The first half of this post goes out to my HGTV loving momma and anyone who knows of, and shares my feelings towards knife tips. Hope some of you are reading this because it made me think of you!
My Chusoek vacation started off with a typical rainy Saturday, which spoiled my plans to go exploring and find a temple I want to see in Seoul. Not wanting to feel like a waste of space, I decided to try to be productive, in spite of the weather. Over the last few days, I've started to visit some UW Gepik-ers in their towns and have since realized that the apartment I was given is unusually gigantic. In reality, it's more space than I need, but I guess that's the trade off for living in an area that I sometimes think resembles one big empty storefront. While my apartment was clean on arrival, and my school provided me with some basic furnishings, it is in serious need of some HGTV lovin.' The lack of any real color (excluding of course my pretty pretty princess bed) has already left me spending far too many precious moments pondering my bare, cream, wallpapered walls. I also narrowly escaped disaster a few days ago, simultaneously stepping on my medicine bottle, rolling my ankle, and nearly crushing my already hurting ipod. Both items had been living on my make-shift bedside table... the floor. Determined, I walked my tush to Homeplus and picked up some much needed items, including: a mirror, a small bedside shelf/table, a small lamp, a bath mat and some garbage cans. I also picked up some cheap frames that I filled with large printed pictures (printed in full color on my office printer, obviously) for the walls. Well these help a bit, the search for colorful, won-friendly wall decor continues.
After returning home very soggy, I was ready to start turning my apt into a home. I spent a few minutes rearranging the furniture in my bedroom, before opening all of my packages and promptly realizing the flaw in my plan. Being the crafty, yet slightly scatter-brained, lady that I am, I had bought a small shelf that needed to be assembled, forgeting that I do not have the screwdriver required to complete such a task. I had already made the decision to stay inside until the rain subsided and thus spent the next hour of my life testing random items in my apartment, to see if I they could be the substitute I knew must exist. 12 nearly stripped screws later, the clouds parted and I found what I was looking for. What could it possibly be? A KNIFE TIP. I will make an observation here; If I can put together a shelf with the tip of my kitchen butcher knife, I am quite confident that every camper at Beber Camp can make a PB+J without breaking the tip of their knife into the peanut butter jar. I know it.
Feeling as though my apartment was slightly less hospital chic, I set off on adventure number two, meeting up with my friend Amanda in Seoul. What follows are 10 of the most unexpected hours I have had since arriving in Korea. The mere fact that I am meeting up with Amanda in Seoul is amazing to me. For those of you who don't know, in an wonderful twist of fate, Amanda found Solly's ad for a subletter exactly one week before moving in to 615 N. Henry. When, within about a month of her moving in, we had both separately decided to go to Korea, I think we knew the friendship was meant to be! Anyways... after a 1.5 hour journey on the Subway, spent in between the cutest Korean baby I have ever seen and a very friendly woman who gave me a what I can only describe as a doughnut hole filled with red beans and a walnut, I got off in Hongdae and went to find Amanda. Turns out we were waiting at opposite exits and, seeing as both parties are still phone-less, it took a while to find each other. But, as always, at the end of the day it was worth it!
Highlights of the evening include:
- Accidentally eating something which directly translates to "meaty bones soup" but in reality was a spicy soup made from what appeared to be large chunks of spine
- Getting lost and having to visit two PC Bangs before finding our hostel
- Arriving at the Yellow Submarine Guest House and being told
- We didn't know you were coming." ("Hey, did you know they were coming??")
- "The directions from the subway are totally accurate" (no way jose)
- "You can sleep here, but there is a weird guy in your room."
- "We will have to go to the laundry mat (at 11:45 pm) because we sent out all the sheets."
- and, my personal favorite, "Are you girls drunk?"
The night progressed from there, eventually ending with some crazy singing, dancing, and drinking of Welch's grape drank in a 노래방 (norebang). A norebang is a Korean karaoke room, found two or three to a street anywhere in the city, or perhaps anywhere in Korea. Korean's love their karaoke and take their norebang-ing pretty seriously. The result is the most intense list of options I have ever seen which, if you're lucky, include thousands of Korean and English tunes. If you're even luckier, like Amanda, myself, and our new Korean friends, the norebang will serve exclusively grape soda and every song will be set to the background of what appears to be generic Korean music video footage. Overall, a norebang is a hilarious experience and an excellent addition to any night.
After many hours of karaoke, Amanda and I ended our night over sweet potato ice cream and made our way back to the Yellow Submarine. We parted ways early the next morning, as I had to return home to pick up my ARC and passport. These all important documents have finally been returned to me, which means that, once again, I have an identity and maybe one day soon (or maybe Thursday when I go back to school) I will be a real person with my very own bank account, cell phone and internet connection. As of now... a girl can only dream.
That's all for now! Miss you all, next post... palaces and Muui-do!
