Wednesday, August 19, 2009

토할 것 같다...

First of all, forgive any blurry photos--the focus on my lens is unfortunately broken :( so I can't focus that well.

I think I'll start using Korean in my titles for this blog :). The line above was said by one of the Korean girls, Yuna, who I went with to Lotte World with, one of the largest indoor amusement parks in the world, when we rode one of those "tea cup" like rides haha (phew, what an embedded sentence). It means "I think I'm going to throw up" xP.

But I'll get back to Lotte World later! Not much happened this week--lots of settling down. I finally have a cell phone yay! And Bob and I got shelves delivered to us! So no more piles of clothes lying on the floor where the ants can get to them u_u. We spent hours on Saturday walking around Namdaemun Market, trying to find shelves, and people looked at us like we were crazy when we asked if they knew where we could buy shelves haha. The next day, we went to a 재활용 (recycling) center, which is apparently like Salvation Army...and found out it was closed T_T. But shortly after that, we went to Ahyeon Market and lo and behold, tons and tons of shelves (that all looked the same, not to mention)! Now we know where to go if we need furniture :).

On Sunday Bob, Dana, and I celebrated Sneha's birthday, another Yalie who's living here for a year! Bob got this adorable monkey cake for her, of whose destruction you can watch in picture sequence :D!

진짜 인정없네...hahaha. In other words, how cruel! :P But it was delicious :D.

Also a hilarious discovery made by Bob

If you look at the girl in the green shirt, that would be 리엔 (which sounds like "LeAnn" to me) from CHINA. Look at the book she's holding--not only is it RED, but it says MARX on it. Hahaha oh Sogang. How we love you.

I also had my first experience at a DVD bang yesterday. The concepts of bangs (pronounced bahng) is actually pretty cool. They're private rooms where you get to do a multitude things with friends--examples being noraebangs, for karaoke, board game bangs, to play board games, and as mentioned, DVD bangs, to watch movies with friends on a big screen. The couches you get to lie down on are actually pretty luxurious and reallyyyy comfortable! It's pretty great. Now you just have to erase from your mind the fact that some people use DVD bangs to hook up in and then you can enjoy your movie :P. Sneha, Dana, Bob, and I watched "Seducing Mr. Perfect" which apparently became famous for its usage of each character responding to each other in their respective languages (so the protagonist female, played by Uhm Jung-Hwa, speaks in Korean while the protagonist male, played by Daniel Henney--a famous half Korean, half British actor, responds in English, because he can't speak Korean). Personally I think it's an odd concept, and it's sort of weird that an actor can make it big in Korean cinema despite not speaking a word of Korean...a bit hegemonistic in my opinion. Dana and I were ranting about the fact that he doesn't speak Korean and is super arrogant in the movie, basically being in the movie only for being a pretty face haha.

But anyway, on Tuesday, I went to Lotte World, as I mentioned, with Bob, four of his friends that he met on Sogang's Gyeongju trip, and two of those friends' friends.
Meet Margaret 마가렛, Yuna 윤아, Hyeonmi 현미, William 윌리엄, Semun 세문, Donghwa 동화, and Bob 로버트!

Despite Lotte World being an indoor amusement park, we all still sweated like pigs when waiting in lines, which were often not very well air-conditioned...all lines should totally have seats in them--that would at least make the experience somewhat more comfortable :). What's also funny is that in Lotte World soooo many people were wearing these silly bunny ears or bows that they were selling, including the guys too haha.
이쁘죠? It's pretty isn't it? Hahaha. It's interesting what's more "acceptable" in different cultures, in that you won't be made fun of for it.
It's also great to see nuns having fun in an amusement park as well :D. Not to mention this nun's amazing visor. So if you read my previous posts from last summer, you'll know there's a whole culture of middle-aged Korean women called "ajummas 아줌마." Ajummas are well-known for having a distinct style of dress, including permed hair, a flowery shirt, bright pants, and VISORS. Now this nun has a particularly intense visor haha, one of the more intense ones I've seen for sure.
More wonderful examples of Engrish--Drunken Basket hahaha. That was the name of the teacup ride we took. And I guess it's a fairly apt name. After all, the spinning made Yuna say the line that's the namesake of this post hahaha.

All in all, although I'd have to say Lotte World cannot match up to Six Flags, I definitely had a lot of fun, plus it was awesome meeting Korean people, yay :D! Let's take a moment, though, and note the similarities between Lotte World's design and Disney World hahaha.
Design, blueness, the lights that come up at night, and...two characters that look strangely like raccoon versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse (note the bow on the female squirrel)? Hahaha oh Korea :).

6 comments:

Kelly McLaughlin said...

The death of the ice-cream / cake critter was great. =)

Also, DVD rooms are fantastic. If somebody were to open a top-notch norehbang, DVD room, Korean barbeque place in New Haven, he or she would be rich!

Tyler 世昌 세창 said...

So true! I'm actually wondering now whether Flushing or Koreatown in NYC have DVD bangs....hm.

It's a shame New Haven's Korean food is pretty lacking :(.

Dana said...

Blog titles in Korean are WIN, especially if they come from pop songs // biased.

Have you been to Soho in New Haven? They have kimbap there - I am planning to go for some as soon as I get back (although it's $5.00, not 1000 won. sad face). I don't know if they have ddeokbokki, but I am REALLY hoping they do, because I NEED IT.

A said...

DVD bangs? Great idea but the name doesn't translate well into English ahaha

That cake is (was, I guess) baller. I liked seeing its destruction, yum

Sofa said...

Yeah, I was like okay you go into these private rooms and then bang? What? Okay.

I like your pictures.

Deiby said...

Cool visor was cool. DVD bangs souns like a great idea. In fact, I'm doing something similar on my birthday (since there are a ton of movies I have to see before COlumbia sucks up all my free time).

Keep with the posts, and don't forget to include yourself in some pictures... it is your blog afterall.

Also, lol Sofa! I thought the same thing too when I first read it :-P