Oh Honestly, Erin

Remember when I got married in South Korea, you guys!? There, that’s going to be the intro to every blog post now.

After that happened, we needed to go back to the hotel to stash our license. Chooch got a celebratory vending machine coffee and didn’t even CHEERS us. Asshole.

I was so worried about MISSING EVERY MOMENT that I was snapping photos on the fly, willy-nilly. The amount of pictures I have that are:

1. blurry;
2. of unknown origin

is shocking. But anyway, I wanted SUBWAY SNACKS to eat in the hotel room in our….post-nuptial glow? Could you even consider paper-signing nuptials? Not a single vow was uttered. Well anyway, I ordered hodu gwaja / 호두과자 (they’re these delicious little walnut cakes) from a sweet ahjumma. I always like to order food in Korean even though they usually will also have the English descriptions there too, because I JUST WANT KOREANS TO LOVE ME.

And more subway kimbap with ham that needed to be picked out but it’s OK! It’s all good. Just happy to be in Korea eating my kimbap.

After snacking, changing clothes, and resting up a bit, we headed back out to Namdaemun Market!

This is a great area to head to if you want FOOD and STUFF. Chooch bought a pair of joggers that Henry complained were too expensive considering it was right off the street (20,000 won, get a life Henry) but Chooch LOVED these pants so much that I think he wore them EVERY DAY of the trip after this. Bye bye, Target sweats. To the back of the luggage you go.

There is so much KOREA in this picture, it makes my eyes well. But anyway, there are a bunch of small alleys in Namdaemun that have hidden restaurants, the good kinds that only have like 5 tables and 3 things on the menu.

There’s a multi-level indoor section of shops too and it’s quite overwhelming every time we come here, I swear.

We settled on this food cart for dinner because it had something for all of us plus tteokbokki which we ALL love. This guy let me place our order and then he was saying “one minute!” to me in Korean, over and over, and here, he needed to move his cart to a location further down the street while our food was cooking lol. It was chaos, but exciting. I don’t know how these street food vendors have the patience. I was so stressed out on this guy’s behalf because he had numerous people yelling orders at him and handing him things they wanted him to cook.

Anyway, at the end of this post, I’ll put the video compilation from this day which includes him absconding with the cart, and also a truck driver having a screaming match with a guy on a scooter that happened right after this – it was all very exciting. Lots of action in Namdaemun.

We also got leek pancake (my favorite) and vegetable mandu. So satisfying!

OK this place was the beginning of Chooch’s obsession with schisandra ade (omija in Korean). I had never heard of this berry before but it was EVERY WHERE, tons of cafes we went to had omija ade and Chooch was like, “Bam, done. I’ll have that.” every time.

Henry also got an egg tart and we shared it while watching the truck driver yell at the scooter guy, in case you were wondering.

This was a childrens’ department store!

Back at the hotel, we dropped off some purchases, hydrated, Chooch changed into his new joggers and then we went back out again. Oh!! I remember the main reason we stopped back there – this is so stupid, but for months while planning this trip, I kept thinking about how cute it would be to take our marriage license into one of the many Korean photobooth rooms out there. I mean, it was up there on the short list of IS THERE ANYTHING MORE KOREAN. I mean, we could have also taken it to a noraebang – WHY DIDN’T WE TAKE IT TO A NORAEBANG??

As far as elevators go, this one ranks #3 out of the three places we’ve stayed in Seoul. There was just nothing special about it and it wasn’t even good for selfies!

OK so look, after serendipitously stumbling upon Ikseondong that morning like a veritable Diagon Alley, PLUS seeing that one of the photobooth rooms I was most interested in also had a location there, going back there that night was non-negotiable. Plus? It was cafe time.

Nakwon is Instagram famous because it’s so aesthetic. I mean, just while sitting there, we saw people after people stopping to have their picture taken in “the spot” (you’ll see) and then continuing on. But I wanted the picture AND the drinks.

Look at how pretty Chooch’s raspberry latte is! He said it was “fine.”

“Was it a vibe?” I asked, and he said, “Sure.” Henry and Chooch aren’t into aesthetic cafes like I am. Look, I can also drink vending machine coffee shots like Chooch and be fine with it because I’m a coffee addict, but I also like to be sitting in the midst of Instagram inspo, you know what I mean? And you have a gimmick, even better. I’m a sucker for a gimmick.

There is one cafe in Busan that almost made me redo our whole itinerary to fit in an overnight Busan romp because this cafe delivers your drink through a window on pulley so it looks like a little hot air balloon. Henry was like *stern look* and then “Next trip.”

I WILL TAKE THAT AS A PROMISE.

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Maple cream latte <3 It was so rich and wonderful!

This is the photozone, lol. People love the train tracks! Check the video at the end.

The photobooth room! Video of our “session” is included at the end so BE SURE TO WATCH!

This area gets so crowded and it’s also really popular with locals, so I was pleasantly surprised at our luck!

OMG OMG OMG then we went to Mil Toast and usually this place is popping off, there’s a waitlist, huge line, etc. It is in almost every Seoul influencers’ YouTube vlog. I first saw this in Joan Day’s vlog back when we she was still vlogging about her life in Seoul. I got so much inspiration from those vlogs! This was on my list last time we were here too but of course, we totally failed with Ikseondong in general.

Anyway – NO LINE if you go on a Tuesday evening! The inside wasn’t even crowded!

Chooch was so tired that he actually fell asleep while we waited for our bread. A girl (another foreigner) came out of the bathroom and saw him, then she chuckled to herself and went back to her table where I saw her pantomine Chooch with his head in his arms to her friend. It was cute but when I told him about it later, I of course made it sound like she was making fun of him mercilessly.

“She took pictures of you, too. They’re probably on Instagram.”

You have to order two loaves (they’re small and I could probably eat both on my own, tbh) and they steam them right there at the counter. It’s such a fun experience. I had to laugh though because it was just us and maybe three other groups but the kitchen were HUSTLING like it was a full house, yet…NOTHING was coming out. It was like watching a bunch of Sims being mismanaged.

Oh fuck me up, Mil Toast. We got one sweet potato and one chestnut loaf. They were delicious. Not as good as salt bread! But I can understand why this is a popular brunch spot. They also have the really eggy, souffle-y french toast which a group of young travelers sitting nearby ordered to share and it looked divine. I had to laugh though because one of them was in the bathroom was it was served, so the other two waited for her before digging in, but then when she came back to her seat, she had to take a picture of it first too. The other two looked like they were in a drool coma at that point.

The verdict is that I think it was REALLY good but I’m not sure if it was “wait for an hour in line” good? Just go at night!

Speaking of night! It was fully night by this point. I suggested walking back to the hotel but Chooch whipped his head around and glared at me lol. He was so tired. So we went back to the hotel and dropped him off, then Henry and I went back out for a stroll as newly married people I guess, but don’t worry you guys, he was so annoying and I was snapping at him every two minutes, plus he tripped like a doof at least twice on this walk and I screamed, “YOU’RE SO EMBARRASSING!!” like he was driving a MAGA float and wearing a Trump toupee on his dick.

Henry said we could walk to Seoul Station and I had no idea our hotel was that close to it (like a 20 minute walk) because again, I don’t understand maps.

(Wait, I just consulted my vacation journal and that says he tripped approx. 8x.)

We walked around the Seoullo walking bridge thing that we did in 2019 but it was a different vibe at night! There was even a really cute cafe/bistro there but I told Henry it looked too romantic for us.

From there, we went to Lotte Mart because there’s a small Daiso there and Henry wanted to get laundry bags. What a…fun way to end the night, Henry. But while we were there, I saw some cute baby stuff so I got my friend Wendi an outfit for her soon-to-come anyday-now baby.

