I dedicated the following two posts to @ally-le who wanted to know about my adventures in Korea. This is part 1 of 2.

WEEK 1

Day 1: Landed in the morning and was greeted by BTS (if only for real). Somehow made my way to my friend’s house in my super tired state. We went and ate some ddeokbokki for brunch/lunch before my friend had to get back to her studies. I was tempted to just crash and burn out but made myself go to this exhibition in Daelim Museum called [Paper, Present], which was super cool. Went back to my friend’s place and we did an E-mart trip before I peaced out for the night.

Day 2: Woke up pretty late and slowly left the house to explore. Went to the giant COEX library (which is next to the SM Store for those who like their artists) and chilled. Met up with two friends in Gangnam, grabbed some food and desserts then chatted until 12am. Thank goodness transportation in Korea run late.

Day 3: Briefly met up with another friend who lived near the Olympic Park and then went exploring by myself. In the evening, I had dinner with my old classmates from Sogang University. We had different types of Korean pancakes and side dishes before moving onto Sul Bing (a chain dessert store) for the new chocolate cereal bingsu. To help us digest, we went to a board game cafe and played a few games, Jenga Blast and Rummikub. Went home but didn’t actually go to sleep since I had to catch a train at 5.50am…

Day 4: …made it to Seoul Station and passed out on my 5 hours+ Mugunghwa train to Busan. (I didn’t encounter any zombies and even if I did, I’m pretty sure they would have assumed I was dead.) I came to Busan for a friend’s wedding and she organised a small hen party for all her friends who came to Korea. We all met up and spent 2 hours making our very own wooden rings. That was a pretty cool experience. Met up with another friend who moved to Busan and had some form of jjigae (stew) before going to the arcade and losing money to claw machines. Met up again with the people from the hen party event and hung out at Haeundae Beach, watching fireworks, listening to the sea and eating melona bars.

Day 5: WEDDING DAY!! Korean weddings always surprise me by how quick they go. My friend looked amazing. Most of us cried but the buffet lunch saved us. I had to dash and head straight to Pohang to meet another friend so hopped on a bus and took a nap. Took a taxi to my friend’s place and had the most Korean conversation with the taxi driver, who after finding out my age, insisted that I needed to get married ASAP. Arrived at my friend’s place and she took me on a bike ride to the beach, where we chilled and caught up with each other’s lives.

Day 6: Woke up and set off to Daegu to meet my first real close Korean friend/tutor. We met up in downtown Daegu and had Korean street food, sundae, ddeokbokki, mini Korean pancakes…etc. then another round of Sul Bing…this time strawberry bingsu. We also went to the Kyobo Bookstore to look for books of poems. (I blame APAD for the influence). Met up with another friend and headed back to her place to fangirl over BTS.

Day 7: We were suppose to go on a hike but instead we just chilled in a park. Had sundae gukbab and you guessed it, another round of Sul Bing – Mango bingsu. We then went to a baseball game: Samsung Lions vs SK Wyverns. The game was actually rather disappointing as both teams kind of sucked and the yellow dust pollution wasn’t making it fun to sit in. But we had a good time.

That’s the end of part 1. Stay tuned for part 2. Or not.