Day 74 & 75: iZone Pop

Day 74

I woke up feeling really tired and crappy today. I was supposed to meet with Ella in Sinchon today, but I cancelled. I went back to bed until 5 pm instead and then lay in bed reading for the rest of the evening. Whenever I have days list this where I don't move I just end up feeling even crappier and it's like a spiral. I went to bed feeling a little frustrated with myself for not doing anything and not in the happiest mood. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

(December 8, 2018)

Day 75

I still wasn't feeling too happy this morning when I woke up, but I thought that going out and doing something might help. Ella and I had rescheduled our plans to today so I took a subway up to Hongdae. We had one more cafe that we wanted to visit and then we were going to a place called iZone. iZone is an arcade where BTS had a photoshoot for one of the Love Yourself albums. The pictures had looked super cool with all the lights from that games and we thought it would be a fun place to go to.

It was so cold out today! When I came from Canada I packed a light fall jacket because people had told me that Korea didn't get very cold in December, especially compared to Canada. I thought the fall jacket would be enough but it definitely wasn't. I have been so cold the last few days and I contemplated buying a coat here. Fortunately, Ella brought two coats with her from Australia and she was kind enough to let me borrow her other one until I went back to Canada.

The cafe we went to today was called 24'7. The decorations were so beautiful! Even without the Jin stuff the cafe looked like such a cute place to sit at.

We brought our drinks with us on our walk to Sinchon in the hopes that it might keep our fingers a little warmer. Ella and I both walk quickly naturally, but the cold makes us even faster and we made it to the arcade much more quickly than we anticipated (thank goodness). The entrance was down an alley and it definitely was not a place I would have come across without knowing about it beforehand. There were stairs to go down to the arcade and the walls were lined with photos from photoshoots that idols had done there.

We went downstairs and collected our wristbands. The wristbands keep track of how much time you spend in the arcade and then you pay on the way out. We didn't really know where to start so we looked up some of the BTS photos from their shoot here and then we had fun laughing at ourselves while trying to copy the poses.

Ella tried the dance step game and I got hilarious photos of her attempting to play it. Then we tried the motorcycle race and I was absolutely terrible at it. I think I was leaning to far when turning and this screeching sound would start almost every time (oops...). We sang in one of the karaoke booths for a bit and then decided it was time for dinner.

We passed a department store with UniqLo on the way to dinner and stopped inside to look around. Ella had told me about a thermal she had purchased at UniqLo that helped a lot with the cold and I wanted to get one. I bought a black one (shocker) and then we continued to look around the mall. There were so many floors and each floor had so many stores, it was very overwhelming and chaotic. One of the floors had a Puma store with some BTS cutouts. BTS are the brand ambassadors for Puma and they released special shoes and coats as part of the partnership. Ella has the coat and a pair of shoes, but hers were getting pretty worn so she wanted to buy a different pair. I played on my phone and looked around while she found a pair she liked. When she bought the shoes the cashier also gave her a little book that was a compilation of some of the photoshoots BTS did for Puma.

We walked around the department store for a little bit longer and then went outside to find a place for dinner. There was a BBQ place fairly close by that Ella had been to before so we decided to eat there. The meat was good and the restaurant was warm so it was great!

I went home after dinner and passed a Jin birthday ad in the subway. It's really nice to have someone to go to cafes and other places with, but I really miss hiking by myself and listening to music while wandering. It's starting to get way too cold to just go outside and walk around for hours though so it was a good time to meet someone. I have so many places outside that I still want to see so I am hoping the weather will warm up for a few days. If it doesn't then I will leave them for the next time I am in Korea.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(December 9, 2018)