Seoul

Day 1 back in Seoul and I decide to make it a quiet one (as far as drinking goes) while I try to get some things planned for the rest of the trip. There's a couple friends about an hour outside the city that I'll need to catch up with when able, but the real challenge is trying to contact everyone that's in the city whose kakaotalk IDs I'm missing. Friends of friends will need to relay messages for me.

I went out to a bookstore to pickup some korean study books, which it turns out I don't happen to like once I've torn off the packaging. Ah well, at least I can read it. Practice makes better (never perfect), as my teacher would say.

A nice walk around in the 30 degree heat wasn't nearly as bad as it is in NZ. How I'm not already sunburnt is beyond me, but I plan to do the same again today - gotta get those 20k steps in, and exploring certainly helps with that.

The local university is abuzz with people - turns out I'm in the middle of some double weekend long celebration. To my surprise, Psy had been singing there last night, and is due to perform again at another university next weekend, along with some other kpop groups - something to gate crash.

At this university however, they've setup a hundred mini pubs in the stadium alongside the stage. As night falls, the throng of people crossing the road to pass the gates reminds me of shibuya in Japan. They have all sorts of things going on as I walk the grounds, even a dance battle right along the main street. I do not feel enriched for having witnessed it. The stage captures the attention of thousands of students, while I have zero idea who is performing. The crowd engagement is intense - something that's all to easy to notice missing at other gigs.

More amusing were the water balloon throwing booths. Several hapless Koreans with their heads sticking through holes in a slab of MDF were relentlessly pelted by passers by for a dollar or two.

Temporary tattoos (it's illegal to do real ones without being an actual doctor here), surfing simulators, knickknacks and freebies galore made for a wonderous, albeit completely confusing night given my current level of korean language. The hustle and bustle and hecticness is exciting regardless.

This morning I find myself at my breakfast cafe a bit later than usual, and to my detriment. The place is packed. A seat at the bar was my only option for writing this with a cappuccino next to me. I scoped out a dog and cat cafe yesterday that I'll look at visiting before lunch. Reportedly they have crazy cat lady levels of animals on hand to play with while you have afternoon tea.

Tonight however is the last day of the Hongdae university celebrations, which I'll align with a pub crawl in the same area to catch up with Tasos, one of the owners/guides of the crawl. That just leaves me with occupying myself between afternoon and evening. Idle hands and all that.