Exploring places in Seoul outside of my classes: Insadong, Ikseondong, Hongdae, Sinchon, Gangnam, Itaewon, underground shopping areas, malls, markets, exhibits, hikes, and others! + Getting my student ID, ARC, and Covid (round 2 of quarantine for me).
3/2:
Today was my first day of school. Unfortunately, due to the high Covid cases in South Korea, many of Yonsei's classes were set to be conducted online, including all of my classes, which I had learned of the previous month during my quarantine. The first classes I had were Business and Society, and Korean 1, which took place around mid-day and ended by 2:50pm.
Afterwards, a friend and I went to Insadong to go to a Poop Cafe, and then we walked around the nearby Hanok Village and took pictures. For dinner, we went to a bossam restaurant, also in Insadong. Afterwards we caught the bus back to Sinchon to get dessert.
3/3:
This morning I went to go pick up my student ID at the Student Union building on campus at Yonsei. My housemate, who was a local Korean student at Yonsei, showed me a short cut to get onto campus nearby to where we lived. We went to the building where I was supposed to pick up my student ID, and then he also showed me a short cut through Samsung library to cut through campus on the way back to where we had entered campus.
After picking up my student ID, I had actually planned to meet up with some other Yonsei exchange student friends at the cafeteria in the Student Union building. The cafeteria had a set menu with Korean dishes that they served, depending on the day, as well as other vendors serving cafe-type foods and drinks. Since I didn't feel that hungry, I ended up just getting a sandwich and a vanilla latte. Afterwards, we went down to go purchase some textbooks we needed for class from the COOP bookstore.
I went back home using the short cut my housemate had showed to me, and I just took a nap when I got back home. I woke up before I had to leave to meet another friend (we were going to Namsan Tower), and made myself some food to eat at home from the groceries I'd bought before.
I met my friend at the Hongik University Station exit, and then we took the metro to get to Myeongdong by Namsan Tower. We decided to walk up and then take the cable car down. It was quite tiring just getting to the start of the hike, because it was all up-hill. When we actually found the start of the hike, it was basically just straight stairs all the way to the tower. Thankfully the views were nice and the air was cold, so it was still kind of a fun hike. It also felt very rewarding to reach the top, because the views were really amazing and it was really cute to see the top of the tower lined with the locks. They also had restaurants, an art gallery, an arcade, and even a lounge with fancy, full-body massage chairs in the tower, with multiple floors.
It was really fun, and the massage chairs were heavenly. We made it on time to take pictures as the sun was setting, and we also got to see the city lights before going back down. It was really beautiful, and the weather was pretty nice — a bit polluted, but pretty!
We took the cable car on the way down, which costed 10,000krw for a one-way ticket. Then we headed back to Hongdae around 8pm, before the metro got crowded (at around 9 to 10pm because of the current curfew, which was 10pm).
We went to a burger place that my friend had suggested called 1989 Burger Stand. The burgers and fries were absolutely amazing. 10/10 would go back again. I caught the bus to go back home after we finished.
3/4:
Today I met up with a few friends to shop around in Gangnam. I met one of the girls, who was also a Yonsei exchange student at Hongik Univ Station, and we went to Gangnam Station together. We all met together at AB Cafe in Gangnam.
The cafe was super cute! It was Bali-themed, and had four floors with study spaces for students and even conference rooms, along with casual tables to enjoy your drinks and cake at.
After the cafe we took the metro to Coex Mall, and we went to Star Library, took pictures, and got food. We were going to go to the aquarium, but it was kind of more expensive than we were expecting (around $35 for admission), so we just walked around and shopped.
3/5:
Today, I just went clothes shopping in Hongdae. I also went to go buy a card and flowers from a store nearby to Hongik University Station, since it was my friend's 21st birthday the following day.
For dinner, another friend and I went to go eat at a popular KBBQ place, also in Hongdae, which had about a 30-minute wait. After we finished eating, we walked over to a bingsu dessert cafe in Sinchon, and we shared a strawberry bingsu. There was some kind of singing competition happening right outside of the bingsu place, so we stopped to watch a few more performances after bingsu.
3/6:
My friend whose birthday it was wanted to start off her day with breakfast at an American-styled breakfast restaurant called Travelmaker in Hongdae by the station. I just had a breakfast burrito and a latte, and my friend insisted on treating us. I met two other French girls, who my friend had also invited to come celebrate her birthday.
