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this cat was super filthy and rubbed against my leg

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Quest For Bingsoo

Yesterday was just such a genuinely good day. Do you ever have just like really lackluster weeks and then contemplate your existence in the world and realize maybe you should just lay in bed and never leave? Cool because that was me lol. 

BUT yesterday was so nice. First off, I went to bed at 11:30PM the night before AKA RECORD BREAKING EARLY. After a solid 8 hours of sleep, I had film class for a couple of hours in the morning, and we actually critiqued my film that day so it was fun! Btw I never linked it in the last video so here it is:

Quite possibly the most hilarious thing I’ve ever made in my life. Probably. 

After my class, I ate lunch with my friend at this little Korean restaurant called 딸기골 (Strawberry) that’s like 3 ft away from my dorm so nice. I used to eat here like everyday tbh. I always got their bibimbap bc it is delicious, but ever since I started tracking my macros, I stopped eating there. Oh update, I stopped that because I was turning into an obsessive monster. #classicAlexa

Anyways, I got bibimbap for the first time in forever, and my stomach was so so happy. Then, I went back and literally took a 3 hour nap until my KLI class LOL. Had KLI class with my wonderful, wonderful teacher (I’m in love with her actually), and then hit the gym with my friend Jill. 

After that, we went straight out into Sinchon and ate fried chicken LOL. There’s this place called 77 Kentucky, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Seriously so good. Before I got to Korea, I wasn’t a huge fried chicken fan, but omg I want this friend chicken at all times. It’s life changing. Actually. Try it if you ever come here.

While we’re eating, Austin decides to join us so we order another dish lol, and then go out hell bent on finding some bingsoo or dessert (but lowkey has to be bingsoo). We bump into this group of students(?) just giving out free hairstyling?? Idk it was so random HAHA but they just had a circle of chairs set up and were styling people’s hair. If you liked it, they just had you take a picture with their sign and like them on Facebook. So I was like YOLO and had my hair styled. The girl who did my hair was super nice and made my hair look BEAUT. I felt like a princess lol who am I. It was like bouncy and wavy but naturally looking idk. AND while I was getting my hair done, Jennifer came and joined us too! 

SO with nice hair and my three best friends here, we continued our search for bingsoo... only to realize that most places where starting to close (it was like 11:30 lol). We were loitering in Baskin Robbins for a bit wondering if we should just get a scoop of ice cream and call it a night. But idk, possessed by the life from my nice hair, I was like LET’S GO TO HONGDAE??? since places there are open super late #nightlife and everyone was like “well okay” and I was like..... okay let’s go. SO WE WENT. 

We wandered Hongdae for a bit before finding this 24 hour cafe that served bingsoo YES. It was called Cafe Ann House, and it had like little private booth tables. We ended up getting 3 bingsoos and a honey bread lol. All delicious and just a nice time being with my friends. Also, it was fun just people watching on a Friday night. All these young people just walking around or lining up to get into clubs or just drinking on the curbs lol. We ended up staying at the cafe until like 2 AM before dragging our very full selves to find a taxi home. 

Problem: taxis won’t take you from Hongdae to Sinchon because it’s way too close lol. Korea clearly doesn’t know the distances we’ve taken Ubers in Boston (aka from my Hammond apartment to the Forsyth building ((IT WAS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY OK))). SO we just started walking home because it’s like 2:30 AM and none of the public transportation is running. The walk actually wasn’t that bad, granted I wasn’t cold, drunk, or hungry like I usually am at that hour lol. 

We got back to Sinchon in about 30 minutes maybe?? Maybe less. I’m really not sure, but it passed by really fast. Then we stopped by one of those little arcades and shot hoops on one of those classic basketball games because Jill really wanted to since like 11:30 LOL. Those arcades are serious money suckers. We spent like 5000 won on just the basketball game and Austin dropped like another 5000 on a crane game just to win nothing LOL. But all in good fun. 

At this point, it was like 4AM and we finally decided to head back our dorms, where I proceeded to change into pajamas and ptfo. 

Great day. 

