Second week in Korea#
I’m writing this part almost exactly 8 months after my trip in Korea has concluded. For previous trips I tried to summarize what I’ve done at the end of each day. However since I was doing an intensive course I didn’t want to have the pressure to write everything down, especially since most of my days were taking classes anyway. Thus, I thought instead of recounting what happened at each day, I will talk about different topics that I found interesting and that I want to share.
Locations around Hongdae#
As mentioned before, I spent each work day from 9 AM to 3:30 PM at Lexis Korea. When I managed to get up early, I would take a slight detour towards the school in order to explore some roads that I hadn’t taken before. After my class I also enjoyed strolling around Hongdae and see what restaurants, cafés and department stores it has to offer.
Lexis Korea#
But before talking about all these interesting locations I’d like to talk some more about my school. The pictures you see below are of the classroom of my morning classes. During my 3 weeks I was only in 2 different classrooms, but I think the classrooms were all quite similar. Apart from the classrooms there was also a small break room located in the corridor. Here the students would usually gather during their short as well as their long breaks. It was always a nice time to chit chat with students from the other classes. During these breaks I would get to know a German guy and another Japanese girl from Osaka. I also usally talked with my classmates. Evelyn, the girl from England, would usually eat some Onigiri during the breaks. I thought that Onigiri make a great and convenient breakfast and thus I also started bringing Onigiri to class from time to time.
Before the beginning of my first class of the day I would usually go to the Starbucks that was in the same building as the school and try to order a caffè latte in Korean. Or at least I tried… at first I was unable to understand what the barista was saying and thus I switched to English. But each day I got a little better since I knew the possible questions they would ask. This was unfortunately nothing that you would learn at any class, or at least not at my level.
I have to say I liked the second week more than the first week. This is because we had longer classes during the first week due to having only classes from Wednesday to Friday. I’ve also got more accustomed to my classmates and the classes. Speaking of classes, I really enjoyed the afternoon classes. While the morning classes were more focused on Vocabulary, the afternoon classes focused more on grammar patterns. I also really liked the teaching style of the afternoon teacher Cindy. She was always very enthusiastic and she would usually mix exericise with fun little activities. Once we had to draw our family tree and then each of us had to present them to the class. Another time we had to act out some activity words. I never felt bored or exhausted.
The only issue was that I would usually come to late for the afternoon classes because we had only one hour between the morning and afternoon classes. Even though we had lots of restaurants nearby the school, it would take us a while to decide on a restaurant, then order and we would chit chat with other classmates that joined for lunch. This was also the time where I would get to know most of the students that were there at this time.
Despite having nice classmates, I didn’t have a strong connection to any of them. I asked them to go out in the evening but since they lived closer to the city center they would usually hangout with themselves. Thus I used the afternoons to go back and relax a bit since having two classes per day was a bit exhausting. As I still had homework to do, I would usually go to the café that was in the same building as my Mini Studio. It had 3 floors and was usually quite crowded in the evening. I enjoyed the atmosphere there. I would sit at the window in the second floor and sometimes observe the people outside while I was thinking about the homework.
If I finished my homework early then I would find a restaurant to have dinner or if it was already too late, I would simply go to a GS25 store and get some snacks. Afterwards I went back to Mini studio and relaxed a bit before going to bed.
AK Plaza#
The AK Plaza was directly next to the language school. The building had probably 5 to 6 floors hosting shops, restaurants and popup stores. I‘ve went there several times after my classes to get some stationaries and looked for some Korean Pokemon cards.
Up to this point I didn’t really know what the latter meant. From my understanding now a popup store is usually dedicated to one IP, like Harry Potter, and has big cardboard cutouts of characters or objects from that IP. Out of curiosity I went into a My Hero Academia popup store. The store was set up almost like a labyrinth with different small rooms. In the first room was a video that showed scenes from the series. The second room showed panels of the Manga, and the next room talked about the different voice actors. Then there were some rooms with cardboard cutouts of some of the characters. The tour ended with a store that sold some merchandise.
Random Places#
My Mini Studio was located in a busy neighborhood. There was one street in particular that had a lot of restaurants. I would occasionally walk along this street to find somewhere to have dinner.
If I instead walked along the road tangentially to the food street, I would end up in a long but thin park area that crossed the road. Here old and young would sit on the benches or take a walk in the park. When I would turn right I would end up in another part with a lot of restaurants and stores. However when turning left instead and following the park, I ended up at a big street. However just before reaching the end of the park, there was a nice painting of a wale and a dolphin to my right. Since there was nothing else I just turned around and explored other parts of the neighborhood.
The part on the other side of the park (when turning right) was usually bustling with life. This part was also pretty close to my school, so I would sometimes run around there before and after class. It was also where I usually bought Onigiri as breakfast. Two noteworthy places were a German bar on the one hand and art cafe on the other. Unfortunately, I‘ve visited neither one of them. There was also a bar Craft Hans, which I’ve visited once in the third week.