Then we saw this Pokemon section and taunted Chooch with it the next day.

Hey! It’s me. I feel like after 23 years of blogging, I should have some really UNIQUE TO ME intro solidified by now. But, eh. You know WHAT I finally solidified after 23 years, though? MY LEGAL PARTNERSHIP WITH IDIOT HENRY. I’m just a late bloomer with some things, I guess.

Anyway, I know I sprinkled bits and pieces throughout several months, but here are the juicy (not really) deets about why we chose to elope and the process of getting married in South Korea, because we struggled to find much information about this online so hopefully one day, some random American couple wanting to tie the knot in South Korea might not have to be as info-blind as we were going into this.

I’m not going to get into why it took so long for idiot Henry to propose (that’s his story to tell, after all, if he even has a story), but for nearly two decades I dreamed of how I wanted my wedding to be, at one point even considering doing it at Warped Tour. But, Warped Tour doesn’t exist anymore, and I also forgot about most of those dreams. When he finally proposed to me last June, people started asking wedding questions and I realized pretty quickly that I had no answers/thoughts/ideas, nor did I have a desire to join the Knot, make a registry, brainstorm venues, deal with wedding parties.

And then I realized something else: I couldn’t picture it.

I don’t mean “a future with Henry” because come on, that isn’t changing just because now we were finally going to make it “official” in the eyes of the IRS, but I mean “the wedding.” I couldn’t picture it! I literally couldn’t imagine myself in a dress, walking down an aisle (I mean, it definitely wouldn’t be in a church, but you know what I mean). I couldn’t FATHOM standing there in front of a bunch of people, friends or not, reciting vows. I mean, I can barely talk to people on the phone these days without stuttering, and this felt like Public Speaking adjacent.

The unsolicited advice and suggestions started to roll in too and that made me actually feel like I was losing interest. I didn’t want this stress, especially with college applications coming up – I knew I didn’t want to wait too long to get married since I had already waited 22 (at the time) years, and I’m not saying I wanted to get it over with, but I felt like the sooner the better.

The one no-brainer was that we would go to South Korea for our honeymoon. There was no waffling on that one. We both sincerely love this country. I definitely love it more than Henry (he said the other day, “No one loves anything more than you do” and it’s kind of true because I am hyper-obsessive about things that I like, you weren’t aware of this though, so I’m telling you now) but he does genuinely enjoy everything about it, as well. And that’s special, you know? With Warped Tour, he would have just been going along with it and I can promise you he probably could have come up with 13 different ways to get married that he would have preferred more (eg. at a local garbage dump; while bungee-jumping; in his ex-wife’s driveway; etc.).

But then, one day last summer, I thought to myself, “Why the honeymoon though? Why not the actual MARRIAGE?” And I say marriage and not wedding because a destination wedding to South Korea felt like a logistical and financial nightmare, not to mention none of my friends or family would ever agree to attend that. Hi, you have never expressed a modicum of interest in visiting this country, but hello friends, please get ready to fork over $$$$ for airfare, thank you! That is truly a big ask. (I will say though that Wendy was strongly considering coming with us!)

And also, this still goes back to the whole “I don’t want an audience” sentiment. I mean, I know I’m a Leo but I’ll decide when and where I want attention paid to me, and it ain’t for this, fam.

Also, I started thinking about how even something like THE PIE PARTY or CHINGUMAS stresses me out to the point of lying awake in bed with heart palps, not being able to stop dwelling on the mistakes, the fails, the no-shows, the details that were forgotten in the rush to get ready. Imagine me and a WEDDING. I would spend the rest of my life with every last negative morsel of the day festering in my soul. I would definitely end friendships over it. Oh, you didn’t RSVP? UNFRIENDED.

I started googling “foreigners getting married in Seoul” because surely, we could do something simple without the bells and whistles, something for just me, Henry, and obviously I’d want Chooch to be there. I mean, he’s dealt with us for nearly 18 years of his life, he might as well see this through, you know?

There wasn’t Too Much Information that came up, but from what I did see: it was possible, seemed relatively hassle-free, and is recognized in all 50 states. There was even information on the US Embassy’s website so that was reassuring knowing that the US Gov was telling me, “Yes, you can do this. We will allow it.”

Of course, Henry was on board without hesitation. He did suck in his breath a little when I said I wanted to do this March 2024, less than a year away, but we made it work. The hardest part turned out to be getting the appointment with the US Embassy in Seoul only because you had to have PATIENCE. This is something that I lack. But, this was the necessary Part 1 because here, we would receive our notarized Affidavit of Eligibility, which we would then take to the “Local District Office” for the actual marriage license to be issued.

However, for notarial services, the US Embassy in Seoul only books appointments on Tuesday and Thursdays (and some weeks, only one of those days from what I deciphered during my months of stalking, constant page refreshing, hysterical shrieking with frustration) but they only open appointment three weeks out. So, we either had to:

1. wait to get an appointment and then quickly book our flight with three weeks’ notice;
2. book our flight a normal amount of time in advance and then pray we could get an appointment for one of the Tuesdays or Thursdays we were going to be there.

We booked our flights in the beginning of January, for March 22 – April 2, and prayed for the best.

It’s here that I would like to apologize to my friends, primarily those I work with who had to deal with me screaming in text about this constantly. Every once in a while, my brother and Christina would chime in with, “Any update re: the appointment?” and I would send them screenshots of the US Embassy’s appointment calendar.

“Getting close!” they would say, to which I would snarl, “NOT CLOSE ENOUGH.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the US Embassy was like, “FIND OUT WHO OWNS THIS IP # BECAUSE THEY MIGHT NEED TO BE PUT ON A SECURITY LIST.” Like, no one in their right mind visits their website as many times a day as I was, hitting refresh like a motherfucker, and then being SHOCKED when no new appointment availabilities would magically populate.

I don’t miss those days, happy to put that behind me.

I never did figure out exactly when the new appointments would open up on the website, if it was arbitrary, if there was ANY rhyme or reason to it, but Henry did manage to snag us two appointments for Tuesday 3/26 pretty much the moment the times were listed, and he even got the first available – 12:30PM. I kept checking and I swear I never saw notarial appointments for any time before this so if you were hoping to get this done early in the AM, that probably isn’t going to happen.

These are the last two pictures I took as a single woman, en route to the Embassy, contemplating pulling a runner:

After parting ways with Chooch, who was eager to be on his own to play Pokemon Go without the background static of his parents bickering, we arrived at the US Embassy about 15 minutes before our appointment. There is a side entrance, rather than entering through the front, with numerous signs that says AMERICAN CITIZENS PLEASE GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. That felt like entitlement but OK. So, the regular line wasn’t *too* long, but there was NO ONE in the Uppity Entitlement American Line so I felt really self-conscious standing there. The people in the other line were there for Visa and Passport issues, as we found when Henry EMBARRASSINGLY ran up to the window to ask the Embassy a guy a question and the guy was like THIS IS VISA AND PASSPORT ISSUE TIME! Like, for Christ’s sake Henry, WE ALREADY HAVE OUR OWN FANCY LINE, CAN YOU NOT CAUSE A SCENE.

The guy at the window was INTENSE.

Shortly before 12:30 though, the window guy cut off the other line and then waved us over. There were a few other people in our line by then so I didn’t feel as idiotic. The guy was still pretty intense (he kept yelling through a microphone which would blast his voice to kingdom come through a series of speakers outside of the building; it was unnerving. I mean, who goes to another country and WANTS to visit the Embassy, right?) but was much nicer than I anticipated once it was our rightful turn. We were thankfully allowed to show him our appointment confirmations on Henry’s phone but please, print that out beforehand because it will be much more efficient. I thought Henry had, but apparently, I need to go back to micromanaging him.

