#2016kuisc

[stephiime]

CONCERT + GOODBYE,🇰🇷 😋😭😘✌

August 6th, 2016

*Guys, hope you like the music on the blog. It’s a mix of songs that I shazam’d while out and about. 

Slept at 4:00AM the night before and woke up today at 9:00AM. It was not fun, but I managed to get myself up to the gym, yay! I only ran 2 miles because I realized that I got super weak about 30 seconds into the run haha.

Met up with Julie and Anna in the afternoon to pick up some VERY Waffle!! 

I got the plain waffle with green tea and strawberry ice cream. It was delish and melted blissfully in the CRAZY hot weather.

Sat in PAIK’s for a bit. Anna tried to order a pomegranate-ade but she ended up with an americano cause the cashier ... misheard, lololol! Foreigner struggles.

Chilled for a bit in central plaza and then went to Jamsil @ 3~4pm for the concert! I picked up some Manjoo Hana for the last time *cries internally* 

We also got free Jackson stuff from someone who runs a fan group(?). Prior to this concert, I had not known of Jackson, but I cannot say no to free things.

The concert was phenomenal! Jo Kwon and a ton of JYP new talents performed EVEN IF I DIE. I died; a real flashback to junior high school times. It was pretty freaking amazing, but also a mess as we were standing in ye hot and humid mosh pit. Vibes were v sickening though haha!

We all went back to our dorms for last minute packing, except Julie and I were finished and could not sleep - either from the excitement of the concert or from the nervousness of having to leave this country (that we learned to call home) the next day. Either way, we decided to have a last meal at our favourite cozy little canteen place 더진국 [The JIN COOK] and had some pork 국밥 [gukbap] and 냉면 [naengmyeon]. It was fun just chitchatting over delicious foods and watching Rio 2016. We stayed until 5:00AM watching a South Korean rep own everyone else in Judo. 

After that we went to GS25, because we decided, if it was already 5:00 and we needed to be awake by 6:00AM to meet our carpoolees(?) at CJ-I House, sugar and caffeine as opposed to forced sleep would be the better option. I got a green milk tea and a chocolate coffee/mocha drink? 

This thing did the trick because it definitely kept me awake and jittery enough to cause a small earthquake in my room. 

I felt pretty bad though because I had a little over 4 hours of sleep the night before and today I wasn’t sleeping at all. Part of me just wanted to absorb every moment I had left, and I didn’t want to do that while unconscious in sleep.

We parted ways and returned to our dorms to say goodbye to our rooms LOL. And then rendezvoused an hour later at CJ. I am so thankful she offered to let me put my larger luggage in her room the night before. The walk up CJ was THE most disastrous, sweaty workout you could imagine. And had I done that everyday of the 6 weeks I spent here, I would probably be a bikini model or something along that caliber. 

KOREAN HEARTEUUU! Lol

Helped Julie and the other girl with their luggage onto the cab and said goodbye. I will miss Julie so much and I am so blessed to have met her in Korea. It was just over a short coincident that we were both looking for SIM cards but I guess it really only takes small coincidences to impact our lives in a major way.  

I met with the girl I was cabpooling(?) with, said 건강하세요 to the lovely security guard who chased down cabs for us a couple days before, and we were off  

Luxe

Korea, you are beautiful and I will miss 2016KUISC along with all the laughs, food, friendships, education, exploration. Everything. Can’t begin to say how blessed I am to be able to blog and share these good times with everyone. It has been one of the greatest things to happen in my undergraduate life.

[stephiime]

🚀🗼Eyes High: N Seoul Tower🗼🚀

😭August 5th, 2016

I am finally going to make an attempt at catching up on blogging. To be completely honest, I hesitated to keep on blogging because every time I looked at the time stamps on the photos, I knew we were gradually closing in on my last days in Korea. Sounds pretty dramatic, but it made me sad to think that all ‘the 2016KUISC work is done’. 

Moving on :) 

Woke up at around 10 or 11 and went out with Anna to try making our way to the N Seoul Tower. We got off at 명동 [Myeong Dong] and were indecisive about whether or not we should still go cause the visit Korea website said we’d have to take a bus (L O L we never took the bus in Korea). In the end, we managed to find the bus stop and got on the No. 5 N Seoul Tower shuttle bus (L O L there was a shuttle bus). 

I wrote: DOOT! Just like the octopus card!

(Lol @ the HongKonger inside me)

(DAEHAN Cinema :) newly redone and apparently 9 floors high with 8 humungo screens. It also is apparently one of the only large theatres in Korea that screens indie films)

But we made it! The view was lovely! Da romance :) 

I only wish we had gone at night, but I wonder if that is safe? Probably, if it is a tourist attraction. Anyway, we took some pictures and then went back to 명동.

Hello tower!

EZPZ Lemon Squeezy 

Went to LOTTE FITIN so Anna could buy souvenirs for her father (1+1 ties and a lovely windbreaker from TOP10). Then we got back to 안암 [Anam] and went to the basement place (that we visited before with Alex) and had the delicious 냉면. 

The lady was kind enough to give us a dish to put our chili paste in in case it was too spicy - which for me it was. I was so hungry, I ate ALL of it - something I rarely do in Korea since portions are absurdly large - despite me not ever wanting to waste food.

Walked off the 냉면 and went back to my room to pack EXCEPT I NOTICED ALL MY ROOMMATE’S BELONGINGS WERE GONE ... it became lonely. Her bedding is now gone as well ...

