October 22nd, 2023

Day 4

Today was the day that I meet Kihyun again to record her voice. We have always wanted to record something, but since we are never in the same city, we never got to do so. This time though, knowing that she will be free on the 22nd, I suggested that we record all the songs she want with instrumental tracks I found on YouTube, and I will make my own instrumental track later on. I brought my AKG C214 and a Scarlett 2i2 with me. This is the second microphone and sound card that I brought to Korea though, last time I brought a Lewitt LCT440 and another Scarlett 2i2 with me to South Korea and then to China. I kept the Lewitt in China as I bought the AKG in the U.S., but since Kihyun does not have a condenser mic, I had to bring the AKG along with a new interface with me to Korea again. Since I cannot bring a mic stand with me, I asked her to buy a mic stand.

She bought a mic stand from Facebook Marketplace, and her agreed upon pick up time is 11:00 AM, so we were going to meet by 11:30 AM in my hotel, since hotels are quiet, and we don’t have to pay more for a recording studio. On the day before recording day though, I suggested that we grab something to eat while housekeeping do its thing. She told me to meet her at the National Assembly Station at 11:30 AM.

On the recording date though, even though I still woke up at around 5ish, I got ready extremely slowly, and only got out of the hotel by 9:30 AM. I wanted to look sharp for today, so I put on a blazer, which made me look extra Korean that day. I looked on Google for what’s fun to do in Seoul, and it recommended another historic building near Gyeongbokgung. I was going to take a cab ride there, but then I realized that it will take me an hour to get into the city, and once I arrive, I will have to immediately take a cab ride to the National Assembly Station. I thought that was a bad idea, so I wouldn’t do it. However, I just then realized that maybe the National Assembly could be something fun. So, without doing any research on what the National Assembly is, I just got on a cab ride and rode to the National Assembly station.

When I arrived by the station, I saw a Starbucks right next to it. Since I didn’t eat breakfast, and there wasn’t any bread-based food I could find in the convenient store next to my hotel, I bought a cake-like thing in Starbucks with no drinks to wash it down. I thought it was going to be soft, but it was hard.

The Starbucks barista did not speak English, which made conversing quite difficult. My credit card was also not working. It should work, but I don’t have either the time nor patience to explain in hand gestures for him to try again, so I just paid him cash.

The cake itself was surprisingly delicious though, as I would love to have another one.

While devouring the cake, I looked on Google Maps for what’s fun to do around the National Assembly, and the only result I got was a cherry blossom park that definitely does not have any cherry blossom left by the time I got to Korea. Then I looked up what the National Assembly is, and found out that it is a legislative building that is open for tours to foreigners. HOWEVER, I got there on a Sunday, which happens to be the day that they are closed. So I can’t get into the building, big deal. I’ll just walk around the premises unsuspiciously.

I put the trash in the trash can, and left for the National Assembly.

I was going to look for directions, but then I looked up, the National Assembly literally is one crosswalk away from Starbucks. So I crossed, and immediately saw heavy police presence. Even though I have no bad intentions and look very Korean today for wearing that blazer, I still don’t want to cause any trouble that would get me in jail in Korea. Still, you've got to be a little nervous facing the police in a foreign country. I saw people just enter into the public area of the National Assembly through the door left open with police around it, so I did too, and they didn’t stop me.

The building itself was pretty okay, I mean, I really don’t understand why people on Google Reviews would say that this is such a beautiful building. Maybe it’s because our family works in architecture related fields and that’s what made me so picky, but it’s really just okay. I would really want to go in though, but the door is closed.

As I walked closer to the building though, something caught my eye.

I really don’t understand why they chose to put nipples on a fully clothed female. I understand why they put the nipples on the bare chested dude, cuz that’s human anatomy. On a female with a dress on? I mean I like it, don’t get me wrong, but that’s just illogical. How thin must the fabric be for her to show her nipples. The sculptor must be very horny. I like him.

I took one last look at the garden from the National Asssembly before I took a right and started to walk around the building. There is an entrance at the back, and I saw a guy walking in. I wanted to follow him, but I might get lost and no one will help me, so I suppressed that urge and moved on. I walked towards an exit near the back, but it was locked some how, which means I had to walk all the way back to the entrance. Kihyun let me know that she will take about 30 minutes to arrive, so I started walking near the right flank of the National Assembly. I walked on a wooded path where there are a lot of trees and a very traditional looking building. Except, someone’s having a wedding there.

Yes, on my fourth day in Korea, I walked into someone’s wedding. Luckily the wedding haven’t started, and people are still preparing. Still, it looked very pretty though, so I took a couple of pictures before I decided to bolt out of there. I tried to exit through the wedding venue’s entrance, because that’s the only exit for me if I didn’t want to walk all the way back to the wooded area that I entered from. Turns out, the bride and the groom are taking pictures on the entrance. I am pretty sure that I am in one of their wedding photos. I had to run out of there back to the place where I entered and walked another 20 minutes before I could be back to the Starbucks that my cab dropped me off.

Kihyun told me to wait for her at Station 4, and after a while, she showed up with a huge box that has the microphone stand in it. I checked out the stand while she looked for food. She suggested that we get Mexican food. I was not about to get Mexican food after flying 13 hours from Southern California to Korea, so she decided on a Korean BBQ place that also has Doenjang Jjigae.

