Day 6 - Incheon.
Today was the first of our free days. I woke up around 6:40 and didn't want to get up, fell asleep again til around 8 and then hung around til 12. We finally left the guest house and headed to the subway. I had Paizley and Jessica with me, which was awesome. We started out by finding our way to the subway station and figuring out which way to go. We stopped at Dongchun Station which took us into the basement of E-mart. While there I found batteries and socks. I was quite happy about that. They had insoles for my shoes, but they wanted like $20 for the simple ones. I said no. Then we got back on the subway and headed to China Town...or tried to head to head to China Town. Instead we started where we were planning to end our day: the Sinpo Shopping District.
It was really cool walking straight into the underground shopping mall. I quite enjoyed running around trying to figure out where we were and then attemping to get people to understand what we were saying. Failing at getting anyone to understand what we were saying. Found an awesome belt. It's a good quality of leather and cost me less than $6. The lady even noticed that it would be a little large for me and wrapped it around me, measured it with me and then cut it off so that it would fit. That was awesome! After a couple hours, we found the end of the mall and made our way upstairs. We were then trying to find the Korean Exchange Bank, but got lost again and couldn't find it. Then we found it, thought it was closed, a lady went inside, we followed, and finally found the atm!
Then we started towards China Town. We walked through Japan town and barely knew we were there. Then we found the area of China Town we had been taken to, but continued on down the road and finally found the real China Town. It was quite cool. We found 56% alchol for 1,000 won, a really nice Chinese styled dress for 30,000 won and a lot of other random cool stuff. Then we headed to downtown Incheon.
Getting off the subway we found a convinence store type thing. It was awesome! I found insoles for my shoes, toothpaste and laundry detergent. It was so cheap there too! We found the mall. This mall is 10 stories above ground and 6 underground with no walls between stores. Facinating experience. It was all super expensive and we went to the 9th floor and thought that the 10th floor was more stuff but that the escalator just didn't work. So up we went and the shop workers were staring at us, but didn't say anything. When we got up we realized that it was all offices so we tried to get the elevator to take us back down, but it didn't work. So back down we went and the workers were staring at us like we were idiots, when really, we just don't speak or read Korean. Finally, we went down to check out the basement floor which was food. We found pocky, some sort of ramen type thing and soju. The 19% soju was only 1,000 won and the 100% soju was 1,597 won. I was going insane because you can't buy any alcohol in the states for that! No, I didn't buy any. Not a big enough fan. I do want to get some mul-gok though. That stuff has an interesting taste.
Finally, we headed back to the station. Got back on the train and headed back to the university where no one was. The eventually showed up and ordered Chicken and Beer. It sounds good, but I was still full from McD. I know, I skipped Korean food today and went for the Chicken sandwhich. Charles is here (student who was at Lander and Josh's roommate for all of last year). We are all glad to see him again as he is a really funny guy.
It was really cool walking straight into the underground shopping mall. I quite enjoyed running around trying to figure out where we were and then attemping to get people to understand what we were saying. Failing at getting anyone to understand what we were saying. Found an awesome belt. It's a good quality of leather and cost me less than $6. The lady even noticed that it would be a little large for me and wrapped it around me, measured it with me and then cut it off so that it would fit. That was awesome! After a couple hours, we found the end of the mall and made our way upstairs. We were then trying to find the Korean Exchange Bank, but got lost again and couldn't find it. Then we found it, thought it was closed, a lady went inside, we followed, and finally found the atm!
Then we started towards China Town. We walked through Japan town and barely knew we were there. Then we found the area of China Town we had been taken to, but continued on down the road and finally found the real China Town. It was quite cool. We found 56% alchol for 1,000 won, a really nice Chinese styled dress for 30,000 won and a lot of other random cool stuff. Then we headed to downtown Incheon.
Getting off the subway we found a convinence store type thing. It was awesome! I found insoles for my shoes, toothpaste and laundry detergent. It was so cheap there too! We found the mall. This mall is 10 stories above ground and 6 underground with no walls between stores. Facinating experience. It was all super expensive and we went to the 9th floor and thought that the 10th floor was more stuff but that the escalator just didn't work. So up we went and the shop workers were staring at us, but didn't say anything. When we got up we realized that it was all offices so we tried to get the elevator to take us back down, but it didn't work. So back down we went and the workers were staring at us like we were idiots, when really, we just don't speak or read Korean. Finally, we went down to check out the basement floor which was food. We found pocky, some sort of ramen type thing and soju. The 19% soju was only 1,000 won and the 100% soju was 1,597 won. I was going insane because you can't buy any alcohol in the states for that! No, I didn't buy any. Not a big enough fan. I do want to get some mul-gok though. That stuff has an interesting taste.
Finally, we headed back to the station. Got back on the train and headed back to the university where no one was. The eventually showed up and ordered Chicken and Beer. It sounds good, but I was still full from McD. I know, I skipped Korean food today and went for the Chicken sandwhich. Charles is here (student who was at Lander and Josh's roommate for all of last year). We are all glad to see him again as he is a really funny guy.
Day 7 - Adventure in Seoul.
