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[spinachdrum]

Day 15, 20190315: Cafe Yogurbara. ♡

My long anticipated day! We went to the cafe that Jaebeom’s parents own in Goyang, Cafe Yogurbara! 

I was really nervous about going, because it’s outside of Seoul and you can only get there by bus. I’m not very familiar with the bus system in Korea so I was a little nervous about it. But we made it! 

You can take the bus anywhere from Seoul really, if you use Kakao or Naver maps. But here’s the way we went! 

We went to Samsong Station (NOTE: This is different than SamSEONG Station, which is on line 2). Samsong Station is on line 3 and is circled on this map below!

When you get to Samsong Station, go out exit 7. From here you’ll take the bus--when we went, the bus stop was actually not in use because of a lot of construction in the area, so there was a temporary bus station outside of exit 8. I don’t know how long this will be there, but just in case! 

From here you will take BUS 37 to Sarihyeondong Ibgu Jeongryujang (사리현동입구 정류장). 

IMPORTANT: When you get out of Seoul, there is a major lack of English, and there is almost no romanization on anything. So you’ll definitely want to have at least some basic Korean knowledge to get here! The bus also does not announce the stops in English and the announcements are VERY fast, so you’ll really want to pay attention.

When you get off the stop, this is where you’re going to end up! 

There is an alleyway directly behind this little store, turn right and head down that way! Luckily it’s really easy from here, you just keep walking straight along this alley until you see the E-Mart. Yogurbara is next door!! 

Let me tell you....it’s so surreal seeing it in person. I don’t know why, but it was just so surreal seeing it. Seeing so many people talk about it, talk about his parents, seeing the way Jaebeom talks about his parents, and here I am, standing in front of their cafe. God.

We walked in and immediately I couldn’t stop smiling. His dad greeted us right away and his mom was busy talking to some ladies they were sitting with. We stared at the menu--there was more than I was expecting!! 

I ordered the strawberry yoghurt since Jaebeom raves about his momma’s yoghurt. I also got the sikhye and the yoghurt comes with the mini bread his dad makes! Nichole got the strawberry too but also got a mango smoothie. 

So. Freaking. Good. Seriously, the food was soooo amazing. The yoghurt was really creamy and the strawberries were soooo good, the bread was really warm and super fresh. The sikhye is self serve and it was so good, too! The mango smoothie was my favorite, I ended up ordering one for myself because it was so amazing. 

And yes, the decorations are just as cute as they are in pictures.

GOD HIS MOM IS SO TALENTED! 

And yes, the cat statues are by the door. I forgot to take a picture but there was a cat tapestry hanging on the back door, too. 😭

Such a pretty view by the window.

THE WELCOME AHGASE SIGN. 😭😭😭😭😭♥️

The GODLY mango smoothie.

So eventually the ladies they were sitting in left, and that’s when we made eye contact with his mom. Oh, God. She was so sweet though--she walked them to the door and waited there while they were leaving until they were gone, and then she came over to us! 

She asked if we spoke Korean, and I really had to come through with my limited Korean skills, lol. Her and Jaebeom’s dad do both speak a little bit of English, though! But we mostly spoke to her in Korean. She seemed really surprised that we could, lol! She asked where we were from, and we told her a little bit about our home state since most of the time people haven’t heard of it. We were talking to her about how yummy the yoghurt is, we asked her if it was homemade and she was soooo proud when she said yes! She noticed Nichole’s nails were bare and she was like “Oh, look! The same! Yours are pretty, though, mine aren’t”. And we laughed and told her “Oh no, they’re pretty! Your hands are pretty too!!” and she was so smiley and chatty. She of course asked us who are favorites are and I immediately said “Jinyoung! And Jaebeom, too! I love them both”. Nichole was like “Jaebeom and Bambam!” and his mom got soooo smiley and her face lit up and she was like “Ah!! JJ Project!!” and laughed with us. 😭

She thanked us and then went to go talk to other customers and started taking photos with them!! Jaebeom’s mom is really the cutest and the sweetest. She was really silly posing for photos, doing finger hearts and a big smile. 

At one point, Jaebeom’s dad and his mom were walking past each other--he said something to her that made her smile, and then he grabbed her face with both hands and patted her cheeks so gently. I seriously freaking melted!! It was so sweet, and you can tell they enjoy each other’s company and care about each other.

Also, you can really tell that Jaebeom’s mom (and dad, too!) really value the people who come to the cafe, especially the ones who are GOT7 fans. Every time someone left she was walking them to the door and waiting for them to depart--she even talked on the phone to a taxi driver for some girls from Japan, and she waited at the door and waved at them until their taxi left. Jaebeom’s dad gave us more bread for free when we ordered more, he asked how we liked it and we said it was so yummy and he told us not to pay for it. They are seriously so fucking sweet and they really, really care.

Jaebeom’s dad is also VERY silly and VERY much a dad!! The girls sitting next to us were taking a photo; the one girl was sitting on the bench seat and the other girl was taking her photo and Jaebeom’s dad came and just sat down next to her and put himself in her photo!! She was so surprised and he laughed a lot, and asked her if she wanted to take one with him in it, and of course we all said definitely!! He was so silly in them, doing finger hearts and stuff. The one girl went to take a selfie and he noticed his hair in the camera and went “Oh! One second~” all grumpy while he quickly tried to fix it, LOL. He took pictures with us and was like “did it come out well?” and laughed when we said yes!! He thanked US!??? and then patted the seat telling me to sit back down. They’re so soft. I’m cry.

Before we left, I made sure to look at all her gorgeous candles and herbariums. She is seriously talented, they were all so beautiful and smelled SO GOOD. If you go here and can do it, please buy one from here. It made her SO happy when I told her I was going to buy some! (I bought one for me, and one for Linh). 

In that little book stand, there is a fan book of ahgase birthday messages for Jaebeom and I seriously almost cried looking at it. 

She took photos with us, too, and she’s seriously so warm. She put her arm around me and I really felt really loved and cared about, she’s THAT sweet. 

Here’s the herbariums I bought, the purple is for Linh! 

THEY LIGHT UP!!! There’s 3 light settings, and his sweet mama taught me how to change the batteries and everything as she was wrapping them up for transit. She said the water inside is just mineral water! 

I really, really didn’t want to leave. If I could I would have stayed here all day! I packed up my bag and was taking some last minute photos--she love to photobomb and she photobombed my photo of the sign with her little finger heart. 😭♥️

The freaking literal cutest.

As we were leaving, she gave us both the BEST mom hugs. Seriously, I’m jealous that Jaebeom gets these whenever he wants!! She was so smiley and happy as she walked out with us. His dad was eating lunch but he made sure to wave to us and say goodbye as we were leaving, and I told them that we ate well and they seemed so happy. She waved to us and said “bye bye! bye bye!” As we were walking away and waited until we got around the corner.