Sometimes I feel a little discouraged because I’m not doing really excited touristy things in Korea, like going to amusement parks or tours. But, sometimes it’s just nice to spend a night out with your friends. Don’t feel guilty for not going out, psa. 

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good mar🐱ing

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honey comb ice cream aka the dream 🐝✨

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How Is It May Already + The Korean Language

There’s this really unfortunate thing that keeps happening where all my classes will have big projects due at the same time lol. Last week, I had to finish my second film project, a 3 page write up for it, a 5 page midterm for cinema, a normal cinema critique, and had a presentation in my weightlifting class (what). BUT NOW I’M FREE! 

So, since we last caught up, I’ve realized I only have like 2 months here. Half my time has just slipped and gone by. I really feel like I need to go out and do more. Tip: make friends who force you to go out and explore. My friends are amazing lol but super studious so they always are studying. 

Oh! This weekend was a four-day weekend. Thursday was Children’s Day, a national holiday, and then the Korean government decided that Friday would be a temporary holiday??? lol I guess they can do that? But either way, we had a 4 day weekend! (Except we still had to go to KLI on Friday </3). So, on Wednesday, I celebrated my friend Jill’s 21st birthday! We went to this Mexican restaurant in Hongdae and then played arcade games and ate cake!~

Have you guys seen those like punching/kicking games where you just punch a thing as hard as you can? Yeah well we played one of those, but I really don’t think I should play arcade games since I get so competitive lol #characterflaw. I feel like I broke my wrist trying to punch this stupid cushion UGH. Afterwards, I was just going to go home and drift into a cake coma, but I ended up going out Cakeshop (for reasons we will not discuss........) to meet some other friends. We ended up randomly getting to meet the two performing DJs: Mr. Carmack and Jarreau Vandal and dance in the DJ box/stage lol. But ugh getting home from Itaewon is actually the worst. Finding a taxi going towards Yonsei is impossible. This is the second time we’ve had to wait for buses to start running and then take them a ridiculous amount of time/stops to get back. Maybe we should just stick to the ratchet NB2 lol. 

Anyways, Thursday I ended up exploring around Itaewon again (during normal hours thank god), and it’s actually so cool. Super cool and sick design everywhere. We also ate some A+ ramen, which is important because we waited in line for like 30 minutes to get inside. AND THEN we had honey comb ice cream!!! Delicious. I’ll post pics separately lol. 

Wow this is reading like a really boring recount of my weekend, I apologize. But I’m going to keep going. 

Friday I did nothing because I am a bum and had to finish my film write up. But yesterday (Saturday), I got to go to a baseball game!!! Baseball is a pretty big deal in Korea, and they said their cheering is really fun. Not gonna lie, baseball is like my least favorite sport (s/o to having to watch so many of brother’s baseball games growing up), but I was still excited because I just miss sports in general. It was fun, but also kind of awkward because like 75% of our group had no idea how baseball worked lol. Also, the cheering was super adorable, but not too different from American baseball cheering. Their like between inning games were so funny though, like kiss cam is nothing. They had like a “face match” type game where they would point the camera at someone then have them pick a number. Behind each number was like a celebrity or something making a weird face or doing a certain action, and then they would have to imitate it. This one older plump man got this picture of a Korean idol flashing his like rock hard abs LOL. 

Now that we’re all caught up, there’s something that I’ve just been like constantly thinking about: my lack of motivation with learning Korean. When I first got here I was like hardcore I want to learn Korean and be able to communicate. I even studied really hard on my own before I got here. But, after being here I’m really overwhelmed by it. 

Like, granted the English I use on this blog is a mess and really strange lol, the mastery I have over the English language is obvious. And, I can’t even BEGIN to imagine having the same or even like half the command over Korean. It’s seriously daunting. Whenever I just text my friends or something, I’m so aware now of the choices I make in sentence structure and the choices I make with words, and I just like look at it and am like “How would I ever, EVER construct a sentence like this in Korean?” 

AH Idk. Hopefully the next time we talk I will have found my motivation again. 

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it's been over 48 hours since I ate this egg bread and I'm still thinking about it tbh 🍳🍞

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She’s 21 Now

Okay I was going to post a video but my iPhone camera sucks and makes the sound quality horrible, so please settle for this gif I made instead.

