The End of Week 1

So, it's been a week since I got here. And what a week. Obviously its been really busy here. I've been learning a lot about teaching english to various age groups, and have been around a few different places. So far my touristing has led me to a few fairly interesting shopping places. Places I'm sure any girls reading this would be hugely jealous of me visiting.

I'll start with the Lotte's. There is a Lotte Mart and Lotte Department. These are two different places owned by the same people and one is bigger than the other. These are "malls" which are actually more like Duty Free in Auckland: Multi-story, all kinds of products, but instead of having just the best, they simply have... everything. Not in a tacky or overly cheap kind of way, but in a nicely presented shopping experience. I could go on, but you really have to see it for yourself. It is consumerism at its finest. That's a good way to describe what it's like being in there with hundreds, if not thousands of other people spread across 10 or so floors.

So I've been grocery shopping (very similar to NZ) and mart shopping (entirely different and rather like a cross between grocery shopping, rugby, and being assaulted by old ladies - just kidding, she only jabbed me in the ribs once). It was a good experience all up though.

The above are views from inside one of the Lotte's

 

I have one real story for you. I decided to catch the train to TechnoMart. I wasn't 100% sure this place actually existed because Dad and Sharon hadn't heard of it, but it did. And what's more is that I decided I was going to do this trip... solo. That's right! This guy here doesn't understand a word of Korean, and has been in the country at that point for about 5 days, and is going to attempt a cross city journey on his own. Like a lone wolf, so to speak... ok ok, I may be exaggerating a little. I had an app on my phone with the train routes and luckily most main Korean signs have an English translation as well... Anyway the point is I could have gotten seriously lost trying to catch 3 trains there and 3 trains back! Ok? ok. Oh, and on the way I met my first foreigner! He was this young guy of Korean descent that couldn't speak Korean since he'd been born and raised outside of Korea I think! but he was trying to get to Gangnam and aksed me for help since I was looking so confident on one of my transfers. Luckily I was actually quite confident at that point and helped him along. How's thaaaaaatt? Oh, and the country where he was from? New Zealand! That's right, he was a Kiwi and used to work in Auckland as a ******* (blur for privacy). Anyway this was his first day and it was ridiculous that the first foreigner I met was a kiwi. It was also ridiculous that I was able to help him get to Gangnam considering how crazy the train system here is.

So TechnoMart. What a crazy place. For some reason when I was there it was nearly empty of customers, which was a bit surprising. I found out a few prices of things I might like to buy, or that friends had asked me to find out for. So here we go: Sony NEX-5ND is about NZ$750, Galaxy Tab 16GB is about $650, and an Asus Zenbook is $1300. So about the same as home but in most cases a little bit cheaper. Try looking up stuff on Korean website Naver - it's like google and I've seen things for even cheaper there. This place was also 10 floors tall, and had 3 floors of cameras, 2 of cell phones, and 3 of PC's and 1 of gaming. Followed by I think a cinema on the top floor. It was epic. Each floor spanned about the a medium sized warehouse in floor space, and each camera "store" was much like a vodafone stall you see in a mall back home. Except there are possibly hundreds of them. So that was fun.

This is a picture of Manuka Honey, from NZ. It is 78,000Won here. That's about $80 a pot. I Should have brought some.

What else have I seen... pretty girls... yeah yeah... food... yeah yeah... - oh, the potatoes here, for some reason Koreans like sweetening that sh*t up. Potatoes, potato chips, just imagine what it would normally taste like then add sweetner...not exactly what I'm used to... what else... oh, the toilets here: beware. I have heard that there are hole-in-the-ground loo's, which I have yet to see, but also in the department stores bewaaaaaaare: electronic bideeeeee's (water jets that clean your *whistle here*) you may not have to use it, but then finding the flusher is a freaking mission, all those buttons to push to clean your what-what? yet none to flush?? Anyway, I couldn't see it the first few times and just left in a hurry, but there is usually a silver button on the wall, in a fairly obvious and normal place, which will do the job. Now that the exciting toilets are out of the way, there are the normal toilets, which are surprisingly different, and yes, I am devoting an entire paragraph to toilets, please read on. So normal toilets are slightly different to what you'd expect. For starters they've got a lot more water in the bowl, which makes splash-back a rather terrifying reality, and then there is the flushing itself.. now I'm not so sure about the direction, but I can tell you it's quieter than what we're used to at home. There seems to be an extra hole in the bottom of the bowl which has a jet of water coming out of it at a certain moment when everything goes down. So you flush and for a few moments nothing actually happens, or it seems to all happen in slow-mo. It fills up then just gets sucked down. It's quite unique. Ok, sorry if you're reading during lunch, I'm sure you feel misled because this paragraph started with pretty girls and potato chips.

Oh, the above. The above was just me scratching the tip of the iceberg I think. I've seen big things, but I feel the biggest things are yet to come. Today, today I saw something that blew me away just as much as all those tall buildings did. And it was Myeongdong... I think that's how it's spelt.

Imagine, if you will... a street the length of lower Queen Street in Auckland, though about half as wide, a one way street but filled, and I mean filled at all times, with people. Now imagine that filled with stores on both sides, on all levels (at most 5 floors), big ones, small ones - many many small ones; most selling clothes, others selling trinkets, stationary, phone covers, many selling food, coffee etc. So basically a big fashion oriented district. Now imagine down the middle a constant row of wagons, wagons selling mostly knock-offs, original stuff, belts, food, t-shirts, phone covers - so so many phone cover places, and not that many models of phone to stick them on - and other such things, all the way down to the end. To be honest with you I'm not even sure how long this place was because I literally could not see the end of it. Now you think that's amazing right? Ok, now this is where your mind will get blown: Imagine that kind of thing going in every direction for five blocks, all side streets, all turns, all parallels, just shops. Just shops and wagons everywhere. The picture I took doesn't do it justice.

So in summary, I think that shopping district might have been a big chunk of iceberg. That was something I didn't expect at all and it was something that blew my mind. I also found a really nice coat which I will go back and buy one day. Also, oddly just outside of that shopping district, more shops, in market form and full of knock-offs. Also spread over quite a large area though really only a quarter of the size.

Well, I think that's about it for me today. I hope you enjoyed the catch up. Missing my mates and family a bit tonight.

Also I'm realising there are some things which I still have yet to experience, such as the night life and the history, and other touristy things. Should be more interesting reading I'm sure.

Peace