commercials.are.amazing.

My whole entry is definitely NOT going to be about commercials, but can I just say that Korean ad makers are super good?? Like they seriously make me want to buy their shizznit. They're just amazing. They should come to America and make ads for health-care reform and other cool stuff :D

Also, as a little note before I jump into my entry, Jenny and I finally had some pastries from Tous Les Jours. OMG SO GOOD. I had an apple-filled pastry and this other one. SO DELICIOUS. We need one in America...or at least Corona and Davis. This place is amazingggg.

Apple pastry in the back and pastry in the front...don't know the name but I LOVE it...just needs some butter haha

Anyways, I headed out to meet Jae Hee yesterday and we met up at the area around Hongik University. Hongik University itself is apparently known mostly for its' fine arts department. Love it :D I think that probably explains the nearby graffiti that I talked about earlier. Yonsei, Ewha, and Hongik (known as Yondae, Ewha, and Hongdae) are all big private universities that are really close to each other. Not surprised that they would spill into each other's areas...not that I'm saying they should be segregated hahaha.

Jae Hee should be a model :P

Hongdae (as in the area around the university) is super busy. It's filled with shops, cafe's, restaurants, clubs, etc. OH, HAHAHA something I couldn't take a pic of but there was a bar called, "The Ho Bar." I KNOW they didn't mean it the way an American or English-speaking person would take it but still...lol it's like those random restaurants in America that have these weird names in foreign languages. Like they sound good but what do they mean (El Pollo Loco, for example haha)?

Hongdae as the sun sets...I thought I didn't have a pic of the Ho Bar, but I do...check this pic out...to the right!!!

Setting up for a busy Saturday night of clubbing :D

But Jae Hee took me to this really good restaurant. You just order the meat and they come cook it for you in the big metal pan. Really, REALLY good. I also had what Jae Hee called, "kimchi soup." LOL so cute. It was really good though. Like spicy and sour at the same time but cold. It was a really good counter-taste to the spicyness of the chicken that she ordered...look at me, sounding all foodie. This means I watched too much Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern during the summer haha

We were eating that and the waiter comes over and starts talking to Jae Hee. He was all surprised that I could eat the food since even a lot of Koreans had trouble eating it (because it was so spicy) haha. I was so proud of myself *sigh.* Look at my Indian heritage shining through once again, strictly because of my tastebuds. Mommy, Daddy, thank you :D hahaha

After we finished eating, we headed out to the larger Hongdae area. Jae Hee helped me buy a bag (I'm so indecisive and my sense of fashion sucks) and made sure I got a good deal. She also told me about other good places to go shopping haha. I totally saw some presents I'm going to grab later there. Things for Avni, Niral, Mansee, Fariha, and Johnathen...got all of y'all covered haha.

By the way, I get a TON of free things here in Korea. On my first day here, I bought a dinner from the convenience store downstairs and got a free cup of noodles and a free corn tea (YUMMMM). Then when I went back later on, I bought another meal and got a free yogurt. When I was with Jae Hee, I bought this little watch for myself and got a cell-phone charm for free. And TODAY, when I went to Home Plus (Korea's version of Wal-Mart...I just hope it doesn't kill people and contribute to the degradation of the environment...I think it might be sexist though :[ ), I bought shampoo, and got another shampoo free, along with free conditioner and a free basket.

I love Korea haha.

But after buying all that shizznit, Jae Hee and I decided to chill in this little cafe (there are so many cafe's here! All the coffee drinkers of America would rejoice...but it is still expensive here lol). I had this awesome little fizzy grapefruit juice. And it tasted like a grapefruit...and I had little pieces of pulp. I LOVED IT!!! YUMMMMM :D I was sitting there drinking it, thinking about my first year, where all of us ate TONS of grapefruit. Some people though *coughMelindacough* had lots of trouble with the grapefruits hahaha.

YUMMMMM :D Grapefruit Fruit Ade haha

After eating, Jae Hee took me to an Ulzzang shop. It's like this place where you take tons of pics together, with backgrounds and props. Then you color them in, put little stickers, whatever. It's kind of cool and I wish they had them in America haha. They're like photobooths but with tons more options. Mine were so cheesssyyyyy LOL. Jae Hee kind of looked at me and was like, "Ummm, epic fail." hahaha Plus, I took wayyyy too long to color them in haha.