That portion took probably 2 minutes honestly. Showed our passports, the appointment confirmation, bam. Entry granted.

Once inside, you go through a security line. You will not get your phone back until after your appointment. The way my heart was racing. I felt like I was on my way to a sentencing. And I guess, in a way, I was.

After we made it through that part, the rest was A BREEZE. The first staff person we encountered was so pleasant, just immediately quelled my fears. She asked in a very sweet intonation, not sounding at all like an interrogation, what the purpose of our visit was. Instead of just saying “notarial purposes,” I fucking blurted out WE WANT TO GET MARRIED.

When I say this was something that kept ringing back throughout my head for days to come….

WE WANT TO GET MARRIED.

And you know I said it in that high-pitched hyper voice I get, too.

She was so kind though! She smiled and handed us a number and told us to have a seat. We were the first people to arrive, and our number was going to be next to appear on the screen. We just had to wait for all of the clerks to come back from lunch, I guess, lol. But they did arrive a bit after 12:30 and then our number flashed on the screen pretty soon after.

The young woman at our designated window was just as sweet as the first one. Just, imagine the shitty attitudes that you often encounter in places like this. The DMV, for example. This was not that. We were treated like human beings.

She gave us a paper to fill out, just basic “bride” and “bridegroom” info, then we took it back to her, she prepared all of our paperwork and passports into a package for the notarizing officer, we paid $50 at another window, and then sat down and waited to be called into the “interview” rooms. As we were taking our seat, our clerk called out, “Congratulations!” and it was just so special! I loved this whole process. Everyone we encountered was so pleasant.

A few minutes later, we were called back to the interview room, where we had to answer a series of questions posed in the most conversational way imaginable by a tall white man with some indistinguishable European accent. His name was Denis and he told us that he had recently visited Pittsburgh and I was about to say, “Ew, why” but then he went on to say how much he loved it so even though I have certain feelings about my hometown, it was still kind of cool to hear accolades and I felt proud. There. I admitted it.

We had to do the official right-hand swearing on our mom’s life that we’re married and I won’t lie – I really started to doubt myself, remembering the time a Darkchat friend suggested that my boyfriend at the time (JEFF) do a handfasting ceremony and…we didn’t, right? That was just a phone call, an idea. RIGHT? Those days are all a blur now.

This is what the affidavit looked like, but I cut off the top part because it had our passport numbers and I have been hacked enough lately, thanks.

Denis also gave me a blank Korean version of this form and said that depending on which district office we go to, they might require it to also be filled out. I was only half-paying attention to this because I was SO NERVOUS ABOUT THE NEXT PART. This is the part that was very unknown to me and for months leading up to this day, I had visions of getting there and running into issues or being questioned or scrutinized.

But anyway wow, what a great guy Denis was! And what a great moment in the story of our marriage. All these great people who essentially held the door open for us along the way, I will never forget them!

I went back and took this picture of the side entrance to the US Embassy later, I will never forget that stern ahjussi sitting behind that window with his demoralizing microphone, god love him:

The next part is where things got murky. I knew that after we received this document, we would have to go the “local district office” which I guess would basically be the equivalent of city hall in the US (I had to ask Henry because I don’t know adult things like this). So, in Korea, there is one of these offices in every district so you could pick one I guess, but there is literally one RIGHT BEHIND THE EMBASSY:

LOL I love this picture. If I send out marriage announcements, this is the one.

OK, so as I said, the Jongno District Office is right behind the US Embassy so if you’re reading this in the future because you want to marry your US citizen boo, it’s really that easy – and from what we read online, this is also the district office that is the most familiar with foreigners getting married so = easiest.

This is the map they have on their website:

Honestly, this entire area is A TOURIST HUB so it’s very easily accessible by subway and bus. We took the subway there from our hotel.

When we walked in, we had no idea where to go because there are other things in this building too. But there was a very helpful and friendly woman at an information desk to the left, and when we said, “District Office?” She smiled and pointed to the first door to the right and then when she saw that we walked through the doors and still seemed confused, she came in after us and pushed something on a kiosk that we blindly walked right past and then handed us a number.

We didn’t even have a chance to sit down – our number was IMMEDIATELY called. Also, there was no one else in the waiting room so that helped calmed my nerves too.

IMPORTANT: Before we left for Korea, Henry found the form that is needed for the District Office online, but it was on the Dongdaemun District Office’s website. He printed out the English and Korean versions since we weren’t sure which would be needed but for some reason, the English one printed out HORRIBLY. I was like, “Oh great, I can’t wait to turn this in.”

These are the forms that we took to Jeonju the day before and had Jiyong help us fill out, plus these are the forms that require two native Korean witnesses. I wasn’t sure if this would be ok, to already have the forms filled out rather than obtain them here so I was sweating about this.

Everything I had read (and honestly, there wasn’t much) was that most district offices do not require the two Korean witnesses to be present, and that the Jongno office in particular definitely didn’t. I read that one couple asked two people at the front desk of their hotel to sign for them so I would suggest that if you don’t know how to write in Korean, print both forms out and ask whoever you target as your witnesses to also help you with the Korean form JUST IN CASE.

Again, we were met with nary an eye bat when we presented our forms to the young woman at the window. She was happy that we had both versions filled out too ahead of time.

HOWEVER.

Remember that other form that the guy gave me at the Embassy? Yeah, that needed to be filled out. The clerk asked if either of us could write in Korean and Henry nudged me forward like, “GO GIRL IT’S YOUR TIME TO SHINE.”

So I had to take that other to another counter and essentially just copy all of the info from the English version over, but in Hangeul, which I haven’t practiced writing in a very long time but was able to get it done. I mean, it was rough, but I did it.

Meanwhile, she had given us another form, which Henry was responsible for completing while I was struggling with my Korean alphabet but when he gave it back to her, she was like, “Sir, you missed an entire section” and I was so annoyed with him. Like, he had the easy part of answering in English for god’s sake.

We also had to write our parents’ names and birthdates and I fucking froze and blurted out, “I DIDN’T KNOW MY FATHER” and she was like, “It’s OK, we can skip that.” Jesus Christ, I was sweating.

Then the clerk wrote something in Korean with a colon at the bottom of the Korean form that I filled out and said to me, “OK sign here” and I said, “OK, what is this for?” and she said, “You’re signing as the translator of this document.”

Yo. Are you kidding? That was cooler to me than the actual marriage portion of the day! I will never forget years ago when I started studying Korean, some of my friends teasing me and asking me what in the world I was ever going to do with that. Well, clearly read signs and menus the three times I came to Korea and translating my own document in order to get married, also in Korea. So.

And that was it. We had to pay 400 won for two copies of the license. That’s basically less than 50 cents.

Boom, married! In Korea! Korean marriage license!

The part that I didn’t mention in my first “we got married” post was that when we got back to the hotel, I sent a picture of the license to my brother Corey. He goes, “That’s so cool! But…. why does it say your birthday is July 33rd????”

Oh, motherfuck.

It did too.

How does this happen to me?!

My heart sank. I mean, I’m no whiz when it comes to legal documents (says the bitch who’s worked in a law firm for 14 years) but I kind of felt like this would POSSIBLY render the marriage invalid if we brought that back to the states?!

Henry was like, “Calm down, we’re here for another week. We can go back and get it fixed.”

I cropped it before I posted in on Instagram because I just knew people would come for me in the comments lol.

