Remember the WAPOP concert I went to a couple weeks back with the dance crews, Nu'Est, and Seventeen? Well, that was held in the Seoul Children's Park, which is actually only a couple minutes from campus. It has it's own personal subway station but it's faster to just walk from Konkuk. Now, this park is not just a park; it's freaking huge and has not only an amusement park in it but also a zoo, a botanical garden, a creative museum, acupuncture paths, and a rainbow water fountain show. I'm super disappointed that I couldn't get pictures of the fountain for you guys. I was just really amazed the first time I saw it and then it shut down the next day for the change in season, despite the fact that it was still 80 degrees out. I went back to the park to explore some more and was just amazed at how far the darn thing went.
Acupuncture path, You're supposed to just walk on the rocks with only socks and it'll improve your circulation or something. I just think they're pretty.
Amusement park. It's more aimed towards children but it's still rather large.
Elephants! Now, the zoo was a full-on zoo but it was really depressing to me because the conditions for the animals were terrible. No zoo is good for animals but these ones had tiny little rooms to live in, The lions maybe had 1,000 square feet, which is just no big enough.
Botanic gardens! I actually wasn't super impressed with this one because I'm used to the one at Komo but it was still rather lovely.
Little path outside the botanic gardens. Now, this would have been super pretty if it weren't for the smell of manure coming from the ponies right behind it.
Most tourists are told that Insa-dong is the place to go for traditional wares. A Korean friend of mine and I went together and, while it was interesting, I think this place is a tourist trap now. There were some traditional things but a lot of it was the same generic crap over and over again. I don't regret going because the traditional Korean restaurants were very interesting to see, but the area as a whole is not as traditional as I was lead to believe. There are other areas of Seoul, like a lot of the markets, that are much more traditional than this.
Open air mall. It was super cool because there weren't stairs, you just kept walking up in a progressive circle.
Ddong bbang, literally poop bread. I was fooled yet again though. Anything you think is chocolate is probably red bean in Korea.
Traditional masks and such. This store was the most traditional looking out of all of them, along with the calligraphy stores.
There was a pathway lined with these cute little circles that couples wrote their messages to each other on. My friend and I were having fun guessing who was still with each other.
Sonnet and Serena also had their birthdays last week so we went to the Han River and bought them cake to celebrate. The Han River is super beautiful at night, especially with the city lights, but it's also lovely during the day if you bike along the multiple bike paths,
Han River with the bridge.
Sonnet and Serena's birthday cake from Baskin Robins. Those things are everywhere here!
I also went to my first Korean Noraebang (karaoke) with my friend Yosung. She and I each had an hour before our next appointments so we ran to a noraebang. Our room was super awesome and had laser lights along with a disco ball. We didn't get any service (free things, which are super common in Korean and especially noraebangs) but the photo booth was super cheap. Oh, and you couldn't wear shoes in there, you had to put slippers on.
The photo booths here are so epic; you get to edit your pictures and add stamps and words and frames.
I also joined a new club, the Korean Culture Club. It's super fun because each week we get a mission, like visit this monument or eat this food, that we have to fulfill in teams and take a proof picture. I'm still in ECC though so I'm making a lot of new friends and trying a bunch of new things. In KCC this week, we just ate together then played traditional Korean games together. In ECC, we played the mafia game, which is super fun when you understand the rules. I won on my first game :)
After ECC, a group of us went out to eat and then we got lemon ice cream beer afterwards. Yep, you read that right; lemon ice cream beer. It was weird but surprisingly good.
Yesterday, I went to Cheonggyecheon, which is a man-made stream that runs for a couple kilometers through Seoul. It's absolutely beautiful and filled with people constantly. It's a very popular dating place but there were a lot of families and friends there as well. It seems like the perfect place to sit down and have a picnic. We also went to the Kwangjang Market nearby which is both huge and very traditional. This was the first time since I've been in Korea that I said "How can they eat that?" It was an interesting experience and the Hanbok section was absolutely stunning.
This is near the start of the stream, which flows out of fountains. There was some charity event going on so the stream was covered by "floating" umbrellas.
Further down the stream is more nature; less concrete and more plants.
There are multiple places to cross the stream via rocks along the way. These areas are popular for picture taking and kids. I don't think it had any particular meaning, it's just fun.
Today's Saturday and I'm going to the Seoul International Fireworks Festival later so I'm super excited about that.
Random Thoughts
So there are two programs here right? The exchange program then the ISA program where their school doesn't have the exchange system up. I'm in the exchange but the ISA program is so much better. They pay more but they have organized trips to Busan, Jeju, and the DMZ, their program took care of the paperwork, and not only do they have internships here but they also have a volunteer English teaching program. I'm so jealous, it's ridiculous.
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