The Unexpected Day of Exploration and Bargaining

The Korean school year is dotted with many holidays, just like schools in the US. There are national as well as local holidays. The strangest holiday to me is the school specific holiday...the school's birthday! Yes, that is a holiday. To commemorate when a school was founded, the entire school gets a day off. Some schools, if the traditional birthday date falls on a weekend or national holiday, will move the birthday to allow for more days off. There are rules here, and then there are rules.

My school's birthday has already come and gone. It was a Thursday and so I decided to use the day to do some of my own exploring!

I decided to go on a shopping trip in the Nampo-dong area of Busan. This is where the Busan International Film Festival is held annually in the fall and is also the site of the fish market (which I discussed in my post from the orphanage). This area is also known for its excellent street food and shopping!

Typically I use the subway as my means of transportation, but a friend of mine told me of a bus that would get me there faster, so I decided to give it a try. The buses here come every 3-10 minutes (depending on if they are city or village buses) and typically go along routes that the subway doesn't go. I take the 40 bus line every day to school, but if I am running late I can take the subway and walk (or run) a little extra. Most foreigners chose not to ride the buses typically because they either don't know where they go (a valid fear) or are scared of dying in a bus accident.




Subway doors broken open, never fear, there is a guard two feet away to tell you not to jump!

Now before you say, "Are you afraid of dying every day??? Get off the bus and take the subway!!" I want to let you  know several things. 1) I have never been in a bus accident here 2) I have never seen a bus accident here 3) In the rules of the road that define Korean driving by their practical nonexistence, the bus always wins any street battle. This means that if a car and a bus are headed for the same spot in the road (happens all the time) the bus will always win and go ahead while the car tries, fails, falls back, and honks loudly. So, I am not really afraid of dying on the bus, but now I feel like I can surf better because it is always a balancing act trying to hang onto the rail and not fall into the person next to you every time the bus jerks to a stop or start.

But back to the real story. I took a new bus and subsequently missed my stop. Understandable as a foreigner and so had to switch to the subway to go back and make it to my final destination. I began my day by exploring the underground shopping mall in Nampo-dong. This is an extension of the subway line and is a bunch of stores that seem to go on forever. I learned that you can buy anything from school supplies, to hiking gear, formal dresses, shoes, lingerie, food and watches in that shopping center. There is also an excellent water fountain where you can sit and people watch. But be warned! Generally it is full of older people who will most likely glare at you if you attempt to sit on the edge of the fountain with them.

Afterwards, I took a break and sat by this beautiful water fountain in the upscale Lotte Department store.

Beautiful water fountain.

Then I decided enough was enough, and I needed to go out to the open air markets and buy myself a pair of tennis shoes and a wallet.

I wandered up and down the as yet uncrowded small side streets (it was still early for the post work crowd to come out). The streets were lined with covered displays of the inside stores and down the middle was a line of "restaurants" I wish I had taken a picture, but they are small sit down places that mostly older women own. You can sit there and order very traditional Korean food and have a sit in the middle of the shopping area. Very convenient and a project for when my Korean improves to full on sentences.

My first purchase-a wallet- went smoothly. I pointed, he told me the price (conveniently written in English) and I went on my merry way.
The second purchase was a bit more complicated. I walked into the store and saw a display of shoes. Now, Korean feet are much smaller, and so the sizes tend to be too small (and they don't have as large of an array of sizes, chances are if you have larger feet they will attempt to wedge your foot into a shoe the size of your big toe).
I greeted the shopkeeper and wandered around looking for a suitable pair of basic walking/exercise shoes. I picked a pair (pink and grey, anyone who has seen me exercise is not surprised), and asked to try them on. She sat me down and looked around for my size, which took a while (she of course had to tell me I have big feet. By Korean standards, yes of course, but really, size 8 is not too large I think). Once she did she pretty much put them on for me and had me walk around while she oohd and ahhhd (killer saleswoman over here). I then asked how much and she told me 30,000 (=$30). I thought, no way!! I had seen a pair exactly like this for 10,000 (=$10) back in the underground shopping center. I thought, well, time to bow out gracefully and get that other pair now that I know what size fits (245 in Korean is roughly size 8, in case anyone reading this needs to know). I said no and thank you and stared to bow out of the store when she stopped me and said, 25,000??
Again the same process happened. I said no and began to leave smiling, then she dropped it again, 20,000??? (=$20).
Sigh. Even though I knew it was double what I would've paid in the underground store, I decided to just go ahead and get them. In the end, $20 for shoes isn't bad and I really didn't want to make her upset as she was starting to get irritated with me for practically stealing them from her. That is how I accidentally bargained for the first time in Korea.

yumm bubble tea

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, got myself a Hutuk dessert at the street food area and a bubble tea. Delicious! Then it was back home to relax for the evening. The unexpected holiday ended up being a wonderful day of solo exploration and success.

In case you forgot, this is hutuk, even better then donuts in deep fried deliciousness.