Marie's Birthday Trip to Seoul

One of our friends, Marie, has a birthday coming up--actually it's tomorrow. So we celebrated her impending 29th birthday by taking a group trip to Seoul.

Gianni and I got to experience our first thrill on Friday after school when we left for Seoul. Our friends booked bus tickets leaving from a station closer to their house, which is quite far away from our house. But the new monorail line has just opened in Daegu! The monorail line connects the northern part of the city, Chilgok, to the rest of the city via train. Previously, you'd only been able to get there by bus, and it can take up to an hour to get there on the bus. We cut that time in half using the monorail to get up there. Gianni and I were both pleasantly surprised by that. The monorail offers some stunning views of the city from above. Each train is two cars long, and there is no driver, so you can look out the front and back windows of the train for some nice views as well. It was a really fun experience. I haven't been on a monorail except for at Disney World, and I'm a big fan of the fact that we can get to our friends' houses much more quickly now. Hooray!

We took the bus with Marie, Ben, Matthew, and Maria and ended up in Seoul around 10pm. We stayed at a place Marie and Ben knew of in Insadong, the traditional area of Seoul. It was more of a motel. The beds were quite comfortable, and there was a bathroom for each room. For only 40,000 won per night, you can't go wrong. We all got a little snack from the convenience store before turning in for the night.

We got up a bit earlier than Gianni and I are used to on the weekends, but not that early really. Our first stop in Marie's day of Birthday activities was the sheep cafe. In Korea, there are any number of themed cafes, including ones that are animal themed. You can go to a cat/dog cafe and play with animals while sipping on coffee. This cafe takes it a step further and brings in sheep for you to pet! The sheep don't really roam around the cafe while you drink coffee in the same way the cats and dogs do, but that keeps the place much cleaner. The sheep are kept in a pen, and customers can go inside and pet them. There was a guy taking care of the sheep, and he even took them for a walk down the street while we were there. There was also an adorable little girl visiting with her parents. She was completely enraptured with the sheep, and it was really cute to watch. The sheep were named Milky and Lily, and they were very sweet. After spending some time with the sheep, we walked down the street for lunch at Taco Bell, stopping at a photo booth studio on the way. We grabbed some great pictures of all of us piled into one photo booth together. I understand that Taco Bell is one of those must-go places when they are visiting Seoul, but I don't think I had eaten Taco Bell in about 10 years prior to this. I definitely don't have a connection with it like some people do--doesn't remind me of home or anything. But it was totally fine, and I'm glad the other members of our group were happy. The food isn't terrible anyway. It just makes me miss real Mexican food, like Anna's Taqueria.

