Lotte World!

So today was fun and tiring and I packed a lot of stuff in it while I could. Might as well, considering that my days here are numbered haha.

But this morning I went to Lotte World (finally) with my supporter group and it was a lot of fun! We went as our cultural activity since our study sessions are now over, and we also went so we could film some of our final project there! We ended up getting quite a lot done and we had fun too :). Even though we could only stay for a little bit since we had class, it ended up working out alright. 

Lotte world is half inside and half outside! 

Us on a flume ride taking dangerous selfies with my phone

Well this looks familiar...

It started raining while we were there but it was fine because we had already been on some rides, and we were about to leave anyways. 

After that we rode the subway back and I picked up a sandwich before class since we didn't have a lot of time to spare for lunch. Class today was fun but bittersweet- it was our last actual Korean class since tomorrow is our final exam. I'm a bit nervous but I'm sure it will be fine as long as I study! 

After our last Korean class, I went to go meet up with my pen pal before I left Korea for good. It was so nice to see her in person! We went to a palace (which I liked better than gyeongbukgung, not gonna lie) and then we got bingsu and went to Cheongyecheon! Everything was so nice and pretty, it was one of those nights that just makes you feel all happy inside. I love Seoul so much, it is definitely one of my favorite cities and I want to come back so bad. I want to see everything, do everything (eat everything) while in here but I dont have enough time anymore. In glad I went to one more new place to sightsee at this week though! 

The palace was deoksugung and it had western and eastern buildings, which was really cool to see! 

After walking around the palace for a bit we went and got mango bingsu! It was delicious, of course, like all mango bingsu. 

After mango bingsu we walked to the gate if another palace. It was closed but the lights outside at night looked really beautiful! We couldn't get too close but it still looks really pretty! 

When we finished looking at the palace we walked back to Cheongyecheon and it was open! It was all lit up at night and it looked really pretty. 

But after that we had to part ways so that I could be home by curfew. I was starving for real food so I picked up a sandwich on my way home. Two sandwiches in one day. Obviously making the most if my time in Korea haha. But I ate as I walked and then showered and fell right asleep (instead of starting to pack, of course. I'm also typing this the next day instead of packing as well. Ugh). 

Final Project!

So today was a planning day for our showcase project at the closing ceremony, meaning that instead of the normal study meeting with the supporters we all met in one place to plan what we are going to do. Our exact idea is a surprise, but we plan to so a video so it should be a lot of fun!

Our supporter had to leave early from the meeting so we tagged along with a few other supporter groups to get lunch in Hongdae. We ended up eating at an Italian/American restaurant and it was pretty good! I got pasta and really liked it :) 

We sat with the NSLIY photographer guy and we ended up looking through most of the pictures he has taken on the trip. They were so nice and I'm really excited to see them all at the end of the program. I still can't believe six weeks has gone by so fast! At this point there is hardly anything left to do, and definitely no tine to do it, so our days are fairly uneventful. We went to class and played some fun reveiw games as well as actually reviewed, during which I found out I really need to look over vocabulary for the final exam. 

After class I did some more last minute souvenir shopping (I really shouldn't have waited until the last minute and we are all really kicking ourselves about that) and then went home! Not before getting ice cream in the subway station, of course. 

When I got home my host family had gone out but they brought me home kimbap and so I ate that ^_^ and then I played with the puppy some more haha. He is seriously the cutest thing ever! 

Meeting Day!

So I'm typing this a day late because the night before the meeting I didn't get any sleep and basically passed out right after I got home haha. But Monday was the last weekly meeting, and they talked about reverse culture shock and how we can cope with our feelings once we get back home. It's just really hard to build a life halfway across the world with a completely new group of people and then just leave right when it feels like we are getting comfortable. There are so many things I'm going to miss about Korea... But they also talked about how it's hard to pick right back up where you were in the US because of the new experiences you have, etc. It was a really sad meeting :(

After the meeting we had to stay back and finish filming a video project due that afternoon (procrastination woo) and then we went for lunch in Sinchon. Thank god Sinchon has delicious food. But we planned to eat at an Indian food place but as soon as we passed Subway we changed our minds. For some reason Subway sounded delicious, and it was. It tasted like home. After subway we got bubble tea and then went to class, where we did more interesting stuff and then started reviewing for our final Thursday. It's crazy that our final is this soon! 

