My mom's friend mailed over some ddukbokgi from the famous "ddukboki town", Shinsadong. And my aunt knew that I love bacon so she made some rice cakes wrapped in bacon as an extra treat! So, we had a very Korean brunch to start our day.
After that, Jenny and I were off to church in Seoul at Sarang Church where we met Aeri (again) and her husband. It was nice to worship the Lord with other English speakers! So nice hearing English! Ha! After service, Aeri and her husband were nice enough to babysit Jenny while I went to meet my friend Sieun.
This crazy lady came to Seoul from Busan (4 hour bus ride) to meet me for a few hours. Amazing! We sat a cafe (Caffe Bene, again), chatted, laughed, shared prayer requested, and pretty much filled each other in on the last 3 years. She is now a dentist in Busan and she needed to catch the last bus back to make sure she got back to work on Monday, so our time together was way shorter than I would have liked!
We said goodbye, I walked her to the subway entrance, and then waited to be picked up by my taxi, aka Minki. By day 7, I was soooo tired and it was SO HOT, being picked up by the friend was such a nice treat!
We were supposed to go meet Jenny and Aeri again but Minki had to make a quick stop to see his hyung. Who? You ask?! KIM JOHAN! Ha! I was so excited!!!! AND NERVOUS! Back in the day, he was part of a trio called Solid but has been a solo artist for a while now. I've been a fan since his Solid days and I have been asking Minki to introduce me to him for years now! That day, randomly, he calls him up and says we're coming over for some coffee!
We had coffee at his studio/house where I meet his wife and kid. I was trying not to act crazy and geek out, but c'mon, I was at his house! Weird! It helped that Kim Johan speaks English, since he was born and raised in the States, and so we just chatted while sipping on some coffee.
I didn't want to ask for a picture and look like a big dork, but I did walk away with an autographed CD.
Then off to Hongdae, a college town, for some dinner and fun! We found Jenny, Aeri, and her husband and had dinner at Kang Ho Dong's restaurant, 678 for some more BBQ.
My friend Minki teases me and tells everyone I'm a 80 year old stuck in a 29 year old body. I do not like going out at night and I'm usually in my pj's as soon as the sun goes down. But that night, I decided to go out with them so my sister could see the night life in Korea. Let me just say, Koreans are crazy!
Aeri was talking to Jenny about this little place in Hongdae that plays only 90's K-pop music. We had to check it out!
This place, translated, is called In Between Night and Music. It's an amazing place where swarms of people who loved the 90's come to hang out. The crowd here is older, compared to the young-ins who hang out in Hongdae. My sister was probably the youngest person there. They played all the goodies like Turbo, Cool, old school JYP, Solid, DJ Doc... all the songs I sang along to when I was in Jr. high and high school. And when in Korea, we had to do as the Koreans do - beer in kettles, soju, and random fruit platters.
Jenny screamed "This is the best place EVER!" probably about a hundred times. I, on the other hand, wanted to stand on my chair and scream "I LOVE THE 90'S!" Twas a great night.
Day 6 weather: HOT and STICKY. Seemed extra hot and extra sticky.
Day 6 high: Way too many highs. Starting the morning off with ddukbokki and ending with 90's jams, the entire day was a high!
Day 6 low: Realizing that I'm old and can't stay up/out late. Super tired.
