┗( ＾0＾)┓ Bonguensa, Myeongdong, and Roxana's B-day!
- Lia <3
- Mar 29, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 7, 2022
ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Treasure You - TREASURE
1:35 ───ㅇ───── 3:43
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
This week, Lianna and I went to 봉은사절 (Bongeunsa Buddhist Temple)!
We stopped at the information booth before going inside and talked a bit with the woman working it. We talked using a mix of English and Korean, which was really cool. We found out her daughter also went to the same high school we're attending!
Every inch of the temple was delicately painted. The architecture was so beautiful. Inside one of the buildings, pictures were not allowed, but there were paintings of big, beautiful flowers.
There were also dozens of hanging lanterns scattered throughout the room. It was breathtaking. I've never seen a building decorated with such precision and detail.
We had to be very quiet on the temple grounds. The woman working the information booth showed us how to respectfully bow with our folded hands when entering buildings or viewing statues. If I were to do this again, I would definitely opt for a Temple Stay program or some kind of tour. Although I was able to witness a lot of the architecture and visual aspects of the temple, I didn't fully understand what it meant to Buddhists or the history behind it.
There were areas to hike above the Temple, so Lianna and I walked the trail for a bit while taking in the scenery.
It was so interesting to see the traditional Korean architecture right up against modern skyscrapers.
We then stopped for some tea at a little tea house on the temple grounds. I ordered 오미자차 (Omija Tea), which is now my favorite hot tea to order in Korea.
After that, we went to COEX Mall! (Lianna had never gone before and it was literally right next door)
We found a coin 노래방 (Karaoke Room) and had SO MUCH FUN. I sang GOT7's "Just Right" and Lianna sang IU's "네 사랑"
Then we found this running-machine-thing in the middle of the mall and played on it a bit. Korea has a lot of random exercise machines in parks, malls, under freeways, and outside of subway stations.
We had some drinks at a cafe inside the Starfield Library, which were delicious. Flavored milk is very popular in Korea.
I had a strawberry milk drink, which tasted like melted strawberry ice cream. I can totally see why those kinds of drinks are so popular!
That weekend, we went to 명동 (Myeongdong)!
Here's me in the underground shopping area of Myeongdong! There were so many tiny shops selling clothes, accessories, souvenirs, artwork, and so much more!
We then went to a Meerkat Cafe with Ruby and Linnea! But, they had much more than meerkats: kangaroos, foxes, and cats were also freely wandering around the cafe.
Although I say, "cafe" it wasn't exactly a cafe since you couldn't order food or drinks. They did give us food to feed the animals, though.
All of them were so sweet. The staff also instructed us which animals we could and couldn't touch. For example, this fox. ^^ I wasn't allowed to touch him, but the kangaroos were very touch-friendly.
All of the meerkats were absolutely ENAMOURED by Ruby. I don't know if if was because she was wearing soft clothes or if they just liked her scent, but they were crawling all over her.
What made it more hilarious was Ruby was slightly terrified of them, while I just wanted to cuddle with them.
Afterward, we went into a mall next to the cafe where we found a kpop store. They were promoting the new group, TEMPEST, so they had a bunch of TV screens showing their "Bad News" music video.
I didn't buy anything, because they didn't have the specific iKON album I was looking for, but it's definitely worth checking out!
After that, we found a toy-story-themed photo booth inside one of the stores and took some pictures.
Finally, we went up to the roof to get some pictures. We were in awe of Nam San Tower and the city at dusk.
^^ Our VOGUE shoot ft. Linnea
The next day was Roxanna's birthday! [CUE iKON's BDAY]
We celebrated by going to a Korean BBQ restaurant in 홍대! Maggie bought Roxana flowers, too. The cohort also bought her a bear-shaped cake and we all sang happy birthday in a nearby park. Some passerbyers even joined in!
Maggie also bought me flowers since I spent my birthday in quarantine, which was so sweet.
^^ Apparently BlackPink's Lisa also ate at that restaurant!
Afterwards -, we went to Pink Pool Cafe, which was a (yep, you guessed it) pink-pool-themed cafe!
To finish off the afternoon, there was a street performer doing a magic act! It was very entertaining and the entire crowd got really into it! I was so happy to see live performances back after covid hitting live shows so hard. I also did some shopping, and finally went home.
It was a day to remember! ~ <3
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