“Um, I don’t think this is legit??”

“Do you really not know your birthday????”

“HOAX.”

The hilarious part to me is that it’s not even like it was July 3rd, like the zero was missed. No, the typo decided to assign a birthdate to me that DOES NOT EVEN EXIST. NOT EVEN ON A LEAP YEAR.

This had to happen though, right? Traumatic proposal. Losing my engagement ring 30 minutes before my surprise bridal dinner. And now I present to you Chapter 3: Going to Korea for an invalid marriage.

BUT don’t worry. The next day, Henry had to go and get an apostille for the marriage license, which I guess is just a certification to make it legit before bringing it back to the States. This is the final step. Here’s a picture with the information on where to go for this, and it’s also in that same area:

Here’s the fun part though, and even more fun for me because I wasn’t with Henry for this because it sounded boring so now, I’m relying on his recount which is he giving me while stuffing bread between his cheeks and stomping in and out of the kitchen. Literally, he sat right next to me this whole time I have been typing until I get to the part where I wasn’t there and need him to fill in the blanks.

MY HUSBAND, YOU GUYS. I AM SO LUCKY.

OK, so it’s the next day right? I told Henry, “Please make sure you get my birthdate fixed before the license gets certified or whatever” and he is like, “OK.” Then a little while later, he texts and says, “OK done. I have to go back on Monday and pick it up.” (We weren’t going to be in Seoul on Thursday or Friday.)

“Great! Did they fix the date?”

“…..no.”

“So, you gave them the original marriage license with my birthdate being a day that doesn’t exist. HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE.”

“….I will take care of it.”

So now Henry is telling me that he went back to the Jongno District Office and the same clerk was working. He had the second copy with the wrong date and asked, “Can you fix this?” and she did and gave him new copies for free, so then he had to take the new one BACK to the Overseas Korean Services Support Center and said that it was like he was never there, no one remembered the American stoop, but he was finally able to go back to the original person who had helped him, explained that he needed to swap licenses, she said “OK” and took the new one, gave him back the old one, and on Monday he went back to pick it up. This is what they put on the back of it to make it look double-official:

Also, per Henry: When he first went to this Korean Service Center place, he had to fill out the initial “service form” I guess you would call it, in Korean. The security guard there helped him! He was probably cursing me for not being there with him so I felt bad, but not TOO bad considering he was going to get the wrong license certified so yes, I clearly should have gone with him!

Typing it all out, it seems like A LOT of bureaucratic bullshit, but it was actually in the end a lot easier than I imagined. No one asked “Why?” or made us feel weird about wanting to make this official in our favorite country, and I feel SO HAPPY every time I think about it. Like, we decided to do this, and we did it. We did it our way, with Chooch rolling his eyes as he took pictures of us with the marriage license but probably was thinking, “Aw, yay mommy and daddy.” (OK, that’s pushing it.)

Afterward, we assumed we would have to register our marriage when we got home, but according to the Commonwealth of PA, our marriage will never be registered. They give no shits. And the US Gov and the IRS consider us legally married since we did the whole apostille part. So, if you are planning on doing this, just check with your state.

And that’s the story of our very clerical marriage that was made official in Seoul. <3

BONUS! Here’s a photo of Henry and me from our first trip to South Korea in 2018 which was the SAME DATES as this trip and I didn’t even plan it that way, it’s just that spring break/Easter happened to fall at the same time as 2018 this year. It was meant to be, you guys. I will never look back with regrets on how we chose to get married.

Before I dive into more Jeonju fun, I just want to say that I am disappointed not to mention OFFENDED that not a single person reached out to me yesterday after the news broke of OJ Simpson’s death, but OK. Cook on.

After leaving Cafe Tirol, Jiyong drove us back into Jeonju to show us the new restaurant that she and her husband are in the process of opening! At the time of this blog post, they’re doing a soft opening. I can’t wait to go back and eat here!

When they were living in Pittsburgh, Jiyong’s husband, Hyunjin, was a chef at a French restaurant and was always working when she and I hung out so I actually had only met him once, on my last hang out with her! He came to pick her up and deliver a huge bag of Korean snacks to me as a parting gift. It was so sweet and I was glad to meet him finally! Anyway, it was great to see him again, and have him sign as our second witness!

Jiyong did all of the interior design here too with no experience, no background, and I was blown away – it 100% looked like a professional consulting group came in with their color wheel and did their thing. She was so worried about it, but I was like, “YO. This is stunning!” I think this was Henry’s favorite part of the day, getting to walk around and like, I dunno, knock on beams and squint at electrical outlets. I don’t know what he looks at, but it’s not the pretty colors and aesthetics, that’s for sure. I’m surprised our guy didn’t pull a level out of his ass and start inspecting shelving, etc.

I’m going back there soon. I have to. They have arancini!

By this time, it was starting to rain really hard so Hyunjin drove us into the touristy hanok village where we were having bibimbap at Jiyong’s favorite restaurant! As travelers who have only really used the subway or our feet as the primary form of transport, it was bonkers being passengers in a car crawling down narrow alleys while people and scooters hogged the street. Usually, we are among the pedestrians trying to stay out of the way, so this was a fun new POV.

We walked in and Jiyong got us seated within seconds and within several more seconds, banchan was placed on the table for us. Chooch whispered, “Can she come with us everywhere?” LOL, seriously!

Anyway, this place was called Hanguk Jip, or Korea House. According to the tea cup, it was established in 1952!

I am certain I have detailed my love for bibimbap using many words and probably several raunchy sex analogies many time, but to recap: this was actually the first Korean food I ever had, and unknowingly at that. This bitch that I used to be friends with back in the day had a friend whose family owned a restaurant in Oakland and we would go there occasionally to see her.  Back in 1999, I didn’t know that the family was Korean, that the restaurant was Korean, that I had fallen in love with a traditional Korean dish. But, that’s exactly what happened. And I couldn’t never remember the name of it!! Ignorant whitey that I was, I would say to Christine, “Let’s go visit Meesh because I want that boppy thing.” Ugh. Kill 20-year-old me, please.

But yeah, it was a big deal because it was something that I could without meat, which is why I initially gravitated toward it.

Flash forward decades later, and this was our second time in the hometown of said boppy thing! Bibimbap is said to originate in Jeonju. Jiyong said that it noticeably is sans egg, because in Jeonju they believe that the egg yolk messes with the intended flavor of the dish, so that’s a difference in case you were wondering. Meanwhile, in one of the restaurants we had bibimbap at in Busan, there are eggs on the table so you can crack your own and dump it in!

Not all bibimbap is the same but most bibimbap is delicious!

Especially if you like gochujang. Which I do. I really really really do.

We talked about other Korean food and Jiyong asked if I liked nangmyeon, which is a cold noodle dish. I admitted to her that the first time I had it, I did not like it, but there was some underlying essence of it that made me come back for more and now it’s one of my favorites.

“With mustard and vinegar,” I said, rolling my eyes back.

“You’re Korean!” Jiyong laughed, and if you ask Chooch and Henry how many times I reminisced about this one short phrase throughout the rest of the trip, they will likely force themselves to astral project to a land where there is no Erin.

Anyway.

We had a bottle of makgeolli too and it felt like a real pre-celebration!

I’m getting really emotional as I remember this day. I have loved all of our trips to South Korea but this one really felt so much more personal. Having friends there now. Being so familiar with our surroundings. Having confidence with the language. I really feel like something shifted and I came back changed, in a really good way. (I mean, once the growing pains ceased and I quit crying and acting like a monster because I couldn’t process the emotions stemmed from our departure, I was able to notice a difference in myself!)

