A Shopping Excursion with Lucy! Also, meeting with Prof. Jina Kim!

So, Lucy (a Brit dancer who also teaches at my school) asked me to go shopping with her to Munjeong-- a nearby shopping district. And, of course I said yes~! There's one street in particular, Rodeo Street, where you can find tons of shops and restaurants. We planned on shopping, then splitting up later because I was meeting Prof. Jina Kim in Jamsil and she had dance practice. So, our adventure starts by catching the 401 bus in front of our school. As you can imagine, it's super convenient having a bus stop right there.

Inside of bus-- best, wicked air con ever~!

Lucy-- kick-ass person

We're arrived in Munjeong!

ASSA~!  (YAY~!)

Classic Korean 'Heart' pose

View down a street in Munjeong-- yappari, a lot of clothing signage

First order of business before the serious shopping begins-- lunch. We walked down a couple of alleys before we decided to eat a small Korean place.

banchan-- red: kimchi, yellow: pickled radish, brown: fish cake

Lucy ordered my personal fav-- kimchi jjigae (5,000 won)

I ordered don kass- fried pork cutlet  YUM~!

My meal came with some pickled radish, real pickles, and cole slaw with honeydew melon dressing. It also came with some kind of clear broth soup. Super delicious all for 6,000 won (~$6) LUCKY~!

Me enjoying my soup

Table after we finished eating-- I always feel bad for leaving food, but that was way too much ^^"

Now, our shopping can begin. One store we popped into was a little (EXPENSIVE) boutique named 'Soup'
PERFORMANCE FEMINISM FASHION (?) I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

We only browsed the sale racks. Korea (and most of Asia, really) has only two sizes: small and medium. Unless, you go to Itaewon (foreign town) where everywhere they advertise "Big Size!" But, ah well. I digress.

Lucy got some cute shorts for $20 (CHEAP~!)

Lucy as a mannequin

candid Lucy laughing

Me as a mannequin-- hands... so awkward ^^"

We also hit this hip, trendy store. Although, a similar store in the States might play punk or rock in the background, all Korean clothing stores (at least in my experience) play Korean ballads. No, not even pop music-- slow, 6th-grade mummy-dancing ballads. T_T  There stores need some punch, a little pizazz... a little fucking bass, PLEASE. *o*

Then, we headed over to Dickies to get Lucy a training bag, b-girl style

Success~!

We walked around some more and stepped into some shops, but didn't really find anything. We were, then, on a mission to find some comfy flip-floppy shoes in our size. But, alas and alack... this was not to be so.
Pretty soon, Lucy and I had to part ways to go meet up with other people.

So, I headed back down Rodeo street and onward toward the subway station. To give you an idea of how close Munjeong is to Jangji-dong, you can see Garden 5 tools from here. So, Jangji-dong is just on the other side.

Shot of Garden 5 Tools building

Line 8- Munjeong Station to Jamsil Station

Now, on my way to meet Prof. Jina Kim~! For some reason, I didn't take any pictures when we met up. FAIL~!!!!!!!! (-.-) There's an underground mall at Jamsil station, so after you traverse through there you finally arrive at the various exits. We then walked over to My Lotte, which led us to Kyobo books. We stopped at the little food court and got some green tea ice cream from Haagen-dazs. Super yummy~. I love green tea ice cream!
There, her husband, Brian, and her baby daughter, Ella (so cute!), met up with us and we all walked around together. It was nice. 
Jamsil station/Kyobo is a cool little place-- we went to 'Hot Tracks' where they have tons of stationary and office supplies, then we headed over to Kyobo proper-- the bookstore. It was nice to meet up outside of Smith-- in the "real world," I suppose. But, soon we parted ways.

I took Line 8 (pink line) back to Jangji-dong and, since I was there, decided to pop into Kim's Club to figure out something for dinner.
Garden 5 is really wonderful at night-- when it's dark and all the LED lights come on. Everywhere, parents were playing with their kids. It felt nice and ordinary.
Here are the fountains that have a coordinated color/rhythm show 

Plus, here is a video of the ceiling light show at Garden 5. The camera resolution kinda sucks so you really can't see how colorful and bright it really gets, but it at least gives you an idea. ^.^v

Day Two-- Baby Steps towards an Adventure!

The next morning I woke up at 6 am, for some godforsaken reason. I was starving-- had no food and no idea where to go to get some. Thankfully, I heard music coming from one of the other apartments and knocked on his door. Jeff, a Canadian, told me where a good grocery is located. The place is called Kim's Club at Garden 5. Garden 5 is a new mega-mall that is in the process of opening and is an eight minute walk from the school. Kim's Club is similar to Walmart in that you can find pretty much everything you need there at reasonable/cheap prices.

View of Garden 5 from School Elevator

The buildings themselves debuted in May or June 2010, but more and more stores are continually being worked on and will open later on. There are supposed to be over 8300 stores when it's complete.
So, thus begins my first adventure in Korea.

Starting from the School-- English Building (where my apartment is located--fourth floor)

After crossing the street, I have to follow this red brick road to Garden 5

This is a residential area known as Pine Tree Complex, so the area is really nice and quiet

Center of Residential Area

Wall with traditional Korean art-- perhaps a folk tale

Close Up

 

More path and lamp posts after crossing the residential center

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Gate leading to a playground and exercise area for apartment dwellers

                                                                                              

Playground

Exercise Machines

More Exercise Machines

Another playground

View of the proximity between children's playground and exercise area

The residential walkway leads to a boulevard, across from which is Garden 5

Close up of columns

At the end of the path, past these columns, there are two sculptures on either side of the path

Street sculpture at the end of the path

Close up of rings

Another View

Tri-fold Interactive Street sculpture

Second Side 

Third Side

Finally arrived at Garden 5! You can't cross the 6 lane avenue, so I had to go down into the subway station and go through the other exit to end up at Garden 5

From Garden 5, pictures of the boulevard between Garden 5 and the Pine Tree Complex (Residential Area)

Boulevard

Boulevard

Boulevard

 Different views of Garden 5

Garden 5 is divided into 5 sections: Young, Techno (Electronics), Fashion, Living, and Tools

Layout of Garden 5 sections

Entering Garden 5

Close up of sculpture

Center of Garden 5-- Pavilion with water fountains and places to sit and gather

EPIC FAILURE: Kim's Club didn't open until 10:30 am. I arrived at around 8:30. ^.^"
So, went into one of the buildings under construction to get something to drink.

Vitamin Water in Korea!

Well, had to wait for Kim's Club to open so I decided to explore the area a bit.

As soon as you leave the upper level of Garden 5 and go onto the street (as opposed to going towards the subway station), you can see this.

Yet another sculpture

 AND

And another-- Korea is crazy about street art

Placard about metal artwork

 Walked around some more and come across a very picturesque trellis(?) or gate

Gate leading to down to stream

A sign in Korean-- have no idea what it says

Found some wooden steps leading down to the waterway

Lamp post with speakers

 A lot of (old) people were exercising by walking up and down these paths. These lamp posts, located every ten feet or so from each other, had speakers which played classical/opera music. I suppose to inspire energetic exercise.

Close up of lamp post-- very steam punk

Close up of waterway and stepping stones

Bridge

Bubbling Stream

Some kind of park across the road-- have no idea

Stepping stones at end of path

Wooden steps leading me back up on the other side

Bridge next to the highway's sound barrier

 Then I went back to Kim's Club.