Girls Weekend in Seoul (and Incheon)

After our two day EPIK retreat to Boseong, Alli, Em, and I headed up to Incheon as soon as we could Friday night. We met the boys, Patrick and Joe, and went right to Art Center, seeing as how we were right there. Luckily, I packed lightly, but Em wasn't excited about carrying her 4 pairs of shoes around.

At the Art Center, there is a courtyard surrounded by really tall buildings covered with neon lights advertising noraebangs, hofs, and cafe's. Alli and I spun a wheel set up by a male booking club. On Alli's spin, she won a discount coupon of some sort, and when I spun, it landed on free food! Awesome! Then, the man in charge spun it a little more to be on the "free hug" part. I had to choose from 8 different "cutie" boys who I wanted to hug. I just choose the closest one, but it felt all wrong because he looked so young!

The boys and I watched the Brazil/Portugal game at one of the hofs. We played some drinking games, and learned a few new ones. It was a pretty exciting night! Carmen also came out to join us. Here's a picture of one of the new games- Icing. You have to sneakily give someone a Smirnoff Ice, and they have to drop down on one knee and chug it all. Alli and Em did this to the boys, they were so suprised!



We somehow managed to fit 4 people into Patrick's queen-sized bed Friday night. Needless to say, we woke up early because we were squished like sardines in there!

Saturday we went shopping at Dongdaemun and Myeongdong. For most of the day, we were feeling out of it. Staying up late three nights in a row was taking a toll on us! We each choose some things at Forever 21, the best place to shop in Myeongdong. Since we planned to watch the game, we went back to the hostel (which we'd somehow managed to book for the wrong day and the wrong amount of people but still got a room!) to relax.

We had an amazing dinner in Hongdae at Dos Taco's. We each ordered burritos, and they were easily the best burrito I'd had in 10 months! Our big plan was to watch the Korea/Argentina game in Hongdae, but couldn't find a place because it soon started to downpour and every place was full! I got pretty frustrated, and I think the other two did also.

Emily called our Korean friend Alex, who was on his way to Incheon. Turns out, he didn't really want to go there to begin with, and came back. He called his friend, who owns a bar in Sincheon, and was able to reserve a table for the 4 of us. It was great, and our other friend Kyu was there also. The three of us were so relieved to have a place to watch the game! I didn't take many pictures, but here we are trying to get our Korea tatoo's to stick.



It was a tiring 4 days in a row, but I'm glad we went up to Seoul/Incheon for the weekend. It was great being in that crazy large crowd getting ready to watch the game. Thank God we found a place to watch it!

These are some of my best guy friends here:

I found this photo on Facebook. Apparently the boys, Joe, Carmen, Evan, and Patrick were playing video games (Starcraft I think) at a local PC Bang. I've heard that Starcraft 2 is coming out soon, so they must be practicing. I can't belive I'm such good friends with them.

4 out of the last 5...

weekends, I have been in Seoul/Incheon. I realized this when I was halfway to Incheon on Thursday to visit Joe. Most of my friends in Gwangju are out of the country, specifically to SE Asia. So I didn't have any plans, and decided to go up and see what was happening in Incheon.

Everyone and more was in town for the weekend, so we had a blast. Thursday we went to Trivia night at a small bar named G7 in Bupyeong. It was lots of fun. I got to see Patrick, Evan, Sophia, Carmen, and Ryan. There were also lots of other Incheon people from orietation there, like Drew and Kevin. The Incheon crowd has made friends with some Koreans, and I got to meet some of them. It was a good crew, and one of our two groups came in first place. Here they are with their winnings:



On Friday, I went into school with Joe. He was doing an English camp this past week, and after we went out with two of his teachers to get coffee and ice cream. The cafe near Juan station was adorable, and the bathrooms were western! There was a real toilet, toilet paper, liquid soap, and paper towels! That's not something you come across very often!

Later, we took the subway into Seoul to get a very late dinner in Insadong. Insadong is close to the main palace, so it tends to be a little touristy. Since we were there later, we didn't get to see much of the shops. They sell a lot of antiques and traditional Korean handicrafts. I would like to go back again someday to do some more shopping in the small stores. There are also a lot of tea houses in the area, and we got tea at 10 pm after dinner. I had ginsing and ginger, it was pretty tasty!

Saturday, Joe and I went back to Seoul after watching a few episodes of Jersey Shore. We went to Myeongdong, which is a very popular shopping district. I really wanted to see the Forever 21 and get some clothes. That place was amazing, and I could have spent all day (and all my paycheck!) in there! The three stories were filled with women of all different races, it was strange hearing that much English! I didn't come out empty handed, but I'll refrain from telling you everything I got. Here's the outside.



