Apgujeong 압구정동

Today, I spent the day in the Apgujeong-dong district with Flo and 5 Singaporeans. Right behind Myeong-dong, Apgujeong-dong is the 10th most expensive shopping street in the world with an average rent of 431 USD per square foot. I love Apgujeong! It's comparable to LA's Beverly Hills - it even has a fashion street called Rodeo.
Apgujeong is full of cafes, boutiques (vintage + imported fashion), chic culturally-diverse restaurants (a lot of Italian, actually.. and fusion like Chinese + Italian), and underground bars and night clubs (the entrance looks like a port-a-potty! It leads you down a flight of stairs).
It is also home to the lux Hyundai Department Store and the Galleria. 80% of the cars around this area had extremely dark tinted windows in the driver's seat.
2 full-scale LVs within walkable distance from each other... the walls changed colour. Very pretty at night.This district is where the celebrities and models reside and hang out. When we told the locals we were going there, they said we would see a lot of "handsome men" haha
To be honest, I didn't really notice any, but the girls were noticeably TALLER, waaaay thinner, totally chic. + very double-take modelesque.

Boutiques... I love boutiques! A lot of the clothes were from Japan and had that neutral look to them. Prices range from 4,900won (a little less than $4.90) to around 50,000-90,000won for sweaters and dresses. Some very likeable items. I bargained for a knit beanie w/ a pom pom -- $6 off! =) The employees dressed really fashionably, too.
Apgujeong also carried a lot of American and European brand name stores such as Diesel, Guess, and Mango. This "Codes Combine" store had a neat feel to it, I thought.
Chic Parisian bakeries:
Sheena (w/ a pistachio macaroon) + LehiaAnother bakery:
For lunch, the Singaporeans wanted Thai food so we went to Thai Orchid. I had green curry.
Cafe's:
(L-R) Shanming, Sheena, Lehia.
I got a green tea latte from this 3-story boutique cafe called Homestead. It felt as though I was in some sort of Korean drama.
Yes... you're reading right.....They also sell mini pets:
Take me home!
I feel sorry for this little guy... (it's what's inside that counts, right?)Pwweeeeeeeeese?
Wall of love in the Hyundai Department store. Korean letters are so cute.
Have you ever seen a moon crescent at this angle? I can't say I have!
I can't wait to re-visit Apgujeong-dong! Sheena was quite the shopper (it's always fun shopping with someone who actually buys) and came home with something from Tiffany & Co., LV, + Chanel. It was good for me because I got to practice understanding the high "shopping numbers" (as I call it).
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Eeee first day of school tomorrow!! I'm really excited. I'm even going to try to sit in on an International Business course to see how it is. I'm happy with my timetable. I have Fridays off, each class is 1.25 hours long, I get almost 2 hours for lunch, I end at 4:45PM every day, and my courses are decently close together.

"JJANG"

I finally have time to set up a simple photoblog to share with you. A lot of people ask me why I've chosen Korea for my exchange from SFU. I always reply with the same answer: I find the culture and society fascinating. I hope that you will learn a little something from my pictures/commentary (and if you were one of the confused ones, that you can see what I see).


The past few days have been nonstop and fantastically fun so beware -- this post contains an overwhelming amount of pictures!

The Flight

On the 11.5 hour flight to Seoul from YVR on Air Canada, I sat next to a very thin 11 year old Korean girl (or so she seemed) who kept jabbing and kicking me accidentally and "secretly" picking her nose [ta gachi (all together) -- ewwww] hahaha Thank goodness for the mini interactive TV in front of me. I watched 3 movies, 3 sitcoms, and listened to Beyonce, Britney Spears, Ne-Yo, and Il Divo for a couple hours. Only slept 10-30 minutes the whole trip.
The Campus
Korea University's campus is huge, spacious, clean and beautiful and almost all their buildings have that old, semi-distinguished look to them. This building houses the International Office (where I will need to visit a lot within the next few weeks to hand in documents), and the Women's Centre.Korea University is considered one the best universities in Korea (along side Yonsei University). When a student is accepted to this school, they pretty much have their careers set out for them. You can tell just by walking around that KU students have a lot of school pride and that the campus stands the way it does because of hard work and dedication.KU is mainly funded privately. Major companies donated buildings to the university that cost up to $60 million USD each. I believe the LG building is the newest. It's the Business building so I'll be lucky enough to spend a lot of time there. The Samsung building is just as impressive.
They have these funnily pruned trees everywhere.
And these statues:
Three of the main buildings are connected underground by study halls. I haven't been there yet, but it's pretty amazing considering how much space these buildings cover! This way, you don't have to get wet to enter another building.The tiger is their mascot. They even have the tiger logo sewn into every auditorium seat cover!
Crimson is their school colour.
Right when you step outside the main gates of the university, all the buildings look grimey and crowded. It reminds me a LOT of Taiwan. Every second shop is either a convenience store, a coffee shop, or a copy/fax store... seriously. Competition is high.
People
I met my KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistance) buddy the next day at orientation! KUBA is a prestigeous volunteer program where they interview and train every single buddy to help exchange students become comfortable with their surroundings. For the Spring, 2009 term, 400 KU students applied but only 38 were chosen. I'm so impressed with KUBA's skills in matching buddies. When I applied, I had to answer some questions about myself to help KUBA decide who to pair me with. Yejin is great as she's lively, socialable, and enjoys and knows as much fashion as I do so we became fast friends!

On the 2nd day of orientation, 16 of us went bowling in the Girl's University area (that looks a LOT like Taiwan's Ximen Ding shopping district) which was a lot of fun.
Since none of my team members have played in a long time (if ever), Kyung Su showed us "proper" bowling form... he ended up getting as many gutter balls as Ji Hee who has never bowled before...
Always supporting and cheering each other on =D
Even when their balls go into the gutters... haha
I happened to have a very lucky streak despite having a bloody finger after ripping off half my thumb nail in the middle of the game, (unable to play the 2nd game), so meet the winning team =) Koreans apparently like to bet so the 2 losing teams had to pay for the 2 winning teams.Eating deep fried chicken + drinking Korean beer the first night right outside campus with Group 8. Hilarious night.
This is Florence from Montreal (woot Canadian!)-- she's the first person I met in Korea while waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to our dorm =)
I'm not too much of a fan of the Hite Korean beer so I only had half a glass (turned red anyway)... tastes pretty good initially, but has a strange aftertaste. KUMBAE!!!
Yesterday, my wonderful group leader invited a few of us foreigners to go clubbing at a KU event at what is considered the "best" club in Korea called Club Answer. This club is located in the richest area of Seoul. Cover is usually around $30CDN/person. Drinks at bars around this area cost $20CDN for a cocktail and $10 for a small beer. This club was a house/techno type and was pretty nice with white lounge booths in the back, an upstairs VIP area, and a sleek bar and stage. That night, a really famous Korean actor was DJing. It was packed. We didn't end up getting in until a bit after 12 b/c we stopped next door to eat and drink Soju.
Yejin (KUBA buddy) + I:
3 (out of 5) of my favourite KU Koreans: KS, AK, and Yejin.
More pictures from the club + the other social events to be posted soon once I get them off other ppl's cameras. I hope to be a bit more organized once I figure out how to really photoblog!