I couldn’t believe it. My heart was so, so, so, so, so, so, full after being here. His parents are so gentle, wonderful, and kind. They were so welcoming and were so understanding that our Korean wasn’t great, and they both were so patient as we formulated our thoughts, LOL. You could tell they really cared about each other and their customers, and we really felt more like guests than plain old customers at a cafe. 

The food was so delicious and so were the drinks. Jaebeom’s parents are incredibly kind and warm people and I can honestly see where the boy we know gets his silly, gentle, and sweet demeanor from.

Going to Cafe Yogurbara was easily one of the best days of the entire trip. I am go thankful and so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet Jaebeom’s parents and support their adorable, delicious cafe.

♥️♥️♥️

[spinachdrum]

Day 10, 11, 12...13? 14? I’ve started to lose count. JYP Building and my 25th birthday!

Howdy! Super late post, and the combination of a couple days. This post might be a little shorter and more picture heavy since I’m combining a lot! 

JYP BUILDING:

God, I was so excited to go to the JYP building!! Last time I came to Korea I didn’t get a chance to see it, and now that they have a new building and a public cafe in the bottom I was super excited.

You can take the bus to get there, but tbh, it’s really not that far away to walk from the station! There’s an easier way to get there than the way we went; come out of exit 3 (I think) at Dunchon-dong Station (purple line, number 5). This is the subway map and I circled the station. 

Some other post I saw said that you can take the bus closer to it, but honestly it’s not that far of a walk from the station, maybe like 10 minutes or so! Download Kakao Maps, it’s super helpful. But I think the easiest route is to come out of Exit 3, and walk straight until you get to the really big intersection. There’s a Kia Motors on the corner and a place called The Zoo! Turn right and then walk straight until you see Soul Cup :) 

However, we went a different way according to Kakao Maps--and it was nice! There’s not really a lot of English in this part of Seoul, so be prepared for that. Hardly any foreigners so we got lots of stares. We went down some side streets and look how pretty! 

We were super hungry so we ate before we got there. We found this cute little place on a corner called Happy Together! 

The food here was so good and it was SO CHEAP. Kimchi jjigae, shin ramyeon, two cokes, and banchan was only W16,000. CRAZY.

After we ate, we kept heading for the JYP Building. The wind was SO BAD this day, I was so cold!! But as soon as we turned a corner and saw this I got so happy. We came up the back way and saw the driveway to get in--a van pulled up and picked up someone but they were covered so I don’t know who it was 👀

The outside of Soul Cup! It’s sooo cute.

I love this sign! They have mugs and stuff you can buy as well but they’re a little expensive, my black coffee mug wa sW15,000. Worth it though. I GOT IT AT JYP! 

The interior of the cafe is seriously so pretty. It was pretty empty when we arrived although it started to fill up toward 3 pm or so. 

They were playing Miracle when I took this, lol.

It was so surreal seeing JYP employees just walking around with their lanyards on!! I got the Darjeeling Milk Tea and omg it was so yummy. The drinks here are so good, and they have ice cream too but we didn’t try it! 

Obviously they played their artist music videos! We sat through JUS2, GOT7, TWICE, 2PM, DAY6, and Stray Kidz!! We stayed for like an hour and a half. It was really calm and laid back, I loved the atmosphere so much and everything was so pretty.

The sun started to go down when we were leaving and I had to take another photo of this sign, LOL.

We finally decided to leave after hanging around for nearly two hours. Sadly a JYP artist did not decide to show up :( LOL.

MY BIRTHDAY

I’m going to keep this section short, since I’m sure most people will be getting more out of the JYP building and how to get there. But on Wednesday the 13th, I turned 25! 

My best friend really cutely decorated the apartment we’re staying in with green streamer rings since I’m an ahgase! She put a banner above the bed that she thought said happy birthday but it actually says HAPPY PARTY, lol. It’s still super cute though. She bought me a ribbon and a birthday hat! 

While I was getting ready, she said she was going to get a snack but she really went and got me a cake. A RYAN CAKE!!! 

It was so cute I almost cried.

Since it was my day, we went and spent the day in Hongdae--I wanted to go to a cat cafe and hang out with kitties and that’s what we DID! I found this place online and we got lost looking for it because sometimes Kakao Maps can be a LITTLE confusing--sometimes it won’t update your location and you’ll go too far! 

THERE WERE SO MANY KITTIES!!!!!! THERE WERE SO MANY!!!!! MY HEART WAS SO HAPPY!!!!! I WAS BURSTING!! 

This place was really cutely decorated. If you look closely there’s actually a cat sleeping in the pipes LOL.

The admission fee was W9,000 but you get a free drink! The peach iced tea was so yummy. The cats here (for the most part, some just slept LOL) were really active and really playful!! They have toys you can play with and the kitties were so active.

The way that Siamese was sleeping was cracking me up.

Pretty window and sleeping kitties! 

THIS CAT. THIS. CAT. I fell in love with this cat. This sweet baby played with me for a little bit before it curled up in my lap and slept there for like 40 minutes while I sipped my drink and played one handed with the other kitties that came by. God, I was living my best frickin life.

After we (reluctantly) left, we got dinner at Meating again! I drank 2 beers and felt super good, LOL. We went to noraebang after since there’s one across the street from us! 

You guys, we went nuts in here. LMAO.

First of all, we started at an hour and it ended up being THREE. I got another beer and then Nichole bought soju which was trouble. I got SO DRUNK. SOOOOOO DRUNK. I’m pretty sure the ahjussi at the front wanted to kill us because we were just. HOWLING in this room. We did Celine Dion, My Chemical Romance, FALL OUT BOY?! OASIS?! BON JOVI?! I sang a Pearl Jam song for my dad! Seriously we did so many songs and we were yelling and laughing and mumbling our way through Korean songs too LOL. I got a 100 on Passionfruit by Drake though, hehe.

Then we stumbled our way back to the apartment and fell asleep, concluding the best birthday. 

Next up: Yogurbara! 

[spinachdrum]

Day 9 - SM COEX + Starfield Mall at Samseong!

Howdy! Late post but last night we got home and I was too tired to even function so, here we go! 

We got a really late start--Nichole didn’t wake up until 11am and we didn’t end up leaving until 2PM. Which honestly wasn’t too bad, it was a Sunday so a lot of the lines were crowded anyway. We didn’t have a lot of plans beyond going to Samseong so we could go to the SM COEX + Starfield mall. I’m not a huuuge SM fan since GOT7 is my bias group and I really only pay attention to them, LOL, however I am in LOVE with Taemin, so... 

SMTown is so pretty! 

This is the escalator stairwell going up to the SM Gift shop. This is like, 4 stories I think? We didn’t go all the way up since the top floor is like a theatre or something. But this part was really cool and pretty and the music was really loud. 

So cool! There was a lot of artist merch in here but there was also a lot of “artist picks” like brands they’ve worn or endorsed which was really cool! There was a NERDY jacket that Heechul has worn before, hehe.

