Chusok

So today is Chusok...which means nothing is open, and the streets are eerily quiet since there is usually a mass exodus out of the city. People drive to visit their families and the graves of their ancestors.
So we're just hanging around the house with nothing to do...
I forgot to mention another place we visited on Sunday evening-Yongsan Electronics Market. Chris' idea of heaven, of course-but because most people were headed out of town for Chusok, most of the stores in the place were closed. We browsed around the first floor, which was completely filled with cameras, cell phones, and MP3 players, and looked around the rest of the floors as well. They'll reopen after the holiday, so most likely we'll head back there next weekend so my dear husband can play :).

Namdaemun Market

Namdaemun means literally "South Gate". The gate the market is named after is one of the 4 main gates of the old city wall, and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Korea. The market covers more square footage than you could cover in a year of Saturdays...but Rachel and Chris and I will sure try! We went Sunday afternoon for a few hours-just walked around, mostly in circles because its quite confusing and easy to get turned around. They sell everything-miles of jeans, shirts, shoes, kitchenware, dishes, bedding, pillows, plus food and more. While I was in search of a restroom, Rachel and Chris stumbled upon a wig vendor who hand made all of her own wigs. She insisted on sitting Rachel down and pinning on all colors of wigs-which Rachel thoroughly enjoyed! She made me try on a couple as well (the lady, not Rachel), and we ended up buying some clip-in blue and orange hair strands just to make her feel good.
Another thing they sell at Namdaemun is the traditional Korean costume-hanbok. They have them ready-made or you can pick out fabric and they will tailor-make them for you. It's really neat, because you can look into the shops and see Korean children getting fitted for their hanbok for Chusok holiday.
Speaking of which, I almost forgot...Chusok is tomorrow, so we get the day off! It's nice having a day off in the middle of the week. Chusok is basically the Korean equivalent of Christmas-Koreans usually take off the day before and the day after as well.

Nonhyeon

Well...we finally found a furniture street- Nonhyeon Furniture Street near the Express Bus Terminal south of the Han River. A very short subway ride, and unlike Sadang, the moment we emerged from the subway station we were there. Right smack dab in the middle of a very nice, upscale furniture district. Now, I say upscale because the stores were all glass-front buildings with beautiful layouts, most of them several floors high, and all of them manned by sales people in tailored suits eager to show you around. The first store we stopped into was S&K Gallery. We were the only customers in the store, and we were met by a very polite salesman, who pointed out (in part English, part hand signals) that there was an elevator and his store was five floors high. He proceeded to take us straight up to the 5th floor, and let us look around, then to the 4th, etc. It's rather nice when they can't speak English sometimes, because you don't have to put up with high pressure sales pitches like at home! Well, we found a piece we liked- a beautiful, tall chest of drawers with a rounded front in a dark stain. Hopefully by the time we want to buy furniture its still there! One of the fun things about shopping here is that you know what you buy will be unique when you get back to the States. Oh, and remember I said these places were high-end? Well, if you compared the prices to American furniture prices, they were actually very reasonable. And you get all the luxuries of the high end furniture stores-custom colors, fabrics, etc. Of course, a lot of the stores had an American Traditional floor, so we had to suffer through the displays of Sealy Posturepedic mattresses and Lane sofas as well. There were about 5 city blocks of furniture stores on both sides of the street, so there was plenty to see. Now, this is not Korean traditional furniture-they like a lot of modern styles and had several German stores, as well as the "Korean Ikea". That was fun-we only browsed through the first floor, but unlike Ikea they had silk comforters (soooo nice!). I think the one I liked was about 681,000 won, which is about $600. Very pricey, but I can't be sure that's what the price was, because I couldn't read the signs! Oh well...when it comes time to actually buy stuff, I'll probably make Rachel's friend Jane come with us, so she can translate. So anyway, we basically window shopped there for 3 hours. Lots of fun!

What a clean city this is.

Seoul is an amazingly clean city for its size. With more than 11 million inhabitants (that's larger than New York City!), you'd expect a certain amount of trash on the street, a lot of littering, cigarette butts, etc. It's absolutely amazing-you can walk on the sidewalk at almost any time, look up and down the street and have a hard time finding one piece of paper, one candy wrapper floating around. Not only is littering very rare, but when the leaves fall someone is there to sweep them up almost immediately. There is still an awful smell sometimes, that can take your breath away. You'll be walking along, and it will hit you in the face so strong that your eyes water. But even that you get used to (hey, for anyone who has spent more than an hour in New Orleans, this isn't too much to ask).

Last weekend...