Food#
Food was an integral part of my trip. Since we have no good Korean restaurant nearby my city in Germany, I was very happy to try a lot of dishes in Korea. The lunch time in particular was the best time to hang out with other students from Lexis Korea and to get to know them. Another great opportunity was the social events on Wednesdays and Fridays. In my second week two of the teachers organized an event where we went out to eat Korean BBQ. It was a nice mixed group and I enjoyed the delicious food. The dinner time in the second week was less interesting, while I made a good friend in my first week, it was only for a short time, since he already had returned back to France. I hang out with my classmates in the afternoon but when it came to dinner they met among themselves. Thus I usually went out on my own. Since I wanted to do my homework I would usually either just have dinner at a cafe or go to a cafe after dinner.
On Wednesday I talked with my classmate from Taiwan. We left the school together and talked a while. Not far from the school there was a woman with a small kart who sold Japanese desserts from Hokkaido. A small cake caught my attention, so me and my classmate ended up eating the cake which was very delicious. We talked some more before I went back again.
As I‘ve mentioned before did the teacher in the afternoon class do some occasional competitions where she would promise a gift for the winners of the competition. I don‘t remember what the competition was, but I won it and the next day my teacher gave me some grape candy and some savory crunchy snack from 짜파게티 (Jjapagaeti).
In Hongdae were quite a few Japanese restaurants. Of course I had to eat some tonkatsu, which is one of my favorite Japanese dishes. The picture with us looking at the food instead of the camera was supposedly some trend that was popular during that time. I‘ve went the with my Taiwanese class mate and her friend from the Netherlands. Later on his Korean gf also joined us. After dinner I went to a cafe to do my homework before I went to bed.
Day 13 - A rainy Friday#
I got a rainy welcome on Friday when I left the Mini Studio and went for the language school. The morning class was nice and around 12 I’ve finished classes for the week. For lunch me and some class mates had Ramen and 떡볶이 (Tteokbeoki). After lunch I’ve took a stroll around my neighborhood and bought some snacks in a GS store. I felt a bit exhausted, thus I took a nap after I came back to the Mini Studio.
I must have woken up by thunder. By then it was already 6 PM. It was raining like crazy. However, I was a bit hungry again, though I thought I would wait for a while until the rain would stop. After waiting for an hour it was still raining a bit and I decided to go out nevertheless. I took my umbrella that I’ve bought in a convenience store in Japan and went out. Not far from my home was a plaza with lots and lots of shops and restaurants.
I wanted to find some place that wasn’t too crowded and had something delicious to eat. I guess I was a bit too picky because I walked around for what felt like an hour. I walked through side streets to see all options I have. I ended up going back to the main road. There, I finally found a 치맥 (Chimaek which is a fusion of the words fried chicken 치킨 and beer 맥주) restaurant.
I was a little greedy and had a mix of three different types of fried chicken, namely normal, spicy and garlic chicken. Of course I also had some Cass as well to complete the set. With a little bit of struggle I was able to finish my dinner and decided to take another stroll to help me digest the food. By now it had stopped raining but it felt quite cold. I therefore just had a quick stroll to the next GS store to withdraw some money and bought some stuff.
I decided to sleep a bit earlier that day since I wanted to walk through Seouls city center the next day.
Day 14 - Temple Exploration in the City Center#
It was Saturday 9 AM when I woke up. I got up slowly and took a nice warm shower to fully wake up. After staying mostly in Hongdae, I wanted to walk around the city center at least once during my trip. I checked the weather and saw that the weather was going to be pretty warm and sunny until 4 PM. Thus I went straight to the metro to take advantage of the nice weather.
Arriving at Seoul station gave me the chills. I vividly remembered how I’ve arrived here two years prior and stepping out of the train station, just to feel a little lost. This time however, I exactly knew where I had to go.
My plan was to get a palace ticket that would allow me entrance to several palaces and even some gardens for a relative cheap price. But before I went to the first palace to buy the ticket, I decided to take a short detour and walk past the hotel that I had stayed in together with some friends during my last trip. It felt like memory lane when I walked towards the hotel. And even though I didn’t take a step into the hotel, I felt some sense of satisfaction.
With this point checked off my list I was ready to walk to the first palace. Since it was closest to the hotel, I decided to walk to Doeksugung palace first. The palace area was pretty big and had a mix of Eastern and Western buildings. It even hosted two museums. Due to interest of time, I just visited the Darian Empire History Museum.
From there I returned to the Main Street that leads directly to the Geongbukgong palace. Though it was still quite some walk towards the next palace. On my way I passed by the famous statue of emperor Sejong which was responsible for the invention of the Korean alphabet 한글. The alphabet was even carved into the statue. I noticed that some unfamiliar characters of the Korean alphabet like ㆁ, ㅿ and ㆆ which is probably just ㅇ when it’s pronounced as ng.
