151231 Go to DMZ!

i had been trying to make 00 go on a trip because everytime we're stuck around his house, we do nothing but sleep for a long time and hang out at the office. even though it's relaxing and all, everyday was spent in the same way. since he looked like he ran out of ideas on where to go, i said if he could go to DMZ, then we won't need to go on a trip.

so he signed up for the half-day tour after some persuasion (he felt that it was full of mines there and there's nothing to see).

...and we woke up at 6am to get off. he's the anxious one cos he paid 120k won for each person and we can't possibly miss the bus and waste the money. wheeheeheee. how to make one ganjeong!

we went to near central to catch our bus (at 9am) and ended up with some time for breakfast at dunkin. dunkin had these new waffle burgers that i really wanted to try. but THEY DIDN'T HAVE IT in the morning. suckers. we still ate there anyway. then grabbed starbucks! and then we only set off around 10am or so.

we passed by this place with a highway bridge that's apparently the shooting scene for avengers. it was blocked off for a week due to the shooting previously.

and then we are hereeeeeeeeeeeee

 short trip around the museum first to learn about the history

and then we're off to the tunnel...!!

unfortunately you can't really take any pictures of the tunnel but this is an illustration of the tunnel we went to...

it was just about 1.6-1.65m in height so i had to bend some of the time. you walk about 300-500m down a really long slope then another 500m bending all the way to the end, which has a small little window.

and then you walk back.

like right up that 300-500m you went down from.

well, it sounds like a short distance but the slope is a killer. mr kong almost died when he went up. there were people who actually got claustrophobic or fainted inside cos it was so hot and small, and we PERSPIRED in the middle of winter. and looked for ice cream to eat once we came out. hahahahha.

well anyway moving on to some pictures of the surrounding! hahahha i like this pic!

and off we went to this place where you can see almost the whole of n.korea from. had to go up this little hill, which is prohibited when the weather is misty or rainy.

well... i don't know but it doesn't look like a place i wanna live in.

the last stop is the train station. apparently you can get here from the seoul station, and the train runs twice a day. too bad if you miss it...

this piano has strings made of barbed wire to signify the division between the 2 korea.

and outside, there's a huge panel of names for those who contributed to the construction of the station.

and that was the end of our trip.

we went to itaewon to have a quick lunch that was included in the package - bibimbap.
in order to catch the joseon magician show, we took a cab over to yongsan, but the seats were all taken except for the first row =_=

no way am i going to watch from there. so in the end we shopped a little at yongsan and went over to myeongdong to get all my cosmetics, then joined up with lumen & aryeong for dinner.

pion and skasha came along to chill at osulloc cafe, and we all took off for yongin around 9pm, before the countdown crowd comes in.

we stopped at a supermarket to get some snacks and stuff so that we can end our year with this...

goodbye 2015 and hellllllo 2016!

Day 6/7 Diva shoot + Countdown

got up around 9+ to prepare for the shoot. arghhh what was i getting myself into, shooting in the cold!? but oh goooood i love these lenses!!!!

me with ta-sem

took a super long time to prepare because my hair was not behaving. gwah. finally when it was done, we headed out to find a nice tree spot, and i had to climb up to get a decent view. after getting some shots, we headed back and i realised that m wig was slightly pulled back so all the shots couldn't be used. ARGHHHH. had to reshoot again. the cold! the cold! my hands and legs were freezing like mad. T_T and the blood i brought couldn't be used properly because once you splash them they get downed by the thick snow. what a waste. bleahs.

in the end we went into this greenhouse like place to shoot and got a pretty nice shot. to be honest, it wasn't the diva shot that i want (all evil and bloody), and this looks like it was shot in the spring and not in winter. haha. but i like it SO WHAT. pretend it's saya cosing as diva la huh.

we also shot some indoors before we finished up. waiting for the snow shots now...! uploaded a shot on fb for an advanced new year greeting since it looks like i won't be having internet soon after i get out.

