After breakfast we headed over to the subway, which happens to have it's own little shopping area that I always get suckered into looking at. I ended up buying something and the man running the store offered me coffee. I don't drink coffee, but I didn't want to refuse, so I said "Nay, kamsamnida" which means "yes, thank you!" I waited for about 3 minutes for the water to boil, and ended up giving the coffee to Kevin, who never refuses a cup of it!
We then headed over to see the famous Bongeunsa Buddist Temple, which was built in 794! It currently has over 200,000 lay members and numerous monks. We walked the grounds and even went into the prayer room. It was huge inside, with tall ceilings, beautiful intricately painted walls and ceilings, old wood floors, gold statues, candles everywhere, and hundreds of flowers! We grabbed a red mat and sat in the back, taking in the experience. There were about 40 men and women in there, praying, and reading the Buddhist scriptures on their individual mats. It was refreshingly calm and quiet.... until we left! Leave it to me to close the door behind me and have one of the handles slam against the door, making an embarrassingly loud "bang!" That was not one of my proudest moments!!
After the Temple we headed over to COAX mall, the largest underground shopping mall in the world! They weren't messing around when they built this thing! It's the size of 2 South Coast Plaza's or 2 Scottsdale Fashion Squares! We walked around, gawking at the shoppers and their amazing fashion... and when I say gawking, I mean literally gawking! I felt like I was in an episode of GOSSIP GIRL! While we were walking through the mall, we stumbled across a map of the mall, which happened to be a "touch screen, digital map!" You could legitimately touch the screen to find the store you were looking for. The technology is incredible!
While walking around Korea, we randomly see things that are written in English, but are just a tad bit off! They are so funny!
One of my favorite things I've learned about Korean culture is that boyfriends and husbands carry their girlfriend and wife's purses for them! I took this picture today to prove it!
Kevin, being the wonderful husband that he is, actually held my purse for a little bit in the COAX mall! I think he felt really funny, be he is all about doing as the natives do, which of course was in my favor this time!!! As a little side note story. We stopped in one of the restaurants in the mall, to buy me a diet coke, since I'm addicted! When the lady handed me the coke, she also handed me 4 packages of ketchup. How funny is that?! After we had enough of COAX, we headed over to Dongdaemun Market, a gigantic outdoor market, which is a mix between the OC Swap meet and the garment district in LA! If I didn't have to pack everything to go over to PUSAN, I would have bought everything I saw! I did get some adorable brown leather boots! I haggled my way down from 150,000 WON to 45,000 WON! I'm an expert, what can I say!
I'm currently sitting on my bed in the hostel typing away while Kevin is playing pool downstairs in the hostel bar! We were planning on going out tonight, but it's freezing and I just downloaded last night's episode of The Bachelor on ITUNES and can't wait to see it! Looks like it's P.J. time!
Anyakeysayo!
Jill