Aka Aurora's Tales

I have fallen in love for many times... a thousand times, maybe.. I fully know about how my feeling is when I'm in love. I remember about the excitement of having a crush and trying to get closer with him. But the thing I remember the most is the feeling of broken heart. Well, the thing you always dream of will not instantly come as you wish, sometimes you need to struggle more to achieve what you've been dreaming of.

I, as an example, am a 24 year old girl who's been dreaming of having someone to rely on beside my family and friends. Do I have nobody who's approached me? No, many of them were coming to my way, but I don't think one of them will be THE ONE. Receiving a false hope when I thought he was into me? Yes. Being approached because he wanted to 'use' me? Of course, yes. Living in a friendzone? Many times, dude. Seems pathetic? Yes, it's not your mistake if you conclude it that way. But I never think that my love life is gonna be suck forever.



Why could I say so? Why could I be sure? Because I know, God has destined me to be ' another pair of shoe' of a guy who's living out there now, whether I know him or not. God makes me surrounded by good people who sincerely love and care about me. But as a human, even though I think my friends and my family are enough, I still can't help thinking about this guy who I will invite to row a boat together in the future. There is a guy that is very close to me these days. I've been knowing him for years. He's a good guy yet a 'player', not really sure about this, but my friends said so ( how naive I am! Duh! ). We stick together like hell and have fun together. I read a quote on the social media, 'In women-men friendship, there's no way they can avoid the sparks of love.'. Why so? Women and Men are made to be together, depend on each other, and live together. It's possible for us, women, to feel this way to our male best friends. When we can't get enough of being together with him, we tend to look for a chance to meet him and in the end, our hearts say, yes, you need him. He is the one that I need.

I do believe in it, because it happened to me several times. It's easier to be in love to someone when I know that person personally for a long time. It's more intimate and I know the reasons why I'm in love with him. But again, the closer you get to him, the more you want him for your entire life. Again, that's only your imagination. We can feel this way, but he might not feel as what we feel. This is what I call 'a dilemma' phase. I splash the signs of how I feel to him, but the response is so slow. It's not a direct response, so I have to wait for it, but the bad thing is he gives me a response when I don't understand what the hell fucking happens to him. It's all about timing. We never get it right.

As I'm not tied to anybody, I can hang out with other boys and take selfies intimately with them. But I wonder if he cares about it. He only shows me some surprising reaction when I have another guy besides me, but sometimes I conclude that's how the way he jokes around. I can't differentiate what's joke and what's serious thing now. Whenever I am not tied to anybody, I have rights to have other guys around me. So does he. He can have a lot of girls surrounding him. But this case still leaves an enormous question mark in my head. I can't even think why.

People say, that 'my guy' has such a trash past. Dating with these and those girls, a devoted playboy (okay, excuse my word, it's exaggerating), and other things. Compared to myself, he's nothing. But he's gonna be a way different when we even can't notice it. This earth revolves. So does he. I do understand, people around me said that because they care a lot about me. They just don't want me to be hurt for the thousand times. But, I always believe that God has saved someone, maybe this guy or other guys, to match his marrow bone to mine. That is what we call, we are meant to be.

Yeah !! So let me begin the Seoul Adventure story by telling you about my trip to Nami Island. Since I stepped my feet in Korea for the first time, I really hoped that I could visit this famous island. Yeah, Nami Island is famous for its romantic situation because popular Korean drama, Winter Sonata, was filmed there. Nami Island is located outside Seoul, or exactly in Gangwon-do. So to go there, I had to take a train and also a ferry!

My friend, Astrid, and I tried to figure out how to go to Nami Island easily from Hongdae, the place where we stayed. So from Hongdae, we took a subway to Cheongryangri station (청량리 역 ) then from that station, we took an ITX to Gapyeong station ( 가평 역 ).

at the Cheongryangri Station

Astrid and I before riding an ITX

Astrid and I inside of the ITX

ITX train is the as fast as KTX, but it's cheaper and the route is shorter than KTX. The subway fare is 1.600 won and the ITX fare is 4.000 won per trip.


