A ginger at Hongik university.

5 long and tiring hours later I arrived in Seoul at 9 pm last night.  Moeg and hungry  and overtired . Now any normal  person who is about to embark on three day music festival would probably have a quiet night in at the guesthouse and save their energy for what is to come. That really was my intention but being a victim of the dreaded FOMO ( fear of missing out )  my party animal side got the better of me. It looked  like it was  going to be another lone ranging mission for La. This situation of me venturing out on my own has  become a common trend and quiet frankly I love it . Most of you are probably shaking your heads at this point and  thinking "what a complete loser" and ya you're right . However the people in Korea are so friendly and fascinated by the fact I come from South Africa ,  I have yet to have a night out where I actually feel like im alone.  So off I ventured into Hongdae looking for a party. Trying to keep in mind that I actually couldn't spend a lot as I have a three day festival I need to fund was rather challenging.  I had been wondering around for a good while until I found where I needed to be. None other than the actual Hongnik University Campus. I heard some sweet beats coming from the campus and students rushing in and out of the campus area. As always FOMO got the better of me and so I went to check it out. What a great life choice I made. A  queue of students that went on for metres  all anxiously waiting to get into this electronic dome of happiness.

Now I have never been one for queues and there was no chance I was going to stand in an hour long queue considering I had given myself a 2 am curfew ( pfft so much for that) .
Being a foreigner in Korea most definately has its advantages. Looking all " cute " in my oversized bow I decided to use this to my advantage and do my best attempt at flirting and see if it would boost me a few spots  in the line. Thanks to some very sweet youngsters they allowed me to stand with me. 5 minutes later and I was in electronic heaven. I was certain there would be some other foreigners as it was such a massive party .Looked around to see if I could find any traces of blonde , light brown or red hair. As it would turn  I was the only one. The ginger and a couple of hundred Korean students .  It didn't take long before I got the usual stares , some people giggling and lots of  youngsters giving me the 24 questions. " Where you from "  I reply " Namagong" eyes blanky stare at me .  I try again  " Nam-a-gONG.  "   " oooooooh" Namagong! "  Eish.  All in all it was  a grand night making new friends  with locals and embracing being the only waygook at the jol!

Huggies baby wipes and cheetah onesies. : Dj World fest

Looking out the window  ,  trees rushing by , the sun light falling on the rice fields  and colourful lanterns everywhere. Inside the train , people sitting on the floor , people   fighting over seats and babies screaming . This is my five hour journey to Seoul . The sound of daft punk blearing through my head phones is getting me in the zone for the very crazy weekend that lies ahead. What better way to celebrate buddhas birthday than under the stars stomping it up to  heart pulsating beats at one of the top electronic music festivals in the world .

 One would assume that  since this is my first 3 day music  festival in Korea I would be well equipped and prepared for what lies ahead.   I am sleepingbag -less , pillow-less  and for all I know I could be possibly homeless at the festival as well .  However  the items  that I have packed I feel will serve me well in any dramatic situation I may find myself in. 

Recently being  informed that there will be no showers or washing facilities I tried to think of the best possible alternative to keep the vital body parts clean.  What do you think came to mind ? Huggies wet wipes for new borns of course .  You can never go wrong with huggies . We were also  informed that it will be a no cash  zone with no card facilities , frek talk about going back to the stones age. Instead we are required to load our  “ cashbee” cards  ( bus cards) with ridiculous amounts of won which will allow us to buy soju and line our stomachs with carbs . With a some total of 150 000 won now loaded onto my bus card and a bank account being close to empty that card better work at the festival. Lastly we have been informed to be prepared for cold weather in the evenings . Now coming up with a solution for this one was a bit more tricky .  As many of you know I have a tendency to wonder off and paired with my terrible sense of direction  it makes for a  fail of a combination . So it took me some time to work my way around this one . How do I keep warm at a music concert and still stand out enough for people to find me ? And then I was reminded of Cape Town and my tiger onesie. Yes!  Where does one get a onesie in Korea at the last minute ?  Gmarket of course !  The biggest online shopping store in Korea . You can literally buy everything on Gmarket . You could probably even order yourself a cute Korean baby. Now I figured that if i’m going to be clowning around in a onesie I may as well do it properly and show Korea my SAFFA heritage. So I settled on the cheetah. Standing out at the festival will not be an issue and I assume there won’t be many cheetahs stomping around.

So although I may not have packed  the basics necessities that one would usually take to a festival I think my huggies bum wipes , 150 000 worth of won  on my bus card and my cheetah onesie will do just fine. 

Here’s to a Buddha , a weekend  of stomping it up under the stars and embracing life .

Dinner date and pasta with the catholic engineer.

I wasn't going to write a blog post about this event  but then it occured to me that it could quite  possibly be the first and only date that I will go on this year and so I feel this needs to be documented. On Friday  night whilst I was off on my own mission I met two local university students in a bar.  The one was particularly "handsome" as they call the boys here . Feeling like a tit as I was on my own , I decided to attempt to make some new friends. Being the warm friendly bunch that Koreans are they very kindly invited me to join them. A lot of small talk went down and by small talk I literally mean small talk as the language barrier was a bit of a problem and being the chatterbox that I am I have to constantly remind myself that I am in Korea and that most people have no clue as to what I am saying . ( I really need to learn Korean)  Nevertheless we managed to hold a conversation and exchanged stories about our countries. By the end of the night I had new friends and they got my Kakao ID  ( exchanging numbers rarely happens as everyone uses kakao which works  off a username basis) It was not much later when I received a message from the " handsome "  one which read " missing you you kiki" and " are you okey "  now yes this may sound slightly creepy but I have come to realise that when Koreans say that I think it is  almost like saying hello. Still , I found this a bit strange considering I had only met him 4 hours before .  I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and replied. By Sunday night he asked if we could go for dinner. Now I haven't been on a date in half a decade , yes ,  true story so when he asked me I was very hesitant to say yes. Dummies guide to dating is what I need. I decided to be brave and give it a shot and im so glad that I did. We went to an awesome Italian restaurant  and had an amazing pasta . Points to him for not subjecting me to Korean food . A more sweet and innocent date would be hard to come by. No alcohol , just coke and pasta. No immature  male nonsense just interesting conversation. With the help of our translation apps on our phones we managed to learn quite a bit about eachother. The most important thing I learnt about him ? He's catholic and studying engineering. Need I say more. Jack pot.