Sneaky Pinocchio

Seoul subway is always crowded and busy, there are 9 main lines in the subway, there are around 5 millions passengers coming in and out the train or transfer from line to line every day. As Seoul the metropolitan city so I think the government concerns on making the subway become more comfortable and not being another stressful place to go, that's why there are many underground shopping centers which integrated to the subway station and a lot of convenience stores, snack shops, and vending machines inside the subway station.

When I was waiting for the train to arrive at the Seoul subway, there were some benches provided for the people who are waiting. There were some intricate depictions of cartoon characters on the right side of each bench which I assume that it's one of the way to make the subway stations look more interesting instead of being stuffy.

There was a moment that caught my attention. There was a guy who was so into his smartphone, as almost all Koreans do when they are inside the public transport, sitting closely next to Pinocchio sculpture on the bench while Pinocchio was looking toward to the right side on where the guy was playing his smartphone. I took a picture immediately of it secretly in a flash so that the guy wouldn't be aware of my action. This moment was so funny because the Pinocchio looked as if sneaking and being curious to death of what the guy was looking at his phone screen. If I could narrate that moment, it would be like: "hey dude what are you looking at? I want to see, I want to see, let me take a look!" said the clingy Pinnochio while elbowing that guy in the black coat.

Meeting EXO: Fans's Dream Come True

charismatic leader   

Do you have any idol?

How do you admire your idol?

By appreciating their work like buying their album, watching their movie, or get inspired by their fashion style?

Having some of their posters on your wall?

Having their biography?

Buying all the magazine which contain your idol?

I was into kpop, yeah I'm still listening to kpop sometimes but not as much as I did in the past 2 years.

I still remember during early days when I was a huge fan of some kpop group, I was crying while watching their concert or music video from my computer screen, deprived of meeting them in real.

But what dragged me into kpop was not because of the beautiful face of the member, I like listening to music a lot (who doesn’t tho?), my playlist had been changed several times as I grew up. From hip hop to punk, metal, electronic pop, brit pop, it changed annually. Oh, and liking boyband isn’t a new thing for me. When I was 7, yes...7 years old, I was a huge fan of Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, and Westlife. I got influenced by my sister, she had all the cassete of those boybands. And when she played the cassete on player in our room while she was studying, I was dancing along the music as if I was one of Backstreet Boys’s member or back dancer at least, lol.

Back to kpop, I was really amazed by their choreography and the catchy beat of its music, it was something fresh to me. So I started liking and digged out more about kpop, not just 2 or 3 boybands that I had follow...but more and more and I even knew the newest group that appear in kpop industry.

Then I started to buy their original albums, if they released new album I always tried to order in the first batch in order to get the limited original poster. I also bought the korean magazine which has them on photoshoot and interview session, did I read them? No, I was blind about korean back then. Just looking at the pictures and touching the paper and knowing the smell of its magazine made me happy already.

I covered my wall with their posters. When I saw them, sometimes I thought when would I meet them, it seemed impossible since I don’t live in Korea and if they have concert in Indonesia there’s no guarantee that I could watch them, and even if I come to their concert we will still have a distance between the stage and audience.

But who knows about what will happen in the future?

I thought going to South Korea was something impossible for me, but apparently God gave me that chance.

Tbh, watching kpop concert was on my last list when I was in Korea, I was planning to watch SMTOWN Week of EXO (one of the rising boyband at the moment) on christmas, but because I was really busy and my interest towards kpop had been decreasing few months before I came to Korea, I decided to cancel buying the ticket.

Surprise surprise, when I went to Incheon Airport, I saw many girls with their dslr camera and expensive lenses were waiting in front of arrival gate, they were soooo many, some of them were standing above the chair and some of them were bringing their own folding chair in order to be able to see the idol when they come out from arrival door to take some good snaps  for their fansite (fansite is a website managed by fangirl where they post the pictures they took of their idol).

I eventually found out that EXO will came out soon,

Autumn: Best Season to Visit Nami Island

the front gate of Nami Island

Everybody loves autumn, I mean...who doesn't? the air is quite refreshing, definitely not so hot but not as cold as winter, the leaves turn into red and yellow and fall into the street. Something that I can't witness in my tropical country, Indonesia.

On last October I went to Nami Island which located in Chunceon, South Korea. The entrance fee is 10.000 for korean and 8.000 for foreigner, isn't it nice to be a foreigner? ^_^ 

To be able to visit Nami Island, we have to ride a ferry for around 10 minutes, but as foreigner we should give our passport to them beforehand, don't worry, we will get our passport back once we get out from Nami Island. The ferry will go back and forth every 20 minutes to bring us to/from Nami Island.

so large >_<

beautiful trees, I feel like in korean drama, hahaha...