DEAN.

Okay like I mentioned before, I didn’t really know Dean before the hip hop festival, but since then, I’ve been on like a Dean binge. His like one ep has been on repeat for the past week and wow did you know you could fall in love so fast? So anyways turns out, he was going to performing in May at the Seoul Jazz Festival but tickets are like 125,000₩ (~$110), and I was like omg wat no. Also, it’s a festival, and he’s not super popular so he’d probably have a lame time slot and perform 2 songs. BUT LOWKEY I THOUGHT I ABOUT IT.

BUT THEN. I found out really randomly from one of my KLI classmates that he was going to performing later that night at a club in Hongdae called Madholic. So obviously I was on it. He was scheduled to perform at 11PM, but Jennifer (S/O FOR LETTING ME DRAG U AROUND TO FOLLOW MY DEAN DREAMS) and I got there around 8:15?? and there was already a line. Honestly #regret. If we had gotten there like an hour or so earlier, we definitely could’ve had a front row spot which would have been SO KEY bc the space was so small.

We ended up being about 3 rows back, but the people in the front row were literally like face to face with him. AND YET? Everyone had their phones out and were blocking each others’ views and shoving each other like crazy. Okay, every time I’ve gone to a Korean music event I get wrecked by fangirls, like every time. Idk why I thought this time would be different because idk we were in a club and minors weren’t allowed but lol nah even grown ass girls be aggressive around pretty boys.

Dean also brought his fav buddy, Crush, and as soon as he was like “I brought my cute friend~” I was like NOOOO bc lol Crush is more popular, and I knew the crowd was going to get so hostile. And it did. And I think lost like 4 years of my life.

I like cannot comprehend the fact that front row was literally like inches away from him, and they still chose to shove a phone in the tiny, tiny space between their faces and his. Like damn, just enjoy the performance.

Okay honestly, unless you’re a fansite and post pictures or something, how many times have you actually looked back at the 1000043924830249 pictures/videos you took during a concert? I have like 400 pictures from the Infinite concert in NYC from like 3 years ago, and I have done absolutely nothing with them. I understand you take like 1 or 2 in the beginning, but it is so unnecessary for you to have your camera in this poor boy’s face for his ENTIRE show. Idk man.

(Lol because I took a video aka what that gif is from but literally it’s 20 seconds long and the only one I had OKAY)

Aside from all that lol, Dean was really good and super cute in a kid way. He’s kind of quirky and does strange dance moves, but I think it’s funny. Also, he kept messing up his song lyrics which was like omg Dean you literally have like 6 songs, but it was cute haha. Definitely worth the 20,000₩ and the random bruise on the bottom of my left foot from holding back the rampant fangirls behind me.  

Anyways, afterwards we planned to go out, but we were so tired after being manhandled we just went back to Sinchon, ate our body weight in fried chicken (again) ((after music event ritual)), and went to bed. Great day.

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🎂🎂🎂

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Protein + Pancake + Pot

I promised to post this like a week ago lol but in my defense it was midterm week, so I was very busy studying (read: procrastinating). Instead of saying “I’ll try to post more often,” what if I just said I’m never going to post? Like ever. So when I do, it’s like a nice surprise. So basically, I’m never going to post. Just plan on that.

Currently, I’m eating world’s largest banana, a hard-boiled egg, and an unseasoned tilapia filet (previously frozen and individually packaged, s/o to Korean Costco), which literally sounds like the most bland meal you could ever eat in such a lavish food place aka Korea. Well, that’s because it is. BECAUSE I NEED PROTEIN. Otherwise, I’m straight up going to fail my body building final. Seriously, muscles. Grow. Pls.

Alright, so like I previously mentioned, everything in Korea is rice. Maybe not rice, but definitely carbs. Or even more delicious, deep fried carbs. AKA FAT CARBS THE DREAM. So, this is why everything is so delicious, but it’s rough on the waistline lol. With protein being difficult to eat at every meal (except for bulgogi, which LOL I CAN’T EAT #stomachprobs), I’ve honestly been getting most of my protein intake from protein powder and protein bars bc I am commercial trash.

