Six in Seoul

...enough said.

I told you I am spoiled.  On Tuesday I went to Osan and picked up my 2 new custom made cashmere coats.  The place I order them from is Dark Horse Leather.  I know what you are thinking, but Mr. Chang is a leather and cashmere man. I didn't have a picture to show him what I wanted, so I described what I wanted to him.  While I described, he sketched.  This is the outcome....I love them both!!

I'm standing a little funny in this shot - it kind of looks like I need to go potty.  This is one way to wear it...

And another.  I LOVE the collar!

And the backside...

Next up, the white one....

Another cool collar.

Remember when I took S to Osan for a little purse and blanket shopping? Well, here is the cashmere coat I had made!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!

The last stop S & I made on our journey was the Shinsegae Mall.  I took her to the 8th floor, the children’s & golf floor - yes, about 1/3 of the floor dedicated to golf. I don't know where the golf courses are here in Seoul - maybe on the tops of the high rises?  I don't know - anyway, I took her to the 8th floor  to see pictures of my kids, on the children's side.  Although she was impressed with the photos of my children, she was more impressed by the food court on the bottom floor.

The food court at the Shinsegae Mall (across from the Express Bus Terminal) is amazing!  The picture below is where I wanted to eat, but since S does not like sushi and there were no seats available, we opted to just take a picture of it.  The food is on a conveyer belt, and you take what you want as it passes by you.

The amount of food available at the mall is amazing, it ranges from full dinners as seen here.  (Aren't the guys behind the counter cute?!)

To a counter full of kimchi!

If you aren't into Korean cuisine, never fear, there is something for everyone here!  S decided to go with the chicken on a stick.

And really, what is a food court without a little wine? 

There is also a very large cheese counter where you can get any type of cheese your little heart desires.  (Well, almost any type)  And don't get me started on the dessert and bread areas of the food court.  I can't believe we didn't take pictures of those areas. 

Once you finish shopping, and you realize you need tomatoes for dinner tonight, don't fear, the food court also has a grocery store in it!  Talk about one stop shopping!

This is how it started.....

This pretty red bus almost made mince meat of my van and everyone in it.  I'm telling you, I thought we were going to die.  Once I recovered from the shock of my near death experience I thought we were on the wrong road.  I do not want to be on the wrong road in Korea, so I turned around and went back to start all over again.  The next time we did it, at the same merging area (where the bus nearly ran over us) a taxi cab cut me off, then hit the trucks in front of him!  That will show him to cut me off.  No one was hurt, so I am allowed to say that.  At this point any sane person would give up,  turn around and go home.  Not me, we were on a quest for pottery. I had 2 girls in the car that had never been to Yeoju, and I felt it was my duty to show them this amazing little pottery town.  So we continued on our journey with my not so fancy GPS....

One thing you don't have to worry about here is getting pulled over if you are speeding, there are never police cars out on the roads..........however they do have 'police enforcement' all over the place, and they warn you of it often.

Now when you see these cute little yellow signs, I suggest you check your speed.  If you choose not to heed thier warnings, they will happily take your picture and send a nice little note to you in the mail....

Once we made it to Yeoju, it was all worth it.   We went to a couple of my favorite places, and then to many more places.  This next picture is where I bought our everyday dinner dishes (like I have any other kind); I call it the 'blue and white factory'. The dishes are stunning in person, they are not too girlie, but not too manly either.  They are sturdy enough for this rough family of 6 and they are very inexpensive!!!  Anytime we have someone over for dinner they always compliment our dishes.  My friends S & L liked them so much; they each now have a set to call their own.

Look at all of our boxes after shopping at the blue and white factory.  Only the one little box on the ground is mine.

We took the 3rd row out of the van; it's a good thing too, because by the end of the day, the back of the van was pretty full.

After checking my GPS again....

we headed to another favorite little spot of mine, the white on white factory.

Seriously folks, this is the factory.  You go in through their garage!

Every time I come here this little man is always sitting here spinning pottery with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  He took the cigarette out of his mouth for the picture.  I wish he hadn't done that.

All of this pottery is made by hand, most of it by the man above and his wife.

On the way home from Yeoju, I had to stop at a rest stop.  If you have never been to a Korean rest stop, you NEED to go!  They are unlike any other.

