SHOPPING!! 8D

This week of school has been pretty nice. Nothing much. I had a bad day where I got super, super frustrated with my class on Monday night, but my amazing Tuesday class made up for it.

Saturday, however, was the best day by far. I wanted to go shopping because I needed a few more Christmas presents and I needed to pick up some more things for the box I'll be sending home to my family (soon... I promise... just as soon as I find a post office).

So I hit Namdaemun market again, this time with Kendra. Tara was going to join us, but she had a date (let's face it, dates with boys will always trump shopping with your girlfriends). I had fun anyways. We basically just wandered around for, like four hours. We saw lots of fun stuff in our wanderings.

First off, we saw a pair of jeans that our friend Spencer back home would have thought were awesome. He absolutely loves Audrey Hepburn. :)



I also saw the Korean twin of my Mom's furry tote (which we have named Fifi).



There was one point where we were going to head back the way we came because we were getting out of shopping and into food, but then Kendra caught site of Oreos and Cheez-Its! Caught by surprise, we went in to see what other American treats were in this little store. It was too cool! They had toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, GUM, chicken bouillon (FINALLY!), and fancy schmancy Nutella.



We only found out the name of the store after we left. I thought it was an appropriate name. :)



Right next door was a great temptation that we didn't give into. Mostly because we were scared of what the answer to, "How much?" would be. They were probably pretty expensive.



We did get some candy, but it was TRADITIONAL Korean candy, also the guy said it was good for you (yeah... I'm not so sure it's "good" for you, but not as bad as caramacs, I'm sure). The candy is called Dragon's Beard. It kind of looks like white shredded wheat covered in powdered sugar with nuts inside. The outside is made out of a hardened rock of sugar and syrup that he then dipped into rice flour, stretched, twisted, and folded a jillion times until it looks like hair. He then wrapped it around some chopped nuts. Good stuff. He put on a great show (in English!). It was hilarious. And the candy is delicious.



This is what it looks like when it's done. Kind of like little hairy cocoons.



There were tons of stores selling celebrity stuff and I got Kendra a calendar of one of her favorite actors to hang up in her apartment. Oh, Jang Keun Suk, you are a pretty boy. :)



I also got Jesi the pig from our favorite drama My Lovely Sam Soon. Isn't it cute?



As we were walking, we saw a couple eating what Kendra called a heart attack on a stick: it looked like a corn dog, but instead of the normal corn bread coating it looked like it had crinkle fries all over it in a giant fried mass! So we kept in search of that. We were finally able to find it, but then we saw him making these pancake things that smelled like Heaven. So we got pancakes in a cup! They were fluffy with cinnamon, butter, and sugar smashed in the delicious middle. Yums!



As we walked, we came across this place:



Yay! A HAPPY store! Let's ditch these semi-depressed stores and go into the HAPPY store!

There were a lot of booths with sweat shirts and since that has been on my list of things to get (the one I brought is no longer suitable to be worn outside of the apartment), I decided to try to find one I liked. Well, I liked a lot of them but finding one to fit a fat American is a little more difficult. I finally found a stall that had one design in a larger size. At first I was kind of "meh" on the design, but as I was walking away I realized that I was in the happy store and the sweatshirt said "joy" on it! I bought my joy sweatshirt in the happy store!



I was also able to find the gay ties my dad wanted! When he was here, he got a pink tie with little crystals on it. It was such a hit at church that he asked me to find him two more: one in violet and one in blue. Totally found them. Dad probably could have gotten a better price, but I'm not as good at bargaining as he is.



After we were done shopping, we stopped at the mall and caught the new Narnia movie (which was excellent, by the way). While we were waiting for the movie to start, we looked around the mall. I found one store that had a ton of movies for really cheap. And they are legit movies, too! Not counterfeits. Good times! I was good and only got two movies (only 4,900 won each... about $4): Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration and Singing in the Rain. I know. I'm a dork. And I don't care.



The only other thing of note from this week is that they sang Messiah at church today (a few chorus's and solos; not the whole thing). The woman who sang "There were shepherds abiding in their fields" was absolutely amazing. For a church choir, it was a really great performance. The best I've ever heard live. All the soloists were obviously trained singers and the choir did an amazing job as well. I was way jealous of them being able to be up there singing.

The only thing that bothered me was that we didn't stand for the Hallelujah chorus. That was just strange. No one even made a move. I was looking around, kind of fidgeting and I told Tara that it was weird not to be standing. She just gave me a funny look and said I was "so cute." Whatever. You're supposed to stand during that part!

And that has been my weekend.Good times. Next week is Christmas! Yay! And because people keep asking me: I do not get a Christmas break. I work Christmas Eve. We get Christmas day off, but I don't work Saturdays anyway so it doesn't really matter for me.

I'll have to make a post with pictures of all my Christmas decorations.