Grand Adventure Day 17: Blackpink!

So, tonight was the reason I extended my trip for several more days. But first, the even better news: We've got coffee at the hostel again! I spent the morning trying to finish packing as quietly as possible as the other two guys slept off their hangovers. At one point, I tried to participate in the PokemonGo Community Day event, but the game crashed constantly so that didn't work. And that concludes what I did the entire morning.

I met up with Tina and her friend at the concert site. People packed the sidewalks, selling posters and wallets and other stuff with the Blackpink members' pictures on them, some of them probably unlicensed, some of them fan-art drawings.

I also got (aka "spent a lot on") some official merchandise like pins and a keychain, and a pen I think I lost. Also, depending upon the amount of money you spent, there was a drawing for a chance to win some prizes. Surprisingly, I think between the three of us, we got all three of the items: a Blackpink lightstick USB charger, soap? (I think that was one of them), and an Ipad signed BY ALL 4 MEMBERS! Since I'd gotten there late, I missed the two of them showing off the Ipad to some students of theirs. Luckily he's a much better person than I am. "Hey, look what I won! What's that, you had to spend all your allowance on tickets and can't even afford to buy anything else. Awww, sorry." Taunting children, another reason I can't be a teacher. With time left until the concert started, we hung out at a nearby karaoke center to kill time. Oh, they also taught me to say, "I'm a North Korean spy," which I now don't remember the words. I'd been looking for something to say to the old women who stare at me on the trains. Everyone else's eyes are focused on their phones, but the old women just stare at me. All of them. All the time.

Tina and I made our way to our seats with about an hour left until the concert. Alex's (I knew I wrote his name someplace in this notebook) ticket was for the pit/floor area. That I don't have a Blackpink member locked away in a newly constructed basement means that he didn't manage to grab any of them and drag them outside as we planned aka, as I asked and he just nervously shook his head and walked away from Tina's weird cousin. "Come on, we're going to Hawaii!" as the bag goes over her head and I lead her away from the concert. *That's a joke, please don't send anyone to my house, I wouldn't even know how to build a basement... though I'm sure there's a video someplace... not that I would go through the effort...

Back to the concert. To make sure I didn't miss a moment, I headed to the restroom to drain every single ounce of liquid from my body. From what I gathered from the stadium layout, the people in charge must've closed off all but one restroom each for men and women. Since they frown upon me entering the women's restroom to document the goings-on, I can only give you what I experienced in the men's restroom. Obviously, for an event like this, I am prepared to wait in a line. What I wasn't prepared for was how... intimate standing in line was, not in the line out the door to the restroom but behind each other at each urinal. With all five or six urinals occupied, lines formed behind each person at each urinal, about four or five people deep with the stalls right behind them. Wow, was the restroom that big? you ask. No, it was not. To say they stood close enough that the next guy in line could've held it for me while I played games on my phone wouldn't be an exaggeration. And if you went to sento with me or you're my grandma, you have an idea of just how close they stood to each other. I opted for a stall because I knew I would be in there for a while, negotiating with, threatening my bladder and bowels. "Okay, I'm serious you fuckers, you better get everyone out of there now because we're not coming back. I'm not joking." Then I'd stand up, pull up my jeans, stand there for a couple seconds, then sit back down. "Okay, seriously, last chance, no fucking surprises. None of this 'oops, just a couple more drops' or 'oh, one more tiny turd left behind'." And repeat until I was certain my body wouldn't betray me. In case you were curious, this was also my prep for the three hours Avengers: Endgame movie.

When I eventually got back to my seat, Tina helped me set up the lightstick she got me. Even though I said I didn't want one as I saw it as just one more thing to pack into my stuffed luggage and then find a place in my cramped room, I'm really happy she ignored my request and bought it anyways. If you watch any of my videos, or just look up a live concert on Youtube and see the sea of pink lightsticks moving in unison, well, it's kind of amazing ... and a little scary only in that I tend to think of any group synchronized activity as the beginnings of a cult and at any moment we'll be told to sacrifice the person sitting next to us to the glory of Morrowyllx or some other obscure feaster of souls and the worst part being I won't know what's going on until the moment the knife gets plunged into my chest since I don't speak Korean (I need to learn a new language).

