24

I've been busy lately working, relaxing and organising events so I've not had the chance to finish updating my holiday diary. Last week was my 24th Birthday. Japanese is my favourite food so the plan this year was to go eat at Hi Sushi for buffet. I don't want to get older so celebrating my Birthday isn't that important for me anymore but I guess it's better than staying at home sulking about being old. I changed the plan on the day because there were too many of us going so finding something to do after would be difficult. I'm the type of person who tries to create unity as I want everyone to be able to enjoy themselves. I decided to book a room at the Japanese restaurant (Okawari) I went to last year for my 23rd Birthday. Going there was the perfect option because I know most of my friends enjoy singing Karaoke and those who don't like to sing can play drinking games. It's my Birthday so I was the target to get drunk that night. I drank a lot and surprisingly wasn't sick, maybe because I'm invincible. (^__^)    

I wasn't expecting a Birthday cake and a lot of people to attend as I originally only thought about going for a small dinner. The cake was from Ching and Gordon so thanks to you both for giving me an opportunity to make a wish. (^__^) My wishes normally come true and this year I made a wish for myself. What I'm not sure is, if I'm suppose to set a date for when this wish will happen as I don't want to wait for a few decades. (-_-)

My good old friend Ly made me a majong cake which was really creative of her. Thank you to everyone for the cake, gifts and cards, I really appreciate it. (^__^) It reminds me that Lime told me on my last Birthday that in Korea, the Birthday guy/girl will receive gifts but is expected to pay for the party in return. Looking at the bill, I would be really broke if the same happened over here. (-_-)

White Day [Seoul - Day 3] 14-3-10

A knock on my door in the early morning from Rosalie, asking me to eat breakfast with her family. I probably managed to sleep for around 5 hours but feel a lot more rejuvenated. I look in the living room and see a guy thinking it was Rosalie's boyfriend but he is her older brother. I was surprised to see him as the day before I asked her how often he comes home and she said not often because he goes to a university in the country side. I always imagined her brother being tall and well-built like a army soldier because going to the army is compulsory for Korean men. Her brother is medium height, has dyed long hair wore glasses and looks like your typical cool Korean. When people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the Koreans take it literally. Eating a full on meal with rice, meat, soup and vegetables plus kimchi of course is normal for breakfast. I normally eat cereal or bread so this was a new experience for me. I didn't really touch the kimchi but Rosalie's mum said it was Sinmei's favourite so I'm guessing it was a hint for me to eat some.

Coming from a Chinese background, I'm use to raising my bowl to my mouth and using chopsticks to push food into my mouth. I picked up my bowl but luckily I remembered studying Korean etiquette, so I placed the bowl back down as it is considered ill-mannered to Koreans. Using chopsticks to eat rice is also considered ill-mannered, the spoon is used instead. I find it easier and quicker to eat food the Chinese way so eating like a Korean took a little time getting use to. Rosalie's dad asked me what my plan was and asked Sung-Ho (Rosalie's brother) to be my tour guide. Sung-Ho's English is quite good and whilst talking to him, his mum made me laugh by wishing she could join in the conversation as she wishes to learn English. Her mum really wanted me to go see her conduct a service at the temple so I agreed to go because it would be a good experience.

Whilst waiting for Sung-Ho to get ready, I was looking through my guidebook to plan what else I could do. One of my to do list is to watch Nanta (Korean Musical) so Rosalie has been searching for tickets. She tells me that couples get 30% discount if you watch Nanta on White Day but I didn't want to pretend to be a couple so I told her if Lime still wanted to go watch it the next week.

A couple of days before coming to S. Korea, I went searching for white chocolate box sets to give to Rosalie and Lime for White Day. I couldn't find any so I ended up buying them a chocolate block set which looks like a bookshelve once place in a gift box. I didn't wrap the gift like I did last year [White Day 2009] because I was busy so I payed to get it gift-wrapped. I gave the gift to Rosalie and she thought that I wrapped it because the wrapping was not great. She said she was lucky to receive a gift from me for the second time on White Day. On White Day, male friends and colleagues will give chocolate to their female friends whilst boyfriends are expected to buy more expensive gifts.

