Week Seven: See ya, Korea
Please Don't Stop the Music
Monday was my last full day in Seoul, and while I was excited to return to work and my friends, I couldn't help but wish I was staying in Seoul for a few more days. The people I met in Seoul were all amazing, and I genuinely hope to stay in contact with them as time goes on.
Even though I was sad about leaving my newfound friends, I spent most of Monday by myself. My first stop was Gangnam. After a confusingly high number of subway transfers (I never realized how helpful being able to read the Chinese on subway signs was until I was in a country where I didn't speak the language), I managed to find my way to the COEX mall. While I'm not generally one to seek out shopping malls in foreign countries (why bother doing something I can just do a Short Pump back home?), this one was a special exception.
Not for the shopping, but for a particular museum. You see, COEX is home to the COEX SMTown Museum. SMTown is owned and run by SM Entertainment, one of the biggest K-pop record labels/idol agencies.
The museum encapsulates the work that 
SM Entertainment has done since its inception in 1989, with a wall dedicated to a quick overview of the largest achievements of each of their groups, and a room for each of the groups as well, showcasing costumes and awards, as well as music video setups and general facts about each of the groups. There's a dance studio where idols actually practiced, as well as a recording studio that has been used in the past. The recording studio now serves as a karaoke room for diehard fans brave enough to sing in front of the long line of people waiting to get in (I was not one of them).
While the museum was interesting (I went mainly for my favorite group - SHINee), what was perhaps even more fascinating was watching the other people who came to visit the museum. If you know anything about K-pop, you probably know that the fans are known for being a bit intense. Never in my life have I seen a group of people so dedicated to and excited over a museum, particularly one 
showcasing things they had seen within their lifetimes. People took photos with their hands in the molds of each of the idol's handprints, played a game that looked at your natal chart and analyzed which member of your favorite K-pop group you would be most compatible with, and took AR photos with their favorite idols.
Then, there were the gift stores. There were two in the museum: one with a cafe and a place to buy K-pop branded snacks, teas, and albums. The other was dedicated to a wider range of merchandise, from passport holders designed in collaboration with Pantone, to semi-precious jewelry that could be engraved with your favorite lyric, to "artist picks" like Converse, snacks, and beauty products. I purchased a book, and an album, but was more interested in the offerings at the cafe because, well, food.
I meandered my way up to the fourth floor, past the other 
gawking fans (coming here made me really feel like a bad fan), and to the SMTown Cafe. After purchasing my CD, I went to stand and squint at the menu, trying to decide what I wanted. Of course, all the foods were somehow paired with a K-pop group (for example, the group Red Velvet only had red velvet flavored things). They even had special water bottles and tea flavors for each group, and sometimes for each member.
I bought a bottle of "apple ade" (apple juice) that came with one of the collectible water bottles (it was small and cute, sue me), and a cookies n' cream cupcake. If you're curious, the cookies n' cream flavor was reserved for EXO-themed foods. I even got to pick out little decorations for the cupcake based on my favorite member of the band. The cupcake had way too much frosting, and the apple juice was...well...apple juice, but anything in the name of a good instagram pic, right?
After eating, I headed back down to the first floor to check out the other gift shop. Unfortunately, many stores in Korea only sell one size of t-shirt, which I like to call ' one size fits small'. So while there were a plethora of adorable shirts, none of them were in my size. Instead, I settled on a copy of Kim Jonghyun's book, 산하엽 (in English, Diphylleia grayi, or skeleton flower), a couple of pins, and a set of pop-art prints of notable places around Seoul.
After the museum, I wandered around the edges of the COEX mall for a little while, and stumpled upon the Seoul World Trade Center, as well as a sculpture commemorating a summit where world leaders gathered in Seoul, featuring a large pillar with Obama's face carved into it. After I sat outside for a little while, enjoying my surprisingly green surroundings, I walked back to the subway to head to Itaewon and the Line Friends flagship store, where the BT21 characters were designed by BTS, another popular K-pop group. I figured if I was going to do one K-pop nerd attraction, I might as well do a couple more.
The trip to Itaewon was much less mind-boggling than my earlier trip to Gangnam, though at one point I almost lost my Metro Card. Thankfully, several locals saw it fall from my pocket and quickly chased me down to give it back. I'm routinely baffled by how considerate people in Seoul are in comparison to a lot of American cities, especially 
because without the card, I wouldn't have been able to get out of the station.
