Trip up North...no, no, not that far North

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...















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...



















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?