4x100m Relay and Money

I finally got to watch the 4x100m relay! It was amazing and even though I knew the outcome, I was at the edge of my seat and cheering as loudly as one can while at work, in a library. I watched it again when I got home (from BBC), on better quality than a YouTuber taping right off their TV.

In other news, I had been trying to figure out how to transfer money from Korea to the US so I can pay bills and establish a savings account. I had looked into some traditional ways, MoneyGram and even setting up a CITI bank account here and in the US for easy transfer, but after Google searches and ex-pat websites I found transfermate.com. At first I thought it was shoddy, but of course I researched it and found it to be a good and cheap tool for transferring funds. The downside is a minimum transfer, but the first transfer is free. I should have the funds in my US Bank account by the close of business today!

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.

Kimchi and Bank Mishaps

On Saturday I met up with J.T. and we had dinner and went out for drinks. We met some of his co-workers at the bar. I had a good time, I got to see Seoul at night and also venture to another part of town. I left my apartment at 7 and got to Sinchon around 8. Sinchon (pronounced shin chon) is a lot busier than Kangnam and not quite as clean. However, the food was absolutely delicious and I had kimchi for the first time. It was fantastic, in fact, I could have eaten the whole bowl! For dinner, we had what I believe was budae-jjiggae and it too was absolutely fantastic. I also had my first taste of soju and I liked that as well, but that stuff is strong.

Kimchi

Dinner

Later we just went to a couple of bars and I caught a cab home, it was 2am and the subway stops running at about 11:30. It cost me $19 for the cab ride, but I suppose thats not too bad if I don't make a habit of it. I had a lot of fun and that is all that really matters.

Today I made my way to a bank to get some money from the ATM and well, I didn't get any. I'm not sure what I pressed because it was all in Korea. I was intending to take about $100 out and so I pressed the button that said 70, but then no money came out (I hope, I couldn't find any) and the receipt said 700,000W. So I brushed it off thinking no wonder I didn't get any money, I don't have that much in my account. Well, then I tried again, pressed 5 for 50,000W and nothing happened except a receipt. I checked my bank account when I got home and I'm ok, but I figured it might take a few days to post. So I'm really hoping that I accidentally told it to deposit money and I don't have 750,000W sitting at the ATM for someone to steal and my bank account in the red. I'll just have to wait I guess.

EDIT: So I found this on a Korean tourism website...However, as all ATM transactions require an account with a Korean bank, ATMs are not particularly convenient for international travelers except for getting cash advances on a credit card...Cash dispenser machines, called CDs, which only offer cash withdrawal services, can be found in subways, convenience stores, railway stations, bus terminals, and department stores.