Author: Abby Marotta

It’s been a hot minute since I posted. I know, I know. I keep saying I’ll update more often. Every time I write a new post, I tell myself and each post that I’ll make time to write more; and not just about my life in Seoul, but my observations and opinions on certain issues going on in the city and my life here, as like an actual blog piece. But, I’ve been busy and lazy and busy and lazy that I just can’t seem to write. I have two posts saved as drafts that I’d like to quickly publish, but good luck with that. Here is my life in a blurb since my last update: Started actively (and so far, unsuccessfully) dating, got into grad school and starting this week (USC Trojans, FIGHT ON!), am planning to renew my contract for another year, continuing with Korean classes, meeting new friends, went to Busan (dammit, that should’ve been a blog on its own!), and learning how to save money so I can do the things I wanna do. Anyway, here’s the present. Today marks nine months since I’ve come to Korea to start this life I’ve been loving since the moment I got here. In no relation to this, a few friends, Sarah, Christina, Lauren, and I met in Ewha University area on the west side of Seoul for brunch. If you know anything about me is that I love brunch and I love my breakfast and brunch foods.  Anyway, back on track, the four of us jokingly decided to make a “Brunch Club”, in which we’d try one new brunch place in the city every weekend (maybe just Sundays?) The sad thing is that brunch here does not include mimosas, my one true brunch love. I’ll be blogging about Brunch Club after our next meeting! The restaurant we ate at is called “Egg and Spoon Race”, nearest to exit 3 of Ewha University. The food was amazing. There were a lot of goods to choose from. Both Lauren and Sarah got the Hot Toast (was that what it was called?), which was French toast, sausage, bacon, eggs, and salad) and Christina got a potato omelette. We were all satisfied with our meals. This place was really good. It’s small and quaint, with about eight tables, only two of them sitting two people at most, the rest sitting four. After our meal, Lauren left us for the day, so Sarah, Christina, and I ventured around Ewha University a little. The campus is nice and quaint. It definitely left us missing college and yearning for those days. I was mostly envious at how nice the campus was and how much better it looks compared to the UH Manoa of my time (haha that makes me sound so old!) It was nice seeing the campus because usually when I’m in the Edae area, it’s to shop at the street stores there. Which is exactly what we did after our short tour of the campus. I bought a new bag and cell phone case, both unnecessary purchases – both definitely wants and not needs. Then, on a whim, I mentioned to the girls how today is Taeyang’s (from Big Bang and also my future ex-boyfriend) birthday and how I wanted to go to the YG building (refer to the KPOP post I posted MONTHS ago) today just because it was his day. So off to YG we went because Sarah and Christina hadn’t seen the building yet. As expected, there was no commotion outside because YG is located on the outer part of Mapo-gu, like out of the way. There were a few fans there taking pictures, probably waiting for someone to come out. Like I mentioned in the KPOP blog, there’s a wall across the street from the actual building where fans write messages to the artists from YG. I was surprised to see, nine months later, the message I had written on my first stop over still there. I had written it in August and I assumed whoever owned the lot the wall was on just painted over all the messages. But no – my message was still there. AMAZING. Since I already professed my love to Big Bang, I left a note for 2NE1. After our KPOP excursion, we three headed over to Mecentapolis, a shopping center outside of Hapjeong Station exit 9, for some ice cream. Because it was HOT. SUPER HOT. Summer is coming. We found a place called Snow Spoon that served frozen yogurt, gourmet ice cream bars, and gelato – which we all decided on getting. Ugh it was so good. I recommend going there for ice cream. Anyway, the season’s quickly changed. The breezy spring is now making way for hot, humid summers I’m not sure I’m prepared for since the beach is MILES AND MILES away from me now (in Busan), and not the 20-minute drive I’m used to. I don’t have shave ice to cool me down, just patbingsu. I’m excited for the summer, even though I’ll be working throughout the entire season. I’m really working to going back home in August for two weeks because I wanna see my family before spending another year here. I can’t wait for it. 😀 That’s all the posting I have. Below, I have some pictures from today. On another note, I will try to write more, even as my schedule gets busier. You have not seen the last of me!