Pre-show set up

Then the show started! The shining lights, the blaring speakers, the flashing screens in the background, the screaming crowd ... it was a lot to take in all at once, especially for my first ever concert. At that time, the stories about people fainting from excitement or anxiety attacks crept into my head. Subtly, I took a lot of deep breaths and focused on the seat back in front of me, thinking about how embarrassing it would be to faint in my cramped seat. Seriously, though, my plane seat had more leg room.

I got my bearing back just as Blackpink got on stage. I want to say they started the concert off with their newest song at the time, "Ddu Du Ddu Du" but I don't have a video to prove it. At the start I was really hesitant about recording the show since Tina said she saw people escorted out from other concerts she attended in the past for recording the concert. Only when I realized EVERYONE'S phones were out and security didn't care did I get the courage to do it too. Luckily I'm taller than most and the person who was supposed to be in the seat in front of me must've been murdered earlier in the day because s/he wasn't there (and death is the only thing that would've stopped me from coming). This way, I could keep my phone low while recording and not block my view or distract me from the show. I tried to get clips of every single song, even the solo acts they performed. It's old news now, but Jennie performed her solo debut song "Solo" and they showed the music video on the big screens. Some guy from Big Bang also performed a couple songs on his own. I think Tina said something along the lines of it being blasphemous that I don't know these songs or who that guy was. Between songs, the group talked on stage and Tina provided me with translations.

Hopefully those videos show up (I'm still not sure if they loaded correctly). This is the best quality I've got so now I'm not even sure why I was so scared they were going to kick me out for recording. When they finished all of their songs (at that point, I think they only have a dozen or so, and maybe half of them were singles) I saw people walking out of the arena. Well, if Marvel Studios taught me anything, just because the credits roll doesn't mean the movie is over and so I planned to sit there until they turned the arena lights back on. On the back of the placard we all got were the lyrics to a verse of one of their songs which the crowd was supposed to sing repeatedly to bring the group back out for an encore performance, like summoning Beetlejuice or something. That particular verse had a couple lines in English, so I got to shout those parts with the crowd.

The encore section was a different performance from the rest of the show. Instead of emitting the energy and excitement that they previously had, it was a lot more comfortable, more like I was watching a group of people perform at a karaoke bar or something, though with hundreds of other people. No fireworks or flashing lights or fancy clothes. Most of the arena lights were on and the four of them either stood or sat together wearing what looked like just regular clothes, not dancing across the stage in flashy concert clothing. The encore section seemed to invite the rest of the crowd to sing along rather than just watch in awe as we had done through the previous performances.

After the show, Tina and I headed to a less crowded train station to hang out. Most of the food places were already closed for the night which surprised me. Not that they were already closed, but that the concert went on that long. At the time of the concert, Blackpink just released their first album, which gave them, I think, just 9 songs in total so I thought the concert was going to be a lot shorter. We ended up grabbing donuts and coffee and hanging out in the station so we both could catch our respective trains home. I managed to walk back to the hostel without anyone mugging me for my concert merchandise stuffed into a huge plastic bag. Not that it isn't safe and I'm actually worried about being mugged, but just thinking of how embarrassing it would be that I don't have any money but an entire bag full of Blackpink merchandise.

Grand Adventure Day 16: Last Palaces

The rain from the previous day stopped. Originally, I came up with a plan to waste another day hopping from cafe to cafe, drinking coffee and writing. Since the rain stopped, I decided to try to use the last two tickets from the packet I picked up the day I hung out with my cousin. First off, I mixed up the names of the palaces and ended up going to the one we already went to on the previous weekend. After a walk, I made it to the correct palace, Changgyeonggung Palace.

This is what I imagine fall looks like

I bet there was something really cool in there

There was a fire someplace. No, I didn't start it.

Walked around almost the entire palace grounds. I have no idea how big the palace grounds actually were or how they compared to the other 3 I visited, but this one just felt bigger. Also, no I'm not going to do any research. Besides the forest I saw people walking laps in, there was also a lake and a greenhouse (which I don't have good pictures of). Also, there was a fire someplace. I didn't get to see it, though I did smell it and saw the smoke from a ways off. My cousin messaged me later to play the dumb tourist card and try to jump on the fire truck.