It’s also really big. They have these stamps along the window there for different groups and Nichole stamped her palm as if it wasn’t literally a big thing of INK so I had to get her a wet wipe from her backpack, LOL.

Up near the museum they had a wall of their artist trophies and stuff it was really cool! There was a picture of Taemin accepting an award and it was so cute that’s my BABY.

Then, we left SMTown and went into the Starfield Mall, and my god.... this place is HUGE. And it’s FANCY. Like so many upscale stores and shit was ESSPENSIVE. They also literally have a LITERAL LIBRARY in the middle of it. Look how crazy this is!! 

It’s seriously so pretty and soooo cool. 

Neat! 

We didn’t really have any aim or anything except to go to ALand, where you can get COSRX products. They have a couple in Olive Young but the full range is at ALand! Nichole got this night cream I really wanted to get because it made my skin feel AMAZING. We walked passed these bad boys:

Hi my boys.

And then? WE FOUND OUT THERE’S AN AQUARIUM!! IN THE MALL!!! 

I got so excited. I frickin love aquariums. Is it because I’m a water sign? The fish? Perhaps. I just love water, LOL.

First we ate, though. We found the food court area and we ate at this tiny little place called Twin Cooks and omg it was so good. I’m also super proud, I’ve been ordering all in Korean :’)

AQUARIUM TIIIIIME.

It’s crazy because the admission was like W28,000? And I was a little skeptical of how expensive it was because I was like, this is in the middle of a mall, how big can this aquarium really be, and how interesting? Like there’s no way it’s big enough to justify that.

Well guess what Mimi, it DID.

This aquarium is deceptively huge. Like every time I thought it was over, there was another section to go through!! It is kind of aimed at a child audience BUT not totally so it’s still really interesting for adults too! 

They had such gorgeous displays, and some of them were really really interesting, too.

This next part was so cool--they had a bunch of unconventional fishtanks like this fridge, the sink, a phone box, a STOPLIGHT!! 

There was so many different sections!! They had like every animal it feels like, lol. Turtles, alligators, penguins, A PRAIRIE DOG?! Millions of fish, manta rays, SHARKS!! 

This was so cool-- this mirror was in the floor and the fish tank was in the ceiling with a sky background so when you looked at the floor it looked like the fish were in the sky! 

They had such a pretty section on jellyfish, too.

My favorite part was easily the deep sea section--they had a moving walkway where you could stand on it and pass through the “tube” where mantas and sharks and turtles were swimming above you!! It was so pretty, I loved that part a lot and was so preoccupied I didn’t take many pictures, lol. I did however take a photo of the neon sign since I love neon.

We spent a really long time in here! After we left, we went to ALand to buy some stuff and then we both realized how tired we were. We;ve been going nonstop since like last week so even though it was still early we decided to call it and go home! We stopped at Olive Young to get some stuff and I bought a bunch of Dr. Jart+ face masks for like $20 because they were on sale, a whole W2,000 compared to the SIX-NINE DOLLARS they are at home. YAAAAS.

And that’s all! Today is Monday and we’re doing a whole lot of nothing except homework today. We’re pretty burnt out and it’s our last week so we’re taking the time to rest and stay on top of homework before we bang out the rest of the week. 

Until next time! 

[spinachdrum]

Day 7 & 8 - Sinchon BBQ and Insadong!

So on Day 8 we didn’t do that much! We laid around in bed because we had plans to meet our friend for dinner in Sinchon and eat at this BBQ place she used to eat at when she was here for a semester! 

We waited outside for an hour to eat at this place. A whole hour in the cold. IN THE COLD. FOR BBQ. 

And you know what? It was WORTH IT.

This was easily the best kbbq I’ve ever had. Like, oh my god it was soooooo good?! They dump kimchi (or some type of kimchi, it’s a lot sweeter than normal kimchi) on half of it, and that shit just COOKS while you’re letting the meat and stuff cook. There’s not a TON of meat options but the two that we got were SO GOOD. We got multiple rounds of this one type (I wish I had figured out what it was huhu) because it was so damn good. We had that and samgyeopsal. I also drank 2 beers and some soju and was feeling LIT after both hahaha. 

LOOK AT ALL THIS!!!! 

God it was so good. 

After we left we went down in the subway station at Sinchon and not only was there a Kakao friends mini store where I bought an expensive ass portable battery shaped like Ryan and almost drunkenly forgot my debit card (thanks Jerry, you’re a real one) but there was a NERDY STOREEEEE. 😭Jonghyun from CNBlue like, owns NERDY so seeing it in the wild makes me so happy. I even took a picture of it to feel close to my man, LMAO.

Then we went home and I went to bed, lol.

DAY 9

Today we went to Insadong!! It was really neat, there was a lot of traditional stuff there, but it was also more modern than I was expecting? We didn’t go to the Hanok village because I wasn’t paying attention and walked in the complete opposite direction from it and by the time we headed back to Anguk station we were both pretty tired and hungry and wanted to head back. 

However! Anguk station is really pretty and has a lot of art! 

We took the advice of this travel video that we watched and took a shortcut to Insadong main streets by going through this TINY little alley way. It was still super neat because it was lined with the tiniest tea houses and little cafes and restaurants.

When you come out of exit 6 at Anguk station, you’ll see the police station on the left, and  the entrance of this alley way is like directly across from the subway entrance! It’s hard to miss. Go through here and you’ll get right to the middle of Insadong main street! 

(main street of Insadong)

This was in the corner. Sooooo much good smelling food.

We ended up going to this little restaurant down an alley and omg, the yookgaejang was so damn good.

There was quite a bit tucked away in this alley! We ate here:

Size of a shoebox but worth the navigating. I love fooooood!! 

We walked around for a little bit, checking out shops and stuff, and then LO AND BEHOLD I FOUND A CAT CAFE AND I ALMOST CRIED.

It’s called 2CATS and it’s on the 3rd floor at Insadong!! Omg I was so happy. I didn’t find a good cat cafe yet and I wanted to go to one so bad, lol.

The stairway up to it was COVERED in these little framed pictures of famous people with cats. DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

Spoiler alert: YES

So fancy. It looked like a cat museum! It was W12,000 to get in and you got a free drink! 

This was the first cat I encountered and SO CUUUUUTE in the sweater!! Her name is Cleo and she was sooo soft. 

I got a peach juice and it was super yummy. We sat down by this little wall where there was a cat sleeping away with a toy tucked into her paws. 

AHHHH. And then SHE WOKE UP! She’s a scottish fold and her name is Beonya. Adorable. So cute. Loved pets.

Seriously this place was decorated sooo cutely. All those photos framed are photos of famous people holding cats LOL. There’s so much space for the cats to run around and so many little shelves and places to sleep so they can be up high near the ceiling! 

I forgot this cat’s name but look how PUUUURDYYYY. This cat loved pets and let me pet it for a good five minutes uninterrupted.

