Food and Makeup + GD + Engrish

Here's some yummy food pics to make up for all the complaining :)

Kimchi Fried Rice

Bulgalbi MVP Toast= YUMM OMG SO GOOD

where we got our toast

 This toast is so flippin good, holy pancakes. Its like, grilled cheese, but you can change the fillings. So like, I had on with bulgalbi (seasoned meat), egg, cheese, sauces, pickles and corn or something. And its just...damn the most savory delicious thing I've had in a looong time. YUM. and so cheap too!

Bibimbap i had for lunch today

G Dragon for The Saem Makeup Store !!

Might I just say, he wears that lipstick better than I ever could :P

 Went out shopping after lunch, so I went to Skin Food for some body wash, blueberry face mask, and stuff. Also bought some pretty and cheap nail polish at Etude House, and stopped at The Saem mostly to take pictures of GD haha :P

some Engrish to finish up :)

Food Adventures and some Kpop sightings

Those were pictures of shabu shabu, which is basically an evolving meal. It goes from soup with veggies, like soy bean sprouts, mushrooms, lettuce and onions, then you add meat, dumplings and fish cakes, and eat it like that. Then, when all the meat is gone, you add noodles, which thicken the broth. When the noodles are gone, you add rice, egg, and various veggies and make a porridge. It's delicious, and very satisfying :)

Then we went to Myeongdong again....

I'll never get tired of seeing GD's face

Also found SHINee again at another store

For dinner we went to Bistro Boy cafe, and it was really cute. All the customers had put little personalized post-it notes all over the walls. They also had little stuffed animals and toys and figurines on the walls, and it was really fun to look around. The food was delicious too!

Kimchi + Bacon fried rice, w/pickled radish, kimchi, and soup

We went out for drinks near Ewha in Sinchon. Warawara was full, so we went to another shop, and it was really cool inside!! We got a little table that was raised above the ground, and we had to take off our shoes and lounge around the table ^0^

Their cheap appetizer is sad. Warawara is way better quality :P

Even their version of pineapple soju wasn't as good...but good enough for us then :P

Looking for the River

So we decided to go to Gwanghwamun today and look for the stream (Cheonggyecheong) but we didn't really know where this river was...so we ended up wandering around to look for it and saw some spiffy stuff...

First thing we saw when we got out of the subway tunnel was this famous statue of King Sejong, with this lovely mountain in the background. I was so excited! I remember seeing this statue in tons of dramas and movies, it was so cool finally seeing it in person! I didn't even know it was in Gwanghwamun! So cool! 

King Sejong + Mountain in the smog

 By the way, the weather was absolutely beautiful today! It definitely reached 70! It was windy and lovely...the only problem was that it was still really smoggy. I need to buy a couple cheap masks for when it gets bad, I'm not sure if my throat is a little rough from all the singing last night, or the smog today...

A sculpture with an old tram: you could go inside and take pics :P She's trying to give a lunch to her son inside the tram

apparently there's a Tim Burton exhibit at the Art Museum...We'll come back and see it soon!

This is for you, Beloit!

 We finally made it back around to where we got off the subway and asked at a tourist info spot where the river was...and it was across the street near the spirally shell thing (in the pic below) where we were originally gonna go... -__-

Cheonggyecheong

Popular place for parents to help their adorable toddlers jump across the stones <3

  WE SAW BIGBANG ON A BUS AND I HAD TO TAKE A PICTURE OF MY BEAUTIFUL MEN, AND THEN A HUGE GD PIC IN A STORE AND OF COURSE I HAD TO TAKE ANOTHER PHOTO <3

 The End

Here's a pretty photo of the flower wall at the Ewha Gates

Tired...

maaannnn....waking up for 8am korean class was a struggle, lemme tell ya. And to top things off..i'll have to do the same thing tomorrow. In fact, we have 8am-10:45am Korean classes every week, monday through thursday.
I don't really mind though, if it means I'm learning and improving my Korean :) I just really like learning languages I guess.
OH but story time. So, I"m realizing that while Seoul is amazing and great and interesting and damn cool, Ewha university....is a bit overrated. The make this big deal about how great the school is, and I'm sure it is great...if you're Korean, maybe.
The administration and school system seems really inflexible and unaccommodating for exchange students. I've heard stories already of people not being able to take classes they NEED for their major because the professor let Ewha students sign up first. They're also really slow and inefficient at organizing things and running things efficiently. Like, they ALWAYS take days to reply to emails, and sometimes don't reply at all. They're also scarily late at putting up important things like CLASS SCHEDULES and info for HOUSING?! Like...why?! grrrr.....
Another example....I went to my Korean class this morning, and it soon became apparent that something wasn't right. The classes are supposed to have maybe 10-15 people, and soon about 30 people were trying to fit into the classroom, and standing at the back. The teacher was really nervous and did a pretty good job of handling it, but she called the office to get someone to figure out what the scheduling conflict had been, and they never sent anyone. We wasted like an hour filling time with introductions, and then learning the alphabet (which half of us already knew) until she decided to look online at everyone's level, and confirmed who was supposed to be in that beginning class. Then the rest of us finally went to the hallway and met another teacher and walked to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BUILDING and finally started our actual class, appropriate to our level. Ha, great job Ewha....great job at organizing your students...
Ah well, it was all good, I like our class, and the most difficult thing I've got to do so far is memorize vocab I don't already know.
Another good thing was that I talked to my parents, checked my email correspondence with Beloit, and then talked to the Global Affairs Office and it looks like my tuition is being sorted out *phew!*
Still a bit of a stressor, but I'm pretty sure Ewha and Beloit will figure out how to get their money sorted out...

