I’m a dumbass for forgetting my camera at my grandma’s house. So I took no pictures of Seoul. IIII CCCC…

We went to Lotte World today! And I haven’t been to an amusement park in years! Fun fun.
We are pros now at the subway.
Anyway Lotte world was full of matching couple (I think the most annoying thing in Korea so far is couple shirts. Why….?) and children who cut in line.
Why are there kids and teens at the park at 11 in the morning? Don’t thy have SCHOOL? A lot of them even have their uniforms on but I don’t think it was a field trip.
I am now convinced that no one in Korea actually goes to school. That and the pretty ones are fake. They’re all fake whether school or beauty.
Anyway rides were fun but so short! The first few rides line waits were pretty short but as time went on more people started coming and we had to wait an average of 30 min to ride a ride.

And please, who told me that couples weren’t lovey dovey in public? One couple were so over themselves that people cut past them and they didn’t notice.
Couples are annoying.

Um that was pretty much it. My feet hurt.

Guess where we live by?
Guess…
It about…
You know.
That face. That mother? *head turns*
Where is my baby? Have you seen my baby?
MY BABY ISNT HERE!!!

Oh yeah. We live right next to “Bahnchan” properly known as Bonchun.

….
Do you want a picture of it at night? Heehee.
(please dont kill me I love you look I have cute socks for you in offering)

Yeah, I expected them to feed us.
But not that much.
It’s not even the older relatives - EVERYONE is feeding us every two hours.
I can’t remember being hungry. What is hunger.
We’re gonna get FAT.

Stealing someone’s wifi at Ahrisa’s gomo’s place. I wonder when it will turn off. Until then…
So where was I the past few days… First I was at my samchun’s place in Sanbon. His wife and kids took me around the neighborhood. I thought that was fun cause you know it was different and all. Ate some really good roast duck and Korea has socks so cute it should be illegal. I think I have around 7 pairs rift now? This is the greatest I will buy at least 30 more pairs of socks! Socks!
Guess who watched Avengers again. Fourth time now I think. I’ll admit, this time I fell asleep, but what can I say, it was at 2AM.
Well the time at samchun’s was more of a neighborhood… Viewing…thing. I went to at least four different markets and such. Oh - their marts are Sooooooo much better than Walmart or Target. I just want to live there it’s so awesome.

After a day or two in Sanbon JUDY WENT BACK TO SILIM AND RODE THE SUBWAY AND BUS BY HERSELF! Up till a couple days ago, family members have been literally holding my hand onto subways and buses it was embarrassing ugh. They think that I don’t know anything (I really don’t though, but don’t tell them that it’s annoying) and that I never experienced hardship so I’m naive. Well maybe I am but that doesn’t mean you can call me a middle schooler! Yeeesh! Oh but the lady who gave us our T-Money card mistaken us as “students” and gave us the card meant for youth and teens, not adults. So now everytime we use the card we get student discounts woot! I feel like I am one with the Koreans now. Oh but apparently in Myeongdong and Namdaemun I am not Korean, but Chinese and Japanese. I’ll talk about that later.
Yesterday we went to COEX mall and Apgujeong. This officially marked our first trip without family breathing down our backs. Coex was so freaking huge I don’t even know. The McDonald’s was ginormous too. Lines were so long. When we finally ordered the dude misunderstood us so I never got my Bulgogi burger in the end. Only a chicken sandwich poooo. I will not leave korea till I have my burger! Raaawwwrr! After that we went our way to Apgujeong for absolutely no reason. What we did find there was every other store was a plastic surgery clinic and I mean every other. Ads were everywhere and this has lead me to believe that every single pretty Korean is fake. Because Apgujeong. End of story.
Then we went home (grandmother’s house our base operation) and bummed the rest of the evening.
Today we set off to Ahrisa’s Gomo’s place like I mentioned earlier. Said “hello goodbye we’re off to Myeongdong~! We’ll be back later~” and off we went to Myeongdong! Myeongdong was a lot like NYC IMO. Stores like XXI, UNI QLO, Converse, places like that. Between the bigger stores were mostly makeup and skin are stores and most of them had people who could speak Chinese or were Chinese. Nearly every time we passed by them, they would call out to us in Chinese. They were just speaking korean to the people in front of us! Do we look that different? Not Korean? Okay. But three years of Chinese and I understood nothing. After shopping there off to Namdaemun we go and IT’S LIKE AHIUMMA CENTRAL! The instant we got off the subways BAM ahjummies everywhere. A mass of pamas and weird print. There we were mistaken as Japanese people. Instead of being called out in Chinese, we were Japanese for an hour or so. Lalala long day. Not halfway done.
We were meeting with a friend of Ahrisa’s around 5:30 near this women’s university which name i forgot whoops. But we went creeper and waited for her near a cafe at an intersection where hundreds of college aged girls went by. We saw her walking and QUICK GET HER BEFORE SHE CROSSES! Okay we did. Let’s go eat now. Friend took us to good small restruant. But the wait was long so I have the stink eye at some people. They didn’t leave. After waiting 40 min we ate! We ate this thing. I dont know what it’s called but I will go in detail later. Good food though! Feed the three of us with roughly $13 bucks. Oh look! A hole in the wall cafe! Let’s go and have binsoo and type fast Judy but enough for readers to understand because iPod is running out of batteries!
Umm to summarize the rest of the day we talked, walked, went to noraebang/karoke( which is only like $7 here for an hour 30 min you guys. Beats the Ara $30 for an hour doesn’t it?) so anyway we got home late.

Do these summaries of my days even make sense? I’m totally rambling here writing down what I think of. I don’t even read back and I’m pretty sure I messed up or confused some place. Maybe more than some. Maybe ALL ._.