The Line Friends store in Itaewon is equal parts cafe, Instagram spot, and shop. The first floor and stairs have several carefully designed rooms and statues to provide the most aesthetic Instagram photos possible, 
as well as merchandise ranging from t-shirts to portable speakers and camping supplies, all themed after the Line Friends characters. The second floor is dedicated almost entirely to the BT21 cast, with seat cushions, neck pillows, themed Logitech keyboards, and everything in between. Finally, the top floor housed the cafe. There were pastries, drinks, and meat pies (all with their prices inflated because tourism). I picked the drink themed after the BT21 character Tata - a fruity slushie-style drink topped with pop rocks, and the pulled pork pastry. All of the above were delicious, and it was a wonderful and relaxing way to spend my afternoon.
It was getting later in the evening, so I trekked back to Hongdae and ZZZIP Guest House, intending to rest my feet. However, as I trudged up the stairs toward my room, I ran into Kate, and we decided to get dinner. We wandered around Hongdae eat street until we saw an advertisement for chicken wings, and, since we were in Korea, home of KFC (Korea Fried Chicken), we decided to head in. It wasn't until after we sat down that we realized we had picked a pub-style restaurant for dinner. And it wasn't until after we received our food that we realized we hadn't ordered just chicken wings - instead, we got the whole chicken (I discovered this by biting into a vertebrae).
Later that night, I was messaged by Lauren, who asked me if I wanted to go out, since Jackie, Lauren and I were all leaving the following day. I agreed and made the confusing 30-minute walk to their hostel - Time Traveler's Poty Hostel. We sat in the hostel bar for a little while, when we met Cailyn, a college student studying abroad in Seoul for the summer. The four of us, and three German boys, wandered over to a popular park where buskers perform and people drink. After playing a very strange game similar to 'Red Rover', we headed to a nearby club to watch people perform.
After a few hours, I headed back to ZZZIP for the last time this week, and got ready to go home.
Back in the 京, Back to Work
This week was a hectic one, to say the least. I arrived back in Beijing at approximately 7:00 in the evening after a flight to Tianjin, and then a train ride back to Beijing. I spent the rest of the evening unpacking. The next morning, Wednesday, I was back at work and was thrown headlong into a long-term data collection project and preparations for the seminar that would begin the following week.
I was added into a group with Aryaman, Wen Hao, and Lawrence that is tasked with looking at Fortune 500 corporations, and other similarly large companies, and analyzing the quality of their corporate responsibility policies, and looking into what policies they have regarding child protection and child labor. Shockingly, a lot of these companies don't have any policies (at least on their websites), and if they do, a lot of them don't mention children.
I continued assisting with seminar preparations where I could, but since Lawrence arrived, my proofreading skills have been unnecessary. At this point, I was mostly just advising on choosing particular phrases or words over others as the seminar group went through the seminar schedule in between my other work.
While busy, it was a short week for me and it ended up flying by. I know next week will end up getting much busier, however, as the seminar participants arrive and we begin the presentations on Monday.
火锅和兔头
Thursday and Friday were busy not only with work, but also with fun. Thursday night, Enbo, Lawrence, and I took Aryaman out for 重庆火锅 (Chóngqìnghuǒguō - Chongqing hot pot). I'd never had hot pot specifically from Chongqing before, but hot pot is one of my favorite foods back home (though it's nowhere near as spicy) so I feel like I can include myself in the group that did the 'taking out'. It was an effort to get Aryaman to try 麻辣 food again (you may remember from my last blog post that it didn't go so well), but unfortunately we ordered a spicy broth that is made with cow fat, and he was only able to eat on the vegetable broth side, which isn't spicy. We tried several different things with the hot pot, including 鸭血 (yāxuè - duck blood), 鸭肠 (yācháng - duck intestines), 鸭黄喉 (yāhuánghóu - duck aorta), and 毛肚 (máodǔ - cow stomach). If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be the duck blood. You can see it in the photo on the right - the thing that looks vaguely like cherry Jell-o. The best way I have to describe it after it is cooked is like better-tasting liver with a texture that is much less off-putting. The food was amazing, and it was nice being able to sit down with friends and hang out after work. We headed our separate ways and I fell asleep content with the work I had gotten done that day, and the night I had.
