So Hot

Yesterday, we went to Seoul Station to buy KTX (train) tickets for next week. On Monday, we're going down to Busan for 4 days and then we're going to Daejeon to visit my friend for a couple days. It was pretty hot so we decided to spend the hottest time of the day indoors at a jjimjilbang (sauna)!

This one is known as one of the best in Seoul - called Dragon Hill Spa located next to I'Park mall at Yongsan.

It's really well known - quite a few popular Korean variety shows were hosted there.Locker rooms

It was huge -- 7 floors of gender-separated saunas, restaurants, wet saunas, outdoor salt pools, an arcade, and spa services such as full face threading, eyelash extensions, body scrubs, massages, skin cupping etc. The unisex sauna was on the 1st floor. The facilities at this jjimjilbang were a lot nicer than the one I went to at Anam. The 39 degree had a decent-sized flat screen that played Starking (love that show) but the temperature was so comfortable, I ended up taking a nap on the marble floor. The 69 degree pyramid was too hot to stay in for long because the floors burned every part of me that touched it. The 57 degree was pretty like the one at Anam with pink hued pebbled floors. Of course, I loved the "penguin" room as I dubbed it. It was 9 degrees but the sides of the wall were frosted over with snow and there was even a couple snowmen in it! And then there were 2 actual kilns that had doors so small you had to crouch down to get in. Those were intense and everyone was dripping by the time they went out. Can't wait to go again.. I love jjimjilbangs~

Then at night, we met up for some drinks with some exchange students + locals -- a really fun night ^^ we went to sing at a norebang after and were totally blown away by the voice of In-Young!
Insadong

Coex -- so cute!!

Farewell

We only part to meet again.

John Gay

My Vacation Has Officially Begun.

My OM final went much better than I thought it would, phew. But now, I don't know what I'm going to do with my textbook because it's so heavy, I don't want to bring it home. My friend suggested for us to make a bon fire and have all the international students throw their textbooks in -- sounded like a good idea at that moment!

I did a shop at Dongdaemun while everyone else was packing, finishing up their exams, or writing their final papers. It was nice~ I finally got to explore the new Doota! Fashion Is War building!
It's a very clean and modern store that's set up like the other shopping complexes in that each floor caters to specific segment groups.
The clothes in Doota! are better quality and more stylish in a chic way than ones like Migliore and Hello aPM. Prices range from 32,000-230,000won for women's clothes compared to Migliore's approx. 5,000-50,000won.
I didn't buy anything though I really liked quite a few things.
Designer(ish) family matching tees~
The accessories floor -- Didn't take many pictures last night:
Chipmunk loves fresh&hot cheese naan...
This paht bing su (shaved ice + ice cream dessert w/ fruit + red bean + mochi) is made for 2 ppl but 4 shared.
The coffee cake (Julie loves coffee) we picked up @ Tous Les Jours.
With the birthday girl

The last time I'm going to see my main competition in Korean beginner's class
kk we had fun.







Street food! It was delicious - marinated skinless chicken alternated with green onions... but I asked him if it was "mewoyo" (spicy) and he said "ahn mewoyo" (not spicy). Pssh to him it wasn't spicy -- I could barely finish it.
Going to pack and then go shopping~
Tonight's farewell party.... will be great.

Lotte Family Concert

Lotte Duty Free hosted the 7th Stage Family Concert yesterday!

ARTISTS:
Super Junior
Shin Hye Sung
Big Bang
Rain

There were 3 ways to get tickets:
1) You could buy 500USD worth from Lotte Duty Free to get 2 A seats (the worst seats), 700USD for 2 S seats (middle), or 1,300USD for 2 R seats. It's supposed to be a free concert for those who could afford to spend that amount at Lotte Duty Free.
2) You could look online on Naver (all in Korean) and buy off of people. (They usually sell tix in pairs)
3) You could arrive early and buy tickets from a scalper.
Or, you could stand around a cash register @ Lotte Duty Free, waiting for people with big purchases to give you their receipt...... (I did not do this, but I know of some who did).
It was difficult, but luckily Tiffany found some online. I transferred the seller the money (25,000 each for S seats) and the next day, we received our tickets!
We thought we were being smart by getting there early at 3 since they didn't have assigned seating - the earlier you came, the better seats you could choose and the concert started at 7PM, but there was already quite an extensive line! At 5, we were let in. Bich wanted tickets for her and her friend so I ended up finding some last minute tickets for her from a scalper (2 high school girls) in the R section (best seats) at a very reasonable price.
We bought light sticks to wave around. Each artist has its own colour. We chose Rain's (white) since he was the main event of the concert!
Since we were early, we were lucky enough to listen to the Lotte Duty Free commercial (a compilation of the stars endorsing Duty Free singing their theme song) around 10 times.... it's been stuck in my head all day. There was a good turnout - much more packed than the Sparkling concerts.
We also received a creatively nice program. I was so disappointed I didn't see the one song I was looking forward to seeing for both Super Junior and Rain on the program! But at the end, both artists surprised the audience with those songs =)
Super Junior (SuJu) opened the show! I was blown away by some of their voices. They sang Why I Like You, Reset, Let's Not..., and Rokuko... and then the song I wanted to hear: Sorry Sorry!! LOVED their last 2 performances.
Since SuJu has so many members (13), they have broken into mini groups for side projects. SuJu T (trot music) sang the energetic Rokuko and SuJu's K.R.Y (consists of the 3 best singers), sang Let's Not which was beautifully sung. KiBum was not present as he's currently concentrating on acting. Heechul... gotta love that guy haha Heechul + Yesung caught my eye.
The song I wanted them to sing was Sorry Sorry ~ shawty shawty micho micho hehe
Lots of blue sticks (their fan colour) in the audience.
Then wasssssss Shin Hye Sung who we had the pleasure of seeing last week. He sang the same songs.
It was cute when he was talking -- being a solo artist, he wasn't as popular as the other 3 performers that night and didn't receive as many fan screams... but you know audiences - any mention of an artist they like, they'll scream their heads off.
So SHS built it up.
He mentioned "Super Junior" and everyone screamed.
"Big BANG!" --- SCREAM!
"RAIN!!" ----- SCREAAAMMMM!!!
"Shin Hye Sung!!!" ------ superloudSSSCCCCCREAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!
Big Banggggg next! I can never get tired of seeing or listening to these guys -- such catchy stuff and you know that no two performances are ever the same.
The guy in the cap is TaeYang. He's so smooth at dancing! He also put a little of his own R&Bness in his solos which was wow...They performed Last Farewell, How Gee, Together Forever, Heaven, Haru Haru, and Red Sky + then Sorry But I Love You as an encore.THEN... the biggest male artist in Korea (or was it Asia?) -- RAIN! I had high expectations from him. He totally met them and gave me much more. To be honest, all he really needed to do was stand there and move a bit and the audience (especially the ajummas!) would go wild, screaming, cheering, frantically waving their lightsticks and silver pom poms. He just has an incredible stage presence... and he always seems so relaxed, confident and comfortable.
Fresh Woman, How to avoid the sun, Touch Ya, Love Story (yay!!), September 12th, I Do, ...I hope to upload some videos soon! Here's a snippit of Rain's "I Do". It's very mellow in the beginning...
I wanted him to sing Rainism (not on the program) so he did!! Bad boyyyyy~ hehehe

