Jihye and her boyfriend Leo picked me up from the bus-stop in Seoul. After a quick light dinner headed to her place, as I was staying with her and her family. Her family friends came to visit and their daughter is an illustrator, so we had a little art-lesson.
In Hong Kong people on the street weren't too eager for a chat, nor were they helpful and I often felt they wanna deceive me, in Seoul everybody was friendly and wanted to help even tho they didn't speak much english.
When in Hong Kong english was a second official language I usually didn't have any problems explaining myself, in Seoul I don't know what I had done without Jihye. People could be divided to two: 1.who can speak excellent english. 2. who cannot speak any english. And most people fall under the second category. The one's fluent in english were mainly the one's who had studied or lived abroad.
On my second day we woke up early. Jihye was teaching english to two little kids. A 7-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. The girl is very good just a little shy when speaking. I helped them do some dialogues and exercises. Had an early lunch with rice, dumplings, kim-chi and all other goodies and a late lunch at a "Yoogane" chicken place. Advertised as Korean number 1 chicken galbi!
As Jihye teaches spinning and had a class to teach in the weekend we headed to a sports-club to practice.
PS: Korean spinning is no boring cycling but basically dancing on the bike to some catchy k-pop. It's a party!
The climate in Korea after HK and in general as well was superb. Breezy, warm yet not hot, sunny but not humid. Except one day when a storm hit the east coast we got some of it as well. Terrible wind and rain almost the whole day. There was no use of an umbrella even, it either broke or the wind managed to blow the rain from all the angles you could not really protect with the umbrella.
Luckily we were inside most of the day. Leo plays drums in a band "My Little Legacy" and they had a rehearsal. Cool guys and good music! Jihye occasionally plays with them as well. Piano melts beautifully into rock music. We sang Adele's "Someone like You" with the guys, just for fun and love of music!
After the rehearsal ran across the road into a small coffee-shop. There are so so many of them. Just like in Tallinn, I've really missed these cosy little cafeterias to read a book in or shat with friends and enjoy good-quality coffee and cakes. Also a lovely custom in Seoul I noticed, when people go somewhere and pass a coffee-shop instead of buying a coffee for just themselves they buy it to the people they're meeting with.
Korean people eat so so much, and so often. I love it! Especially because I'm quite obsessed with Korean cuisine. Everything tastes delicious and is just a right amount of spicy. I got to try so many goodies thanks to hanging out with locals also Jihye's mom cooked some interesting stuff at home.
Went to dinner with Jihye's friends and headed to Gangnam later for a night out. Club Cage. Clubs in Seoul mainly play just techno. This one had a hip-hop lounge as well! Random fact: a lot of people stand in lines in front of the dj and act like they're in a concert rather than socialising and dancing with each other.
Visited church with Jihye and her family.
On monday met Minjo who I also know from New York. A nice dinner and played tourists later. Visited the palace and walked around the centre.
Jihye's sister does nails as a hobby so we played beauty-saloon one night!
Got a free dinner thanks to international service check. Go to dinner, observe everything and write a report on the service and food quality later and dinner is on them.
On my last day visited a water park "Caribbean bay". Water parks are always fun. This one tho had so many strict rules, some of them a bit ridiculous. For example you have to wear a hat!! Altho on every attraction you have to take it off, but in the wave pool you actually need to have it on, although the attraction pushes it off with every wave. You cannot wear even the smallest ear-rings! I struggled with this one as I got a couple new ones before leaving Australia and couldn't really take them off. It lead to occasional arguing with the staff. And most people wear life-vests. It's only a rule in a wave-pool but most people wear them everywhere. I just find it uncomfortable. There were hordes of people, luckily they're open late, until 11pm.
Finished the week with a beautiful korean bbq.
Thank You so much Jihye and Leo for being such wonderful hosts! Loved staying with you and had a really great week!
Comments
Post a Comment