The following night, Friday, we had similar plans with a much larger group. Cheryl, Anna, Siyi, Wenhao, Aryaman, Enbo, Lawrence, and I all went out to a restaurant in Fengtai for湖南 (Húnán) food. Siyi is Hunanese, so she was particularly excited for this dinner (spoiler: it wasn't spicy enough for her). I honestly can't recall half of the dishes we ordered that night, but we needed a lot of food to feed eight people. Some of the more memorable ones included 臭豆腐 (chòudòufu - stinky tofu, definitely not one of my favorites), catfish head, and perhaps the strangest thing I've had since getting here, 兔头 (tùtóu - rabbit's head). I remember the night prior when (in Chinese, to keep Aryaman from knowing exactly what 兔头 is) Enbo said "we should have Aryaman try rabbit's head", and my response was to look puzzled for a few minutes and then go "Oh...tóu??" while pointing subtly at my head, and after Enbo nodded and a few more moments of thinking, loudly exclaiming "OH. Tùtóu." Which was followed by a round of laughter, and a confused glance from Aryaman, because he still didn't know what a 兔头 was.
Thanks to the modern marvels of technology, the tùtóu were ordered during the day on Friday and arrived shortly before we left to go to the restaurant. I hadn't realized Enbo was serious about getting the tùtóu until I saw him walking up with them, but when in China, right?
Friday night was also a sink-or-swim introduction into Chinese drinking culture and how intertwined it is with Chinese business norms. While Friday night was much more relaxed than it would have been if I was at a real business dinner, it was certainly interesting to see how drinking (and often, drinking in excess) was an expected part of dinner with colleagues or friends. In America, we say cheers. In China, they have 干杯 (gānbēi) which literally means 'dry cup' and is used whenever someone makes a toast. It's common for toasts to occur multiple times a night, followed with a cry of "gānbēi!" and everyone emptying their glass. Of course, there's the alternate of “敬一杯” which is an alternate way of proposing a toast without the expectation that your glass will be empty at the end of it. And thankfully, the group I routinely hang out with are much more understanding about people refusing drinks, or not wanting to empty their glass after every toast. Either way, it was a wild way to experience an alternative view of China.
卡拉OK
Friday night didn't end with dinner and drinks, however, thanks to one of the managers generously offering to let me stay overnight with her, so I wouldn't have to wait for someone to open the door to my apartment complex. The apartment complex has recently started utilizing the gate lock and the front door long, and I didn't have a key card to get in, meaning I had to wait until someone else showed up to go inside and hope they had a key, or wait for someone to leave. At one or two in the morning, those opportunities are pretty slim. Instead, we went out to a karaoke place. Karaoke, or 卡拉OK (kǎlāok) in China is nothing like karaoke in the United States. It's not an event that happens every Thursday night at the local bar, with some person inevitably attempting a song that they should not be singing (a la 'Down with the Sickness' by Disturbed). Instead, it's a private room that you rent, built to accommodate a smaller group of friends. You pick your songs and the music videos with lyrics (and vocal backing should you choose it) play on massive screens on either side of the room, often with a makeshift stage at one end. Some have instruments (see the tambourine held by 帅帅 on the left), and all of them sell some form of alcohol. They have a massive range of songs, from German 2000s emo bands, to Celine Dion, Wang Leehom, and Taiwanese pop sweetheart, Teresa Teng.
On our way out from 卡拉OK, we saw an older woman, commonly called an 阿姨 (āyí - aunt) selling more 臭豆腐 (chòudòufu) on the side of the road, and, claiming that the street stuff is better than what you can get in a restaurant, several of the members of our group stopped for a cup. I passed, though. The concept of fermented tofu is intriguing, and I probably would like it if it weren't for the smell.
The next morning, I woke up and left the apartment with 帅帅, and headed back to my own place to sleep for a couple more hours, then plan the rest of my weekend.
All By Myself...
This weekend I explored Beijing on my own, again. While I'd much rather spend time hanging out with friends, we see each other at least 40 hours a week, assuming we go out for dinner a few times a week after work. So this weekend, I decided I'd try to track down what several 
tourist and expat websites hail as the "best bookstore" in Beijing. Called Page One, there's a few of them throughout the city, and I just picked the one that was most central according to Baidu (though after being unable to find the correct hotel in Tianjin, I'm not so sure how much I trust them anymore, and am considering switching to another map service). I wandered around, trying to find the bookstore, and found myself near 前门 (Qiánmén - literally 'front gate'). Qiánmén is situated on the central north-south axis of Beijing, and was part of the original city wall of Beijing. I then found myself on 正阳桥, or Zhengyang bridge, a tourist attraction in Beijing.
