I had this whole long thing I wanted to post about the League of Legends Worlds championships and I probably will still talk about it, but at the last minute I found a really amazing hotel in Gangham and it’s like all my dreams of hotels come true. So I actually get to post this message from a keyboard on a computer. This is excitement. Anyways, as an aside here is the view I woke up to day 2:
And here’s a quick photo of the room the host family graciously gave up so I could sleep in:
Day Two was the last day with Su Hyuk and his family. His wife Kiki prepared an amazing breakfast which included (I apologize for butchering the spellings) Pajang which they called “Korean Pizza”, and Chapche which were like glass noodles and very good. The whole breakfast was Bibimbap and it was amaaaazing. Pictures here:
Every part of this breakfast was delicious and I’m starting to think I’ve been missing out on not eating more Korean food in LA (Though to be fair all the Korean food I had was really good). Ive really liked the Kimchee I’ve had here too. Good stuff. Anyways here’s my bowl of bibimbap after being all mixed up with some oil, rice, chili paste and egg
After breakfast Kiki brought me some tea which was really amazing. I told her to bottle the stuff and sell it in stores because it was this great fruity tea that wasn’t too sweat. It was the EXACT way I love my tea, it was fantastic! I asked her what brand it was so I could maybe pick some up and she said it was “Kiki brand” and she showed me that she made it in a crock pot with a root that’s like Ginsing and a berry called “jujube” berries. Jujube’s were by far the best part
After a slight miscommunication about how we were going to spend the morning I packed up my bags and we headed into town for the League championships and I discovered yet another of those things that is alike no matter where you go:
We fought some bad traffic and I learned a couple of things from Su Hyuk as we drove. Primarily that in Korea pedestrians don’t have the right of way and he said it was one of the things he liked about when he visited the US. There was definitely a bit of chaotic madness to how people drove and I have since noticed walking around that he’s absolutely right and as a pedestrian you can’t just wander into the street while texting and expect that everything will work out just fine. I’m not sure if I mind that threat of death though to keep people paying attention while they walk.
After getting dropped off I found a locker to stash my bags in, which was a bit nervewracking since all my cash was in my bags, but it turned out to be fine. All that done I ventured into SangAm station to watch Star Horn Royal Club play against Samsung White in the World Championships. Ahead of time there was a bunch of cosplay contests and other events but the lines for these things was FANTASTICALLY LONG
Most of the outfits were really cool and seeing a short korean guy cosplaying as Graves was really amazing because he nailed the attitude perfectly and his outfit was fantastic the only thing wrong was his glued on beard. The quality of all the costumes was mindblowing though. Here’s a mecha-chogath that was mildly falling apart but still really cool:
The tournament itself was really cool and for those of you who care about LoL E-Sports you know what happened and for those who don’t lets just say sometimes the underdog doesn’t win. Sometimes the underdog just gets his shirt pulled over his head, the shit kicked out of him, and his lunch money taken. This was kindof like that. Then we saw Imagine Dragons play a set which was cool. I had heard the song they did for LoL but hadn’t heard of them other than that, but they performed Radioactive at the end of the set and I went “Oh hey. I know these guys”. They were actually great performers and I feel like any show featuring pyrotechnics is automatically a win.
That photo is from before all the games. After things ended I met up with a friend who happens to also be visiting Korea, and we headed back to meet up with some of her coworkers in Gangham. We got into Gangham pretty late around 10:00 or so and I realized it was probably time for me to find a hotel for the evening since I didn’t have a place to stay in Korea yet and it was starting to rain.
Achem. Yes I’m bad at planning.
First though! Dinner had to be had! We went to a Korean BBQ place and had some AMAZING korean bbq! Actually… I didnt have anything because it was all pork and beef and a little bit of shrimp. I ate the shrimp and tried something that looked like it MIGHT have been chicken but seemed like it probably wasnt so I figured I probably shouldn’t eat it. I did drink a lot of shoju and beer though so that just wound up being my dinner. And more Kimchee. Mmmmm Kimchee.
Then at my sister’s request. Sweet tasty Korean deserts. I had read on the internet that they have a lot of good pre-packaged ice creams and so we went into a 7-11 and they had the following assortment in their ice cream bin by the door:
It all looked good and whatever I ended up grabbing was sortof like an ice cream cone. It was pretty tasty and everyone else seemed to enjoy theirs too. I then went back and talked about Agile Methodology for a while with strange PMs in strange lands. It was weird and surreal and I was a little drunk. Then I stumbled over to the Stella Boutique Hotel and I gotta say. This place is fantastic.
I would show more pictures and talk more but I’ve now spent half my day lounging around in the hotel and if I don’t get out into the city a bit today all the info I’ll have for you tomorrow will be:
Spent day in fancy hotel room. The end.
Im really enjoying Korea so far! I’ve always had a hard time doing anything but laying in bed sighing happily when it rains out and last night it poured down rain as I snuggled up in sheets in my room and this morning as I’ve typed this it’s been wonderfully overcast outside. Life here is good. More soon.