This is kind of hard to see, but there’s a cat SITTING IN MY LAP AHHHHH. You can buy a bag of chicken at this place to give the cats treats for only W2,000!! The cats are sooo cute when they’re waiting for you to feed them, or they might just jump into your lap. There was a younger tween aged girl who was feeding one and she didn’t see the one waiting so it jumped on her shoulder!! It was sooo cute, she was so surprised but she giggled and gave it treats and then it sauntered away~

But seriously the chicken treats made alllll the cats come out and give lovin’ and get treats. Look at these!! 

A BEAUTY.

Climbing into my lap for treats. Give me pleas, ma’am. 

Gorg. This cat was so sweet and took treats so sweetly. 

This cat was so FLUFFY!!! It was a little more aggressive about taking treats--if you weren’t fast enough, it tried to take them from your hand with its paw LOL.

I LITERALLY AM IN LOVE WITH THIS CAT!! It was so weird looking. I’m pretty sure it was like a mix of dwarf cat and something else because it honestly looked like a pipe cleaner you use for crafts. But it was soooooooo cute and so friendly and rubbed on my legs for FOREVER and even wanted tummy pets. I love this cat and I already miss it I wanted to take it home so bad ksjsfkjgfg.

Me living my literal best life surrounded by cats.

The door, hehe.

After we left, we just walked around a little. We watched them make Dragon’s Beard candy and the guy making it was so cute!! He did a demo for us and gave us a little sample of it. Watch here:

We saw this tiny little mall thing but didn’t go into any of the shops because it was REALLY crowded in there. However Insadong was really, really cool and I’m hoping we’ll make time to visit the Hanok village before we go! 

So pretty. 

After that, we just went to a restaurant by our Airbnb and came back to the room. I took a shower and now we’re just relaxing getting ready for bed--tomorrow we’re off to Gangnam to see the COEX Mall and stuff! 

Bye until next time, and dream of cats! 

[spinachdrum]

Day 7 - Namsan Tower!

Hello and welcome! 

Yesterday we went to Namsan Tower! The air quality was finally waaaay better than it has been (according to Gaby’s boyfriend Euncheol, it’s apparently because of air coming in from Russia? LOL). So we decided to take advantage of it and go to Namsan Tower!! I didn’t get to go last time I was here so I was really happy to get the chance this time :) 

We went with our friend Gaby! We decided to go later at night to catch the sunset, so during the afternoon we went back to that yummy little restaurant! This meal was only $5.32 USD. FIVE DOLLARS. AHHHHHHHHH.

You can take the bus to Namsan Tower from Seoul Station or from Myeongdong--we went to the Myeongdong stop since we spent a little bit of the afternoon at Kyobo Bookstore! I actually managed to take some pictures of the inside this time since last time I was so overwhelmed that I forgot. LOL.

This place is sooooo big!! There’s literally everything in here you could ever imagine. The mini artbox is so cute, too! 

This Kyobo has the biggest stationary section. Like, it’s so big. I could barely breathe!! I wanted to buy everything, seriously, I was dying in here. There was sooooo much to look at that I couldn’t even decide on what to buy because I wanted to buy it all. I will probably come back here before we leave and clear it out. 

I also bought the JUS2 albums from Kyobo! It just came out so I bought two copies, hehe. I also bought Taemin’s MOVE album because I looooooove Taemin. To kill a little time before we met Gaby to go to Namsan, we got drinks at this little cafe! Nichole hated the drink (it was the Immunity one, but I didn’t see what was in it since she bought it for herself LOL) but I really liked it!! It was kind of bitter but I thought it was really yummy. It’s also right inside Kyobo! 

After, we went to Myeongdong station to meet Gaby to go to Namsan! The easiest way to get there is to go out of exit 3--there’s a bus stop right outside of it where you can catch bus number 5 all the way to the last stop which is Namsan Tower stop! This was my first time riding the bus in Korea (except to and from the airport) and it was nice! There wasn’t a lot of people on it so we all got a seat and didn’t have to stand, which was nice because the ride was about thirty minutes! 

I loved the raised seats in the back, hehe. 

I forgot to take pictures of it, but be warned: the hill to Namsan is STEEP. S T E E P. It’s not really that long of a hill, but it IS really steep!! My ass kind of hurt, but I’m also really out of shape LOL. 

Here’s a picture from the side of the hill!

On the deck you can look around, and there’s the little deck for locks, and then there’s a couple of tree-shaped structures where you can put locks that glow in the dark!! 

I of course bought a green lock and immediately wrote a lock for the loves of my life, GOT7. 

Aaaand locked!! It’s there to stay. Love you boys. 

Admission fluctuates apparently, but luckily for us to go up to the top it was only W10,000! You have to get into this elevator and they play this really cheesy video of an elevator going into space?! But they play it on the ceiling and I am scared of heights so it was making me too dizzy to look up and watch it. Nichole thought it was super funny and was laughing so hard she was crying so apparently it was good, LOL. 

Here’s a bunch of GORGEOUS views from Namsan. I am soooo happy it cleared up and that we went.

This is my favorite picture. It’s soooo gorgeous. This view alone made me want to never, ever go back home. 

After we walked around and bought some souvenirs from the top, we went down and had dinner in this really nice little Japanese restaurant called Tokyo Steak! 

So pretty! The night view was so pretty too.

It got reallllllly cold! We had to wait for the bus back and we went into the 7Eleven (yes, there’s a 7Eleven at the base, LOL) to get some stuff and wait out the cold.

You can even buy k-pop albums in here?! You can buy k-pop albums IN A 7ELEVEN!!!! 

We took the bus back down to Myeongdong station and we shopped around a little to get some keychains and stuff before we hopped back on the train and headed home! 

It’s another chill day today, going to kbbq dinner and drinks and noraebang later. 

Until next time! 

[spinachdrum]

Day 5 (Summary) + Day 6 (love them)

Welcyum! 

We’re doing double time today! Day 5 we literally didn’t do anything. Like, we went outside for maybe 40 minutes tops total. The air pollution was pretty bad yesterday as well as a heavy day for me (sorry period TMI) so we decided to stay in and take a day to relax and do homework to stay caught up! We did eat at a really nice restaurant across the street from our Airbnb called 김네 and it was the size of a SHOEBOX but god it was good. I had a 돈맛도시락 and Nichole had 김치찌개. So yummy! Later on we got chicken from this TINY little place across the street and--oh my god. So good. Probably the best chicken I’ve ever had?! I tried to give the ahjumma my extra $3 like a tip but she was laughing and made me take it back ;~; 

김네! And the chicken place:

DAY6

Today was seriously so fucking fun! We were out for 9 hours just walking around Hongdae and it was seriously one of the most fun days we’ve had so far. We finally had to go to Seoul Station to transfer lines to get to Hongdae, and it was so weird that I could almost remember pretty perfectly the path through the entire station to get to the train to Hongdae. This station is also SO BIG and it took us forever to get through it from our train to the connecting one, lol.

