Today I decided to just walk around randomly and avoid areas that I already knew. So from the Bluguest house I took a different route – I went right. I quickly found another big street with big buildings on the other side in the distance. Samsung and a few other things were written on them.
It was snowing! Not much but this was unexpected. There was also a somewhat strong wind. I passed some kind of wedding and asked an old man standing there what kind of building it was. I didn’t really know what he said but it looked like he wanted me to walk on. I told him my Korean is not so good and he explained something in a friendlier way but I still didn’t understand.
I had lunch in that street (I missed the official guesthouse breakfast again). Some business people were inside, I guess it was somewhat of a business street. While walking around in a connected street, I happened to walk past a movie set for a movie called My PS partner. When I asked a crew member what “PS” stands for, he said “porn sex”. But it was a romantic comedy.
In the same street I met a nice English teacher. She told me many Koreans speak English but they are afraid to do so. In my own experience it’s very different between Koreans, some have studied English and some haven’t. So when I start talking to someone, I’m not always sure what language to use. I prefer when the other person speaks normal-level English so we can actually talk, but sometimes like yesterday in the suit store I talked to the woman for 2O mins in "Korean" and it was ok. I’m thinking about visiting the Hyundai store again just for her. I mean if no other man sees how cute she is and doesn’t asks her out, I should, right?
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| Behind me in a side street was the movie set, the street parallel to the left of this street is the quiet street |
The quiet street behind the movie set was different from other streets I had been in. Less commercial, no things to buy from the streets. It looked more calm and European. What was not European was the PC bang in the basement I went in for internet. The guy who worked there quickly helped me because he was playing some online game with 2 of his friends who were also there. I spoke to him in Korean, he didn’t seem to find it that strange. The seats were very big, soft, expensive and ergonomic. The screens were 22-24 inch but the computers were 1-2 years old already. This kind of place in Europe would not get many non-nerd customers, I mean playing video games in the basement :)
I went into a surf store. Apparently you can surf at Jeju island and something-yang. But there were no real purpose-build running shoes there so I decided to go shopping again some time.
I noticed I ended up in the same “business street” I started the day in when I recognized the tall buildings. This time I was walking on the other side of the street and I went into a place with the word “Wedding” in it. Inside, a wedding was going on. I asked the 2 young girls (1 had braces) what a Korean wedding was like. They said it was like a Western wedding. They were surprised that I knew about hanbok. Maybe I should have talked to them in Korean to really change their ideas about the world ;) Next to this place were more wedding stores. This was what my map called Wedding street (I knew my map said that without looking at my map).
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| Laugh!! |
Somewhere I walked by a photoshoot. When I approached the group of ppl standing outside, a woman saw me and she kept looking at me, trying to recognize me. But she didn’t so luckily she didn’t make a scene. Later a woman holding her phone walked up to me from behind and said “Sillehamnida” (I think), which means “excuse me”. She saw my face and then she thought I couldn’t help her so she walked on to a group ahead without really saying anything to me.
When I was small I was always lucky. Whenever I took a chance, it happened. So I walked by a phone testing promotional stand. I tested a phone with the help of an interesting girl with a hat who couldn't speak English at all and only fast Korean. She said in Korea ppl learn English in school but she didn't. I got to spin a wheel afterwards to decide what I had won. And then the wheel stopped at a narrow colored strip :) What was it? A 1O,OOO gift card! The best price on the wheel ;)
I then went into some art building. On the 1st floor they sold all kinds of artsy stuff that was still useful, but less useful because it was artsy. There was a European influence: maps of the French, London and NY subway, maps of the railways in Europe. I went below grounds where there was some concert called "Green Concert". It was made by JinAir, an airliner, to raise money to give to environmental institutions that protect the environment. The concert is once a month so I want to go there in April and interview some of the artists. Upstairs was some Unicef thing where you can adopt dolls made by Korean celebrities. One of them was overly black, I guess that’s how some Koreans see Africans ;)
Back in one of the most popular streets in Hongdae it was time to get some food. Before I could do that I was surprised by some street event. For Mnet My Idol a group of 4 guys were performing on the street, I think to get ppl to go to a website and vote for them. It was fun to see their dance performance (not that synchronized, but it was cold), there were 2 stores also playing music on either side of their stage so that messed up their music a bit.
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| You need a cyworld account to go to that site, for which you need to have an Alien Registration Card or be Korean |
After dinner, which I didn’t really have, I walked by the place in Hongdae where musicians play outside. The most popular group now had a cameraman filming the thing, maybe they were also part of the Mnet thing. Next to them were 4 guys doing exactly the same thing, all wearing big glasses, trying to make a satire of them. But they didn’t really have an audience.
I went to the B boy theater to see the show. This theater is also in the basement of the building. Why can’t they build higher instead? Although if you’re going to have a basement, you should better make use of it. At the ticket booth I found out the show had already started. Saturdays the show doesn’t start at 8… 1 ticket was 55,OOO but the girl gave me a 5O% discount coupon, “It’s a gift from me”, she said in her good English. She asked where I’m from. Apparently the best way to explain to ppl where Amsterdam is by saying it’s in the Netherlands (which everyone here knows?) or by telling them Heineken is from there. She talked with such energy and enthousiasm, she was by far the nicest girl I met that day ;)
Without having seen the show, I bought macarons on the way back. I never had them before. They had 7 different kinds but in their promotion you could buy 6 for 7OOO ^^ So I bought the same amount most ppl would buy. After this I went into an interesting building with many small restaurants. Upstairs & below grounds you could eat and have your nails done, and upstairs was a store where they sold puppies ;) but I took no pictures :S
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