Dorm Room Flooding, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Peak Festival, Seongsu Outings, & Cimer
Woohoo Week 17! What a jam packed week it was.
To start off, Kylie and I's dorm room flooded while I was in Singapore. I received a phone call from Kylie on our third day in Singapore showing the downpour of water leaking into our dorm from upper levels. At first we did not think it would cause much damage as it began in the bathroom, however, as time passed, it began pouring from leaks in our ceiling thereby resulting in the electricity going out. I am extremely fortunate to have a roommate as awesome as Kylie as she helped grab my valuables before they got soaked by the water and also stayed in the room until the water stopped. Eventually she got moved to a different room due to the potential risk of mold growing in between the walls of our small dorm but I had to sort out where my placing would be once I arrived back in Korea. Once we landed, we headed straight back to our dorm room where I was told to pack up all of my belongings and meet in the lobby. There, I was instructed to either stay in my old room or be moved to an occupied room in the other dorm building. I eventually ended up asking if I could stay with Kylie as she was temporarily stying in a professor/guest room in the building and they agreed. We stayed there for about 2 days so we could figure out our next steps as the building itself was full and had no empty rooms to house both of us together. After expressing our concerns about mold growth if we decide to resume our stay in the old room, the admin officer reassigned us a professor/guest room on the fourth floor where we could finish our dorm stay for the last month of study abroad. We were so relieved that we did not have to be separated, move back into our dorm room, or have to seek living arrangements outside of school campus.
After sorting this out, Kylie went back to Hawai'i to attend her sister's graduation and is gone for about a week. During this time, Jamie, Christina, and I decided to finally make our trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace and wear traditional Korean dresses or "hanbok". Jamie chose a hanbok rental place called "Daehan Hanbok"as they were known to be size inclusive and foreigner friendly. Once we arrived to the store, there were heaps of colorful hanboks hanging on the racks waiting for someone to try them on. After about an hour of looking through different colors, sizes, and patterns, I ended up choosing a white and gold skirt with a dark pink long sleeve top. Christina and Jamie both chose a light pink pattern but one was silver while the other had gold detailings. Once we got dressed in the Hanboks, we decided to pay extra to get our hair done. We all got the same style which was a half up half down braid with pearl pins adorning the braids and colorful flower clips. With our ballgown size dresses, we made our way to the palace where we took so many pictures everywhere. We got lucky as it was a clam day at the palace with not too many people.
A few days after this, I attedned Peak Festival with Christina! Originally, Jamie was supposed to attend but one of her favorite groups ended having a concert that day so I took her ticket. Once arriving to the venue, Christina and I realized that we were one of a few handful of foreigners there and were unprepared. Attendees brought picnic mats, fans, and jerseys to wear whereas we just brought ourselves :) Nevertheless, Christina was mainly here to see one group and one group only "The Poles". This group had the same lead singer as Wave To Earth (one of Christina's favorite bands), so we had to come! The acts leading up to The Poles were fun to watch as each act appeared on different sides of the stage and each had a great stage presence. After The Poles finished, we grabbed some food and ended up leaving as we both were unfamiliar with the other bands performing that day. Overall, it was so fun getting to go to a predominately native Korean concert with musicians from genres of music I had never heard prior.
For some reason this week, we went to Seongsu A LOT! I went twice before Kylie came back and two more times once she did. Honestly, I think it was because we know that our study abroad is coming to an end so we wanted to do some extra shopping before we leave. We went ot the ginormous Olive Young and a few cafes! Christina attended a meeting at one of the cafe's and forgot her airpods so she had to use her regular computer audio to speak LOL.
I almost forgot! This week I had malantang for the first time and it was because the malatang legend came to visist us in Korea. A fellow SGL and recent Shidler graduate, Monica, paid us a vsist after graduation where she tok us to her #1 malatang spot in Korea when she studied abroad last semester. My spice tolerance is quite low so I had to get level 1 of spice but it was still SO SPICY but still delicious.
To end off this week, Jamie, Christina, and I finally went to a sauna place. It was not the traditional saunas where you wear the orange robes and fold your towel into little ears unfortunately. I found this place called Cimer located in pradise City near Incheon Airport that starred in the famous "Singles Inferno" Korean dating show on Netflix. The place itself has a Aqua Zone with different types of pools and a Jimjil Spa Zone that has different sauna rooms. We decided on going to only the sauna and it was amazing. Each room was held at a different temperature ranging from 87 celsius to 20. It was so relaxing getting to sit inside the different saunas and also eat ice cream after we finished.