Anyways, it gets kind of boring chugging protein shakes like water, so I wanted to mix it up a little and make protein pancakes! If you’ve never heard of them, they’re super easy to make and only have 3 ingredients: protein powder, 1 egg, and 1 banana. THAT’S IT. You just mix everything together and fry them on a pan just like regular pancakes. I was like wow Alexa you’re a genius your meals are going to be so great. But, then I ran in to some problems.

I didn’t have a pan. Or a spatula. Or a plate.

I literally had nothing because I am alone and only had this one glass bowl to love me. Long story short, my friend and I ended up using a ramen pot and multiple spoons and one chopstick to make protein pancakes, and it didn’t turn out horrible. Then the next day, I proceeded to scramble eggs in said pot with a spoon. #cookingadventures

Happy to announce, though, that we invested in a pan and a spatula, and life is good. I also ordered Cake Donut flavored protein powder (like why are there so many flavors) so the pancakes kind of taste like real pancakes! But, also, I guess that creates the question of why I’m eating the saddest fish on the planet. That’s just because I’m a lazy shit. MOVING ON.

Sorry I didn’t take a picture of our creation. We were so aggressively hungry/borderline cannabalistic at that point that I sadly didn’t think to stage a photoshoot. To help your imagination, they kind of looked like flat burger patties tbh... (it was chocolate protein powder). Scrumptious. 

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My High Was Epik

Tablo aka cool dad

So, let me just start by saying never wear a romper to a music festival. Or if you do, don’t wear a pullover and a jacket on top of it because going to the bathroom will require SO MUCH EFFORT. 

Now that that is established, I’m sure you can all guess, but I went to the Hiphopplaya Festival this past weekend eee. Jennifer, Austin, and I bought tickets for it a couple of months ago, so we’ve been looking forward to it for awhile. I’ve never been to an actual music festival (only like regular concerts idk) so I didn’t really know what to expect aside from like flower crowns idk? But this was a hiphop festival so definitely didn’t know what was going on. Here was the lineup:

Mainly I wanted to go for Epik High, but I also really like Dean. I’d heard about Giriboy, Crush, and Illionaire (Dok2/Beenzino/The Quiett), but didn’t know them well, and then the rest I was just like lol who? I feel like hardcore fans are going to think I’m trash, but I’m really like only a casual Korean hip-hop fan I AM SORRY. Everyone was so good though! 

Anyways, we got there around 11:30ish and entered the venue around 12. I was honestly fine with just sitting on the ground somewhere, but this was Jennifer’s shit so she wanted to be in the standing section. So, we made our way up there and had like decent spots in the section to the right of the extended stage which was a GREAT CHOICE because most of the artists spent most of their performances up on the little stage. 

I was starting to get some flashbacks to the Infinite concert, where I basically died in the standing pit. And, like, that was just a bunch of small teenage girls. There were like huge dudes by me in the crowd, so I was like rip this is where I die. But, actually the whole festival wasn’t too bad. Definitely not as much pushing as the Infinite concert (although there was still some). We ended up staying in the same area for almost 9 hours. WORTH IT THO bc by the time Epik High was on, me and Jennifer were at the rail of our section. THANK GOD. 

So, like I said before, I’m not the type to write fan accounts (hence why my Infinite post had like no mention of the actual concert), but I can give you a quick rundown of my favorites:

Nafla // was one of the openers and had such good energy. I don’t have much to say about him because I don’t know anything about him (never heard of him before this weekend lol), but idk I just really liked his vibe. 

GIRIBOY // So I’d heard of Giriboy a little bit before but didn’t really know any of his music but omg he’s actually weirdly adorable. He’s like this tiny thing that always wears funky glasses and bounces around the stage. He brought this like old ass camera with one of those sliding pieces that reveals the lens (do you guys remember those?) so he could take pics of the crowd LOL but then he kept it around his wrist with the little strap the entire time he was performing and flailing around. I was legitimately so worried it was just going to fly off and knock someone out. 

DEAN // SO GOOD. Before I got to Korea, my friend Justin showed me a few Dean songs, and I’ve literally had them on repeat since then. So, I was super excited to see him live. His fangirls were a bit aggressive (the dude’s like pretty attractive), but I really liked his performance. His songs are super good, and his voice is so pretty. 