After breakfast, we went to Ikseondong to shop around and go to a cafe. On the way to the cafe we stopped to take pictures at Haru photo booth. There was a bit of a wait and not too many props to choose from, but the pictures still came out cute! After, we stopped by an ATM and also a jewelry shop. I bought a cute beaded ring. The others also bought some jewelry there.
The cafe my friend wanted to go to was called Cheongsudang, which I had been to before, but there was a wait when we got there, so we decided to go to another cafe that we had seen on the way over. It was also super cute, but crowded as well, since it was a Sunday. The drinks were pricey and did not taste that great, unfortunately.
We then went bowling at a nearby alley. The alley was completely empty and very vibey and nice. Each game was 6500 won per person, and we each needed to buy a drink (drinks were cheaper, only a few k won). Bowling was super fun, but we ended up playing the games pretty fast, and it was quite pricey at the end.
After, we went back to Hongdae. The two French girls went back to their place, and I went back with my friend to her place, before we went back out to go to dinner. The restaurant was nearby Gyeongbokgung palace and was called IDA. It was kind of fancy, but the prices were not bad. The dishes were plated very nicely and it was really delicious overall.
We took the metro back to Hongdae again, and my friend wanted to go to this cafe/bakery called Dingga. When we finally arrived, they were closing unfortunately. I told the girls I had to get home to prepare for school the following day, so we parted ways.
3/7:
Because I was feeling a little under-the-weather, I just decided to stay home and take it easy. I had my classes, and later in the day I went to the convenience store to load an extra 30,000 more on my t-money card, since I needed to go to my ARC appointment the following day.
I filled out my ARC application and made sure I had all of the necessary documents in a folder to take for my appointment the following day.
3/8:
Today I had my classes again, which were Organizational Behavior and a Korean Pop Culture classes until 2:50pm.
Afterwards I had to get ready to go to my ARC appointment which I had reserved for 17:12. Before that I did some research for a group presentation for my Business & Society class, to see which case study we should do, and I messaged the Kakao Talk chat for my group.
I also made sure to screen-shot my appointment confirmation form, which I had saved previously on my desktop, for easier access.
I took the bus to the Seoul Southern Immigration Office, and I left a little more than an hour before the appointment time. Unfortunately, it seemed like my second bus I needed to transfer to was running a little late, or there was more traffic than usual. I was nervous I was going to be late for my appointment, so I ran to the immigration office as soon as I got off at my stop.
I got there on-time (the non-chinese foreign registration booth was on the 2nd floor). I actually didn’t need to worry about not being early (although they ask you to arrive 10 minutes before your appointment), because I had to wait for probably another 20-30 minutes for my waiting number to be called, maybe since I was one of the last reservation times of the day, so the appointments were more backed up.
I had all of my documents already printed out, and I had tried to fill out the application form to the best of my abilities, so basically everything was set to go. I just needed to pay the fee for my ARC at the bank on the first floor (they only accepted cash). I also paid an extra 4000 won for delivery of my ARC, so that I wouldn’t need to go back to the immigration office to pick it up (6 weeks later). The total cost was 34000. I was given a piece of paper with a tracking number, and the worker also wrote down the site that I could go to to check on the delivery status of my ARC. The ARC would be delivered to the address on my application, so I asked the worker to help me write a more detailed address with my room number.
The actual ARC appointment (without taking into account the waiting time) probably only took 10 minutes or so, since I had all of the necessary materials.
On the way home, I stopped at Saruga Supermarket to pick up some groceries.
3/9:
The next morning I had planned to meet up with some friends at Gwangjang Market. The market was pretty big with many different entrances/exits kind of like a maze, so when we first arrived we were walking around for a while exploring before we finally found each other in the main food area. The side I had initially entered on had had some food in the front, but was mostly a fabrics area. After walking down a few more corridors, I found the main food area intersection, which had so many different street food stalls!
First we decided to get gimbap and some kind of pajeon (pancake) while we were waiting for another friend to arrive. After everyone had arrived we walked around some more, and stopped at another stall and got tteokbokki, fish cake, and blood sausage. Then, we went to another stall towards the outskirts of the market, which was apparently famous/popular, and sold hotteok. We each got the most popular flavor, which was honey hotteok! Next, we went back inside the market towards the intersection to get this soup and mandu from another famous stall which had appeared on Netflix.
After that, we went to eat at a Yukhoe restaurant that one of my friends had wanted to go to. Unfortunately, the wait was super long, so we just went to another yukhoe restaurant right next door to it. We ordered a plate of yukhoe and san-nakji (live-octopus) to share.
