Movie Theaters in Korea

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went to see another movie at a movie theater. We just love movies so we go see them often, usually at Megabox. There are several different movie theaters in Korea, the biggest of them being Lotte Cinema, Megabox and CGV. Jeonju has all of these three.

This is the street downtown where all the movie theaters are. It is usually quite crowded, especially on a weekend, but it was really cold outside so maybe that's why it was so empty.

My boyfriend likes Megabox the most, that's why we mostly go there. He says that CGV is not so clean and the toilets are really dirty there. But we went there once and I didn't think it was bad at all. But by now, I've also gotten used to Megabox.

Some theaters have some special seats or special movie halls available, but not all of that is available in Jeonju. For example, CGV has this cool seats for couples called Sweetbox. It looks really comfortable, like a sofa for two. But unfortunately we don't have it in Jeonju, so we haven't had a chance to try it out yet :( Apparently there is a premium Sweetbox too, but I'm sure tickets are A LOT more expensive for that.

Maybe we'll try them out when we go to Seoul next time. What we do have in Jeonju is Table M theater in Megabox. It's not all that special, but you do have A LOT more space for your legs, and a table to put all the snacks and other stuff on it. A ticket is a bit more expensive, but I'd say it's worth it. We've been there several times already.

A regular tickets usually costs around 8000krw (8$). Which is almost the same price as in my country, I think. But one of the cool things in Korea is discount ^^ Almost everywhere you go, you can get discounts with a special bank card, membership card or point card. At Megabox we always get 4000krw discount with our T-membership card, which is another reason why we usually go to Megabox.

Last time we saw Dumb and Dumber To and it was quite funny :) We wanted to see Taken 3, but it looks like it hasn't started showing yet. These are some of the movies we went to see together this year:

Lucy

The Maze Runner

Faults are in the Stars

Interstellar

Annabelle

Gone Girl

Wolves

Into the Storm

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Well, I'm sure we saw other movies too, but these are the only ones I can remember at the moment. Luckily you can watch all the movies with subtitles and not dubbed.

And of course, you can't watch a movie without a snack :) We usually get some popcorn - half original for me and half caramel for my boyfriend (there is also garlic popcorn, but we never eat that). We tried the fried chicken there once too, but it wasn't that good. Sometimes we take fried potatoes with our popcorn when we're really hungry too. And then we usually spend almost more money on snacks than we do for the tickets. Kind of how you spend more money on coffee than you do for dinner - sounds crazy, but it happens often in Korea, especially for students. Luckily we don't drink coffee, so we don't have problems with that :)

At this time there is a special snack combo available too - block combo. For 11000krw you get large popcorn, large drink and 150pieces Megabox block. We just had to get it :)

It's like Lego and since my boyfriend and I both really loved Lego when we were young, we couldn't resist. We built them as soon as we got home and this is how it looks like :)

After the movie we went to Mango Six again for some more of that yummy frozen yogurt. This time we had some honey bread with it too. It was soo yummy, but we were waiting for it for more than 15minutes, so when we finally got it, we forgot to take a photo of it. Anyway, this is how it looks like  And it's really really yummy ^^

December is here :)

Wow, it's December already~ time really flies. And guess what: it's snowing! :D It's the first of December and it's the first snow in Jeonju this year~ ^^ It was still raining in the morning and then it started snowing~ :) My boyfriend sent me a photo from work and the second photo is the one that  I took from our window :)

This weekend we went downtown to do some Christmas shopping. The city is not all cowered in lights yet. It might be still too early or maybe the city just doesn't get all lit up in December. It's my first December in Jeonju, so I don't know. But I do know that Christmas in Korea is not exactly the same as Christmas in Europe or at least in my country. In Slovenia, Christmas is a family holiday when all the family gets together for a yummy Christmas dinner on Christmas eve, goes to church at midnight and then exchanges presents on Christmas day. At least that's how we usually do it in my family.

In Korea, however, Christmas is more of a couple's holiday than a family thing. Couples go out on a romantic date and exchange gifts with each other. Unfortunately I never went on a Christmas date, so I can't give you a good example :) But I can see how Christmas time can be really romantic ^^ At least all the cafes in Jeonju are really nicely decorated and there are Christmas songs playing on the radio. Last time my boyfriend and I stopped at a cafe for some ice-cream and sat by the window next to this cute little Christmas tree. It felt really nice after a long day of shopping with my boyfriend's parents :)

Actually, my boyfriend told me that he'd never decorated a Christmas tree before... ever! So he was kind of excited to get a little Christmas tree with me. We can't have a big one since we have no place for it in our cozy little home :) As Christmas is getting more and more popular in Korea too, you can get Christmas trees and ornaments in any big store or shopping mall. We just got ours from Daiso - a really cheap store (all products cost between 1 and 5 dollars) that has pretty much anything you can think of. We put on some Christmas music and I let my boyfriend do most of the decorating ^^

We are quite happy with the result ^^ It might be still a bit early, but it's December already and for me, it's not just the 24th and 25th, it's the whole month that is special. With all the Christmas songs and Christmas movies and all that happy feeling that comes with it, a couple days are just not enough.

And this year, we've got so much plans for December:

Our matching passport covers :)

1. Flying home to spend Christmas with my family - the most important one :)
It will be the first time for my boyfriend to visit Slovenia and meet my parents ^^ I am all excited and he's a bit nervous :) As I was too, when I met his parents. But I'm sure he'll be okay ^^

My boyfriend's band: Plastic Age

2. Christmas concert

My boyfriend plays lead guitar in a band and every year they have a Christmas concert. This year a bit early, 'cause we're flying to Europe. So we have less than 2 weeks to get ready. Yes, we, including me :) Since I'm kind of a guest singer hehe not that I'm such an amazing singer or anything, but it's the privilege you get from dating the band leader :D I just hope I don't embarrass myself...

My shoebox present for a 9-year old boy ^^

3. Christmas shopping

Of course, everyone needs to do that. We need presents for my family, presents for his family... And I also joined the program called "One day Santa" where you buy a Christmas present for one of the Children in need, so I bought a present for a 9-year old boy in Slovenia.

What I'll try to make this week :)

4. Christmas cooking

It should be Christmas baking, but unfortunately we don't have an oven. Actually as far as I know, most families don't have ovens in Korea and Japan. But I really want to make something yummy for my boyfriend's family, so my sister gave me a recipe for a dessert doesn't require an oven ^^

Last year's Christmas Norebang

5. Christmas Norebang (karaoke)

Yes, I have to do that every December :) It's awesome. Last year, my friend and I bought ourselves a cake, went to norebang and sang all the Christmas songs we could find. :)

And we're leaving in a bit more than 2 weeks, so we don't have much time. I'll try to write about how all this goes. And I know that spending time in Slovenia with my family is really not what my blog title says, but it might be interesting to read about how my boyfriend experiences our country and our Christmas traditions for the first time :) So yup, I'll keep you posted.

Until then, to help you get into Christmas mood, here's a Korean version of Jingle Bells that you can learn :) Don't worry, you can do it. If my boyfriend was able to learn it in Slovenian, you can learn it in Korean - have fun :D

Here are the lyrics:

huin nun sairo sseolmaerul tago
tallineun kibun sangkwaedo hada
jongi ullyeoseo jangdan madchuni
heunggyeowoseo sori nopyeo norae pureuja

jong sori ullyeora jong sori ullyeo
uri sseolmae ppalli tallyeo jong sori ullyeora
jong sori ullyeora jong sori ullyeo
kippeun norae pureumyeonseo ppalli tallija