After class I went walking around in Sinchon with a few other people and we got Krispy Kreme (of course). It was also delicious and we took donut selfies. 

After indulging in this delicious creation I went home and my host family took me out to dinner! We went and had donkatsu, which is Japanese style fried pork cutlet. It was delicious, as usual. After dinner we went to pick up my host family's new puppy! His name is "Andy" and he is so small and adorable. At first I was really confused as to why they were talking about some person named Andy so much, but it turns out it was just a dog hahaha. 

When we got home we played with him for a little bit and then went to bed. Meeting days are always jam packed but we still manage to have a little fun, haha. 

Best Day Ever <3

So today was awesome and ridiculously fun and bittersweet, but it was a great way to spend the last day of the last weekend of our stay in Korea. Six weeks felt like forever at first, but time has flown by so fast it's scary. Yes I want to do as much as possible while I'm still here, but I also want to spend as much time as I can with my awesome nsliy friends. Nsliy friendships are weird and awesome- we are all so different and live  so far apart but somehow we all became such close friends. Yes I am going to miss Korea, but Korea will be here forever and I know I am going to return. I'm just scared Korea is never going to be the same because I'll never be visiting it again with such an awesome group of people. The end of this week is going to be rough, but I need to savor it as much as possible.

So back to what I did today- it was awesome and jam packed. We met at 11 in hongdae and went in search of a famous cake shop, but like a typical Korean store, it didn't open until late. 2 pm to be exact. Why would a cafe open at 2pm?!?! But instead we went to the second place on our list and vowed to return to the cake cafe once it actually opened. 

We headed on over to another cafe, a place where you can paint little mannequins. It was really cute and despite my lack of artistic talent I managed to make something that was slightly cute. I painted an ice cream Pokemon, which is fitting because my obsession with ice cream has grown exponentially here. The lack of supervision and sheer number of ice cream choices makes it hard to resist. But we stayed here for a few hours as we perfected our creations. 

After doll painting we went back to the cake place and had possibly the most delicious creation in the history of ever. I got a chocolate lava cake and it was perfect. It was a bit expensive, but totally worth it. Besides, it's our last week here so we might as well make the best of it. 

After cake we walked around and went shopping for a bit, but it was raining so it was kind of bleh. We were walking towards the subway station to meet the others for the "last weekend in Korea party" (I'll get to that later) when we passed a street leading to a famous ice cream place. It's "gastronomical" ice cream, which basically means it's really cool flavors and all completely handmade (and I think organic). We got some to share and it was really good! If I remember correctly we got "pink berry passion fruit" which was like sherbet and another that was like "green machine" or something- it had veggies and herbs in it and tasted surprisingly good! 

Then we headed towards the subway station to meet the others for the "last weekend" get together...which turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me and my friend who has her birthday this week. It was in this little party room and there was cake, a ton of food, karaoke, and banners with our picture on them that had cute messages and inside jokes from our supporter groups. It was so adorable and it made me want to cry (I actually did go home and cry haha) because I really don't want to leave this group of people. But the party was cute and fun and I am so thankful for the nsliy fam and the supporters who helped put it on for me and Madie~ 

Me and the other birthday girl, with her picture photo bombing us in the background. 

Last night was the best and I really am thankful for everything- the party, the trip, the people... It's going to be really hard to leave but I've had the time of my life here! NSLIY forever~ 

Hongdae Shopping!

So yesterday was my last full Saturday in Korea and it was pretty chill and nice. I basically slept in, went to hongdae and shooed for souvenirs a little bit, and then went back home to have dinner with my host family. I was pretty tired and the weather was really hot and humid so it really wasn't a great day to be out and about anyways, so I quite enjoyed it.

I met up with a couple of people around 12 to go shopping and boy did we shop. First if all, we went to daiso which is like a dollar store but nicer, and spent like $16. Who spends $16 at daiso?!? But everything there was so cute and cheap it was perfect. After our daiso haul we went out for lunch and got possibly the strangest thing ever. It was koreanized Japanese food and we got a chicken and rice dish but they covered it in mayo.... And when I say covered I mean COVERED. 

It wasn't that great but I was hungry so I ate it anyways haha. After lunch we went and got the famous honeycomb ice cream which we had all really wanted to try while we were here. 

