한국말 잘 못해요 ¯\(º_o)/¯
Jul. 5th, 2017 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelagiaLocal adventuring ahoy! (Or, How We Grudgingly Escaped a Room and Ruined Other People's Dinners)
FEDERAL WAY EDITION:
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sarea_okelani and I searched for and made a spreadsheet of possible escape rooms to do in our area (not to be considered: the ones that won't guarantee that they won't just lump you in with a bunch of strangers to fill out the room. Boo. Boooooo), and one called Key Quest in Federal Way seemed promising -- they took two person teams and it was cheaper than most, under $25/pp.
We built a plan around it since Federal Way is a bit of a drive -- tacos for lunch, escape a room, sing very badly in the privacy of our own Korean karaoke room, Korean noodles.
Senor Taco: Good tacos -- the lengua and cabeza were very flavorful and juicy, but apparently they also have a Bellevue branch! D'oh! But we only discovered this when we already got there and we were both hungry by that time so we just went with it anyway.
Key Quest: Major disappointment. We did their 'Detention' room (their easiest) and actually did escape the room -- for the first time in our escaping history! -- and with 18 minutes to spare, out of 45, but the puzzles were so simple and we were only contained in one room (whereas the majority of our other escape room experiences have been in two or more rooms/adjacent spaces). It felt more like the type of escape room game you can play on your tablet/phone, most of which don't actually require that much thinking. I mean, I don't know why we're complaining because other escape rooms, even the easiest rated ones, have been too difficult for us to get through successfully, but this one didn't even feel like a victory.
Starbucks: We'd originally put in a buffer time of about 45 minutes between the escape room and the noraebang because a) travel time and b) in some of our past escape rooms, if we didn't get through it, sometimes the proprietors would let us finish it past the time limit anyway. But since we finished with plenty of time to spare, we just went to Starbucks for a bit; they were having a buy one get one free promotion for iced espresso drinks, so that worked out nicely. Some dude walked in with a handgun on his belt, which made me nervous, but he seemed to know the staff well and they were friendly with him, so I figured it was okay... even though Washington isn't an open carry state. Mmmmrrr. :[
1st Avenue Karaoke: We rolled in around 3:30 -- the time I'd called to make a reservation for, though I wasn't sure if they actually took it, because when I'd called the previous day and asked to reserve a room for 2 people at 3:30, the lady on the phone was like, "Okay! See you tomorrow!" and hung up. There was a lone woman at the front desk watching TV and she said annyeong haseyo when we walked in, so we responded in kind, which now meant that she thought we spoke Korean. It was fine when she just said "Follow me" to the room, and then she started explaining the remote control and we were like, "...?????" Thankfully we already knew how to say, "Sorry, we don't speak Korean very well," in Korean. Lol.
She pretty much left us alone for the duration (and also gave us at least 20 extra minutes for free). Sarea and I have been practicing Kpop songs we like for noraebanging if/when we get to Seoul, so we got to run through our repertoires (not very extensive). It was super helpful that the videos came with romanized lyrics as well, since we're not very good at reading hangeul quickly. Also the remote only seemed to work when Sarea used it.
Noraebangs also give you a score each time you sing, and I think we set a record for earning consecutive zeroes. But also the mics seemed to be particular about the way you held it, so after we figured that out we got slightly better scores. And then our highlight of the day, a 100 score for BTOB's Stand By Me. Whoooooooo!
Happy Together: Originally we had planned to go to either Youngwol Noodles or Daebak Wang Mandoo, but neither of us was very hungry (in fact, we drove around looking for a park to walk around for a while, but the one we found required a Discover Pass for parking, ugh) and we eventually ended up at Happy Together, which was touted to be a Korean snacks place, but the menu turned out not to be very snacky at all. The guy who served us was very nice, though, and so we got spicy tomato shrimp pasta, fried mandoo, ginger tea, and jolmyeon. Pretty good.
LYNNWOOD EDITION:
Looking for Chai: Sarea has been here a bunch of times, and one of the servers was happy to see her and that she had brought a friend. Ate: Taiwanese hotpot with neverending intestine, passionfruit/mango iced tea, pickled cucumbers, braised pork/rice, Hokkaido milk tea. The Hokkaido milk tea was delicious! I want to drink it all the time. Even though it was probably made from some powder mix because we don't actually get Hokkaido milk here. But if/when we do our trip to Korea, we'll probably also go to Japan so we can try it there!