The last ticket would get me into Jongmyo Shrine, which was pretty close and apparently I got there right in time. As it is a spiritual place (or was it sacred place, I always get them mixed up, if there is a difference), which ever it is, you'll either need a guide, or you'll need to be in time for one of their group tours based on the language the tour will be conducted. I got there with about 10 minutes until the last tour of the day, which also happened to be in English. So I just hung around until the tour started. If I remember correctly, most, if not all, of the emperors are symbolically enshrined there and rituals are still held there. Before I start giving out more wrong information ... look, here's some pictures

After the tour, I hung around at a nearby park playing Pokemon. Between two stops and a gym, I stumbled upon a Charmander nest! Not joking, there would always be about two or three spawning at a time and almost as soon as I caught one, another would pop up. I would've stayed probably forever, but then my hands started to go numb. Unexpectedly, the weather turned and it just got really, really cold all of a sudden. My brain went into the "how long do you think we can survive out here?" mode while actively debating if it was worth it to keep on playing. Shivering, I made my way back to a train station. Took it to Itaewon to grab a kebab for dinner. I'm really going to miss them, we don't have them back home, or at least not that I know of ... unless you count Arby's since they're selling gyros now which are basically the same thing, right.

Back at the hostel, I met my two new roommates. Oh, I think I also forgot to mention, somehow I managed to have the room all to myself for the past couple of days, just me and three other empty bunks. Both of them were Americans from the military base and here for a nearby metal concert happening right down the street, a group from someplace in Europe. Instead of going with them, I stayed back at the hostel to get a head start on my packing, at which point I spent a half hour looking for a missing slipper, the ones you are supposed to wear around the hostel, not my own slipper. Eventually I found it, packed with my own luggage.

Grand Adventure Day 15: Library Day

Today it rained. It rained all day. I spent the morning sitting at the hostel dining table drinking coffee (no we're still out, I went out to the train station and bought this one), reading and talking with Hsiu, the newest worker at the hostel that started on my first day. Once the claustrophobia kicked in, I packed up some stuff, grabbed my jacket, and headed to the Seoul Metropolitan Library.

Besides the normal stuff I like about libraries, I liked the painted benches that were near the staircases and elevators

Also, on one of the floors (no I don't remember which) there was a brief exhibit on the construction of Seoul and a display of gifts presented by dignitaries from around the world.

I found some tables and an empty chair that I could occupy for an hour or two. I'm not sure which occurred first: writer's block or hunger. Either way, I headed back to the underground shopping area to stay out of the rain and began walking until I found a shop selling dumplings. I also finally did a Giratina raid in this country! Unfortunately, I didn't catch it. After walking around for a bit, I headed back to the library and took back the exact seat that I vacated an hour or so earlier. Even worse than not catching that Giratina, I fell into the trap of reviewing my work ... which results in questioning the legitimacy of everything I'd written just moments earlier. So, of course, nothing new got done. Eventually, the librarian came around to let everyone know they were closing up soon. No, I don't know exactly what she said, but I like to think that I understand "Get the fuck out" in any language. Went back to that Indian restaurant near the hostel for dinner but this time they gave me an English menu. Got Indian Butter Chicken curry, which, if you're one of my two old co-workers, you know the addiction to it.


Oh, and if you cared, here's part of what I wrote that day:

From my viewing orb I watched the band of heroes surround Bobby at the far side of the cave. As always, Bobby was milking his upcoming death scene, always the over-actor. Over actress? He, or she, had only been working at our dungeon for a week or so and I've been thinking it rude to ask a 90 foot long giant scorpion if it prefers the male or female pronoun. Either way, Bobby was putting on a show, backing away slowly, claws snapping, it's giant stinger clanging off iron shields. Acid spray mixed with the occasional jet of smoke and steam pumped into the chamber messed with their lone archer's aim, causing arrows to bounce harmlessly off of the scorpion's steel plating.

Soon enough, Bobby found itself trapped at the far-side of the cavern, exactly as scripted. The fighters were kept just out of range, the elf's arrows couldn't find hit anything vital, and their wizard was busy charging up a spell which we could use in our own finale. All of it according to plan. Then I got up from my chair and starred at the orb. Stared hard. Two fighters, one elf, one wizard. I unrolled the scroll, a list of today's raiding party complete with an inventory of their gear collected by the local innkeeper. Two fighters armed with shields, one with a sword, one with an axe. An elf with a bow and long knife. A wizard with a staff and a short knife at the base, and a ... The rogue! I abandoned the viewing orb and looked out through the illusionary veil that concealed by room hidden high above the cavern. Where the hell did he go!

