This is Sarah, and it is now my turn to share Kathy and my experiences of taking the subway out to Dongdaemun. This area is well known for it’s large shopping market. As we walked around the area, street food vendors lined the streets with their goods. Foods varied from battered and fried vegetables or sausages, ice cream, and spicy rice cakes called ddeokbokki.
We walked into one of the three shopping markets and were immediately overwhelmed by the mass number of clothing, accessories, and souvenirs that were being sold. If we saw a hat that we liked, the same hat would be sold further down the market for a cheaper price. Therefore we were very reluctant to purchase anything immediately. Some vendors however only sold exclusively for wholesale, which made sense since some of the items that we saw were also seen in other boutiques near our dormitory.
By the third shopping market, things became too repetitive, thus we went out back to the street food vendors to grab a bite to eat. We ended up trying a hotdog covered in french fries for only 1,500 KRW (equivalent to $1.50). It was very good.
After finishing our snack, we ventured into the large shopping mall near the area. This mall contained six levels of clothing, jewelry, shoes, purses, and suitcases. Here, vendors are more willing to bargain with customers. The vendors are also more pushy in persuading customers to purchase their goods. Throughout our shopping, Kathy and I found it very difficult to purchase clothing items. Due to our previous experience in taking Textiles back Oregon State, we became increasingly picky with the fabrics that the clothes were made of. We basically just went around and felt fabric quality.
Markets that sell clothing for cheaper usually use fabrics with a mix of acrylic, neoprene, and spandex. It was not pleasant to the touch. Kathy and I are now very thankful for what we’ve learned and are now planning on investing in higher quality apparel here in Korea that you wouldn’t find in the U.S. rather than settling on cheaper clothes.
The school week is starting soon and we look forward to seeing the difference in how the classes are taught here.
See you next time,
Sarah.
Seoul Bound 