Korea.

Haeundae, Busan

In case you didn’t realize, I went to Korea with my mum for a week and while it’s my mum’s first ever visit to a country where she does not speak the language, it was my fourth visit to Korea in as many years. My friends all ask me “what’s about Korea that you like so much that you are there all the time?”. I think it’s a rather difficult question to answer. Why do I like Korea so much? I think much has got to do with the culture, I guess. Korea has both the new and the old, and it is a place where the two mix very well.

Anyway my 7 days in Korea included 4 in Seoul and 3 in Busan. Going to Busan was always part of the itinerary because I wanted to see FC Seoul playing away, and since they were in Busan, it made perfect sense to spend a weekend there. However, I arrived in Busan only to find out that a typhoon was coming Korea’s way (the fourth of the year, which has never happened since the 1950s), and as the typhoon approached, it took a turn and headed towards Busan. That resulted in a rather uneventful stay in Busan. It was drizzling when we arrived after a 6-hour (but free) bus ride from Seoul, and the rain didn’t seem to stop. In the second day, it was raining when we were in Haeundae, and then it started to pour in the afternoon, and I had a tough time making to the Busan Asiad Stadium to watch Busan vs Seoul. On the third day, we woke up to realize that the typhoon warning has been issued, which meant that all the earlier planned visits in Busan had to be cancelled because everywhere was shut down. We had no choice but to head back to Seoul early (4 hours earlier than our original schedule). When we arrived back in Seoul, it was again pouring heavily. But amazingly, the weather became perfect the next day and our last 2 days in Seoul was just totally enjoyable as far as the weather was concerned. Sunny but cool, it was really a perfect weather to walk around in. And the highlight of the stay in Korea, besides the typhoon, has to be us managing to catch the filming of the variety show “Running Man”! I have been watching the show on the computer, but to be able to see them in person was really all an amazing experience!

Running Man filming in progress…

Anyway I spent the past couple of days watching two Korean dramas: “Rooftop Prince (옥탑방 왕세자)” and “Reply 1997 (응답하라 1997)”. Rooftop Prince was one that I have always wanted to watch but just couldn’t sit still enough to watch. So on Thursday, on my recuperating day off, I caught 10 episodes and finished the rest from Friday evening to Saturday morning. As for Reply 1997, I actually didn’t really know about the drama, but after seeing everyone talking about it on the message board of the Arirang Radio programme “K-Poppin”, I thought it might be worth a catch, and boy, it was quite a good drama. The entire setting of the drama, though in Korea, was so reminiscence of my teenage years (FYI, the drama was cast in which all the characters were born in the year 1980, same as me), and a lot of those bittersweet memories also came rushing back while I watched the drama. And I managed to clear the whole series in 2 days – that made it 2 drama series in 4 days. I’m proud of myself!

Reply 1997 (응답하라 1997)

 

Rooftop Prince (옥탑방 왕세자)