My Goodness (!)

These are what the pricier (80,000-260,000won) bags look like. They're made out of real cow leather and are divine to touch. I got to sneak a picture because the lady was absent... for a very very long time.... in fact, she never came!

You know what's funny? She had left a note (in Korean) next to the phone, telling the customers to call her number if they wanted to buy anything! Wow talk about trusting nothing would get stolen! HMMMM... But I really enjoyed how I wasn't pestered at all or pressured to buy it from the lady. I could take my sweet time trying on all the bags. As nice as most of them look from far away, none of them worked with me unfortunately.

Here's another example of a SA who left her name and number on a note. This was in Goodmorning City shopping complex in Dongdaemun. I guess it made sense she wouldn't be there as it was almost 4AM. A lot of the time, they get people from neighbouring stalls to cover for them so it was a bit amusing to see the same sales person follow us down a whole aisle.
Desserts (no, not on the same day)...
They love their waffles! (@ Doota Accessories floor in Dongdaemun)
Lynn's Red Velvet cupcake @ Lotte Department Store
Misarang's Pizza... I forgot what it's called but it has sweet potato in it which is funkily sweet.

Had a shabu shabu lunch around campus with JiHee (KUBA buddy) + Chika~~
I want to see this movie -- Antique!

haha what a random post. Too hot to stay still and blog. It hit 40 degrees Celcius (104 Fahrenheit) downtown today...
I'm meeeeeeeeeeeeltinnnnnggggggggggggggg!

My Vacation Has Officially Begun.

My OM final went much better than I thought it would, phew. But now, I don't know what I'm going to do with my textbook because it's so heavy, I don't want to bring it home. My friend suggested for us to make a bon fire and have all the international students throw their textbooks in -- sounded like a good idea at that moment!

I did a shop at Dongdaemun while everyone else was packing, finishing up their exams, or writing their final papers. It was nice~ I finally got to explore the new Doota! Fashion Is War building!
It's a very clean and modern store that's set up like the other shopping complexes in that each floor caters to specific segment groups.
The clothes in Doota! are better quality and more stylish in a chic way than ones like Migliore and Hello aPM. Prices range from 32,000-230,000won for women's clothes compared to Migliore's approx. 5,000-50,000won.
I didn't buy anything though I really liked quite a few things.
Designer(ish) family matching tees~
The accessories floor -- Didn't take many pictures last night:
Chipmunk loves fresh&hot cheese naan...
This paht bing su (shaved ice + ice cream dessert w/ fruit + red bean + mochi) is made for 2 ppl but 4 shared.
The coffee cake (Julie loves coffee) we picked up @ Tous Les Jours.
With the birthday girl

The last time I'm going to see my main competition in Korean beginner's class
kk we had fun.







Street food! It was delicious - marinated skinless chicken alternated with green onions... but I asked him if it was "mewoyo" (spicy) and he said "ahn mewoyo" (not spicy). Pssh to him it wasn't spicy -- I could barely finish it.
Going to pack and then go shopping~
Tonight's farewell party.... will be great.

Quiet Week

I'm back! Midterms are over (for most... I heard a professor didn't even show up for my friend's Investments course so it was rescheduled to next Tuesday!). I like studying, I very much dislike exams.

Whenever I pass this vending machine, there are always at least 4 people in line - even more during exam season! Why?? It sells coffee!
I'm sure we have this back at home but it's definitely not as popular (or as cheap) as it is here. They have many different kinds, all for 100won per cup (10 cents CDN). My classmates always pick the one with cream and sugar in it.
It actually tastes really really good. Only thing, is that you need more than 4 of these cups for the caffeine to kick in.The school ajumma-gardeners planted a ton of beautiful and vibrant flowers all over campus! I took this when I left the LG-Posco business building after my last midterm. Now all we need to do is wait for the grass to grow!
Anyway, now it's time for some fun and relaxation. How do you de-stress? Two words: Retail Therapy. I went on a shopping spree yesterday @ Migliore + hello aPm in Dongdaemun: 7 hours of shopping, a couple hundred.5 poorer, and a happy closet with 12 more items!
A cute ad for hello aPm!
So many cute/chic shoes (at the Underground Shopping Mall)... but they never have my size!
We sat outside to rest our feet for 5 minutes and I observed the steady stream of females leaving this tarot cafe!

I ate at the food court at hello aPm (9th floor) for the first time. They deliver the food to your table and take it away when you're done! Love the service. And I love bulgogi soup! Soups always come bubbling hot in these bowls.The weather forecast for this weekend = rain rain rain! Definitely does not make me want to go outside. I was supposed to go to a baseball game today but it was postponed to Sunday because of the rain. I just want to spend a whole day in a jimjilbang and relax!

Laundry Day

Visited Dongdaemun again and this time the other newer buildings (Good Morning City, hello aPM, and Doota!) were open =)
I don't know if it was because it was a Friday (last time we went on a Tuesday), but the vendors weren't as willing to let us bargain as much as last time. When they say "no", they mean no! First, we went to hello aPM which was fairly new and sold some similar items as Migliore. But, to my surprise (and happiness), there were boutiques at the very top floor! There were probably only a handful of people walking around. So many things were on sale -- I got 2 scarves for 5,000won each among quite a few other things heheThen we hopped on over next door to Good Morning City that opened just last month. I can't get over how amazing customer service is in Korea!Everything was really clean. The brightness and emptiness sort of reminded me a lot of Aberdeen Centre in Richmond... not too many people come here either.. which means they're more willing to give you a discount. They have a few open nail salons here too. I got a simple manicure (just colour) that included shaping, a lot of cuticle cutting + oil, lotion-ing, (chocolate) and a hand massage for 7,000won. We had plans for after shopping but didn't end up going due to the giganticness of Dongdaemun's shopping centres... we almost lost track of time and barely caught the last subway train home!