It's organic soft serve with a honeycomb on top that you break over your ice cream... It was pretty good and I love ice cream so it was a win win situation. After ice cream we spent the rest of our money at étude house because it's adorable and we needed to stock up on cosmetics. Also, it's an awesome place for gifts because the packaging is so cute! But for real, Korean skin care and makeup is the best. Everything is fairly inexpensive but really high quality, and there are streets that are basically lined with different brands of makeup shops so it's really easy to shop around for the best product. 

But the popular type of Korean makeup is like "natural" or "pure" makeup styles, which means the makeup is light so that you look like you are hardly wearing anything at all. Instead of beig heavily makeup focused, makeup stores also focus a lot on skin care (so that you won't have to wear a lot of makeup). This means that Korean skin care is the bomb and is definitely worth a try! 

After makeup shopping we met up with our supporter/supporter group and shopped for a little while. However we were all really tired because it was so hot out and we decided to split up around 4:30. I headed home and ate dinner with my host family. Then we went out for bingsu! After bingsu (persimmon and red bean bingsu, I think it was) we saw a rainbow outside if the apartment! It was so pretty and we ran around for a little bit trying to get the best view if it haha. Then a few hours after dinner and bingsu my host sister dragged me out if the house so we could go eat spaghetti. I don't know why but we have these two part dinners a lot haha. The spaghetti was really gross but I was kind of hungry so I ate it haha. I was so ready to go to bed and I totally passed out after I showered. Good day :) 

Trick Eye Museum!

So today was very eventful, and it also contained the events that basically define our stay in Korea- getting lost and being awkward foreigners.

So this morning I met up with a couple friends in the hopes of going to a cat cafe and also finding the Pokemon store, which are basically two of my life goals. However, the cat cafe thing fell through so we ended up just walking around namdaemun market for a while as we waited for the department store (that supposedly contained the Pokemon store) to open. 

The market was really cool, and even though it was like ten in the morning. It was ridiculously hot. They had a bunch of really cute sweaters and pants that could definitely be used as pajamas (or as just really cute daily wear). I bought possibly the coolest pair of Mario sweatpants there before we had to head back to the department store! 

However, we searched that building all over and the Pokemon store didn't exist. We even went up to the information desk and showed the lady the picture of the store we had found on the internet and she was so confused haha. So sad. We decided to head back to the market for a little bit because it was a lot of fun, and I ended up buying some souvenirs! 

We also saw a menu that was advertising a "scrap of fruit". Just a scrap. Translation mistakes are the best haha. 

We tried to go back to the department store for lunch in the food court but the food thre was too expensive so we tried to leave. However, a girl walked by holding a Pokemon plushie on the escalator so we got really excited again but it turns out it was just an odd coincidence. WHO DOES THAT WHYYYY. It was such an upsetting tease. 

Back in Sinchon we got dumplings from te Hyundai department store and then headed to Sogang so we could eat lunch in the classroom before class began. We also got snacks and ice cream from the mini stop so we had a feast spread out on our table. Our class generates so much snack trash it's embarrassing. The other classes have a normal amount of trash in their trash cans but we have like a three foot radius of trash around ours because the amount of trash we make is so large it won't even fit in the trash can. 

Anyways, after class we picked up kimbap and headed towards Hongdae to meet our supporter for the trick eye museum. It turns out that you get entrance to the ice museum with purchase of your trick eye ticket as well, and both were really cool (haha I'm funny). We went into the ice museum first because it was really hot outside AND IT WAS SO COLD OMG. They gave you gray ponchos to wear over your clothes but they didn't provide any protection at all omg. It was like a freezer in there. But the ice museum had a bunch of sculptures you could take pictures in, an ice bedroom, and ice slide, and various other things. It was pretty small, but no one would be able to stay in it that long anyways so it was the perfect size for its temperature haha. 

After the ice museum we headed to the trick eye museum, which is basically an optical illusion museum you can take lots of photos in. Bring a friend or two to hold your camera! 

They also had a mirror room towards the end of the museum before you exited. I hadn't been in one for a really long time so it was so trippy haha. 

The museum was a lot if fun and in glad I went. It's one of the famous touristy places in Seoul so I felt like I had to visit at least once! I laughed really hard trough the entire thing so if you go with a good group of people you'll have a lot of fun! 

After the museum I headed home and passed out after I showered. Long days are so exhausting but I'm glad in able to cram in a lot of stuff before I go!