We visited the Gyeongju national history museum. It was nice, apart from about 300 children who were visiting the museum at the same time. Their method of seeing everything in a timely and efficient manner was baffling. The teacher would lead them in one MASSIVE line around the museum, walking past every artefact. No stoppin allowed. So the kids basically walked in a single line, briskly around the whole exhibition and then left. They couldn't have been at the museum for more than an hour. I doubt they soaked much history or information in. I unfortunately don't have many photos from the exhibition, because no photography allowed. But here's the few we took. The day was cold as balls, by the way. I feel like I need to mention, so all of you freezing Finns don't have to be so jealous of me all the time.
We visited the Anapji Pond. It was pretty rad. There were speakers everywhere in the park that were playing flute music, super loud. George has told me that kissing in public is frowned up on, but I saw a total of two (2) couples kiss in the park. So what I've learned is that flute music makes Korean people mad horny.
Done some shopping. I hope that mini header isn't misleading because the weight is on the word _some_. I've found that everything is really cheap here, and also that I saved a lot more money that I needed for this trip. Whoops x2. But the thing is, I was a student for three years, then followed by being broke for three months, and then followed by saving to come here for seven months. So in conclusion: I have no idea how to spend money. And any money that I do spend, I feel very guilty for, immediately.
So what I've done is, I've paced myself. I'm allowing myself into a new shopping territory every couple of weeks, because man do these shops here have some incredibly cool but unnecessary stuff. Especially cosmetics. God bless this superficial nation. So, so far I haven't bought much, just stuff I've needed: hair accessories, some cosmetics such a shower gel, makeup wipes and contact lens solution (to my disappointment the last one was just regular contact lens solution and not *-_c00l @siAn_-* contact lens solution with apple flavouring and glitter), socks (because I left them all at home) and walking shoes. Here's photos of those.
A fraction of the cute socks I had bought. I thought I had arranged them quite creatively, turns out I had arranged them quite nazi-ly.
Ok so I bought these Nike Free Runs from Busan. I had already planned on buying them a month before I arrived, because Ronya kept flaunting her's around, saying how they were comfy as shit. These shoes in mind, I even took an extra Saturday shift at work so I could justify such an extravagant purchase. The day after I arrived to Korea, George and I proudly marched to the Nike store where the sales person insisted on manually putting my feet in different sized shoes until we found my.. Japanese?.. Asian?.. shoe size. We had this delightful tiny chat:
Him: Have you seen Iron Man 3?
Me: Yes!
Him: Good?
Me: Yes, so good!!
Him: How?!
Me: How did I see it? In Finland!
Him: Ohhh.. Finland. I can't see it.
Me: Why?
Him: Because I study.
Me: Oh.
Him: You get 10% discount.
Hurraah! Success! So I ended up paying 84€ for shoes that in Finland would've been around 120€. Hahahahahaa. And God damn are they comfy.
Other than neccessary purchases, I've allowed myself to buy extravagant snacks. But I'll post about these later, hopefully in a video review form.
Home making. George lived in this flat for four months without knowing that his washing machine is broken. He's just soaked his laundry for 40 minutes in cold water in a broken washing machine and then hung them dry. So I've had to wash my laundry in the bath tub, or in the machine, but stirring the drum with a broom handle. Other complaint: his fridge smelled like rotting cabbage patch kid corpses. Damn you kimchi! So yesterday I emptied the fridge and wiped it with vinegar and then with cleaning chemicals.
Here's the paper crane lamp I made, and the photos George had taped up on the doors before my arrival. The red bird on the left door (MY cupboard door) is a card I got from a girl who works at George's school and to whom we ran into once in town. The next day when George came from work, he brought me a present the girl had given him to give to me. It was lovely makeup bag and this card. Don't worry guise, I've already purchased her a gift in return, and will wrap it this weekend. A beautiful friendship pending.
George comes from a proud and long family of fridge magnet buyers. When I joined his family on a holiday to Scotland, we even bought a magnet from a sight we didn't even visit. Meaning, we drove all the way to the gift shop, bought a magnet, and left. It was the best of times. So, to honour his cultural heritage, we bought these two magnets from the museum. They're "the gentleman" and "the queen". Because.. you know.
Domestic bliss.
Great, seems like you're having fun out there. Love you guys. Daddy-O
ReplyDelete