Ah, another bit of sad news...Me and some friends were trying to get tickets to GD's One Of A Kind concert here, which went on sale today and tomorrow, but since the concert tour is sponsored by Gmarket, we couldn't buy tickets without an account--and when we tried to make an account, it needed our Alien Registration number, which we won't be getting for another few weeks! :( 
We were Heartbroken

But I figure 1. we might be able to try again tomorrow...2. There will be other concerts during the time we're here that we'll hopefully be able to go to 3. As my friends pointed out, its sponsored by Gmarket, and an 8 and up concert sooo...it has to be family-friendly which sadly means probably no cussing in That XX and No GD taking off his shirt ;__;

Heheh in all seriousness though, it's a bit sad, but we're having a great time anyway :) and we'll find fun stuff to do and maybe run into our favorite celebrities at any time...It IS Seoul after all ^_^

Love you all!

First Kpop album and more engrish

Went to another mall today to get school supplies. It was too crowded, though, so I instead bought some things for my room and for fun...
We went into Hot Tracks and holy crap I was flipping out at finally seeing kpop being sold and advertised openly ^__^ I wanted to buy everything! There was not only kpop, also jpop as well as drama OSTs and music you'd find in a shop in America, like soundtracks and pop. I couldn't choose what to buy at first, since the cd's are so much cheaper here than in the US. I nearly bought the BigBang ALIVE cd set, but then I found GD's One of a Kind album for only 20,000 won ($20) and I hadn't downloaded the songs yet so obvi I HAD to get it :P dunno if i'm a fan of the bible-y album design tho....

maybe a bit pretentious, GD...

I'm listening to the album as I write this :P

 Even though we weren't supposed to take pictures inside the store...I was super stealthy and snapped a few pics of SHINee and Jae Joong! Shinee's Dream Girl was also playing on a tv in the store

So that was fun! There was also an Art Box store there, so I shopped around there and bought adorable slippers and some other cute stuff. ALMOST bought a magazine with Kim Bum and band like Beast and Teen Top in it...but I didn't know the price and figured I'd be able to buy another mag later...
BTW Kim Bum's new movie Psychometry looks really cool and I want to see it....

Uh..here's some more food pics, cos I love all the food here...

Crabmeat cream Omelet (omelet with rice, with salad and kimchi on side)

Street food! More heodokk

deep fried with cinnamon and nuts inside

a friend's bibimbap

After shopping we headed back to campus, and recharged until dinner, which was delicious. Didn't take pics cos it was just fried rice and bibimbap and stuff. Then we just walked around the street shops some more since we still wanted to check out a few things to get before classes tomorrow. We found some nice cheap shirts and a few had AWESOME Engrish! 

What is this I don't even....

"Just only good things are going to heaven"

 Sooo yeah.....I bought a sweater that I HOPE fits me...it should, its super big but....hmm... Also getting good ideas for souvenirs, from looking at all the shops around here... :D

Well, gotta go sleep now, have to get up early tomorrow to register for classes online...then GO to my first classes! Eek! I'm actually a bit nervous...I really really hope I can work everything out with the bank here to get tuition paid, since I only have a week to pay it. Then I need to decide if I want to take 3, 4, or 5 classes...Three is required, and I don't wanna overburden myself with work since 1. I think Korean class is gonna take a LOT of my time, since its pretty intensive study, and 2. I want to enjoy my time here and not have to spend hours doing work for too many classes... :/ Yeah, so my plan is just to visit the two extra classes I'm thinking about and keep them if I think I REALLY like them. Otherwise...I'll just drop em.
Phew....keep me and my friends here in your prayers! We need it! ALSO my friends abroad! They need prayers too! You know I'm always thinkin' bout y'all!
Love you all!
<3