Anyways, this was the first Saturday I spent fully settled into Seoul and my host family's house, so I was really excited (plus we have a later curfew on weekends haha).
First I woke up and made my breakfast, like usual, but then as I sat down to watch TV with the fam my host mom brought over MORE breakfast! I was already pretty full, but I ate this second breakfast to the best of my ability because I didn't want to be rude. She made soup, rice, broccoli, and stir fried veggies. I couldn't have eaten that all for breakfast even if I really tried haha.
But after we hung out for a little bit my host family started to go out so I just kind if invited myself along. It turns out we were running errands- we got ice cream, took the dog to the vet, went to the pharmacy, went to the grocery store, and then went home. I felt like it was nice bonding time with my family though, so it was nice. Also I had my first experience on a Korean bus! I confirmed the horror stories I've heard about Korean buses- the drivers don't care about anyone. I got on and was propelled to the back because the driver floored it before I could grab onto something haha.
When we got back home it looked like they didn't have any more plans for the day so I decided to go out with a friend! We went to dongdaemun, which is a really famous outdoor/indoor market in Seoul. It was so overwhelming- there were blocks and blocks of just shoes. Then we went into the inside clothing market and we were literally the only foreigners/only people under thirty in that place. We got a lot of stares from old ladies haha. We wanted to buy ajumma pants, which are basically strange baggy patterned pants that all of the old ladies here wear, but we didn't find any we loved and we didn't really want to bargain. Coincidentally, after we left the market we wandered into Cheongyecheon, which is a man made stream that runs through Seoul.
After a little stroll across the water, we decided to go exploring. There was this strange metallic blob shape about a block away so we decided to go look at it and....turns out it was a modern art museum! We went up to the front desk and the lady told us that there was a free exhibition that day and she have us a map so we could go check it out! The exhibit was called Inspiring Journey and I'm not quite sure what it was about (maybe recycled materials?) but it was really cool! First we took pictures in the cloth tunnels and then we went to the arts and crafts area where we made name tags/designed people that floated around on a big screen up on the wall. The people we designed were then printed out into stickers that we could take home!
When we walked out of the exhibit there was a line for free stuff, so of course we had to check it out. We waited for a while but it turns out that the stuff was only for Korean citizens :(. We did meet a girl from Texas who was taking college classes in another university in Korea so we talked for a little bit and she told us some other cool places to go! As we were walking out, we saw a table set up that was giving away coupon books for various Korean shops around the city so we stopped by. After they explained what the book was for, they told us to spin a wheel for a chance to win a prize! I won a face mask but my friend didn't win on the first time, so they let her try again so that she would win a face mask too xD. Then they took a picture of us lol
The girl we talked to in line told us that there was a building in the area with a kpop holographic concert/store. We didn't want to see the concert but we thought we might as well check out the store while we were in the area so we went looking for that. As we were looking for the building we saw a traditional Korean drum performance being done on the street! This day was full of surprises~
But eventually we found the 'store' and it was so cool! It was basically like an interactive YG museum thing. It was really creepy but fun in a really strange way as well haha. We took some pictures with cardboard cutouts, did sticker pictures, and basically just looked around for a while.
Then it was time to go home, so I headed back to my house. You thought the day was over, right? I did too, but I was wrong. When I got home my host family asked me if I wanted to go to the swimming pool, so of course I said I wanted too! We changed in the locker rooms there, which was a little awkward but I got over it. We swam for a while, but on an interesting note, you HAVE to wear swimming caps in swimming pools here. It's so weird haha, swim caps make you look so freaky. But I thought the locker room thing was awkward, and I was in for a big surprise when we went to take showers afterwards. You had to take off you swim suit and shower...ahem...naked with a bunch of strangers in a giant open room. It was basically a big room with a bunch of shower heads in the walls, and that's it. But you know, I thought it would be really weird but everyone else was comfortable with it so I just went along with everyone and it was fine. It really wasn't that awkward at all, besides the fact that I just wasn't used to it. But after we got home we order donkatsu (like some fried chicken sort if thing) at like ten o'clock haha. It was one very packed day, but I actually really enjoyed it! I was amazed by how I was actually able to walk this morning haha.
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