Macaiyla's Yapping

I started off May 4th by waking up around 6am. Me and Tyler got ready to go to the local gym and also catch up with Tarzaned (Julian). Once we left our room to go find Tarzaned, we headed down to his floor and Tyler ran up to his peephole. He rang the bell for the room and waited for Tarzaned to come out. As we both waited for a few seconds, we heard a camera sound go off. All of a sudden, Tyler checked his phone and realized he had taken us to the wrong room. It looked pretty bad. We both wore oversized hoodies; mine grey and his black. Tyler had also worn his black shades to look cool, and had his gym duffle bag across his shoulder. It practically looked as if we were trying to rob whoever was staying in that room. We ran off.

After meeting up with Tarzaned at his actual room location, we headed towards the local gym. It was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. As we approached the lady in the basement where the gym is located, I said hello. She couldn’t understand any of our English aside from the “hello”. Luckily I had downloaded a voice translator the day we arrived in Korea, so I was able to communicate with her and we got everything we needed. I was very appreciative of her patience while dealing with us. I really do not want to come across as disrespectful. She seemed to enjoy working with us. Maybe it was funny to her.

Once we got to the gym room it was packed. Almost completely full and it was only around 6am. While taking a look around, it was definitely a culture shock to see how different body building is in Korea compared to America. I mean that in the sense of my first impression and not in the sense of generalizing the entire country of Korea. Was just a weird moment for me. There were women in there both petite and strong. There were also more elderly men working out as well. Overall very nice to see so many people working out early in the morning.

One thing that I appreciate about America compared to Korea is the amount of space people have and respect of peoples boundaries. You do not walk into people and expect that as a norm. You do not push people and hit them with your bags and think that is ok. Apparently in Korea, that is normal and isn’t looked at as disrespectful. Very odd to me that they wouldn’t see that as a sign of disrespect but supposedly in Korea, everyone is either in a rush, or sees public spaces as a place of “sharing space”. I’m not here to shame their culture or their values. This is just a really interesting experience and I’m learning a lot!

Around 1pm, something of a menace had come up. As I approached the lobby of my hotel, there was a strange man just waiting there for me. Blonde, tall, and quite goofy, I had came across the one and only… LS. He was the same in person, maybe a bit goofier (in a good way). He introduced me to his boyfriend Hero, and Joe who is Tyler’s helper (or producer) for the TCS, Money Matches, etc. Joe is here to help record some content with Nick. It was nice to meet him and everyone in general. They were all very kind, and Nick paid for most of my food and travel during that day. I am very grateful.

Nick first brought me to one of the best meat houses in Korea. After a 20 minute drive to get there, we entered the restaurant and realized that it was closed. Nick insisted that he had looked up the time, but I just laughed. I don’t get mad about things like that.

We continued our adventure to a burger place. I cannot remember the name of the place, but it was really good! Cooked perfect and almost no grease. I asked for a plain hamburger. Just the burger with ketchup. No condiments and cheese. Nicks boyfriend looked at me funny. Not in a bad way, but more-so confused. Another thing I’ve learned about Korea is that they don’t like changing items on a menu. Customization is odd here so asking for things to be taken off or changed is looked at as disrespectful. The more you know! Hero was able to get me a plain burger so I was appreciative of him and his help. He is a very kind gentlemen.

After getting a burger, we stopped at a famous donut shop, got some donuts with milk, took some cute pictures in a photo booth, and headed to the biggest mall in Korea. That experience was amazing. I wasn’t even able to finish exploring all of the floors, or even half. I actually plan on going back myself sometime today. But overall, it was a really fun and exciting experience. Again, I can type so much but it’s just TOO much. I am vlogging daily so I will hopefully be able to show all of you these experiences soon.

Thanks for reading if you did, and cheers to another good day in Korea.

-M