Just in front of the statue was some sort of Taekwondo competition. I took a brief moment to watch a synchronized Taekwondo performance of some teens. It was quite impressive show with some kids doing somersaults and kicks while jumping.
I’ve finally reached the palace. Just in front of it was some other show. Many people were standing around some stage directly in front of the entrance. On the stage were some actors dressed like ancient guards and officials. Since I still had several palaces and gardens to visit I just passed by the spectacle.
I’ve been to Geongbukgong before so I walked through it quite quickly. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed walking through the palace again.
What I liked even more was the park leading towards the Bukchon Hanok village. This is because of a small area with a few houses that were recreated to look like different stores from the 60s filled with props from the same time. On a small square next to these buildings was the playing field of the famous Squid Game drawn on the floor.
The Hanok village itself was quite commercialized. Many tourists were walking along the traditional streets and explored the several souvenir shops and restaurants. Since I’ve been there before I just explored the several alleys off the beaten path. I stumbled upon a tea museum and decided to visit it. The main attraction was a small two-storeyd building inside the walls of the museum. Here every visitor had the chance to drink on tea for free. I asked the clerk for suggestions and he made me a cold Apricot tea. I took the tea upstairs and took a seat at a wooden table that had a nice view over the museum and the surrounding buildings in the Hanok village. It was quite warm, so a cold tea was exactly what I needed. And I have to say that I fell in love with that tea. It was very delicious and refreshing.
My next stop was Changdokkung palace. The palace itself looked similar to other two palace. However what made it special was the huge gardens that were nearby. I remember that the gardens required a separate ticket that was luckily included in my palace pass. I probably walked around the gardens for 1.5 hours and haven’t seen all of it. Noteworthy was the big green house with huge decorated windows. It was a big cooler inside and the air was filled with the scent of the different flowers and trees. During my stroll I’ve also seen a few supposedly stray cats walking around or taking a nap in the shade.
By now I hadn’t eaten anything so far. I decided to walk to the Gwangjang street food market in the Jongno district. The market was pretty crowded with a lot of tourists. I was on the lookout for a stall that sold 냉면 (Naengmeon) which are cold noodles. I eventually found a small food stall where two elderly women were serving some guests from the US. There was one free seat so I took the opportunity and sat down. It was quite loud when I ordered from the elderly woman. I ordered a bowl of 냉면 and some Cass in Korean, however the first thing she gave me was a small bottle of wine. I tried it and it was quite strong, so I ordered another Cass to compensate the strong taste of the wine. I finally received the cold noodles and started eating and drinking. The wine bottle was still half full (or empty depending on how you want to frame it) when I finished my dinner. To get it over me I drank the second half of the wine in shots followed by some beer. When I was done, I could feel that I was a bit tipsy. I called the elderly woman’s attention by calling her 이모님 - which I had learned from a friend. She laughed and collected my money.
Once I stood up that I wasn’t just a bit tipsy, thus I thought getting some fresh air was the best option to sober up. There were many shops in Jongno and Dongdaemun district. I saw a shopping mall on my way to N-Seoul tower. I had never been to a shopping mall in Korea, so I was keen to experience it for the first time. I was quite surprised to see how the shop owners of the various clothing shops talked to me directly and tried to lure me into trying on some clothes. This was especially surprising since store employees in China and Japan were not that vocal in my experience. I eventually caved in and entered one of the shops. I saw a cool shirt that I liked, but I wasn’t allowed to try it on. The guy put the shirt close to by body and concluded that it must fit. Maybe still a bit tipsy I just accepted the fact and bought the shirt. I then quickly left the shopping mall to save my remaining money.
It started to get cloudy by now, so I decided to go back to Seoul station. The shortest way to there was through N-Seoul tower. Meaning I had to ascend and descent the mountain on the other side. When I started to climb the first stairs of mount Namsan I could already feel the first little drops on my head and arms. I was prepared and took my umbrella out of the bag. It started to rain even more. Luckily it stayed relatively mild nonetheless. I eventually reached the ground floor of N-Seoul tower. I entered it but then spent a while trying to find the right exit to the other side of the tower. The descent was pretty enjoyable compared to the ascent and after some more time I finally reached the base of the mountain. To it took me about 20 more minutes until I’ve reached the train station again.
On my way back to Hongdae I asked my classmate from Taiwan to have dinner. She agreed and thus after a quick warm shower we went to eat Japanese Shabushabu. When I came back to my Mini Studio my smart watch showed me that I had taken over 40.000 steps that day. Apart from my hike up and down mount Hallasan this must have been the most steps I’ve ever taken in my life and surprisingly I didn’t feel any pain in my legs. Still I fell in my bed and quickly slept.
Recap#
The pace of the second week was a bit slower compared to my first week in Hongdae. I mostly indulged in classes and kept up with my homework for both morning and afternoon classes. I got to know more of my classmates and had some delicious food. While I spent more time by myself in the second week, this would change in the third.