flea market in 홍대

This past Saturday, I had my first meet up with a facebook group I joined called "What's Up Korea." This group is a mix of foreigners and locals~~it's description is: " 'Changes for the better'
Korea has been categorized into a racially homogeneous nation for a long time. For that reason, most old generations feel awkward to live with different races and it's very difficult for especially those Koreans who have never lived abroad or have no foreign friends to learn differences between different races. Unfortunately, foreigners in Korea sometimes feel like it's racism..So I made this page to help both Koreans and foreigners become friends..'What's up Korea' gives information related to Korea so that foreigners can understand Korea more and makes events for those who want to make friends and have more fun in Korea..Everyone who loves Korea is welcomed.."

It was absolutely a BLAST!! We started off all meeting outside the subway exit and played rock-paper-scissors to see what order we would pick the 5 money envelopes (because that's how one ALWAYS decides things here in KOrea~~I don't know how to write it in Korean, but they say something else~~they take this game really seriously ㅋㅋ ~it's great! ^^). I won R-P-S, butttttt I picked the envelope with 1,000 W (equal to about 94 cents!). The other envelopes were 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 W. With this envelope, we had to pick out TWO gifts at the flea market, while practicing our Korean (with the help of each of our Korean buddies).  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but we knew we could bargain something for cheaper! I had two of the coolest language partners~~박지원 and 양기석. 지원 is even a music major too (percussion)! How cool is that! 기석씨 is a grad student in economics. Super smart! 


After walking around for awhile and seeing what all there was and wondering how we were going to do it, we happened to see some beautiful postcards for 1,000 W each. I, using my broken Korean skills, even bargained it down to 2 for 1! Success!! We were supposed to buy for one of our friends or give to someone. Well, I had two language partners, who are also my two new friends, and so I decided to buy for them! I got a postcard with clouds and music notes/staff on it for 지원 because of our shared passion for music, and since there were not any cards with money on them (ㅋㅋㅋ), I got the prettiest one for 기석 of a nature background. We had plenty of extra time, and it was soooo humid and hot outside from all the rain (thank goodness it stopped for Saturday while we did this!), we went in to Smoothie King and cooled off and talked.


From there, we all met back up and went for Mexican food. I was really interested in seeing how "Mexican food" tasted in Korea. How do I describe it now that I have had it? Well, it sure wasn't as BAD as I thought it was going to be, but I wouldn't say it's great lol. But even still, it was a fun dinner talking with the people from the other groups, meeting more foreigners like me and new Korean friends too. ^^ 


When we were finished, some of us still didn't want to leave, so we carried the conversation over to a coffee shop, which involved lots of laughter and good memories. This was one of the first times that I have really felt connected to people and feeling like I have new Korean friends, as well as foreigners who have been here awhile and have the wisdom that comes along with that. Thanks, God, for Saturday. ^^ (Below photos courtesy of our lovely Hyejin Lee~~the founder of What's Up Korea)

Shopping at 홍대 flea market

기석, me, 지원

another shot

Awww you two ^^

all so sweet!

explaining about my two gifts

our table~~one of my favorite pics

^^~some of the group at Tom n Toms Coffee~^^