Last weekend we attempted to find the furniture street in Sadang. Since Koreans basically don't use street names, it can get a little tricky trying to find new places. Our directions were given to us by our wonderful landlord, Mr. Young. Of course, since they were driving directions, and we still don't have a car, we decided to take the subway instead...and realized when we got off that we had no idea where to go. So we just started walking...and walked...and walked...
We spotted a few stores selling office furniture, and figured we were close, but unfortunately we were wrong. We never actually found what we were looking for that day, but instead ran across a very cool market that sold all sorts of fish, vegetables, fruit, herbs, incense, kimchi, plants, clothing, shoes, drapes, bedding, kitchenware and more! We saw only one other white person the entire day-and got plenty of stares...especially since Rachel is almost 6 feet tall! But everyone was nice-curious, but nice-and there were several people who tried out their English on us. We got a lot of "Hello people!" It was really quite a fun adventure.
Another thing I noticed on this day out was that Korean children wander around the city by themselves...and I mean 6 and 7 year olds out playing and riding their bikes with no adult in site. A couple days ago I saw a group of 5 little girls holding hands and walking down the street from our apartment building. Again, not an adult in sight...because there is virtually no crime in this city. Children can be seen wandering around the city even as late as midnight. And the Korean people are notoriously fond of children. They consider a child to be everyone's responsibility to raise, and you can expect perfect strangers to want to hold your children. This of course probably would freak out the average American kid, but Korean children have a great respect for their elders, and a great trust that is so different from what we're used to at home.

Trip to COEX Mall

The COEX Mall is a huge mall in the southern part of Seoul, off the Samseong subway stop, Line 2, Exits 5 and 6. The Mall brags of being the "largest mall and entertainment complex in the Orient". It has its own aquarium, which we visited. It displays fish from the region, and has quite a few big sharks and beautiful manta rays! We took a few pictures while we were there. I think our favorite fish was the "Harlequin Sweetlips", just from the name alone!
The mall is a huge complex of shops with several department stores on each end, and scores of restaurants. There are several levels, some of which are underground, and it seems as if you could never see everything in one day! The "entertainment complex" part inludes a place called "Gimme Five", which has a restaurant- where you can watch championship kickboxing while you dine, and casino gaming tables- where they give you free "money" to gamble with (play money, of course). We ended up at COEX on a Sunday, the only day Gimme Five was closed, so we're going to have to reschedule so we can experience a meal while being sweated on by a couple Korean kickboxers. Sounds like fun, right?

First night in country...

My first night here, we went out to Itaewon for Korean food. Itaewon is the foreigner's district in Seoul-it is right outside of Yongsan Army Garrison, and has lots of restaurants, bars, tailors, shopping, and vendors selling Korea souvenirs on the street. We ate at Woori Garden (Korean bbq). It was very tasty-pieces of beef that you would cook on a grill at your table, and then fold into leaves of lettuce along with some rice and kimchi if you wanted. There were different sauces to dip the meat into-spicy red sauce, salt/pepper/oil sauce, and a sweet sauce. Koreans eat these in a single bite, which is too much for some people-it took me three bites! But I've gotten better at it with more practice. They serve several different kinds of kimchi with your meal, and the selection changes from week to week. Some of the kimchi is very spicy (like the cabbage in the spicy red sauce), and others are sweet, or even fishy.
The second night we went out to Myeong-dong, which is the fashion district. It has hundreds of stores selling designer clothing, shoes, and accessories for pretty reasonable prices compared to the States. You can get a great pair of jeans for about 10,000 won (which is about 8 dollars). The streets are blocked off from traffic, and are packed with people, and with street vendors selling scarves, jewelry, shoes, watches, cd/dvds, clothing, and anything else you could think of. They also sell tasty treats-marinated meat on sticks, fried dough with vegetables, dried squid, and a lot of other things I haven't been able to identify yet! If you're there on the right night, you'll see people selling live squid-and you can watch someone eat one right there in front of you...still alive, with tentacles waving and suckers grabbing hold! You know, I have a thing about trying everything at least once, but this one I'll never try...

Link to Pictures

I'll try and update my pictures regularly as soon as our computer and digital camera accessories get here. The link is http://groups.msn.com/SarahandChristianScott/shoebox.msnw.

Hi!

Hello from Korea!
As an American living in Seoul, Republic of Korea, it's been quite an adventure since I arrived here on August 26, 2004. I hope to use this blog to keep my friends and family up-to-date with everything that's going on, and maybe offer some helpful hints for anyone who's interested in visiting or shopping in Seoul.

Enjoy!
Sarah