Later...
Adelagia: Now that there's real Hokkaido milk tea in our future, I'm feeling more excited about Japan.
Sarea: Oh, I didn't know you weren't excited about Japan!
Adelagia: I'm not not excited, it's just that we don't have a plan for it... It seems so nebulous.
Sarea: Nebulous shmebulous.
Adelagia: Shmebulock!
Herbal Nails: Sarea wanted a pedicure (and ended up with a mani/pedi); she used to live near here but had never gone before even though they're really highly rated. I didn't want to spend the money so brought a book to read while waiting.
Starbucks: Still having their bogo promo. We sat outside to do our Korean homework. It was easy enough and we finished much quicker than anticipated.
Big Bang Karaoke: No romanized lyrics! D: That meant we were very limited in what songs we could do... or use our phones to look up lyrics, which made it kinda weird. Also there are signs everywhere that you're not allowed to bring in outside food/drink or pay a $100 fine. The music quality of the karaoke tracks also seemed to be not as good as 1st Ave.
Stars in the Sky: Korean fried chicken! ...And more noraebang. It's a restaurant in the front and they have four karaoke rooms in the back, but it's not so separated that the restaurant patrons can't hear all the hideous singing. And Sarea's rapping. Heheheh. The server gave us a private room for dinner since we wanted both dinner and noraebang (I know we already went to Big Bang, but we were in the area anyway!), and we got: Korean fried chicken (comes with pickled radish and cabbage salad, which is plain shredded cabbage with side of mayo and ketchup), French fries, and corn cheese (exactly what it sounds like and also delicious). And then when we finished and got to singing, we also ordered yogurt sojus, which were very tasty indeed. And then the server gave us an extra half hour. We consistently earned scores in the teens and twenties, except for Radiohead's Creep, which we apparently rocked to the tune of a perfect 100. Also this weird old man kept walking by our room and looking in, so we gave him dirty looks until he went away. Mind your own beeswax, weird old man.
Making more plans...
Sarea: We should make bossam on Tuesday!
Adelagia: [considering] Yeah... [on board] Yeeeah!
Sarea: You sounded like Chief Wiggum!
FEDERAL WAY EDITION:
sarea_okelani and I searched for and made a spreadsheet of possible escape rooms to do in our area (not to be considered: the ones that won't guarantee that they won't just lump you in with a bunch of strangers to fill out the room. Boo. Boooooo), and one called Key Quest in Federal Way seemed promising -- they took two person teams and it was cheaper than most, under $25/pp. We built a plan around it since Federal Way is a bit of a drive -- tacos for lunch, escape a room, sing very badly in the privacy of our own Korean karaoke room, Korean noodles.
Senor Taco: Good tacos -- the lengua and cabeza were very flavorful and juicy, but apparently they also have a Bellevue branch! D'oh! But we only discovered this when we already got there and we were both hungry by that time so we just went with it anyway.
Key Quest: Major disappointment. We did their 'Detention' room (their easiest) and actually did escape the room -- for the first time in our escaping history! -- and with 18 minutes to spare, out of 45, but the puzzles were so simple and we were only contained in one room (whereas the majority of our other escape room experiences have been in two or more rooms/adjacent spaces). It felt more like the type of escape room game you can play on your tablet/phone, most of which don't actually require that much thinking. I mean, I don't know why we're complaining because other escape rooms, even the easiest rated ones, have been too difficult for us to get through successfully, but this one didn't even feel like a victory.
Starbucks: We'd originally put in a buffer time of about 45 minutes between the escape room and the noraebang because a) travel time and b) in some of our past escape rooms, if we didn't get through it, sometimes the proprietors would let us finish it past the time limit anyway. But since we finished with plenty of time to spare, we just went to Starbucks for a bit; they were having a buy one get one free promotion for iced espresso drinks, so that worked out nicely. Some dude walked in with a handgun on his belt, which made me nervous, but he seemed to know the staff well and they were friendly with him, so I figured it was okay... even though Washington isn't an open carry state. Mmmmrrr. :[
1st Avenue Karaoke: We rolled in around 3:30 -- the time I'd called to make a reservation for, though I wasn't sure if they actually took it, because when I'd called the previous day and asked to reserve a room for 2 people at 3:30, the lady on the phone was like, "Okay! See you tomorrow!" and hung up. There was a lone woman at the front desk watching TV and she said annyeong haseyo when we walked in, so we responded in kind, which now meant that she thought we spoke Korean. It was fine when she just said "Follow me" to the room, and then she started explaining the remote control and we were like, "...?????" Thankfully we already knew how to say, "Sorry, we don't speak Korean very well," in Korean. Lol.