Went to a PC Bang for the first time. A PC Bang (which translates to PC room) is pretty much a room with a bunch of computers in it. You pay 1,000won for 1 hour. It's usually either on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building or underground. When you go in, you pick up a card with a number on it and type that number into the computer.. then the time starts ticking. The guy at the front offers to get you a complimentary coffee or cold drink.
The computer screens are huge and the internet is super fast. A lot of guys come here to play competitive online games that require them to sit in front of the computer for hours on end so the chairs are really comfortable, too.

NEWS: Seems as though I may have gotten a job! It involves teaching English (conversationally) and a cultural exchange with middle school students twice a month (Saturdays). Hopefully it won't conflict with my weekend travel plans, though =S

Migliore 밀리오레

I think I now understand how Seoul is considered a shopper's paradise...

Migliore (which means "better" in Italian), is a chain department store that originated in Korea in 1998. They have about 5 locations in Korea and one in Taipei. The one I visited is the original store in the Dongdaemun district. It basically consists of 4 or 5 floors selling clothes for both males, females, and kids, accessories, bags, shoes, and household items catered towards the young (25yrs and under) crowd by offering the latest fashions at wholesale prices. You have the chance to try on most of the clothes here (if you want) and they do have changing rooms, which is quite rare for Korean malls. A lot of the time, they don't have price tags on their clothes, so you have to ask, while pointing to the item, "olmayeyo?", which means "how much?". You have two methods of payment: credit card (which means you can return/exchange the item), and cash (said 'cash-ee'). If you pay by cash, all the shops knock off 10% automatically except for the shops that sell items for 15,000 won (approx $13CDN) and under. Although I'm sure the SAs have memorized a bunch of prices, it seems as though they raise or lower the price depending on how much they think they can get away with, how much they like you, or how much effort you put in to speak Korean if you're a tourist. You're also allowed to bargain... but the "walk-away" tactic I found so effective in Hong Kong and Taiwan does not work here. They do not call you back and shout out lower prices. A good tip is to ask for a discount. They're quick to punch in a lower number in their calculators. Sometimes, they even let you tell them how much you'd pay!

Even though this is a wholesale department store, do not expect to get all items for dirt cheap. It's easy to tell that Korean clothes are much better quality than the ones sold in HK and Taiwan so the prices are a bit higher than what you'd see there. I bought two coats today. One, a light khaki long windbreaker, was originally 88,000won but we knocked it down to 50,000 because Tiffany bought a coat too, and the other was originally 59,000 and I bargained it down to 45,000won. Quite reasonable and still much cheaper than what you would find in Vancouver (if you were to buy the same thing). The going rate for cardigans and blouses are 35,000won.

Migliore is in between 4 other department stores (but they were under construction).
Doota!
Dongdaemun Shopping Complex
Another interesting thing about this mall is that it opens from 10:30AM to 4:30AM every day (except it's closed on Mondays). Is that not ridiculous?!

The SAs are friendly and always ask if you would like to try clothes on. They help you put on coats and snip off any loose threads. Mens clothing is on the 3rd floor. In the inner shops, only men work as SAs. Tiffany warned me that they would try to do anything in order to get you to buy from them. I had one guy confess his love to me, one tried to guess our ethnicity (but failed horribly), and one tried to pull me back towards their store (isn't that illegal?)... they were all complimentary.
Sometimes, shops put brand-name tags (like Dolce and Gabbana) on the items that are similar to runway styles.OH and sizing -- most of their coats come in 3 sizes (S, M, L), but their "oversized" shirts only come in one size and it fits a M/L. T-shirts and fitted shirts fit a XS/S, cardigans fit M/L. Jean shorts and most skirts are for people with no hips and I don't think they have over a size 3 here though you can find up to a size 31 for jeans elsewhere.I wasn't too fond of the 4th floor because they carried a lot of luxury brand name fakes...This is a short video I took while following Tiffany and walking through the crowds in the mini market on the way to tackle Migliore for the 2nd time. I pass by the street shops, some food vendors, a psychic-type tent, and then enter Migliore's first floor: women's clothing. Warning: it's very shaky so sorry if you get motion sickness...

**

Migliore is overwhelming, crowded, and an absolute maze... but I think it's worth it!

Dinner:
The Hangeng River. This place is quite well known - especially those stepping stones. A romantic spot - a lot of couples visit this area. I might take a Hangeng River cruise on Saturday.
---
It was 16 degrees today!!! Can someone pinch me? I remember just a few days ago I was freezing my tail end off. BUT apparently, the yellow dust is quite heavy right now. I say apparently because I hardly notice it. When I first read about it, I imagined everybody wearing those mouth masks trying to stay indoors as much as possible... even having school cancelled because you couldn't see 5 metres ahead!
I guess it's a bit hazy...
OH yea another lucky thing happened today. I decided last Friday to switch out of Management Accounting to Operations Management because I didn't want to torture myself while abroad (number crunching is not my forte). This new course is a 200-level course (2nd year) at KU but is considered a 400-level course at SFU. The professor is French and she has a strong accent. I was lucky because even though this is the 3rd week, the professor was absent (for some reason) and had only arrived in Seoul 2 days earlier! SO today was technically the first class and I didn't miss anything (though I was prepared to work hard to catch up). The only drawback is that there will be 3 make-up classes off school hours... I hope it doesn't conflict with any of my plans out of town. About 1/5 of the students in this class are international students but I only recognize 3. I wonder how the locals can understand her English...

Chal ja~

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