After lunch, I had to bounce because Da Eun was able to get us two tickets to go see a Big Bang concert at the Olympic Park Gymnastic Stadium in Seoul! Big Bang is my favorite Kpop group, and it was #1 on my Korean bucket list to get to see them perform live! Da Eun and I had made a plan to meet up at the venue at 2pm to collect our tickets. Unfortunately, Da Eun was called in to work on Saturday morning (she's a nurse in Daegu), so she arrived at 4pm. Before she came, I waited in line for about 45 minutes to get some merchandise. As promised, I got Gage a t-shirt as well as one for myself. Gage was really disappointed that she couldn't make it to the concert. She will be here on Thursday, so she only missed it by 4 days! I also got myself some Big Bang stickers and a gift bag for carrying all my junk. I had brought a coat, but the sun was blazing hot that day. There was hardly any shade cover for those waiting in line, so it was kind of awful. Concerts in Korea are kind of different than in the US. Before the concert starts, people buy merchandise, and there are all kinds of other promotional tents set up by the company that represents the band, YG. There were also various fan clubs giving out free stuff they had made. It kind of reminded me of tailgating at a football game, which I have actually never done before. It gets the fans pumped up and ready for the concert. It was a little hard for me to get into it though because I was super hot from standing in the sun for so long. After looking at the promo tents for a bit, I decided to wait in the ticket exchange line. For some reason, they don't give people e-tickets with bar codes that can be scanned for entrance to the venue. Instead, you have to print your ticket confirmation, wait in line, and exchange it for a real ticket. I'm glad that I now have my ticket stub as a souvenir, but it was a huge hassle waiting in that line. Da Eun still wasn't there at the time, but I thought it would be a good idea to get in line and wait for her to arrive. I needed her to be present with her ID to exchange the tickets, but the line was long enough that I thought she'd get there before I got to the front. I got to the front and let some people go around me and then Da Eun showed up just in time. I had waited in that line for about an hour. We exchanged the tickets and got in yet another line at the entrance to the venue, waiting to get in. About a half hour later, we were in the stadium! It was a day full of waiting in lines in the blazing sun, but it was all worth it to see my favorite Korean group, Big Bang! Da Eun and I had "third floor" seats. It turns out that "third floor" really means "just slightly further back than second floor" because the stadium didn't actually have multiple floors. There was a standing section around the stage at floor level, and stadium seating began on the first floor. The "second floor" tickets were at the front of the stadium seating, and the "third floor" seats were behind that. Da Eun and I were sitting in the first row of "third floor" section off to the left of the venue a bit. Still, the stage felt much closer and the venue felt much smaller than I remember at American concerts. Da Eun and I could see the stage pretty well. Tons of people bought these flashlight things that were topped with yellow crowns to use for cheering purposes during the concert, and some even had binoculars. It was pretty funny. Before the start of the concert, they played Big Bang's music videos to get people hyped up for the show. Everyone got most excited when they played the video for my favorite song, Fantastic Baby. Da Eun informed me that the cars that one member, Dae Sung, is standing around in the video are meant to symbolize the car accident he was involved in before the video came out a few years ago. Someone was killed in the accident, and Dae Sung was thought to have been drinking and driving. He was later cleared of the charges, but his popularity declined after that. I think it was actually his birthday the night of the concert. In another part of the video, another member, GD, comes out with his lips painted in a black and white checkered pattern. Da Eun told me that is to represent the fact that he was caught smoking marijuana. Thanks for the interesting information, Da Eun! Immediately after playing the music video, Big Bang came out and performed the song live! I had really been hoping they would perform their old material. They don't have a new album out until September, so I didn't know exactly what they'd do at the concert. I ended up getting to see all my favorite songs performed live, and we got to hear 2 of their new songs that haven't even been released yet! The new songs are "Loser" and "Bae Bae," and they were pretty good. They played the new music video for "Loser" before the group performed it so that fans knew how to sing along. They did the same thing for "Bae Bae," but they hadn't made a music video for it yet, so instead it was a video with just lyrics. It is kind of interesting that they try to teach new songs before actually performing them in order to increase audience participation. The videos are also to give the group time to change costumes. There were two short speaking sections of the show where they came out and talked to the audience. I had no idea what was happening during these parts, but at least they were short. I wonder how they adapt their show to fit US venues. I know they speak some English, but I wonder if they just scrap the talking bits instead. The show was really high energy. There were a few costume changes, two giant screens that opened and closed, lights running from the stage all the way up the sides of the venue, and fog machines. There were two stages, one small and one large, connected by a permanent platform as well as two moving platforms that came together and separated as needed. I really enjoyed getting to hear all the old and new songs and seeing Big Bang live. They are all really talented singers and dancers, and they put on a great show.

While I was at the concert, the rest of the group met up with Sian and went to see The Avengers, which was released in Korea a week earlier than in the US. They saw it on the biggest screen in the world, the Starium theater. From what they said, it sounds like a pretty cool theater though they suggest sitting further back than you usually would because you have to turn your head to follow the action if you sit too close. Gage and I have tickets to see the movie there this weekend when she visits, so I hope it's really cool.