Epik High // Actually amazing. Everything I could have dreamed of. So, around 6:30 when the Don Mills and friends group starting performing, I hit a straight up wall. At that point, we had been standing there being pushed around for 6 hours without peeing or eating anything (except I had a quest bar #PROTEIN). But, when Epik High came out and we were front row EVERYTHING WAS OKAY. Energy so high, previously slumped over on the rail, but up and dancing again. TABLO ILY. Epik High is seriously so good. Jennifer said Tablo sounds like he swallowed his CD (meaning he sounds just like the track lol). I don’t think I’ve had that much fun at a concert before. They were all just so fun. If you don’t know Epik High, I highly recommend looking them up. For those of you who aren’t into Korean music, Epik High is the first Korean artist to ever be booked for Coachella. THAT’S RIGHT. ALL YOU LUCKY KIDS IN AMERICA CAN SEE THEM TOO. Seriously, check them out. 

It was unreal. Tablo and Mithra both walked right in front of us multiple times (although didn’t give us high fives </3) LIKE WE WERE SO CLOSE. I was dying. And, Tukutz was actually killer he kept running up the front and dancing and rapping? #DanceMachineDJTukutz. 

Guys, I just really like Epik High. Fun Fact: A big reason I became interested in Stanford was because Tablo went there. IS THAT LAME? You guys are finding out the real me I’m sorry to disappoint u. 

Anyways, after the festival ended, we traveled back to Sinchon, and I literally ate my body weight in fried chicken. It was a beautiful day. I have like 1000 pics but I don’t even want to start uploading them all. I also have videos AH WHAT DO I DO? Maybe I will upload them later lol. Sorry this post was all over the place. Definitely look up Epik High. Also Dean. Okaym fine. Here’s a couple pics so you don’t hate me too much:

Nafla left; Bloo right. 

GIRIBOY <3

The lovely Beenzino

Pictures definitely don’t do it justice. I really gotta upload some of the video clips I have lol. OH THAT REMINDS ME. I snapchatted quite a bit of the festival, and I try to snap a lot while I’m here. So, if you want to keep up with me ~live~ feel free to add me!

Snapchat: aawinnn 

Look forward to my next post! I’m going to be talking about my adventures with cooking here. Sort of. 

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Selfie Sticks and Snooze Buttons

You know that time in a semester where everything is all of a sudden due, and your life is out of control, and then instead of doing all the things that are due, you just aimlessly walk around in a haze? Okay that was me this past week. 

I feel like for the most part, the workload here has been really light #exchangestudent. I don’t usually have homework. Maybe a paper per week for my cinema class? But it’s only like a page so it’s not a big deal. No big tests really. UNTIL NOW. So, this week I had 2 cinema papers due, my first filmmaking project, a marketing group presentation, a marketing quiz, and a Korean language quiz. Going to go ahead and say that group projects transcend cultures in that they are horrible no matter what. Except when you’re studying abroad your chances of having an American, a French girl, and a Korean girl are greatly increased, communication will be a greater strug, and group projects are just a bit more horrible than normal. BUT it’s over praise allah. 

Aside from schoolwork, which is totally boring and not to be talked about (except maybe my film.. I’ll embed it later maybe), I didn’t do much (I never do much tbh), except go to the Cherry Blossom Festival! It was actually Jennifer’s idea, and I just kind of went a long for the ride. 

The festival itself was nice. We went on a Tuesday night, so it wasn’t too crowded, although my language exchange partner says that on the weekend during the daytime there’s more people than flowers lol. It was a bit cold though, but I honestly can’t remember a single moment where I haven’t been cold while in this country. Always underdressed. Anyways, since it was dark, all the trees were lit up with lots of pretty lights (except this one stretch of like horrid green lighting why). There were lots of couples and random people with #noshame taking selfies with the trees so it was kind of adorable. This one guy straight up brought a step ladder LOL. 