Sung-Ho was taking long to get ready so me and Rosalie went to the temple first as we were running late. It's a shame I didn't take a photo of the temple as a memory. The temple looked small from outside but is actually quite big. Walking up the stairs you have to get some praying beads and then enter the main room where there were around 20 middle aged - elderly women. We go to the front of the room and put a donation in a box which Rosalie's mum prepared. We then have to place some incense, bow to the Buddha statue and then bow to your elders. After we listened and prayed to Rosalie's mum's service. Sung-Ho came in late. We stayed around 15-20mins in total and as we were just about to leave, her mum ask us to come up to the stage to introduce us to the members of the temple. Going to the temple was a good experience. To this day, I still do not follow a religion as I believe it's a big decision to make and I believe to follow a religion, you should follow it with your full faith.

After the temple, we went back to Rosalie's house and then I went with Sung-Ho for a long walk and was wondering why we didn't take a bus or the subway. He said there was no transport to where we were going and I guess we were meeting his girlfriend after hearing him speak on the phone. He said he met her after doing volunteering work in Africa where he taught Maths and Yeji taught English. I was telling him that he didn't have to give me a tour as it's White Day and I didn't want to get in their way from dating. He said it didn't matter as she was surprised that he was with a foreigner and wanted to meet me. We met Yeji at a bus stop and then made our way to Dongdaemun Market. Yeji was carrying a big tool which I was really curious about. To this day, I still don't know what it's called but she uses it for her City Planner course. I never knew a course like that existed which was interesting. Sung-Ho and Yeji was not sure where the market was as it's not a popular destination for young people. With the help of mobile internet we arrive at the market. The majority of the things sold in the market are cheap clothes which I wasn't really interested in buying as I prefer to buy something quirky.

Sung-Ho brought me some snacks to try. It cost only 1000 Won for a choice of 8 snacks. The snacks tasted good apart from the green one which I kind of force myself to eat. 

After shopping around we went to look for a place to eat. We ended up up eating at this restaurant because Sung-Ho said it's the best option around the market.

Sung-Ho ordered a seafood Korean pizza for me to try but I realised I've ate it before but I always call it Korean pancake.

Sung-Ho recommended me to try the fish as I've never tried it before. It tastes okay I guess, but I would have preferred it if it had more flavour, or if it was marinated in a sauce because it was a bit dry. 

After eating we went to Myung Dong which is where all the young people hang out and do their shopping. Being in Myung Dong made me feel like I was under-dressed as there were a lot stylish and trendy dressed Koreans here.

It was busy and a little crowded. It's like the Korean version of Oxford circus in London. After a while, Yeji had to leave as she had to go to class. I was surprise to hear that she has to attend class on a Sunday and not only that, it was until 10PM. -_-'

There was a Korean boy band having a signing later on the day at a store. Sung-Ho made laugh as he was saying we have to get out of here before 5PM because it'll be crowded by lots of girls. I didn't end up buying anything because I didn't see anything quirky that I wanted. It was raining so we went to a coffee shop to dodge the rain. To my surprise, coffee is actually more expensive than London but the Green Lattes are simply irresistible! Sung-Ho kept insisting to pay for the coffee, he even paid for lunch but didn't want me to pay him back as his dad gave him his bank card to use to take me out. I told Sung-Ho that his parents are really kind to me and for letting me stay at their home. I always thought the typical Korean family wouldn't allow an outsider to stay at their home. He told me a touching story about the reason why his parents don't mind. Back when he was traveling he was stuck in Turkey because of the snow and he didn't have no warm clothes or a place to stay. A Turkish man took him to stay at his home and looked after him. The man spoke no English so they couldn't communicate with each other but what he done for Sung-Ho was really kind. After going back to Korea he sent the Turkish man some gifts but after that they lost contact as they both can not speak the same language which is sad.