I took in the whole scene again. They stood at the front entrance and slowly worked the fight arond the cavern as predicted. Bobby might've come to our humble tier two dungeon just to ease himself into retirement but he was still a true professional. Hopefully he hadn't forgotten about the rogue, as I had, but just in case, I needed to keep an eye out to make sure none of my team got injured or killed.

There! my eyes spotted the faint shadowy movements close to the ceiling, just about level with myself but 30 meters across. That bastard. Quickly, I ran back to the viewing orb and watched the playback. Upon entering the cavern, he had been the second to charge into the fray, a stupid move for a thief, and gotten himself knocked to the side. Bobby batted him away with her tail, though light enough that he wouldn't sustain any major injuries. Something like that, after all, could lead to some severe legal issues, even the shutting down of the dungeon itself. I guess Bobby didn't hit the rogue hard enough because as the fight with the rest of the party progressed, the rogue got up and began quietly and slowly, scaling the side of the wall, moving stealthily enough not to attract attention. And it worked because he was high up here, with a very large, possibly enchanted, probably poisoned knife aiming to plunge down onto Bobby.

This needed to be timed perfectly. I waited until the rogue was in position. Waited until he dropped to deliver what he hoped to be the killing blow. Just as he dropped, I clanged a rock off of Bobby's steel plating, the plate closest to where the assassin was sure to land. Then I bounced a small reflection spell off the same plate, blinding the rogue for just a second. Enough time for Bobby to act. He knocked back the two fighters with its claws, then swung a wide arc with its tail to startle the group, ending with an upward swing, catching the rogue mid-fall with the backside of the stinger and sending him back into the wall. The wizard finally managed to fully charge his spell. I hit the button activating the shield curtain, allowing the spell to explode just a couple meters from Bobby, the room simultaneously filling with a thick black smoke.

I heard coughing. "What the fuck was that Kyler!" exclaimed someone, probably one of the fighters as they were usually the loudest.

"It was just supposed to be a standard piercing spell. I swear I did the chant right," replied the wizard.

By the time the smoke cleared, Bobby made it through the trap door and a scorpion skeleton put in its place, along with a single chest of copper coins, enough to get the group through to the next village. This was only a Tier Two dungeon after all, they shouldn't be expecting a whole lot. I waited, watching as the party go their bearings after the smoke cleared, then split up the coins between the 5 of them, and then exited through another doorway that opened after boss Bobby was defeated.

"Okay, we're clear!" I announced, my voice magically booming throughout the entire dungeon, "Let's get this all cleared up and prepped for tomorrow." I'd heard from the innkeeper there was already another raiding party setting up for an early morning quest tomorrow.

On cue, teams of orcs spewed through hidden doors armed with brooms and buckets: some to clean up the mess left behind, others to create a new mess, this was supposed to be a dungeon. I went down to the infirmary. I didn't witness anything bad, but best to check it out myself. Downstairs, our lone cleric was looking after my front-line crew: the slimes, orcs, giant spiders, even Bobby, anyone who interacted with the raiding party. Even Gregory, the old hermit that warned the raiders not to go into the cave, though I have no idea why. When I asked, he just thought it best in case they cursed him on the way in. "You worry too much," I said, shaking my head.


So, this story was supposed to be about the people and creatures that reset dungeons after a raiding party has been through it. The main character is the Dungeon Master who is in charge of this dungeon. The plot goes that one of the raiding party members leaves something behind and ends up peeking behind the veil, seeing what goes on behind the scenes of the dungeon. The thought that derailed this whole thing was the idea that if one dungeon is controlled by the government, then what's stopping the government from actually controlling ALL dungeons, then what really is the point if dungeons are just escape rooms? And that got me stuck trying to figure out the Tier system for dungeons and how much the government can actually control. And, as it's been a whole year since I originally wrote this, no, I haven't gone back to it yet.

Grand Adventure Day 14: I Did Nothing

This will be a short one. I got up and did my normal routine which was stupid since I still needed to wait until 10am to use the washing machine. Since the hostel is still out of laundry detergent, I took the caretaker's advice and just used shampoo. More importantly, they're out of coffee which meant another visit to the Dunkin Donuts at Hapjeong station. I got my breakfast sandwich and coffee this time ... from the same cashier working the other day. From the look on her face, I know that everyone in this country is going to be happier once I leave - I've been nothing but an inconvenience to everyone's lives.

