7th

So I guess this is going to be my last post on Korea because day 8 was pretty much just a journey to the airport and me crazily trying to squeeze all my buys into the luggages. I even had to borrow space from my brother's luggages, lol. I told my mum I wanted to overspend and I really did! 

Breakfast for the day: Bokkeum kimchi and rice bought separately. We previously bought a bokkeum kimchi and rice set from the convenience store and it tasted really good. So I acted smart and bought the 2 separately. In the end it didn't taste as good because the bokkeum kimchi was too sour and the sauce wasn't enough for the rice. Kind of sad because I was really expecting the same taste. Note to self: In future, don't act smart! Haha and I managed to work the microwave oven though there was nothing in English and the Korean was nothing I understood. Just pressed the buttons ramdomly and hope it worked and it did.

The outside of the guesthouse. The 2nd Pencil guesthouse.

Photo of my outfit in one of the our daily must-go-to convenience stores. I bought the furry top for 5000 won in Namdaemun. It's one of my best buys in Korea because first it's so cheap. Secondly, it's so comfortable. It was from a shop that sold everything at 5000 won. When I saw it I knew I had to buy it. It looked really lovely with little balls to create the texture. And when I was paying, I was so afraid that the guy would suddenly tell me there has been an error and it actually costs more. But nothing of that sort happened. Haha.

Peanuts for sale along the road. I wonder if hygiene is an issue since the air there wasn't really very clean. But I wouldn't know because I didn't buy these peanuts. Just walked past this lorry everyday.

Day 7 was really slack. My younger brother decided to stay in and watch tv, so my youngest brother, my mum and I headed to Ehwa Womans University. There isn't much to see there, so you don't see much photos of the scenery. I went mad shopping over there. I think majority of my purchases were from Ehwa Womans University. The clothes there were much much cheaper than Hongdae or Dongdaemun so the next time I go, I'm definitely going back there!!

 Photo of the University. I like how big it looks.

Streets

More clothing shops. So envious of them who get to shop even when they're around school. If I were in Korea and in this University, I can totally imagine going out to shop during lunch breaks. But then I would be broke and probably skip meals just to shop. Not a good thing. Hahaha. In Singapore, NUS is so far away from all the shops. As my Korean tutor said also. Haha!

 Bags my mum and I bought! I think we bought a total of 5 bags. We chanced upon this shop run by a young man in his 20s, and he designs his own bags, and coincidentally was having a one day event where he was selling his bags for 25 000 won each! The usual price was about 60 000 each so my mum and I went mad trying to choose which to buy. And his designs were all so unique that I liked almost all of them. And all of them were of really good quality as well. Not the kind with the cheap and thin leather that will peel if you don't carry it out for a long time. I was really really impressed. But too bad we couldn't buy them all. That's his label: Ranson. I was asking him if he could bring his bags to sell in Singapore, but he said it was difficult and told me to look for his designs on Kakao story, an iphone app. But after I downloaded it I coudn't find a single thing. My mum was so good at bargaining that I got to buy a bag that was originally 95 000 won for only 70 000 won. My favourite bag of all, though I still like all others that I bought. They are all different. Haha okay I realise I'm sounding like a hopeless shopaholic. I'll post photos of that bag if I take photos and the bag happens to be in it.

After buying the bags, I chanced upon many shops selling dresses for just 10 000 won and tops for 5 000 won. So needless to say, I was so excited about browsing through the racks and came out of the shops feeling very happy, because I didn't really buy a lot in Dongdaemun, and I was still raging over my 49 000 dress.

Actually we planned to go to Itaewon, but we decided not to and head back for lunch with my brother. So this was a restaurant we passed by everyday and never got to try. The only thing we had from this shop before this meal was the kimbap which I ordered to-go. I guess it's a family restaurant. How nice to have a family restaurant, so you can choose to help out if you have nothing to do like me now. I've been trying to make everyday count by doing something everyday and not let each day just pass me by, and still trying hard.

The Kimbap counter.

Side dishes which tasted really good. I liked the white radish that looks a little like tau-gay. It tasted a little like potato. Anything starchy, Sam likes. Okay not really. I only like potatoes and radish.