At the Ulzzang place, computer where we decorate our pics. Love it :D

The last thing we did before going our separate ways was something my dad really wants to do when he comes to Seoul...eat DUKBOKKI!!! LOL I had to take it to go but it was really good! Reminded me of something my mom and dad make with dough triangles...it's a Gujarati dish but the name escapes me. The concept is the same: sweet and spicy sauce, with a doughy addition. The Gujarati version is more like a soup...I'll have to get the name from my parents...But still, same taste. The dukbokki, however, has a really different texture since it's rice cakes. It's interesting, since the texture isn't anything I've ever encountered before. But you get used to it :D

Ah, and then I went home...

That's about it. OH! And I've taken to watching Korean dramas on TV (we have HD...yes, it's okay to be jealous. I know I am) but I still don't get them. I need to learn this language :P But because of those dramas, I'm slowly picking things up...I hope. Otherwise I've been screwing things up majorly haha...

One of my roommates had me watch this song and it's been stuck in my head all day...super cool music video AND song...Korea's pretty awesome haha:

korean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCbqj4SxGJs

english: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA7fdSkp8ds

alone by our lonesome

What. A. Day.

I'm so exhausted bleghhhh.

Started off by going to Tous Les Jours, a French bakery, for breakfast. Ummm...they still hadn't stocked up their place by the time we got there so we awkwardly left. Then we went to Dunkin' Donuts, which was literally two minutes away. That place was open but we still had trouble getting food because we had to use the trays and stuff...oh well :P

Korea is really big on things like that. They're weird to a person like me but this place is so...sanitized. I know that sounds weird but everything has a layer of protection, a layer of clean. Like the subway, the restaurants, even the toilets. This place doesn't feel sterile or weirdly inhuman like Monaco did but it still has that "clean" feeling while also being really...human? I don't know. Maybe it's because there are so many people everywhere that it's strange to see everything be so clean.

Anyway, it was at around this time that Jenny and I noticed something.

Tons of people were staring at us. To me, this is nothing new. I mean, I am brown and I don't think many Korean people have seen such a tall, Indian girl before. But it was a strange feeling because so many people had never stared at us before. We'd gotten a few glances during our other trips out but today? SHOOT, everyone was staring at us...and I don't know if it was necessarily in a good way. Anyway, we just made jokes about it because really, we were the only white and brown girls walking around together that we could see.

We ignored the staring and got off at our university...only we didn't get off at our university. You see, when we had gone to Yonsei before with Gina, we'd decided to get off the bus at the Ewha Women's University stop because it was closer to where we needed to be.

We got lost again.

We got off the bus and were completely confused. The place we'd gotten off at was completely NOT what we were expecting. Again, we were lost UGH...

But this time it wasn't so bad because we could see our destination in the distance and so began to walk through the streets to get there. Along the way, we saw a ton of cool and questionable things, like this club called, "Club Sexy," a bunch of not-so-legit looking shoe stores, and other such areas but it was fun.

We also saw this cute dog and his owner haha.

But the best part of getting lost? The AWESOME graffiti we saw on our way. I have to admit that I stereotyped Korea as a completely non-graffiti culture...uhhh...yeah, that was my epic fail of the century...Anyways, this graffiti...WOW. Super good.

After taking too many pics of the graffiti, we headed to Yonsei, where we saw a funeral procession and then a graduation. It was a good and bad day to go because of the graduation. There were TONS of people there and it was crowded but...shizznit, such a happy day!! And so many pretty clothes!!!

That's another thing...Korean people, in general, are really, really well-dressed. I expected this because Nirav told me that this was a fashion-conscious country but fudgenuts!!!!! Jenny and I constantly find ourselves looking at people's (mostly women's) clothing and saying that it's something ugly and yet, it looks freaking amazing on the person. They're like this clothes with these garishly ugly huge bows or weird scrunches, high necks, and lots of extra fabric. All in all, really unflattering but strangely good-looking on a lot of these people!!!

We also finally ate in a real Korean restaurant, strictly by pointing at the picture on the wall haha. Super good food though. I loved it. I actually didn't know what I had ordered until I asked Jae Hee (my friend from Davis who lives in Seoul during the summer) what it was...The soup was doen jang chigae and it was awweeesssooommmeee :D

After eating, we headed back to the immigration office so I could turn in my form. However, Korea yet again proved its' efficiency by starting off at number 424 when I got there (my number was 578) and reaching me within 3 hours. Craziness.

Ugh, so exhausting. How do people do this everyday?

No pics because they're on Facebook and I'm super tired lol haha

By the way, everyone was staring at us because they thought my lace undershirt was actually my bra...oops. hehehe

kidnapping a korean baby

I was exhausted yesterday so I couldn't type anything up for what we did. But we did make this super weird video of what we did in the morning after breakfast...Like I said last time, there's this security camera channel that the apartment has. We went ahead and we recorded it and made it like a silent movie :D here it is haha

*edit:...can't upload it because Korea doesn't let you do that...i don't get it :( *

By the way, totally found out today that another Davis person, Rachel, was watching that channel, thinking it was an actual show...Super funny when she found out it actually was a security camera thing hahaha. She was like, "I was waiting for something to happen! I was wondering why people would watch that show, it's the same thing over and over again!"