The next day, Sian and Thomas got up early to visit the War Museum, which they hadn't seen yet. Everyone else was too tired or had already been. It really is a cool museum, and Gianni and I will take Gage there next weekend as well. We met up with them at 11am in Itaewon, the foreigners paradise in Seoul. Itaewon has an English book store and all kinds of authentic foreign food restaurants. It's delightful to go there if you've been out of the US for a while. The group has tried to go eat at an American BBQ restaurant the night before, but it had an hour and a half wait, so they didn't have time before the movie. It smelled so good that they all wanted to try again, so we decided to go right when they opened and get some lunch. The place is run by a Korean American from Alabama, so he knows good American BBQ. Gianni and I got pulled pork sandwiches with thin-cut french fries, cole slaw, mac n'cheese, and sweet tea. Korean barbecue is really good in its own right, but it was really nice to get a taste of home (or at least of the US since Massachusetts isn't really famous for BBQ). After a leisurely and stuffing lunch, we stopped at a South African BBQ restaurant to get some amazing cheesecake--each couple shared a piece. After lunch, we headed in taxis to a theater in Myeongdong to see the longest running stage show in Korea, Nanta. Gianni and I saw Nanta last Christmas with one of my coteachers, but we didn't know if the story would be the same. Nanta is kind of like stomp with a cooking and kitchen theme. The show is about 4 chefs who are cooking a wedding feast. There's a lot of chopping, drumming, and physical comedy. It was a really fun show the first time, and I liked it even better the second time because we were closer to the stage and got to be more involved. Thomas was even brought up on stage to taste some of the food and be the groom! We all had a great time at Nanta.

After the show, we noticed some rainbow colored cotton candy. Naturally, we had to try it. Marie got a mostly pink one that had a terrible after taste, but my blue rainbow one was fine. Not sure what that was about, but it was definitely the prettiest cotton candy I've ever had. After that, it was time to leave Seoul, so we went back to the train station to pick up our bags at the luggage storage place. Gianni and I grabbed some bento boxes on the platform before boarding the very crowded train. Lots of people were standing up, but we had paid for seats. There was an aisle between Gianni and I, and I asked the girl next to me to switch, but she wouldn't. What an ass. She didn't understand when I asked her, but someone standing up understood and translated. She said some stuff in Korean, and then the conversation just ended. I assumed that meant she didn't want to move from her window seat to Gianni's aisle seat. I also caught her making googly eyes at her boyfriend out on the platform. *gag* Anyway, we made it home around 10pm and got on the subway back to our place. I wasn't too concerned about the time because today (Tuesday) and yesterday are the mid-term exam days, so I have no classes to teach.

Yesterday, I got to leave school early. My coteacher, Sun Mi, and I made plans to see The Avengers in 4D! I have never seen a 4D movie before, at home or in Korea, so I was super excited. Before the movie, Sun Mi and I went out for "liner" at the Lazy Diner. They have games there, and we had plenty of time, so we played a few games of Rummikub before going to the theater. There's only one theater in Daegu that has 4D movies, the CGV, which is a really nice and comfortable place. Sun Mi has an app on her phone where she can use the ticket machines at the theater to print out a really nice plastic ticket if she has made a reservation for tickets online. It only costs $1, and it is a really nice souvenir of my first 4D movie. She printed one for each of us. You can see 4D movies that are actually not in 3D. That would be like a regular movie but with your seats moving and stuff. We did see the movie in 3D, which was cool looking, with the 4D elements. Our seats moved or rumbled during action scenes, air and mist are shot at you, lights flash from the ceiling, and a few times there were scents pumped out into the theater. I thought I was imagining the smells at first until I smelled it for a second time. I didn't get too dizzy or anything, but I'm sure someone prone to motion sickness wouldn't feel too great afterwards. I totally enjoyed the movie itself also. I think it is the best Avengers movie so far. Some of the scenes were really funny, and the visuals were really cool. My first 4D movie-going experience was a great success. The tickets are a bit pricey though--about $18. Not something I will do with every movie, but definitely an experience worth having. Thank you Sun Mi for making the reservations and going with me! Sun Mi love action movies, so I have been wanting to see a 4D movie with her for some time.

Today is actually Marie's birthday, so we are all going out for Korean style BBQ near her house. It should be a tasty dinner. I also have to clean up the house a bit more before Gage's arrival in Korea in just two days!!! This has been/will be a fun-filled couple of weeks.