Week 11: May 1-7
I can't believe it's already May and my semester ends next month already. Time has surely gone by in a blink of an eye! As I'm trying to make the most of it here, I started off the month by going to another concert! My friend and I got tickets back at the beginning of April for this and I've been excited since then. The concert is for a Kpop group called "Stray Kids" and I've been a fan of them for two years so being able to go to my first concert for them and it being in Seoul made this experience even more memorable. Although our seats were all the way at the top, the stadium is small and so I could see everything perfectly and it was even closer than I thought. The concert lasted four hours and it was a lot of fun! Korea has just lifted the no yelling rule during concerts so a lot of fans were thrilled and yelling. I'm really grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go to concerts here because hardly any artists come to Hawaii so this has definitely been a memory for the books!
The next day I had school and decided to try KU's cafeteria. All the meals ranged from 3,000-to 5,000 won which is about $3-4 USD. I decided to try kimchi jjigae which is my favorite and I thought it was pretty good and the perfect portion size for me! They also had other options such as dumplings, other types of stew, eggs, sausage, and more. They also had banchan where you could grab your own side dishes. The one thing I really enjoy here is the free side dishes with almost every meal!
This week I had a four-day weekend because May 5 was children's day and it's a really big holiday in Korea where the parents go take out their kids for the day. With my KU buddy group, we had a meetup that day to go to Tteuksom Park and have a picnic. Of course, it was extremely crowded, but the weather was perfect and sunny and we enjoyed our Korean fried chicken at the park. Throughout the week I went to Itaewon to go study at rooftop cafes with a view of the Namsan tower and also to Hongdae to walk around and also watch busking! With hardly any restrictions here now, the streets have been crowded with people watching them busk. I often find myself going to Hongdae a lot because I enjoy the social environment, affordable and yummy food, and the nightlife! On Saturday, I went to the Dongmyo Flea Market with my friends and it was cool to see what everyone was selling. I didn't buy anything but my friends got some small antiques and a few clothing pieces for a good price! I'm hoping to go to one more flea market before I leave and before it gets way too hot!!
Stray Kids Concert, KU's cafeteria, Rooftop view in Itaewon, Picnic at Tteuksom Park, and Dongmyo Flea Market
Week 12: May 8-15
This week I had a lot of plans but first I started off by visiting Daeo bookstore which is the oldest bookstore in Seoul! I ended up getting a postcard as a souvenir and the owner told me the money is going towards fixing up the interior. The interior was really small but they even have a small cafe where you can order drinks from. After walking around the area, I took a trip to Myeongdong since it was about a 20-minute bus ride away and went to go look for a place to eat dinner. It started to rain so I ran to the closest restaurant nearby which was an udon place. It was really affordable and tasted good and reminded me of Murakame Udon in Waikiki. As the week went on, on Wednesday after my class, I met up with a few friends to do a perfume-making class. One-day classes are a popular thing to do here and they offer a variety of options such as rug making, painting, baking, AirPods case making, and much more. But, I was really excited to make my own perfume because it's something I thought I'd never do! We had a private class and there were two instructors who helped the five of us for an hour. It was a quick and simple process and overall very relaxing. We first started off by smelling seven base scents, then choosing the best one we liked. Then, we wrote down the seven senses we wanted our ideal perfume to smell like. After, the instructor did their best to find the exact scents we were looking for. I was aiming for a clean vanilla scent and so the instructor handed me sample scents such as cloud, vanilla, aqua, golden flower, and more to choose from. From there, you choose the top four you like and mix them together. On the first try, I ended up really liking all the scents I chose. The last step was to mix all your scents based on how much of each scent you prefer. For example, I added much more vanilla scent than cloud to my perfume because my goal was to create a central vanilla scent. After making our perfume, we got to pour it into our glass container and choose our own box for decor. I really enjoyed the customization process from actually creating the perfume to the minimal outer design. Overall, I would highly recommend taking a one-day class as it's a really good experience!
During this time of the year, Korea is known for holding its big annual university festivals. Each university has its own week-long festival and normally on the last day they have a special performer/artist. Depending on the University, you can go to others for free to watch. Since I had no school on Friday, I decided to go to Sungkyunkwan University because two Kpop groups were performing. One of them happened to be one of my favorites also. I've heard from other people how popular and crowded that specific festival is so I ended up going six hours before it started to get a good spot. Even then going that early, it was packed! However, I did have a good spot on the side and it was still pretty close to the stage. I was thankful I made the decision to come early because it got even more crowded that there was no room to stand on the floor anymore and in fact, I saw a bunch of students on the parking lot hill to watch. I couldn't believe how packed it was but at the same time, these Kpop groups are popular and so being able to watch them perform for free I could see why everyone rushed to come. As it was getting closer to the time of the performance, it got pretty crazy as everyone was shoving each other to get closer to the front. Towards the end, I was kind of overwhelmed and tired and was ready to leave. But, nonetheless, it was still an unforgettable experience and at the end of the day, I was still happy to have been able to see one of my favorite groups for free, and am so excited for KU's university festival which will be held next week!
Perfume-making class, Stayc & Winner performances at Sungkyunkwan University, and some of my favorite meals I ate this week!
Comments