First days first

Hello everybody!

My name is Olli. I am a popping dancer from Finland.
The main reason to start this blog is to write about my experiences here in Seoul, South-Korea.
I will be writing about things that I do here and also about how I feel about the culture and Korean people.

16th December

Ok. Lets start from the beginning. Helsinki airport.
While waiting for boarding to start, I met a Korean boy called Min or Minty (not really sure).
He was interested about dancing so we started talking about dance and other stuff.. We managed to change his seat, so he sat next to me during my flight to Seoul. It was great fun. We played a chess game that lasted for 5 hours and that destroyed our hopes of getting any sleep during the 10 hour flight from Helsinki to Seoul.


17th December

Once I arrived at Incheon International Airport it was about 9.30 am local time. The air smelled different than in Finland. I tried to rent a phone at the aiport, but it required a VISA card, so I couldn't get one. Min's dad dropped me of at the nearest Subway station from where my journey to find Kimchi Hostel began.


The subway system in Seoul is a really good way to move about in the city. I had some problems with buying a ticket from the machine, but then some Korean lady helped me out. I got off at Hongdae station (Hongik. Univ) and tried to find my hostel using a map. It took me about one hour to find it, because everything looked the same to me. I tried asking directions from the local people, but they didn't really speak any english. In the end I got some help from someone who could actually point my in the right direction. I arrived at Kimchi Hostel Hongdae.

The hostel worker showed me my room and gave me some fresh sheets. At this point I started feeling a little tired due to the fact that I hadn't slept at all during the flight. I also realised that my stomach was so empty after eating those small airport meals! I went to the closest decent looking place I could find, which was a restaurant called TGI. I ordered a really big burger and some Korean beer called "Nite" to go with it. I must say that prefer Finnish beers over Nite.

The beer started to make me drowsy, so I left back to my hostel to get a short nap.
I ended up sleeping for 3 hours and woke up at 8 pm ready to explore the city.

My hostel is located in the Hongik. University area called Hongdae. I left my hostel to explore the sorrounding neighbourhood by foot. I found this crazy area, which was packed with people, because it was Saturday evening. In this area there were street dance showcases, graffiti, freestyle rap cyphers and artists of all types. Most of the people were students, who were having fun and doing their thing. In this area I saw many clubs aswell. I felt hungry so I tried out some chicken on stick, which was great.

I went to get some coffee from Tom & Tom's, which is a nice coffee place similar to Starbucks. I was just sitting down and this guy from the next table started talking with me in English. We had a nice chat, he was very curious what I was doing here, because in the end there are not so many foreigners here. He wished me luck with my journey.

It was about 11 pm and I decided to head back to my hostel and get some sleep.


18th December


안녕하세요!!!

Hello and good morning.

Today will head out to Hozin's Marvelous Studio near Sadang station. I will meet Dokyun at 4 pm. I'm so excited!!! Now I have to think of something to do before that. Ok, I will check out Itaewon, a shopping are for foreigners.

I took the subway to Itaewon. In Itaewon there are much more foreigners than in Hongdae area. Many of the shopkeepers in Itaewon speak English so it is good for foreigners to shop there. There were shops from Nike, Adidas, Converse, The North Face, Reebok and so on....

I checked out some of the hiphop clothing stores and they had decent prices, but I expect to find things even cheaper at Dongdaemun market. It was very hard for me NOT to buy anything, because I found a few very nice and cheap jackets, but in the end I resisted the temptation.

In a backalley I found a very original eating place with only locals. It was very small with only five tables. The owner was an old man in his sixties. I tried a very traditional Korean dish called Bulkkogi, which is a sort of beef stew. You can add different ingredients into the stew yourself. This stew came with some octopus tentacles and Kimchi as side dishes. The kimchi was very delicious even though the smell is not so nice....

Marvelous Studio

I spent some time in Starbucks and then left for Sadang station. I had a screenshot of a map in my Iphone, so it was not hard to locate Marvelous Studio. It is a 5 min walk from Sadang station (exit 11). I arrived a little early at the studio, but after ten minutes Dokyun, Jaygee and Suwon arrived.

We went inside and they showed me the studio, which was really nice!!! They told me when Hozin has his classes, which is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After this we went to get down and had a nice cypher together, which lasted for about 1,5 hours. It was great. I learnt so much just by watching these guys. After the cypher was over we went to eat hamburgers. They invited me to a Christmas Party at Marvelous Studio. I was really happy to be invited!!! It was time for them to practice a showcase together, so I left back to my hostel. I felt really tired, so I went to sleep at about 9 pm. It was a great day!


19th December


It is Monday!!! I woke up at about 7.30 and left to eat breakfast at Tom & Tom's. I had a bagel and a coffee for 4000 won, which is about 3 euros. I'm not really sure what I wanna do before going to Hozin's Studio at 6 pm. Anyway, I will go figure that out now so bye...


Dongdaemun


I decided to go check out Dongdaemun. I have never seen anything like it before. It is by far the biggest shopping area I have ever seen in my life. There was a huge mall just for different kinds of threads.
I tried to find some clothing that would suit my style, but I didn't find any. The whole shopping area is so big that I got lost in it. It started getting annoying, because I tried to find some street style clothing, but never found any. I left for Hozin's studio at about 5 pm.


Hozin's class


I came to the studio at 6 pm and there were some poppers there already. Hozin showed up a little later and told me that his lesson starts at 8pm and not 6pm like I thought. He let me practice in the studio as I waited for his lesson to start.

The lesson was really good. There were about 15 people taking his class, so the room was packed. I like his method of teaching. After the lesson, all the students stayed for free practice. Hozin got down like crazy. He is such a monster... I got really inspired from his dance. The musicality is at such a high level that it is hard to believe even though you see it with your own eyes...

I stayed for free practice until midnight and then took the last subway back to my hostel. I felt really inspired and happy, but also very tired.

GOOD NIGHT!