And then we finally arrived in Hongdae!! I love it here.

So naturally because we came kind of early, we decided to eat lunch first and then walk around and do stuff! We wanted to go to a cafe, there was a store Nichole was looking for to try and find this scary baby toy (spoiler alert: it was gone), A-Land, and then later on we wanted to eat dinner and noraebang! 

Our first stop: Meat-ing! 

Such a good kbbq restaurant. It’s all you can eat!!! And it’s super cheap!! Lunch was only 12,500.00 per person for A BUFFET. And they have suuuuch good meat, too. Ugh I could honestly eat here everyday, lol. It’s cool too because they actually will charge you if you leave any leftovers that you leave on the table to encourage less food waste. So only get what you can eat, and eat what you get!!

Potatoes, kimchi, lettuce, hot rice, meat....YUM. I was soooooo full by the time we finished, and then I was like, oh god, we have to walk around all day now. Seriously so fucking worth it, though, it was so good.

Afterward, Nichole wanted to look for this little store she saw in a video that had this really ugly baby toy in it, lol. We did find the store but the weird baby doll was gone :( so afterward we decided to go find A-Land! It’s a department store kind of, but it has the full range of COSRX products so we really wanted to find it and buy some! I’m running out of snail power essence so I’m glad we went.

However, on the way, we passed by the TRICKEYE MUSEUM!!! 

We decided, fuck it, we’re going in!! It was super cute and really fun! You can download this app that makes all the paintings and stuff come alive, it’s super cool!!

Here’s me being a mermaid! 

This section was so fucking weird!!!!! I had to take a million pictures of it. Like why is the lady in the back so giant and everyone is NORMAL SIZED???????

This room was my favorite :) I love the moon, so I was really happy about this room and I actually really like how this picture came out which is surprising because it’s of me :’) 

Also, inside the TRICKEYE MUSEUM, there’s an ICE MUSEUM! It’s not really a museum, though, it’s basically just like 3 different sections made completely of ice. It was so fucking cold in there, but omg, it was so cool and there’s an ICE SLIDE!!!! I went down it and screamed cause I had to touch the ice to get back up, LOL. 

From the top of the ice slide looking down! 

And from the bottom! I actually loved the ice museum, hehe. Note: your ticket to the trickeye museum also gets you into the ice museum!! And it’s only like 15,000.00 won! 

ALSO: there was this bronze statue at the bottom of the stairs right outside the trick eye museum of a guy and of course his dick was just like out. Full on full frontal pee-pee. Right? And Nichole made me take her picture next to it, and then right after, these two Japanese guys tapped on my shoulder and asked me to take THEIR picture with it!! I was cracking up because they did the GOOFIEST pose next to this statue with full wang. So funny.

Not related: look at this pretty building!

After, we found A-Land, and we bought some skincare stuff! We still weren’t hungry so we just kind of wandered around a little bit; we were looking for a cat cafe (not very hard, just wandering in case we found one) but we actually stumbled upon A DOG CAFE. 😭😭♥️

This place... was SO Cute. There were so many cute dogs (there was a GIANT great dane that greeted us with his big ol BOOF BOOF barking!! and his name was Ben!!!) that came up to us and just hung out and begged for pets. Some of them were so tiny and they were so cute. There was this one tiny little toy poodle and the way its legs moved was so funny and it reminded me of Mike from Monsters INC so every time it was running I was like “scaryfeetscaryfeetscaryfeet”. Also, it was so sweet because you could tell the employees really, really cared about the dogs. They were constantly petting them, massaging them (some were quite old), and just treating them so gently. It made me so happy. These doggies were sooooo well cared for and it totally showed. 

This baby took my seat immediately so I had to sit on the very edge of the seat to give him room, hehe.

We stayed here for a long time! Like an hour and a half, just petting and playing with the dogs and drinking lemonade. I’m pretty sure everyone on Instagram wanted to kill me because I wouldn’t stop posting pictures, LOL.

We finally decided to leave the cafe, even though we could have stayed there all day. We were super close to the Kakao Friends store so we went to that next!! And omg, it was so cool.

It’s so big!! And the glass front is so pretty~ 

It’s also THREE FLOOOOOORS. The first two are the only ones with merchandise, the third floor is the RYAN CAFE! Which we went to! The second floor was really cute and I saw another one of those wireless keyboards with the round buttons and decorated with Ryan.. SO TEMPTED.... but my laptop already has a keyboard!!! ARGH....

What a view. Korea, I love you.

The cafe! :D We got two cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate. And LOOK HOW CUTE:

After this, we really wanted to go noraebang, but we wanted to eat first. We still weren’t quiiiite hungry, so we were going to walk to Artbox, but on our way there we walked RIGHT into some busking!! These two girls from Singapore were dancing to k-pop and they were SOOOOO good. They were doing BLACKPINK when we arrived, and we decided to sit down and watch for a little bit! There was this guy sitting across from us who was mouthing along and kind of dancing to himself sitting down and it was so cute. And then after BLACKPINK finished they went to TWICE--in the middle of it the cute guy got up and jumped right in and danced with them!!! 

He was also sooooo good!! He was having so much fun and laughing and blushing since everyone was cheering for him!! I caught a lot of it on video but I filmed it in portrait and not horizontal, LOL. But he got up a bunch to dance with them, and I got some of him dancing to GASHINA and it’s SOOOO CUTE! 

Soooo adorable. And all three of them are soooo talented! We actually sat here and watched them for a really long time, forty-five minutes passed before we realized it and we were hungry again! We actually went to a restaurant RIGHT behind this because they had a bunch of kinds of fried rice and omfg.

Why is all the food here so good?????? IT’S SO GOOD!! 

Forgot to take a good picture of the food, but this is the restaurant, lol. 유가네닭갈비 and we had the marinated chicken bbokumbap. Ugh. So good I could die.

And to end the night: NORAEBANG! There was a basement noraebang right next to this, so we went to it, and it was SO FUN. I recorded a bunch on instagram and didn’t any pictures, but omg, so fun. We did BLACKPINK, TWICE, GOT7, BTS, DAY6, Dean, and TAEMIN, because everyone knows how much I love TAEMIN, lol. I’m sure we sounded insane because we were just yelling and screaming into the microphones and mumbling through the korean words we didn’t know, LOL. We were in here for a good hour and a half and I was singing so loud and laughing so hard that I started coughing and thought I was going to throw up. LMFAO!! Worth it.

I wish I was hungry as we were leaving, because we walked by a bunch of street food stalls on the way back to the station and my god they looked SO DELICIOUS. UUUUUUGH. They smelled really good, too. But next time! We were really tired by this point and were pretty ready to go home since we’d been walking around since 12pm. 

It was a really calm train ride back. I know I said in my last post about how much I love the subway and it’s just so true. I don’t know what it is, but I love it so much. 

