Seasons in Korea

Since I spoke about the Holiday season in Seoul Kai and I thought we should make a post on the different seasons in Seoul and write a little something about them and what each season has to offer. Having the opportunity to live in Seoul for almost a year gave us the opportunity to experience all the four seasons which was really interesting because we come from a place where it is always hot !
                                                     

                                                       SPRING IN KOREA
 The one thing we really loved about the Spring in Korea was the beautiful scenery. We had previously made a post on the Cherry blossoms in Korea, but we also want to share how beautiful our campus looks when everything is in bloom. Also we didn't really mention the Cherry blossom festival we went to so we'd like to share that as well and Spring festival season at universities which we also mentioned in a different post!

SUMMER IN KOREA 

Summer in Korea is definitely the worst but even though the heat is almost unbearable, at least it was for us, but we really liked going out on summer nights when it cooled down a little. There's always something to do especially in places such as Hongdae. This is an area where many people mostly college students spend a lot of their time. There are places to drink, sing, eat and of course to shop, but our most favorite part about taking trips to Hongdae in the summer were the street performances. You could find all kinds of genres being played from indie to hip hop. Hongdae is a very well known area for hip hop. We didn't take many pictures that could accurately represent the summer like we did for the other seasons, but we thought we'd highlight and focus on what we liked doing the most and it was spending our summer weekend nights in Hongdae.  Also Seoul is a 24/7 kind of place so after a night out with friends in Hongdae's most popular bars and clubs there were always a million places to eat all kinds of food.  

Both street performance pictures were taken by our friend Jacob. For some reason all we had were videos of these performances. 

Eating pizza in a popular hang out area of Hongdae. By this time Pizza Hut was only doing take out so we bought our pizza and ate it outside at a near by park were many people come to hang out with friends and drink and eat and all the good stuff. 

     
                                       
                                                             FALL SEASON IN KOREA
Like the spring all though things are dying instead of blooming the fall time in Korea is also very beautiful. It starts to get a bit chilly and we start taking our jackets out, but for university students the fall means taking out their school's university letterman jackets and representing their school anywhere they go and like them we followed the trend! It's something that is definitely not done in the United States so for us it was something very different and we really liked it. This jacket tradition also applies for the winter!

These pictures starting from the top are all of our campus and the surrounding areas! 

It's quiet popular for students to buy jackets in groups. You can customize your jacket and choose the colors. You can even write your initials or anything you want on it, you also get to pick out a number. In this picture we're with one of our university friend who happened to have the same jacket as us! 

This is our friend Chris modeling the school jacket for us and also trying out different jackets at the shop. 

We actually ended up buy in more than one jacket. We bought black ones the first semester and the next semester we were so tempted that we bought a new one this time we chose maroon and black! 

                                                       WINTER IN KOREA

Our favorite time of the year has always been winter, but in Korea we were able to experience it in a whole different way then what we were used to! From the first snow to the holiday season we really do love winter. Winters in Korea are extremely cold temperatures fall below zero and though we were not used to such temperatures we handled the winter better than we thought. One thing we didn't like very much though was how dangerously slippery sidewalks and streets could get and our campus as well. It was so difficult walking at times! Also when the first snow falls we learned from my friends that people go out and by themselves new clothes or something nice and couples go on a date to celebrate the first snowfall!

The first snow but you can't really see the snow here! We did take a picture from our dorm before heading out which shows all the snow that gathered.

Weekend Outing

This weekend we explored the streets of Hongdae and Gangnam. We spent our Friday exploring Hongdae with our friend Lucy who introduced us to her favorite restaurants, cafes, and stores and many other things. This time we visited Hongdae at night and boy does Hongdae come alive at night. Night time is definitely the best time to visit Hongdae, especially during the spring and summer ! It was so much fun we spent the whole day together and ended our outing at of course you guessed it, Karaoke a.k.a. noraebang!

Our friend Lucy took us to this restaurant so we could try Tteokboki and she also informed us that the restaurant's name is  Hongdae Gangsters!   

                         

This is the Tteokbokki from the Hongdae Gangsters and while it was spicy it was delicious. We also had pig stomach and pig intestines that are on the right. She was worried we wouldn't like it, but we informed her we ate this back home too. We also tried other dishes and overall the meal was delicious and we definitely plan to go back. 

Shopping in Hongdae is a dream. There are so many shops and most items are really cheap ! We stopped by Stylenanda a very popular online store. This one in Hongdae is there main one and we even had the opportunity to see the models!   The store has three floors, but there is not a lot of variety and everything that is sold here is one size and they only have certain items. The plus side is that the clothes is cheaper here than online especially for international buyers. The store was definitely an experience and we left with jackets we wear almost everyday. 

Our favorite part of the trip was the Hello Kitty Cafe ! Everything is pink and the whole place just looks amazing . While we loved what we saw the reason why we loved it the most can be explained by the picture below. THEY HAVE DR. PEPPER!! Dr. Pepper is rare in Korea! Lucy told us that this is because it is not very popular or well known in Korea. The only soft drinks you'll find are Coke, Sprite, and Mt. Dew. Some convenience stores carry Dr. Pepper, but only very fewand the other option is to travel a long distance to Costco. We were so happy to find it here. Also the dessert was delicious especially the frosting! 

Finally we ended up at a photo sticker shop! You'll find many of these throughout Korea, but they can be sort of expensive. A set of pictures will cost you around 6,000 to 8,000 won depending on the machine you choose.