Walmart, Korean-style...

Well, we finally did it. We went to Walmart. Actually, it called itself a Walmart supercenter (not hardly...), and it was located south of the Han river not far from the Seollung subway stop. After a very crowded ride, which took us twice as long, because I failed to notice that even though we were headed toward Seoul National University of Education, there was also a Seoul National University the exact opposite way on the line we were travelling. What are the odds...So after turning around, we arrived at Seollung, and followed the directions I had gotten off the internet. The interesting thing about Seoul is that there are not really any street signs-no street names in face, only landmarks. So knowing that we were looking for the Hansol Phila building, which was across from Gaenari Apartments, we set out in a direction-just hoping it was the right one. Luckily enough, Chris' recognized the Hangul for Gaenari, so after walking about 3 blocks we knew we were headed in the right direction. And there it was just a couple hundred yards later-the rather large and garish Walmart Supercenter sign on top of a 10 story building. The actual store was in the basement of the building, and almost resembled an American Walmart. It had all the basic ingredients, if not a lot fewer products. And one thing that you notice right away, is that Walmart is far from cheap. It offers a lot of the same products-but the difference is that here, they are imports. Therefore...expensive. Would you pay 6,000 won for a bottle of Pantene Pro-V (about $6)? What was cheap there was the clothing, and I picked up a couple sweaters for about 8,000 won apiece. Too bad their clothing department was about the size of a 7-11. But besides the sweaters, we came away with a stove-top grill (Korean style), a garlic press, and a steel steaming bowl. So it was a pretty successful trip after all. There is a bigger Walmart towards Osan, but I'm just not sure its worth the trip...after all, we can pretty much find anything we need in either Namdaemun, Dongdaemun, Myongdong, Yongsan or Itaewon. Oh, by the way, we found the shops that sell wooden swords for practicing martial arts. I was buying some Taekwondo shoes, and we ran across the weapons. Rachel was practically drooling over them, so I'm sure she'll end up with one of each eventually! Anyway, we'll probably be doing quite a bit of wondering all over the city while Chris is gone in February (just trying to keep busy), so I'll try and take more pictures. Yes, I know I've been slacking lately, but its been cold out. My hands have been in mittens in my pockets!