Friday, November 12, 2004

to market we shall go

i rolled out of bed this morning around noon. last night i went out with my tae kwon do class [see friday's blog "kiss club" which i just publish and should be after this one] and didn't get home until 4:30am. it was definitely a crazy night. i was suppose to meet horace at noon but had to push it back until 1pm. we headed to namdaemum market for more christmas shopping. it was like a giant flea market with clothes, food, and little gifts everywhere. even though it was cold out it didn't stop all the people. this is where one goes to find bargins. all the knockoff brands one could possible want fill the streets. i saw numerous men carry boxes on their backs with wooden-like backpacks. men were bringing in loads of fur coats dropping them off at the seller and the women were going through them like hungry wolves. it was crazy but definitely a sight. there alway various christmas shops which really put us in the mood. it funny that normally i hate christmas shopping with every store playing the same damn songs over and over again. however, it was actually nice to see fake christmas trees, giant santas dancing, and lights.

feeling slightly overwhelmed we left the market for awhile and walked to myeong-dong to get something to eat and then a vanilla latte. the latte was so tastey. the last time we were in myeong-dong i wouldn't even taste horace's vanilla latte because i didn't drink coffee and now i'm a latte junky. go figure. we stopped in a record store where i finally broke down and bought my first "flower handsome" [korean pop band] cd by tvfxq!. this is the same band that i mentioned before. i actually just finished listening to it. granted i wouldn't say it's the best thing ever but it's kind of like my new guilty pleasure. i mean come on. how could you not like a band where the members names are hero, micky, max, xiah, u-know. they sure beat the boy bands from the u.s. i can't actually believe i'm admitting all this but what the hell.

feeling we had enough of myeong-dong we heading back to namdaemum market. upon our return there were even more clothing booths filling the center of the street. it was like being in a whole new place with all these new booths. how great is that. we went down one alley which was filled with all these food booths. they had just about everything you could imagine. hamhocks, blood, live octopus, chicken, vegetebles, kimchee it was all there staring at us. one lady tried to grab my arm and bring me into the food text that had the live octopus and various other seafood to eat. i politely told her no thanks. horace had to people yell chicken at him and pointed to their food text. this is why i love korea. we also found a little black market area where horace spent $9 for a giant tub of oatmeal. then there was another underground shopping center that had a bunch of cool knit knats.

on the train heading home this little boy came walking up to me grunting and holding out his hand. i thought he wanted to shake my hand so i did. once i released it he stood there still holding out his hand grunted and motioned to my pocket. the little brat wanted money. i looked at horace who said "what are we in mexico or something". i told the boy no and he stood there a little longer grunted then left. that was first experience with begging in korea.

until next time… korean pop rules!!

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