"Last" trip to Namdaemun and Myung Dong

This Tuesday, all I really wanted to do was stay at home and sleep. But, no. I had a mission! I wanted to get all my last minute present shopping out of the way (buy those last few items for friends and family back home that I had been putting off) so I could sit back and relax for my last two weeks in Korea.

Of course, wouldn't you know it, it rained the ENTIRE TIME I was out. *sigh* Oh well.

I had a list, of course, which was supposed to make things easier while in Namdaemun especially. I was on a mission, you know. This wasn't an ordinary "walk around and kill time" trip to Namdaemun. I needed gifts for recently married peoples, those recently married peoples who decided to have babies (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), and, well, EARLY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!

I failed. *hangs head in shame* I got some of the things I wanted but, for the most part, the majority of the gifts I wanted to get just could not be found. *sigh* Top that off with the fact that Jesi asked for more make up and stuff today, and it looks like my last trip to Namdaemun and Myung Dong was not actually my last trip.

It was raining all day (as I said) but that didn't stop people from coming out to shop! Here are a few pictures from my little trip.

Tall, buildings, McDonalds... could be New York! Wait, no. Everything is in Korean. Must be Seoul.



I don't really understand why it's called the Matching Mole. But it's a total restaurant! Awesome.



And right next to Matching Mole is the Hellfire and Damnation booth! I see these guys all over. I wish I knew exactly what they were yelling at me about. I can imagine, but, really. They don't even have pamphlets or anything. They just stand with the same sign and yell at people over a microphone. I'm curious as to what they are trying to accomplish.



This store. I don't even know why it's so popular. All of the things it sells have pictures of teddy bears on them. Like, the teddy bear shirts you buy at little beach town stores because you are twelve years old and have no fashion sense. Not even cute. But it's called "Teenie Weenie." So that makes it an awesome store in my book.



It stopped raining for a while and all the little carts were setting up again. I went in to Smoothie King for a tasty fruit juice to kill some time while they were setting up so I could look around at them.



I love the fruit juice places they have all over the place here. Smoothie King also does smoothies (duh) but I just got the strawberry juice. They take strawberries, ice, mix it all up, and tada! Tasty treat. :)



I finally got tired of walking up and down the roads with no goal and headed into the subway. There was this machine making little rice cake things and the lady got all excited to see me and said, "GREE NUFFS!!" At least that's what it sounded like. I was like "... okaaay. From her tone, she is obviously saying something in English, but I have no idea what it is." Then I looked at what she was pointing at. "CREAM PUFFS!" I said. She nodded excitedly and showed me how they made them on this little conveyor belt thing. She was so excited about it that I bought a little bag. I had had something like this before with Tara and they were delicious. Mmm..

Here is the contents of my bag.



They are called "Deli Manjoo." I looked it up, and "deli" comes from the word "delicious" and manjoo is the Korean word for "dumpling." They were little corn shaped cakes. Taste a bit like pound cake but a little fluffier. Am I just describing regular cake?



The little corn shaped cakes are filled with a dab of tasty "premium custard." They were really sweet and the little bag was way more than I wanted to eat. I kept the rest in the bag and ate the soggy remains today before work. Very tasty... but better when I first got them.



Here I'm thinking, "Hmmm... how can I get deli manjoo after I get home? Probably a good thing I can't."