After acting like groupies at the concert we ate dinner @ Olympic park and took the cab to Apgujeong where we attended some intimate party @ Hedone (I forgot who the connections were), the basement of an upscale Italian restaurant called Peppermint Dream.
It was the first time I've seen so many Westerners mingling together since I've arrived. There were no more than 50 people. It was kind of refreshing not having to speak in broken English, hoping they got what you meant. It reminded me of Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong.

We met some cool people. The gorgeous girl on the left is Deborah. She has a British accent (attended British school in Korea) but is from New York and is wearing an amazing D&G dress I wish was mine. The girl on the right was one of the few guests who hardly spoke any English, but she wore a pair of these awesome ($300USD) splatter-dyed slim-fit ankle jeans. They quickly became Bich's chingu (friend)... as did everyone else she happened to bump into that night (it was 30,000won entrance fee all you can drink wine bar so she made the most of it).
OH and at the beginning, I also met this girl whose blog I've read a couple times. She's a regular contributor on Soompi (an extensive forum I use to update myself on Korean entertainment culture). Her Soompi alias is Ginger (an adopted Korean from W. Virginia teaching English in Seoul). Quite the unique beauty - it was neat meeting her.
This DJ really reminded me of Onew or Key from SHINee -- the hair and the shape of the face but my goodness.. the width of his legs could not have been bigger than my ankle!

Me, Bich, Tiff

Interesting night indeed. I need to hang out around Apgujeong more often... I love the atmosphere, fashion, and people.

Oh yea while we were leaving, trying to catch a taxi, I saw this huge van with tinted windows -- the type celebrities get around in. I told Bich and she walked in front of the van, threw her arms up in the air and exclaimed, "MINWOO!" haha I glanced -- it was him! We tapped his window and said hi but he didn't roll down his window. 5 inches away from Minwoo. Wonder if his dancers were in the car too...

Oso Oseyo!! (Welcome)

Koreans definitely know how to party.

I just came back from a welcoming party for foreign exchange students organized by KUBA. It was held in the cafeteria in the Student Union Building. Julie, Kayla, Flo, and I didn't go clubbing afterward b/c a certain someone passed out lol

First, we all paid 10,000won to attend the welcoming party which was a bit of a bust because I came a bit late (like 10 minutes...) and all the food was gone and the sound system didn't work (they played bits and parts of really good songs - I knew them all!) so it didn't end up being much of a party. We all got a can of beer and got to go to our own group table to converse, eat, and drink. Then we sang happy birthday to my roomie's friend, Annie, and "danced". Here are 2 clips of KUBA people dancing to (click on the red) SNSD's latest hit "Gee", and my group leader dancing to Wonder Girls' "Tell Me".

I tried Korean makkoli for the first time at the party. It's a traditional alcoholic drink made of rice. It looks like soy milk and has a bit of a weird sweetness to it.. I don't like it at all. There's a makkoli song! LOL it's really long and funny and everyone sang it before we drank it.

Some people made me feel really underdressed!
YeJin, me, Natalya, KyungSu, and (Idon'tknowhowtospellhernamefromJapan)
German, Lavin, TY, Wong, and meThe guy on the left is nicknamed "Jan Di" after the main girl from this super popular Korean drama called Boys Over Flowers. I don't know his real name -- I always call him Jan Di. With oh-so-cute Mami and Miho.
KS, Mami, Nick, Kayla, Julie, and "Jan Di"
Azumi, Yoko (she's hilarious and loves beer lol), Julie
Olivia love
Two hours later, groups 6, 7, and 8 walked 4 blocks to an underground pub called Macigo (which means "drink", apparently). Again, we paid 10,000won for all-you-can-drink beer and soju.
A is for Aardvark...
You can write on paper in the washroom stall...
Oliviaaa
Nick, Ji Yeon, YeJin, James
Just a glimpse of inside... taking a break (oh wow YouTube totally ruins the quality...)

Everyone (including myself) had an absolutely fantastic time at Macigo!! Some of us have already made plans to do this again next Saturday =)