*leaves room in the morning with roommate still asleep, comes back in the afternoon and all her things (including her person) are gone*

It was almost comedic, because I did’t get a heads up

😍 Proud moment: Media Hall 😍

My brother ate cafeteria food when he came to KU couple years back, but I ate at the food court :) 

Cutlets, Jjigae, Naengmyeon, bibimbap, ddeokbboki, all that good stuff for ~$5CAD 

Leaving my mark 

*Crying silently while listening to KPOP*

After packing, we tried to head out for Very Waffle (waffle ice cream sandwich), but it was closed, so we opted for W3,500 짜장면 across the school. It was really delissioso and the portion was huge. We sat in front of the fan and a guy tried to adjust it towards himself, but the owner apparently said AIIIIIGSSSHHH and yelled at him a bit L O L, so we quickly finished up and left.

Spent the rest of the night hiking our luggage up to CJ and weighing it. Julie was kind enough to offer keeping my luggage in her room so that I wouldn’t have to lug it all back down, and then back up on the day I fly. We checked out Anna’s room in Global, which looked similar to ours. After that, hung out at McDonalds: Anna and Julie got shake shake chili cheese fries, and I got the Caramel Dip Cone. 

Home 😭

Such a beautiful and surreal moment in my life. I cannot imagine what my life would look like now if I hadn’t taken this opportunity to put everything down and leave, explore, meet new people, try new things, and experience day to day life as a student in a different country. Hey, it was only for 6 weeks, but definitely more than enough to make it a most impactful journey.

This is the hike up to Frontier from the back. Sweat.

[stephiime]

🎓GRADUATION: kawaii friends edition 🎓

August 4, 2016

Today is the big day for 6 week-ers! We went out early to go to LOTTE Mart, but stopped by 남대문 [Namdaemun] first. Julie bought some pantyhose for her mum. It was an incredibly hot day. 

We somehow found LOTTE Mart after walking over a bunch of hills and through a bunch of stations lol! Julie bought this fantastic seaweed stuff to bring back home. 

Look at this expensive w10,000 bag of asparagus

We are nearing our departure from Korea, so of course I have to save my appetite/money for my absolute favourites! Jjajang is bae guyys 🍜

Found an e-mart so of course we loaded our basket with 1.14L x3 worth of soju and looked like complete alcoholics. The guy restocking the shelves was definitely doing some double takes. 

Grapefruit soju: w1,100 Mini soju: w980

Booked it back to안암[Anam] to change for Julie + Anna’s 6-week graduation ceremony and banquet

We were late and turns out they ran out of gowns AND there wasn’t enough space in the auditorium for all the graduates. So despite being late, we were among roughly 30-40 others standing outside. People were pretty mad they couldn’t wear the gown or attend their own grad ceremony :(

PRO TIP: If you come to Korea University, perhaps you can graduate at 4 weeks (but request to stay for 6 weeks) so you can wear a gown, attend your own graduation, and eat at the banquet in a chill, socialize-with-a-glass-of-champagne-and-not-have-to-fight-over-food kind of manner. But that is completely up to you and the courses you are taking!

We ended up borrowing a gown to take pictures

The zipper was not functioning. Kawaii friends :)

We walked around campus after the banquet (we had to use some coordination to save seats because people were stealing seats - again, not enough room for everyone)

Finally visited the library, it was SO quite (maybe cause it’s summer, but also maybe not). They also have a machine that dispenses books like a vending machine whaaat

I think this is a picture of the college of liberal arts

Central plaza at night 😍

So we took this opportunity to take some pictures

[stephiime]

漢江: Do YOu KNoW한자?

August 3, 2016

I apologize for the title :) 

Had me some nutritious lunch (lol) from GS25. I decided to splurge and got the spam one because spam is for royalty 

Went to Express Bus Terminal and spent an immense amount of money on a bajillion bags of clothing. I highly recommend going to Express Bus Terminal to go shopping :).It’s essentially the train station being filled with a ton of ajumma/ajusshi vendors to create one big underground mall.

w80,000 bought me:

A swaggo backpack

set of matching shirt and shorts

three tees

two pairs of those trendy Korean business-y pants

a pair of drawstring pants

A knock-off supreme cap bahahaha

[Price avg W10,000, can range from W5,000 - W25,000]

Bought some manjoo ‘cause I got blogging on my mind and I can’t not show you all the deliciousness that is every Korean person’s childhood memories of riding the train.

Yeah, it’s shaped like a corn bahahaha

Manjoo, however, doesn’t taste at all like corn and it is just simply a bread filled with custard. 

Julie, Anna, and I planned to go about our day individually and then convene at night to see the Han River. LOL what took us so long?

Anyway, it was kind of fun ‘cause I bumped into Julie at Hankkuk Uni Station as we were both on our way to the river. It was one fine reunion as it seemed like we hadn’t done anything together in a LONG TIME but really just something like 3 days.

Hello, Han River. 

(this is the Ttukseom Resort Station, you can see the river from a number of stations but we picked this one)

Here is a mysterious fountain display with pumped up club music being played in accompany

I think that is a restaurant

Staring into space is my f-o-r-t-é

#blessed

[shishizhu]

#2016kuisc#seoul#itaewon#catlover

[shishizhu]

#itaewon#seoul#2016kuisc

[shishizhu]

#2016kuisc#cookingclass#shrimppancake （在 Korea Tourism Organization 韓國觀光公社）