Joe's friend Alex lives in Seoul, and does the SMOE program. We met him and two of his friends, Diane and Julia, at 6 in Sinchang. It is a university area, and one of my new favorite places. There, there's a place called HANA and every week there are language exchanges between English speakers and Koreans. This weekend was a special "party" weekend and it was packed! We figured there were a little less than 300 people there. It kind of felt like speed dating! You get unlimited beer and snacks, and get to mingle and small talk. I meet a few girls who I exchanged numbers with, and I'd like to get together with them when I'm in Seoul next. Before the party wound down, there was a dance contest and dating auction. It was pretty entertaining! Our group decided to skip the official round two, and instead went with our new friends to Hongdae for a good time at a few places. Sophia, Evan, Ryan, and Carmen came in from Incheon and met us there. Here we are at a Soju Room.


From left: Badi, Qu, Sophia, Unknown, Ryan, Me

From left:Unknown, Evan, unknown, Alex, unknown, Carmen, Joe, Diane.

It was a great night and I wish that Gwangju had something like that. I'd definitely do it again!

The A-Team does Incheon/Seoul

I may not have mentioned this before, but I'm happy to say I belong to the EPIK A-Team. Our team consists of Joe, Evan, Patrick, Carmine, Gabe, Sophia, and myself. The group is changing often, with other members being Tony, Robin, and Ryan.



Well, Gabe and I headed up to Incheon Friday night to meet up with the A-Team again. Unfortunately, it's just Gabe and I down in Gwangju, but we like to say we have our own Gwangju A-Team (Emily, Brian, Allie, Alex, Gabe, and I). We took the bus for just under 4 hours for 17,000 won. Pretty good deal, and comfortable bus. We did stop for a break halfway through.

We arrived at Incheon's main bus/subway terminal just before 11, and Evan, Patrick, Joe, and Sophia met us. We headed straight downtown with our luggage because it was late. We stopped by Chicken and Beer to see everyone. (Chris, Steph, Tony, and others) We had some chicken and drank some beer for a bit.

Someone had an idea to go on the virtual rollercoaster ride on the main plaza. Normally, I'm not big on virtual rides, but this was pretty sweet. And cheap! We got to choose from over 16 different coasters, and my friends do it so often, they knew the best one. I really thought I was going to get sick because it was SO REAL feeling! But it was a ton of fun.

Next, we walked a few doors down to Club Vanilla. We had to pay a cover, but it wasn't much. We didn't drink much, but danced like crazy!



The next day, we met at 5pm to go to Seoul. Our group was Sophia, Gabe, Patrick, myself, Joe, Evan, Tony, and Ryan. We met on the train platforms, and the ride only took about a half hour. Pretty efficient. We went right to the 63 tower. After we got our tickets, we went to the top and enjoyed the view:



The sun was just setting, as you can see. It was so pretty. And huge! We had a lot of fun, and even had dip-n-dots at the top.



After, we went to the city hall area of town. That was fun. We happened to catch a live big-band concert. They played some Beatles tunes, and the theme song to James Bond. I even took a video for my brother, and will attempt to post that. The guys really liked it and played with their guns for a bit.



We were all starving by this point, so we started to walk. I found a Korean BBQ place, and had a delicious meal:

I'm sad to say we spent the next two and a half hours on the subway. Our group wanted to make it to Club Eden to celebrate Alice's birthday, but we couldn't get there in time to not pay the 30,000 won entrance fee. So we skipped that. We happened to meet up with a ton of EPIK-Incheon people along the way, and our group grew to about 30 in the subway. People couldn't agreee on where to go/what to do/how to get there, so by the time we got anywhere, it was nearly 12 pm. Gabe and I just went with the flow since we'd never been to Seoul. I just Wikipediaed Seoul, and it is had 24 million people in the metropolitan area, making it the world's second largest.



We finally cut our group size down, and made it to where the bars were (name unknown). It was strange because we didn't stick out at all, there were plenty of expats. We first went to Freebird, where there was loud live music and plenty of tequilla shots. Our A-team wasn't enjoying it that much, so we walked around and went into Ho bar. Evan came later, and appologized, but he brought the crowd that we'd "forgotten" at Freebird. But we ended up having a great time and sang loudly to "I'm on a boat."



Much later, we went to Club Cocoon. I'd never really been to a club before, but this was how I always imagined it! Loud music, lots of dancing. Drinks were pricy, so I only had my 1 free beer. When I looked at my watch, it was 3:15. We ended the night by taking a taxi for 6 people to Incheon.



Sunday, Patrick and I met Gabe and Sophia at the bus terminal. We got a bus ticket quickly, and the ride was only 3 hours back. But boy were we tired after only sleeping 8 hours in 2 days! Hoping to go back to Seoul soon!