00 was out snowboarding, so i headed out with aryeong, kyungmin and d-man. ta-sem didn't wanna join as he was tired from the shoot. boohoo. (and it was probably a good decision on his part, that i found out later). we went out at aroun 5+. the guys can really sleep. omg. had oden and this crispy taiyaki-like thingy before we took the 1hour ride to our countdown destination.

had a nice streetfood kinda dinner. dokboggi, oden, some egg-sushi thingy and fried stuff - pretty interesting. had to stand and eat them but it's actually waaaay better than all the samgyeopsal i've eaten (probably because i've been eating so much meat for the past few days i'm getting sick of it, can you imagine... x.x) while waiting, i managed to do some shopping at various cosmetic shops - and i shouldn't have had @.@ carrying stuff around in the countdown crowd is a big mistake. but poor 00, he had to carry his snowboard around. (eh no one told you to go snowboard before that you see hurhurhuhr)

had to wait another hour or so for 00 and some others to reach, so i went to shop for some cosmetics. didn't really have much time to shop, and actually now wasn't really the best time to shop, but it doesn't seem like i'll have much opportunities to do so later anyway. i don't know how these people can just stand lazing around mac, but i guess nobody feels like moving when it's -12 outside. well, i think i prefer to be frozen than to do nothing. absolutely dislike waiting.

when we came back, 00 was there but it seems we had to continue to wait for some of his other friends to reach. sighs. bought the coffee affogato for 00 and jimin (since he got me one the the day before too heh) and rotted.

when we finally moved out, it was 1030+ and so cold outside. the crowd was already starting to fill, and rows of police barriers started to form.

there was some random groups of korean traditional dances going on though. hur.

poor 00 had to lug his snowboard stuff around and kyungmin kept crossing his path to hit his gear just to disturb him. hahahah i swear this pair is awesome to be around with.

we then shoved our way nearer the screen. look at the policeeeeee

just look at the crowd... the crowd!! can't see any floors!!!

it was actually already 11+ when we stood in front of the stage. and guess what. we have to wait an hour before the countdown. duh. of course. we needed to shove our way here early to grab a place ma. actually i wasn't aware that we had to come early to 'chope' a place so that we can see a bit of the concert and the fireworks. thought it was something like our country where you could just go up some hotel and watch it from a safe distance. bleah. so my poor feet was freezing for an hour+ before anything happened. but i couldn't really see much =_= oh i did see a lot of couples kissing, and this lonely old man just beside me. wonder how he feels to be surrounded by the kissing fishes.

the concert was interesting because they sing circle of life and this polka miku song. otherwise... not much to see. i was glad when 2012 was over. but i didn't really feel the 'hey it's 2013!' though. x_x

yay. oh look, fireworks. nono, not the one on the left, that's just a streetlamp i think. you mean you can't see? neither could i. it was like specks of light. bleah. so not what i had in mine.

so just a minute after the countdown, we had to quickly shove our way out before we begin to be crushed by the human army. but all the same, we were being pushed around. kyaaaa. somehow it was much better to be pushed around in the freezing cold than in the hot sunshine. at least you don't feel each other's sweat, and you will keep bumping into soft cushions (just see the amount of clothes we had on, jeez). and no stinking strange men. hurhur.

we stopped at mac for a bit of rest before we decided to hang around and have a round of drinks at a nearby liquor shop. it was funny when the attendant pointed out some of us to check our age and 00 was one of them! hahah. and how strange that they let me get away just by saying i'm a foreigner. we sat down and ordered some food thereafter.

man, for some reasons, everything we ordered was red in color - kimchi stir fry, kimchi jjige, some funny snail cold noodles and the only proper one was probably the tomato scrambled eggs (which, to 00 is the one food he dislikes because of the ketchup). the makkgoli and this lemon liquor was awesome though. 19% but it totally didn't feel like you were drinking alcohol! but... don't spicy food NOT go along with alcohol!?

at about 3am, we headed to a pc room typing my last day because we still have some time to kill before the crowd disperse and we are able to take our first bus home. it's 4.25am. and remind me never to go into korea's pc shop again because it's not a non-smoking zone and i was unfortunate enough to have some dudes just stinking his socks outta me. pffft... nehhhh guess i'm gonna spend my better half of 1st jan sleeping later on!!

we finally finished off around 630. ughhh. my poor lungs. and eyes.

oh it was also snowing. so nice. see all the blurry specs?

when we finally reached yong-in, it was nearing 8am already. the taxi wouldn't drive us in due to the snow and the slippery uphill so we had to walk in. well, it was good for me since i get some picture taking time! wished i could have taken more but if i stop everyone will start to wait for me and i know how super cold and tired they are now. oh well.

fell asleep only at 9-10+am. what an 'early' time to sleep...

woke up only at 4+. wow. 00 was called to a family meeting so i had to entertain myself. boo hoo. d-man prepared cup noodles for me, so i ate it, then snuggled myself to a corner sofa (as usual) to continue sleeping, since i had nothing to do anyway. when 00 was finally back, it was impossible to go out as no taxis wanna come over, so we ended up ordering takeout. takeout came in 30-40mins. had jajangmyeon finally!

it was already 8+ when we were done. since there's nothing much to do, ended up sleeping after some movies...