After lunch, we walked around in the sporadic rain. I loved how quiet the rain was making the area, because this place gets PACKED. We were there in July of 2019 and as the day got later, the people were just pouring in. So it was nice to see it almost as if it were just a regualr neighborhood and not a popular tourist destination.

I love Korean architecture so much. Henry, please buy me a house and build a wall around it just like this one.

Then we spotted a big orange cat and started tailing it!

Chooch was so frustrated because when he finally had a chance to take a picture, after the cat popped back up, this elderly woman in fron of him was “WALKING TOO SLOW” and made him miss the shot, and now this moment and his irritation with a sweet halmeoni is tarnishing my suggestion that he include something about “working with the elderly and computers” in an essay he needs to write….

I bought this backpack at Target before our trip and I really like it. It was a great personal item for the plane and fits so much stuff!

We followed the cat home! Or, what might be his home? He attempted to go inside one of the houses and another cat was like I DON’T THINK SO and chased him away. :/

Cafe Dalgom for a sweet snack!

OMG this was in a croffle cone and it was so delicious but I 100% could not finish it with that bibimbap sitting in my stomach. Chooch got a sikhye smoothie and Henry got whatever that waffle sandwich is with a butter and red bean filling. Jiyong got tea, which was the smartest option because it was cold, rainy, and we were stuffed!

This cafe was adorable.

Dear Henry, I like this wall too.

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We walked in the pouring rain to PBC for chocopies! I’m pissed, looking at this picture, because I told Henry to get what he wanted, assuming we were getting an assortment to take home for us and for gifts, but instead he bought like, 4. Which was obviously devoured when we got back to Seoul and I was so mad that he didn’t buy more.

WHY DID I MARRY SOMEONE WHO CAN’T READ MY MIND.

We didn’t see any of this part of Jeonju the last time we were there, the more commercial area with shops, which reminded me of a more quiet and smaller….Myeongdong maybe? Hongdae?

One of the Korean phenomena we witnessed first here in Jeonju is the Kodak craze. And I don’t mean like, “Oh, here is a shop to buy Kodak film” or whatever, but, “Oh, here is a shop full of Kodak-branded clothes that are actually more expensive than you would imagine.” I know this because back in Seoul, we also saw this brand at the Lotte department store, along with National Geographic!? DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET NATGEO SHOES? I didn’t either and now Chooch won’t let me forget it because he wanted a pair and I can still hear the ghosts of his whines in my head.

Jeonju is the home to a big film festival, which I actually did know because I watch Korean Gentleman on YouTube, a British guy who has lived in Korea, is fluent in Korean, married a Korean, and devotes his life spreading the amazing joys of Korean culture on his YouTube channel; several years ago, he and his wife were invited to attend the film festival there!

Also, prior to meeting Jiyong, everything I knew about Jeonju I had learned from his videos. No shame!

Jiyong was so sad that it was raining (I wasn’t sad about that, just angry that when I said, “Yo we should buy umbrellas” Henry the Horrible screamed NO WE DON’T NEED IT and I was like OK I HOPE YOU MELT) but in all honesty, it was still a great day. Sharing an umbrella with her just made it more memorable!

Before we knew it, it was nearly 4:00PM, and time for us to go back to the Jeonju train station, where we witnessed Jiyong squeezing her car (dude she has a super cool electric Hyundai Ionic and Henry’s main takeaway possibly from the whole trip is that he wants one) into the tightest non-space in a temporary parking lot that’s being used while the station is under construction. I would have given up before even trying but she was like, “No. I got this.” AND SHE DID.

She walked us into the station and we were all chatting and then suddenly it became clear that our train was about to arrive and we had to go out to the platform, so we said our goodbyes and it SUCKED! I appreciate our friendship so much and am so grateful that we were able to see her while we were there. It just makes me more determined to go back again soon. I still want to have a Hangang picnic but will not do it unless she is with us!

According to my vacation journal, I didn’t write anything at all on the train ride back and now I remember why: I WAS IN A DEAD SLEEP for most of the trip back. We had been doing so much, running nearly non-stop, that it was good to catch up on some sleep. Especially because then I was ready to go out again once we got back, much to Henry’s chagrin, lol! I don’t think I have that much more to recap, but I’m still splitting this into a part 3 because I am a Blogger and this is my Blog.

JUST KIDDING – I just realized that this was the evening where Chooch was like, “I AM TIRED GOOD NIGHT” and went to bed as soon as we got back to the hotel but I was whining about wanting to go to SMTown Station to see if the new NCT Dream video was playing on the big video screen in that subway station (technically the Seoul Forest subway station). We had watched a video about this recently and I was excited because this wasn’t something that was around during our last trip AND that Monday was NCT Dream’s comeback.

In parentheses on that sign, it says SMTown, lol. SM practically owns Seoul, it’s insane.

When we came up the steps after getting off the subway, there really was a giant screen playing various SM artist videos. The volume was turned way down and I was tired and irritable and being a baby because none of the videos was NCT Dream and I was like, “I AM A BUST ADULT, I CANNOT STAND HERE ALL NIGHT” so then we started to walk around. I wanted to go to Kwangya (IYKYK) but we couldn’t find it because Jesus Christ, that station and the….mall? it was connected to was so hard to figure out. Anyway, it turns out that unlike 90% of the city, Kwangya closes at 8pm and it was already 9:30 by this point.

I SUPPORT THIS ^^^

I thought this was cool so I took a picture of it which is usually the impetus behind taking a picture, you heard it here first.

We went back to the hotel around 10:30 probably and I watched the NCT Dream video while pouting for absolutely no reason aside from the fact that I was exhausted and probably hungry for real food and not a choco pie but Jesus are those choco pies delicious.

Anyway, here’s the (short) video comp from this rainy travel day!

 

One thing that I have always wanted to do in Korea was a temple meal, and not even just because it’s vegan by default, but because it just seemed like a really cool way to experience traditional food. This time, we made sure to fit this in! There is a place called Sanchon Temple Cooking in Insadong, which is a great area to score some vegetarian / vegan food. In fact, that sign above Henry’s head in the below picture says Insadong tofu neighborhood!

You’ll note that Chooch is on his phone in nearly every photo and it’s because he was playing Pokemon Go because, Korea. Hilariously though, there was one time when Henry was like, “We need to find the 7 Eleven —” when we were looking for Sulbing (a popular Korean dessert place), and Chooch goes, “Hold on, I’ll find it. It’s right down there” and pointed down the street after consulting his map on Pokemon Go!

Immediately hit with this stunning scene!! All restaurants should be this green.

Dude, you get ALL OF THIS in the set meal, plus complimentary tea (I thought it was barley tea but Henry argued that it was green tea – it was not green tea). Henry also treated himself to a Cass beer and Chooch was livid because he wanted a different kind of tea but Henry was like DRINK WHAT YOU’RE GIVEN, actually, Henry just ignored him because he claims he can’t hear, how convenient that this sporadic hearing loss only seems to occur when one of us is asking for something.

There was a really cute older couple finishing up as we sat down and the man kept looking over at us and smiling so happily. I didn’t really understand why – do we look like a happy family? I mean….lol. Then as they were standing up to leave, he leaned over toward to us and said, “The food here is delicious, enjoy!” and it was such a simple interaction, but so sweet. So many people were so kind to us on this trip! Not to say that we were, I dunno, shunned the first two times, but I definitely felt more warmth overall and it was really appreciated and definitely did not go unnoticed. I love Korea so much!

OMG I’m such a loser.

