She called the taxi and it came in 2 mins..so it's about 5:43am. I am panicking a lot inside because if I don't make this train I would get to Seoul around 1pm or so...

I quickly threw my carry on bag and said "gichayeog", (train station). I had to say it twice since he didn't understand, my pronunciation is off sometimes but I am pretty sure that I had said it correctly, because when the cashier called the taxi, I heard her say "miguk". I felt like this taxi driver was f$&@ing with me. I mad sure to watch were the meter is because taxi drivers sometimes scam you. If they press thoses buttons, there is extra surcharges up to 2000 won. Well, I was right his itchy fingers was there. I'm pretty sure I was staring real hard and he saw that I'm not stupid and slowly withdraw his itchy hands away..ugh.. I didn't have the time, way to early for that sh$&@, and there was a mere possiblity that I was missing my train. I told the taxi driver "Bali, Bali!" (Hurry, Hurry!) he didn't understand and started to break....I was like Aniyo, upeyy! (No, up!). I felt like that was the slowest taxi ride I have ever been on.Korean taxi drivers are very wreckless, speedy, ignorant and they think they own the streets. They drive super fast to get you from point A to point B really fast so usually you are holding on for dear life when your in a taxi car in Korea. The funny part is that they get offended if you put on your seatbelt and start talking in Korean or smacking the selt beat out of your hands. This happened many times wih me because I always put a seat belt on. I don't care if your a good drivers or whatever. Seat belt is a must. Things can happen!! Let me stop with this taxi rant and get back to finishing the story. I finally arrived at 5:48am. I ran as fast as could with a carry on in my hands and an oversized bag, up a flight of stairs and down a flight of stairs to catch the train. I was getting stares running but I didn't really care it's Korea. I had a train to catch. I get stares were ever I go as I mentioned I'm a standing tower in Korea. This morning was a rough start! 

Zzzzzzz....5 hours later.....I finally arrived in Seoul. My friends and I were meeting up at the Hello Kitty cafe in Hongdae. I had the most difficult time finding the cafe I was literally circling around Hongdae with a carry on luggage. I was following direction from a blogger online and she said that it is near a Watson and Ho bar. There are about 3 Ho bars in Hongdae. I was such a tourist. This was my third time in Hongdae. I love Hongdae nightlife it is pretty awesome. My friends were coming a little later because their bus arrival was alittle later than mine. By the time they got to Seoul, we ended up going together...me with directions not so good I guess...haha

 

Before heading out to go clubbing, we decided to get dinner before chugging down massive amounts alcohol..haha jk I'm not a heavy drinker, but I like to drink moderately. We went to eat at Mr. Cheese Rib, apparently it is a new popular food in Seoul. I am always up to trying new things especially when it comes to food.

When we walked into Mr. Cheese Rib's restaurant it was really busy, In my head, I was assuming it must be really good since it was packed. We had a choice of choosing how spicy we wanted our ribs, of course we choose the lowest level we can possible pick (mild). We had are Korean friend order since she knew more Korean than anyone else at the table. While waiting for our food, I was looking around and man did the food look amazingly good. While we were chatting up a storm, are food finally came to the table. We had a ghetto gas stove with a hot cast iron plate full of marinated ribs and massive amounts of cheese. Hooray for me because I love cheese. 

In Korea, cheese is super expensive and hard to come by especially were I live, unfortunately. The only time I eat cheese is when it comes with our food that we order. (pizza, cheese dakgalbi, etc) So, this year I will be cheese deprived.. TT haha really tho. We got these special gloves to use to eat our ribs with to prevent our hands from getting dirty. The first bite into my ribs, my mouth was on fire, literally!!! I couldn't help but prance my legs around as that was suppose to soothe my pain in my mouth...hahaha but that hella was spicy as #$&%*! and the sad part is that we had to champ it out and finish it. My grandma and mom always nags when throwing out food, so they make sure that we eat all our food before letting us play when we were little. It always stuck with me, therefore I don't let food go to waste. I was eating ribs after ribs because if I stopped it was much more painful but there was a point were I couldn't handle the heat anymore. I was sweating eating theses ribs; one of my friends said I looked like I was giving birth..haha.. Most of my friends had a couple and called it quits. I told my friends after eating these spicy ribs, we don't need to put lip gloss on because we would have plumped lips ready for the club..hahaha... We were probably the most obnoxious table and loudest table in the restaurant but we had the I don't care attitude like most foreigners...haha 

Yep! I also tried Nitrogen ice cream before I left Seoul treating my home sickness. Before leaving I usually like to get something sweet as I head back to my town.hahaha

That's all I have for ya'll now but I should be posting another one about my birthday weekend in Cheonan!! 

