Day 2 in Korea.... super tired

With jet lag still going strong and poor sleeping condition, I pretty much get about 4-5 hours of sleep every night. Super tired. And we walked around A LOT today... by around 7:30pm, I just don't want to talk to anyone anymore.

But first, let me just share the living condition that we're in right now.

This is the area that you enter from the door. Remember, there are six people living here. Seven if this other girl comes back.

 It may look spacious from the picture, but it's really not. I would say that maybe 4 people fill the length of the place if they stand next to each other with their arms spread out.

 This is the dining area, which is right next to the previous picture. This is the only place you can sit and not have to slouch over on your bed.

 The girls bedroom. There are 3 bunkbeds. The top bunk is super close to the ceiling. You can see that our suitcases cannot all fit inside the room, and there is simply no room outside either.

 This is my bed. I have three layers on because it was just super cold.

Sigh. It feels pretty bad not being able to have a place you can return to and relax. I feel the need to stay out all day until I must come back because I can't sleep here and can't sit anywhere around here. Just no privacy at all.

So in the morning, we went to Yeoido to my friend, Scott, his church at 10:30am. I met him through the Korean program in Sogang last year and it's nice to be able to see him again!

After the church service, we went to eat in Kim Ga Nae, which is not too bad. It's a chain store in the area.

To be honest, I could probably make these at home (and have already done so before).... but we just wanted to grab some food for lunch...

Since we are already in Yeoido, we decided to visit the Yeoido park to ride bikes around the park and also to Han River area. There were soooo many families hanging out today since the weather was PERFECT! Not too hot and not too cold, and not humid at all! I really appreciate seeing families instead of young people. In my opinion, I think the young people here are too self-absorbed that they can care less (or be able to see) anyone else, but themselves. And I feel like the couples have too much PDA that it was just so uncomfortable being around them.

Lots of families with tents!! I think it's a popular thing to tent at the park in the summer for fun?

And then I finally saw the ramen making machine!

Didn't try it since.... I just ate ramen for lunch!!

Nice Han River picture.... I just love that place so much!

And then we went to Dongdaemun because there is an Aardman exhibit through 7/12! I realized that I haven't been to Dongdaemun before!

And then there is a city wall next to Dongdaemun!

And Joyce says that we have to climb it....

But I was tired!! Those shoes were not helpful for walking at all!

The city wall is a good vantage point for the city!

And then we walked over to the Dongdaemun Design Center (?) which held the Aardman exhibition. That place is so artsy and cool! Before getting there, we saw the bridge that has all these people sitting below, hanging out and enjoying a nice day.

There were these rocks where you can step on to cross to the other side...

Finally, we made it to the Dongdaemun Design Center.

Before we saw the exhibit, we saw them!

We were sooo glad we watched Early Man on the plane ride to Korea or else we wouldn't have any idea who these people are!

Too bad we couldn't take pictures of most things in the exhibit, but we had so much fun looking at how the film was made, the actual set that was used to make the film, and the actual clay characters they made. Oh the details! Here are the creators of Aardman.

And Joyce's favorite character. Feathers.

Man, Joyce can recite pretty much the first three short films! We were laughing a lot through the exhibition because of all the scenes we had seen before... I wonder if the Koreans really knew what Aardman is and the dry humor they use in the films..

Some more sets that were displayed.

Hahaha... this was the bunny sucking machine... hahahaha....

Ah.... too funny... hahahah...

They also had a place where you can create your own Gromit and Shaun the Sheep with clay, for just 4,000 won.

There we were! I made Shaun the Sheep and Joyce made Gromit. The clay took a long time to start solidifying so... the shapes started to change depending on how we held these figurines. Bleh. Overall, I think we did a good job! (Although all the fur part for Shaun was made by the workers there because they think I'm too slow... bleh)

After that, Joyce and I pretty much spent the next two hours in KFC discussing what we're going to do with our living situation. With much discussion, we decided that after our Busan trip from Tuesday night to Friday morning, we'll just stay at a hostel until we leave, and we will not work there anymore. The more I thought about it, the more I feel weird working for this place. First, the living condition is really bad... you can pretty much live in a hostel with better living condition for maybe $20 a night. Second, we are getting nothing out of this whole deal. Third, the living situation is not safe. Cramming these many people in a small apartment room that is in the BASEMENT, and never changing the passwords on the doors, with no pay at all, is basically exploiting workers for their gain at the language cafe. The food they said they will provide is not really provided unless requested in advance. And we are assigned an area to clean once a week, but the place is already not too clean. And there are even MORE people joining each day.... I wonder where they'll live?!

Joyce had the brilliant idea of showering at jjimjilbang tomorrow so we can avoid the small bathroom here altogether. Sigh. Without Joyce here, I probably would have just succumbed to living like this for the next 18 days since I feel that I already signed the contract to do so. We're planning to let them know that we're not staying once we finish our work on Friday.

Alright, time to rest. I've been super tired... and it's hard to enjoy anything when you're this tired. Bleh.

----- edit ------

Ah, almost forgot the most important thing that happened today (the living situation just overtook everything else).

We were walking on the streets of Yeoido towards the park and then I saw on the left of me some people with cameras and stuff. I wasn't going to pay too much attention to it because it didn't seem like there were that many people there... I looked over and thought, "hmmm.... some of these people seems to have super heavy layers of foundation on.... like movie stars". Although I couldn't tell who they are, I thought maybe this is another one of those drama shootings where it stars a Kpop star who I cannot recognize (I really don't listen to that many Kpop...). So we crossed over the street and just kind of watch them film. I took out my camera to try to take a picture and the worker next to me said that we cannot take pictures while they're filming, and the drama is coming out in August. I asked him who is in the drama, and he said Ji Sung and Han Ji Min! For those of you who don't know who they are.... here are their pictures:

They're super famous and I've watched many dramas starring them many times. I looked over across the street and I can see them! They look exactly as they would in the TV! I suppose... why wouldn't they?! But I was also surprised that they look just like any other Korean I would see on the street. I mean, there are many Koreans who are as skinny as they are and as good looking. 

By this time, some other people also gathered around us to watch because they were going to start shooting and didn't want us to cross the street. Another person asked what is the name of the drama, and they said it's called "Familiar Wife" (아는 와이브). Joyce said she's gonna look for this scene in the drama.... it will probably be very hard to spot. Hahaha..

I told some Korean friends that I spotted them on the street and they were super surprised because some of them haven't seen anything like this just in public! Well... it was a first time for me too. Super surprised that we just ran into it and also that I would recognize who they are. I think when I looked over before, I saw some other actor who was not one of them.... that's why I couldn't recognize them. Anyways, that was probably the highlight of the day!