Snippets of Everyday Life, Episode 2: Our last weekend together

May 7th marks the beginning of a long trek: his mandatory military service. It begins with 6 weeks of training, after which he will be stationed in the northernmost part of Korea to remove landmines in the DMZ. In total, it lasts 21 months.

During this time we will be reduced to letters, phone calls, and of course, occasional visits. It almost sounds like a drama, right? ...Well it’s not! Let’s be real here! Our last weekend wasn’t romantic and tearfully dramatic, he had errands to run! Hair to cut and medical notes to get! (Although we did also go to Lotte World, but that’s another post~)



Eye hospital in Gangnam
Now again! This might seem mundane for some, but I do think hospitals in Asia carry a different ambiance than the ones I’m used to back home~

This particular eye hospital was housed in a ginormous black building right outside Gangnam station. Supposedly it’s very good for Lasik surgery, but it’s how you check in is what awes me!

Take the elevator down to the B2 level and walk through this *fancy* wavy hallway:


Then you head straight over to these *touch-screen computers* and punch in your ID number:


...Fascinating!!!

Across from those monitors is this counter:


(Don’t judge me for the trivialness of this! Again, I just want to take pictures
of everyday sights that are different from what I'm used to >.<)

The uniforms here reminded me a bit of airline stewardesses! Some of them actually had a mini scarf tie around their necks.


Down below was the waiting area where they had a café and glossy computers:


The suburban hospitals I went to at home didn’t
offer computers, much less glossy ones…


And just beyond this area was a large room showcasing their equipment and achievements. The entire back wall was a big mural composed of autographs from celebrities they had performed LASIK on:


I spy SNSD, 2pm, DBSK, Kangta, and EXO!


Konkuk University Area
On our way to the hair salon to get his hair cut military-style, we walked along this very spacious sidewalk near Konkuk Station. With the sun out and the flowers in bloom, it was all so beautiful!



Passing by a Konkuk University building~ The sky was sooo clear!



Eventually, I got fed up with the sunshine beating on me and I marched over to the shadier side. No pretty flowers here, but we did pass by Pinkage! Oh yeah~






Sunday Evening: Children’s Grand Park
May 5th was Children’s Day in Korea. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra performed at the Children’s Grand Park, and we stopped by in the evening to check it out:


Quite the turnout! Could it be because the conductor is really famous?

A view of the stage (and shoulders of two messenger bag wielding men):


Can you see the screens on each side of the stage?

And here is a fountain in Children’s Grand Park!


Sometimes there are colored lights and the water sprays around in synch to the music playing, which is really neat! (Though truth be told, I could hardly tell it was in synch...)



Store Sightings
Check out these humongous-headed mannequins at Lotte World!


I'm truly curious how the workers managed to balance all that weight on those teeny tiny shoulders. On another note, it looks like B1A4 is photobombing the mannequins!



In Lotte Department store, all the mannequins inside had really awesome floral headpieces!


Omg, I wanted them so badly!

And down below in the food area were these ADORABLE cakes!


My favorite is the mushroom one!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any more pictures before the lady stopped me....sad face.



Gangnam
Our quest for his mom’s birthday gift led us to Gangnam, where my jaw dropped over these two gigantic screens, on two consecutive buildings:


If they don’t look big to you in the picture, look again! See how tiny the people across the street are? Okay, so now realize how big the building is. Now go back and realize exactly how big the screens are. See it now? But wait! Remember that there are two of these screens. Oh, the technology~~



View from my new apartment
If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been bending over backwards to clean my new apartment. Well, here’s the view from said apartment!


It’s not a very pretty view...Actually, my immediate surroundings are…metal shops. But that’s okay; not all of Korea is glitz and glam! It is a real country, after all~




To all my readers (and sponsors) who are eagerly awaiting for a review, I wholeheartedly apologize! I truly meant for this post to be a review. I have just a few more pictures to finalize but unfortunately, I won't be able to do that until this Sunday. I soooorta left the product in my new apartment in Seoul.... But in the mean time, I hope you enjoyed this Snippets post full of lovely mundanesies! (Yes, I just made that word up. It's like daisies, except...mundanesies!)

Meeting an Idol group and stuffs

Pure:
I never mentioned before but about a month ago I saw an idol group! Their name is Pure, and had just debuted that week.

It' was a rainy day, and I was shopping at Eblin lingerie store. When I exited, there was a small crowd gathered on the sidewalk right in front. As soon as I heard “idol group”, I weaseled my way through as best I could! Here are some pictures!





Click to make bigger~

To be honest, it was kind of awkward…There we were, two feet away, staring them right in the eyes as they tried to do their cool spins and smolder looks …mind you, without any special effects, special angles, or even a stage! T’was a wee bit embarrassing. And don’t forget about their dramatic kneeling at the end!

Personally, this was my face when their clothes touched the pavement:





Anyways, here’s a video I took shortly after they finished performing! You can see that the microphone stopped working. :P At the very end, we got to line up to shake their hands!!



But of course I went to shake their hands~! With each handshake, they bowed deeply and said thanks. Let me tell ya, they are much better looking in real life! If you watch their MV (here), pay no attention to the unflattering close-ups (virtually all of the MV). They are indeed handsome lads in real life!


And now I can say that I have shared skin contact with an idol.






YG Entertainment:
Since we’re talking about idols, behold! A business card from YG:

“Never show my phone number to anyone,” the scout said.