When we arrived in Gapyeong, we went to the information tourist center nearby and asked how to go to Nami Island. The staff said that we can go by a taxi or a shuttle bus. The shuttle bus daily fare is 5000 won. So you can ride it freely in one day. But if you just plan to go to Nami Island without going to Petite France, you better take a taxi because it's much cheaper than taking a shuttle bus. Since first we also wanted to go to Petite France, so we chose to take a shuttle bus. But then we realized that we didn't have enough money to go to Petite France as well, since our money was sooooo limited :(

To go to Nami Island Ferry Station from Gapyeong Station only took 5 minutes. Then we bought a ticket. A ticket to Nami Island actually costs 10.000 won, but for foreigners, we just needed to pay 8.000 won. Round-trip ferry riding is also included.

Nami Island and Petite France brochures

Nami Island ticket for foreigners

On the way to Nami Island ...

A cute cafe in Nami Island

Nami Island area is enormously wide. So prepare to walk further. It's tiring, but your eyes will be satisfied by the amazing scenery of this island. Astrid and I took almost 3 hours to walk around this area. My first stop was a First Kiss Park. It was a Winter Sonata drama where Bae Young Joon and Choi Ji Woo did their kissing scenes and built snow men. As we expected, of course, that is a really great spot for couples to take pictures ... errr, maybe taking pictures while kissing ... 헐 ~~ I just could chew my saliva seeing that kind of scene hahahaha If only I came with my boyfriend ..... hahahaha. There was also a bridge at that park. But the unique thing is a glass wall on the edge of the bridge furnishing with empty soju ( Korean liquor ) bottles. I also took some pictures there.








The good thing about traveling in Korea is the facilities in the travel spots. I am a muslim, so it's a bit difficult for me to pray while travelling. But suddenly my eyes stared at the building by the library. There's a musala in Nami Island! Musala is a Moslem praying spot. Since I hadn't done my midday and afternoon prays, so I headed to the musala and prayed. I felt so blessed hahahaha So if you're a muslim, don't worry if you want to travel to Korea. You don't need to be afraid skipping your prays. Thank you to the Ministry of Korean Tourism and Hospitality for this kind and great facility !! ^^


After adventuring around this beautiful island, we ended up going to GS 25- a minimarket in Korea - and stuffed our tummies with the simplest snack in the world, kob ramyeon ( 컵 라면 ) a.k.a cup noodles hahaha


Actually you can find a lot of 닭갈비 ( dalkgalbi - Korean spicy chicken dish served with sliced of rice cakes and vegetables ) restaurants, but yeah, because we had to tighten our belts, so we chose to have cup noodles instead of dalkgalbi. So sad ... T.T But for everybody who will visit Nami Island, please do visit one of the dalkgalbi restaurants there. Dalkgalbi is a really good dish to be enjoyed with the whole family.

At 5 PM, we waited for the shuttle bus to bring us back to Gapyeong station. The last shuttle bus is at 5 or 6 PM. So make sure not to miss the last bus, because you will end up wasting sum of money. We headed back to Seoul by the ITX train at 6 PM. We really had fun!!!

As an Ibuzz Korea members, I always get a newsletter from Ibuzz Korea about events which are going to be held. This time, I got an invitation to attend 2013 Ibuzz Korea Award in Seoul on November 20th, 2013 in Fradia Convention Hall, Jamwon, Seoul. It was a special invitation, so only 300 members got the invitation. The aim of this event is appreciating all of the bloggers and videologgers who shared their writing / video about Korea in the Ibuzz Korea page. Since they spread about Korean cultures widely to the entire world, so they are worth for this kind of award. Beside the awarding event, there were live stage performances from ZE:A and Dalshabet. There was a lucky draw and games too.

Well, let's start from the beginning of the story !