I know, you’re looking at this picture like WTF kind of edible oddities am I seeing right now. The bowl to the left was some type of savory black sesame porridge – it was smooth and umami. The lotus root was marinated in some type of yuja marmalade, I don’t even know. But it was bright and crunchy, with a citrus zing. (Channeling the spirit of the food blogger buried in my basement.)

Meanwhile, the super sweet older man who seated us and was presumably either the owner or manager, never came back to explain what we were eating because shortly after seating us, a Korean couple came in and were seated behind Chooch. When the guy was pouring their tea, the POT FREAKING BROKE AND HOT TEA SPILLED ALL OVER THE SIDE OF THE WOMAN. She must have been wearing enough layers because she didn’t react as hysterically as you’d think, but instead just removed her coat and started patting herself down with a napkin. The Samchon man was beside himself, fussing over her and frantically trying to clean up the spill. It was really awkward to witness and I felt back for both parties, but that lady really handled it with grace and just quietly slipped away into the restroom. Then she came back and she and her companion went on with the meal like nothing happened, which was great for me because I was 100% spying on the man, who was seated facing me, to see if we were eating our stuff properly. For instance, Henry immediately grabbed one of those little dishes up there and started dumping food into it, but then I saw the man remove the tissue paper from the little bottle on the plate and pour some its contents into one of those dishes.

“So, is it sauce, then?” Chooch asked. But then I saw the man drink from the dish, so I mimicked him.

“Oooh, it’s like some type of sake I think!” I exclaimed, and Henry immediately knocked the food out of his dish and repeated after me.  Chooch sneered at both of us and opted out of mystery juice time. But he *did* ask for a sip of Henry’s beer, which was shocking because Chooch is straight edge without the label and even when we were on our last trip and he was of-age in some countries we traveled to, he did not partake in any adult libations.

(Side bar: I also tried some of Henry’s Cass and can confirm that it was good. I am so picky with beer, but this was really light and good, and also the first time we were in Korea, T.O.P. from BIGBANG was a Cass spokesperson so it only makes sense that I would like it. *HAIR TOSS*)

This was Chooch’s hell. Mr. Vegetarian Who Hates Vegetables said, “If I had known this is what we were doing, I would have stayed outside and explored.”

(See also: Played Pokemon Go.)

This plate of savory pancakes (not quite jeon – what are these called??) was a big highlight for me. Even Chooch was like, “This is fine, I’ll eat it.” It was basically cabbage leaves folded and fried in some type of light batter. It was so good, I wish we could have requested more!

He would not go near the mushrooms on the stakes though. This fun guy hates fungi.

Holy shit, vegetable heaven. I LOVED this set meal so much!

We also got soup and a dolsot bowl of rice. I watched my secret mentor from the table behind Chooch pour some tea from the tea pot into his bowl of rice after he had spooned a bunch out and it lit the lightbulb above my dumb head because I know that in a lot of Korean restaurants, the server will come over and pour hot water into the dolsot bowls so that it will loosen the now-crispy layer at the bottom in order for you to eat it but I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen here. No, because apparantly that’s what the tea was for!

“What if he knows you’ve been spying on him and now he’s just making shit up to see if you’ll do it,” Chooch mumbled and I refused to believe this, although he and I did make very awkward eye contact several times and I do think he eventually became aware of the fact that I was using him for table guidance without his consent.

Henry was in his own food world during this and had no idea that I even had a mentor.

OMG I loved this little collection of food I prepared for myself. I wish I could eat like this every day. Also, lotus root is one of my favorite things. Every once in a while, Henry will make it and I am the only one in the house who eats it and that is fine by me, motherfuckers.

Definitely having words here.

Meanwhile, I watched as  my mentor determined that his tea-rice had been soaking long enough, and he dove in with a spoon. “OK, I’m going in now too,” I said, as Chooch sighed and poured tea into his bowl of rice too.

The final round! Very delicate Korean tea snacks.

Then the owner/manager guy finally came over to check on us. To Henry, he said, “Usually, we will pour the tea into the bottom of the bowl to loosen the rice, and then we will eat it like soup. It is….Korean style.” Then he looked over at my bowl and Chooch’s and exclaimed, “Oh! Like them! They did it!” AND WE WERE SO FUCKING SMUG, YOU GUYS. Like star students. Henry looked like a big American doof, lol.

“I didn’t hear you guys talking about it!” he scoffed after the owner/manager guy walked away. Mmm.

Sanchon bathroom!

Sanchon! I miss you so much already.

Walking back through the alleys into the main street of Insadong, we ran into an old white couple who asked us if there was any food to be had back there.

“Yes, we just had a really great meal!” I cried. But, knowing not everyone would agree, I added a disclaimer of, “But it was vegetarian.”

They both grimaced and the guy said, “I just want a beer,” and Henry assured them  that there were many restaurants back there that also served beer. As we continued walking, Chooch said, “See? Even they were like ew no thanks.” He’s such a hater.

Then it was time for shopping! This cutie outdoor mall area was still pretty much the same from what I remembered. Mm, maybe a bit more crowded.

The poop bread stand is no longer at the bottom, but has been moved all the way to top outside of the Poop Cafe, which makes more sense, honestly.

Now there’s an entire new-to-us section of stores too – maybe it was there before but I definitely didn’t notice it. This was around the time I was starting to fall into a food coma and was losing steam. I really wanted to sit down with some coffee but also THERE WAS SO MUCH TO DO.

We made Chooch get his traditional Korea caricature much to his chagrin. I will say though, for someone who allegedly hates doing this, he never puts up a fight. I mean, he rolls his eyes and says he hates me, but he always goes along with it. He’s either broken or he secretly loves it.

All of a sudden, a surge of people converged on the shop while Chooch was sitting for his portrait and he was truly pissed about that I think.

After this, we made our way out of Insadong and stopped by Jongyesa Temple. Per Wiki:

this is the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The building dates back to the late 14th century and became the order’s chief temple in 1936. It thus plays a leading role in the current state of Seon Buddhism in South Korea.

We saw this on our first trip too but it’s so vibrant and cheerful with the colorful lanterns, who wouldn’t want to stop by again?!

I do art.

The plan was to go back to the hotel and get coffee at that WFH place that Henry and I saw earlier but OF COURSE IT WAS CLOSED FOR SOME KIND OF CONSTRUCTION. So instead, we walked a few stores down and went to Tiamo instead. I got a sweet potato latte (love these) but ordered it in Korean because I’m the best. Henry didn’t realize that and when he tasted it, he looked visibly shocked.

“That doesn’t taste like coconut AT ALL!” he screeched, and I calmly (of fucking course) said, “That’s because it’s not. It’s sweet potato.”

And he argued, “I swear you ordered coconut.”

To which I said in a reasonable tone without any trace of denigration,” That’s because I ordered it in Korean. Goguma.”

“Even I knew that,” Chooch sneered. We legit are the best at knocking Henry down. OH NO, POOR HENRY. WAH.

There were two guys sitting across from each other at a nearby table, and they were both COMPLETELY OUT, sleeping with their heads in their arms against the table. I assumed they were together, but then watched as they each woke up separately and left separately.

I don’t know what was happening there.

So, I thought that after this, we ended the night at the DDP, which I already posted about the next day from the train to Jeonju, but NO! We apparently when to Myeongdong first and THEN went to the DDP, I am so exhausted remembering that we did so much. I do know that we went back to the room for a bit after our latte break though because we were fucking stuffed from our lunch (well, Henry and I were) and needed to just….lay for a bit.

THEN we went to Myeongdong for shopping and street food! My dinner was hotteok – the injeolmi variety!

