Gangnam

Seoul Day-4

May 16, Thurs

After having a pretty tiring day of hiking yesterday, my body feels sore and stiff when I woke up this morning. I was happy when we were told we were just going for a walk in Gangnam area. Before we left Sinchon, we went to a small shop selling waffles. Although it was still pretty early, some of us decided to eat our waffles with ice-cream while the rest chose flavored whipped cream as the main filling.

Yes, we started our with high
calorie food intake

GT Tower

When we first arrived at Gangnam, we first visited interesting architectural building which was  GT Tower. It was amazing to see on how the building really looks like smooth wave. In fact, it received several awards such as Seoul Architecture Prize and Green Building. However, in comparison to its magnificent outer appearance, the inner part of the building seemed to be pretty ordinary. After that, we visited Samsung d’light exhibition which has 3 floors to it. The first floor has a rather usual electronic-store feels to it. One can easily buy cellphones, earphones, headphones, tablets and many more. On the second floor, they displayed bigger electronic equipments such as television. I tried not of their 3D television and I really enjoyed it. I subconsciously moved my hand and tried to grab the balls that flew towards my direction from the screen in my attempts to stop them. We were later given a short presentation on Samsung on the third floor and were allowed to explore the floor before we leave.

Daegu Tang

As we walked toward a restaurant, it was hard not to notice that there was a lot of store that was common in the States such as Zara and Levi's in Gangnam area. For lunch, we went to a restaurant next to Kyobo and ordered fish stew for everyone except one who opted for bibimbap. The rest of us received a bowl of rice and a bigger bowl of soup. Although the fish had a lot of bones, it was pretty easy to easy pick out the bones as the fish was big and so were the bones. It was really delicious and for me personally, it tasted better when it was eaten together with some kimchi. After lunch, we were given some time to walk around Gangnam area, but as the merchandise were pretty expensive, I chose not to buy anything but a smoothies.

Once everyone gathered in front of Kyobo, we further walked to one of the locations being presented by the Yonsei students which was Garosu-gil. It has a small road with gingko trees lining up both sides of the road which was the reason it was named Garosu-gil, tree-lined street. I really liked some of the stores as they had colorful and cute merchandise being sold but like Gangnam, those things were not any cheaper if not more expensive. Despite being expensive, there were a lot of people doing shopping with their lovers and friends and many of them chose cafes as a destination to take a break while enjoying a cup of coffee. Among the customers of a particular coffee shop, for the first time, I saw a woman who had a plastic surgery done recently on her nose.

Even though it was  no secret that many Korean women, and even men, did plastic surgery in Korea, I was still shocked when I saw the woman. It looked pretty scary to me because the bandage on her face seems bloody and I think it was such a sad thing that it seems people appreciate natural physical beauty less and prefer the "cookie-cutter" image instead. Besides, many people were pressured to do it for a better chance at getting jobs although there must be some of them who did it just because. However, although I did say it was a sad thing for me, some Koreans might actually feels differently. I remember a long time ago reading a blog that says many teenage girls were looking forward to graduate from their high school as some parents offered to pay their plastic surgery procedures as their graduation present. It kind of disturbed me because it seems the same as the parents telling their daughters that they were not pretty enough and needed plastic surgery. If my parents did that to me, it would hurt my feeling. A lot. But again, this thought could have existed purely in my mind and not others. It was only on our way back home to the hostel that I knew that apparently those places are pretty well-known for plastic surgery clinics. Almost every block of building offered plastic surgery to anyone who is willing to spend his or her money and endure pain in order to become more beautiful. 

Three young men doing covers of Korean and English songs

When we finally arrived at the hostel, I feel I could hardly open my eyes anymore but I managed to stay awake and went out to get “tteokbokki” with my friends. It felt refreshing to be outside and I had the opportunity to watch performances formed by three men at the park while enjoying my spicy meal. I think the men were college students and they did pretty good job at singing cover songs and even interacted with their audiences. I wished I stayed longer and watched them till the end but it was getting chilly so I headed back home spent my time curling under a blanket instead.