Rise & Realize

Leeum Art Museum

While thinking about things that would be fun to do as a solo adventure, I decided to look into art museums to go to. The Leeum Art Museum is located in Hannam and its Korean Traditional Art exhibit is completely free. All I had to do was make a reservation online. The exhibit consisted of four floors, in which you start at the top and gradually go down a beautiful spiral staircase to get to each floor of artwork from different eras of Korean history. I was able to get a digital guide with a headset that gave a short explanation of all the pieces as well. I had a fun and relaxing time looking around by myself and would definitely recommend going. 

Coex Aquarium

While places like museums and aquariums didn’t really interest me when I was younger, I think that as I get older they’ve become pretty fascinating. The Coex Aquarium is located in the Coex Mall in Gangnam and has a very wide variety of fish, sea life, and other animals. Currently, the aquarium is Animal Crossing-themed, making it extra enjoyable with the cute characters placed throughout the exhibits. I really liked that there were seating areas where you could relax and just watch the animals swim around. With the variety of photo areas and photo booths, you can tell that they put a lot of thought into your experience. While it did cost about $20, I’d say that it was absolutely worth it. 

Power Outage & Mosquitoes

Recently, there have been a couple of hindrances to my living experience at SK Global House. One night, while I was relaxing in my room a little before 9 P.M., my power suddenly went out. I looked out my window and saw that the rooms in the building across from me still had power, and peeked out into the hallway and saw that the lights were still on as well. I waited for a few minutes to see if my power would go back on, but it didn’t, so I decided to go to the convenience store downstairs to wait for it to go back on. However, when I returned I was unable to get back in my room as my keycard no longer worked due to the power still being out. Thus, I had to go down to the front desk and tell them about my predicament. Luckily, the on-call electrician came 15-20 minutes later was able to turn my power back on and I didn’t have to be unhoused for the night. Note: the circuit breakers are behind the cabinet where I keep my snacks so if this ever happens again I should offer the electrician a snack as a thank you.

Additionally, the mosquitoes here are brutal. I’ve never had issues with getting bitten in the past but it’s so bad here that they affect my ability to get work done and sleep at times. I’m currently in the process of testing different products from the Korean pharmacy as remedies. 

First K-Pop Fan-Con

After being a K-Pop fan for the last five years, I finally got to attend my first K-Pop concert. In order to get a ticket, I purchased the group’s fan club membership to get pre-sale access. However, I was unable to get tickets through this method and even tried two more times when they added an additional date and additional seating. Thus, I checked the ticketing website every day for three months to see if anyone had refunded their ticket. I was finally successful the day before of the second date of their concert. 

I think that going to this concert will definitely end up being one of the highlights of my semester in Korea. While it was technically a fan-con and not purely a concert, it was still very fun as I was able to get the gist of what was happening during the game sections. Truly an unforgettable experience. 

Thoughts

I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but I currently don’t really feel the need to make my time here a life-changing experience. As someone who is pretty introverted, constantly going out does not spark joy for me as it does for others. I already feel pretty satisfied with the things that I’ve done so far, but of course, I am still excited to continue to go on new adventures and make new memories. Thanks for reading <3