My parents aren’t much for traveling. I remember that in my entire childhood, we’ve only gone on two family trips total as an entire family. One, when I was three or so to San Francisco/LA (Disneyland, mostly)/Sacramento/Las Vegas, a trip to attend my younger cousin’s baptismal. I barely remember that trip, save for the fact that I was a brat who was afraid of all the costumed characters that kids are supposed to love in Disneyland and Universal Studios and that I heard a goat being killed in the backyard of my auntie’s house in celebration of my cousin’s baptismal that traumatized me for life.  The second whole family trip was to the motherland, to the Philippines, as required for every Filipino to return back to their homeland to show their kids how they grew up. That trip was about two or three years after the first, so again, I hardly remember much except that they misspelled my name on my birthday cake (Jhoenelle) and that I was sent to school because, well, why not let the kindergartener on her summer break go to school? (School is still in session for the Philippines in the summer time).  I apparently was a brat then, too. But I digress. This post is about my parents, so all talk about how much of a brat I was on both trips should be saved for later. 

Anyway – the point is, since then, we haven’t done family trips. There were trips in between where it would be only my mom taking vacations to California with me.  Once, my auntie bought my parents tickets to Vegas to visit my brother’s other sister as a Christmas present. They had fun, as they should’ve. It was their first vacation together in a long time. Then, my parents, brother, and I went to Kauai for a weekend to visit my dad’s friend. Most recently, my parents went to see my sister and brother-in-law in California before they moved back home to Hawaii – like, three years after they moved to California.  They barely took trips, which I think they deserved because they’re hardworking and devoted parents. But, they’d rather save up money, you know?

That’s why it surprised me when they told me around September and October, “Get ready. We’re coming to Seoul!” Wait…what?!

Again, I’d like to stress that my parents barely went on vacations. Especially to places outside of the US and the Philippines. Were they seriously coming to Seoul? Yup. Tickets booked and everything. By December, taking advantage of Black Friday sales, they’d already purchased their one-time use only winter clothes to prepare for what I’ve been telling them was the coldest weather I’d encountered. They had new luggage pieces, talked to the cell phone company about data roaming, and made all the arrangements they could back home before the big trip.

After a long wait, a way-too-short trip to Philippines for me, winter camp, and wrapping up the 2013 year with my school, I found myself on a train to Incheon International Airport, anxiously waiting for my parents. I walked back and forth between arrival gates to meet them, since there were two Hawaiian Air flights from Honolulu coming in. But when I caught sight of my mom, I just ran to her and hugged her. And then my dad. It was so nice seeing them again. It was just perfect. 

Okay, so this got too wordy too fast, so I’m gonna keep it short and not mention what we did every day of the trip. Basically, I showed them all the highlights of Seoul – from Gangnam to Insadong to Myeongdong (we spent way too much time in Myeongdong).  I showed them Namsan Tower, which was a feat for my mom because she has a hard time walking for long periods of time, but she troopered it up the hill to get to see the tower.  I also took them to sites outside of Seoul, like Nami Island. This day trip I’m particularly proud of because my mom loves her kdramas, especially Winter Sonata. Winter Sonata is one of her favorites and I figured, well, she’s in Korea, might as well take her to see where they filmed this drama, right?  It was so nice and she loved it. We went to a little gift shop that had a backdrop set like the one in the drama and her face lit up. It was like seeing me in an out of body experience as she basically fangirled over this. Needless to say, she was happy.

Of course, I didn’t leave my dad and his interests out.  I knew he wanted to go to Jeju Island, which was kind of hard since we only had 9 days together. So instead, I introduced him to the idea of going to the DMZ. The DMZ basically is the line that separates North and South Korea. So much military history – which my dad likes. So, we decided to go. Of course, mom was worried because we’d be so close to the North.  But I assured her that South Koreans wouldn’t willingly take tourists there if it wasn’t safe. But my dad admitted that he was afraid to go the night before and wanted me to cancel the trip. But, he had a lot of fun. He got to see one of the tunnels the North Koreans were digging in order to attack Seoul from below, but stopped when they got caught. My mom and I refused to go in – mom because of her condition and me because I can get pretty claustrophobic. But dad went in and loved it. He got his workout for the day. Haha. 

