September {9/16-9/30} 𝜗𝜚 ࣪˖ ִ𐙚

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Monthly Favorites

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Moods:

Excited, Adventurous, Curious

In the latter half of September, we will take a deep dive into my favorite place in Seoul! Seongsu. Seongsu is known as a trendy area in Korea, I enjoyed my time coming here because it was a shopper's paradise in terms of affordable luxury brands, they hold such as Tamburins, Matin Kim, and Blue Elephant. They have a lot of popular cafes such as Rafre Fruit where Enhyphen's Sunoo ate and uniquely they hold the most locations for pop-up events. Pop-up events are essentially temporary open-store themes that you can participate in for free to gain free items as it is promotional material. As an example, my favorite pop-up event I went to was a Lotteria Pop-Up event where they gave free items for doing various activities in the storefront. Back to Seongsu, I love this place as there is always something new happening and always new events that make you want to come back again and again. Seongsu is not a place for a one-stop-and-done.

My museum saga continues! I explored a total of 7 museums in South Korea this month. As previously mentioned in my last blog, going to museums is completely free with optional paid exhibit add-ons. The following museums I visited were: the National Folk Museum, Jeonjaeng Museum of Korea, National Museum of Korea, Seoul History Museum, Alive Museum, Leeum Art Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National Museum of Seoul Craft. This list is in order from my most to least favorite visit, so take this information as you will. Tips to Korean Museum, if you are planning to take pictures and videos make sure that the flash is not on! They are very strict about this and as always please be mindful and keep the volume down as places like this require quietness as other people are also enjoying the exhibits. If you want to know why National Folk Museum was #1 for me feel free to message me :D! During this time, I also enjoyed going thrifting! The culture here is a bit different where thrifting is catered towards vintage pieces making them pricier compared to thrifting in the US, but I highly recommend going to Dongmyo Flea Market as it is like the Swap meet here in Hawai'i. I was able to find really good vintage clothing for an affordable price.

Olivia Rodrigo Concert: I had the amazing opportunity to see Olivia Rodrigo live in South Korea! This was so exciting for me as it was the first ever concert that I would be seeing in my entire life. How this opportunity presented itself is from a place called PC Cafe. In a PC Cafe, it was the optimal option to get tickets for your favorite artist, all you have to do is go to the ticketing website, make an account, and just pray that you can get tickets. PC ticket hunting was always fun yet rigorous as you are competing against other people worldwide for tickets so I would recommend searching for tips online on how to be as efficient and fast as possible. Now back to my experience of Olivia Rodrigo, me and my friends travelled to Gangnam first to see Bongeunsa Temple, which was a known Buddhist temple for their lantern lights and giant statues. We later moved onto Jamsil Stadium where we got our tickets and bought merch to support Olivia! In the end, I gained a concert addiction, Olivia is such an amazing and talented singer, and I am so grateful I was able to see her during my study abroad period.

At the end of September, my school had a festival called Cardinal. Just like many other universities in South Korea, they hold festivals to celebrate the students and to show off school spirit, in addition, many artists in the K-pop industry would visit the schools and perform for free! I was so lucky to be a Sogang student as LeSserafim came to my school and performed, I was in front of the barricades, and so the feeling I felt seeing Olivia Rodrigo translated again that day. Other artists that came and performed were Unis, 10cm, and the Sogang cheer team. In addition to school performances, there were promotional club events and food trucks that you could visit. I had an amazing time during Cardinal, I made a lot of friends and there were so many activities to do in school.  I also saw my first busking (street performance) that day in Hongdae! Support local artists!

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Locations:

Incheon, South Korea

Seoul, South Korea

Suwon, South Korea