mall madness

due to some posting difficulties last night and this morning, friday's post is finally up and ready to read. it should be right after this one and it's called "teaching = bribery". and now for saturday's post…

after two weeks of being ansan bound we decided to venture into seoul today. our designated stop being the coex. the giant underground mall. let's start off by saying that getting there was quite trying. when we got to sadang where we had to change lines we couldn't get from platform 1 to platform 2. after walking up and down the station looking for a way to get to platform 2 we decided to take the train one stop in the opposite direction to only reboard going the opposite way. the trouble one has to go through to get anyway.

finally we arrived at samseoung station along with half of korea. this is where the coex mall, the seoul world trade center, and aquarium all are. it was crazy packed. we were packed like cattle as we ascending the stairs to exit the station. going to a mall on the weekend. who's idea was this. oh well mine. it felt like christmas tiime in the states with evcryone and their mothers out shopping. the mall was huge, however, i wasn't as impressed by the theme walks as i thought i'd be. here are a few examples of how they advertise these walks: lake walk - with sunlight and a variety of plants, this them provides relaxing and serene atmosphere; summit walk - glass pillars symbolizing perpetual snow and walls finished with skyblue marbles make you imagine the magnificence of a mountain summit; millennium plaza - millennium plaza is the starting area of the fantastic journey of water. i'm not really sure who the pr genius was that came up with these description but it was basically like walking through different parts of a mall with different lighting and color. if i didn't know beforehand that these were supposes to be particular themes i would have never known the difference. overall the mall was like any other. you have your food court, giant movie theater, various stores. the best being the dalki store. although i only wish it was bigger.

the best part was area 6, the fashion walk. talk about bad fashion. there wasn't one thing that interested me. i did notice that every other girl was wearing uggs. blue ones, pink ones, ones with wool all around them. they must now be making their way to korea. another fashion trend i noticed was the white blazers/coats worn by both men and women. white seems to be the color here. i'm now on the quest to find a cool white coat. they have a bookstore there too which has a pretty good selection of foreign magazines [ones from the states in english], however, the prices range from $16 to $38. like i'm going to spend that kind of money when i can get it in the states for $5. no thanks. i was hoping that they might have some graphic novels but they didn't have any of the ones i read. oh well. at least i know the bookstore is there for when i need something to read. we found a food joint that makes chilly cheese fries and philly steaks. of course we ate there. i must say that the cheese steak was pretty damn good.

while walking around we stumbled upon the aquarium. we didn't go in. its pretty big so we'll probably do that another time. it looks pretty cool though. they have sharks. i think we'll save that for a cold winter day. after a few hours of walking around i remembered why i hate malls. way too many people. its like sensory overload.

outside in the main plaza area we noticed that jackie chan has a resturant there. if only we had known before. we'll eat there next time. we walked up to the street level to take a look around. the seoul world trade center is right outside. its so big. the archietecture around this area was pretty cool. it kind of reminded me of being in the financial district in sf. even though there were tons of people around it didn't feel like it. it actually felt kind of peaceful. we're going to walk around there some other time when were not so tired.

once back in ansan we decided to walk to home plus another carrefour/emart kind of place. talk about crazy. this place was more crowded than the mall. i don't think i'll be going back there. the only good thing about it is that we found blankets for under $20. of course they have flowers on them. everything in korea has flowers. but a blanket is a blanket so i bite the bullet and bought the flowered blanket. now at least i won't be cold. while walking home master shin pulled up in his van and offered us a ride home. i politely turned him down since we were only a block away. it funny too because i had just got done talking about me. i guess the old saying is true "speak of the devil and the devil appears".

tomorrow is going to be more shopping. there are some markets we want to check out. it should be fun. until next time…