Speaking of korean drama, Nami Island is one of the filming location of the most famous korean drama: Winter Sonata, there's saying that Winter Sonata spread the Korean Wave throughout asia and worldwide.

Winter Sonata statue, I wish it was the real Bae Yong Joon

Not only offering its nature beauty but Nami Island also has a lot of places to visit such as drama gallery, music intrument museum, UNICEF hall, etc...and if we are tired of walking (because Nami Island is very large) we can rent bicycle which cost 3.000-10.000 won depends on the type of bicycle and how long we use.

the piano on music museum

Now that I remember Indonesia has numerous islands too, can Indonesian government make one of them to become a tourism spot as interesting as Nami Island?

Ski and The Snow

On this month's Friday the 13rd I had a trip in Pyeongchang with Wow Korea team.

I went there by myself from Gangneung to Pyeongchang by bus and it took only 20 minutes, yes it seems so near, but to be honest it's not really near actually it's because the magic of bus driver who drove for 90-120km/hour. The ticket price from Gangneung to Pyeongchang is only 2.500 won, and we can ride the bus from terminal every 20 minutes, very convenient !!!

Actually I had final exam that day as well, so I couldn't concentrate to do my exam lol, after finishing the questions I immediately gave the paper to 선생님 then ran out from the class excitedly -> took my bag from the dorm -> rushed to the university gate to catch the bus -> arrived in terminal -> buying ticket to Pyeongchang -> waiting for the bus -> and voila! the adventure began...

Gangneung Tour: Haslla Art World & Pinocchio Museum

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya mendapatkan kesempatan untuk mengikuti event yang diselenggarakan oleh pemerintah kota Gangneung untuk merasakan korean culture dan jalan-jalan, acara ini sekaligus untuk mempromosikan kota Gangneung, secara pada 2018 bersama dengan kota Pyeongchang akan diselenggarakan international winter olympic.

International student dari Gangneung Wonju University dan Kwandong University diundang dalam event ini. Dari kampus, kami bersama-sama berangkat menuju Gangneung Cultural Art Centre menggunakan bus. Setibanya disana, kami diberikan cocard satu-satu yang berisikan identitas kami, wow saya merasa bangga ada bendera Indonesia di cocard saya :3

bendera merah putih, kampus tempat saya belajar dan nama lengkap saya dalam huruf hangeul ^_^

Setelah menonton video tentang Gangneung dan mendengarkan sambutan dari representatif pemkot Gangneung, kami pun disuguhi sebuah art performance tentang seorang pria yang jatuh cinta pada seorang wanita namun di tengah jalan cerita, perempuan tersebut digoda oleh beberapa lelaki hidung belang, alur cerita berikutnya sedikit susah saya pahami karena penampilan ini hanya menggunakan musik dan gerakan tubuh saja, hehehe :P 

Michael Jackson has Neverland, Korea has Everland, and I have a Homeland

tiket masuk Everland seharga 35.000 won

Acara jalan-jalan berikutnya adalah ke Everland. Everland Resort sendiri adalah sebuah South Korea’s first theme park yang berlokasi di Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Everland juga merupakan theme park terbesar di Korea Selatan.

What’s On Trend In Korea?

What’s on trend in Korea??

it’s card holder!!!

yup, tempat kartu ini lagi nge-hits banget di korea dan bisa ditemuin dimana aja apalagi di toko aksesoris. anak muda korea lagi pada suka pake ini kemana-mana..

gunanya apa sih?

tentu saja buat tempat kartu kita, bisa buat kartu atm, kartu credit (kalo punya), T-Money alias kartu buat naik bus di korea selatan that u don’t need to pay cash, kartu remi, kartu apa ajalah yang penting gaya. hehehe

sebenernya cukup praktis sih, apalagi buat mereka yang emang suka bayar apa-apa pake kartu atau bepergian naik transportasi umum jadi ga perlu repot-repot buka dompet. Card holder ini tinggal dikalungin aja di leher kamu.

harganya berkisar antara 5.000 won ~ 10.000 won, tergantung modelnya gimana dan beli dimana, hehe…

saya pun ga ketinggalan ikut-ikutan beli ini, cuma masalahnya…kalo pulang ke Indonesia, bakal kepake nggak? 

gak mungkin kan bawa-bawa kartu atm atau kartu penting terus jalan-jalan di tempat keramaian umum atau naik bus kota, bisa-bisa langsung dijambret  :)))

dibeli~~ dibeli~~

my card holder tampak depan

tampak belakang