She pretty much left us alone for the duration (and also gave us at least 20 extra minutes for free). Sarea and I have been practicing Kpop songs we like for noraebanging if/when we get to Seoul, so we got to run through our repertoires (not very extensive). It was super helpful that the videos came with romanized lyrics as well, since we're not very good at reading hangeul quickly. Also the remote only seemed to work when Sarea used it.
Noraebangs also give you a score each time you sing, and I think we set a record for earning consecutive zeroes. But also the mics seemed to be particular about the way you held it, so after we figured that out we got slightly better scores. And then our highlight of the day, a 100 score for BTOB's Stand By Me. Whoooooooo!
Happy Together: Originally we had planned to go to either Youngwol Noodles or Daebak Wang Mandoo, but neither of us was very hungry (in fact, we drove around looking for a park to walk around for a while, but the one we found required a Discover Pass for parking, ugh) and we eventually ended up at Happy Together, which was touted to be a Korean snacks place, but the menu turned out not to be very snacky at all. The guy who served us was very nice, though, and so we got spicy tomato shrimp pasta, fried mandoo, ginger tea, and jolmyeon. Pretty good.
LYNNWOOD EDITION:
Looking for Chai: Sarea has been here a bunch of times, and one of the servers was happy to see her and that she had brought a friend. Ate: Taiwanese hotpot with neverending intestine, passionfruit/mango iced tea, pickled cucumbers, braised pork/rice, Hokkaido milk tea. The Hokkaido milk tea was delicious! I want to drink it all the time. Even though it was probably made from some powder mix because we don't actually get Hokkaido milk here. But if/when we do our trip to Korea, we'll probably also go to Japan so we can try it there!
Later...
Adelagia: Now that there's real Hokkaido milk tea in our future, I'm feeling more excited about Japan.
Sarea: Oh, I didn't know you weren't excited about Japan!
Adelagia: I'm not not excited, it's just that we don't have a plan for it... It seems so nebulous.
Sarea: Nebulous shmebulous.
Adelagia: Shmebulock!
Herbal Nails: Sarea wanted a pedicure (and ended up with a mani/pedi); she used to live near here but had never gone before even though they're really highly rated. I didn't want to spend the money so brought a book to read while waiting.
Starbucks: Still having their bogo promo. We sat outside to do our Korean homework. It was easy enough and we finished much quicker than anticipated.
Big Bang Karaoke: No romanized lyrics! D: That meant we were very limited in what songs we could do... or use our phones to look up lyrics, which made it kinda weird. Also there are signs everywhere that you're not allowed to bring in outside food/drink or pay a $100 fine. The music quality of the karaoke tracks also seemed to be not as good as 1st Ave.
Stars in the Sky: Korean fried chicken! ...And more noraebang. It's a restaurant in the front and they have four karaoke rooms in the back, but it's not so separated that the restaurant patrons can't hear all the hideous singing. And Sarea's rapping. Heheheh. The server gave us a private room for dinner since we wanted both dinner and noraebang (I know we already went to Big Bang, but we were in the area anyway!), and we got: Korean fried chicken (comes with pickled radish and cabbage salad, which is plain shredded cabbage with side of mayo and ketchup), French fries, and corn cheese (exactly what it sounds like and also delicious). And then when we finished and got to singing, we also ordered yogurt sojus, which were very tasty indeed. And then the server gave us an extra half hour. We consistently earned scores in the teens and twenties, except for Radiohead's Creep, which we apparently rocked to the tune of a perfect 100. Also this weird old man kept walking by our room and looking in, so we gave him dirty looks until he went away. Mind your own beeswax, weird old man.
Making more plans...
Sarea: We should make bossam on Tuesday!
Adelagia: [considering] Yeah... [on board] Yeeeah!
Sarea: You sounded like Chief Wiggum!
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no subject
on 2017-07-06 02:29 pm (UTC)This made me laugh out loud: It's a restaurant in the front and they have four karaoke rooms in the back, but it's not so separated that the restaurant patrons can't hear all the hideous singing. And Sarea's rapping. Heheheh.
Yogurt soju? I'm intrigued *eyes nearly full bottle of soju*
no subject
on 2017-07-07 12:03 am (UTC)