Day 17 - Dongdaemun and Concert

Today, I decided to venture to Dongdaemun with two friends, as I've been told that it is the coolest shopping area in all of Seoul. I only gave myself three hours for the excursion, which ended up being not enough time. It took us nearly an hour to finally get to the shopping areas because it was our first time going there and we got disoriented.

First, we went into this giant building called Dongdaemun Shopping Center, which ended up being 5 stories of a huge warehouse with hundreds of people on each floor selling mainly fabric, craft materials, blankets, and other textiles. We weren't particularly interested in anything so we walked out and went across the Cheonggyecheon river to the Pyounghwa Clothing Market. There were tons of little booths selling clothes in this store, and a lot of it was obvious fake brand name clothing. One particular thing we noticed were The North Face jackets that had an identical logo except it said "The Noble Face".

After leaving Pyounghwa Clothing Market, we walked to Doota, which is a famous shopping mall in Dongdaemun. It was eight stories tall and was very fancy with a lot of designer clothes. After looking around a bit, we ate food in the food court and then headed back to Yonsei University.

At Yonsei, I took a quick shower because it was extremely hot outside and I was sweaty and gross, and then I met up with a friend we headed to Hongdae to see a concert! I went specifically to see two of the bands, Counter Reset and Overhead. The show was in a small venue called Sapiens7 and it was very similar to the music venues that I frequent in the US.

A street performance we stumbled upon on our way to Sapiens7

All of the bands that played were good and all of the people I met there were very nice. I talked to some of the members of the band Overhead after the show and they invited my friend and I to go get samgyeopsal (삼겹살) with them, which is a type of meat at Korean barbecue most similar to giant strips of bacon.

A ridiculous picture I took of myself at the concert

Naturally, we graciously accepted the invitation and went out to Korean barbecue with a bunch of the bands and other attendees at the concert (nearly 30 people!). We spoke in a combination of Korean and English, but mainly English because all of the Korean's English-speaking abilities were much better than my Korean-speaking abilities.

A short video I took of one of the bands playing, although the audio isn't very good

They taught us a bunch of Korean phrases and taught us how to properly eat samgyeopsal (which I realized I have been doing incorrectly). In order to eat it in the normal way, you get a piece of lettuce and put a piece or two of meat in it. You then add shredded cabbage and a little bit of red paper paste (because it wouldn't be Korean food if it wasn't spicy!). Optionally, you can add a piece of tangy squash and then you form it all into a tiny little ball and eat it!

Some of the people who were sitting next to us were from Japan and my friend I was with happens to speak a little Japanese, so they conversed in Japanese for a little while. It was a very fun, multicultural experience and definitely one of the most fun nights I've had in Korea so far because I really felt immersed in the culture.

We had a lot of fun hanging out and talking with everyone before we finally said our goodbyes and headed home.