I’m like reading through this post, and I’m making the festival sound so boring lol I’m sorry. It was fun, though I imagine it would be much more lively on the weekend during the day. The trees are right along the Han River so it reminded me kind of like the 4th of July back in good old St. Charles. Ah! About the Han River, it’s really popular to go there (there’s usually parks along it) with your boyfriend/girlfriend or just with a group of friends and order 치맥 [chi-maek] which is short for chicken (치킨) and beer (맥주). You all just sit on a blanket or something and order fried chicken and pizza for deliver and get drunk and sing songs idk that’s what it seemed like everybody else was doing when I went with my Seoulmate group lol. 

I’m boring myself with this post, so I’ll go ahead and wrap it up by sharing my filmmaking project with you! The project was to make a short film of a process using only stills. No music, no text. We were assigned partners so we could have a chance to direct and be directed lol anyways here’s mine:

We’re going to be critiquing it tomorrow in class, so fingers crossed I don’t get shat on by my peers am i right. 

PS Macro update: yesterday I had like 2g of carbs and 3g of fat left and like 60g of protein lol so basically I was like “so should I just drink 3 scoops of my protein powder for dinner??????” but then I found out this small restaurant near my dorm sells this soup dish called 삼계탕 which is like chicken ginseng soup. It’s literally a whole chicken carcass stuffed with ginger, garlic, ginseng, and some other healthy things in a clear broth lol. So you best believe I ate an entire chicken for dinner last night. But, on the bright side, the quest bars I ordered came today so yay protein. 

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#SFW // I’m Literally Always Uncomfortable

I made a mental note not to start off every single one of my posts apologizing for not posting in awhile, but sorry for not posting in awhile. I finally started getting real homework and projects in my classes, and after 3 months of no classes, it took me sometime to adjust. Also, this post is going to be aggressively long.

But, anyways! Prepare yourselves because this post is going to have a lot of pictures (aka more than 1)!!!!! Not taken by me, of course, since I clearly don’t do that. 

Since my last post, only a few things have happened bc I’m an uninteresting sloth. My face still reeks of honey in the best possible way, but I keep waking up every morning with my face swollen af. I thought maybe it was a reaction to the face stuff, but I heard it’s happening to a bunch of other people, too, and that it’s basically like Korean allergies lol. I’m allergic to Korea. My weak foreign immune system can’t handle the quickly approaching Spring season. The beautiful cherry blossoms of this country make my eyes burn. Or, I assume that’s what’s happening.

So an actual thing that happened since before: I got to attend a little thing called Seoul Fashion Week! And, by “attend” I mean loiter outside event venues ayyyy. CIEE actually arranged the trip and one of our coordinators, Yoo Jung, led us around (and she’s the one who took all the nice pics). We went on Friday and Saturday, which I will now refer to as Day 1 and Day 2. 

DAY 1 

We headed over to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, where some of the big shows are held. Me, being oblivious to life at all times, was not aware of this and was like okay I’ll dress casually but cool for today and wear something fancy tomorrow. Wrong. Bad mistake. I’ve literally never felt more like a plebe lol. So, we get there and there’s all these people dressed super cool like unreal cool and all these other people with cameras (assuming press and fashion bloggers and stuff) rushing around to take pics of everyone. I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t bring my big camera and was too embarrassed to pull out my phone to take pics HAHAH IM WEAK OK. Just believe me when these I tell you that these people were on a whole ‘nother level. If you google Seoul Fashion Week, I’m sure you can see a bunch of people who are clearly cooler than me: girl who kind of looks like a 13-year-old boy wearing a blue cap and Nike running pants BUT ALSO GENTLE MONSTER SUNGLASSES. So that counts right? 

OH FRIENDS. This is Austin (idk if I’ve mentioned him before), but he’s one of my only friends here :3. He’s in my workout class and also the coolest person on the planet aka everyone at the Design Plaza wanted his pic, and I was in the background of a bunch aka I’m famous by association now ok. 

 DAY 2

So, after the Friday’s straight shot to my ego, I really wanted to step it up for wherever we were going on Saturday. We ended up going to a trade show in Mullae called Generation Next, which is for new and upcoming designers with less than 5 years of experience. It was held in an abandoned flourmill factory so #industrialaesthetics lol. But, it was a bit cold that day, and there wasn’t really anyone there lol. (Sorry young designers). So we just kind of sat around looking nice and looking at stuff for sale that was clearly too expensive for any of us. But it was fun. Until the fire. 

