- Welcome -: Day 3: Room number 13

Annyeong!

Today we met up with Johanne 씨 in Sinchon and had lunch. Johanne is currently staying in a hostel in Sinchon until she gets to move into her dorm on the 28th. Sinchon is also the area that both of our universities are and where our dorms are located at (or at least mine and Celine's is. I'm not 100% sure about what it's called where Johanne's is located).

We got there before Johanne and sat down in the shadow. It's super common to hear music playing in the streets here but this time it sounded like.. a piano? A piano! On the other side of the street, a guy was playing piano! I thought he'd somehow brought it with him (you'd be surprised to see what performers bring around with them here) but no! That piano stands there and anyone who wants to play on it can.

Johanne took us to a small place that she'd either gone to herself or heard about from one of our classmates, Sophie-Amalie, who was here last semester.

Afterwards we took a trip up to Ewha's campus, Johanne 씨's coming university.

It was a pleasant sight with all the trees and people - it looked like a bunch of students had just graduated or taken their final exams because we saw a couple of girls in robes and family members and friends taking pictures of them. There was a girl in a robe, who posed with a big teddy bear on top of her head while her two friends sitting on the ground enthusiastically snapped her pictures. It was super cute.

There was a couple of benches in a green area, near the people taking pictures, that we sat down on.

It was nice being able to just relax and take in our surroundings even for a short while.

When we'd had enough, we walked back down to the city area. Johanne wanted to buy something that I don't remember, I was running out of sunblock, and Celine found a foot mask that she wanted to try since walking around in sneakers the past days had been hard on her feet.

Celine and Johanne also enjoyed some cold bubble tea as we walked around in the sun.

Johanne went home afterwards because she had to go home and do laundry (she came 2 weeks prior and still hadn't come around doing it). Celine and I went to our hostel to relax and Celine had a nap if I'm not mistaken.

Here's our hostel!

We hadn't been home for long before a message popped up on my Instagram. It was a Korean friend of mine asking if I was coming to see his performance soon.

RIGHT! I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!

Some time before leaving Denmark, my friend had told me that he was in a play and I'd said that I wanted to see it. Amidst preparing, packing, and arriving I had almost forgotten.

Out of all the days they were performing, tonight was the best night to go in regards to our schedule. My actor friend, Changseob (창섭), reserved some discounted tickets for us and we got ready.

We arrived JUST in time and ran in to discover what looked like a smaller movie theater filled with Koreans (it was on the 7th floor in the Starcity building, the one with the yellow light). My friend had gotten tickets on the 3rd or 4th row so we really had a great view of the scene.

The play was called Room Number 13 (룸넘버13) and was a comedy about two lovers, who were cheating on their spouses and trying their best to conceal it - and also that they'd found a dead body in the hotel room they were staying in.

They spoke extremely fast at times and having not practiced Korean all summer (woops) nor being too great Korean speakers yet, we didn't catch all of it.

But we caught the gist of things and when we DID understand the jokes, we laughed pretty hard! There were also a lot of physical (and sexual) jokes thrown in there so that was great as well. Somehow I hadn't imagined seeing a play like this in Seoul.

It was so intimate seeing them all perform right in front of our eyes that I felt like I absolutely could and should not take pictures while they were performing - so I snapped these afterwards. My friend is the one with the hat!

Here's a better picture of the whole place as we were leaving the room.

Changseob had asked us to meet him in the lobby when the show was over so we could all go out and have dinner together. While he was collecting his belongings and changing, we had a quick look at the poster. I actually pointed to it from the couch we were sitting on the one of the other actors thought I was pointing towards him and was like *points to self* "Me?"

And then I had to get up and point at the poster and explain that 'this guy here on the poster is my friend'.

Changseob came out and we had very brief introductions before he asked his friend (the actor who had just thought that I pointed at him, to take a picture of us.

We had samgyeopsal (삼겹살), that Changseob paid for to celebrate that we'd come to Korea and because we came to see his show.

I was clumsy with my chopsticks and might or might not have accidentally dropped food on myself or the table. Celine caught the moment I hid my face in shame and Changseob laughed. Ever since then, he's been calling me a baby.

After eating we went to a bar/pub thing where we tried maksai for the first time! It tasted surprisingly well. "Like white wine with soda so it gets this fresh taste" - Celine
At some point he, too, dropped something so I had my chance to get back at him. Ha-ha!

His friend 'Joji/George' (조지), another actor in the play, made a quick stop by and brought all three of us flavored milk! He brought chocolate, banana, and strawberry flavored milk in little 1/4 L cartons.