It was very fresh obviously, so the octopus was still moving. We also ordered beer, soju, and makgeoli. We were so full by that time, so we weren’t able to finish everything, but everything tasted really good!
After we had eaten more than our fill, we decided to walk around the area, and headed toward Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Hyundai Department Store, which were probably about a 10-15 minute walk away from Gwangjang Market.
3/10:
Today, I woke up feeling much better, since I had been having slight cold symptoms for the past few days. I had been taking multiple antigen tests over multiple days, however, I decided to take another antigen test today even though my cold symptoms were almost gone, and to my dismay the test came back very faintly positive. I spent the rest of the day panicking and stressing about it, because I had plans for later in the day with some girl friends, and I also had the ski trip planned, and it was too late to cancel or postpone anything. I ended up messaged the girls I was going to hang out with that day that I couldn’t make it. I took another antigen test, and it was still very faintly positive, so I also notified the friends that I was going on a ski trip with know about my situation. I then notified everyone I had been in contact with over the past few days. Because my antigen test results had been very faint, I decided to go to the PCR Test center to get a more official/reliable test result. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a test since it was later in the day and nearing health center's closing time (6pm); fortunately, I was still able to get a test after some confusion with communicating with the workers there. I had to take another rapid antigen test at the health center before receiving a PCR test; the rapid test came back positive in under 2 minutes, so I already knew by that time that my PCR test was also going to be positive.
I lastly messaged my housemates when I got back home to notify them of the situation and that I had gotten tested, and would be self-isolating. I also continued messaging my other friends that I had been in contact with or that I had been planning to hang out with to keep them updated. Needless to say, it had been a very stressful and hectic day.
3/11:
I woke up early-ish, probably because I was stressed about my covid situation, and I had already gotten a text message from the Health Center which confirmed that I was indeed positive, and also had instructions on my self-isolation as well as recommendations for my housemates.
It was back to ordering delivery food from Shuttle. I had to isolate for the next 7 days. Fortunately, none of my housemates were symptomatic and all tested negative with the antigen test. All of the people who I had hung out with recently were also asymptomatic and tested negative for Covid thankfully, and they continued to be asymptomatic/negative the following days/weeks when I asked them how they were doing.
I was also basically asymptomatic by that time and throughout the duration of my quarantine.
…......
3/17:
My first day out of quarantine again! Because it was my second time quarantining, I feel like the 7 days I had to stay in my room/house went by much faster, but it was still so liberating to finally be able to go outside again and see my friends.
I went shoe shopping in Hongdae with some friends, because I was in need of athletic shoes, since I hadn't really brought a good pair of running or walking shoes with me to Korea. We started at S-Market, where I found two pairs of Nikes that I liked. I put those shoes on hold because we were going to go look at some other shoe stores nearby. We must have gone into almost 10 different shoe stores with Vanessa leading the way (Nike, Adidas, ABC, Footlocker, etc.). The other girls I was with ended up buying shoes at some of the different stores we went into. (They were having some difficulties with finding the shoes that they wanted in their sizes, which were size 8 I believe). I just ended up going back to the shoes I put on hold at S-Market from the beginning of our shoe-shopping quest (since I bought 2 pairs, they were discounted 20%).
Later that day, I went out again to go meet up with some people from my Yonsei Mentor’s Club group chat for dinner in Sinchon at a KBBQ place called SinchonGogiChanggo. We were a group of 6 girls all together (1 girl from Texas, 3 from Indonesia, 1 from Japan). The aunties at the restaurant were so kind, and they were kind of hovering around us and helping us cook our meet because they could see we were inexperienced and struggling. One of the aunties told me I did a good job, after I started cooking the meat myself. They even gave us free eggs afterwards, and while we were leaving, it was raining outside, and they came outside to give us umbrellas to take, since we had none. And not to mention, the meat was absolutely delicious (10/10!).
After dinner, we went to a nearby noraebang. The interior wasn’t the nicest, and it smelled quite smokey, but it was still fun. We stayed there and sang for about an hour, and the ajusshi at the noraebang also gave us some extra time for free (service!) because we had been having sound issues when we initially started off.
After noraebang, it wasn’t raining outside anymore, so we tried to go back to the restaurant to return the umbrellas they gave us, but the restaurant was already closed for the night. We then went to a photo booth place to take a group picture together, before walking home.
