The great and the not so great.

What, might you ask, did I do this weekend?

Jongsan Electronics Market. WOW!

You can get anything that you can think of that is in some way connected to computers. And Cheap!! It is just a matter of being patient and walking around for computer or screens or fans or mice or games. I also seem to have found a place for a spot of DVD shopping. I fell in love with the place! I have to go back soon to get a few DVD’s and other supplies. You figure out the maze. Then you can start shopping. There are stands that seem to sell nothing but Memory and hard drives. Others that seem to sell nothing but boxes that you use to build the

I would love to go in to even more detail about that place, but basically the most exiting thing I can tell you about my adventure there that might interest others that don't actually want to buy computer parts, is that I got lost going to Itaewon afterwards. The line that I had to take does this strange circle jobbie, but at both ends of this circle it splits off. One end goes to Incheon and the other goes to somewhere I know nothing about. It seems that some trains go in a circle all the time and some turn off to one of the line ends. I got onto a train that seemed to be going to a stop close to where I was going, but the problem was that it went to that stop goingwrong way around the circle, the long way round. When I got off and tried to ask someone how to get to Ichon, the stop next to Itaewon, then kept on telling me the way to Incheon. Sheeeez! And I thought Westerners got confused. To make matters worse I live in Icheon. Icheon, Incheon, Inchon. Go figure. This whole mess made me half an hour late for the meeting I had arranged.

As I said, after Jongson Market I headed to Itaewon to meet with another English teacher from another town and after her a Korean girl that I met online before I came to Korea. The teacher showed me a few things about Itaewon, like where the bookshop was and which restaurants are good for certain foods. We had a cup of coffee, talked a bit and basically just hung out for a while. At about 6pm the Korean girl arrived (and the teacher left) and we decided to go for dinner. She brought her friend along because they were at a wedding earlier. We went to a place called Gecho's which is suppose to be quite well known for having good western food. Honestly, I don't miss western food enough to really care. I miss ITALIAN food though. I would love to make my own, but I can't find the spices in Icheon and I still have to find the best places in Seoul for things like that. A nice basic Pomodoro sauce would be great! I've heard from a few people that here Spaghetti Pomodoro is seen as Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce/Ketchup. Eeeeeeeeew! Ew! Ew! Eeeeew!

Something about Itaewon that bothered me was all the Westerners and not just the teacher types. There are lots of American Solders. In Qatar there is a base as well and I can't say that I ever warmed up to them. Here they seem to be very similar. At one point we were crossing the street and this one guy just thought it good to try and talk to my friend, as in trying to pick her up. For heavens sake! You don't do that when you are walking in the opposite direction in a place like that. Not even in the west. Get some manners. When we were in Gecho's the two girls were two of only a handful of Koreans. It just felt wrong. I need to see more Koreans. It seemed like I was in New York or something.

I am sure I will go back to Itaewon, if for no other reason than to go to What the Book. It is said to be the best English Language book store in the city. They do have a lot of second hand books on everything you can think of and then a number of new books on various subjects. I suspect the Westerners give them their old books when they leave the country. English books are quite valuable here as you don't just walk in to any bookshop and find what you are looking for. Even the big book stores in Seoul don't have a lot of stuff in English, never mind the Fantasy that I normally read.

Other than that it was just the basic drill of cleaning the house on Sunday. As I had done shopping on Wednesday, I didn't have to go to E-Mart again.

For next week I was thinking go going to Suwon to visit the fortress and a teacher or two who works there.

Till next time.
Go well.

*Please note that the statements in this Blog are not intended to make anyone look bad. I do not look down on Koreans. I'm merely describing how amusing I sometimes find people and I am mostly describing it to other westerners. Feel free to come to South Africa and tell the world how crazy we are because heaven knows, we are.