We finally got home at around 9:45 and here we are! Ready for bed and so beyond happy I could explode. If I could just stay and not go home, I really would.

Until next time! ♥️♥️

[spinachdrum]

Day 4 - Myeongdong!

Hi guys welcome back to my channel!

Today was super fun!! It started off kind of rough (I started my period like right away this morning when I woke up, so 🙃) but luckily Nichole came STRAPPED with 800mg ibuprofen tablets. Seriously, I take ibuprofen on my period like candy; I’m sure that’s terrible for my body and I’m sure my liver is a shriveled up raisin but hey, better than having cramps.

Anyway, a lot of places in Myeongdong don’t open until a little later in the morning, like maybe 1pm or so? So we lazed around for most of the morning (which was nice for me because period pains knock me on my ass @__@). But finally we got up and got ready and headed out! 

Seriously, there’s something about the subway in Korea that I just love so, so much. I can’t explain it. I love the stations (hate the stairs, lol), I love that cold breeze that blows down the steps in the winter time, I love the noise, I love that feeling of satisfaction when I figure out the path and don’t get lost. It’s strange and I know a lot of people don’t like the subway but it was honestly one of the things I was so looking forward to coming back to. Excuse my love poem to the Korean subway, LOL.

So first, when you get into Myeongdong station, finding the underground mall is super easy cause it’s like, right in front of your face. LIKE BAM. There’s a lot of clothing stores, some teeny tiny restaurants, some souvenier shops, and of course there’s a few k-pop stores! This is where I usually go to buy things I don’t have, like some older releases, although they have new releases too! This is where I bought Arrival when it came out while I was here in 2017. 

Of course I didn’t take any photos in the mall because my eyes were falling out of my head at all the GOT7 things I could buy that I didn’t have, lol. But I made the smart decision of not buying all of that stuff until we were on our way back so I didn’t have to carry it. 

We came out of exit six, which will put you right near an entrance and right by the giant Nature Republican that is really recognizable since it’s got the greenery on the walls and is on the corner. It’s a good starter point and a rendezvous point of sorts since there’s lots of streets to walk down so it’s a good way to remember where you started. 

Or first stop: ARTBOX. I love ARTBOX. [chipotle is my life vine voice]. I love ARTBOX, ARTBOX is my life.

This ARTBOX in Myeongdong is three stories! THREE! THREE STORIES!!!!!! 

Seriously there is literally everything you could possibly need in this damn ARTBOX. Need school supplies? ARTBOX. Need bathroom decorations? ARTBOX. Need a wireless keyboard? ARTBOX. HOTEL???? TRIVAGO!!! 

Like I could honestly write a love song to ARTBOX. Instead, you can have this photo dump of the inside of the store!! 

The first floor is mostly stationary and beauty stuff! Like seriously there is the BIGGEST sticker collection here!! Stickers as far as the eye can see. I bought like... 5? Packs of stickers? Just because they have sooo many cute ones! They have a lot of really cute stationary sets and birthday cards. 

Even the elevator is cute!! We decided to take the elevator to the top floor and then walk back down through the other floors to see everything! 

I don’t know how good this will look on Tumblr but here’s a panorama shot of the second floor! This was mostly electronics and stuff but still there’s SO much cute stuff to look at!! They had wireless keyboards that were sooo cute and I was really tempted to get one but since I’m lazy I almost never sit at my desktop computer and am always performing some contortionist act on my bed with my laptop, lol.

There are so many little cute places to take pictures in here, too! This was on the third floor. Also, personal sidenote, but I literally LOATHE having my picture taken since I hate how I look... but I don’t have any photos of me from my first trip in Korea and I really wanted to change that this time around. It’s so hard to get over and I am still anxious about posting these kinds of photos of myself where I can’t control the angle but it really does make me happy to see myself in these places and to have this memory of being there, so it’s progress, I think.

Okay, dumb personal thing over. MORE PICTURES OF ARTBOX YAAAAY

PLUSHIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Top floor! Lots of stationary and luggage up here.

The cutest decorations! 

CAPSULE MACHINESSSSS. I got an Adventure Time watch that you can’t change the time on, LOL. It just said 12:00 on it and I haven’t figured out how to change the time yet, but it’s of Tree Trunks and it’s cute so I ain’t even mad.

After we left ARTBOX (and I bought 944e9934985 stickers and a singular $6 pencil (but it’s PENTEL and it’s super fucking nice and no one is even going to breathe on that pencil if they aren’t me) we went to the LINE Friends store!! I had serious tunnel vision for ARTBOX and ended up walking right by it when we first arrived, but we doubled back and went to it. It was nice going during the week and kind of early because there was ZERO line for taking a picture with the giant bear!! 

Stupid cute. Love it. 

This was so cute!! There was a fucking SHITLOAD of BT21 stuff here, the whole top floor was BT21. It honestly made me wish I was into BTS cause they were so cute, lol. They did have some ugly ass shoes though and now I wish I had taken a picture of them because one pair was like....HAIRY.

The whole wall of the stairs was made of this and it was sooo pretty! 

Brown’s room!! I could have pet that bear all day, tbh. So soft.

After we left the LINE Friends store, we just walked around for a little bit! We went to go eat first, and we went to this place called Golden Farm and I had sundubu jjigae and ugh, so good.

We hit a lot of the beauty stores but I didn’t buy much (except at Etude House a little later), since there was honestly just... SO MUCH TO LOOK AT. I want to buy everything I look at but I’m really wary about buying skincare stuff without trying it, because I’m anxious about breaking out :( I found the Soojung line and I really wanted to try it but I am trepidatious about branching out without being able to try first. 

I also didn’t take a ton of pictures on the street or in the beauty stores but mostly because the employees were standing UP my ASS. I’m not mad about it, of course, but it was a little weird at times because I just wanted to look at stuff and they’d be standing at my elbow like 👀. But when we did go to Etude House later, I ended up buying the Peach Farm Play Color Eyes palette, a pretty liquid eyeshadow, a lip tint, and a mascara! 

I didn’t get a picture of this or a video and I’m so mad about it becaues it was so funny. But there was a guy in this really janky dog costume that was advertising for a dog cafe (!!!!!!) and he was being SO WEIRD!! He was doing this really weird thing with his legs and I started laughing so he high fived me and handed me a flier, LOL. And then he walked right behind me for a little bit until it was obvious I was not going to the cafe. Sorry manpup!! 

I wish we had stayed just a tiny bit later since as we were walking back a ton of the street food vendors were starting to pack up. However there was this one cart right outside exit 6 where we came out that had a few things like cheese on a stick, sausage and rice cake, sausage and cheese in bread (so basically a corndog with cheese lol) and even MANDU!!! So we stopped for a snack and omg honestly it was soooo good. There’s nothing like Korean streetfood! 

We went back down into the station and that’s when I bought all the GOT7 things I wanted to buy earlier. RIP my wallet. 