3/18:
Today I wanted to go thrifting and shopping at Express Bus Station, which had a bunch of underground shopping. We really struggled with finding Vin Prime, which was the thrift store that I had looked up to meet at. By the time my friend and I found each other, we were super hungry, so we went to go eat. There was some kind of mall (above-ground) attached to the station, which was really fancy and looked kind of like an airport with one of those department stores with designer brands that rich people from kdramas would shop at. There were a bunch of places to eat at, and we decided to eat at the Mos Burger (we ordered Wagyu burgers, fries, and melon soda). The melon soda tasted like a cross between a Jolly Rancher and the bubblegum-flavored fluoride that you would get from the dentist.
After we ate, we went back to Vin Prime. We didn’t really find anything we liked there, so it ended up not being that great of a place to thrift. Thrifting doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing in Korea, but there are a lot of vintage shops on the other hand, which are super cool but also a bit on the pricier side.
So, since the thrifting was kind of a fail, we just went shopping in the underground mall area, which was at the same station, just on the other side towards the opposite exit.
I found a lot of stuff I liked and ended up buying (rings, athletic-wear, jackets/sweatshirts, hairbands).
After shopping, we took the metro and bus back to my place, so that I could drop off the stuff I bought, and get some water/use the restroom, etc. Then we bussed to Hongik Univ Station (exit 8) to meet with some other UH students that were studying at SNU and KU, since we planned to meet up for dinner. We ate dinner at a dakgalbi place, which had super big serving portions.
3/19:
Today I woke up in the late morning, and had to get ready to go to a traditional Korean concert, which I was attending for the reflection paper that I had to write for my Korean Pop Culture class that month.
The venue (National Gugak Center) was about an hour away via metro and bus. Our professor had bought a bunch of tickets at a discounted price, because the university had sponsored us I believe. The ticket I got when I checked in after arriving at the venue, was a B-ticket (5,000 won). There was a museum exhibition showing traditional Korean instruments, in which the professor gave a little tour for the students. There were students from both the k-pop class and the traditional Korean music class, which the professor taught.
We went into the venue before the concert was about to start, and I somehow ended up having a seat towards the front, even though I had bought a cheaper ticket. There was about 5 different performances showcasing traditional Korean instruments/ensembles, as well as a simultaneous dance performance at the end. I received the brochures for the concert and performance, so I could see what each performance was supposed to be.
After the concert, I met a few of the other students in the class, and I just headed home so I could do my laundry and clean up around my room & bathroom a bit, and just relax at home.
3/20
This morning I woke up on the earlier side to go hiking with a group of Yonsei dorm students (+ 1 Korean dude who was friends with some of the students) at Ansan mountain, which is toward the backside of Yonsei campus. We met up at SK Global’s lobby, and then headed to the hike together. It was kind of a bigger group, maybe like 13 people. I also met a few of the girls in-person, with whom I had some of my online classes.
The hike was pretty short, and had a nice 360 view at the top. I could see the Han river and also Namsan Tower. We took pictures together, then headed down (some people who’d brought lunch stayed at the top to eat).
We walked down the hike, and wandered around a bit, took another group picture/video in the nearby neighborhood, then went to eat at a restaurant. Afterwards, I walked with the group back to SK Global, which was on the way, since I had to cut through campus to walk back home anyways.
On the walk back home I called my family to show them my neighborhood and house. Afterwards, I had to get ready to go to the cafe and bar I wanted to meet some friends from SNU at. Unfortunately, the bar that we had wanted to go to had a long waitlist when we had arrived there (probably at 7:30pm or so), so we went across the street to eat at a hotpot place.
It looked like we wouldn’t be able to get into the bar by the time we were finished eating, so we decided to go to Itaewon instead which was less than a 10 minute metro-ride away. We went to a bar that they’d been to before, called Sector 118, which was pretty nice and had good music (a mix of k-pop and american pop music).
3/25:
Today, my friend group had planned to go strawberry picking at a farm nearby Gimpo Airport. One of my friends had enlisted the help of their local Korean friend to help us book a reservation on Naver for the strawberry picking, which was 15,000 won each for a container of strawberries we picked ourselves, plus a some kind of pie-making session. We met up nearby SK Global Dorms to eat a quick breakfast and then hop on our bus to the strawberry farm. The bus ride probably took about 50 minutes or so, and we passed by a bunch of other farms in the area near our destination. When we arrived, we hung up our jackets and bags, and we were given some bread, strawberry jam, rollers, plastic knives, gloves, and cookie cutters to make "pies" with, which were essentially toasted strawberry jam sandwiches.