After wandering through the shopping area, I still hadn't made my way to Page One, so I pulled my GPS back up and hoped for the best. Thankfully, Baidu Maps was a little bit more reliable this time, and I found myself in an area of Beijing called 北京坊, or Beijing FUN. It's part of the Dashilian commercial area, which is about 500 years 
old, but has recently received quite the facelift.
It is home to a (usually fully booked) MUJI Hotel, as well as the world's second largest Starbucks, a cooperative rental workspace called We Work, several bespoke suitmakers, and dozens of restaurants. Of course, there was also Page One. Page One is likely the most aesthetically pleasing bookstore I've ever been in. Sleek lines, rolling ladders that allow you to slide from shelf to shelf like you're in Beauty and the Beast (I know I can't e the only one who wanted to do that as a little child), minimalist color schemes, and most importantly, books from floor to ceiling.
There was a huge section of English classics, and (unsurprisingly) an even larger section of Chinese books in every subject. It was extremely tempting to buy one of the books, as there's just something about the cover designs in China that make me want to fill my shelves 
with them. Alas, I don't speak the language enough to read most young child chapter books, let alone a piece of classical literature. I also didn't want to dedicate a suitcase entirely to books when I went home, and I'd already added three more to the original two I brought with me, so I figured I would just skip the book purchase altogether.
One of the most interesting parts of my day was when I discovered the Starbucks Reserve, which is, as I mentioned before, the second largest Starbucks in the world. Being a law student, I'm often parked at a table in the Starbucks on Monticello so I'm very familiar with what they have to offer. This, however, was an entirely new experience. The Starbucks Reserve is three stories in total. The first floor is a standard cafe, the second is dedicated entirely to Teavana drinks, and the third is a bar. Beijing's Starbucks Reserve cafe is the first of the chain to sell alcoholic drinks. Since it was only the 
afternoon and the bar was already packed (I was curious about what sort of alcoholic drinks Starbucks could churn out), I spent my time on the second floor Teavana cafe.
There was a huge choice of drinks, and I just stared uselessly for a few minutes before forcing myself to pick one. I ended up with the Nitro Cold Brew Peach Black Tea. The tea was pulled from a tap and set in front of me in a Weizen-style glass. Unfortunately, it didn't play into all the hype I'd felt building up to getting the drink. The chill of the nitrogen seemed to suck a lot of the taste out of the peach black tea, and I just wasn't that into it. However, there were a multitude of other drinks that looked extremely delicious, so I'm not willing to write of the Starbucks Reserve just yet.
After wandering around and getting lost in a random hutong (again), I decided it was time to head back, and slowly made my way back to Fengtai.
...Not Anymore!
Sunday I let myself sleep in. I had plans for the evening, so I took it easy during the day, walking down to the nearby Sofly mall to grab some 串串 (chuànchuàn - kebabs) for lunch, and then set about preparing for my night. A friend of mine from Minnesota was in Beijing this weekend, and I was excited to see someone from home. We met when my college softball team played (and beat, by the way) her own college team. My team had been hanging around the college campus after the game and as we were slowly headed back to our bus I (literally) bumped into her, and we got to talking. It was nice getting back in contact with someone I hadn't seen in a while.
She was staying near 王府井 (wángfǔjǐng), one of the most popular tourist streets in the area. So, I hopped the subway and headed down to Wangfujing station (王府井站) to meet up with her for dinner at about 5. After meeting up with her and chatting with her parents for a little while, we headed off to a nearby mall to find something to eat. It took us a while to find something, because a surprisingly large number of the restaurants were primarily fish-based, and she's allergic to most seafood. We settled on a restaurant that sold 包子 (bāozi - stuffed steam buns) and 饺子 (jiǎozi - dumplings), and ordered fried rice, red bean buns, pork buns, and some 小笼包 (Xiǎo lóng bāo - steamed dumplings filled with soup). After, we wandered around the mall area, but really couldn't afford anything there as most of the stores were way out of our price range.
Overall, it was a wonderful week and I'm so thankful to have had all of these wonderful experiences both on my own and with my new (and old) friends. My time in Beijing is slowly coming to a close (I only have a few weeks left as I write this post) and I find myself feeling sad about going home. While I'll be happy to see friends and family, and happy to be able to communicate without playing a game of charades, I've found myself slowly falling in love with the city of Beijing.
Stay tuned for some equally fantastic adventures next week!