Such as: yesterday I went to the Homever to purchase a fan. Yes, I am well aware that it is swiftly approaching the end of October, but Seoul has not seen a lower temperature than 70 in the past few weeks and it is killing me. If I sleep with my windows open I get no breeze because I have buildings all around me and I get eaten alive by mosquitos. If I put my AC on at night it blows air but I never really cools down the apartment. All of which contribute to "I'll sleep when I'm dead". Anyway, I made the trek to Homever and bought the "fan". It was not until I got back into the elevator of my building that I noticed I had bought a ceramic space heater. Not only did it say "Ceramic Space Heater" in English on the outside of box, the pictures in the box were in orange and red colors, vs the typical blue for a cooling machine.
Thus, I need a bit more of a normal persons sleep schedule.
While I haven't been sleeping I have been leading a very fun, busy life. I made a bunch of friends in my neighborhood which is has been really chill. Again, almost all guys. I have realized that most girls who have come here have boyfriends, which makes them unavailable to be normal friends. I wish this wasn't so, but I get along really well with the guys and I'm used to it now so I'll get over it.
I got invited to go with them two weeks ago to a concert in Gangnam- the area where I did my orientation when I first moved here. It was an LCD Soundsystem show, one of my favorite electronica bands from home. I was already pumped about going but when I got to the subway to meet up with them before the show, my excitement tripled. Three of the guys were rocking Korean suits and ties. This sounds lame until you see Korean men suits and ties. The suits are silver, not a little sheen to them, but straight up SILVER. (picture will be attached) and the ties are glittery. The hot fall colors for ties currently are, hot pink with jewels on them, bright purple with diagonal glitter stripes, and neon teal in a satin material. It was hilarious and I knew that I wanted to be spending much more time with these kids.
Two nights ago we went to a tradtional drinking house in an area called Insadong. Insadong is in the city central where most of the old palaces are and the traditional korean buildings. We went specifically to get this drink called, Makkoli. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially when they brought out this huge stone punch bowl and ladle but I actually really liked it. There are different kinds of it, but basically it's a rice wine with a milky texture and other flavorings thrown in. Ours was pine flavor... or so I thought. It was kind of chunky but had a subtle sweet taste- best part, it doesn't lend to hangovers. Bam!
So aside from those guys I have been hanging out lots with Blake boi. Last weekend we decided to get out of the city and adventure. We spent Saturday in his city, Suwon, visiting the Suwon Fortress because they had a huge festival going on. They had a big food festival.... enough raw fish and dried squid to make you want to hurl. Tons of vendors where you could by anything under the sun. Faux purses and workout wear for under 10,00o won (ruffly 7-8 US dollars now). Heaven really. And lastly they had a huge fireworks show and martial arts show which were both pretty cool to watch with the fortress walls in the background.
Sunday we took a train an hour and half South to Daejon for the International Hot Air Balloon Festival. We hadn't taken the KTX, the major rail system in Korea, only the subway, so we didn't know how to buy tickets. We ended up buying 15,000 won tickets and just getting on whatever car we could. Because we are awesome, we ended up on the first class car, with no one else on it. They had huge leather chairs that reclined all the way complete with foot rests and tons of leg room. We both popped in our iPods and started dozing. It was too good to by true, because 10 mins after we were on we were kicked out. But when we tried to ask what section our tickets were the woman got so frusterated because of the language barrior, that she showed us back to the same seats and let us stay there for the rest of the trip. Beautiful!!! Pictures of the festival are attached.
This weekend I am heading out of town to see the colors. Doing some hiking and perhaps some kayaking!
More updates to come.
XOXO
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