I didn't want to tell her that I thought the same thing haha. Totally thought it was a real show hehe.

Anyways, after doing that little recording thing, we had to head out to the Seoul Immigration Office, which wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't so confusing to get there :( Even Gina, who is mine and Jenny's Goddess, had a hard time figuring out the map. We're also pretty sad because Gina left us to be with her cooler friends, so we're the two bum-faces that are walking around Seoul, trying to get people to understand us. More on that later haha.

Gina literally had to babysit Jenny and I as she took us to the Seoul Immigration Office. But it was super fun because as soon as Jenny and I saw the subway for the first time, I think we both had heart attacks. It's SO COOL!!!!

Please, let me illustrate.

Usual subways have this gap between the platform and the actual train thing. Not Seoul. They're too awesome and amazing for that type of infantile construction. They actually have these HUGE glass panels that sit in-between the platform and train. The panels have automatic sliding doors that coincide to where the doors are on the subway and both open at the SAME time. These panels are amazing because they do SO much!!!

So not only can I NOT commit suicide, I also cannot get my foot stuck in that weird little gap in-between the platform and train. Wow, Seoul. You're awesome.

Plus, you have cute little shops and stuff.

Don't know what this is haha

I HAVE to go to this one. It sounds French but the donuts and stuff sound a lot better than the breakfast we're having everyday at DMC Ville haha.

But your waiting system sucks ASS. Puh-lease. You have subways that protect people from death, TVs in your kitchens and cabs, intercoms in your bathrooms, toilets that deodorize our butts, and the best parking lots ever, but you can't have a faster moving bureaucracy?

Ahhh, just kidding. I actually did feel really bad for the people working there because I think so many people showed up on an unexpected day that they had to call in more people to work. Plus, considering that Jenny and I's number was 484 and 485 respectively, and that the number count was in the 350's when we got there, and we got up to the front desk within three hours? Wow. They did really, really well.

THE NUMBERS NEVER MOVEDDDDD :(

...the baby was so CUTEEEE...yes, I was stalking the baby and taking pics of it in a room full of like 120 people...hehehe

My form thing didn't work out because I'm stupid but I'll be going back soon. I'm sure I'll have another adventure to tell you about for that :P

After we FINALLY finished the form shizznit (but not our Monopoly game on the iTouch LOL), Jenny and I took the cab back to DMC Ville...without Gina. Our Goddess/Mother had to get back to her life and so we were left to make our way back in the cab, with a cab driver who didn't know where we were going. Thankfully we found a bus that he could follow and just pointed to it and he followed lol. We just went, "Ahjussi, bus! Bus!" which means, "Mister, bus! Bus!" LOL he got it though haha.

Once we got out of the taxi though, it started raining. Yup, just as we exited. So we decided to go grab dinner, head up to our apartment, and be the bums that we are.

So we went to grab dinner, in this place that's in our apartment complex. A little side note here...we got lost hahahaha.

Anyways, we walked inside this TINY little fried chicken place and tried to order. They didn't speak English, except for a few words. We ordered by pointing at the menu and were really confused about what we were getting. The only thing we knew for sure was that it was chicken and fries...we hoped. We waited off to the side until he showed up with our chicken nuggets.

Ummm.

Why is there a straw coming out of the cup? Are we supposed to drink them?

We were confused. So then we lifted UP the chicken nuggets container and OH.MY.SHIZZNIT. There was Coke underneath!!! I don't know what it was, but that dinner made us giddy with happiness. I think it was the jetlag and weirdness of the food combined that made us love it and freaking crazy. I mean, the food was super good...but I think after our experience today...LOL I don't know when we'll go back there again unless we're starving haha.

Other than that (TODAY), we've spent a lot of our time gazing with amazement at the freaking awesome commercials that are Korean commercials. Our favorite so far? This one!!! Mostly because its song is AWESOME hahaha...we just need to find the full song. It's called "C'est La Fete" by Ilona Mitrecey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ey3pcKooso&feature=PlayList&p=F4A85A399582B9A1&index=30

Other good ones...in order haha (because they makes NO sense):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwW_mSOOvQM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLNRPEQNbdc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTt50Dhkvhc&feature=related

And we also tried to go to a Korean food court today haha...ummm...NO. FAILLLL...we walked in, got lost, then walked right back out hahaha...

