"Made in Korea, Very Good!"

Careful, this could be your Christmas present!

Thanksgiving was just any other day for me. I was so busy, that if it weren't for the Thanksgiving lessons I was teaching, I would have forgotten all about it being Thanksgiving. I was so tired at the end of the day and still pretty sick (another cold), I just grabbed a couple rolls of kimbap from downstairs. That was my Thanksgiving meal. I also passed out quite early.

Friday was a nice elementary school holiday, so K and I went to explore the Gwangjang Vintage clothing market. The street level of the market is full of Korean street food vendors and various other food and wedding textile stalls. Apparently, the Korean food is pretty famous in this market, but K and I took one look at the various intestines oozing out of bowls and pigs feet hanging from some of the stalls along with mounds of blood sausage and decided to pass on lunch, especially after passing the fish stalls. The street level opens up in the middle to a cross roads. Here there are a couple of buildings that look like old brick factories. One side is marked Hanbok (traditional Korean wear used for weddings) and the other side is marked textile. We stalked a few people before we decided that the vintage market was in the textile portion--we were right. We were not prepared for the sight that met us, though! Tiny, narrow pathways lead through a maze of vintage sweaters, jackets, jeans, shoes, and bags of various fabrics (leather, cashmere, wool, flannel, jersey, cotton) mostly dating back from the 80s and the 90s. It brought back many memories of "Full House" and "Growing Pains." It was quite an overwhelming experience.

Gwangjang Vintage Clothing market

Saturday, I continued shopping with M, who was in need of winter wear and an external hard drive. We made our way to Yongsan, where there is a huge technology mall with apparently very discounted items--not for external hard drives. We wandered a bit, gave up, and went to Dongdaemun for winter clothes. This is a maze of proudly sported clothes Made in Korea. Here the country pride shows clearly as vendors show off various Abercrombie and Fitch sweater knock-offs for 40,000 won. The clothing is quite poor quality most of the time (but sometimes no worse that what is found in America these days) and can be quite expensive (unless you can haggle the vendors down). The vendors love to say "MADE IN KOREA, VERY GOOD!" And you kind of want to say "Where is the shit made in Indonesia, it's cheaper and just as good of quality." But M did get some good deals on a coat and some sweaters, so it was a good day. And a bonus about Korea is that you never have to worry about it being a man's or woman's outfit, because every thing is pretty much unisex (unless of course it is skirt or dress).

An uncommonly spacious isle at a Dongdaemun store

We then headed to Myeongdong, the classy shopping area. It was packed with Christmas shoppers and the stores had pretty good Christmas deals. We managed to kill four hours shopping in Myeongdong and grabbed a pretty good pizza meal. All, in all, a pretty nice and exhausting weekend!