After a load of laundry, which I spent 45 minutes watching Youtube videos, I finally got out of the hostel with a plan. The first stop was the movie theater I couldn't find on Sunday to buy tickets for Bohemian Rhapsody, 4 hours early. 11,000won is pretty cheap compared to the theaters back home.

In my defense, it was dark Sunday night and, back home, theaters basically stand on their own in their own, easy to see, building. It's a little hard to find from three stories down. Ticket in hand and 4 hours to kill, I took a 30 minute train ride to Itaewon to find a bookstore. Well, first I had lunch at one of the 4 different kebab shops within eyesight of Itaewon station. From there, a walk up the hill took me to the bookstore I scouted online last night. I'd been going through the one Jack Reacher novel a little faster than I expected and decided I might need another book (I've been spending a lot of time waiting around, or eating alone). Unfortunately, as it happens in every bookstore, I had my sights set on just one particular book but I ended up still browsing all the shelves. I even picked up a couple that I wanted to read and seriously considered taking all of them, once again over-burdening my already full duffel bag and backpack. In the end, I did only buy the one book, a collection of Jack Reacher short stories.

On the walk back to the station, an Instinct player took over a bunch of gyms so I just followed his/her path of yellow gyms all the way back to the station, putting a pokemon in every gym available. This is also probably the reason I made it back to the theater with just 10 minutes to spare. That, or the book shelf browsing.

The movie was good. If you're expecting some sort of in-depth review, well you will be disappointed. The only thing I've got is that the pacing in the beginning felt a little rushed but other than that, I liked it. I probably knew all of the songs only because I spend every weekend at the orchid farm, and on the drive there and back, if we're not listening to the radio, Dad plays one of a handful of CDs he owns, one of them being Queen's Greatest Hits.

I decided to hang around the Hongik area after the movie. That really is the best part about staying in Hapjeong, that I'm just one stop away from the Hongik University stop and all the cheap street food. I had another corndog thing with sugar and ketchup, which I spilled a lot of on the street; more fried chicken; another bread with egg thing. It started to rain so I couldn't take advantage of the free entertainment as the buskers weren't out that night. Picked up a doughnut on the way back to the hostel, though I really should've bought coffee too. I managed to find coffee back at the hostel, except it was all in capsules which we don't have a machine to use. I tried to make tea instead, but I couldn't figure it out ... I'm dumb. Also I finished the first Jack Reacher novel I brought with me so I guess it was a good thing I went today to get that second book.

Grand Adventure Day 13

I slept badly, my only guess was due to heartburn from eating spicy Mexican food last night. With all the Korean food I've been eating, who expected that the thing to give me heartburn would be Mexican food. Dragged myself out of bed late and was going to do a load of laundry, but the hostel was out of laundry detergent. Finally, I headed for the Seoul Museum of Art near the City Hall stop. Grabbed a ham and cheese muffin from a nearby bakery. Actually, I'm not sure if it was "nearby" as I kinda got lost along the way. Eventually, I found the right street to turn down and got to the museum.

The first exhibit I came across was artist activism against the rapid westernization of Korean culture forced onto society by the government in preparation for the Olympics (I don't remember what year). As a dumb foreigner with no background on Korean history or folklore, I really didn't understand a lot of it, but obviously that's not going to stop me from looking around.

The room I wandered into after than was an entire exhibit dedicated to one artist. It was interesting to see how her subject material changed over time, as well as the style she painted. I don't have any pictures of any of the pieces since they had signs in English asking people not to take pictures. Some were painted with dark, bold strokes; others had a pastel colors with a more fantastical feel to them; portraits of people she met on her travels; self-portraits of herself mixed with traits/features of people she admires/wants to be.

My favorite room was the one depicting the future. Maybe satirizing is a better description. An anti-surveillance hoodie made of what looked like a thermal blanket. A series of flashing screens asking questions about the nature of AI and if electric sheep dream? A critique on how often we think about things compared to our own mortality as a man had a computer to track his brain on how often he thought about shopping vs how often he thought about death. My favorite, and possibly the creepiest thing I've ever seen, a prototype for an End of Life machine: basically just a machine that strokes your arm and is supposed to provide comfort to you in your final moments, the robotic voice droning, "I'm here to ease your pain because none of your family and friends could be here." It sent a shiver down my spine on how real it seemed.