Xoxo-Chuieeadventures

Pizzeria Da' Genna

Track and Field Competition

So the day before my co-teacher, literally called me and said I was going to go to a sports competition. The first thing that came to my mind was "how about class?" He told me that they all will be participating in the event. However, I had to teach after school classes. It would of been better if he told me ahead of time in advance. I'm pretty sure if its a city wide event, the days were most likely set. I had lesson planned for all my classes for nothing and I can't use it for next week either. My co-teacher teaches the sections and we alternate sections on what the students left off. Hence, that I only go to that school once a week.

My co-teacher is not the best person to describe directions at all..neither am I. That is the reason why I don't give directions to anyone and that is why they would receive a map from me. So I ended leaving my house at 8:20am to give myself a head start in case I get lost. So here I go walking around remembering the directions in my head that he gave to me over the phone the other evening. I followed the instructions and 20 minutes passed by and I didn't see any signs that lead me towards city hall. I started to doubt the directions he gave me and gave him a ring. We were going back and fourth on the phone until I told him just let me know what the name of the place is, I can find it myself. I was a bit frustrated...so my co-teacher told me to give my phone to a stranger, not a bad idea. So I found a plant shop with a cutie inside haha.. I said hello in Korean and literally stuck my phone in his ear because he didn't know any English at all. 

But anyways, October 17th was a city wide sports athletic competition in my town. The best runner of each age group represents there school. I also seen some of my other students from my other two schools that I teach at. They all greeted me with big smiles. I told them a term that Koreans use a lot, fighting! I was wishing my students the best. It was a nice experience to watch my students participate in the athletic competition. I hope throughout this school year I will be able to participate in more school events and cheer on  my students.

First Baseball Game in S. Korea

I went to my first baseball game in Masan, NC Dinos vs. TWIN. I was voting for the NC Dinos because my friend was a hardcore NC Dino's fan, however I'm not a big baseball fan but the baseball game in S. Korea is definitely more exciting and exhilarating. I went to a Yankee baseball game in New York City before. Baseball in S.Korea is very popular. It is just like how the U.S.A is with football. However, in the baseball game stadium in Korea, you can bring whatever you want in the stadium but you can't bring glass items. They also sell boos and snacks. They literally have a CU convenient store built underneath a couple row of seats. Every person that was at the game had a jersey on with their last name or their favorite Korean baseball player even the infants...which I find very adorable... The parents get them started on baseball..young hahaha....

Almost the same with the States. So before heading in the baseball stadium, they have stalls of vendors selling snacks and food such as kimbap, squid, octopus, popcorn and so much more. I got sucked into buying the grilled octopus and boy was it yummy!..I love squid and octopus...but after eating it, it makes your mouth reekkk like no tomorrow....hahahah...I actually pigged out that day. I had octopus, corn chips, and beer. I not a fan of beer because it makes my belly bulge out but it was a compliment it had with the chips was delicious. hahaha The NC Dinos won!!! Woot!! Woot!! We didn't watch all 9 innings. We head back to my friend's house and started packing. And we had patbingsu at Su-bing..Deliciousness, we wanted to get Mango but it was out of season, we ended up trying a really nutty cheesecake patbingsu with honey toast bread...It was pretty good!  After are indulgences in sweets, it was time for us to depart..

Seoul Weekend

As I’m writing this post, I am sitting in the most tight-est awkward spot on the train...since I didn’t purchase the train tickets ahead of time, so the tickets were sold out. I had to stand for 2 hours…I just love to procrastinate... TT.. this is what I get for not buying it early…When I arrived at Seoul station, my friend came to pick me up from the station and took me to Wangsimi to Pink nails to get my natural eyebrows and eyeliner retouched since are appointment was at 3. The second time around, is called a touch up. It hurts like a b*&%$. When I first got it done, there was barely any pain, however the numbing cream did get into my eyes and that *&#@!!! stings. I was literally yelling, “Appa, Appa!!!” hahaha the tattoo technician laughed at me because she knew I couldn’t speak Korean. (J.F.Y.I “Appa” in Korean means hurt by the way.) It took only an hour and I was finished. I was happy with the results and my eyes and eyebrows were swollen for the day. After getting my touch up done, of course I wore a hat the entire day to hide my swollen eyes. We went to the popular Bong Chu Restaurant. The restaurant was packed and there was a line that was formed outside of the restaurant, but we decided to wait. We were both so hungry because we usually don’t eat breakfast.hahah..