So yes. Hopefully tomorrow is more exciting :P

Oh, pics of the balcony:

yonsei

Me and my roomies (Gina and Jenny so far) headed out to Seoul today. Took us forever to figure out how to do it. It wasn't like we were confused on how to get there but more like stupid time constraints...like the excellent DMC Ville deciding to hold a mandatory orientation at 11am, and us Yonsei kids getting news that we have to pick-up our shizznit from Yonsei from 9am to 12pm.

But it wasn't really until 12pm because when the DMC orientation finished, we found out the Yonsei packet pick-up was extended to 5:30pm.

Thanks for telling us haha.

Anyways, the roomies and I grabbed a bus (171 Blue...I think haha) to Yonsei and proceeded to get very, very lost. For me, it wasn't so unusual, and in fact, getting lost in Korea is kind of fun because you're a lot more lost than usual. Might accidently end up at the DMZ or something...and I would, considering the way I'm going right now haha.

...

Sorry, mom. Ending up in North Korea was a joke heheh <3

By the way, I feel slightly bummed out by Yonsei. It pretty much looks like Davis except it has hills and taller buildings. Other than that, there's trees everywhere and its got its weird little charm of feeling really closed in. I think they're both the same size but Yonsei just feels bigger because of the hills, cars, and the fact that the moment you step outside the university, you're surrounded by cute little shops in narrow alleyways...which is kind of like B street in Davis hahaha.

I also have yet to spot a squirrel population like Davis's...but back to my life story haha.

We had to go to Underwood International College and had a really weird time getting there. It was up a hill...then up a REAL hill...then up some stairs, then down the hill, turn right and head up the same hill we just came down, then turn right and go down the hill again. At this point we passed a child daycare center and I have decided I am going to kidnap a Korean baby. THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!! My cousin Nirav approved this operation so the Korean Baby Operation is GO!!!

The building BEFORE the daycare. If you keep going right and down a little hill, there is is. See, we're all set to get some of them babies :D

But even with our plan to some day get Korean babies, we were still confused, because now, we were at another university. Yup. No more Yonsei. We had somehow landed at the gates of Ewha Woman's University...that's not where we needed to be haha

But evenutally we got to the UIC main hall, only with the help of this cute old man. I mean, we knew we were there (we could see the building), but there was just intense construction going on around it. So he sent as back the way we came and up another street...which meant another hill. Before coming here, I was actually a bit worried about me gaining weight while I'm stuffing my face with Korean food but if we have to walk up and down those hills like that then I'll definitely be super fit by the time I get back to the U.S.

Cute old man who helped us out of our predicament :D

I just have to get better shoes for it because my feet ache :(

The last hill before we made it to the site of the registration packet pick-up. So difficult!!!

Anyways, we did our registration thing and we managed to make it back to the DMC Ville orientation on time. Wasn't really interesting. They were going to serve us lunch but me and Gina just filched a few sandwiches (okay, a half each) and some juice and ran back the apartment. We also got lost on our way to the apartment.

Really, it's crazy how many times I've gotten lost so far here in Korea haha.

I just spent the rest of the afternoon bumming around on facebook, skype, and on the TV. There's this one channel that's like the security camera for a certain part of DMC Ville. A few of us roomies have decided that we're going to record the TV and then go run out in front of the security camera. It'll be a faux-"Look Ma, I'm on TV!" moment haha.

I had to go meet for dinner with Nirav so I left my place at around 6pm. I have to say that my cab driver on the way there was awesome. Pretty much the coolest person EVER. We started talking about the weirdest things. I think it was such a fun conversation because he spoke like 20 words of English and I speak about 1.002 words of Korean. It was only natural that conversation was freaking cool.

We started off by him asking what DMC Ville was. I said "apartments" but he didn't understand. Then we started talking about "Korea speak" (he meant the Korean language), soju (I think he wanted some hehe), my family, Korean dramas (there was this little TV in the cab and he was watching a drama on it as he drove...there was one man with TWO wives...he loved it haha), my single status (that was hilarious hahaha), weddings, wedding marches (I think...), something called "hakjang" or something like that, "Biz X" and just "Biz", the word "pretty" in Korean (ippuda) and Chinese (piao liang), smoking, drinking, and Yonsei. Pretty much amazing haha.

When we finally reached the Grand Hyatt Seoul, he let me off, and I have to say, I was pretty sad. He was so cool!!! Anyways, I went inside and found Nirav.

He took me to dinner to the restaurant in the hotel and OH. MY. SHIZZNIT. That stuff was goooood. I couldn't be the weird me that I am and take pictures of the food or the view because...well...because...

