Sophistication

Ah... what a productive day.

After waking up at 7:45 and working out (go me!), I got ready and headed out to meet with my aunt.

I walked down Anam to ride the subway. That's the hill I have to walk up and down to get around.

On the way, I stopped by the dry cleaners to get a pair of shorts cleaned (grease is a pain!) and also stopped by the watch store to get my watch fixed.

After changing subway lines twice, I finally arrived at our meeting point. Since my aunt was a little late, I got bored and took pictures.

She came, and off we went to In-Sa-dong! It's a street full of jewelry stores, Korean souvenir stores, and trinket stores. I got a couple gifts for some people and a scarf for me! My aunt got me these adorable ceramic earrings with a heart on it.

After a delicious lunch of Kar-guksu (noodles), we headed off to Sam-Chong-dong, a street by the Royal Palace full of little boutiques, art galleries, and coffee shops. We got iced Americanos at this adorable cafe.

We went to a couple of art galleries, but unluckily, half of them were closed. Apparently, a lot of places are closed on Mondays. Huh. It was still fun to view the open ones, although I didn't understand the artistic idea behind some paintings (blurry paintings of someone's legs with their jeans pulled up around their knees, really?). Oh well. I felt very sophisticated though!





We stopped and looked at numerous boutiques. Their clothes were a little too classy and expensive for me, but the jewelry and hair accessories were so cute! I didn't get anything, despite my aunt's insistence that she buy me something. I didn't feel the need to get a cute gold ribbon $70 headband really.

We ate some Pat-juk (read bean porridge) that was AMAZING! It had chestnuts, beans, and dduk. Heavenly.

We called it a day and went back to the subway station. Back at Anam, I met with my mom to get a checkup at the hospital. So tired! So much walking!

Only 9 days left! Woohoo!
~Monica

Freebies

After the usual morning routine of wake up, press snooze, wake up for real, work out, shower, Facebook, and breakfast, my mom, Katie, and I decided to go to Myung-Dong on a whim. Myung-Dong is a place that's been famous for a long time for its shopping and food. Of course, now-a-days, it's full of tourists (mostly Japanese and Chinese), but it was still fun!


We went first to the largest Catholic church in Korea. We went inside and prayed for awhile, since we haven't been able to go to Mass every weekend lately.






We then hit the streets to explore.





Since alot of the people there are tourists, the alot of the shop workers are fluent somewhat in Japanese and Chinese.


We found a yummy looking Japanese noodle restaurant. I ordered this spicy ramen, and it was delicious! (Although I like the Japanese noodles I had in Hawaii better)





Here's a view of the downtown. Look! There's me!






Afterwards, my mom went home earlier because she had to pick up Austin from kindergarten. Katie and I stayed out a bit more. We hit the make-up stores (mostly due to all the freebies they were giving out). I tried on eye-shadow, and it actually looked good! Lip-stain worked like a charm too =]





Katie and I stopped by a Pineapple Express smoothie from the Smoothie King. Mmhmm, good!





All in all, a great day to end Katie's summer vacation. Since online school starts for her now! Muahahahaha!

Night!
Monica

Screaming fans

Yes, I was a complete fan girl, complete with glowstick waving, singing along, and "'I love you Taec-yeon!" screaming.

Yesterday, we went to the 2PM Don't Stop Can't Stop Encore concert as part of Katie's birthday present. We were such dedicated fans that we braved through pouring rain and thunder in our rain ponchos and umbrella (nah, the tickets were non-refundable! lol)

We got off the subway to find tons of girls chattering excitedly, buying rain ponchos, souvenirs, etc. We bought glowsticks and a Nich-khun mousepad for Katie. We took a deep breath and plunged outside in the storm to walk over to the stadium. Along the way, we got our tickets, and Katie managed to get a 2PM promotional fan. There were tons of lines for the people (aka crazy fangirls) who had gotten tickets to be in the standing area in front of the stage. Alot of them were carrying water guns. Strange....

We finally got in the stadium and into our seats.

The lights finally dimmed past 5. And now, glowsticks!

The 2PM members came in roaring on motorcycles. Then, the concert started!

So for all my American friends, 2PM is the hottest (both in looks and popularity) boy group of Korea at the moment. All the members are handsome/cute, tall, muscular, and good at dancing. Some have good vocals, the others rap. One is a Korean boy from the US (which is why Taec-yeon is perfect for me!), one is half Thai, and the other 4 are from Korea.

Our seats were in the second row in the front, right by the walkway where the members would walk around. All of them at some point came right by us! And TAEC-YEON ACTUALLY CAME UP PAST THE RAILING TO WHERE WE WERE! Of course, all the staff people jumped up to keep all the screaming girls (including us lol) in their seats. He was literally a foot away from us! We couldn't touch his hand because he didn't stick it out as he walked back down by us... but then, think how weird it is to get touched by random screaming strangers!

The concert finally ended... or so we thought! As the crowd kept chanting "2PM! 2PM!", the members and back-up dancers came out! And so, a water fight started! Those water guns were put to good use by the fans, and the 2PM members began to fight back with water bottles placed all over the walk ways. The seated people (including us) jumped up to the railing to join in. Half the members came up to us to spray us with water. Fans in the standing area threw stuff at the members for them to have, and Katie managed to get a fan sign from the fray!

Then it was finally over (for real). We walked out (it wasn't raining anymore, thankfully), got free posters from the concert, and bought souvenirs on the way to the subway station. Katie got another 2PM poster, a 2PM calender, name tags, etc. Yes, she's a huge fan and has an uncanny ability to pick up souvenirs. Did you notice? =P

We came home on the subway. Here's the view of the Olympic Bridge from the train!





And that was the end of our 2PM adventure! What a great success for my first concert!

Muah! (not for you silly. It's for Taec-yeon!)

Monica

Jumpin Around

Wow. What a busy day today.

I woke up, worked out, came back to our home to be told that we were leaving in the next hour for my grandparents. (aka no facebook time for me, boohoo) We went over to have a birthday lunch party for my sister with my dad's side of the family. The Japanese restauarant had pretty good stuff, but no udon. Ah well, next time! My sister loved her presents, which included CD's (with posters of course), cell phone holder, necklace, and money to buy an iTouch.

After hanging out at my grandparents' tiny-yet-bigger-than-our-home apartment, we came back home at 4:30. After relaxing for 30 minutes, we were off again, this time for a dinner and a show.

We ate at a Korean bean-paste restaurant with family friends, from whom I recieved graduation money (woohoo!) We shopped around for a bit at the stalls next to the restauarant where I bought legit headphones. I can't wait until I wear them around college! After ice cream at Coldstone, we went off to see the show.

Jump is a comic martial arts show about this crazy martial-arts family. The perpetually drunk uncle is chastised for being, well drunk: the daughter is won over by a shy boy with more than meets the eye; and burglers break into the house, not knowing what they are getting into. While the plots are simple, the comic action was hilarious, and the fighting awesome. I wish I could jump as high as them! After an hour and a half of laughter, we got to meet the cast and get signatures.

We came out, and us kids (as I still consider myself) went to a sticker-photo place. I seem to be drawn towards afros....

We walked along a prettily lit creek, ate some dduk-bok-gi, bought some shoes (my mom anyways), and finally said goodbye. I'll miss that family, who we've been friends with since back in the good ol days of College Station, TX. After riding the subway, we finally got home past 11 PM.

Whew. Busy day, huh? And now... 2PM, here we come!

Night!