In my mind, LA is heavily equated with Korea. It might be due to a certain someone who lives in Koreatown.

Over the weekend, I stayed in a Korean home & hotel mix, checked out the nearby Korean festival, attended a K-pop concert, made kimbap, and shopped at the Korean supermarket for three consecutive days.

I took an overnight Boltbus from SF to LA. I arrived on Friday morning.



After that, I was soon whisked to the home and hotel mixed where a delectable healthy breakfast was waiting for me. Something that I highly coveted after weeks of eating "American" continental breakfasts. Then I headed to USC where I worked on some materials for Blue Fields. The campus is...pristine! With fountains using water at full-blast, perfectly shaped bushes and greenery. Then we headed to the Korean Festival nearby his place. It was much better than my expectations. With stalls that showcased local delicacies, samples galore, and free raffles, it was obviously largely popular with the local Korean citizens. It pleased me to see that regular Americans are also interested in learning about Asian culture. As an Asian-American, it's always great to see people showing interest in that part of the world.
Highlight of the festival: we made a temple and a pagoda out of paper! (in addition to having makkori and bulgogi fries ^^)

After which, we head back to the home and hotel for dinner. Then, we played Dead or Alive for the rest of the night (with an interruption to buy some groceries at the supermarket nearby).


On Saturday, we woke up and headed to the college where I worked in the East Asian Library. After that, we visited the science museum for free. After looking at highly "scientific" displays, we went to a graduate student event for the free food. Then we headed to the festival again. To our dismay, it was a lot more crowded than the previous day. We were not able to enjoy it as much as the day before. Then we head back to eat dinner.
After which, we headed to my first K-pop concert. What better than Big Bang for my first concert. I was so excited. I was swept by the size of the stadium, the endless energy of the fans, and the grandeur of the concert that only Big Bang can deliver. Our seats were also great as we were on the end and were not in between anyone. That concert energized me for hours.
Can't wait to attend another Big Bang concert!
We ended the night with another visit to the supermarket.

On my final day in LA, we cooked omurice, kimbap, and udon for lunch, dinner, and lunch for the next day. We spent hours making food. It made me happy to cook again after so long. It took a long time to prepare everything. But everything came out wonderfully. We also made 6 rolls of kimbap lol. Then we headed to Santa Monica. When you speak of LA, Santa Monica is the first place that comes to mind. It was a little chilly, but the streets were clean, the puppet shows were entertaining, and its existence perfectly fitting for LA.

LA was incredibly fun :). I am counting down to the next time I get to visit again.

Days of Hometel Food