I forgot my camera.

I was so sad :( FINALLY, I'm in downtown Seoul at night, the view is amazing, and the food is freaking AWESOME (special shoutout to the dumplings haha) but I don't have my camera.

FAIL.

Oh well, there's always next time.

I hope. I mean, do they let regular people like me into a place like that? haha jkjk

in seoul!!!

Fun day haha.

Got on a plane to come to Seoul. Flew over Japan (waved to Courtney but I don't think she could tell haha...I'm such a loser), then landed (obviouslyyyy). Got off the plane and had my temperature checked (can't have H1N1)...okay, so the temperature checking thing was kind of funny. There was this HUGE line and like 3 people checking the temperatures. I couldn't see so well from where I was at the beginning, and I thought they were sticking the thermometer things inside people's ears...but they weren't. Those thermometers were SO COOL!!!! They just stuck them near your aorta thingy and that was it. THEY DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH YOU!!!

I was seriously amazed. I kind of stared for a minute.

Then I had to go through Immigration and Customs which was a lot easier than I thought it would be. But once you make it out of the Customs part, you have a ton of taxi drivers coming up to you and saying either, "Taxi?" or "Gimpo?"...the "Gimpo" thing really confused me at first until I realized that was the OTHER airport in Seoul and they thought maybe she's going there?

But no. I was a woman on a mission to her AIRPORT LIMOUSINE, No. 6012!!!

It was late.

And it really wasn't a limousine. It was a bus. And no one spoke English, so me and the baggage handler stood there for like 5 seconds staring at each other. But thankfully, the words I had to say were going to be easily understandable in English or Korean.

"World Cup Complex 5."

The fact that I told him the wrong stop is besides the point. He still understood me :D YAYYYYY!!!

So anyways, I got on the bus and used the super-duper map in my head to guide me. Seriously. I had no real map, but I had Google Earthed the whole thing...yesterday. I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing.

Ummm, no.

So everytime we went on a bridge, I thought I was five seconds from my stop. Totally not true. And I looked really weird while I looked for my stop (looking really didn't help since I COULDN'T READ THE SIGNS ANYWAYS!!!...but that didn't stop me haha) because I was craning my neck in all sorts of crazy directions. But seriously, this place is gorgeous. I don't know if it was because I was there at dawn and fog was rising up from the rivers, but Korea is green, hilly, forest-y, and just plain gorgeous.

Then I got off at the wrong stop. In my defense, I got two separate e-mails from these people, one saying get off at World Cup Complex 7, the other saying World Cup Complex 5. But I got off at 5 anyways. To me, it looked alright. I started crossing this really busy intersection and then DROPPED MY BAG!!! Yes, you can laugh. I dropped my luggage in the middle of a busy intersection and then lugged it awkwardly until I reached the opposite street.

I then proceeded to make myself get lost. But I decided to ask directions after I dropped my bag a second time. Thank goodness I did ask for directions because I was heading the complete OPPOSITE way.

Yes, I am brilliant at directions.

So finally I reach my apartment place and the people behind the desk go, "Wow, you're here early." And I was, since it was approx. 7:00 am for them. Oops.

But they still had my apartment ready and OH.MY.SHIZZNIT. This place is AMAZING. It's SO PRETTY!!!

This is the kitchen. Not stocked yet but soon...never mind. I don't plan on cooking while I'm here haha...

Umm, I had to take a picture of this. So in theory, this is super cool. It's one of those water-saving toilets, which we all need during this insane water shortage the world is facing (and next to no one in the U.S. is aware of). But...it's so...graphic? No, that's not the word. It's just intense. Thankfully though, there is a flush handle thingy. I'll save water eventually.

The bathroom. Nice :D
Me and my roomie's bed's. It's kind of a small room but not so bad. There's no real desk though. But right next to my bed, is an outside room type of thing. It's like an enclosed balcony. Super nice :D I'll take pictures once the sun stops burning :O

The entrance! That's where you take off your shoes and stick them in the cupboard that you can see. SUPER NICE!!!
Living room. And I will live here. You know why? They have INDIAN CHANNELS!!!! I'm so set for life. I will never leave this apartment.
More of the living room.
Washing machine and dryer in one. Also, the directions are in Korean. So they gave us a paper with English haha
More of the brilliant kitchen :D If I cooked, I would love it. But I don't.

But right now, what I really need is food. They have continental breakfast for free (it's about 10 am right now) but I'm assuming it's closed. I'm waiting to Skype with family. Once that's done, maybe I'll walk down the street and find something to eat.

FOOD.

Here I come :D