Gazing at my bags in shame. SHAME. That DAISO bag actually has an ass load of snacks in it for part of one of my classes! 

My flat lay of shame.

Coming back was crazy since it was starting to be rush hour. Omg the stations were SO busy it was insane. We only had to transfer one line but one of the trains was sooooo full that we decided to hang back and wait for the next one--this lady leapt in right as the doors were closing and they almost closed on her leg!!! Also, this little tiny old lady in front of me when we were walking up the stairs was trying to pull a wheeled cart up the stairs behind her, so I lifted up the back of it and helped her carry it up the stairs. Her smile when she turned to thank me was soooo sweet. ♥️

The sun going down through the window. The pollution was really bad but it was still oddly pretty..

Our classmate Gaby is actually here, too! She came for Spring Break to visit her boyfriend, but he had to go to his academy tonight so we made plans to hang out and get dinner. Originally we were going to Hongdae but she wasn’t going to be free until later like 8pm and I was so tired (my period is soooo draining, it sucks) so we agreed to hang out at our AIRBNB instead! And honestly, I’m so glad we did. When she got here she suggested we try this place called Pizza School that she loved a lot while she lived here and omg, she was right. It was soooo good! 

So we ate and we sat around and talked and laughed and joked around! It was so nice, I love her and it was such a fun bonding experience to get to know her a little better! I love my friends and I love even more that we got to hang out here together. It was such a nice way to end the day, so relaxing and sooo much fun. ♥️

Until next time, y’all! 

♥️

[spinachdrum]

Day 3 - Subway + Gyeongbokgung Palace + Kyobo Bookstore

Hello everyone! I’m back for another quick daily round up :) 

Today was so nice, it was our first day going out and about and we chose to do something a little more lowkey! It was still a ton of walking (I think we walked like close to 10 miles today which really isn’t that much now that I think about it, ha!) but we also climbed a million flights of stairs coming in and out of the subways! 

This was also my first time trying to refigure out the subways since my first time here in 2017. Luckily the subway system in Korea is SO easy to figure out! Especially when you see the map of the subway lines, it makes it so simple. If you have to connect anywhere, the map does all the work for you, and the stations are pretty much color coded. If you don’t know any Korean, everything has English on it so you’ll be able to figure it out really easily still! 

Here’s a picture of the map in Dongmyo station! It might be a little hard to read since I use HUJI for literally every single picture I take. :p 

Luckily, we are staying really close to Gwanghwamun, which is the station where Gyeongbokgung Palace is located! We also chose to go here today since there’s a Kyobo bookstore out of Exit 3 and I wanted to look around there. 

In the plaza just before the gate, there is a very large statue of King Sejong! There’s actually and underground part beneath the statue that is really cool and interactive and has so many cool artifacts and stuff to learn about. We didn’t end up going this time, but we went last time I came to Korea and it was super cool! 

Here’s me in front of the statue of King Sejong! 

Gyeongbokgung Palace is seriously so beautiful. It’s hard to describe it with words--there’s something so special about seeing it in person. The architecture is so stunning and it has survived so much hardship. It was burned down and then restored, and parts of it suffered much during Japanese occupation. But even hundreds of years later the palace is still standing and the grounds are absolutely breathtaking. Even for people who aren’t interested in history, I recommend coming here just to see this marvel of historical architecture in person. There’s a ton of plaques around the grounds explaining what the different buildings are for and what happened to them throughout history. 

Entry was also only ₩3,000.00. I don’t remember it being that cheap last time I was here but it might have been! Either way I was pleasantly surprised by that. Here are a few photos I took around the palace grounds! 

When we were walking through the grounds toward the gate to leave, we heard this HUGE bang like on the head of a giant drum. We were both like what?! and rushed through to see that they had roped off the main plaza of the palace just before you exit and were doing some kind of traditional demonstration! It was so cool to watch, this didn’t happen last time I was here and I was super grateful we managed to catch it happening this time! It was hard to hear the narration but I asked my Korean professor and she told me it was a ceremony to open the gates. This website has a really good information breakdown of the guard changing ceremony! I also caught some of it on video; people were walking in and out of frame and I was behind a sign so apologies for the not so clear view! 

After we left Gyeongbokgung, we went across the street to Kyobo Bookstore. It’s right out of Exit 3 of Gwanghwamun Station. My god, I was not ready for the madness that waited for us in there. I believe it’s back to school time for Korea, so the pace was PACKED. And I mean PACKED. Like super loud, wall to wall people, and it didn’t help that Kyobo is REALLY big! I mean, two cafes and a million little mini stores big. You could buy literally anything in Kyobo I’m pretty sure. Need an entire set of books? Kyobo. Need some stationary? Kyobo. Need some party supplies? ARTBOX in Kyobo. Need a humidifier? Kyobo. Hotel? Trivago.

Seriously though, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of people and I was super on a mission to find the March issue of Allure magazine since Jinyoung is in it that I spaced on taking some pictures of the bookstore!! I did end up finding it and I was soooooooo happy. He looks stupid handsome in those photos and I’m just. Dead. YEAH. I love him. There was also a place to buy CDs in the Kyobo so I went in there and looked around; I ended up buying Taemin’s new album and the Eyes On You World Tour DVD. ☺️☺️☺️

After Kyobo we were like, okay it’s time to EAT and go home and chillax. Nichole woke up at 4:30AM for whatever reason so at this point she had been awake FOREVER so I don’t blame her for being super tired! Because of that we didn’t really want to hunt for a restaurant or anything, so we decided that we were going to try out the food from Korean McDonald’s since I didn’t try it on my last visit. 

And you know what? It’s so fucking good. Like, legit so good. I wanted to cry.

First of all it had those dope ass ordering screens in there, and you could order on that without even talking to anyone lol. I know they have these in America but where I live in Arizona, I haven’t seen them yet, so that was a really cool little novelty experience! 

We got the Shanghai spicy chicken burger, the bulgogi egg burger, fries, and some cheese sticks. Seriously I am obsessed with eggs (LMAO) and I looooooooove fried eggs. Like I would straight up die for a fried egg. If there’s something with a fried egg on it, I can’t pass up the chance to try it, so I was super happy about the bulgogi egg burger and it was FUCKING DELICIOUS. 

Seriously, I love you, Korean McDonald’s. 

After we ate, we both just kind of laid around for a while. Nichole ended up sleeping for 4 hours sdklfjslkgj but this is a totally normal experience for her and she will go to bed with no problem later (but might wake up at 4am again, LOL). I finally got hungry and went to the convenience store for some easy-make stuff for a late dinner, but Nichole woke up and went to Subway while I stopped into Daiso for some rice and some wet wipes for my bag. We stopped into Home Plus Express just to check it out and we found bottles of soju FOR ₩1,500.00 WON. That’s less than $1.50!!!!!!!!! CRAZY. 

