Noraebangs and China in Korea

Singing and Shopping in Anyang

On Wednesday, Hui and I went out with her friend who was an exchange student at her university to go shopping! But before you can ever go shopping... you must eat! So we ate at our favorite restaurant ("Prove it.")!  And it was just as delicious as before...

Aren't you jealous? Chicken galbi!

And after that we went shopping in the underground mall! We walked around trying on shoes and window shopping, mostly. The styles here are extremely different than in the States, but I love them! Of course... there are some weird things too. Ha.

<Don't you think wearing these would be counter productive? / Engrish! >

Trying on fake glasses with Hui and Hyuna

Han showed up later (poor kid had to be around while we were shopping) and we went to a noraebang, or karaoke room. I had heard a lot about noraebangs before I came, mostly due to dramas... Either it's a place to go with coworkers to loosen up (with alcohol, of course), or it's a place where you go to sing away your sorrow! Well, that's a little dramatic, and probably only happens in dramas. We just went there to have the experience and a bit of fun! It didn't disappoint! We were actually all good singers, too... 

             

So we sang our hearts out (and we kept getting service! The rooms are paid by the hour, and they kept giving us extra minutes, and that's called service.). And then. . . we found out that the people on the street could see us! Check out our room from street view:

After that, Hyuna had to leave, but Hui and I were hungry, so we went and had 순대 곱창 볶음 (soondae gopchang bokkeum) at the Anyang traditional market. It was pretty dead at night, but I could imagine it would be bustling in the day.

The soondae fried stuff was delicious as you can see from Han's face... Soondae is actually pig intestines stuffed with noodles. And it's TASTY. 

Chinatown in Incheon

We were planning to go to Seoul on our day off, Thursday, but some of  the boys were going to Chinatown and Hui and I decided to check out a different side of Korea! Six of us stuffed into a car and Jun drove us to  Incheon. Here is a collage of our experiences:

We walked about, looking memorials, paintings, and architecture for a while. THEN WE FOUND JJAJANGMYUN. Jjajangmyun would be that large plate of noodles and black sauce that Hui and I are poised ready to devour... It was a pity that it was plastic! And then we climbed into a large mandu (dumpling). Hui and Rachel mandu! Tasty! We were thinking about eating when Hui and I saw the cutest baby ever running around and we started "awwww"ing in our perfected high pitched "that Korean baby is sooo cute" voices. Then, Jun, Hui's unofficial buddy, went UP TO THE PARENTS and asked if we could have a picture with her. And they said yes. Hui and I nearly died... but we got the picture! She was precious. And the big picture of Hui and I looking at something... that's us "Tonying". Akin to Tebowing, it is what Antonio does every time he sees a memorial and starts reading it. He steps one foot on something higher and looks cool. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
Then we went to a Chinese restaurant and got real jjajangmyun with a pork dish that had these little red peppers. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Antonio loves them so I tried it... and the roof of my mouth started peeling off later. Then Jun tried one and he was sweating for 20 minutes! Ahahaha... I think I handled it better than him, even...
All in all, I'm having a wonderful time. Can you tell?

Music video!
Big Bang with "Blue"