Restaurant name: 또순이네 (Ttosuninae)

Address: 서울특별시 영등포구 양평동4가 선유로47길 16

The place is pretty popular and had a line when we showed up. Kihyun said that the waitress was pressuring her to order fast. They had a simple menu, only 2 types of beef and one Doenjang Jjigae, with a couple of alcohol options. Even though none of us are driving, since Kihyun is having some monthly issues, can’t really make her drink with me, so we just drank the tea that came free. Koreans sure do drink everything cold though, as a Chinese raised boy, I’m really not used to drinking everything with ice.

The meat was marinated beforehand, so don’t put too much bean paste on it if you don’t like stuff too salty. Kihyun taught me to wrap the meat with the leaves and put a bit of vegetables inside the wrap as well. She also tried to do the meat flipping, but she likes to hold the tongs like chopsticks. Me on the other hand am the person who always does the flipping and cutting when me and other people go out for Korean BBQ, so I happily took the job from her. The meat was pretty tender though. Kihyun wrapped a few for me while I was cutting the meat. She’s so nice.

After the meat was served, they served the Doenjang Jjigae by putting it on the grill next to the meat. After we are done with the meat, the waitress took away the grill and put the stone bowl containing the Doenjang Jjigae right onto the burning coal. Normally I drink Doenjang Jjigae by itself inside a bowl, but as I walked past people pouring the soup into their rice bowl and eating rice that way, me and Kihyun decided to do that as well. The soup itself is very spicy though, but good spicy. I really liked the flavor, and I hate myself for not taking a picture beforehand.

After we are done eating, we went out to get a drink at a Korean cafe.

Restaurant name: Wannabe

Address: 22-1 Yangpyeong-dong 4(sa)-ga, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

There are 2 cafes right across the street from the BBQ place. Both me and Kihyun have trouble making decisions, and I just went with the one on the right because I know her favorite color is white, and the cafe is decorated in white. She was going to order the sweet potato latte again, but at that cafe they didn’t have any. So she ordered caramel latte, which was pretty delicious.

When our drinks were done, one came in a green sleeve and one came in a pink sleeve. Kihyun asked which color I would prefer, as she does not like picking. Since I am a very pink kinda guy, I reached for the pink one. She batted my hand away and took the pink one herself. Mean.

We grabbed our drinks, went outside to call a cab, and got to my hotel, where we planned to record all day.

We got to my hotel, and I bought a giant bottle of water for her because I know constantly singing can stress her vocal cords. I on the other hand bought a bottle of Milkis. Since the bathroom in my hotel room has a giant matte window that looks right into the hotel room, she was reluctant to use that bathroom while I was present. It’s funny how she thinks I am such a big pervert. After I reassured her there’s nothing to be embarrassed by, she pushed me into the bathroom and went outside to see if she can see anything. She couldn’t. It was just so funny.

While she was in the bathroom, I set everything up. The hotel room I had did not have carpets, so the best thing I could do was to set the microphone stand in the direction of the curtains so she can sing into them. The hotel itself is pretty quiet at 2 PM though, so noise from other guests was nothing to worry about. Funny thing, I just bought a new MacBook with the M2 chip, and my previous MacBook is the one with Touch Bar. The audio jack on my old MacBook is on the right, so I positioned everything on the right hand side of my laptop, but when I was searching for the audio port on the new MacBook, it was on the left. I had to reposition everything again.

I have more pictures that I took when we were recording, and I will not post them here fearing that she might bite my head off the next time we see each other.

We first recorded Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. It is a pretty low song, so I had to raise it a couple keys up for her. She was not too happy with her performance though, and was embarrassed to hear her voice again. If I am embarrassed to hear my voice every time I had to record, well.

She then tried Warwick Avenue by Duffy and 그땐 그땐 그땐 by a Korean artist. The Korean song is a rap song, and she stopped half way to say no to that one. Lastly, she tried to record Take a Bow by Rihanna. In the middle of recording, she stopped, turned to me and said that she couldn’t keep recording because her throat hurts. The last time we were in Karaoke, she did not have that problem, and having her throat to hurt this bad during a recording session is not a good thing, which means that her performance took a hit. That is like such a bad news to me, because I took all the equipment beyond the seas (pun intended) and it was all to waste. That’s why I said I was so bummed that I did not record any of her singing on the day I got here when we were doing karaoke together.

Anyways, I can’t keep her singing, it won’t be as good as her real voice anyways. We just sat and talked for a while, until the sky has gone dark. She is leaving for Taiwan in a couple of days, so she had to go home early to pack up. While we were walking outside, she told me that apparently Paris Baguette, a very high-end pastry shop that is found in Korea and China, is actually Korean. It blew my freakin mind. I always thought that it is really Parisian, like the Paris from France. That would explain why it is so expensive. Now that I know it is Korean, I can no longer tolerate its high price. (It’s not like I buy from them) We also were looking for the instant photo places, but we found none while I was walking her to the station.

So we just took a couple of selfies near the station and we hugged goodbye.

Since I reserved the whole day for her, after I walked her to the station, I had nothing to do for the night. It’s dark outside, so I can’t realistically take a cab into the city and do more exploring. My flight to China tomorrow was at 9 AM in the morning, which means that I had to get out of the hotel by 5:30 AM the latest. Knowing that, after I got back to my hotel, I just sat for a while, packed all my stuff up except the chargers, washed up, and called it a night.