No seriously there was a fire. We were walking around a back part of the factory, and it kind of smells like burning and it’s making my eyes water a little. But, ofc we pay no attention to this until there’s this like huge boom (read: explosion), and everyone starts grabbing their like life’s work clothing and running out like WE NEED TO LEAVE. I don’t know if anyone got hurt or if anyone’s collections were ruined, but I’m going to go ahead and make this joke bc I’m cold blooded.

Seoul Fashion Week was too lit. 

Me cute af for no one to see lololol also #middlepart does it work or nah

These pics that Yoo Jung took are actually so cute.

Never wanted anything more in life than one of these bunny chairs. 

That was about all for Fashion Week and everything else exciting that happened to me. Actually, I got my nails done if that’s exciting to you. There’s probably more I could talk about, but this post is like longer than the rest of my blog combined, so I will spare you. 

The cherry blossom festival in Yeoeuido is coming up, and it’s supposed to be really fun! I’m hoping to get to go to that. Hopefully I will have it in me to take pictures lololol. 

Obligatory random side note that is a part of every post: I changed up my diet a bit and started counting my macros (MIGHT AS WELL GO ALL OUT AM I RIGHT) and omg it is so hard to eat a protein-heavy diet here. EVERYTHING IS RICE. Carbs all the time ughhh I hate it. Jk we all know I love it. #bread <3 

EDIT: ALSO I accepted my 2nd co op position at Rue La La for next Fall. See you too soon again, Boston.~

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My Face Smells Like Straight Honey

You know what I’m really bad at? Taking pictures. I’m so uncomfortable with all forms of picture taking. Idk it just makes me feel so awkward to just like whip my camera out and take a picture of something. WHY? WHY AM I LIKE THIS? I feel like everyone is judging me for taking a picture, which I know is so like utterly ridiculous. But, anyways, the point of this spiel (yes, I had to look up how to spell spiel) was to justify the lack of pictures on my blog. There you have it.  

Anyways, so I’m not completely horrible, and I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job keeping this blog up to date with things I do that aren’t entirely unsubstantial (like, today I bought cotton balls in case you were interested). Either I’m doing a good job or my life is so boring that it’s not that hard to keep up with. Anyways, as I’m sure you can tell from my latest edition of Clubbing Korea Do’s and Don’ts, last weekend I went to this hip hop club called Cakeshop. It’s in Itaewon (the tourist-y town that I mentioned before), and let me just say: it was so lit. There was an event there on Friday (Bromance Night??? idk what it was really) so they had a bunch of different DJs, and they all played good music. ALSO IMPT, I wasn’t aggressively groped at all, which was so nice. ALSO ALSO, we somehow managed to get a free ride home from a nice taxi man. Great night. 

The rest of the weekend, I didn’t do much besides aimlessly walk around and procrastinate doing my Korean Cinema essay that was due on Sunday night. Sunday day, though, Jennifer and I went shopping! …and made many poor financial decisions. 

Okay, so if you don’t know, Korean skincare stuff is actually bomb. Beauty and makeup and skincare in general is just a really big deal here. So I wanted to pick up this cleansing balm/makeup remover and maybe a new BB cream from this brand called Banila Co. It might be common knowledge already, but I don’t really use that much makeup because I’m a failure and don’t know how to do anything besides put on eyeliner (and dark lipstick when I go out #advanced). But, I’m really interested in it and open to trying whatever bc like I want to be beautiful and stuff so yeah. 

Anyways, I walk into this store (luckily with Jennifer, who can speak Korean, or it would have been impossible) and ask for BB cream for dry skin (MY SKIN IS DRY ALERT), and next thing I know, I’m sitting in this chair and this small Korean women is doing my makeup and putting all sorts of things on my face. And, real talk, it’s dank. #princessstatus She mostly just used some toners and moisturizers and primers(?) on my skin rather than doing any actual makeup stuff, but anyways, my skin looked flawless. Basically, I was just like lol ok give me it all. I dropped like.. a pretty penny on it, but now I have really nice skincare stuff! She was so good, though omg. She was like “You don’t really wear make up right?” and I was like “lol no, so I don’t need to buy anything fancy” and she’s like “This is just the basics….” and starts listing what girls who actually wear makeup have: mascara, eyeliner, highlighter, bronzer, eyebrow pencil, eyebrow mascara, blush, etc etc. Then, she points to the 5 items in front of me like “This is nothing.” And I’m like fuck it, yeah I’ll take it lol I’m so weak. 

