Monsoon season is around the corner, and I got my own little taste of it on Tuesday. I have never seen anything like it-- it literally didnt stop pouring for the ENTIRE day. Not once did it let up so that i could even go stand at the bus stop. I went down the stairs three times ready to trek in the rain but all three times resulted in, ummm yeahhh not happening. Needless to say, Tuesday was a very long, uneventful, rainy day. I got some work done, watched some movies that ive never heard of before on the english channel, read my book, cleaned up the apartment, etc. I felt a bit constricted, but i tried to force myself to relax and enjoy doing nothing and having nothing to do for once.
Later that night the rain was only down to a steady drizzle, so we decided to go to the grocery store just to get out. Oh my god. I have never been anywhere more crowded in my entire life-- not even the korean subway. Apparently a new grocery store opened up and it was very nice in comparison to all of the tiny little marts that existed before this grand opening. This new "amazing" supermarket was probably the size of a large Walgreen's in the states, if that gives an perspective on what a big deal it was. We had to wait 5 minutes to even make our way down an aisle. Everyone shoves here, which is something I havent been able to get used to. No one says excuse me, they just push you to the side and scoot past you, which really makes me think about punching a lot of Koreans in the head. Koreans dont ever just carry their babies, either. They ALL carry their babies in a baby backback-- i have seen it in the front in the states, but here they just throw them on their back, even babies that are like 3 months old. So when people bump into others, their babies get tossed around as well. I wonder what the brain damage rate is over here. The market had raw fish everywhere, fish on ropes that people had draped over their backs, some kimche with squid in it, etc. Lovely smells. We got a couple of groceries and I was also able to snag an umbrella, although i havent had to use it again.
Later that night the rain was only down to a steady drizzle, so we decided to go to the grocery store just to get out. Oh my god. I have never been anywhere more crowded in my entire life-- not even the korean subway. Apparently a new grocery store opened up and it was very nice in comparison to all of the tiny little marts that existed before this grand opening. This new "amazing" supermarket was probably the size of a large Walgreen's in the states, if that gives an perspective on what a big deal it was. We had to wait 5 minutes to even make our way down an aisle. Everyone shoves here, which is something I havent been able to get used to. No one says excuse me, they just push you to the side and scoot past you, which really makes me think about punching a lot of Koreans in the head. Koreans dont ever just carry their babies, either. They ALL carry their babies in a baby backback-- i have seen it in the front in the states, but here they just throw them on their back, even babies that are like 3 months old. So when people bump into others, their babies get tossed around as well. I wonder what the brain damage rate is over here. The market had raw fish everywhere, fish on ropes that people had draped over their backs, some kimche with squid in it, etc. Lovely smells. We got a couple of groceries and I was also able to snag an umbrella, although i havent had to use it again.
Wednesday i was itching to get out of the house and was hell bent on going to Nampo-Dong for some purse action, though i had no clue what i was doing. It ended up being the best day of my trip thus far. Took the bus and subway there and decided to immediately hit the streets rather than my usual buffer routine of the underground first. I walked forever just having fun exploring the street vendors and all of the action this town was getting. I was in the part of Nampo-Dong that I had previously seen from last weekend, so I decided to keep walking past my boundaries and see if i could find something new and interesting. Boy, was i pleasantly surprised :)
I managed to stumble across a mecca of a ton of little markets all joined together. There were hundreds upon hundreds of little "stores" that had everything from handbags and luggage, beautiful asian linens, clothing boutiques, kitchenware and the most gorgeous pottery ive ever seen, jewelry, etc. they were all under a canopy of huge sheets draped across wires to cover the walkways between, so it was covered, i suppose. i felt like i had discovered a new world. there were so many purse shops there that i went into and i thought to myself okay, if i can't find a purse here, then i dont know where i'll ever be able to find one. So i would go into the little booths, look at their purses, and say "Louis Vuitton?" to which many of them freaked out and kind of ran to the back of the store by their cash register or pushed me out of the shop. I'm sure they thought i was some sort of amazonian american spy, but i decided i wouldnt give up that easily after several stores. I went into another little shop that clearly had horribly made fake bags and the guy motioned for me to come in the store, so i obliged. I was checking out the inventory when he said "lady purshe or man purshe?" Oh! By the way, ALL guys here carry purses-- and im not talking like man purses, im talking like designer bags they carry around with them. It's so strange. But I digress-- back to the heat of the story. So of course i said "lady purse" to him and he just said "ok, ok." So there was an awkward silence and once again i gave the "Louis Vuitton?" another try. He paused, then went to the front of the store and looked both ways. Then he motioned with his hands for me to follow him.
So he went across the street and up a staircase that was off to the side of the alley. I was trying to remember what Joe was saying, and it sounded pretty standard. Once at the top of the staircase, we went through several doors that were disguised as an elementary. At this point im almost positive that im a couple of beats off from a heart attack and im sweating bullets. I rationalized the situation by convincing myself that if i were to have a heart attack, it would mean that i would avoid getting kidnapped by the Korean Mafia (or would it?), or if the Korean police were waiting to arrest me, I could do a really great job of playing the "dumb american" card-- it comes pretty naturally, right? The guy finally came to a door that had about 6 locks on it that he unlocked all in about 4 seconds.
