one shipment of household goods arrived (1 of 2). this shipment had things like our microwave, more clothes, kitchen utensils, mixing bowls, golf clubs, etc. we were like two kindergarteners on christmas morning unpacking and rediscovering all of our stuff. i've never been so happy to see a wooden spoon. our kitchen (until this past week) has been mostly comprised of plastic plates, plastic bowls, and plastic forks/spoons/knives. luckily, my cousin kyung jin, bought peter two sets of wood chopsticks, which came in very handy when cooking. it was interesting trying to make a stew with a plastic knife and chopsticks, but we did it somehow.
i also had the joy of going to seomun market with some girlfriends i met at the chaplain's christmas party. they were really fun and helpful. i wanted to get some dishes from the market and jimin and miyeh helped me search. seomun market is gigantic. it has three or four levels and it's really spread out. vendors are everywhere and it looks extremely crammed, but there is a method to all the madness. jimin and miyeh would just grab my arm and walk determinedly through the crowds of people to find this one particular stand to buy this particular fabric/pillow/etc. anyway, they helped me haggle the price down with the lady who sold me my dishes (which are just beautiful, by the way) as well as haggle the price down with the pillows i bought for the floor. these pillows are called bangsuks, which are square pillows you use to sit on the floor since most koreans eat while sitting on the floor. i found these simple, purple pillows (which turned out to be a kind of strange shade of pink once they delivered them to our apartment...bummer).
it was all very interesting and helpful to learn from them. i am not accustomed to haggling and koreans have this whole rigmarole for getting the best price. just to show you how naive i am, i imagined just going to a vendor, asking them the price, and then saying, "could you give me a discount?" in my imagination, the vendor would say, "sure! how about I take off 1,000 won?" then I would smile happily and say "deal!" ok. now that's how i imagined the haggling went but it really goes more like this:
BUYER: "excuse me, ma'am. how much is this plate?" LADY:"oh, it's 10,000 won." BUYER: "Oh, that's kind of expensive. Could you take off 2,000 won?" LADY: "Are you kidding me? This is a really expensive material. I can't take off 2,000 won or i won't make any profit." BUYER: "Oh please. I will buy 5 of them if you reduce the price." LADY: "If I give you a discount, I won't make any profit. I can't do it." BUYER: "Please, help me out. Please, please. Just a little discount." LADY: "Nope. Can't do it. I'm firm on my price." BUYER: Please, please, please! LADY: This is some of the best material out there. Everywhere else the price is more. BUYER: I see here that the dish looks like the paint might chip a little. It doesn't look that expensive to me. Please, ma'am. I will buy 6 plates for a tiny, tiny discount. What do you say? LADY: (with an expression of annoyance) Oh my goodness. Fine, I'll give you a discount, but only 1,000 won." BUYER: "Oh thank you."
Now, just typing that scenario out was pretty exhausting. I'm not sure I'm cut out for haggling. I prefer the former method. : )
Lastly, peter & i went to osan air force base this past weekend. osan is about 1.5 hours south of seoul. we went because peter had to attend some ceremonies for a captain who was retiring from the army. meanwhile, we thought we'd make a weekend out of it and stay in osan at the hotel and go shopping. osan air force base has the biggest and nicest PX on the peninsula so we had a little shopping list of things to buy. We went off-post as well and went into various street vendor shops. it was kind of strange walking through the streets alongside so many other americans. the whole main street outside of the military post was just covered in shops catered toward the military and their families. it was a little strange....kind of like going to germany at the epcot center...it looks like germany, but you know you're still on disney world's property.
and now, peter and i are enjoying a couple days off from work and just enjoying some low key time, settling into our apartment, enjoying our newly arrived stuff, including our dishes (did i mention how beautiful they are?) and of course, each other. we love you and miss you all!
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