Meet Trisha: She was assigned to be my buddy during my stay. Though this sounds very impersonal as if she needs to hang out with an obligation (me), she had become a very dear friend to me. She guides me around to see and experience new fun and/or Korean things. Most importantly, she is one of the reasons who makes it able for me to get a more in depth view of Korea as she explains a lot of the culture and the underlying reasons of cultural differences. Also some basic survival Korean.

I've heard lots of stories about people that don't have any contact with their buddy's or lack contact, but I'm not saying they are all like that. I just know that I have one that is fun to hang out with and takes good care of me if I need help with Korean stuff. Oh, and she's also the only Korean I know that has a flawless accent. When people ask me "Who is your buddy?" and I say "Trisha, the one that speaks English very well", they often know right away. I get to eat to all these food places, and we all know those are the best types of friends. Especially in Korea, it comes in handy to have someone around that can speak Korean to deal with the "All korean / no pictures" menu thing.

As she takes me to see new area's in Seoul. She took me to the area that she lives in which is in Sinchon. I talked about Hongdae before, which is a place that I really love but is quite crowded. Sinchon is the less crowded version in my opinion. I also found out you can just walk from Sinchon to Hongdae. The plus side of having a Korean friend is that you are able to do a lot of things and actually understand more about what is going on. So there was this festival, and most of the things that were interactive were in Korean so for everyone who is planning to go to Korea, I definitely recommend you to not only stick around your international crowd but reach out to Koreans as well. And ask questions. A lot of questions. So that you will understand the culture more, because I think it's pretty clear that it can be very different from what you're used to.

Oh by the way, Trisha actually got accepted to spend the next semester in at my university! Which means we're making memories here in Seoul and we can do so in the Netherlands. So to all my loved ones, please welcome her with open arms.

Obviously we need to work on how to ride a bicycle. I think that the first "sports"  you learn in the Netherlands are learning how to ride a bicycle and learning how to swim. In Korea those things might be Taekwondo and piano (might be wrong on this one). 

Meet John (UK), Su Jin and Trisha. Su Jin will also be going to my uni so please  welcome him as well. This is made with a selfie stick yes.. Don't judge. I promised not to ever do this, but I did. Everybody does. You can see I'm still struggling, because I use my normal camera instead of my phone. Yes, i'm trying to distract you from the fact that I own a selfiestick. I know my aunt, niece and dad are enjoying the fact that I crossed to the other side after I made it clear that I was grossed out by the existence of the selfiestick.

Let me distract you some more with these amazing views near the Hangang (Han River). This baby streams through my city (yes I said my). Fall season has grown from being my most disliked season to one of my favorites. This city suprises me every day with it's hidden gems and beauty spread over the whole city. Okay this big river might not be a "hidden gem", but I didn't know it was so beautiful to hang out near the river.

But first let me take a selfie