The way I just involuntarily shivered at the memory of this delicious hunk of fried porn-food. Jesus. Henry, please open a hotteok cart on Brookline Blvd please. Never mind, people in Brookline will ruin it.

Chooch got the OG variety. Actually, I regret not eating more hotteok while we were there. I mean, I’m not mad about somehow only gaining a pound there (the 30,000 steps-a-day thing definitely helped). But….shit. I could have eaten more with no regrets I think.

Myeongdong is soooo touristy BUT it is the place to go for skin care and shopping in general. I will never skip Myeongdong and somehow the crowds don’t even bother me that much. I guess because I’m still just so stoked to be there!  You can bet that you won’t see many local Koreans there.

Seventeen instant tteokbokki!!

LOL, Henry the Stay.

Chooch got a pizza stick but it ended up having meat in it so Henry inherited it and then Chooch spent the rest of our time in Myeongdong not being able to settle on anything to eat. It was actually so annoying. Like just pick something to eat and shut up, please.

Yo, HBAF. The best almonds in the world! I can’t believe how much of a conglomerate this has become!! So, our very first trip to Korea, we learned very quickly that Koreans were obsessed with these honey butter chips, right? So we got a bag and immediately understood it. They were unique and so delicious! The second time we went, we noticed that there were more honey butter products now and also several new flavors of almonds too. And then we noticed that in Myeongdong, what appeared to be a giant HBAF flagship store was under construction. Well, it’s up and running now, along with numerous other locations, and HONEY it is the place to be. Plus? Free samples. You know we went hog wild up in this piece.

I bought my dad the biggest variety bag that that have – it’s 88 mini bags of all 22 flavors. This is the ULTIMATE Dad gift. He will freak out and I can’t wait to give it to him!

I also got my friend Margie a smaller variety pack and she messaged me today at work to say that she’s only tried two of the flavors so far (garlic bread and injeolmi) and is ready to send me back to Korea to procure a bigger stock, lol. There is a lot of hype around these but yo, it checks out. These almonds are so delicious that I actually forgot about the OG honey butter chips until I started writing this part of the post, lol.

And then from here, we started our subway journey back to the hotel but when I saw that the stop for the DDP was on our route, I suggested that we get off there because there is nothing like the DDP at night. It’s such a gorgeous piece of architecture. But, you might have already seen those pictures here! 

Well, at this rate, it’s going to take me three mths to recap this trip. But you know I’m going to enjoy every last second of revisiting these memories! AND I HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY IT TOO.

Also, here is a video from that day:

Hello! Here is a video and some pictures from our first night in Seoul. Our flight landed around 3pm but by the time we did the whole customs/baggage claim rigmarole, picked up our portable wifi thingie, and then settled on the subway as opposed to the airport train which wasn’t leaving for another hour, it was around 6pm when we arrived at our hotel in Seodaemun. This was our first time being in that area of Seoul and it ended up being quite nice and convenient. One of the entrances to the subway was literally right outside of our hotel. The only way it could have been more convenient would be if there was, I dunno, a slide from our room’s window that shot us straight down into it.

So, I think I left off on 3-23-24 saying that we had checked in and were going to refresh before going out to explore in order to stave off the jet lag. And we did just that! We walked our fucking asses off, with no plan, just soaking it all in. I was beside myself, being there again. The sounds! The smells! The sights! It was surreal. Seoul is next level. I always rope Henry into the discussion of “would Korea still feel so magical if we went here knowing nothing about it?” I just don’t know if it feels this way because I already had a strong connection to it based on how it completely changed my lifestyle in 2015/2016, or if it would still feel like Heaven to me without any of that background? I think it’s a combo of both, probably and because of that I always worry that someone will vacation there someday and be like, “The fuck was Erin talking about? This place is OK, but not all that.”

Which then leads me to start wondering about my past life again, lol.

I just asked Henry last night if he’s sad to have left (“yes”) and if he even likes Korea (“yes”) but when I started to ask if he likes it as much as I do, he cut me off and said, “No one likes anything as much you!” and “you obsessive freak” was implied at the end. :)

So, let’s enjoy an evening stroll through Seoul together, shall we?

I was excited to see that our hotel was within walking distance (maybe a 10 minute walk?) from Gwanghwamun Square, which is the lively space leading up to Seoul’s biggest and most popular palace, Gyeongbokgung. This is also where the US Embassy is which is where we needed to go the following Tuesday to get the whole marriage party started. So, that was good to know we could walk there easily if needed, but we did take the <3subway<3

I have so many pictures of this beauty from all three trips now: King Sejong – the creator of the Korean alphabet, hangul. Love him. Underneath this square, there’s a free museum for the language, as well! Don’t miss it.

To the left of this, there were some night market stalls set up and I bought a Korean mother of pearl ring off the sweetest halmeoni. Henry glared at me and I snapped, “WHAT I TOLD YOU I’M BUYING ALL OF THE THINGS THIS TIME AROUND!” The last two trips I swear we came home with nothing because we always do the, “We’ll come back and get it before we leave” bullshit and then, well, you know how that story ends.

Palace at Night vibes.

We had a lot of fun taking selfies and just hanging out in this area.

I thought my hair looked pretty decent after a billion hours on multiple planes! (Speaking of, have I mentioned that I fell in love with the Minneapolis airport? I don’t know what I was expecting, something lame like the PIT airport, but this was sparkly and vibrant and had so many shops and good food places and CARIBOU COFFEE which I miss having in Pittsburgh.)

You’re shocked to know this, but it was NOT shorts and t-shirt weather.

My favorite color palette.

OK, OK, you get the point.

We continued walking and when we saw this big ass spire thing, I knew we made it to the entrance of the Cheonggyechon Stream! Fun fact: the law firm I work at has an office in this area and I swear to god if I could ever transfer there, watch me spend every lunch break strolling around the Cheonggyechon, for real. Love that area so much!! It’s a must-do for us every trip at this point.

We have so many nice memories from this area!

It was so lively on this night!

Chooch was being ridiculous while taking pictures of us (he does this thing where he hyper-zooms in on Henry’s face multiple times so then I have to go through my camera roll and delete them all) when these three girls were walking by and stopped to ask if we wanted a picture of all of us. It was a white Australian girl and two Korean girls, all carrying yoga mats. I was like, “OMG yes please, I can’t trust him to take a nice picture” and she laughed and said, “Oh no, I don’t know how much you can trust me either! I’m not very good at taking pictures.”

So while she was taking them, her friends were coaching her and then finally one of them fully took my phone from her and started taking her own. It was so cute and this was the result:

A natural laugh/smile on my face, can you even believe it?!

Chooch always takes a series of shots and as they go on you can see the progression of my exasperation, lol. In this one, I was definitely reaching that point and probably was starting to say, “Did you get it? OK you’re done, stop, let’s go, don’t be an idiot.”  And then again, it’s me deleting a series of Henry close-ups.

Walking around the Jongno area at night is so comforting. We stayed in Jongno on our first trip there so this area is special to me/us (probably just me, who am I kidding).

It’s weird to feel this conforting familiarity when surrounded by signs that aren’t in English.

Our first tteokbokki of the trip!!

We started walking toward a more crowded area – I believe we were near Insadong – where it started to get pretty dicey trying to walk down the sidewalks because so many restaurants had tables out there and there were a ton of food stalls too. I probably would have been scared if this was anywhere else, even in America because I’m so averse to crowds, but it just felt exciting being there in the middle of it all. And we “lost” Henry for a few minutes which was funny.

