A Hidden Marketplace, Girl’s Night, and a Lantern Festival

I didn’t investigate the singing Sunday morning, but I did attempt to figure out the washing machine and get some laundry done. All the buttons are in Korean so it wasn’t as simple as just picking cold/warm/hot. I used a guide they gave us in our apartment guide and so far, so good. I don’t think anything shrunk or anything. The annoying thing is that I’m a spoiled American with my reliance on dryers, and they don’t have them here. I’ll get some fabric softer and hope that helps, but for now, my clothes are a wee bit stiff.

That afternoon, my room mate and I went out to find some food, with both our groceries and funds running low, we were looking for a Korean marketplace where it was supposed to be cheaper to buy fruit. When we got to the station, the market appeared to be closed and undergoing construction, so we walked around a bit. We found a pretty dilapidated tiny park, and tried out the Korean exercise machines.

And then, we saw some old ladies with bags of fruit, and we thought, “hmmmmm, the market must be open!” But where? We went back to where we were and walked around where the market was supposed to be. We finally found an entrance, and some normal looking people walking into it. I say that because it didn’t look like a marketplace, it was more like a huge loading yard for mass distribution of lettuce and potatoes and the like, and it was a bit sketchy.

So much food!

Marketplace or perfect setting for a horror film…?

We eventually got confirmation from a Korean lady that there was, indeed, a market place. We finally saw fruit laid out in more reasonable quantities, and Koreans sitting by their wares. The fruit was all a lot cheaper, but the only problem was that you were expected to buy a ton of it. Oh, and we don’t speak any Korean, and only one dude in that entire place seemed to know any English. But my roommate purchased a million bananas, I managed to buy just one persimmon (which later burst because it was too ripe), and then the apple lady. Oh the apple lady. My room mate was asking her how much, I think, and the lady had about 20 apples in front of her. She said ten, and suddenly started bagging up ALLLLLL the apples. She was very determined, and there was nothing we could do to stop her. So we bought a million apples and bananas that we then had to drag home somehow!

I didn’t get a picture of all the ladies with their fruit on the ground, but here was just one aisle of fruit (there were so many more!)

Oh, and apparently Dragonfruit is a real fruit! My room mate got super excited to see one and paid 4,000won for one.

I definitely thought this was a made-up fruit!

We pressed deeper into the market and I smelled fish, and it was in a good, “I want seafood” kind of way. And then we found the fish market! If the fruit market had been at all overwhelming with the quantities and the insistent sellers, the fish market made it seem like nothing. Earlier in the day I had said I felt like going to an aquarium…and I suppose I got my wish. I have never seen so many fish in my life except maybe at the Boston Aquarium. Although, all of these fish and crabs and octopuses were all going to end up on someone’s plate. I even saw a man beat a fish to death right in front of us! It was quite traumatizing. They all wanted us to buy their fish, very badly. It didn’t seem to matter that we could only say hello and thank you as we shook our heads and tried to escape each seller. The funniest/scariest moment was when one guy with a lot of crab-like things, pulled one out of the tank and tried to get my room mate to touch it. I think he though we were scared of them, and wanted to make us like them enough to buy them. He literally took her hand out of her pocket and tried to make her touch the crab. We got out of there as quickly as possible, and the smell really started to get to me. We decided we didn’t feel like fish after all, and headed back with all our bananas and apples.

Rows and rows and rows of fish!

A few boys were throwing the feral cats fish.

Fish fish fish, smelly fish.

On our way home we visted a Daiso, a dollar store, and we got yoga mast for 5,000won to sleep on for the next couple weeks, and I picked up some moisturizer as my skin is not used to the cold. We got home and realized we still didn’t have anything to eat other than fruit, so we went out with another friend to find some dinner. She also wanted to find a winter jacket and something for her skin, so we popped down to the Gangum station, which is full of clothes and beauty stores. We ended up getting some Korean beauty masks for 1,000won and decided we needed a girls night. We got fast food, fries and fried shrimp, and headed back to the hotel. We also stopped into a couple stores outside of the station, and found so many adorable Korean things. It’s funny how doing something so simple as window shopping can make you feel human again, but we all felt much better after doing so. The masks were fun, and my skin feels so much better! But we looked quite scary:

Applying the masks.

Scary faces!

And then suddenly it was Monday already. I met my realtor in Anyang and looked at two of the apartments again. The smoky one hardly smelled like smoke anymore, but I realized how dilapidated it was, and how old the stove was. And what would I do with the extra room, really? I just didn’t like it, suddenly. So we took a look at the first apartment, and I knew I liked it so much better. It felt ten years newer and even though it doesn’t have any rooms, the shelves divide it well. It didn’t smell like their dogs or smoke, and even though they are apparently going to redo the wallpaper, it didn’t seem too bad to me. So I took that one, handed over 500,000won in cash (so scary and sketchy! no receipt or anything…I really hope things work out). It’s kind of ridiculous that I have to pay a realtor fee of 400,000won. I’ve never had to pay a realtor fee before, normally the apartments do that. Thankfully, she’s waiting until I move in to take the money, as I had to put down 500,000won to hold the apartment. I’ll get back 100,000won now, and she’ll take her 400,000. And I’ll sleep on a yoga mat until I get paid!

I went back to the hotel after that so I could save on eating out, although ramon really doesn’t do anything for me anymore. And then back to Anyang to meet my boss and see my branch. I really like it! Training was in an old building and our training room was so tiny. My branch is all brand new and has a nice vibe to it. My boss is awesome, and even having to cold mock a lesson I’d never seen before wasn’t stressful. I’m going back today a little early this time, in the hopes that I’ll see a few other teachers!

When I got back this time, I was ready to go to bed, but my friend messaged me about a lantern festival…so within twenty minutes we were out and getting on yet another train. So many trains that day. I’m going to have to refill my T-money card. The festival was pretty cool, and pretty, but quite small and oh so very cold, as we’ve hit freezing here in Seoul. We took some pictures, dived in a coffee shop to warm up, and headed back to the hotel.

Today I may be opening a bank account, and then back to Anyang for an hour of training with my boss. Wish me luck! I move in to my apartment tomorrow. And in a week, I’ll be in Japan. How weird is that?