School Life
These past two months, I've had only one class that's worth 13 credits. Yeah, that's a one-semester, 13-credit class. It runs for ten weeks and four hours a day, every weekday from 9AM-1PM. The class itself isn't too bad. We actually get breaks, 10 minutes before the hour so it's comparable to having four 50 minute classes. I guess you could say, because of that class, my Korean skills have gone up considerably. Only shitty thing is the homework. I'm actually still behind in all my work. We get homework everyday and even though it's not that hard, it's extremely tedious. Gotta get those done soon... Anyways, I recently had my midterms for this class and I guess I'm alright with my test scores, but I think I could've done better. Oh well, I have the final left and I hope I ace that.
Shopping
Shopping here, is pretty great. Yeah, it can get a little expensive, but there's always ways to find something within your budget. One example would be in places like Myeongdong or Dongdaemun. These places have huge department store-style layouts that basically have vendors for clothes. If you go here, make sure you are confident in your Korean language skills or you go with a strong-willed Korean person. These vendors will try to make you browse their stores and buy something. Sometimes, they'll even grab you to look at their stuff. There's really no time to stop and look or they will come and start pushing their products at you. Though, it may sound a bit frightening, and yes, it is, there's a plus to all that they do. You can often bargain with these store owners and haggle their prices down. I went there a few times and came out lucky with a few good deals. One was a sick jacket, that I posted a picture of about a month ago. I bought it for 70000 Won(about $65) when the original price was 99000. So if you're in Seoul and you feel like you are up to it, head to those locations and go to Migliore. If that's not your thing, there is always normal, department stores with a enormous selection of stores to choose from. If not department stores, vendors and stores on the street are also a good place to check out.
Friends, Acquaintences, and People
I made a good amount of friends while I'm here. The primary group I hang out with are actually a bunch of Japanese exchange students. Of course, I hang out with Davyn and Waddles a lot too. Or all of us together. I've made a few Korean friends here as well and they're really eager to help me get better at Korean. Sadly, I haven't really seen much of the Korean exchange students that came to UH Hilo, but I didn't really expect to, anyways. One of my friends recently got a girlfriend here, and I'm pretty proud of him. Maybe it's my turn, I don't know...nahhh, probably not. I gotta be helllllla picky here before I get screwed over. I've made friends with a teacher and she helps me a lot when it comes to speaking and grammar, on top of that, she's kinda cute, so that's always a plus.
Nightlife
Nightlife. I'd say that Seoul is one of the best places to be for nightlife. On any given day of the week, you can go somewhere and have a good time.
I'll start off with my favorite bar here. It's called Bar Ireland Yuki. There's actually a handful of locations, but the one I love is the one in Kondae. There's actually two in Kondae, but I haven't visited the other one yet. Kondae, by itself is full of bars and places to eat so it's a pretty cool place to be for drinking. Not many clubs here, but I'll get to that in just a second. I went to this bar so much in the past two months, that I'm one of their regulars now. I talk, or try to talk, with the bartenders when they have time and we joke around about a bunch of stuff. In the beginning, I mentioned that I thought the girl that worked there was cute. So, now, the running joke is that I'm her boyfriend. Of course, I'm not and it's all in good fun, but they teased me so much about it!! Even now, when I go in there, the head bartender plays, "Bartender," by T-Pain just to poke fun at me. I'll take pictures of them and post them eventually. All really nice people. We actually had Davyn's birthday party there and they accommodated all of use really well. I have a few videos from that night that I will also post in the future. They put on a show with singing, fire-breathing, free drinks, the works. It was great. I plan on having my birthday there too.
I'll start off with my favorite bar here. It's called Bar Ireland Yuki. There's actually a handful of locations, but the one I love is the one in Kondae. There's actually two in Kondae, but I haven't visited the other one yet. Kondae, by itself is full of bars and places to eat so it's a pretty cool place to be for drinking. Not many clubs here, but I'll get to that in just a second. I went to this bar so much in the past two months, that I'm one of their regulars now. I talk, or try to talk, with the bartenders when they have time and we joke around about a bunch of stuff. In the beginning, I mentioned that I thought the girl that worked there was cute. So, now, the running joke is that I'm her boyfriend. Of course, I'm not and it's all in good fun, but they teased me so much about it!! Even now, when I go in there, the head bartender plays, "Bartender," by T-Pain just to poke fun at me. I'll take pictures of them and post them eventually. All really nice people. We actually had Davyn's birthday party there and they accommodated all of use really well. I have a few videos from that night that I will also post in the future. They put on a show with singing, fire-breathing, free drinks, the works. It was great. I plan on having my birthday there too.
Next, is the clubbing here. The clubs here, as I mentioned before on Facebook, are pretty sick. I'm kind of tired of them now, after going to so many, but it's fun once in awhile. Lots of beautiful people, good music and alcohol. Just be careful not to get too drunk and do something stupid...seriously. Ask me about it later and I have many stories to tell you. I'll actually tell you one right now. This was back in September, a little over a month ago. I was in Itaewon and one of my friends were hung up over her ex-boyfriend. We stumbled into a club that apparently had some event going on. Three people started dancing on the bar counter and the bartenders lit the on fire and people started cheering. Mind you, these three individuals were not very good looking. I told my friend, "If I go up there, stop being an emo bitch." She said, alright, so I asked the security guy if I could go up there. At first, he said no, so I went back to my group and shrugged. About a minute afterwards, the same security guy grabbed my arm and pushed me up onto the counter. I had to dance with some fat, ugly chick that was trying to make me grope her and all that good stuff...*shudder* So we're dancing and I keep pointing at my friend and I'm trying to get her to come up so I can dance with her instead because I didn't want to dance with this whale of a human any longer...until, the whale did the job for me and started dancing more and more wild. This bar counter, was not wide at all. It barely held my foot on it and I was dancing BEHIND this whale. Goddamn whale hit my leg with her ass and it slipped off the bar counter onto where the bartenders prepare their drinks. She bumped my other leg and I ended up falling off behind the counter on my ass. That fucking hurt and apparently, they security guards thought I was too drunk so they took me off the dance floor and sat me down. I went back in shortly after, of course.
Sightseeing
Besides all the partying and falling off of counters, there's some pretty nice places in Korea. I visited a few places with my classmates for school and they were really beautiful places. Tourist locations, nonetheless, but it was still fun. The last place I went to was Naminara Republic, where they shot the famous first kiss scene in Winter Sonata. If you didn't watch it yet, just YouTube something along those lines and you should get it. That place is really nice, but I think if I were to go there again, I want it to be winter and with a cute girl, haha. It's a REALLY nice place for a date. Oh, by the way. IT'S FUCKING COLD IN SEOUL. It's fall right now, but it feels like this could be winter. I'm scared of how fucking cold it's going to be in the winter. I bought winter clothes, but I don't think that's enough...
That's about it for now. If you have any questions or places you think I should visit, leave me a comment down below or leave a post on my Facebook.