That’s all for tonight! Tomorrow we’re going to Myeongdong and meeting our classmate in Hongdae for dinner. Tune in for more tomorrow! 

[spinachdrum]

Day 2 - Daiso + Dongdaemun = PEN HEAVEN

She’s back, back, back again! 

Today was such a nice, relaxing day! We decided to just kick it, take it easy, and kinda explore the neighborhood a little. We got up and went to the CU again to get some stuff for breakfast--I found this cheese beef jerky and bought it because I was like, we have to try this! Spoiler alert: we did and it was gross. 

Afterward we just lazed around and recovered from the shitshow that traveling was yesterday. I did some Korean homework since it was due soon; we used Naver to figure out what “clown college” was since that’s where I belong. Survey says: 광대 대학교. Jury’s out on if that’s really how you’d say it but it works! 

We intended on just walking around the neighborhood, but turns out “the neighborhood” is actually part of Dongdaemun--we ended up turning down an alley we saw in a travel video we watched and there it was--Dongdaemun. Or, part of it anyway. That translated to one thing for me: STATIONARY. We ended up going to the Olive Young across the street first to look for conditioner since the AIRBNB doesn’t have any, and of course we both bought some skincare stuff. Dr. Jart+ masks are so much cheaper here than back home. 😭

This was so cool, I wish I had taken a better picture not on HUJI. But it was like an open fish market basically--all those fish (except the big ass one on the right, homie was resting in peace) and nearly falling out of the tanks! 

Part of the alley we went down in Dongdaemun. This alley is FULL of vendors selling literally anything you can think of! We even saw merchandise for the baby shark song. We didn’t go as deep into Dongdaemun as we could have since we were still a little tired from traveling so much the day before and waking up so early, but even just this alleyway was so cool and had so much stuff.

MORNING GLORY!! I almost died in here. Seriously, there was so much stationary to look at that I truly almost died. Like I couldn’t even look at it all, honestly. I bought some gelly roller pens in pastel colors and some gudetama pens for my best friend!! :) We went to Daiso a little later in the day and I also bought more pens there......and 해바라기 초코볼 which is like one of my favorite Korean snacks. Sunflower seeds in chocolate. SO GOOD. 

After we were done walking around, we decided to go to this little Vietnamese place downstairs from our apartment building. We initially wanted pho but looking at the menu there was this amazing looking rice dish with a fried egg on top and I am absolutely a SUCKER for fried egg. 돼지고기 덮밥 hit the spot. Observe: 

After eating, we literally went home and did nothing for about 4 hours. Our AIRBNB host actually came by--we had a question about where to throw our trash, so she came by to show us in person instead of trying to just explain it! She’s super sweet--she bought us her favorite snacks!! 😭She also showed us how to use the washing machine. Thank GOD. 

We decided we didn’t want to do that much until she left and then we could go eat, so we went to this chicken restaurant that’s also downstairs because we can actually smell it when the windows are open. And, oh my god, so good. It’s called 둘둘치킨 (TwoTwo Chicken) and it was super loud in there but the atmosphere was really nice! There was a huge group of younger guys in there and two of them were PASSED. OUT. Like seriously. One of their friends came back in from smoking and was shaking him like “GET UP! GET UP! 빨리! 빨리!” 

When we left, we went to the CU again really quick to get stuff for breakfast so we don’t have to do it in the morning. This cold wall of drinks is my favorite for some reason, it’s just so pleasing to look at! 

Right now Nichole is making me suffer watching Goblin since it’s playing on TV... 

But I am so glad to be tired so I don’t have to watch this and be SAD! We made plans to go see the palace tomorrow and to swing by Kyobo Bookstore in the area so I can try to find Jinyoung’s Allure magazine and maybe buy some albums :) 

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! 

읽어 주셔서 감사합니다! 

안녕~ 

[spinachdrum]

Day 1 - The Everything Is Happening

You know how in movies there’s that trope where it seems like everything that can go wrong at any given time totally does, and at the worst possible moment?

Yeah. 

For context, let me tell you about how much of a lovable doofus Nichole is. She is notorious for losing her bank cards. Like, lost 18 of them in a single year notorious. It’s a running joke in our friend group notorious. I told her when we both got our new bank accounts in January that if she loses this debit card before we go on our trip I’m going to strangle her. And you know what? She was really good about it! Held onto that thing like her life depended on it. 

Enter on 6pm, Wednesday, February 27th. A frantic missed call (I was doing something I think). Incoming frantic text.

“JOEY I LEFT MY DEBIT CARD IN THE ATM.”

I almost yeeted myself off my balcony. WE WERE SO CLOSE! SO CLOSE! LEAVING IN MERE HOURS! And this prompted the biggest clusterfuck that lasted about two entire hours: calling the bank, calling another bank, having to call my own bank because apparently there was no travel note on my account even though I told them... just. A total mess. I was like, please don’t let this set a precedent for the rest of this trip.

So far so good! 

We departed from Phoenix 40 minutes later than we were supposed to. That delay had us RUNNING through the Vancouver airport--our flight to Seoul departed at 12:05pm and the wheels hit the runway at about 11:30. Seriously, I have never power-walked like that in my life. Once I got to the gate I was also frantically calling my bank to verify the travel notice got put in my account; god bless that agent. I was out of breath, panicking, trying to board a plane the size of a pea pod. But you know, all totally worth it, because 9.5 hours later I landed in South Korea.

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(Sorry for portrait mode!)

Getting through customs and everything was SO easy. The agent didn’t even talk to me, actually. She just took my passport and had me scan my fingerprints and then let me through to get my luggage! Afterward we just had to buy a bus ticket to our destination and wait for it to come :) 

And it was only $10! 

The bus ride wasn’t too bad. It was a little long and a bit bumpy, but the scenery in Korea is just so, so beautiful. There’s something about it that just sparks this unbelievable joy inside of me. Seeing it in person again after so much time away... I can’t even explain it. Just happiness. Total, unadultered happiness. Every worry I had in this world before yesterday totally evaporated the moment I saw the slowly setting sun glint off the water of the Han River.

When we got deeper into the city, we actual drove right by a massive demonstration in the streets for the 100 year anniversary of the March 1st Movement of 1919. It is known as most prominent events in the history of Korean independence movements during the Japanese colonial era lasting from 1910-1945. If you want to know more about the March 1st Movement, here is an entry from New World Encyclopedia! I got a little bit of it on video but the sound isn’t too great since there was traffic and the bus engine was a bit loud! 

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(Again, sorry for portrait mode!)

We got super lucky with our location--there’s so much stuff downstairs from our apartment! There’s a Home Goods Express, a Subway, A FREAKIN DAISO!! There’s also an Olive Young across the street as well as a CU convenience store around the corner that’s open 24 hours! We went after we got our things settled in the apartment and had our first meal in Korea! Enjoy the video, and sorry in advance that I’m not very good at making videos! 

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