So, March 1st was
Samil, a Korean holiday that celebrates the independence movement against Japanese occupation in the early 1900's. The brutality of the not-so-long-ago occupation has left some pretty apparent
anti-Japanese residue on the Korean people. I've only been teaching here for 3 months (that long?!) and I have already had students tell me of their dislike for Japan. It's very sad...
But, alas, this is supposed to be merely a jaunty blog entry about my holiday, so let us move to lighter subjects....like my trip to Seoul! On this beautiful non-working day, Mipa and I decided to venture up for some shopping and wandering. We took the subway up, almost irresistible at about $2.50 one-way. And we are the first stop on the way up, so we're guaranteed a seat. One and a half hours later, we stepped off the subway into Namdaemun market, the biggest traditional Korean market around. It was packed! (Sadly, I did not have my camera...bad photographer! This image is from another site.) Mipa knew of a huge art supply store in here, so we headed over there and I made my one purchase of the day...two pens! Ah, but they write sooo nicely...
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Next, we took the subway to the
COEX mall, a massive underground shopping center complete with aquarium. I was on the hunt for a new wallet...Korean won are too fat for mine! You'd think, huge mall, wallet is pretty standard, no problem, right? Wrong! I could not find a wallet that wasn't some crazy expensive designer thing. And here we come to a lesson in Korean culture. They are all about designer fashion. You can either get the real thing, or a knock off, but when shopping for clothes, shoes, or wallets, don't count on some casual, not-too-trendy thing. Now, that is hard to find. All the fashionistas clicking around in their high-heeled boots should have tipped me off....
One thing I did manage to find was a place to develop the film from my
holga camera, and they did it in a couple hours. But, once again my cheapy holga is not cheap enough! No vignetting, not even a tiny little light leak. I still got the creepy blur around the edges...
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So, at the end of the day, with my money jutting precariously out of my old narrow wallet and my new pens gleaming in the pocket of my messenger bag, Mipa and I decided to splurge and spend 6000 won ($6) on a bus ticket home. Because after a long day of non-shopping, who wants to stand on the subway the whole way home?