At first I was like, “Why did I take a picture of the adult shop, grow up Erin” but then I remembered that I was taking a picture of the Isaac Toast window down there, which is where “we” had our first Isaac Toast experience in 2018 and by “we” I mean that Chooch got one and didn’t like it because he’s so fucking picky, so Henry and I ended up eating it and loving it. I think it was the sauce that Chooch didn’t like  – it’s sort of reminiscent of honey mustard. But overall, it’s just a really delicious sandwich. We always get the one that has the hashbrown and egg on it because it’s the only non-meat option. I dunno, I like it enough that we’ve gone back to the sit-down location in Hongdae every time since then.

Then we took the subway!! I wanted to go to Seoul Station to see if I could find a cute T-Money card because I refused to use a basic one or the one that you get per-ride.

Their first subway argument! Always fighting over the machines. Anyway, for some reason none of the T-Money card machines were in use?!!? I ended up panicking and buying some non-T-Money card called Namake which can be used for transit as well as a debit card. I only got it because they had a Wiggle Wiggle design series to choose from. Of course, right at the end of our trip, Seventeen announced that they were collabing with Namake too and had a bunch of designs lol oh well it was a moot point anyway because two days later, Chooch found a Haechan one at an eMart in one of the subway stations (the Dongdaemun one I think) so then he used my Wiggle Wiggle one until he found one that he liked too. You don’t understand – T-money cards are part of the process. You gotta get one that suits your style or you can be like Henry and get some ugly WOW PASS thing that he also used for the subway/buses.

The Seodaemun subway steps that we walked up a million times during our time in Seoul. Is it weird to miss steps.

Then we had a late night tteokbokki & banana uyu feast back at the hotel after walking around for a good four hours. What a satisfying first time, you guys. It felt like being home again. I want to inject these memories and feelings into a blanket and burrito myself in it.

I’m still slightly jet-lagged and REALLY deep in my feels  and as much as that phrase makes me cringe as a broad in her 40s, I am at a loss to think of a better way to explain my listlessness, like I’m going through a bad high school breakup. It hurts to be so in love with a country on the other side of the world, lol. Is this a past life thing, I wonder? Because I feel so whole and alive when I’m there and then just whatever when I’m here. What does it meaaaaannnnn.

Anyway, I haven’t even started going through my photos yet because every time I start to, I end up weeping uncontrollably (like just a few minutes when I called Henry and gurgled, “I AM SO SADDDDD” and he was like, “Jesus Christ, we will go back.” So, until I’m able to compose myself and type out proper recaps of each day we were in South Korea, here is a list of things I have been wailing about missing since we’ve come home.

• The uneven sidewalks that Henry constantly – and I mean like perpetually – tripped over.
• Using my Haechan T-money card for the subway/bus everyday:

• Dunkin injeolmi lattes :( Generally we don’t do American chains while on traveling but injeolmi is one of my fave Korean flavors so I had to try this. It was so good, I had it twice – tried for a third when we were at Seoul station waiting for the airport train on our departure day but apparently this was a limited menu and it ended after March. :(
• 87 convenience stores on every block (ok maybe an exaggeration but really there are a ton) where we’d get total delicious trash food (& sometimes healthy food!) for breakfast ever day. I even bought a cute suitcase at a 7 Eleven in the subway station outside of our hotel and it was filled with treats!

• 24:7 kpop and I mean good kpop and barely any BTS, what a blessing. I was so happy at how much BIGBANG we heard as we walk down the sidewalks. One night in 명동 there was a bar and a store across from each other blasting two different BIGBANG songs at once, and a shop when we were in 경주 that was cycling through an entire BIGBANG playlist while we were there! Lots of Seventeen too – probably the group I heard the most of while there honestly.
• Chooch getting his semi-daily shot of coffee in the subway station:

• 그녕…the way it smells. I can’t explain it. But it’s nostalgic and comforting to me.
• The language. When I say it’s music to my ears…
• Matcha.
• MOTHERFUCKING SALT BREAD. Changed my life. Full post coming soon about the 소금빵
• Barely any Taylor Swift assaulting the airways! Blessed be.
• The convenience of being able to grab snacks from subway ajummas (kimbap, hodu gwaja, etc).
• The self-serve store in the subway station by our hotel exit that sold Levain cookies.
• CAFES BEING OPEN LATE unlike here in Pgh where most of them close at 2 or 3 because apparently no one drinks coffee after that, we move on to Bud Lite or something, I guess.

I will end with my current favorite NCT Dream song from their new album (that came out while we were there!!) which has become the soundtrack to the way I’m feeling post-SK. I’ll be ok, I know. Just bear with me while I work through this and be glad you’re not Henry, who has to deal with my mopiness IRL. (I think I probably just need to go to an amusement park….HINT HINT, HUSBAND. LOL not as gross as “hubby”, but I’ll still never do that again don’t worry.)

 

(RENJUN AT 2:51!!! THAT SMILE.)

(Great now I’m sitting here sobbing right as I have to begin working, I’m going to be loads of fun in group chat today.)

(Do I possibly need therapy?)

 

It’s our last night here in Seoul and I am wrecked. In full disclosure, I was a raging asshole all day, truly. I know I should have been enjoying the last full day here but the reality of leaving was weighing on me and I was sooooo snippy and couldn’t make up my mind with what I wanted to do, eat, drink, buy, etc.

in the end, we were all over the place, roaming aimlessly, but I guess when you think about it, at least we were here.

In Korea.

My favorite place in the whole world. :(

I’m excited to get home to my cats, though. If it wasn’t for the cats, I wouldn’t miss home AT ALL.

Two things that happened today which were kind of cool:

• We were in the area of Tongin Market, on some random side street in a quiet area while Chooch was eating his 떡볶이, when a red-haired girl walked past us. I did a double take and said, “OMG it’s CariCakes lol.” She’s an American YouTuber that lives here in Seoul and I have been watching her videos since late 2016/2017. I have learned so much about this country from her channel. It was hilarious though because Chooch kept saying, “look there’s Cari Cakes” and “When I was in Gangnam without you, I saw Cari Cakes” – you know, being his usual pest self. And then we ended up ACTUALLY seeing her. Henry was like “go say hi!” and was being really persistent about it but then she was already pretty far gone so we had to speed walk but since we were behind her at that point, I couldn’t find a good way to approach her without looking like we were following her (I mean, we were). But anyway, she was super pleasant and didn’t seem too alarmed at my trying-to-not-ambush but-still-kind-of-ambushy approach. We chatted about the cherry blossoms and where we’re from and how the blossoms just feel more magical here in Korea. I dunno, it was just really nice and also surreal because her vlogs are always like, “Today I’m taking you guys to—” so it always feels like she’s talking directly to you and then in this brief moment, she actually was. Social media really makes the world such a wild place, you guys.
• On the subway, a woman walked past us carrying a bag (like a gift bag?) with the name of the law firm I work at on it so that also was wild. A city with millions of people and today we saw a YouTuber and a bag with the logo of the place I work. Seoul, you are fucking crazy magical.

And now I’m just sitting here listening to Henry and Chooch bitch at each other while Henry furiously tries to pack everything – we had to buy two extra carry-ons while here lol. The one I bought on Wednesday and filled it with stuff IMMEDIATELY. Henry had to buy a second one tonight in 명동 while Chooch and I were doing last minute shopping. ;)

I wish I could put my feelings into words other than “ow my heart.” I am going to be really depressed for quite some time, I think. Henry keeps saying, “we’ll just have to come back” every time I remember yet another thing that we didn’t get to do this time around. I really hope so. I try not to take things like this for granted so any time we do come back, it feels like such a gift.

Chooch, please become a super successful computer guy and buy me an apartment here so I can visit twice, three, four times a year.