I also brought them to my school to meet my VP and co-teacher. The interaction between my VP and my parents was comical and awkward at the same time. But my CT was very nice to them and even served us tea. I’m glad they got to see my classroom and where I worked. 

Then, the day I dreaded since they told me they were coming came. They had to leave. And I was a complete wreck. For nine straight days, I had seen no one else but them – heard them speak Ilocano again, caught up with family things, and even drank with my dad and cooked with my mom. It was the best time. It felt like home. But they left and I was a wreck. See, I’m the baby in the family. Total mama’s girl and daddy’s girl.  Like, there’s nothing that can change that. I’m the baby. I’m the princess, dammit~ And I cried the entire day. No matter where I was, I cried. 

But, six months here went by really quick. Another six months until I see them in August will go by quickly, too, right? 

Basically, this is a rundown of what I’ve been doing between now and the last time I updated. Feel free to listen. Or don’t. Either way, enjoy your life.

On the real though, I really want to pick up my blog writing and continue to do personal blogs (about my day, interesting things that happened to me), to quirks and observations of people/issues/things (I actually have one about self-love and body image thought up), to other things. But yeah…enjoy~

This past Thursday was yet another Korean holiday, Foundation (Founder’s?) Day, in which the Joseon Dynasty founded the country that would be known as South Korea. But you know, instead of spending the holiday doing traditional, cultural things, Maria, Anna, Priscilla, and I spent half the day walking around the Gangnam area of Seoul looking for, yes, you know it, the entertainment buildings that founded most of the popular KPOP groups (I had to incorporate Foundation Day somehow…)

Anyway, our day started off meeting in Apgujeong, which was the easiest way to get to the old SM building, the company that brought you many bands like Super Junior, Girls’ Generation (SNSD), SHINee, EXO, f(x), and much more.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of SM, but since we were doing an entertainment building search, we might as well have included one of the Big 3 companies (the other two including JYP, which we did that day too, and YG, which we did the first Saturday we were here. Look at me busting out my KPOP smarts…) There were quite a few fans waiting around the building, which is very small when you think about how many groups SM has (and how many people are in each group…Like, 13 boys in 1 band, SM? Yeah, I’m looking at you, SuJu…)  It just didn’t seem to add up how crappy that building looked. I mean, sure they had a nice big banner that covered the front of it with ads for EXO and f(x), but come on. The back side wasn’t impressive, as most back sides should be. Anyway, there were a handful of fans there, or sasaengs. IDK if you’d necessarily call them sasaengs, though? Maybe the local fans, because they’re probably there everyday. But like some of them seemed and looked like international fans, so they could’ve just been that and wanted to sight see the entertainment buildings like us.

These are the only shots of SM I got, because frankly I don’t care about SM. Sorry. Those are the pretty ads of pretty bands that hide their pretty crappy building.

Anyway, on to building 2, which was originally supposed to be JYP, since it was within walking distance to SM. Kind of. If you like 15-20 minute walks along a major shopping area in the richest district in Seoul.  But, as it turns out, we kind of got lost looking for JYP and detoured and went all the way around. Which eventually brought us to the Cube Entertainment Studio, home to B2ST, 4Minute, BTOB, and as of right now, since his exit from the military, Rain (or Bi, pronounced Bee, and formerly of JYP. More KPOP smarts coming out.) Well, the Cube Ent. studio has a cafe on the bottom, where devoted fans can go and chill and pay for (probably) expensive coffee while waiting for a chance to see their favorite idols. We didn’t linger because, well, I happen to also not be a huge Cube fan either. Well, with the bringing in of Rain and my tiny love for B2ST that I will not let grow for financial and mental reasons, I just might change that. But still, no.  Later, we found the Cube Entertainment administration office, which looked a lot bigger and made enough sense to be an entertainment company’s office because of how big it was. Below are some pictures are Cube Studio, Cube Entertainment offices (I only took pictures because I imagine Rain’s beautiful body gracing the same area), and a comeback poster of BTOB, who I have not heard music from and can only lovingly refer to one of the members as Crazy Eyes because he has crazy eyes. To me, anyway. I really should’ve gotten a shot of beautiful B2ST, though because Doojoon is handsome and Yoseob reminds me of one of my best friends back home (Maruel, I’m looking at you…)

