Samsung Plaza

As pathetic and ridiculous as it may seem, until yesterday I had not yet been to Samsung Plaza. Little did I know, this rich blooded Korean shopping center is only maybe 5 subway stops away. The thing about living in Korea amongst all of these upper, upper, UPPER crust shopping centers is that I have come to realize that Koreans are loaded and Americans are poor, sad, and pathetic people. Koreans must buy 90% of all Chanel, Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton sold on the face of this planet. And they do so with ease. Everywhere you look in Korea, there is a Starbucks and an ultra rich shopping center with Koreans buying up luxury goods like they are going out of style.

In case you are in the market for $2,000 handbags and $50 mascara, scoot on down to Samsung Plaza located conveniently on the Bundang line right above Seohyeon Station.

COEX Mania!

After my dentist appointment on Saturday morning, I thought "To hell with it!" And so I went ahead and hopped on the subway alone for an afternoon of exploring around the COEX mall. The mall is the largest shopping mall in Korea and is connected directly to the Samseong Station and above is the Korean World Trade Center and a huge convention center. The mall also contains a huge aquarium, the Kimchi Field Museum, and a huge 16-screen Multi-Plex Movie Theatre.

After riding a super crowded subway for 45 minutes standing up the whole way, my little sniffly nose had turned into a sneezing, coughing mess so I knew my day of fun was pretty limited. Luckily, the whole thing is indoors and underground so I didn't even have to bear any cold weather! Ha ha!

Most Koreans here wear face masks when they get sick to guard others from their illness. Since I was completely and obviously ill, I felt kind of bad and deserving of the dirty looks I would receive while blowing my nose or sneezing. Eh. I don't feel whole to blame for getting sick, seeing as most Koreans (including adults) never wash thier hands after going to the restrooms, spit all over the place, and insist on having every door and window in the building open, even though it is negative degrees outside. And I work with thier germy little kids. Should I be wholey to blame? I am going to go with NO!

So anyway, I did some things to cheer me up while there! I ate a really good hamburger at CRAZE BURGER. Sooo good! I had heard about the place online so I decided to go for it. The little restaurant was all filled up so I decided to get my order To-Go thinking that I could head up to the food court and eat it there. Well, I got to the food court and it was under construction so I had no other option besides eat the burger while sitting on a bench. Apparently Koreans don't eat on benches cause I was attracting lots of looks. Maybe the burger just looked delicious and they wanted one?

There are some really awesome stationary shops there that I was just going crazy over. Everything they carry is super cute and amazing and I had to resist buying the whole store out. I did, however, pick up a super sweet DIY Lego Calender. How cool is that? And, I found the Kinki Robot kiosk while there and picked up a Tokidoki Cactus Pup and a few more of the adorable zipper pulls that I love so much.

Did I mention the Hello Kitty Chuck Taylor style shoes that I picked up at the Sanrio store? Score!!! So perfectly adorable and only 13,000 won!

One of the cute zipper pull guys I got. Isn't he cute?!

The sweet box for my Tokidoki Cactus Pup. I swear, I am worse than a kid when it comes to toys!

The best stickers I think I have ever got! These little googly eyed guys can make pretty much anything adorable.

I had to use the cutest ones on my Nintendo DS. Adorable!

Um, I found this at a children's toy store and was thinking "WTF!?"
Drug Freak?! Obviously the kid who is carrying this around has to be pretty clueless.

A cute card I picked up at one of the fantastic stationary shops at the COEX.

From Japan comes Smery and Friends, the nose plugging guy that closely resembles tofu.

The remainder of my weekend has been spent nursing my cold so that I can be capable of teaching come tomorrow morning. Uh!

Oh Itaewon, how you make me puke....

I don't know if it was the beer, the cheeseburger and fries, or the Coldstone ice cream that came after, but my day in Iteawon ended like a bad hangover. Combine said ingredients with whirlwind rides in a cab and jerky rides in a hot, stuffy subway and voila! You have Sara with a throbbing migrane headache puking on her way home in multiple KTX subway bathrooms. Thankfully, those bathrooms are like shirnes to the god of cleanliness, otherwise it could have been a much more disgusting experience. But still, how humiliating!

Today, I awoke refreshed with only a smidge of a headache left and my memories of yesterday feel kind of blacked out like they would after a night of heavy drinking. Maybe its better that way. My morning has been spent in bed with the new books I bought yesterday in Itaewon. I bought one by David Sedaris, a beat generation book, and one by the lady that wrote the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which has actually been a pretty good read so far. I also bought some real chocolate, which has been eaten in bed all morning long. Pretty much besides the faint headache and bodyaches, I am in bliss!

Reading in bed:)