Wandered out of the museum and started toward the Deoksugung Palace close by (I really wanted to get my money's worth from that ticket booklet)

In one of my few instances of excellent timing, I also managed to arrive just in time for a changing of the guard ceremony.

After the ceremony, people could get up close to the guards and take pictures with them. Inside, I walked through a garden and a large grassy area. I think by this point I may have been starting to get bored of palaces as all the architecture started to look the same. This one did have a couple of other unique features:

Not sure what was in here

A fountain

A pond

Also, there was a short tour in a smaller building of the historical clothing worn by the elite and the emperor.

Wanting to leave, but too early to go back to the hostel, an example of vacation-Alan popped up and decided to head back to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza just because it was a place I could just hang out and either write or read without anyone bothering me. I got there and instead immediately started playing PokemonGo, taking the gym in the middle of the plaza. Then wandered a couple blocks away to do a raid. Getting back to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, I decided on Quiznos for dinner. I know what you're thinking, what the hell am I doing eating Quiznos? Well, there is a good reason: on the sign outside they were advertising, if I remember correctly, a sandwich called "Traditional" which was supposed to have Bulgogi beef, korean vegetables, and hot sauce. See, that sounds different than anything I've seen state-side, and it sounds pretty good. Well, the sign on the outside had it, but I couldn't find it on the menu inside. So, I'm standing in front of the cashier trying to figure out what to say, so I just told him "traditional" and he just smiled, nodded, said something in Korean, and then told me the price, as if he was like, "Yeah, man, I got you. I know exactly what you're looking for." Unfortunately, when I got back to the hostel, I found that we were not on the same page - I unwrapped the sandwich to find a basic ham and cheese with veggies. Well, luckily, I also bought some Toppoki from a vendor at the subway station, so that made me feel a little better.

Grand Adventure Day 12

Dragged myself out of bed late. I realized that I've been on vacation for 12 days now and, according to my journal, I contemplated how hard it was going to be getting back to the real world, especially back to "working everyday" mode. Basically, vacation-mode Alan just walks slower and with less purpose, makes excuses to sit around and do nothing, and smokes more often. Like, light-one-once-I-step-outside more often. Well, I skipped out on toast and coffee at the hostel and just made my way to the train station. Ended up getting into a confusing situation at the Dunkin Donuts at Hapjeong station. The cashier was trying to explain that they stopped selling breakfast sandwiches after 10am, and I kept trying to order a sandwich with hot coffee. We went back and forth for too long before I figured out what was going on. Ended up with two donuts and a coffee, and possibly an enemy for life (I really should've learned a little bit of Korean before coming here). As I was eating at the station, not even one half-eaten donut later, my ignorance saved me from getting into a conversation with two older Korean women handing out religious pamphlets. The dumb foreigner look saves me again!

Took the train today to Dongdaemun. I know I've said before that I don't care much about food, but the highlights of the rest of the day is basically just me eating food. That, and playing Pokemon.

Outside the station, there was a preserved ... fort, I think it was. I think, back in the past, it was supposed to connect to the larger wall on the hill (which I didn't get a picture of). There was a small, kind of swap meat area near the station with a bunch of people selling stuff out of stalls. Bought that cornbread and egg thing twice from two different vendors, a chicken and leek stick, a packet of mandoo, and a giant dry cracker that I thought was hoduk (it was not). Surprisingly, I managed to finish all of it as I walked to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Surprisingly, though not really, I forgot to get a picture of the Design Plaza and its weird shape. There's a bunch of Pokemon gyms around and with basically all the time in the world, I managed to take all of them. With the rest of my spare time, I sat outside the cafe, had a coffee, and read and wrote. And this is what I meant by "vacation-mode Alan" - in the real world where things like Time and... other things like Time, okay, maybe I just meant Time ... in the real world where Time is important I don't have this kind of free time to just sit and read and write.

