I think I've gotten my very first 'working with children' cold. Boo. It's honestly not that bad, but it's a bit annoying. Either that, or I may be allergic to some strange Korean thing. Every now and again the news will mention 'yellow dust' floating in from China- some sort of smog/sand combination, by the sound of it. Sounds like something out of a cheesy sci fi novel. Either way, it's nothing lots of fluids and vitamin C won't fix.
So! Yesterday, I headed into Seoul, with the goal of hitting up the Yongsan electronics market. I'd heard about it in passing, so I figured I'd check it out. I had visions of cheap hardware, bootleg kung fu DVD's, and all sorts of other interesting buisness.
Unfortunately, I never made it. Rather, I made it to a electronics market, but not the electronics market. Pity! I don't feel too bad about it, however- as when I talked to some other expats about it, I learned that the cool stuff is pretty hard to find. You have to know the exact subway exit to take- and I also think there may be a tunnel involved.
In any case, I wound up in the Yongsan mall instead! And really, I suppose meandering around a shopping mall is a pretty Korean thing to do- can't be all museums, right? The mall itself was pretty big- seven floors, though said things were rather compact. There was some sort of courtyard thing in the middle, too.
Note the stage. It'll come up later.
What made me think I'd found the electronics market was a big wing of the store- one floor was computers, one was TV's, cameras, etc. The video game floor was near the top- and a little anemic, but eh. Didn't see anything I probably couldn't pick up in the US. Not like I need any video games at the moment, right? They also had something called an 'Electronic Games Arena' at the very top floor. It was closed, but I'm assuming that's where they do the pro Starcraft matches that're always on TV.
There was a music floor- with stereo systems and musical instruments...which is where I found the following guitars on display. The stars & bars Gibson (or, Gibson-knockoff, most likely) is wonderfully incongruous. In a similar note, one of the Korean teachers at my school has a sweatshirt with a big picture of the Eagle Scout badge on it. When I asked her about it, she had no idea what it meant. Go fig! I suppose it's pretty much the same as American kids wearing T-shirts or getting tattoos of random Chinese/Japanese lettering on them. I don't think I've ever seen hangul in such a context, though. Guess it just doesn't look as cool.
I think the highlight of the mall meandering was finding, of all things, an official Gundam store. Sweet. I have a talent for sniffing out the nerdiest possible thing in any given location.
For the less nerdy amongst my readership (all, like, twelve of you), Gundams are basically robots from a certain group Japanese giant robot anime shows. And apparently, they make official kits of EVERY ONE. They've got a staggering array of stuff- everything from little small-scale kits to big fancy-pants things that go for like a hundred bucks a pop. Madness. They also had some other anime-ish figurines, and even lego kits- but again, gundams are the highlight. I could identify...uh, maybe a third of what they had on display. Craaazy.
I picked up one of the small-scale kits for six bucks- because why not? Transformers seem to be pretty hard to find here (and the few I have found are just molds from like 5 years ago). As an added bonus, it's also a model from G Gundam, which is the best Gundam ever. Kung fu fighting giant robots!
So we'll see how it goes- I don't think I'll wind up with (another) army of robot-men to bring back home, but it might be a fun thing to fiddle around with. It might be not productive, but it's productive...enough, as another expat put it. Something different from staring at a computer screen or the TV set, y'know?
I left the mall for a little bit- which was kind of surprising, as the mall itself is pretty yuppie (or the Korean equivalent), but the immediately surrounding area...isn't. Not quite scuzzy, but definitely a change. Managed to find a little beer & chicken place to have a drink (as the smoggy air had me rather parched). I think I may have confused the people as I just wanted beer and not chicken (it was the closest thing to a bar I could find), but eh.
As I returned to the mall, I noticed a big gathering at the central stage. It looked like I missed the good part, too. There were some guys, and a whole mess of girls in the audience, and it looked like they were doing signatures. Now, just WHY these guys are so popular, and why the women wanted their signatures, I couldn't say. K-drama stars, perhaps? Musicians? Or maybe they starred in the Korean equivalent to Twilight. Who knows?
After snapping said picture, I headed down to the train station- and as soon as I was about to get on the train, I saw a map that told how to get to the REAL electronics market. Do'h! Ah well. I'd already spent my money on the ticket, so off I went. Not like I can't go looking for it again, right? If I REALLY wanted, I could even go today- but I gotta work tomorrow, and Sundays are lazy for me.
I finished the evening with some socializing and a few pints at Craftworks (happy birthday Carolyn!) and then brought it in early. Again, I didn't want to party ALL night, as there's the whole matter of the train ride home- and the fact the trains stop at midnight! Last thing I'd want is to get stuck in some random neighborhood late at night.
Even if it WOULD be a bit of an adventure. I'd probably see about finding a PC bang or something and waiting out the night there. Which, again, may make for an interesting blog posting of its own!
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