 

 

We then walked twenty steps almost and found the infamous Dunkin Donuts (which B2ST endorses, lol) that lies across from JYP Entertainment. And thus, we found JYP. Of course, I did the obligatory video where you whisper JYP in JYP’s presence because, you know, the JYP whisper is the greatest invention ever made and will never cease to entertain me. If you don’t get this joke, then do yourself a favor and listen to ALL of JYPE’s artists’ songs. I guarantee you, you will find over 100 songs (maybe not over 100…okay, like 20) with the JYP~ whisper before, during, or after it. TRUST. ME.  However, it did not summon JYP into my presence as I hoped it would (no, I’m just kidding. But I’m not. Am I?)

I’ve been told a lot of fans have gone to JYP and sat at the adjacent Dunkin Donuts to wait for JYP oppars to come out. Which should’ve stopped me from being a saesang, but we lingered there for an hour, which I felt bad because we never gave the other entertainment companies that chance. The only reason why we stayed there so long was because the actual workers kept moving cars and people kept coming in and out of the building that it made us delusional and hopeful that it might’ve been 2PM or someone else worth waiting there for. Nope, just a bunch of trainees, dancers, and other people I don’t know. What a bust. I guess it’s not meant to be. YET……..

  
Asian poses at JYP…as Maria judges from behind…

 

  
Inside the DD, there’s a bunch of idol paraphernalia, but not just of JYP artists, but Cube as well. Only because Cube is just right there. Like literally, right there. This is the only group that matters to me, though. 2PM. Some autographs from them. 🙂

Also, fans signed some stuff and the store posted it up so I guess the idols can see it when they walk by? My favorite is in the middle, to Wooyoung, whose single “Sexy Lady” came out last year. Hence, the message…

We then went to look for the new SM building, which looked 10x better than the crappy first building we went to. It also had less fans waiting around. Funny. Anyway, this is it. Like I said, not much fanfare because I don’t like SM as much.

 

The last building we saw was FNC, which I think is home to FT Island and CN Blue? I don’t know…I’m not sure. :/ But it was, by far, the quietest building there.

After our tour of the buildings and after dinner, we decided to go to the Express Bus Terminal underground shopping area, where we saw a fan meet for FT Island, one of kpop’s rock band. Like, they play their own instruments. They’re like Hanson or The Jonas Brothers or something. I wouldn’t know. Again, I’m not a fan. Huh, this is making me realize how much of a kpop fan I am, which is to say not really when I only stan a few bands from YG and JYP specifically. Huh. Anyway, this is what a fan meet looks like. I’ve only seen pictures of fan meets on Tumblr, so I got to somewhat experience one. It’s kind of like when you put a few hot guys who can sing in the same room as a bunch of hormonal girls and the girls can’t do anything else but scream their heads off and take really good, high-res pictures despite spazzing out. Yeah…that.

There must’ve been over 200+ fans, but I’m sure that only maybe less than 100 got to see them because we went shopping and came back within an hour and they were all gone, the staff members were already cleaning up. That, or Korea is very efficient.

And that was my Thursday, guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One month in Korea, Week 3 in Seoul, and my body hasn’t fully recovered from going out so much.

So, because there are so many pictures and so much to describe and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to add pictures to my video via iMovie, I just placed all the pictures from events mentioned in the video here. I am also too lazy to sort through them and caption them right now. I’ll probably get around to it later. But for now, just enjoy.

🙂

***THE HIGHLIGHT OF THIS POST is actually the dog cafe, which you can see on the video was so much fun. The rest of it is just a wordy explanation (read: boring) of my second weekend here. I now have a place to go when I feel lonely and missing home and my dogs, which is Bau House, a dog cafe. I’m more of a dog person than a cat person, but I’d love to visit a cat cafe sometime. It’s just, I love dogs more. And being able to be around so many different kinds of dogs is nice. They don’t love me much there, though. My favorite was a tiny dog, which I named Max because I couldn’t find him on the dog card thing. Anyway, he was so tiny and didn’t like me at first. But when Maria and I came back from the big room full of bigger dogs, he ran up to us and just sat with us…until some other girls caught his attention. Whatever.