After wandering more and playing Pokemon, I decided to try to find something to eat in Itaewon. When it was described to me, I basically just thought it was a street filled with bars as far as the eye could see. Instead, all along the main road were stores and shops, a lot of them selling clothing. Eventually, I got off the main road and found all the restaurants I was originally looking for. I settled on an empty Mexican restaurant that had a sign in English. Two tacos and an order of loaded fries later and it felt like my mouth was on fire - I expected that with all the Korean food I'd been eating, I would have built up a higher tolerance to spicy foods, but I was wrong. Also, no one else came in the entire time I was there.

Grand Adventure Day 11

Met up with Tina at Hapjeong station and headed to Insadong because she knew we could find at least one food cart selling cornbread with egg cooked inside. No, I'm not joking. Completely worth it. I think I ate two this first time, and I would buy one almost every single time I came across them the rest of the trip. My favorite street food. Also, I didn't have to carry around a stick until I found a trash can. We also bought two burritos, one pizza-filled and the other long rice-filled ... japchae I think it's called.

Yesterday, I picked up a booklet of admission tickets into several popular palaces. With the ticket from the booklet, we visited Changdeokgung Palace.

I think Tina wanted me to stare at the trees or something

The next stop was to the SM Town COEX which was insane. I assumed it would be an experience in openly displaying and accepting my kpop fanaticism in a public arena, to actively browse merchandise, to openly buy things related to my "bias" from each group, etc. Instead it was a lesson of what true fandom was. First off, the place was packed. For those not familiar, each Kpop group falls under a particular entertainment/management company that trains and promotes them. SM is one of those companies that promotes groups like Girls Generation and Red Velvet. Apparently, the reason it was so busy that day was because one of their boy groups, EXO, just released a new song literally a couple days ago and everyone was there buying up, well, everything.

I know that picture looks like it might have been for a Silver Egg raid, but no one here was playing PokemonGo. Instead this was like a lounge-ish area with tables and chairs for people to hang out and, most of all, exchange cards. Apparently, one of the benefits of buying an actual, physical copy of the CD is that it comes with a bunch of bonus stuff, one of them being a random photocard of one of the group members which there are currently 9 of them. Tina mentioned that one of the things people try to do is either collect all 9 of them (which I assume the person I saw with CDs stacked up to her head was trying to do) or try to trade their photocard with someone else to get their favorite member, both of which I completely understand as I used to play Magic and Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh all those years ago. But it was really eye-opening in that I had a long way to go before I got to that point.

I was back to being on my own after that as Tina had tickets to the Seventeen concert later that night. I wandered around for a bit before stopping at a sandwich shop for lunch. It was already 3pm, which is much later than I typically eat lunch, so it was a good thing they sold smaller sandwiches than American-size portions. Plus, I got a Cuban sandwich which I haven't had since the plate lunch place by the old office stopped making them every Friday, years ago.

In the middle of the mall next to the COEX was a library, I guess. There were a ton of books and the second floor was lined with tables and chairs, but I never saw a librarian or a check-out desk so I have no idea how it works. Also, all the tables were filled so there went my plan to kill time sitting and writing. I wandered around a bit more and then the downsides of not planning hit. Thought about going to the casino nearby (at least on the free tourist map I took from the hostel, it said it was a casino) but then I remembered that I don't speak Korean and I didn't want to just sit in front of a slot machine.

This was also not a raid, but a chance for fans to interact with a group through what I assume was a speaker built into the wall, or something

Those guys, on the giant screen in the back. After wandering the area a bit more, I decided to head to someplace marked as the Royal Tombs but when I got there the signs showed that it closed about a half hour ago. I saw an ad for "Bohemian Rhapsody" and decided to take a trip to the theaters in Hongik. I got lost right outside the building for a good half hour. Back home, most theaters are their own building so you can spot them from the street. Instead, the theater occupied the 3rd to 9th floors of the building I'd been walking circles around because I didn't look up to see the sign. I decided to comeback another time since, according to the website, all the better seats were taken unless I planned to wait around for a couple hours.

Remembering all the food places near my hostel, I took the train back to Hapjeong, dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed back out in search for something to eat. I walked a couple blocks in a direction I hadn't gone before, but there were a lot of lights so I just assumed there would be a lot of restaurants too.

