Should Have Been Studying.....

This upcoming week is Midterms! So, naturally, I should have spent the whole weekend studying. Emphasis on the "should." Like any good college student, I spent 100% of the weekend talking about how I should be studying and 5% of the weekend actually studying. But this weekend I made some fantastic memories, so I'll ignore the fact that I'm going to have no life this week to make up for my lack of previous studying.

Saturday, we (myself and four other friends) kicked off our weekend with a trip to Hongdae to for brunch! We went to a little restaurant that served American breakfast food. I got a waffle, sausage, bacon, and hash browns. It was so nice to have a real American breakfast! The waitresses even spoke English! Such a nice taste of home.

After breakfast, we headed to You Are Here, a cafe owned by some famous YouTube bloggers, Simon and Martina of "Eat Your Kimchi." We didn't actually see Simon and Martina, but it was fun to visit their cafe. We all got coffee and settled in for an afternoon of homework. We all got out our notes and highlighters, ready to tackle the task ahead! And then we discovered that we all had snapchat. The next hour was spent adding each other on snapchat, sending derpy pictures, and sharing funny doodles we had done during class. Miraculously, after the initial distraction, we did manage to actually study! .... for about an hour. Then we relapsed into the previous chaos of snapchats and laughter. At that point, we concluded that were going to be unable to do any more homework.

On our way back from the cafe, we stopped by the Dongdaemun History and Culture Museum because Chris (a kid from my study abroad group, not my boyfriend who shares his name) heard that Seoul Fashion Week was going on. Unsure what to expect, we made a quick stop and were amazed by what we saw. Never before have I seen so many well-dressed people! We felt horridly out of place in our "studying" clothes. We left very quickly, but decided to go back the next day when we were able to plan better outfits. Of course, at that point, I realized that I had absolutely nothing to wear that was fit for Seoul Fashion Week! So the entire rest of the evening was spent in search of the perfect Fashion Week outfit. I kid you not, I was out until midnight that night searching for the right thing. Finally, I was satisfied with a purchase. (side note about Korean shopping: often times, Koreans will use really offensive English, but I can't figure out if it's on purpose or not. Sometimes shirts and hats will have really bad language, and the songs they play in stores can be awful! It's almost funny sometimes, though. For example, when I went shopping, one store played a song where the only lyrics in the entire song were "Where's my cocaine? Wh-Wh-Where's my cocaine?")

Sunday afternoon, we headed out for Dongdaemun.Seoul Fashion Week is extremely accessible to the public, almost surprisingly so. It took place at Dongdaemun History and Culture Park from October 17-20. There were a total of three different runways, which allowed for a different show to take place almost every half hour for 12 hours each day. This added up to almost 100 shows total throughout the week! I was only able to attend one show, but I was able to draw several conclusions through my trip to Seoul Fashion Week.

First of all, although the fashion shows were much anticipated, going to Seoul Fashion week was almost as much about the other attendees as the designer shows. Since the event took place in a public area, anyone could attend for free (except for seating for the shows), so it was very accessible to the public. There was always a large crowd, highly saturated with photographers looking for stylish laypeople to photograph. It wasn’t uncommon for photographers to ask people attending to let them take a photo for various fashion blogs.

The actual clothing in the shows was very intriguing as well. The cut of all the clothing was much more conservative and modest than American shows. There was also a lack of color that seemed very uncharacteristic for a spring/summer show. Almost all of the clothing was made in earthy tones, with splashes of white here and there. In the show I saw, all the models were also wearing vans-like slip-on shoes rather than the stilettos so typical of American runway shows.

In general, Koreans tend to dress up more than Americans. Wearing sweatpants in public is almost unheard of here. Koreans have a very acute sense of style, and that fashion sense made Seoul Fashion Week a designer’s dream!

Although I probably should have been studying, I don't regret the activities I chose instead one bit.

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Fireworks and Sticker Pictures!

Every year, Seoul hosts an International Fireworks Festival along the Han River. Last weekend, a group of my friends decided to brave the crowds and go see the fireworks display. We were sure to arrive plenty early, since we read online that somewhere around 1 million people attend the festival. It gets so busy that sometimes the subway doesn't even stop at the station closest to the festival because it is so crowded!

When we arrived 5 hours before the fireworks were supposed to start, we were astounded by how many people were already at the festival! Some people even had tents set up, obviously camping out all day for the fireworks.We found an empty patch of grass and set up camp for the day. We spent the hours walking around the booths at the festival, napping in the sun, and taking in the scenic view of the Han River. It was so fun and relaxing!

Finally, it got dark and the fireworks show started! It It was a 1 1/2 hour long show that showcased the best of fireworks from four countries: Canada, Japan, France, and Korea. Although I normally get bored of fireworks pretty quickly, this show kept me entertained the whole time! Since it was like 4 mini-shows, there were enough impressive finales to keep me interested the whole time. It was truly a beautiful show! It got a little awkward when Canada apologized for their fireworks being so bright and loud, though. (Just kidding. That didn't actually happen.)

Although the days following the firework festival were fairly boring, yesterday was tons of fun! I met up with my Korean friend Hanna for a day of fun. Ironically, the subway station we met at happened to have a festival going on! It was Hangul Proclamation Day, which is a national holiday celebrating the establishment of the Korean alphabet, so there were lots of stalls selling goods. That was a cool surprise!

After exploring the festival for a while, we did some classic Korean activities: taking sticker pictures and going to a multi-room! Sticker pictures were super fun. They're somewhat similar to photo booths in the States, but significantly better in every way possible! You go into a booth like in the states, but it's much more roomy. On top of that, you also get to pick from a myriad of different backgrounds, including ones with fake props. For example, Hanna and I chose one in a prison and one with a toilet. You take 8 pictures, and then you get to pick your 4 favorite to actually save. Once you finish taking the pictures, they're electronically sent to another booth where you decorate them. You can draw on them, add stickers, etc. There are so many possibilities! Then you decide how you want them laid out on a page, and they're printed out! You take them home, cut them apart, and stick them to everything you can find. If you want to see the sticker pictures Hanna and I took, you can find them on my facebook! (I'm especially fond of the one where Hanna is coming out of the toilet.)

Next, we wandered over to the multi-room! A multi-room is essentially a place where you rent a "room" to watch tv/movies, eat snacks, play games, etc. However, you have to understand what the rooms actually are. It's not an entire room. It's more like the size of a decent dressing room. You also have to take off your shoes, because the entire floor is like a giant couch. It's squishy and comfy. And if you go out the curtain-door and down the hall, there's a complimentary snack room! You can have your choice of cookies, tea, coffee, crackers, toast, and even gelato! You get access to the room, games, snacks, and TV for 2 1/2 hours for roughly $8. It's a pretty good deal, all things considered! Especially if you split the room with friends. Overall, my day with Hanna was super fantastic!

My stay here in Korea has been so fantastic. I've seen so many things and had so many unique experiences. It's been very... comfortable. However, I'm worried that it's been a little too comfortable. I don't feel like I've made a lot of Korean friends or really connected with the culture as much as I'd like. So I'm going to challenge myself with an America fast! This next week, I've decided to give up all American music and television. (I'm not quite brave enough to cut out all American food yet!) I'm hoping it'll help me connect a little more with Korean culture and maybe even improve my language skills. If all goes well, I'll extend the experiment longer than a week. Wish me luck!

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