forestsofpine

(Because I'm sure there'll be a part two.)

Well, I've been doing a crap tonne of shopping the past few days! My aunt and uncle's flat is a couple blocks away from this insane mall. Coming from a town without a mall, where the nearest mall is only one story, to one which (including underground floors and a rooftop lounge-type thing) is ten, I believe, is insane. And so we've been doing a lot of shopping.

One favourite destination is Daiso, this kind of Korean/I think it might actually be Japanese version of Five Below, with all sorts of useful, cheap stuff--but it's not so focused on being "trendy" as Five Below, and since the won is pretty weak everything is extra cheap for foreigners. We bought so many things there, including these UV-blocking parasols that apparently Korean grandmas (a.k.a. ahjummas, in Korean) love. Step one of my becoming one of them. I'm basically an American grandma already, as I joke about with Blue, so what's going to stop me from being a Korean grandma? (Aside from obviously being white as a saltine.)

Also on our first day, we checked out a nearby library that's, again, insanely big compared to our little library at home. We then ended up going to this historical palace place, where I was the only one who made it up this massive hill without being tired--another point in my ahjummafication, since according to my aunt even if you think you're making good time up the hill, there'll be an older lady walking faster than you as if it were nothing. Point two of my ahjummafication.

We also found an entire unmanned store of gacha machines playing what was basically carnival music, and also this cute little street market! I found what apparently are "ahjumma clothes", according to my aunt, and of course they're my fashion style so I bought three. I actually managed to stumble my way through the transaction (most of which was the man telling me he only accepted cash, not the card I proferred) with my very rudimentary knowledge of Korean and no translator app!

Ditto today, when we went to Seoul (my first metro experience!!) and went to Namdaemun Street Market. I found a couple of places that sold K-pop merchandise and got some TWS, Zerobaseone and a little bit of Girls' Generation, Super Junior and GFRIEND--and surprisingly, some X1, even though they released one mini album and then immediately disbanded amidst scandal. Actually, there was a lot of X1! Anyways, I managed to use my very rudimentary Korean to ask if there was any Verivery merch at either shop--sadly, no--and check out, and I only had to use a translator app twice--one to ask the guy at one shop again because I wasn't sure if we were understanding each other, and one to ask how much a Girls' Generation Season's Greetings was at the other store. I came home with a lot of photocard-type things as well as that season's greetings and some bootleg Stray Kids merch for a friend back home. It was really cool!

Also at Namdaemun Street Market, the fourth point of my ahjummafication happened when I bought some colourful scarves, which are really popular with the older ladies here--one of the exceptions to the monochrome rule which I mentioned a few days ago. We also got folding fans that each come with their own colour-matching holder, and I tried Korean doughnuts--pretty good, but I'm not a red bean girl.

Also, I tried kimbap for the first time yesterday--pork donkatsu or something to that effect--and ADORED IT!! It's one of my favourite foods now. I also had some bulgogi kimbap for my first lunch today--that's a story for another post--and loved it, too!

We went to N Seoul Tower today, too. There's a bunch of stores and some historical things, and then a massive tower with an observation deck you can see all of Seoul from. And go figure, it's perfectly fine, although filly cloudy (not "partly cloudy" like the forecast said) when we left, and when we got to the tower the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything. I did have my first karaoke experience, though! There were these little noraebang (the Korean word for karaoke) booths in this arcade place, and my aunt gave me a few coins to go and play. I sang Into The New World by Girls' Generation and Why Why by Shannon Williams (the binder of songs was A) 500 or so pages long and B) alphabetized, but all in Korean, and I don't know the order of the Korean alphabet, so sadly I couldn't find any Verivery), and it was really fun! Although a little "21" popped up at the end both times, which i think was my score--but then, since it was 21 both times, maybe I didn't do so badly after all? It was still fun either way!

We also stopped at a couple of other shops and the historical monuments--including some beacons they used for smoke signals back in the day, like in Lord of the Rings--and were going to stop at this K-pop shop on the bottom floor, only to find out when we climbed down a bunch of stairs to the alcove it was in that it was temporarily closed, and looking inside, totally empty. What the heck?!?

My cousin did show me a k-pop section in the bookstore of the mall next to our flat, though, and I got TWS's first mini album (although I accidentally got a platform version instead of a CD version, even though the employee said it included a CD) and NCT Wish's most recent mini album! I put them on my iPod and listened to them on the subway today, and they're both really good!

Anyways, that's all I can think of for now, and anywho I have to get up early tomorrow, so I'll leave off here. Good night!