I feel like there's some sort of meaning here that I'm missing

Eventually, I chose an Indian restaurant mostly because it smelled good, and had a bunch of empty tables that I could see from outside. The waitress gave me a menu in Korean, but luckily there was a little placard on the table advertising a set menu in English. I managed to use the one word I remembered Tina had taught me. "Anoo, set chuseyo," as I pointed at the set menu on the placard. I probably spelled that wrong, and I'm really hoping that does mean "give me" or something equivalent. I got chicken curry, naan bread, a piece of chicken, and a slice of bacon covered with some sort of powder. It was really good, and that's about as good as I am at describing things. Then I headed back to the hostel.

Grand Adventure Day 10: 2nd Reunion

Today I would meet up with my cousin Tina who was teaching English in Korea - the reason I made the stop over in Korea in the first place. Since she doesn't live in Seoul (I think she mentioned an hour or two or three by train) she could only come to hang out on the weekend. Met up at Myeongdong station and walked around the area for a bit. Visited an Artbox where I would continue my search for another notebook, and another Line store

Christmas Brown

After being on my own for the past couple days it was nice again to have someone to joke around with: to say the stupid things I normally say on a daily basis (you know what I'm talking about) and have someone laugh instead of stare at me because of a language and culture barrier. Or, at least when she would stare in confusion, it wasn't an "I don't understand what you're saying" but the "Are you a moron" stare. Not to complain, but for the past couple of days I've only had the other foreigners staying at the hostel and they don't really understand my humor. Also, unfortunately for you the reader, with Tina around I now have more pictures of myself than I've taken this entire trip. Especially dumb pictures in dumb poses, which we'll get to more of them.

As we walked around, we came across a ... I want to say it was some sort of temple or shrine. Whatever it was, there was something going on so we decided to take a look. Apparently, it was some sort of festival involving ... I have no idea. But they had all these plants and flowers growing into animals which I thought was really cool.

From my shitty memory, I want to also say there were foxes? deer? tigers? I really don't remember what other animals they built and no, I didn't take pictures of any other ones. It also reminded me that, apparently, I can't go one weekend without being near flowers as typically I would be at the orchid farm on the weekend. Weird. I got to try hodduk (I spelled that wrong, I'm sure), bread filled with melted brown sugar. So simple and so good! I actually remembered to write it down, but eaten too quickly to remember to take a picture of it (but that's what the internet is for if you want to look it up). Went to Gyeongbokgung palace today. Took a bunch of pictures and was tricked a number of times to reenact images from dramas Tina watched (that damn "look-back" pose). I feel like we walked in circles at times, but honestly, I couldn't really tell, since, after a while, all the buildings kinda looked the same.

The look-back

We were there in time to view a series of traditional dances at the palace museum auditorium. Not to insult someone else's culture, but it was a dark auditorium, it was the afternoon, I'd been walking all day, there was a lot of slow, stringed instruments and drum beats, so I fell asleep for a bit. I'm sure Tina did too, so at least I'm not alone in that. After resting my eyes, I was a bit more attentive as my day-dreaming brain started to ask, "In a fantastical universe, what type of ritual would these dances be used for?" As I've mentioned numerous times, I steal ALL of my writing ideas and though I didn't get a recording of the dances or the music, I feel I locked away enough of it that if I really, really needed to, I can recall it to use as needed. There was one involving women banging drums at a rapid pace which I guess would be for summoning a deity associated with war or festivities or anything involving energy and activity. A woman in rich, elaborate outfit dancing slowly to show herself off would be used for a sacrifice. A man with the fan would be used for banishing demons, not summoning one obviously since, practically and symbolically, you'd use a fan to blow or disperse things, not bring them to you.

When Tina sent me some of the pictures she took, she included this one of me jotting down notes after the show. It's kind of weird to see myself from the outside when, internally, I'm in my own nonsensical world. From there we headed to Insadong for food. I got a fish dish with a ton of side dishes. Afterwards, I got a poop-shaped chocolate snack.

Came across a lantern festival ... someplace on a river. No, at this point I'd completely lost track of where we were. Anyways, here's some pictures I took as we walked down from one end of the river to the other.

Later on that day, we hung out at a bar in the Hongik area with two of Tina's friends who, I think, were also teaching English. This was probably the most comfortable I've felt the entire trip, being in a Korean bar since that's where we've been drinking at these days. As Tina pointed out, we're from Hawaii so we were morally obligated to get the Spam and Eggs plate (which was actually really good). We also got a pancake with huge slabs of bacon on it. Swapped stories. Drank. Walked back to my hostel afterwards (this whole time, I thought it was so much further than it actually was).