The food was really good but it was spicy hot..it is one of those spicy Korean food,,haha..were you take one to three bites but if you take more than that, it gets spicier and spicier every bite.…it tastes very similar to Galbi-Jim but much spicier and it was with chicken. Of course, after lunch we had to get dessert… my favorite bubble tea, duh…duh..dun…“Gong cha”.  I got taro milk tea with pearls….so good!! I wanted to get another one but my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach. I also tried Gong Cha’s Green Chou Chou for the first time. It was a roll cake that was really dense and the filling inside also was really dense like thick thick whip cream. However I didn't really like it even though it is a famous cake in Taiwan. It wasn't my cup of tea. Just because it's famous doesn't mean it is good all the time.

After are indulgences in sweets, we went to Seongsu-dong…why Seongsu-dong?...hahha well, the last time when I visited my friend she was talking about getting my shoes customized because it was so hard to find my shoe size. She herself bought 2 pairs of customized shoes from Tandy…she also has a difficult time finding shoes since her feet are too small...she is a size 5…baby feet!!! Lol…I happen to be the other way around….to big!!! And that is the sad part; Tandy didn’t make my shoe size they only go up to 290. However the sale rep. told us about Seongsu-dong, so he was forgiven. He was very helpful and that is when we decided to go to Seongsu-dong.

    

Seongsu-dong is the largest shoe place in Korea. In Seongsu-dong they have endless strips of shoe boutiques, customize shoe shops and shoe factories. Seongsu-dong is well known for best prices for customized shoes ranging from 100K-500K Won. I happen to walk into several shoe shops but most of the sale associates said they don’t know if they were able to make my shoe sizes…and they would get back to us later…so I was a bit disappointed. After walking around Seongsu-dong, we came across Kimme Shoes. The sale associate was great. My Korean friend did all the talking. I was glad that she was there because I wouldn’t be able to get this far. The sale associate was super nice and she took down my foot measurements. My shoe size in women is a size 13 W. My feet are a bit weird. I have arched feet but when I walk, my feet becomes super flat… Even in the states, it is really hard finding my shoe sizes and I usually wear men shoes, but when I buy men shoes I’m a size 12 or 12 W. At Kimme’s shoe store, I picked up two pairs of shoes one is a dark cognac oxford and a burgundy flat with a cute bow tie to finish it off.  She said it would take up to 2 weeks. The sale rep said after making my feet mold, she said it would be easier for me to purchase more shoes. I don’t know about getting anymore, two pair of shoes was enough for me. My bank account is looking really sad right now, but I am super excited to check out my new customized shoes. In two weeks…babyyy!!!

After Seongsu-dong, we had dinner at Kind Octopus!!! 

 Most Delicious Octopus Jun I ever had!!!

Cold soup to cool down are blazing hot mouth..

********************************NEXT DAY***************************************

 

The next day, we got up a little late. We ended up going to a few more places before I had to go back to my little town in Korea. We went to my favorite shopping mall, Garden 5 plaza, and a jewelry store. One Sterling Time (OST) and had lunch. This time around I really didn’t buy much since I spent a butt load of money on two pair of shoes. I wanted to get some sweaters but they range from 30K-50K for knitted sweaters. I remember that I have so many in the states that I didn’t want to get any…I didn’t bring them because the weight limit issue. I was worried about bringing all my candy, coffee, necessities and personal care. IF ONLY IF I KNEW!!!…. They had it in Korea…everything would have been so much more easier, honestly… I will do a what you should pack guide for Korea hahaha… seriously… to help others..if you are going to be teaching in South Korea..Time flew by so fast this weekend that I literally felt like I just arrived and now I’m going back home. I had a great weekend with my friend catching up with her and her gossip at work… I’m so grateful that I meet such good friends in college… My friend was again super nice and took me to Seoul Station…and I gave her a giant hug and off I went on the train back to my little town…<3 <3 <3 xoxo-chuiee