Backstory: Bf was scouted by YG recently. (Oh how I wish I could say that *I* was scouted!) The scout was a man in his late 20s and had approached him while bf was eating dinner with family. I’m told the conversation went something like this:

“Are you a normal person?” he asked.
“I’m just a student.”
“Well, call me if you want to talk. And never, never show my phone number to anyone.”

Bf gave it absolutely no second thought, what with his upcoming military service and the restrictions of an idol. He jokes, “Hey, hey~! Psy is YG too! Daesung was scouted too! And maybe they want me to be a comedian, not idol!” (Hint: Daesung not handsome.)

But I pressed on, eager to know if it was real or fake. We called, and boom-bada-boom, an automated voice says, “Thank you for calling YG, blahblahblah”

So…Anyone want to buy YG’s phone number and address off of me? Just kidding~~ :P



Street Fashion:

On another note, one of the things that bothers me is the misconception about Korean fashion. Just cuz it ain’t Japanese don’t mean it’s Korean! What is portrayed online, versus what people actually wear, is quite different. I will also argue that it is not simply because “regular people just not fashionable”.

In my impulsive determination to show the truth, I spontaneously picked up my iphone while waiting for someone at the subway station. Hence, this video:



To be honest, I do feel terribly rude and intrusive for this video... I’ve become the inconsiderate foreigner that I despise, so I don’t think I’ll be doing anything like this again anytime soon. (Although to be fair, regular people take videos of strangers all the time!) If anything, I hope some can find it interesting or enlightening~


11:08pm here, I'm off to relax for the rest of the evening! Another review is underway~ Let me know if you found this post interesting or something~ Otherwise I feel like I'm talking to a wall and don't know what to post... :(

Snippets of Everyday Life, Episode 1: Food, Food Court, Lotte Cinema, Cafes

I’m starting a new series on my bloggie! I shall call it…Snippets of Everyday Life!

When it comes to going abroad, I’m the type that is most interested in the everyday lives of the locals. Foreigner hangouts? Blech! I want to go wherever the locals go, do whatever they do, and chill however they chill! And for that, I like documenting the everyday sights that I see: stores, streets, people…just little things that convey what it’s like to walk around or live in another country!

If anything, you can think of this as an Instagram post, except in High Definition! (I don't like taking blurry iPhone pictures T.T) But do forgive me; my photos of Asia are not dreamily artistic like the ones on Tumblr… >.<


This particular episode contains pictures from almost a month ago >.< But I have more coming!


Chungdam:
Chungdam is an area in Gangnam. I was walking around and amazed at how wide and open the street felt!


Look how broad the sidewalk is and how uncramped the buildings are. Normally you’ve got tons of little stores stacked onto of each other and signs reaching out towards the street. The stores here were mostly “designer”(?) stores, with wide open spaces and hardly any merchandise, if you know what I mean…?

If you’re also like me, you’d be interested in what that pretty girl is wearing! ;P Well, here’s a picture! Is that rude of me? >.< (This is actually a cropped/zoomed version of a previous picture I took of the street, so I didn't deliberately point my camera at her!)



Mr. Pizza:

Mr. Pizza is a chain in Korea for…well, pizza! I went there for the first time a few weeks ago and ordered shrimp pizza.


Sadly, it wasn’t that good…Not because of the shrimp toppings, but simply the overall execution (of the crust, the cheese, etc..). I could just be biased though since I like saucy pizzas~! But this was not saucy at all ㅠ.ㅠ


Lotte Department Store Food Court:

We went at at the Lotte Department food court located inside Starcity. Starcity is a…building(?) located at Kunkuk University station with luxury apartments, Lotte Department store, gym, restaurants, stores, and other stuffz, all in one.





Supposedly the bread here is yummy? I didn't try~

We ate pasta and pizza from a place that uses a fire oven to cook the pizza!







It was not delicious, though… :( So far I haven’t quite liked any of the Italian food I’ve tried here >.< I’m too used to the American interpretation of Italian food! Oily and not-saucy pizza is not good for my American tummy :(


Lotte Cinema:

We watched Oblivion here! Here’s the lobby of Lotte Cinema~





By standing on the footprint decals, the screen will automatically flips from the movie poster to show you movie information! So cool~!!



Even their bathroom stalls were so extravagant…



I like how across from the sinks they have a large counter with plentiful mirror space. That way, you can fix yourself up without blocking the way to the sink~



The men’s bathroom also had big murals, teehee~



At another Lotte Cinema (different location than the one above), there was a random soccer field in the back! Right next to the soccer field was this angel wing mural. I love these!



Cafes:
This is Starbucks! Nothing special, haha~





I like Starbucks’ strawberry banana smoothie!



We even got to choose our own bananas to put in our smoothie~! ^_^


Naturally, I picked the brownest and spottiest one (inside joke to anyone who knows my taste in bananas~)! :3 From what I understand, this smoothie is only available in Seoul locations? We tried to get some in central Korea but it no work.


I was pooped, so we stopped by Angel-in-Us café for a caffeine boost!




Night Street View:

And here is a view of the street crossing near Kunkuk metro station! Look how cramped all the stores and signs are, all stacked on top of each other? I find all of it so visually stimulating *_*





That's it for Episode 1 of Snippets! I'll see you soon for Episode 2~ ^^ (I hope to post these in between my review posts.)

Toodles!