The event venue was at the Fradia Convention Hall, Jamwon, Seoul. I headed from Myeongdong station to Jamwon station. I went out of the Exit 1 and I found a standing banner of Ibuzz Korea which led me to an Ibuzz Korea shuttle bus. This shuttle bus run every 10 minutes to pick the lucky members up and drive them to the event venue. In the bus, I didn't only meet Korean, but also a lot of foreigners. Around 5 minutes, I arrived at Fradia.

2013 Ibuzz Korea Award Banner

We walked at the red carpet like celebrities do and got our photo taken by a photographer who was standby in front of the main door. Once I got into the lobby, one of the staff asked my email address and she checked it on her computer. Then I got my hand band and a light stick.

The  hand band

The light stick

Then she told me that I could go around of the venue. First, I visited a room with a big 3D screen. They played a video about Korean cultures. I borrow eda 3D glasses to watch the video. After watching the videos, I took a picture of myself with Buzz Korea banner as my background.

The big 3D Screen which plays Korean cultures video

2013 Ibuzz Korea Award banner

I headed to the 2nd floor to see other things which were available at the venue. On the 2nd floor, there were some Korea zones, sucs as Korean Foods Zone, K-Pop Zone, Korean Games Zone, etc. I passed by the Welcome Drink Zone where people could drink water, juice, soft drinks, even wine ! I got my orange juice and definitely headed to the Korean Foods zone. I was hungry, though. Hahaha. My eyes and myself couldn't believe that the foods were sooooooo many. I queued and took some of my favorite Korean foods. I took Bibimbab ( sponsored by Bibigo ), bulgogi ( Korean beef dish ), Haemul Pajeon ( Seafood pancake ), Chicken Gangjong ( Sweet and Hot Chicken ), and vegetables salad with olive oil. Those foods were soooooo good !!! Unfortunately I couldn't take the dessert, I was too full. But I could see there were assorted cakes, such as red velvet cake, chocolate cake, cheese cake , then puddings, cookies, and even macaroons.

Korean foods at the Korean Foods Zone

While eating and chitchatting, people could listen to their favorite K-pop songs in the K-Pop Zone. There were some tables with 4-5 headphones and iPods each. Well I tried it, of course.

K-Pop Zone

At 5:30PM, the event was started. Ricky Kim, as an MC, went on the stage then greeted all of the audiences. I couldn't see his face because my table was quite far from the stage and the lighting against my view. Ricky asked the Korean Tourism Organization leader to give a speech as a welcoming speech for all of the audiences who came. He delivered his speech in English so everybody could understand what he said well.



And here's the full rundown for 2013 Ibuzz Korea Award event :


After the speech, this is what people waited for. Yup, stage live performance of Dalshabet, one of the most famous Korean girlband ! I am familiar with some of their songs since I'm an ultimate viewer of Inkigayo or M Countdown hahahaha

After the performances, Dalshabet had some giveaways for the lucky participants. So they picked 3 message cards which were written by all of the participants before the event was started. Unfortunately, I'm never lucky enough. They gave 3 signed CDs and also a chance to take a picture together and shake hands. After Dalshabet's performances, here the awarding event began. There are some categories, such as Blog of The Year, Video of The Year, Buzz of The Year, and K-Spot of The Year. All of the prizes were handed in by the Korean Tourism Organization President. Congratulations for all of the winners!










Surprisingly, there was a lucky draw event too! And the prizes were so tempting. The main prize was a jacket which was a private collection of one of the ZE:A members. The lucky participant who got it was a girl next to my table. Ah, really I was not lucky~~~ :(  Then, it's time for ZE:A ! ZE:a minus Kwanghee performed 4 of their numbers and they were quite interactive o the audiences. Most of the members can speak English well too. What a surprise! ^^ People were cheering on them and even hysterically screaming to them.

ZE:A

Directions

Dongguk Univ. Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 5. Go 110m forward, and go past the Jangchung Gym (장충체육관). Turn right, and go 60m forward to arrive at the Shilla Duty Free Shop