Monday in Korea

Bonnie and I have mastered the subways, or rather Bonnie has. I have always been a poor map reader, and Bonnie looks so good with her little granny glasses trying to read the map. So after trying to read it myself and passing the exit we should have gotten off on, I have decided to let her be the navigator! Besides that, if we stare at the map long enough some nice Korean person will come over and ask us if we need help. One nice girl was even going our way and took us with her. Everyone we have met has been so nice and helpful!

We even met a foreign woman named Vickie on the way home who is LDS! We got to talking and told her we stopped here to attend church and the temple, and she asked what temple, and well, there you go! Another Mormon in Korea!

We decided to head to a shopping area called Namdae Mun market area where there are over 1,200 different shops. The prices were quite disappointing compared to China!  A "coach" bag that we could get in China for $20 was $40, but when I told them I got it for cheaper in China they said how cheap China is and that things are better in Korea.

We did pick up some ties, a couple of t-shirts for Kevin, and some cool flashlights for Kevin too.

We stopped at a small restaurant and had some bibimbip (rice, egg, meat, vegetables, and sauce). The lady mixed it all up for us, and gave us some soup and kimchi. Yummy. We also had some steamed rice rolls with meat in them. These tasted like China.  We watched a man make this honey candy. That was cool. He took a small piece of what looked like honey candy, stretched and stretched it into thin spider like webs, wrapped it over nuts and packaged it. It was a little pricey, but will be good for the family to try.

We then had the bright idea to go to Costco (yes, they have Costco!) and buy some Tim Tams that the Aussie demonstrated at church yesterday. So, we hopped on another subway and headed there. We had another girl stop and help us, and a short walk after the subway stop we arrived! And the prices! Wow! A jar of nuts-$19.oo, Mangos-$18.00. We bought the Tim Tams and that was enough!  We did stop to have a berry smoothie and sat next to 2 women who were having a slice of pizza...and condiments on the side. Get this....hot dog toppings, onions, mustard, catsup, and relish, all mixed up together, and then they ate it with forks!  I don't know if they realized that it was for a hot dog, but they seemed to enjoy it! 

We rode the subway ($1.00) back to the hotel, and crashed for a rest! All that walking and shopping! Whew!

We then headed out for dinner. We found a place that served bulgogi, and split one between us. It has one dish of meat and onions all cooked, and then lots of other small dishes with things like kimchi, soup, vegetables, garlic, dates, and squid.  I don't think Bonnie was very impressed! She took one bite of meat and that was enough for her. It was a lot like eating at the Korean place in Provo that I went to with my parents and Andrea and Norma.

On the way home this older man stopped us and offered to make us a pair of shoes. We decided to go into his shop and check it out.  He convinced us to do it, kept calling us sister and explaining that he believed in God. Very interesting man, and his wife was there too. She didn't speak much English, but he made up for it with his stories. He carefully measured our feet. We chose the style out of a book, and he was going to make them for us. We will go back and check out the shoes on Wednesday evening. We don't have to buy them if we don't like them. Another adventure.

We are heading to bed, and getting up early to go to the temple!

Later!