Trip to Jeju, Visiting Friends, National Museum of Korea, Lotte World, and Coldplay Concert
It is WEEK 13!! Study abroad is coming to an end so soon and it doesn't feel like much time has passed. A lot happened this week so here is a weekly breakdown of everything :) Also, some of this may be out of order.
Our friends studying abroad in Japan finally paid us a visit! They were here for a couple of days so we tried to squeeze in as much as we could. First off, we grabbed some KBBQ with them on their first night in Myeongdong and caught up on life and study abroad. The next day, we all decided to go to Lotte World together. There, we rode several rides, took lots of pictures since they are big fans of Pokemon, and grabbed lunch. We also rode in this UFO boat that we could control with a remote on the inside and drift around the large river in the center of the park. It was so fun getting to see familiar faces and getting to talk about life back in Hawai'i. On their third day, I met up with them at Coex Mall in Gangnam where we shopped and got to try Baskin Robbin's 10 flavor sampler. For their second to last day, we went to Seongsu and did a bit of shopping despite the large crowd of people. It was so weird because I had never seen Seongsu this crowded before this week. Although it was a short trip, we all had a great time and there was no need for goodbyes as we are planning a trip to Japan to reunite next month.
IT IS COLDPLAY CONCERT WEEK!! When we first arrived in Korea, Kylie had asked if I was interested in going to the Coldplay concert that was happening in Korea for three days. At first, I did not want to go since I was not a big fan of Coldplay but I later changed my mind after hearing that TWICE was going to be their opening act. Fast forward to this week!! Kylie, Jamie, Christina, and I were all attending the concert but Jamie and Christina were seated in a different area of the venue since they got their tickets later. The concert itself was magical and I totally forgot how many Coldplay songs I actually know. Watching TWICE was so exciting despite the crowd not being as spirited as I had hoped. Apparently, concerts in Korea are not as loud or spirited as the ones in the US which I got to witness during TWICE's performance where most of the crowd was sitting down. I was shocked. Anyways, I had hoped that they were going to bring a special guest as the day before Rose from Blackpink and Jin from BTS made surprise appearances but unfortunately, nobody came. Despite my disappointment, the concert was unforgettable and I am so glad that I changed my mind and bought a ticket before they sold out.
Following the Coldplay concert, the UH girls packed up all of their stuff and made our way to Gimpo Airport to catch our flight to JEJU ISLAND!! This trip was planned quite last minute but I am so glad that we went. Once we arrived to Jeju, we picked up the rental car and headed to the Airbnb. The next two days consisted of eating Jeju black pork, seafood, snoopy garden, and a lot of nature. It was so fun getting to spend time with one another outside of Seoul and visiting such a serene place like Jeju. We of course tried Jeju's signature Hallabong juice and took so many photos with the different photo opp spaces at Snoopy Garden and tried green tea from the famous Osulloc green tea farm. One of my favorite moments from this trip was when Jamie, Chloe, Lauree, and I grabbed some dinner at a mackerel place near the Airbnb. We had ordered a family set and since we came hungry we ate everything from the first round. Since we expected all of the food to come out at once, we thought that the first round was really small and hesitated on ordering more. Instead, we waited a little longer, and the waitress brought over round 2 which we were positive was going to be the end of the set as we all were getting full. WRONG! The waitress ended up bringing 2 more rounds of food in which we struggled to finish and had the cook and waitress laughing at us from the shocked looks we had every time they brought over another round of food. Even though I was painfully full after this dinner, it was so delicious and also hilarious. Overall, this trip was one to remember and I am happy that we were all able to go together.
We immediately hit the ground running once our Jeju trip was over as it was Megan's birthday week festivities! Megan is one of the UH girls studying at Yonsei and we all wanted to make sure she had an unforgettable 21st in Korea. After one day of rest, everybody besides Kylie and I took a visit to Everland and the day after we all went to Lotte World. This time around, we all dressed up in the notorious school uniforms that are typically worn at the amusement park. I thought it would be a fun experience but honestly I felt overwhelmed with the amount of options they had at the boutique store and there were so many people. Also, even if you did find an outfit that you liked, they may not have your size available as they are all up for grabs first come first serve. Needless to say, I had a breakdown in the dressing room because the pieces I grabbed ran a lot smaller than I had intended and were not looking right to me. Nevertheless, I eventually found an outfit that was decent enough and we all grabbed some lunch before heading out to the park. One of the activities that we looked forward to was the Pokemon Pikachu parade. In the parade, there were several small Pikachu's lined up and performing a cute dance whilst the Pokemon trainers danced behind them. It was so cute! After riding some rollercoasters and taking cute pictures, we returned our rented uniforms and headed back to the dorms to get ready for Megan's birthday party. Once we arrived to her party room, we all had dinner and unboxed her beautiful cake that was decorated in ribbons, cherries, and a lot of icing. After singing happy birthday, we cleaned up the room, headed back to SK Global House and called it a night officially concluding all of the birthday festivities.
After a couple days of rest to recover from this week, Jamie and I decided to finally pay a visit to a museum, something that we have been wanting to do for a while. Originally, we were planning to grab brunch at a restaurant she had been wanting to go to. After eating, we stumbled upon a cute cafe that was decorated like a dollhouse where we got drinks and a cake to share. Once we finished, we wanted to stay out a little longer and decided to go to the National Museum of Korea. The museum had a lot of artifacts and sculptures from different time periods that we took our time browsing through. Also, they had a light show exhibition that we stayed at for a bit. To conclude our visit, we went to this interactive portion of the museum where you could decorate a digital bookshelf. Jamie and I put a picture frame and took a selfie together! It was so funny getting to see strangers' bookshelves filled with pictures and random items.
Wow! This week was definitely eventful after retelling it all in this blog. I can't believe we only have a month left :(
