GOLO or Gabby Adventure Time Now: A Tale of the Adventures Had by Gabby in Places That Were Not Jungwon University, the Marble Prison, but Still Within the Land of Korea.

안녕 여러분!
It's Day 51 and I'm now in the lovely land of Hwacheon - my home for the next year!
I've escaped from the marble prison!

I will give you all a tour of this place eventually, but I still have some stories from earlier to share. As I said last time, I did manage to have some adventures this summer outside of the marble prison (believe it or not). Now I would like to share them with you.
(note PINK equals link from now on! Click away!)
Ahem.

And now for,
A Tale of the Adventures Had by Gabby in Places That Were Not Jungwon University, the Marble Prison, but Still Within the Land of Korea.

The slightly insane young-person, Gabby, escaped from the marble prison one weekend on a magical bus that led her to the land of lights, KPOP music, and drunk foreigners: Seoul.
She had a trusty companion, Rachel, who was the mastermind behind the escape. The plan was as follows:
1) While almost all the other ETAs go on a temple stay, we run in the opposite direction (get on the bus)
2) Once we arrive in the Seoul paradise, eat all the food possible, build stamina.
3) Acquire the necessary tokens to achieve full tourist power (metro card for Rachel, SD card and camera charger for me)
4) Find the safe zones and build army (go to cafe with wifi and message friends in Seoul to meet them)
5) Capture all the Pokemon, become the pirate king/hokage/avatar, bring balance to the force, defeat Voldemort, destroy the ring of power, master the four elements, free ourselves from the Matrix, find El Dorado and the Holy Grail, reunite the Koreas... (Do fun things with our friends).

Most of this did go according to plan… except the area we were in was mostly cute clothing shops and skincare stores (Master Rachel knows basically all there is to know about skincare and helped me choose a moisturizer). But that meant no electronics stores… and no charger for Gabby. Thus no camera.

And then our friends were not free that evening we were in Seoul. So we never built our army…

And we didn't really do anything too crazy. We just ate bingsu and went to a norebang for a chill evening. I didn't become the pirate king. Still have the One Ring. Voldemort is sipping a martini now. No epic adventures really that day… (dreams crushed)

The next day we just had a few hours, so we went to Itaewon (aka the foreigner district of Seoul) to meet Rachel's friend. While killing time, we stumbled into the antique district… and there were endless antique stores (all closed because its 10 am on a Sunday). There was one store that was like a super antique store. Like an antique roadshow blown up antique store. Like I can image an epic, artsy photo-shoot or creepy music video with someone dressed up like an abandoned doll staring at you with glassy eyes all happening here. These photos sort-of not-really capture the feeling:

There was old fashioned bathtubs, creepy-giant Santa statues, all those rocking horses and clocks you see in the photo. Just about anything you'd expect at a circus. All at this ridiculous antique store. I felt revitalized. Like I'd discovered a new civilization or the answer to the world. It was an experience and I recommend all future set designers and prop masters to go here.

Rachel and I went back to Jungwon University that afternoon for more mandatory meetings and workshops. And our brief respite was over.

We went back to Seoul again, but this time as the whole Fulbright army just last weekend. We spent more of that weekend on the bus than anywhere though… from departing Jungwon at 5:30 in the morning to the hours and hours we spent trying to go north (to Hwacheon! Making Korean news again) on Sunday. No corn was gifted in the morning, but instead awesome party lighting made the ride:

Well, that and the 물 kingdom my bus created. The back of the bus seats are higher than all the other seats, making the special few feel like royalty observing their subjects. Rachel was our 물 king, Julia our queen, Leanndra our fool, and I, the bard, who usurped the David bard. Everyone else, the commoners who made our king doilies… maybe you had to be there. >.< Just know I sang a lot of epic songs, channeling some Monty Python "Brave Sir Robin".

(I also spent time rolling on the bus floor, and I must have fallen onto a seat because I've got a distinct seat-handle-shaped bruise on my… on an unpleasant part of my body.)

On our free day in Seoul, I went to Eat Your Kimchi's new cafe You Are Here. It was so much fun. I'm a fan of Eat Your Kimchi (I've seen about 80% of all their videos) and meeting them in real life was akin to meeting a movie star. It's hard to believe they're real and that you're talking with them. Here is the "selfie" Simon took with us:

The cafe is super cute too! Here's Micia posing out front, and a view from the second floor:

Me schmoozing (I hope to video edit for them someday! Gotta talk while I can) Also check out Martina and my floral coordination. >>

Moving on from Seoul weekend - I went hiking in Goesan another weekend before Korean finals.
So hiking round 2 also happened. I don't have many fun stories to share… but here are some fun photos: