What I have been doing and noticed...

Sinchon Intersection 

Hello Kitty Cafe w/ Frenz

I can't believe I've been here for more or less 3 weeks. The sad thing is I've always been in Seoul this whole time and haven't really seen that much within Seoul except for the stuff on the city tour. There is Sinchon, the major food/shopping (but i feel it's more food) hub right in front of the Yonsei University and it's also close to Ehwa University or otherwise known as Idae. In Idae, there are lots of coffee shops and more shopping area. I only passed by but it's mostly cheap and cute shopping area. Another shopping area or hang out for university students or young people are Hongdae. Hongdae is SUPER busy at night especially. Actually, even though it's busy, you should go at night. Because lots of the street food is out, and there are lots of street musicians. If you take the subway to Hongdae at night, you will always see people going in with their guitar on their backs to set up to sing at Hongdae. As far as I knew, there is no such thing as a permit? but I still feel like there's still a process to be singing on the streets like they do. Cuz, THEY ARE SOOO GOOD. Hongdae has a lot of restaurants, clubs, shopping and just everything. It's all relatively cheap as it's the main university hang out students for 3 different nearby universities. Yonsei, Ehwa and Hongik University. At Hongdae there are many notable places, like the luxury Karaoke that is seen in many dramas and variety shows, SE7EN's chicken restaurant, Coffee Prince owned by MBC but it's not the one used on the set. There's also a hello kitty cafe(which is ALL pink I must say).

Kpop goods store at Myeongdong

I also went to Myeongdong, which is known to be an area where lots of tourist go for shopping. Lots of Japanese people there. It was really interesting. I noticed if you want to buy knock off Kpop goods, that's the place you go to. But note, there are SO many people there, all shopping. The shopping at Myeongdong is very diverse. From really expensive stuff like Beanpole to cheap sidewalk stuff. It was really great to see the contrast. :)
On the way to Myeongdong, I stopped by Dongdaemun. Which is basically SHOPPING HEAVEN. You can BARGAIN! and it's like 5 floors of shopping. Make sure you bargain when you are there.
Anyways after almost being here for a month, there are some notable differences that I would like to point out. If you have seen eatyourkimchi videos, you probably heard about this before but this is something I would like to say in case you haven't.

Let me begin.

Myeongdong

Holding hands, linking arms, and wrapping an arm is very normal between same gender friends. This will be taken differently as a couple act if it was w/ opposite gender friends. No matter what the real story, to Koreans, if you go anywhere alone with just your best guy friend or your best girl friend, they will interpret it that you are a couple.
On that note, when you are going anywhere with your friends, it's better to have one person pay to the actual person. Instead of asking the cashier person to split it. So on that note again, Korea is very much a cash country.  Bring cash with you all the time. Some places don't even accept cards, and as a foreigner is also it's a gamble whether your card works at that place or not.

When you come to Seoul and are using public transportation, there are some manners that many people tend to ignore. Don't need to let the older ladies or older men go ahead of you or not you will NEVER get on the bus. PUSH, SHOVE, have your elbows out until you get on the bus or subway. Cut in line if you have to. When you bump into someone or fall into someone, no need for sorries because it's a very much a common occurrence. Especially on the bus, because the bus drivers here are also very scary. They speed, they START breaking at the distance where at a westerner's point of view a safe distance to stop at with the car in front of you. I'm surprised that I haven't witnessed that many car accidents, I actually am surprised there are MORE car accidents or like huge incidents at all. Speaking of driving, what's surprising here is that, cars do not care at all about pedestrians. If there's no one on the cross walk and it's still a green light for pedestrians, they will still drive through the cross walk. They don't care at all. So be careful walking in Seoul as a pedestrian.

Anyways, I went to the RENT musical yesterday and I have to say I was FLOORED. Blew my expectations out the window. Why?
Well, Korea is very strict and relatively conservative compared to the West. So when I heard that RENT was going to be playing in Korea, my thought would be, they would change things and censor some things.
For those who don't know what RENT is, is basically a musical raising awareness about AIDS. It contains 3 couples, one hetero, one gay and one lesbian and it has a grungy feel to it. Anyways, I went to see it and this version, they completely outdid themselves!
(Spoilers for those who haven't seen RENT and would like to see RENT)
Anyways, the girl who played Mimi (Yoon GongJu) she was absolutely amazing. Her voice was perfect, her emotions were perfect, her acting, her dancing, everything screamed out Mimi to me. I personally think she did better then the Mimi at the last performance on Broadway version and the original cast. One thing tho, she woke up from her "death" too early but that was it.
Brian Joo, played Mark's character really well. Initially I thought he was singing too softly for the musical especially at the Tango Maureen, when I saw the press rehearsal videos. However, when I saw him live, he sang with all his might. I was amazed and impressed.
The person that impressed me the most was the guy that played Roger (Kang Taewul). He played Roger's character REALLY well. His voice was perfect for Roger and, i had shivers when he sang One Song Glory and even when he sang his duets. It was just amazing. I am impressed. Completely impressed with him.

After the show, I waited to see Brian Joo and got his autograph. This is the first time I personally ask a celebrity to sign something for me, so when he asked me how to spell my name, I spelt my own name wrong... sighs... I turned stupid in front of him. T_T

Anyways, best musical experience I ever had. I hope to see Kang Taewul again in a different musical or Yoong Gongju as well.

Well, Now it's Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving. And it's one of Korea's biggest holidays. It just started, so I'll let you know what is in store for me this long weekend.

Signing out~