Anyways here’s what I got (prior to this I didn’t know what half this stuff did so bear with me through my brief descriptions lol):

CLEAN IT ZERO Cleansing Balm So this was like the one thing I actually meant to get when I walked into the store lol. A lot of people use it and say really good things about it (Jenn Im from clothesencounters aka my hero) so I thought I’d give it try. It’s like a similar texture to coconut oil? You just rub it on your face, and it turns more liquidy and takes off all your make up. 

MISS HONEY & MR. FLOWER CREAM Ok literally it felt like Jesus was blessing my face with puppies when the lady put this stuff my face. I didn’t even know what it was, but I was like yes please give this to me. But, basically, it’s like a moisturizing balm made of honey and other good stuff (clearly I am very knowledgeable about beauty ok), and it smells like straight up honey. I’ve been using it for like 2 days, and my face literally feels like a baby’s butt. 

MISS HONEY & MR. FLOWER TONER After you wash your face and before you moisturize, you’re supposed to use toner. This one also smells like honey. 

PRIME PRIMER BLUR I probably could have done without this one tbh, but I’ve always wanted to try a primer type makeup thing that smooths your pores. SO yes this is that. I haven’t used this one yet, and I probably will only use it whenever I go out to help my makeup survive the trashy club air. 

IT RADIANT CC CREAM I was really confused on the difference between BB cream and CC cream, and actually I’m still not really sure their exact differences lol, but this CC cream works kind of like a brightener? I’ve been using this with my cheapo drugstore BB cream for the past two days for my “everyday makeup” and my skin looks really nice and healthy. Also, in Korea, the sought after look for makeup is “dewy” rather than matte. So, this makes my skin look kind of shiny? In a good way, though. Like, in a moisturized way not an oily one. 

COVER 10 PERFECT CUSHION I still don’t actually know what this is lol. I think it might be like a cross between BB cream and foundation? Idk the sales lady actually mixed this stuff with the CC cream and then put it on my face sooooo yeah. This thing is really interesting because it’s in like powder compact form, but it’s a liquid? You like press down on the pad part and it dispenses product out of these little holes, and then you dab it on your skin with the round pad thing IDK. Sorry my terminology sucks. I also will probably only use this one when I go out. 

SO YES, that is what I got. Some of the stuff I couldn’t find links to on their website srrrrrry. Anyways, I’ve only been using (some) of them for the past couple days, but I’ll let you know how they all work long term down the road. I’m like blown away because this isn’t really makeup either. It’s like skin prep?? For actual make up?? Which I also kind of want..??? How many products would I actually have used on my face if I did a full face of makeup??? Idk but I kind of want to find out. 

I feel cool after I go to the gym now because after I shower, I have more than just moisturizer and eyeliner to put on eee. Usually in the locker room, all the counter space is filled with girls doing their makeup, and I feel like a potato. BUT NOW, I can be cool. Also, side note, everyone just walks around naked in the locker room. The first day I was like oh okay…….yolo and got super naked and uncomfortable, but NOW I love it. Seriously, walking around naked after you workout is magical. Seriously. Believe me. It is. I go to the gym solely so I can prance around naked afterwards. Ok sorry this is getting weird. 

[seou-less]

Do’s And Don’ts Of Clubbing In Korea Pt 3: Itaewon

DO go to Cakeshop. 

That’s literally it for this one. Just do it. 

Bonus: DO try to speak Korean to your taxi driver bc he’ll be more likely to be nice to you aka give you a free ride home ayyyyyy. 

[seou-less]

고구마 라떼 // sweet potato latte 🍠 (really I just wanted the caption of this pic to be #mugshot)