Tomorrow is Namsan tower or Lotte World depending on the weather.

Oh and the hair pic - I don’t like it so you don’t get to see muahauhahahahaahaha-cough-.
Me stomach feels funny. :(

Guess who’s hair is the shortest ever?
They were like OH HAY LET’S CUT OFF ALL THE RED AND FOUR MORE INCHES.
I look old now.

Stop doing your hair and give me a call!

Korea is a lot like the States IMO.

Just with hundreds of high rise apartments, side shops, markets with food vendors, neon lights, pollution, Asians, Kia and Hyundai cars, buses, subway, cafes.

Okay, maybe it isn’t all that similar.

About the pollution, I honestly can’t tell if it is either smog or fog. I really hope it’s the latter.

But Korea’s a lot cleaner than I remember. But…busier too. A lot more apartments. Some of the apartments are very secure (if that’s the right word). You need a code to even get into the building itself? What?

They still use Internet Explorer here.

But their gadgets and stuff are super nice. Their laptops look thinner than the lid of my laptop.

And everyone has a smartphone. Everyone. Except for my grandma. She has a flip phone but even that looks pretty sleek.

There was something else I was going to say but I can’t remember.

Oh but my grandma totally chewed me out because I was shaking my foot. Sorry.

I’m pretty sure there it is a Sunday here. I think. Not too sure. Tomorrow is a holiday, the birth of some god-dude (I think Buddha?).

Man, I wish I could upload some pictures but I’m using my uncle’s computer. And…

I’M REALLY LAME. GAWD WHY DO I NOT HAVE A LIFE AND THE ABILITY TO SPEAK KOREAN FLUENTY.

Let’s see. Yesterday was my first day of actually going around Korea using subways and shiz - Hongdae. With Ahrisa that is. However before we left the house, I made a few calls to some of my uncles on my dad’s side. In doing so set off a kind of chain reaction where I get calls from both the States and the other people I didn’t call saying “OMGAH WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL US WHEN DID YOU GET HERE I’M GOING TO SEND SOMEONE TO BE WITH YOU”. Korea is fast with communication yo.

In the end, Hongdae became a trip with one of my cousins (dad’s youngest brother’s oldest daughter) because everyone felt that going by ourselves was not safe at all.

So. Awkawkawkardness trip begin!! Hongdae is like a compentorary (there is no english spellcheck here deal with it) artsy-fartsy place. With clubs. Clubs! and GRAFFITI. Anyway, Jihye unnie kept asking why we (and by we I mean me) we wanted to go there because in her opinion, Hongdae was a “road”. I have no other words to describe it. Anyway I WANT TO GO SO WE GO. The reason why I watned  to go was because every Saturday at 1PM at a playground near Hongik University, all these college/graduates come and sell their art works.

And so we went. We ended up finding the Free Market (that’s what it’s called) and JEEZ PEOPLE ARE SUCH GOOD ARTISTS. At the playground park, people set up a bunch of tables and blankets to display and sell their works. (PPP) There were leatherworks, plushies, sculptures, metalworks, caricatures, paintings, ceramics, jewelry, EVERYTHING. GAHHHH. I almost bought something but I didn’t. Because I’m like that. I want to go next week but I don’t think Ahrisa was feeling up to it. I think you would have enjoyed it Cindy! (and Min I think).

Man, I’m rambling aren’t I. Well, I guess Jihye was totally feeling that we’re so lame that she called in reinforcements - my other cousin Jungho (dad’s second eldest brother’s son) and things got even more awkawrd. They kept asking us what we wanted to eat (I dunno. Something good?) or what we liked (Uh…video games? What do you play? Uh. Games? COD? What’s that?) I felt so bad! They were trying so hard to keep a conversation with us but every time we tried to talk the conversation died within 10 seconds.

Anyway, things got so lame in Hongdae that we traveled a bit to Gyeonbokgung, one of the royal palaces in Korea. Um, things were even lame there. We spent a few hours there sightseeing and going into musuems.

…..

There is really nothing to say because there is nothing to say.

tl;dr form: I saw lovely art and saw a ancient royal palace and my cousins think I’m lame and dumb because I have no hobbies, cannot speak Korean, and came to Korea with no plan. And ate too much steak I’m getting fat.

End of day four/five/which ever day it is.

OH.

But.

I mentioned steak earlier. We’ve been eating steak for the past two days. I love meat, but I can only love steak up to a certain point. Chicken on the other hand…

Oh but the first steak was fantastic! When they gave it to us, the steak was on a hot rock slab thingy so the meat steamed and made sizzling noises when we cut into it. Yum.

Yum.

Today Ahrisa and I just bummed at home. We’re actually separated now. She went to her gomo’s house and I at my samchun’s. So…I think I’m going to go to Namdaenum/Dongdaemun tonight. Much much walking. Again.

Yeah, yesturday we’ve been walking for around 8 hours.

T-T

My cousins don’t like me I think. Or maybe they don’t like me. NOOO LIKE ME I LIKE YOU COUSINS EVEN THOUGH YOU LOOK STEREOTPIYCALLY KOREAN.

I haven’t spent more than $10 since I came here. And I feel really bad because people are buying me everything. Bus cards, food, tickets.

Oh and Japan. Will it happen? I’m not too sure. Everyone around me is practially screaming in my face NO DON’T GO DANGERIOUS

So..

If you don’t hear from me or Ahrisa for a week - that means we disappered off to the Japan. To eat the ramen.

I want to look at my dash but my cousins are looking over my shoulder. I don’t want to scare them with what might be on my dash. T-T

This is exhausting. How many families do I have left to meet? I only met around 3 families. And two members of two separate families. And…does this mean I have 7 other households to visit?

Dear Lord have mercy.