Day 2: What is 'Maksai'?

Hi!

Today was far more relaxing and it finally hit us that we were in Korea.

We woke up around 10 (an hour later than planned) so we could take pictures with make-up on with the two Chinese girls we were sharing our room with. 

They were super patient though and we walked to the subway together before we split.

They were going on an entertainment tour (looking for JYP, SMent, Cube, and the other company buildings in Gangnam) while we had talked about going to Myeongdong to get face masks.

We took the subway going the wrong direction though and decided to just go to Hongdae.

 We found a place at Hongdae station that had a huuuuge variety of hair products, make-up, cremes and whatnot.

I don't remember exactly where we were when this happened, but today I heard sirens (at least I think it was today. Maybe it was the day after. I'm writing this on September 4th). Like the sirens that some countries turn on in case of attack and things. Apparently today was the day they tested them. Celine didn't hear them for some reason but I did. I was getting a tiny bit worried but looked at the Koreans around us, who just didn't seem to care. I guess I'm a bit more jumpy because of the whole North Korean missiles thing going on.

We spent all day there. We shopped a little and explored some of the smaller streets off the main road and once the clouds parted and unleashed half an ocean worth of water, we bought some cheap umbrellas.

 I bought the two shirts in the picture and Celine a red knitted shirt

 Before leaving Denmark, I had promised Emilie that I would kidnap Taemin if I found him. I haven't seen the real deal yet but the cardboard figure was a good start!

 Last time we were here we found this store that sells the prettiest dresses ever!

...and agreed that we wanted to buy at least one dress from there at some point!

 Celine got hungry so we found a really chill café where she bought these pizza... something.

The meat wasn't fantastic and the bread was your typical sweet Korean type. She said that she'd eat it again if someone bought it for her. But that it was worth a try.

As we were walking at some point, four girls stopped us outside a sock store and asked us to join their club. Before the girl speaking could continue, though, we all ran into safety from the rain near the entrance to an underground store. The girls asked us some quick questions about what we though of Korea and why we were there, and told us that their club met up once a week to discuss different cultures. We exchanged Kakaotalk IDs (the main messaging app here) and, in true Korean fashion, took pictures before splitting up again. Once we have settled down with school and all, I think we'll go.

We also learned something new today!

While looking for phone covers, we chit-chatted with the guys working there (and completely slaughtered our Korean). They told us that on days like this (cloudy and rainy) (but still super humid hnnnng!),  Koreans liked to drink the top part of unstirred makgeolli (rice wine that is usually stirred before you drink it) where you take the top part and cider. A half half mix of those! They said that it was a 'young style' of drinking. The one who told us about it didn't have a specific name so we named it 'makcider/'makci' (막사이?). We have to try this one day.

For dinner we teamed up with our other classmate, Johanne, who will be attending Ewha University, and had chicken and beer - this is called 'chimaek' (치맥). She was a little late so while waiting for her, we sat down near a small group of people to listen to two guys singing ballads.

 Johanne took us to a place that served good boneless chicken

 The fries were also really great!

After dinner we went to a tiny (and I mean TINY) bar in Hongdae and spent the rest of the night there so we could walk back to the station and take the next subway home.

 Just have a look at how many people are out at night here.

 The bar is called Vinyl and they serve their drinks in little bags that can be re-used. On the backs they have drawings of how you can re-use the bags for other purposes than drinks. It's super cute.

 Johanne was super cute as well! My face looks pretty wide and shiny here for some reason but it is a good picture from that moment.

Celine really wanted me to take pictures of this Totoro hanging somewhere not far from the bar.

I hope the 24-hours subway will become a reality while we live here because Korean nightlife is no joke.