Korean's are recycling fools!  They recycle EVERYTHING! (That's a good thing)

They want to make sure you have a place to put your dog,

and your baby....

while you have a snack.

Yes, I ate that.  My friends didn't want to have anything to do with it, but I made them try it.  It is just mackerel, or go/dung/ah in Korea.  It is SO YUMMY!

Our trip home was another story.

NOTE TO SELF #36.....While living in Korea, do not try to take a shortcut home, no matter how bad traffic is.


******Some of these photos were stolen from my friend L's facebook account.

I can't believe I forgot to show you all the tablecloth I had made in Dongdaemun!  I had it made for approximately $28 USD.  Now, I could have had it made cheaper than that, but I was so overwhelmed that day and couldn't find what I needed, so I bought the black fabric from the lady that made the tablecloth.  Also, she told me she was more expensive than others would be to make a tablecloth. Since she was so honest, my friends have used her in the past (for drapes), she spoke some English AND I wanted my tablecloth NOW, I went with her. She did a great job, and made it exactly how I wanted it.   I will be having more made every holiday! 

I know the tablecloth doesn't look great on this table; I had it made for my rectangle table back in the states....the one I love, the one in storage.  So imagine the table below is a rectangle. 

HOLY BAJESUS!!!  I could spend three days here and not see it all.  Not only does the fabric market have any type of fabric you could dream of,  

it has buttons GALORE,

and if that isn't enough buttons, don't worry, there are more.....

Do you need tassels?  Never fear, they are here....

How about ribbons, beads or bows?

Dongdaemun market has it all.  You can have anything you need made here and it is very inexpensive!  I am going to have curtains made here for our whole house, table cloths made for every holiday, I plan to have a cashmere coat made to fit only me, hubby plans to have suits made, and the list goes on and on.  I go back on Tuesday to have my Halloween table cloth made.  I will post a picture  and let you know how much it cost when it is done.  WOW, this place is great!

After shopping we stopped for some street food......

My friends T & J in front of the smoothie stand. Our peach smoothies are in the blender just behind T's sholder.

Food from the street vendor where we ate...

T has lived in Korea before, she is here on her 2nd tour with her husband, and therefore she knows a bit more than the rest of us.  She loves fish on a stick.  I had no idea what fish on a stick was, until she showed us.......

Now, I don't know about you, but I would have NEVER in a million years guessed that this is fish on a stick!  Even after I took a bite, I still would not have guessed "fish" on a stick.  I personally am not a big fan of this.  Don't get me wrong, it is not bad, just not what I expected. 

OK, here is one more thing I must show you.  At all street vendors you will find something like this....

The cups are for drinking the fish water, and the toilet paper is your napkin.  Enjoy!

Day 6:  Somewhat of a lazy day.  Hubby, Grammy, Boy 1 & Girl all went to E-Mart and then to electronic row.  Hubby has yet to do too much damage on electronic row; however, he is just waiting for his friend Big R to visit from Texas in December.  I will be scared when he heads there with Big R.  After the family outing Grammy and Boy 1 went to Iteawon for MORE SHOPPING and lunch.

Photo below is in E-Mart by the Kimchi counter (I think).  Girl is somewhat disgusted.  She is NOT a fan of most Korean food.

Grammy and Boy 1 having lunch in Iteawon.

Hubby bought dinner and brought it home.........

Day 5: We headed out to Osan Airforce Base to do a little shopping for purses and blankets.  We took the bus from Yongsan to Osan.  When we arrived at Osan we were informed that I needed a chaperone pass to get Grammy onto base, the guy let us on anyway…THANK YOU kind sir.  If he had not let us on, it would have been a huge pain in our backside.  After we disembarked the bus, I thought we might have a problem getting back onto post (since the shopping area is right outside the gate) to ride the bus back home, so I did a little checking.  Anyway, long story short, Grammy could not get back onto Osan Airforce Base to ride the bus home – we ended up taking a cab to the subway for our journey back home.  

Grammy had a long list of purses to get for friends and family, so I introduced her to my purse lady.  We shopped and shopped.  Grammy was in heaven, and on a shopping high.  Now remember I told you that most Korean’s don’t hug?  Well, when Grammy finished shopping here, she got a hug from the purse lady, and this is why.....

We also stopped into the blanket shop for a few blankets.  Below is a picture of Girl and Grammy having a great time shopping.