Shopping, in Seoul and at the Beach

Got up at 7:30. Sorted my fabrics to be washed into three piles - dark, medium, and light. I washed, dried and ironed the medium load. I was going to leave the ironing until after I did my shopping, but my gut told me to stay close to home. By 2:30 I figured I was ok. It was a little late for going to Dongdaemun, but today was our warmest day, and it is supposed to be colder tomorrow. So I drove to gate 17, and took the subway to D. Told Mr. Kang he could come back in June. I think he understood. Got lots of fabric for quilt backings. The selection of florals was abysmal. Lots of tone-on-tone and geometrics. Took the subway back to Ichon. Exit three was open, so I went to my favorite kimchi stand. It was the busiest I had ever seen them. An unending line of Korean women lining up to get supper on a styrofoam tray. When I got tired of waiting to be waited on, I announced that I wanted kimchi and she bagged it for me. But then I had to wait to pay. Tip: don't go to the kimchi stand around suppertime. I walked back in exit 3. Normally I would walk out exit two, but it is closed for renovations. I didn't want to pay subway fare just to cross to the other end of the station. The guard seemed to understand, so he let me through the handicap gate. But when I reached the other side, that guard wanted me to crawl under the turnstyle. Ha! With two bags of fabric, 2 kilos of kimchi and my purse? No way. A young Korean woman who spoke English stopped to help. Then another guard let me through that handicap gate. So I found my way back to post. Drove to the parking lot, carried my loot over the pedestrian bridge, back to the apt. Chris arrived soon after. We left at 6 to go to the movie TRON. Just got back.

Tuesday Feb. 8th
The rooster started crowing before dawn. We got up and took cold showers. Michele's sunburn hurt so bad that she didn't want to move, but Chris talked her into going with us to breakfast. She hardly ate anything. I had my usual four eggs, and chicken and salad. I felt bad for Michele. Back at the room, we decided to go to the market (as opposed to the beach). Michele elected to stay in the room. Instead of a bra, I wore one of my wraps folded in half diagonally and tied around me like a halter top. We took the 9:40 shuttle to D-Mart. This time when we got to the beach, we turned right instead of left. I saw a shop selling fresh fruit drinks and I bought 2 mangoes from them, thinking that now the hotel restaurant has no excuse for not making me a mango salad. A little later on, we found another shop selling hand-dyed wraps. I bought 5 more. The walkable part of the beach ended shortly after that, so we turned around. On the way back, I bought 6 colored shell headbands and met the lady who makes them. Then we passed a bungee jump/trampoline stand. I REALLY wanted to try it, but Chris pointed out that I wasn't wearing a bra and that could be a problem. Then we found seats on the beach. In order to sit there, we had to buy drinks. So I got a coconut icee and Chris got a chocolate shake. From there I walked into the water. It was perfect! The water was clear and shallow and the waves were small and gentle. The sand was soft and smooth - no shells or rocks. And NO jellyfish! Too bad I wasn't wearing a bathing suit. Chris helped two women get a pic of themselves by the ocean. We walked back in time to catch the noon shuttle. Michele wasn't feeling any better. We watched TV for a bit, and then Chris and I went for a walk down our street. I thought the map showed that we could walk to the convention center that way. But when we got to the end of the street, there was a cul-de-sac, and only a set of steps. The workers wouldn't let us go up the steps. What were they trying to hide? We had to turn around. We stopped in our room to get my sunhat, then walked out the front gate of the hotel complex. The guard wanted us to take a conveyance (either a shuttle or a manned motorcycle), but we insisted on walking. We turned left to see what was down that side of the road. We passed two roadside stands. We kept going even though it was hot. We passed what looked like another hotel, but unfinished. It was staff quarters for our hotel, I think. We came to a fork in the road. A hand-painted sign pointed to the right announcing a bat cave and a crystal cave. Being unsure if they were reputable places, we turned around and went back. In the lobby Chris came up with a plan. Lets go into town on the 3:40 shuttle and have an early supper, so we can go to bed early, and get up for the beach while it is still cool. That was great with me, and Michele agreed. She and I wore our bathing suits and covered our shoulders with wraps. We ate in town at the Hobbit house. They claimed to have the world's shortest waitstaff. There was a cat under one table when we walked in. By the time we finished, there were 5 cats, begging food from patrons. The food was good. They didn't have the prawns I ordered, so I got calamari instead. There were some really hot peppers in there.
Afterwards we walked to the beach. I got to walk through the water a bit, then we headed back for the shuttle. Its engine quit, and several people had to push it to get it started. The driver drove like crazy to get back before it quit again. Back at the hotel, Michele took a quick dip in the pool, then watched our stuff while Chris and I took a swim. The cool water felt good on our burnt skin. The sun had set, so it was ok. We dried off and went to our room and dressed for bed. Then realized that it was only 6:45pm. Naturally they watched TV for awhile, while I wrote down the day's events.