Catching up on things

• Well, I knew I need to write a quick blog entry to state some Korean experience I either forgot to post, or just didn’t have the opportunity to post yet. I want to be as caught up as possible so I can make sure to report on my upcoming trip to China. I know I didn’t post about my trip to Japan, nor my 3 weeks working with my sister in Korea, but I'm really going to try my best to make my next post a China adventure post.
• Last weekend I went to my friend Young Jae’s wedding. This wedding was not held at a wedding hall; instead, it was held in a Catholic church. Because the ceremony is much longer then the ones in a wedding hall, about half of the guests stayed in the buffet instead of going upstairs to sit though the church service. I watched the beginning of the service, then joined my co-workers at the buffet, and then went back for the end of the service. It was interesting because I was raised Catholic so seeing beer and soju at a church event was something I’ve never come across. Also, they had a great vending machine that distributed ice cream! There was no beer, soju, or ice cream vending machines at American Martyrs!!!
Normally, when someone from work gets married, my company orders one of those huge bouquets of flowers and sends them to the wedding hall. But Catholic churches don’t accept these bouquets; so instead, my office donated 4 huge bags of rice. As we were carrying the rice into the church I was thinking, “What are we going to do with this; throw it at the bride and groom?” Nope, it’s actually a donation that the church will use it to feed the poor. Pretty great huh? Way better then giving flowers!
• I saw a great show on TV the other day. It featured probably some celebrity dad and his two sons, one a toddler, the other maybe 3 years old. They were at one of my all time favorite locations in Seoul…the dog café! They showed all my favorite dogs running around as usual. The toddler was having a hard time because all of the dogs were much bigger then him. But then his dad carried him over to a woman who had brought her own tea cup sized dog to play at the café. The little toddler liked this dog, he tried to feed it a dog treat but the dog wasn’t interested in it so he tried to feed it to the lady instead. Ahahah! I was in tears I was laughing so hard! It was so damn cute and funny!
• The other night, Hye Jeong and I went Duty Free shopping. There is one whole floor of the Lotte mall that is Duty Free, and is open 24 hours! Since we are going to China this weekend, we thought we would do a little shopping.
After shopping we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant. We ordered a salad and a pizza to share. The salad was really tasty; it had a citrus dressing with slices of tomatoes and mozzarella. After we had eaten 3/4ths of our salad I noticed something very scary. It was a GUMMY!!!! “Ah, waiter, there’s a fly in my soup, no wait, make that a huge freaking spider in my salad!”
When Angela and I worked at ET Camp this summer we learned that gummy meant, SPIDER!!! That’s right, there was a huge “porch spider” as Angela and I affectionately named them after noticing so many living on our porch, in our salad.
Of course the staff apologized and took the salad off our bill. They also gave use drinks and 20% off our pizza. Maybe I should start bringing spiders to all the restaurants I go to! It’s a good way to save money on your bill! (Just kidding, you all know I like spiders so I wouldn’t kill one to put in my salad even if it means free or discounted food.)
• Tonight I went to Dongdaemon Market to do some more shopping. It was a shame I couldn’t take Angela when she was here this summer, but good thing she is coming back this winter so I can take her then. I was able to take my parents shopping here when they came to visit. My dad said, “You’ve seen one shop, you’ve seen them all.” That’s because Dondaemon Market is a bunch of malls with different tiny stalls all selling basically the same things from clothes to bags and jewelry. This is the place where you buy your knock offs and can haggle for a deal.
For example, I wanted a wallet and when I asked how much it was Saturday night, the guy said 28,000. But when I came back tonight, a Wednesday, the price was down to 18,000 and I further haggled it down to 13,000. (Note to self: on the weekend come to see what the selection is, because there are a lot of people, you are less likely to be accosted by over eager venders. Then, come back during the week when its pretty empty and go straight to the things you want and avoid browsing!)
My main goal for going to Dongdaemon Market tonight was to get a camera case to protect the lovely camera Lucas got me for my birthday. So I found a nice Chanel-style camera case that I was able to talk down to 14,000. Once I gave him the cash, he took the camera case and cut a little tag on the O to turn it into a C. Then on the zipper charm he used a pair of snippers and clipped the metal O turning it into a C as well. So now it looks just like the Chanel camera case from the Duty Free shop! Another money saving opportunity! And this one doesn’t involve spiders : )