Right as i thought i was about to be thrown in a dungeon and made a slave for the rest of my life, i walked into the most amazing sight ive seen in a long time. Crisp, white walls with polished oak shelves that had professional back-lighting inset in them lined an entire room about the size of our gameroom. And behold, on those shelves were the most amazing purses i have ever seen. LV, Prada, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, oh my! I've never seen anything like it before in my life-- they were so beautifully made. I immediately wanted to kick my own ass for not taking my entire life savings with me on this trip and only having the money to afford one. I was trying to take it all in but suspected that i would be arrested at any given minute so i had to think fast. I just started pointing to bags that struck my fancy, and he would punch in a price into his calculator to show me because of the communication barrier. He could understand me, but i couldnt understand him. after pointing to about 6 bags, i figured that i need to narrow it down, quickly. It was down to two Louis Vuitton totes- one with the classic print on it and the other with the brown checkerboard pattern. They were both the same price, which was 250,000 won, which is the equivalent of about $250 (thank goodness for the easy conversion factor). I decided on the checkerboard since the bag was for my mom and I thought she'd like that better. After he said 250, I said umm no-- 100. He just started laughing hysterically at me. Aside from his rotten black teeth and the sensational feeling of me about to pee my pants, i forced myself to stay focused. He countered at 200. I countered at 115. He countered at 170. I countered at 125. He countered at 150, to which i replied-- I will NOT go past 130 (made a big X with my arms for extra emphasis). He said, "ok." and that was that. quick and dirty. I handed him the cash and he wrapped up the purse in a bag and taped it closed, then pushed me down a little stairway and i never saw him again. I guess he went out a different way.
Right as i thought i was about to be thrown in a dungeon and made a slave for the rest of my life, i walked into the most amazing sight ive seen in a long time. Crisp, white walls with polished oak shelves that had professional back-lighting inset in them lined an entire room about the size of our gameroom. And behold, on those shelves were the most amazing purses i have ever seen. LV, Prada, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, oh my! I've never seen anything like it before in my life-- they were so beautifully made. I immediately wanted to kick my own ass for not taking my entire life savings with me on this trip and only having the money to afford one. I was trying to take it all in but suspected that i would be arrested at any given minute so i had to think fast. I just started pointing to bags that struck my fancy, and he would punch in a price into his calculator to show me because of the communication barrier. He could understand me, but i couldnt understand him. after pointing to about 6 bags, i figured that i need to narrow it down, quickly. It was down to two Louis Vuitton totes- one with the classic print on it and the other with the brown checkerboard pattern. They were both the same price, which was 250,000 won, which is the equivalent of about $250 (thank goodness for the easy conversion factor). I decided on the checkerboard since the bag was for my mom and I thought she'd like that better. After he said 250, I said umm no-- 100. He just started laughing hysterically at me. Aside from his rotten black teeth and the sensational feeling of me about to pee my pants, i forced myself to stay focused. He countered at 200. I countered at 115. He countered at 170. I countered at 125. He countered at 150, to which i replied-- I will NOT go past 130 (made a big X with my arms for extra emphasis). He said, "ok." and that was that. quick and dirty. I handed him the cash and he wrapped up the purse in a bag and taped it closed, then pushed me down a little stairway and i never saw him again. I guess he went out a different way.
The next 5 minutes i was just walking around in a daze wondering what just happened, how retarded i am for being alone and doing such a thing (although it was much easier being alone), wondering where the courage came from, wanting to immediately tell someone about this amazing news, and replaying the details over and over. Then for the next 15 minutes after that I was just laughing hysterically and while on my high started buying more random shit. A wooden spoon? Hell yeah-- wrap that sucker up. Chopsticks? Put em in the bag. A nice shirt at this cute boutique? No problem. I counted my cash that i had left for the day, which was about $60, and knew i couldnt find another designer bag, nor did i want to go through that process again, but kept going in all the other stores just to make sure i got the deal of a lifetime and to see if anyone had nice knockoffs in the back of their store. I found a really cool LV briefcase that looked real, and the guy said it was $80. Ha, no problem, I thought. I can get this old man to come down to about $50. Except when i offered he just kind of stood there and looked at me for a second and screamed "NO! I SAY 80!" Shit, alright. I pulled out my wad and tried to show him that i had $60 to my name, but he wouldnt budge. So I left and then came back about 5 min later, just to see if there was anything else. I went back to the briefcase and thought id offer $60 again, to which he shooed me out of the store. Rude! I guess i was insulting him and drawing too much attention. I think him saying no spared me my last $60 for the day and gave me an ego check. I wandered around the markets for a while longer just trying to eat up time, and tried to not touch too many things so people wouldnt think i wanted to buy. I would love to buy some pottery here-- it is so amazing, i just dont know how i could take it back safely. i spent a long time looking at that. there were also some really pretty flower markets that had gorgeous orchids and bonzai trees.
Afterwards I got some coffee, walked the underground for a bit, then arrived home around 5 pm and was exhausted. At this point id been by myself all week and was feeling lonely and a bit sorry for myself, so i tried to make myself snap out of it and got my book and went on a walk. I walked until i found this cool little park with a trail that i went down-- the trail took me to the ocean, and there was a little bench to sit on. I sat by the ocean and read for a couple of hours and really enjoyed being in such a peaceful environment.
Later that night we had some dinner and then went to grab drinks with Sam and Katy (a couple from England that teach at the school-- super nice, great people), Chris and Noah (who are also teachers and roommates). We had several pitchers of beer and endless shots of Sojou, which is basically the Korean vodka. I'm kind of gagging just htinking about it. We all got heavily bombed and decided to go to a Norebong, which are all the rage here. It is karaoke, but you get a private room with just your friends that has huge couches and tables and beers in it and you just pay by the hour and belt it out (think of the movie Lost in Translation). The great thing about it is not only can you sing your heart out to some great songs, it gives you a score of 1 to 100 on how well you sang the song. We did almost 2 hours worth of singing and had a crazy good time before going home and calling it a night.
Here is a picture of a personal Norebong-- rather than being a large room to house several people, many people will just rent out these individual booths to belt it out after a stressful day:
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