putting the knit in shizknitz

I think I caught something on my final days in Europe. I knew I felt strange in Heathrow and the few days I was at home didn’t help either considering I didn’t get much sleep. I’ve been a bit under the weather to say the least and thus haven’t had much energy to post. After taking some Korean medicine yesterday and downing this drink all the old people were drinking, I’m starting to feel a little better, thank god.

Day 1 consisted of travel to Seoul and Dongdaemoon for some crazy shopping. But before we went off to shop, my dear friend Kate took us to this amazing 5 layer fat pork Korean BBQ place… it was amazing. Makes Manna back home look like child’s play. We take our shoes off at the entrance and sit on the floor (poor T and his inflexibility) and they have these long snout-like metal things they pull down to vent all the smoke. No messing around here. Its all pork, dukmandoo, kimchee and other mushrooms that are grilled on this huge, iron grill that has had years and layers of tasty goodness cooked on them. You wrap in many different kinds of leaves, some I haven’t seen before and the cooked kimchee was amazing. At the end, they cut up the remaining kimchee, and add rice, egg and dried seaweed to complete kimchee fried rice… OMG!

After, we took the subway (thank god for my Europe experience which helped with navigating this system) to Dongdaemoon which is a serious shopping area, again, the faint hearted need not apply.  The clothes here are CHEAP, stylish and better quality than Zara.  Most things can be negotiated, and Kate taught me how to say “Ka Ka Juseyo” (give me a discount) and that girl is amazing - if she doesn’t get a discount, she’ll make sure they throw in something for free.  I have to learn this technique before I go home.  The stores are in mall like fashion, grouped into categories on different floors.  Its a little too bad I’m about double the size of the average Korean woman because they do have some really cute clothes.  We bought T some new outfits, I hope he wears when we get home.  These malls are open until 5 AM, and open at 10 AM.  I wish they existed back home.  We got home around 2 AM (after our 6 PM flight) absolutely exhausted.