Just got back from a beautiful week in Seoraksan National Park. We did some white water rafting (actually scary this time) some hiking, and lots of noribang-ing (karaoke bar). Even though the week was amazing and I loved being outdoors and seeing other parts of Korea, I was really excited to get back to Seoul and to do some things I haven't had the chance to do yet. One of the things on my list was to visit the wildly popular Dongdaemun Shopping Center...an area famous for its amazing selection of cheap and fashionable clothing, accessories and shoes. What I learned this weekend is you get a lot more than you bargain for in Dongdaemun.
A couple girls I work with hadn't been there either, so we all hopped on the subway Friday afternoon, excited to go see the place everyone is always buzzing about. As we walked up to one of the building's entrances, I decided I needed a snack to tie me over. There are dozens of vendors lining the streets of Dongdaemun with sausages, corndogs, and chicken. I opted for the chicken on a stick, which tasted good, but i'm pretty sure it was undercooked, despite that little fact I ate it all anyway--with my current diet i'm in no place to turn down meat. Snack finished we walked into one of the buildings and immediately you're punched in the face--total sensory overload. Each floor is a maze of clothing, each 15x15 foot square is a different vendor, but on any given floor you could have a bakers dozen vendors selling the same clothing, so the trick is to haggle. Obviously negotiating prices means knowing how to understand/speak Korean. Between the 3 of us we know how to say "hello", how to count to 10, and how to say "thank you".
It took a while to get my eyes to stop darting, and to focus on clothing rather than the chaotic feel of the place. Thumbing through the racks trying to find something potentially purchasable, and immediately one of the people working would be right on my tail, organizing the items i'd just moved, standing so close that you'd think we had some sort of long standing friendship, where personal space boundaries don't apply. What i've heard is that it's considered polite to show attention to costumers, but this just felt super odd to me. Not only do I find it uncomfortable when a complete strangers is breathing on my back, but I couldn't help but feel like they thought I was going to have a flash back moment to middle school and try out shoplifting again. Whenever people hoover like that in the states, it's because you look sketchy, wearing a trench coat with darting eyes. I understand the darting eyes part, but there was no trench coat anywhere on my person.
If and when I did find something worth buying, asking to try things on creates a whole new level of anxiety. I'd stand there and wait for the individual working to stop the pretend organization, and then i'd do some really obvious, and i'm sure obnoxious, motion of putting on a pretend sweater or jacket. At that point they'd start mumbling things to one another in Korean, and I could sense that my business wasn't appreciated. In total, I think I tried on 2 items of clothing. By then I could see the trend and I wasn't going to go through that for a third time.
It didn't take long for me to grow discouraged at this outing. Along with the uncomfortable aspect, there were no price tags on anything and when i'd get up the courage to ask "how much" in Korean, they'd size me up then throw out a price, i'm sure higher because i'm a foreigner. After what seemed like ages, but was closer to an hour and a half, we'd all had enough and we left Dongdaemun empty handed, feeling slightly pathetic, yet more motivated than ever to get started with Korean language lessons. October can't come soon enough.
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