Day 12: Lotte Tower with Jake

I'm unsure if I ever mentioned my friend Jake on here but a couple of years back I made a really good friend called Jake Yoon (윤지석). We used to talk almost every day on Skype about everything and nothing but sort of lost contact after I got busy with my studies.

When we talked, Jake was attending school in New Zealand but had since then returned to Korea while he's waiting for his Swedish visa so he can move there to study.
Well, we sort of talked a bit earlier this year because he had originally applied for a school in Denmark. I told him how I was going to go to Korea and so we finally decided to meet today!

He wanted to buy some new clothes before leaving so we decided to first meet up at Isu station, close to where he lived, and then afterwards head to Sinsa. There were so many things to catch up on so we kept missing the stations we had to get off at because we were so invested in our conversation. I think we switched back and forth maybe 5 times before finally paying enough attention to get off at the right place.

None of us had eaten so the first thing we did was to go look for food, while Jake told me about the place and how we were probably going to spot models and idols here. Soon we found a pizza place, which was great because I had promised a friend from Gwangju to look for good pizza places in Seoul! Two birds with one stone!

We had a really good chicken salad and this pizza with cheese inside the crust! It was amazing!

There was a small bucket on our table that had garlic dipping sauce, hot sauce, and strawberry jam(?!) that you could put on top of your pizza or dip it in. We discussed how weird it was that Koreans liked to put so many sweet things on their pizza. One of my Danish friends once had a pizza with whipped cream on it and another had fries with cinnamon.

Here, too, we spent a long time catching up. I heard what he'd done once he finished school and he heard about my family since my mom used to always walk into my room when he and I talked. It was amazing to be able to talk like that after such a long time apart.

The clothing store Jake really liked in Sinsa had closed down so we tried looking elsewhere (and definitely spotted some trainees/idols!) but to no avail.

Then what?

Then we went to Lotte Tower, Korea's tallest building and the 5th tallest in the world, since I had never seen that and there was a biiiiiiig mall near it!

Again we got a bit too caught up in our conversation but it didn't take as many tries this time to get off at the right place ^^;

While we had been down in the subway, it had gotten dark outside and Jake told me about how the tower should be nearby and that we should just look around for it. Not even even a minute passed before the tower caught his eyes and he almost scared my half to death with his jump of excitement.

It was absolutely beautiful with all the lights. Even Jake, who told me he didn't usually care for buildings, was impressed.

Lights were dancing along the 123-story building and the top part was changing colour.

Instead of crossing the trafficked road, we went down the subway and out through the exit on the other side. LOOK HOW FANCY THIS IS. THIS IS UNDERGROUND. IN THE SUBWAY!

We didn't get to go to the top of the tower but Jake told me that it was so very very expensive and how there was a fine eating place up there. We'd been talking about our future dreams until now so I exclaimed that, from now on, one of my life goals was to go to the top of the tower once.

Inside the GIGANTIC mall we went around one of two clothing stores looking for something for him. He found a present for his girlfriend that we tested out by having me try it since his girlfriend and I are the same heights. But again, we couldn't find anything for him, sadly.

Jake was super tired and I had a stomach ache so we sat down at Krispy Kreme to get him some coffee and me some chocolate milk.

I will forever treasure these pictures hahaha

Right across from us was a flying tiger store, which is Danish! I was so proud that little Denmark was represented in a country so far away, which I like to much.

On our way out I asked Jake if we could go out through the entrance we came from because where we'd entered was a glorious golden and white display that I'd really wanted to take picture of!

That didn't happen because the center was so big that we got sort of lost and just went outside the nearest entrance. There was this other picture zone where he took my picture, though.

The big headphones were actually playing music! They were playing a song by a Korea duo named AKMU, whose music I really like so I was having my own little party.

The weather was so nice now. There was no wind and it was not too humid. It was just fine for a t-shirt and shorts.

Celine laughed at these pictures because she thought my legs looked awkward. She took a picture of me once while walking that turned out really weird and now she just can't get over it.

We sat down at one of the tables shown in the picture above and just sat there enjoying our surroundings.

His phone had run out of battery so I used my subway app to look up which one to take back home. We had to take the same line and at the same time so I figured we would be taking the same train in the same direction.. but nope! It was the last train going that day so he went with me all the way to Sinchon before taking a taxi home.

All in all it was one of the best days I've had here so far I think! I was so happy to finally meet him and hear how well he was doing. We talked about how unreal it felt like to finally see each other in person How we both looked like what we did two years ago and how we'd imagined each other, but somehow still different.
I hope I get to hang out with him again before he moves and I hope we get to keep in contact again from now on.
If there is some mysterious force reading this, please grant me that wish ✧