A Little Bit of Itaewon

After a relatively quiet night Friday, we arose at a not so early time and Charity, Mylinda, Lisa and I went to Itaewon. 

Saturday's Travels

 

Itaewon is near the Army base and because of the location, there are loads of “Americanized” shops.  Now the Western influence is heavy-almost everyone speaks English.  The problem is that few of them actually are capable of engaging in true American business.  For example, this is a little shop across from the pita wrap place we had lunch. 

 

Which brings me to another bit; the pita place-I wish I could remember the name-was a little joint above some other store.  It reminded me of Chipotle or Z-teca only with pitas and sandwich makings instead of tortillas and Tex-Mex fixings.  Absolutely delicious! 

 

Now you might think that after 2 months in country, the only reason that we went to Itaewon to get some Western food.  However, the true reason lay in something that is eaten less often in the Asian countries than you might be led to believe.  Mylinda had contacted an animal shelter that had one little white kitten up for adoption.  Needless to say their was a huge amount of “ewwwing” and “ahhhhing” when the tiny feline was brought out.  The joys of being a pet owner…

 

Back to Itaewon at large.  The shops around there have many English speakers who seem to have only clothing to sell.  Which was good as I have been needing to find ties that go with a few of the shirts I have.  Being a man, I have very little need to go to a place to purchase clothing (especially when my normal size of Large and X-Large are now 2X and 3X-Large in the Korean standards).  I did find out that for about the price of a shirt back in the States, I could have a shirt made to size and with the fabric of my choice.  I may have to try that as what I would consider feminine colors such as blushing pastels and vibrant shades of pink are considered more than acceptable for Korean men to wear.  While mentally I can justify it, physically and…optically, I have a hard time bringing myself to wear some of those things.  Maybe in time…

 

I let the girls head for the house and I went to Yongson on the way back.  *sigh*  For the nerd in me, Yongson is paradise in silicon and integrated circuits.  It is hard to describe the sheer magnitude of electronics being sold there.  Everything to the smallest of computer parts to the washers, dryers and refrigerators are sold between about 6 different main buildings and hundreds of vendors and shops.  If the world of electronics makes it, it is probably at Yongson.  After I had my fill of trying to convince store owners that what they were trying to sell me I didn’t want and that they did not have what I wanted.  I headed back by subway to Bongcheon and to home.

 

As I got on the subway though, this 230 pound plus 6 foot 2 inch male was squished into a space for someone that was about half my size.  Evidently, everyone in Korea rides the subway between 8 and 10 at night on Saturday.  Crazy. 

 

Well, it 11:30 and I should have been in bed a couple hours ago.  I did add some photos here: Facebook Photos enjoy and I will hopefully write again soon…

 

More later…