Seoul Weekends

It's been a while since I've updated, so I'll go over the highlights of my last couple of weeks.
Speaking of highlights, my hair turned out great! haha I love it and was very pleased with my hairdresser. His English was good and we even talked about Kim Kardashian, so I was a happy girl! I'll give you a small glimpse of our conversation: (his name is Michelle, so for the purpose of this he'll be M and I'll be K.)

M: Oh, is this your first time getting your hair colored in Korea?
K: Yes! I needed it so bad!
M: Oh, you are sooo nervous?
K: No, I read a lot of good things about you before I came here, so I know you can do it.
M: Oh no! Now I have to do good! Scary!!    haha he joked like that a few times.

M: So, no orange hair?


K: PLEASE NO ORANGE!
M: (laughs) Okay, I will try to make no orange hair.

Four foils away from finishing my whole head:

M: I think I will make your hair lighter, okay?
K: Uh, yes please. That's what I wanted you to do.
M: Okay good, that's what I do.

hahaha Good thing that's what I wanted.

Michelle looking at a fashion magazine:

M: Kim Kardasian. She has baby with Kanye. Kim Kardashian no more. She ruined that now.
hahaha I loved it! He also serenaded me the whole time he was doing my head. Guess that's why he couldn't tell me about making my hair lighter until 4 foils away from the end. Totally understandable. lol He also took a break to go eat ramen. "It is my lunch time now, you wait." So I sat in my foils and waited like I was told. lol So glad it turned out well!

Look at that blonde hair! 

After getting my hair done, I explored Seoul all day by myself. It was actually really relaxing and nice to go at whatever pace I wanted. I was a little worried I would get lost bored by myself all day, but somehow I managed! That night, I met up with one of my new friends, Tab. She's from Texas and has been super helpful with Korea things since before I got here, so we met up and went to one of her favorite bars. We ran into two of her other friends and hung out with them all night. I met a ton of new people and the girls were so much fun. I eventually turned in because I had been up for so long, I was pretty tired. We all met up the next day for some pizza and getting ready before the concert that we never made it to. lol But that's okay, because we still had an amazing night in Hongdae. Those girls are so much fun! I can't imagine living in Seoul, it's so much fun! We ended the weekend with some much needed On the Border. It was Children's Day here in Korea, but obviously we celebrated Cinco De Mayo instead.

Three of the four new friends before a night out!

Monday was the start of the school week AND finals week!! It also marked the last week of college for many of my friends! Special shout out to Kelsey! I'm so sad I couldn't make it to graduation, but you made it and I'm so proud! Give me 5 more years and I may graduate too! hahaha But finals week ended, and it is officially Summer break for this girl. It doesn't really feel like summer break since I did all online classes and I'm still teaching all summer, but that didn't mean I didn't want to celebrate by going to Seoul! haha

After school on Friday, Laura, Emilee and I set off to Seoul. (Can you tell I really love Seoul? Because I do. haha) We made it pretty early and decided to go to Taco Bell for dinner. Ironically enough, we ran into two different TaLK scholars while at Taco Bell. Obviously we are all missing that crappy "Mexican" fast food. lol But what's even more mind blowing is that in a city of 11 million people, we somehow manage to run into TWO people that we know?! HOW?!? I love it!
We ended up going to Zen Bar for a little bit and meeting this awesome Korean couple. They were so funny and their English was pretty good!


The next day we woke up and went to N Seoul Tower. It's a huge tower that overlooks the city. It was pretty cool, I'm glad we went. We took a cable car up the hill to the tower, then saw the Locks of Love at the bottom of the tower. It's so cute. There are fences with thousands (or millions, I'm bad at estimating) locks and other things with love confessions written all over them. The story goes, you and your significant other are to come to the bridge together and put a padlock on the fence with a message attached. When you lock it, you put the key in a box so that the lock is never opened, because obviously that would cause your love to end. There were all kinds of different ways to express your love. We saw cell phone cases, pictures, a wooden spoon with loving words written all over them. So sweet!

These, my friends, are love benches. They are purposely slanted so you can sit as close as possible to your loved one. 

Writing something....

Left my mark on one of the Love Benches! 

Couples leaving sticker pictures of themselves. 

Picture locks! 

Cell phone case locks! 

This was so much sweeter in person, but this dad was pointing to things and telling his son stuff. I'm assuming he was giving him life lessons about love. It was so cute! 

Millions of locks! 

Seoul Tower in the background

N Seoul Tower

We went back after the tower and rested before going out that night to the Lotus Lantern Festival. This festival is in Buddha's honor and held in Seoul every year with millions of lanterns. We made it to the parade and saw a lot of cool lanterns  then made our way down to some river that was lined with lanterns and had so many onlookers it was crazy. But that's the way it always is in Seoul, I guess! We ended up meeting back up with my friends from last weekend and hanging out a bit before calling it a night.

Parade of lanterns! 

A fire breathing dragon lantern float! 

The river was lined with beautiful lanterns. 

On the river

Lanterns and people as far as the eye can see!

Sunday we woke up and headed to Itaewon for brunch. It was so good and western! yum!!! It was much needed. lol After a delicious breakfast, we walked around in Itaewon for a little bit, then headed to Gangnam. We went into Coex in hopes of finding a jacket I had been wanting, but no luck. We eventually headed back to the hostel and rested before dinner. We found so many good places this weekend. I can't wait until my mom gets here and I can show her some of them!

Look at that plate of American goodness! 

Today is Monday, and our schools were on vacation so we stayed in Seoul last night. We woke up and took our time getting around and then headed to a little restaurant called Butterfinger Pancake! If you've been keeping up with the blog, you'll understand how pumped I was to go check this little gem out. Unfortunately the closest Butterfinger was still about 6,000 miles away, but it was such good food! I was too excited about it to take pictures. lol I highly recommend it if you're ever in Gangnam! Imagine the deliciousness of a Butterfinger pancake though...omg. That may have just moved up to the top of my list of this to do when I get back to America...in 79 days...not that I'm keeping track.

We finally made it back to Gunsan and are preparing for a super short work week. I'm always off on Wednesdays, but school was also closed on Monday (today) and Friday we have off for Buddha's birthday. I'm not exactly Buddhist, but man I'm glad to have the holiday time! Thursday night we're making our way down to Busan to lounge on the beach and do some shopping. Should be a wonderful weekend! This white girl needs some sun and some cute new summer clothes!

Love you all, thanks for reading and have a good week! :)

-Kyla

Just a normal time trying to exit the subway station

Found this little lady! 

Also found this! What in the world!!! 

And this! KD!! OKC represent!

And last, but definitely not least....check on this chunky little Korean nugget. omg I'm dying. I love him so much! We danced the night away in confetti covered streets! He was totally into too, if you can't tell by the excitement on his face.

Okay, the last two sentences are a lie. I may or may not have scarred him for life. He will likely hate foreigners forever, but I'm not even mad about it. He was too cute not to dance with. Omg I melt every time I look at this picture! Unfortunately, our feelings towards each other were not exactly mutual. haha

OMG! Look at those cheeks! Korean babies are the cutest!