When it was time to actually start picking our strawberries, the staff had us all gather around while they instructed us on how we should pick the strawberries without damaging them. They then sectioned us off into different rows (2 people per strawberry row) where we could walk up and down to pick our strawberries. We each were given a standard plastic container that you would see at a grocery store, which we could fill. All of us ended up filling our containers a little too much, so it was a little over the weight limit that we had paid for, but they were nice and just let us keep the strawberries we picked. At the farm, they also sold beverages and other products from their strawberries, so we bought some strawberry drinks and ate our baked pies. There were some farm animals (rabbits and a baby goat) on the other side of the building too, so we went to go visit them and feed them (they ate the stems and leaves from the strawberry plants).
After we had packed up our strawberries and finished eating and taking pictures, we bussed back home again. Later that night, we also met up to eat K-bbq in Sinchon, then ended up going to Itaewon.
3/26:
Today I met up with friends from SNU again to go to the Gucci Garden exhibition at Dongdaemun Design Plaza. The exhibition had been going on for most of March, so today was one of the last days that we would be able to go. I had been wanting to go to Gucci Garden for a while since multiple friends had mentioned it to me before, but I did not reserve a ticket online and I heard it was very difficult to get tickets, so I had thought I would not be able to go. However, I learned from some of my other friends that you were able to walk-in and put yourself and your party on a waiting list and enter the exhibition on the same day, so that is what we planned to do.
After our whole group had arrived at DDP, we got our waiting number and just got snacks and drinks from a cafe in DDP, since we needed to be close by when it was our party's turn to go to the exhibit. We probably waited for only 30 to 45 minutes only until our waiting number was called.
There were all kinds of rooms and interesting Gucci-themed or inspired displays throughout the exhibition, and of course there were also Gucci products and bags on display as well. There were probably about 8 different rooms that we cycled through, and were able to take a lot of cool photos in. At the end, we were also given Gucci postcards.
Afterwards, we went shopping at the Hyundai Department Store, and also stopped by Shake Shack to get snacks. Then we walked to a nearby naengmyeon place to get a late lunch.
Later, we took a metro to I-Park Mall to explore and shop around some more. The mall's top floor featured a Studio Ghibli shopping section and a Marvel shopping section, which was really cool! There were also lots of restaurants, a movie theater, a gym, and even a soccer field on the rooftop!
3/27:
The next morning, I woke up early to go hiking at Inwangsan with Yonsei students and friends. The hike was definitely more challenging than the hikes for Ansan and Namsan, since it was a longer and steeper incline, with more stairs. It was also a bit crowded because there were a lot of hikers. The view at the top was really great though, and it felt really rewarding! We stopped at the top for a little while to take pictures and eat our convenience store-bought gimbap and drinks we brought along with us on the hike. On our way coming back down from the hike, we stopped to try out the work out machines at an outdoor gym, which you can see frequently at outdoor areas like hikes or parks in Korea.
We wanted to get a snack, so we got on a metro and headed to Ikseondong, where we went to a donut cafe. We found seats on the roof-top which had a pretty view of the surrounding area. Some of the donuts we had tasted good and some of them weren't so great. The drinks we got were also just okay, but the cafe was really nice, and we enjoyed being able to relax and just hang out.
After going back home to freshen up, we went out again that night for K-bbq dinner, Baskin Robbins, and playing pool in Sinchon!
3/29:
After my classes, I met up with a friend at a Harry Potter cafe in Hongdae. The cafe had 4 floors and was super cool with a lot of photo-taking areas, although our drinks weren’t that great unfortunately. After exploring all of the floors, we ended up sitting at the top floor, which also had wizard-robes for the different houses and props for taking pictures with.
After finishing our drinks and taking pictures, we left the cafe to get some food/snacks from the convenience store nearby before heading over to see Batman at Lotte Cinema Hongik Univ. Branch (about a 10 minute walk away).
3/31:
Today, I planned to study at Yonsei library (or try to), since I had some important assignments coming up for my business classes. I met up with a friend at the school cafeteria later, and then went to Yonsei COOP to buy some Yonsei merch (sweatshirt, jacket, and cap). We later ate at the lounge area by Coop and then studied there until they started to close, then we went back to Yonsei Samsung Library.
After studying till around 7 or 8pm, we were hungry, so we went back to our houses to drop off our Yonsei merch, then met up in Sinchon to eat at a Chinese restaurant, then played pool till 11pm before heading back home.