WDJF

One experience from this year that I will never forget is the World DJ Festival. Their website described it as “oriental electronic paradise” and it definitely lived up to its name.

My friend Jess and I got a bus at 5pm to Yang Pyeong where the festival was. After an hour and a half bus ride and a 20 minute wait to get in, we were ready to party (having pre-drank on the bus of course).

Soju and Vitamin water… yin and yang

After figuring out how to buy beer (no cash, only T-money cards… so convenient!), we were going to get some food but a roar from the crowd pulled us over to to one of the smaller stages.

shortly after arriving… our shoes were still their original colours.

For the next 9 hours we proceeded to be amazed by the Korean’s dancing skills, gawk at the obnoxious foreigners and of course dance our butts off. The music and energy was so uplifting we couldn’t help making “I LOVE LIFE” our mantra for the evening.

loving life!!

The djs playing at the festival weren’t huge names, but there were definitely some very talented fellows (didn’t see any lady djs). Our favourites included: Jin by Jin, Timo Garcia and Aly & Fila. There were also several that we didn’t hear that were a part of the silent disco. I wish I could upload videos onto this blog because it is really funny to watch people rocking out to music they hear on their headphones.

Here are a few more highlights of the night:

The line up for hot water to make ramen noodles… choice snack.

Meeting up with Jess and Elisabeth for a mere 30 mins before being sucked into the crowd

The fashion… of course killer heels are appropriate for an all night dancing festival

The dancing…. oh the dancing… how I wish I knew how to shuffle.

5 to 5… Such a fun all-nighter!!

the doors are on your left.

One thing that I discovered very quickly (thanks to some fellow teachers :)) is Gangnam station. This underground paradise is not merely a subway station. It is a shopping haven for pretty much any female under 40. I try not to go in when I’m feeling poor, but since I just got paid…. lets just say I spent a lot of money in a short amount of time. There are stores of every kind to make girls drool. From make-up to shoes to hair do-dads and cell phone trinkets and clothes, clothes and more clothes. I recently read that Gangnam station is up there for most expensive shopping destinations, but a smart shopper can find all kinds of outfits for under $10.

Did I mention that it’s also a subway station? The subway system is Seoul is world class. It’s clean, fast and definitely more efficient than sitting in the horrendous traffic at street level. It can get extremely packed, but I’ve never been so jammed that I couldn’t move… like I have on some other city’s subways.

My two favourite things about the subways are the songs and T-money. There are two totally awesome songs – one plays at the station to let you know that a train is approaching, the other plays on the train when you are approaching a transfer station. To hear these wonderful ditties (and get them stuck in your head all day), watch the video below.

 

 

Another fabulous Korean invention is the T-money card. At first I thought it was a simple card that you swipe to get onto the subway, but it’s so much more than that. You use T-money to get on the bus, you can pay for a taxi with it, pay for groceries and use it at stores at the station and I’m sure there are more uses that I haven’t even discovered yet! Basically, as long as there’s money on it, it’s all you need! No more cash or debit cards… it’s all about T-money.

Another feature about these cards, and about the subway itself is that you don’t just pay a set fee. You swipe your card to get onto the platform and when you leave the station. Apparently it calculates the distance you’ve gone and you pay accordingly. It’s 900 won (90 cents) to get on the subway, and then depending on how far you go, you could pay an extra 0-500 won to get off.

So it’s cheap, fast and fun, but there are a few downsides to the subway. It’s surprisingly only open until midnight or earlier. This is probably intentional, as Koreans are big drinkers and it might cause some problems to have the subways open after everyone’s had a few too many soju. I’ve also experienced a couple crazies on the subway. Nothing scary, mostly just pushy old ladies preaching about Jesus.

So the bottom line is getting around in Seoul is easy-peasy and it’s definitely one perk that I missed while living in a small town.