On the subway, my stomach felt a bit queezy. I noticed Sung-Ho was carrying a bag, he brought it to buy candy for Yeji as it's White Day and will meet her later. We went back to his home after as his mum prepared dinner for us. She knows I like Samgyupsal so she especially made it for me. Sung-Ho said thanks to me he can eat it as he enjoys it too.  Whilst eating dinner we watched a Korean TV show where a bunch of male celebrity's were playing table tennis and the two losers would have to shave off their hair. I started feeling a bit ill and couldn't eat much which was a shame as the food was tasty. -_-

After dinner, Rosalie took me to the bus stop so that I could meet my friend Jinhee who I've not seen for around 2 months. She had just recently moved to Seoul from Busan. She was surprised to see me so soon, it felt unreal for both of us. I was craving for dessert so we went to eat at Baskins & Robbins. Jinhee was suppose to guide me when I'm I go to Busan but she got a job and moved to Seoul. I always jokingly call her Om-ma (Mum) as she always looks out for me and is caring. She arrange for a friend to show me around in Busan which was kind of her. I couldn't stay for long and was a little sick in the toilet. I basically got food poisoning, I guess it was from lunch. -_- Jinhee brought me a drink to help me with my digestion and took me to the bus stop. Arriving back to Rosalie's home she was surprised to see me back so early, I told her I felt ill so her mum made me a honey drink. Damn, I always seem to get food posioning when I go to an Asian country. -_-

Lime's Tour Continued [Seoul - Day 2] 13-3-10

After, we made our way back to Gwanghwamun which was a really long walk because no buses go there from Samcheong Dong. This is a statue of Sejong Daewang the fourth king of Joseon Dynasty. Earlier that day, Lime told me that he created the Korean alphabet Hangul. We went to the bus stop to go to Lime and Rosalie's university. I remember sitting at the back of the bus feeling exhausted, dizzy and tried to sleep.

For dinner we went to a street stand to eat Duboki with some other Korean street food. Duboki is one of Lime's favourite and young Koreans love it which is why a lot of street stands are near her university. It tastes like Cheung Fun and the sauce is sweet and spicy. To be honest I thought it tasted okay but the sauce was too sweet for my liking.

I remember we were feeling really cold and drank a seafood soup to keep warm but the taste made me feel sick. Lime is quite popular in Korea so she was getting a lot of calls from her friends telling her to hurry and go to the concert at her university. Lime plays the keyboard and is a singer for a music club known as Sorinarae. Website link: [Sorinarae]

We ran to her university (Kankook University) after finishing our meal. Her university is huge and has a big lake with the view of the mountains. It's probably 10 times bigger than my university.

 

The concert was Sorinarae's 30th anniversary. The concert composed of many different acts from the music club. The young and old generation from the club performed which was interesting to see the style and transformation between them. One of my to do list was to watch live music and I was able to experience it on my second day which was great. Lime knows some of the performers from her generation so it was funny to hear her cheer and scream for them. Rosalie came late to the concert because she was teaching English. Rosalie joked if I understood what they were saying which of course I don't, but it was still entertaining to watch. The concert also had MC's who were entertainingly funny and video footage of the club members. There was a couple who got married that day and went up the stage to talk about their love life. I think the male is a member of the club. They showed a video of him talking and expressing his love for his wife before they got married which I can tell was touching based on the girls reactions from the audience. My eyes kept closing and I nearly dosed off towards the end because I was physically and mentally drained. All in all it was a fantastic concert. It was a shame Lime was not performing because she is now really busy with her new job. To see what her university is like and to learn what she does was a great experience.

After the concert Lime stayed at her university to celebrate with her club and me and Rosalie made our way back to her home. Rosalie asked me if I wanted to go anywhere else but I was too knackered to do anything. Here you can see a map of the university. At this point I was still impressed by how big their university is. Rosalie told me that they even have their own hospital which is highly impressive.

I didn't have a big dinner so on our way home I saw a bakery called Paris Baguette. I'm a big fan of baguettes so I asked Rosalie if it tasted good and she said it's really popular. With my expectations raised high we went inside the bakery and saw only a few small baguette sandwiches with weird fillings. Oh my God, I feel cheated. How can they name a store with the word baguette and not specialise in selling it? I was expecting top of the range french style baguette sandwiches but all they sell is fancy bread, pastries and cakes. I end up buying a chicken wrap which didn't taste nothing special. Walking back to Rosalie's home she told me she was free the next day but I remember it being White Day and told her she should spend time with her boyfriend. She said in Korea it's common to only meet your partner a few times a month so it was okay because her boyfriend knows shes busy. Once we get to Rosalie's home her mum asks me where I went, but I completely forgot the names of the places because my brain is empty. After a tiring long day, I finally rest and hope to get some sleep.