October {10/16-10/31} 𝜗𝜚 ࣪˖ ִ𐙚

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Monthly Favorites

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Moods:

Excited, Adventurous, Curious, Overstimulated, Spooky

Welcome to the latter half of October, let’s get started! As this was the month of Halloween and spooky events, my friend and I decided to visit the Junji-Ito Exhibit. About exhibits in Korea, they are theme events where you can attend to see your favorite characters and participate in themed activities. They are like Pop-Up events however these are ones that you got to pay for to participate. This was my second exhibit in Korea so far as the first one I attended was a Jungkook exhibit (highly recommended btw). Now back to the Junji Ito Exhibit, we decided to visit because it was a spooky season, and we wanted to get into the spirit of Halloween. Overall, it was an okay experience. The attraction was fully in the Korean language, so it was kind of hard to understand what was happening, but it was still fun, nevertheless. I am a big fan of Junji Ito’s horror work so I would say it was well worth it if you like the artist themselves. 

Moving onto notable places in the second half of the month. I have two to talk about; the first is Cheonggyecheon Stream, a peaceful area with an outdoor library. The ideal spot to study for midterm week which happens this part of the month! The second location is called Apgujeong. A popular destination to see celebrities in as well as a popular destination for affordable luxury. I enjoy exploring Apgujeong as it is a very vibrant location of city buildings and the fashion here within the people is just top tier. 

Trip to Jeju Island: My friends and I took a flight to Jeju Island! Also known as the Hawai’i of Korea. My friends and I went to various places such as the gift shop of Jeju to hunt for exclusive Jeju merchandise, sitting at the rainbow stones in front of the beaches, eating known foods such as cream puffs and Jeju black pork belly, and lighting up fireworks and having our coming-of-age moments on the beaches. My experience is that Jeju Island is worth the trip as the beaches here are so beautiful and I missed seeing them while I was in Korea. A thing to note about Jeju is that my friends and I had to rely on taxis a lot to get around as public transportation can often be unpredictable and sometimes late. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience, and I am glad I will be able to share this moment with friends. Unfortunately, during this time, I had my midterm the following day, so I had to cut my trip short! Please plan accordingly if such events were to arise as I was often feeling stressed during the later days of this trip. 

Midterm Week: Stress. That is the only word I can think of when it comes to my midterm experience in Korea. I had a total of 4 midterms which was tedious to study for, to say the least. I will say though that I was lucky that most of the midterms I had were open book, so I heavily relied on focusing more on the application part of questions to maximize my time studying for midterms that were closed. Midterm week in Korea is no joke as a lot of students I saw huddle themselves up at the library and the dorm to study. A way to describe it is that you can feel the tension and pressure in the air when you look at the local students who are working hard to achieve a good grade. It made me feel inspired to do my best as well because education is a crucial part of Korean culture and life here. At the end of midterm week, I was glad that I survived and that it humbled me to be more studious in the Korean academic lifestyle. 

Kiss of Life Concert: In addition to finishing up midterms I went to see Kiss of Life! This was the first ever concert they held in South Korea, so it was great to be one of the first people to see this happen. The concert was deep in Jamsil in Olympic Hall which is near the JYP Entertainment Building. Later on in the week, I was able to eat at Gordon Ramsay Restaurant which was my first time eating at a well-known chef-chained location. If you ever go, I highly recommend getting the mushroom burger it was delightful! 

The month ended celebrating Halloween! Halloween life in Korea was cool as there were so many costumes that pertained to Asian culture animation and characters. A moment that happened was that I and my friends went to Hongdae to see all the costumes and as we were walking to the main street, we saw a man holding a zombie-like contraption. It was super realistic that we thought it was a real zombie. It was quite scary, and we ran for our lives haha! If you ever get the chance to visit Korea during Halloween night you will see so many amazing creators showing off their works in the form of dressing up! They are passionate about craftsmanship, so it was noisy to appreciate their work. Anyways thank you for reading and Happy Halloween!

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Locations:

Incheon, South Korea

Seoul, South Korea

Jeju, South Korea