Today Lauren, Paizley, Jessica and I went to Seoul. We left the guest house around 9 a.m. and took the subway all the way in. Guess what? It cost us less than $2 to get to Seoul. That was awesome. First place we went was the COEX mall and they had a kfc with no mac and cheese. I'm still craving mac and cheese. They had an egg tart, but no mac and cheese. So we ate lunch in the food court and none of us ate Korean, Paizley had Chinese and the rest of us at Japanese. My lunch was rice with beef, green onions, kimchi and ginger. Then I realized that I didn't want to kimchi or ginger and picked that stuff out. It came with some soup which is apparently made from mackerel. It was good. Then we split up for an hour and toured the huge mall.
I found the airport, the theater, the aquarium, the kimchi museum, the hotel and the american dudes who were sitting and talking about random stuff until they saw me then they started talking about me. I was shocked and bit peeved by their discussion of my butt. You would think with all the asian girls around, they would talk about them, but no. They want to talk about the one white girl they see. Anyway, the mall was huge, I power walked it and made it back to the food court with time to spare. Then sat there waiting on everyone else.
All gathered, we headed back to the subway and headed towards Insa-dong. We got off the subway, decided that we were going to send Lauren to Insa-dong so she could see her play and the rest of us headed to Fashion Street. That was an experience. Fashion Street is where all the 10-17 year olds shop. They were out as a mob and tearing up everything in sight. It was an amazing experience. It was an entire square block of stores for the teens. We found a couple of cool things then headed back to Insa-dong to find Lauren's theater before they let her out. But first, it was hot and we headed to McD for ice cream. Oh how I do enjoy McD. 500 won ice cream cones which is a little less than $0.50. Yep, McD continues to impress everywhere in the world. Oh! and they deliver, so we are going to order the Shanghai Chicken Sandwich and the Bulgogi Burger one of these nights. Heading up further to find Lauren, we found a money change store for Paizley and Jessica. I asked the guy directions to the theater and we were there about 5 minutes before they let out.
After grabbing Lauren, we headed out to the street. It was a fun day of shopping. We found some hand made in Korea wood key chains. So I got those, a runner for my coffee table, and some chopstick and spoon rests. Oh how I do enjoy shopping. Haha, okay, Buying. Oh and I have noticed that when the sellers come talk to you and show you something then tell you some high price and you turn around to leave, they hiss. It's weird. I don't get it, but they do. And then there was the lady where I bought the runner from and when I pulled out my card, she asked, "You don't have any cash?" I said that I needed it for the subways and she acted all exasperated as she charged my card. It was quite interesting.
Then we raced back to the subway as the groups had said they were going to meet at 8:30 for karaoke. We made it back just after 9. On the subway, there was a guy falling asleep. He almost fell over a few times and his friend tried to wake him up for his stop, even to the point of dragging him out, but the guy pushed him off and went back to sleep. We also discovered that it doesn't cost anything to take the bus from the subway exit to the university. So it still cost us just under $2 to get back. It was awesome. Then we had to made dinner plans. I had my bowl of unknown which was really spicy and ramen like, but with imitation crab pieces. It was a fun and interesting day of shopping.
I found the airport, the theater, the aquarium, the kimchi museum, the hotel and the american dudes who were sitting and talking about random stuff until they saw me then they started talking about me. I was shocked and bit peeved by their discussion of my butt. You would think with all the asian girls around, they would talk about them, but no. They want to talk about the one white girl they see. Anyway, the mall was huge, I power walked it and made it back to the food court with time to spare. Then sat there waiting on everyone else.
All gathered, we headed back to the subway and headed towards Insa-dong. We got off the subway, decided that we were going to send Lauren to Insa-dong so she could see her play and the rest of us headed to Fashion Street. That was an experience. Fashion Street is where all the 10-17 year olds shop. They were out as a mob and tearing up everything in sight. It was an amazing experience. It was an entire square block of stores for the teens. We found a couple of cool things then headed back to Insa-dong to find Lauren's theater before they let her out. But first, it was hot and we headed to McD for ice cream. Oh how I do enjoy McD. 500 won ice cream cones which is a little less than $0.50. Yep, McD continues to impress everywhere in the world. Oh! and they deliver, so we are going to order the Shanghai Chicken Sandwich and the Bulgogi Burger one of these nights. Heading up further to find Lauren, we found a money change store for Paizley and Jessica. I asked the guy directions to the theater and we were there about 5 minutes before they let out.
After grabbing Lauren, we headed out to the street. It was a fun day of shopping. We found some hand made in Korea wood key chains. So I got those, a runner for my coffee table, and some chopstick and spoon rests. Oh how I do enjoy shopping. Haha, okay, Buying. Oh and I have noticed that when the sellers come talk to you and show you something then tell you some high price and you turn around to leave, they hiss. It's weird. I don't get it, but they do. And then there was the lady where I bought the runner from and when I pulled out my card, she asked, "You don't have any cash?" I said that I needed it for the subways and she acted all exasperated as she charged my card. It was quite interesting.
Then we raced back to the subway as the groups had said they were going to meet at 8:30 for karaoke. We made it back just after 9. On the subway, there was a guy falling asleep. He almost fell over a few times and his friend tried to wake him up for his stop, even to the point of dragging him out, but the guy pushed him off and went back to sleep. We also discovered that it doesn't cost anything to take the bus from the subway exit to the university. So it still cost us just under $2 to get back. It was awesome. Then we had to made dinner plans. I had my bowl of unknown which was really spicy and ramen like, but with imitation crab pieces. It was a fun and interesting day of shopping.