Anyway, if you’re interested, Bau House is located right off Hapjeong Station, exit 3. It’s easy to find, too. Just get out at Exit 3, turn around, turn left at the small alleyway, and you’ve found it.

Max, the friend I just named.

I guess he was tired of playing with so many humans.

Doggies everywhere!

Max is a fighter. lol

This isn’t a husky. I think it’s another kind of dog. Alaskan something.

This guy had a lot of love because he had treats. See all the dogs surrounding him? Because of FOOD.

This greyhound was tired too.

So precious <span class='wp-smiley emoji emoji-heart' title='<3

This dog actually belonged to someone. You can bring your own dog to play with the rest of them.

Mouse doggie <span class='wp-smiley emoji emoji-heart' title='<3

So, my second weekend in Seoul started on Thursday, when Maria and I went to grab dinner at Konkuk University area. We walked around the area for a little bit because a) we didn’t know where to go and b) we didn’t know how our ability to order food and how great it was. But we settled on a KBBQ place and had a small dinner. Then, we walked around the area to look for more places to go and see. I bought a new phone case with a card holder for my T-Money card (in mint!) and we found a ddukboki place and ordered some, which we proceeded to eat at a Burger King because we didn’t know where else to go and sit. Lol. The funniest thing we saw, though, was walking passed a guy who (I didn’t even see this) had an ice cream cone in his hand, screamed, “EEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXCAAAAAAALIIIIIBURRRRRRR!”, and slammed said ice cream cone on the ground. I didn’t know that he had the ice cream cone, until Maria mentioned it and we saw it walking back in that same direction. This was also the night I almost missed my train back home (the last train!), but made it in time because I ran to where I needed to be!

Friday came and all the EPIK people were super excited to see each other at our EPIK reunion party in Gangnam.  Also, it was nice seeing everyone again. And in a place where we got to really be ourselves and not on watch because we were at orientation. Lol. We got moved out of our club to a bigger one. But since EPIK didn’t reserve that place, there were a mix of locals and us EPIK people. Then, my friends and I split and went to look for another club to go to in Gangnam. We didn’t end up clubbing at all, but we did find Noise Basement, which is the most popular club I heard of.  We just ended up eating at a lot of places, drinking a little more, and then heading to the subway at 4:30am or so to wait for the subways to start working again to get home. Hate to admit, but I fell asleep at the subway – I was so tired.

I was so tired, Mona and I crashed at Maria’s for like two hours. Maria was kind of enough to show me where to buy a drying rack in her community and so I did – and lugged it all the way back to Anam-dong, a full hour away from Maria’s. Three subway lines, two station transfers, and a lot of Koreans looking at the waygook with a drying rack weird. But that’s okay because I finally have a drying rack! I’m also thankful for Hanna, who let me borrow her drying rack, which made drying stuff easier.

After a whole day of laundry, Maria and I went back to Hongdae, which, you will see in my video was to visit a dog cafe. But we also got to walk around Hongdae comfortably, i.e. with flat shoes. We also had some street food, bubble drinks, and went to Teddy’s cafe, Twosome Studio.  (Teddy is a producer and a former rapper from YG, so you can understand my excitement.) On the bottom are some pictures.

Today was just chore day, so it was a lot of cleaning my apartment. I also did some working out, which has been hard since I haven’t been doing it for the past three weeks. Anyway, gonna go to a church later with Priscilla, Anna, and Jo, and whoever else is going.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Maria and I, street-fooding. She bought that hat in Hongdae. Effing Hongdae. Lol

I found a place in Hongdae that was a Hawaiian restaurant. I gotta check it out next time. But they did sell stuff like ahi, kalua pork, lomi lomi salmon. Ughhhh I can’t wait to eat there.

Teddy’s cafe, Twosome Studio. It was nice inside and the food was good, but really expensive. But hey, it’s Teddy.

Opparrrrrr

Ohhhh, Teddy’s studio.

Maria and I got a macaron and sangria. Perfect.

Some merchandise signed by some YG artists. I don’t think he sells those ones, but other merch, like the mugs and stuff are on sale.

 
These pictures right here are of Mina Kwon’s art. She’s an artist who’s friends with most of YG, so Teddy dedicated this floor as an art gallery of her work.