What an adventurous day! I love this city! It's like New York, but cleaner, friendlier, safer, and more colorful!

This morning I went on a little adventure to find a Daiso. It's kind of like a Japanese dollar store, where they have a ton of stuff for the home like dishes and pots, and also cleaning supplies, stationary, nick-nacks. And it's much better than an American dollar store because you can actually use the stuff in this store! It's not just a bunch of random plastic things you really have to use for. I wasn't sure where it was exactly, but I remember Tim showing me one on the bus ride home yesterday, so I went on a little adventure. I never found the one Tim showed me, but I did wind up finding one. I wound up getting off the bus way too early, so I was just wandering around for probably 20 minutes before I found it. This place has a tons of stuff, and it's all really cheap. I spent about ₩25,500 (which is about $22 USD) and I got all this stuff!

Then I came back home and decided to pick up a few more things from a local store called the Everything Store (which is cheaper that the supermarket Home Plus, but more expensive than Daiso, but they had a lot of things that Daiso didn't) and I also did a little grocery shopping. The groceries were a little expensive, but that's because I had to buy the essentials, you know, the things that are expensive at first but last a long time, oils and sauces and what not.

After I got done shopping I cam home and put everything away and rearranged my room because I didn't like how it was set up. And after all that, it was still only 1:30pm! So I mulled about for a while at home, then around 3:00pm I decided that I wanted to go somewhere. There is an area called Itaewon, which is really popular amongst foreigners because they have a lot of clothing stores there, and food places that are more westernized. Unfortunately for me, the website with the Seoul Transit Planner doesn't work on my Mac :( So I had to use GoogleMaps and hope for the best. For some reason I decided not to go to Itaewon, I think because the subway let off a little far away and I was afraid I would get lost. So instead I decided to go to Myeongdong, which is another really popular shopping area. On the bus I went, and then to my first subway ride! All of the signs were in English which is helpful, but if you don't look carefully at the map, and you don't know what the other stops in the direction you are going are, you might wind up going the wrong direction. Luckily for me there was a little old man working for the subway system, and he showed me which was to go. Then on the subway, there are electronic signs that tell you what the next stop is. It was only about a 20 minute subway ride which was nice, since GoogleMaps told me it would be an hour.

I don't know if I can totally describe the scene in Myeongdong. There are multple streets set up on a grid, and on the sides of the streets are shops within buildings, with neon lights. There are a lot of Western shops, American Apparel for example. There is also a Forever 21, my favorite store ever! I didn't go in though because it was crowded. There are people everywhere. It's like New York, on a busy day. In the middle of these streets are the street vendors, kind of like in Soho, and their selling things form watches to purses to socks to kids toys. There are also many good vendors. I didn't know what any of the stuff was, but I decided to try some sort of meat on a stick thing that I saw a lot of people eating. It was pretty good, hopefully it wasn't dog or anything.

*Side note: yes, they do eat dog here. There is a Dog Soup place near Tim's apartment, and he has already threated to take me in there unsuspectingly and not tell me what I'm eating. I should learn the word for dog before I go out with him again.

As the sun set everything got colorful, but still crowded. I did a little shopping for myself. I think you can haggle with the vendors, but 1. I am horrible at that, 2. I am horrible at it in English, so Korean would just be terrible. I did browse though, and I know how to ask "how much is it" in Korean, and luckily they could answer me in English. I got a watch, earrings, a super super super cute new wallet, and I stopped in at the Mac store (which for some odd reason is call Frisbee here). I walked around for quite a while, looking at the different vendors, I even got Starbucks.

Then back home on the subway. The subway is strange because by the time you get into/out of the station, you're bearings are completely thrown off, and you have no idea which direction you should be heading. Luckily though, in the stations they have a neighborhood map, and it will tell you what direction you will be going in depending on which exit you go out off. So I got off at the Mia station, so that I could stop by Daiso again on the way and pick up a few more things I realized I needed. I got some cute slippers for in my apartment (you don't wear your shoes in your home, but you can wear these slippers inside). Then I walked up to Suyu Station and caught the bus back home. It was really quite simply, and I did it all by myself.

*Side note 2: have you ever wondered if there are Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea? Well there are! I got hit up by two on the way home. They were extremely friendly though, and not pushy like the ones in America. They simply gave me a booklet to read, and their phone number in case I had any questions. It was kind of funny really.