Week 5 in Korea - YonKo Games and Turning 21
South Korea ·Hello! I am writing this one week late in one of my classes right now. I don’t have too much time now, so this blog will probably be a dump of all the things that happened and not too much reflection, but that’s okay! I’ll also try to get the Week 6 blog out soon and get back on schedule, hopefully this actually happens. This week was probably one of the busier weeks I’ve had since coming to Korea, with so many different events happening. I also cannot believe it has been five weeks since coming to Korea – it really only feels like a week has passed, but once I look at where I have visited, what I have eaten, or all the people I have met, five weeks starts to make more sense.
I wanted to start by writing about how the lack of different foods is really frustrating at times. There have been so many times where I am just craving tacos, shawarma, or even just Chinese food, and I just cannot find those foods nearby. During the first few weeks it was fine since I could keep eating Korean food, but now all I want to do is to eat a bowl of Chipotle or something. It does make sense that the variety isn’t there, since there are fewer immigrants that come to Korea as compared to America, but it is still sort of sad that there is only Korean food to eat. People are saying that there is a Chipotle knockoff around, so I will try to eat that soon!
Now, moving on, like I said before, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my free days, so I try to do something or explore Seoul during those days. And this Tuesday ended up being a very touristy day. When I woke up (very late as always), I headed to Insadong, where I explored the main street and the smaller alleyways a bit. Then, after having lunch, I continued to walk around and check out the different handcrafted items, including at Ssamziegil, which is an open four-story mall containing many different small shops. I didn’t end up buying anything, but I am sure I will return sometime, and I’ll probably pick up a souvenir or handcrafted item next time. Afterwards, I had tea at a really pretty traditional tea house, and I ended up sitting there for a while just relaxing and enjoying the ambience. When I was done lounging around, I headed over to Changdeokgung Palace, where I walked around for about an hour or so. After that, I walked to Ikseon-dong and explored around, and relaxed at a cute cafe overlooking the walls of the Jongmyo Shrine. During the evening, I went back to Yonsei University and attended the YonKo Games Eve Festival, where some singers and groups performed. I got to the festival a bit late, but I was able to see Silica Gel, Davichi (they sang their Descendants of the Sun OST!!!), and YG, and the whole thing was just really enjoyable.
On Thursday, I went to Tongin Market, which is a small market near Gyeongbokgung that has a unique system for buying food. You go to a cafe and exchange 10,000 won for 20 traditional Korean brass coins and a plate. Then, you walk around the market and exchange your coins for food at the street vendors, and they put it directly on your plate. At the end, you go back to the cafe to finish the food. The food was actually pretty good, I think it was the first time I actually enjoyed tteokbokki, and I probably would go back just for the vibes.
Afterwards, me and my roommate decided to go to some museum, but we wanted to walk there. And while walking, we decided to take a smaller road instead of a main road. And one decision led to another, and instead of walking to a museum, we found ourselves walking up a mountain for a hike. Along the way, we stopped by an archery museum that was there. Then, we spent the next 5-6 hours hiking around, first going to Suseongdong Valley, then hiking to the top of Inwangsan, coming down the mountain to rest at Cheongun Literature Library, a really cute library with a waterfall and pagodas, and then finally hiking up Bugaksan. My phone ran out of battery while hiking up Bugaksan, but my health app showed 30,000 steps for that day. I really love spontaneous trips like this, where there is no set plan and just walk somewhere and have a good time. In this case, because I do enjoy hiking and being in nature, I think hiking ended up being a much better decision than going to a museum.
On Friday, I skipped class once again to attend the YonKo Games baseball game. The YonKo Games is a yearly rivalry between Yonsei University and Korea University, two of the top three schools in Korea. Each year, they compete in baseball, ice hockey, basketball, soccer, and rugby. As an exchange student, I am only able to watch the baseball and soccer games (I think rugby too but it was canceled this year). It has been a year since I have seen a baseball game in person, so I was really excited to attend another one. I was waiting to see a good game, but it ended up being a sweep (we lost). Just to cut it short, our baseball team got embarrassed. In 9 innings, we made it to first base I think four times. We didn’t even touch second base once. Regardless of the loss, the cheering was really enjoyable, and it was still the most fun I had in a baseball game.
After the game, I headed to Lotte World Tower with some friends, where we did some shopping, went to see the Lotte World Aquarium, and went up the Lotte World Tower to the top. The view from the top was stunning, and I think that it is much better than the view from N Seoul Tower.
Friday was also my birthday, so to celebrate, I went out with my roommate for dinner. Of course, since I was turning 21, I had to celebrate the American way by eating steak and drinking beer. And since I am also Las Vegas legal now, after dinner, I practiced my gambling skills by heading to the claw machines, where I spent an amount of money I am unwilling to disclose. But I did win a really funny duck that I really like! I named him Quagmire. Finally, I had some cake, and that was my birthday :D
On Saturday was the YonKo Games Soccer Games, which were also really exciting. To give a quick rundown, at this point in timeYonsei scored a goal in the first 10 minutes, then nothing happened until 90 minutes, so I thought we had the win for sure. So the whole time, I was happy cheering with the rest of the Yonsei. But then Korea scored an equalizer goal in 3 minutes of stoppage time, and you can just see everyone’s mood dampening. I thought it was over at that time, but then, magically, we ended up scoring a world-class goal at 7 minutes into stoppage time, and everyone, including me, erupted into a huge celebration. We won the game after that, but I will never forget the vibe of the stadium after the final goal. I’ve never been more happy watching a sports game in the past three years (Bay Area teams gg). I can’t fully describe it in words, so I’ll just link a video of what happened here. But this was definitely the most fun soccer game I’ve attended, and I hope to be back to another one someday!
