COEX Mall

I decided, since it is the first day of my vacation that I wanted to do something, but not something too high maintenance or far away. So after consulting my Frommer's guide I decided to check out COEX Mall. COEX is a huge underground mall of about 85,000 square meters of space. They have a huge bookstore that puts Barnes and Noble to shame with its selection of a gazillion foreign language books (English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, you name it they probably have it). I wandered around in there for about an hour looking around, suggested the Odyssey over the Iliad to a 12 year old boy and his mother and looked at Korean cookbooks (thanks for the idea, Jessie). I also had a prescription filled in a matter of seconds and it only set me back 3,300W. This mall is incredibly large and I thought about a movie on one of the 16 screens, but decided against it. I will probably go later in the week when it's hopefully not as crowded. According to literature I read the mall gets over 100,000 visitors a day! That is insane to me. They also have a Kimchi museum, but I didn't check that out today, I can always go back, it's only one subway stop away.

Anyway, I finally figured out the ATM (thanks to Cheri) and then it was time to wander some more. I found The Face Shop which I guess is like a Bath and Body Works or Body Shop. I needed some face wash so I bought some there and also picked up some nail polish. When I got home I checked my bag and I had 3 free samples of stuff, pretty sweet. After that, I found another ArtBox and my love for that store increases every time I go in there, too bad the money in my wallet decreases. However, one can never have too many pens or journals.

I was starting to get hungry, but I knew I wanted McDonald's the second I stepped on the subway to go to COEX. Something about not feeling the greatest the past few days made me crave the smells and tastes of McDonald's. I so badly wanted to dive head first into a 10 piece chicken McNuggets with honey and an ice cold Coke, but I settled for a 4 piece spicy chicken tender, fries and a semi-cold Coke. The tenders were amazing. The menu at a Korean McDonald's is very different from American McDonald's. Sure they have chicken McNuggets (only in a Happy Meal though), Big Macs, McChicken, Big and Tasty and fries, but those are the only similarities. They have the spicy chicken tenders, a shrimp burger, a special Big Mac with special meat, berry McFlurries, chocolate dipped ice cream cones and some other things I don't remember. It was truly an experience and honestly, I will eat there again. It's hard to break a habit after working somewhere for 9 years.

After McDonald's I wanted to find a purse. I went to COEX looking for one because as much as I love my Kavu bag, I needed a change. I found a very nice Calvin Klein bag for only 49,000W ($48). It is brown and I can wear it across my body (a major selling point for me) and it's simple. Not too over the top and it holds my guidebook, phrasebook, cellphone, wallet, etc. It's everything I needed in a purse. I will still use my Kavu bag when I don't have as much to tote around (i.e. going to school, dinner in my neighborhood, etc), but the new purse holds more. I had told myself that I wouldn't spend more than 50,000W and luckily I found what I needed and wanted for less.

I have a lot of things on my To Do list for this week. They include checking out Dongdaemun Market and Namdaemun Market. Also, I would like to visit Olympic Park, N Seoul Tower at night, go back to Gyeongbokgung Palace when its not raining, Deoksugung Palace and Seoul World Cup Stadium. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I'd still like to see it, plus when soccer games aren't being played, its home to Homever and a movie theater. I have other things on my list too, but I think these are a good place to start. I already ticked COEX off the list.