It’s Chuseok weekend — The equivalent of Thanksgiving — meaning no class for five days ! ^o^

My “Thanksgiving dinner” consisted of 2 bowls of ramen and 3 rolls of sushi — all purchased from the convenience store downstairs — totaling about $5 xP Not complaining ; just saying~

Many of the foreigners went to travel this break and the Koreans went home to be with family, leaving me with plenty of time to write blogs ! and do other stuff… :3 My main purpose of staying is to tackle some assignments early and explore Seoul some more since I’ve already seen different parts of Korea. 

This blog is gonna be about me tourist-ing these past few weeks — you know, travelling in groups of other minorities and getting in awkward poses to snap unnecessary photos of essentially nothing-out-of-the-ordinary. 

Like so:                                                                       (bad panorama..)

This is at Kyungbok Palace during the day. Notice the integration of three kinds of environment: 

• traditional establishments – palace gates
• modern establishments – city buildings in the background
• natural establishments – mountains, the furthest back

Reasons like this is why I love Seoul ; I love a bit of hybridity.

So below on the left is the stereotypical Asian shoe-removal culture … even at tourist destinations. The spot isn’t even enclosed by walls.

On the right is of course a demonstration of my love of girls in traditional Hanboks. 

…followed by a Teddy Bear Museum in the Namsan Tower. From the top of the tower, I could take amazing pictures of the city of Seoul, day or night or sunset. There’s just something funny about bears riding horses… x_x

And because I love cities so much:

Introducing 빙수 BingSoo, a popular Korean treat. Some of you may have had a variant of this, but for me, it was completely new. When my friend said I should try it, I thought she said it’s called “bean soup.” I was relieved to discover that BingSoo wasn’t as I had thought. But after a few bites, and a few layers down, you realize the key ingredients are shaved ice and candied beans >> in other words, BEAN SOUP -_- This particular dish is topped with cereals, fruits, ice cream, and chocolate-dipped sticks. Overall, an amazing abomination to eat.

I’m not discussing KPOP this week ~~ instead I’ll be doing my other half of Korean music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1cIlkJGPk

With a name and genre (acid jazz, electropop) resembling London-based group Jamiroquai, Korean-Canadian electronic trio “Clazziquai” has been my favorite of all bands for the past year. Not so much popular these days, many Koreans however know of the group.

I leave you with one more example of how locals treat foreigners around here. I was shopping in Myungdong last night – a popular destination for shopping. I entered a watch shop and was serious about buying a new Skagen (it’s a big deal for a collector like me to say I bought a watch in another country). The guy offered me 10% off because I’m foreigner. I ended up buying the watch… xD

This blog has been brought to you by the letter 추 “Chu”