만두 만두 만두 만두~~Like how they always chant in Running man. This was so good we ordered this twice! I think this was the beef one. For only 3000 won per tray! So cheap!

My bulgogi stew. Tasted really good. And the price was really reasonable, though I can't remember the exact price.

The dumplings were so good we ordered the Kimchi one to try. And it didn't disappoint! 3 trays of dumplings in total and only around $10. Guess we'll never find such good deals in Singapore.

I thought the soft toys hanging from the top looked quite interesting. No idea what it's for though! I wonder how the petrol comes from the top, since you don't see the big machines in these petrol kiosks. 

Visited a bookshop near our guesthouse. It's actually a shopping mall, but with nothing much. It was just a huge Uniqlo which we didn't bother looking because well, we have in in Singapore as well. Bought books in English! Haha their selection of English books were really limited, and I was tempted to buy some Korean language books back to improve my Korean but I didn't in the end. The books were really much cheaper over there. A paperback only cost about 8000 won which is less than S$10. My brothers bought quite a lot of books there since they didn't have much places to spend on apart from the convenience stores.

Stopped by Angel in-us coffee for a drink. I ordered some Lemon yoghurt ice blend. Their prices are comparable to Starbucks if I recall correctly. Or maybe slightly cheaper. They have a wide variety of non-coffee drinks so if you're not so into coffee, you can give this a try.

Haha my brother pretending to sleep.

After I told my brother that he must take photos from a high angle to look slimmer, this was what he did. Can you tell this was taken from a 'higher' angle?

Kim Soo Hyun the CF king of the moment at that time. Practically saw his face everywhere. Y not JYJ/DBSK?? Haha okay not that I don't like Kim Soo Hyun. Jung Il Woo was also the face of many brands. I like:D

This is the bakery that we visited so often. Pourtoi bakery. It's not so cheap. More expensive than Breadtalk definitely, but everything is handbaked on the spot. Okay I know Breadtalk's is also. But they have a wider variety of pastries, and not so much of bread. Just did a Google search and nothing much came up, so I guess this is not a franchise, so it should be just a one of a kind bakery. I think we spent almost or more than 30 000 won over there because my brother bought a lot of pastries while my mum bought the biscuits/cookies in the plastic boxes to bring back to Singapore. And they tasted really really good. We finished them all within a day or two. The lady gave us quite a lot of free stuff seeing that we bought so much.  It's so exaggerated right, spending so much in a bakery.

Sale of produce just outside the bakery

Look at the 2 green bags. It's all the bakery stuff! My brother was always being diligent to help me/us carry the stuff back to the guesthouse. But he always told me it's a 'pay-per-hold'. Hahaha! Meaning I had to pay him for his service. With exaggerated charges, no doubt.

More photos of the guesthouse. It looks very nice and modern right! I told my mum it's a good idea to open a guesthouse. But definitely not in Singapore since land is so expensive. Okay maybe in Korea it also is expensive. But hey it's really a good investment. Cheaper than a hotel which is your selling point, provide tv, internet and aircon, and you can charge them for small packets of detergent/cooking utensils/shampoo if they didn't bring any. But first you need the capital to buy all the tv, washing machines, beds, and building of the guesthouse.

Looks like images from a comic book.

Loot from the bakery. Egg tarts and walnut tarts which all went into my brother's tummy.

My loot from Ehwa Womans University! I bought 2 pairs of shoes over there. Really good quality that would definitely cost more in Singapore. Hahaha and 6 clothing items! 3 dresses and 3 tops. And all of them cost me about 50 000 won. Which means an average of less than 10 000 won for each item. I think they sell good basics like black and white basic tees for really cheap. When blogshops are selling them for >$10. But of course, you need to take into consideration the quality so you pay for what you get.

From the bookshop! The little prince diary/planner only cost me ~S$18. And I got the shock of my life when I saw it in a bookshop in Singapore. It was $35 or so! We went back to the guesthouse and I tried to finish my bottle of soju. Soju tastes really horrible and disgusting to me so I had a really hard time finishing it. On first taste, it's a little sweet, but the aftertaste is bitter and a little like alcohol swab. Not that I have tasted alcohol swab (like my brother asked me), but the smell/taste is kind of similar. Anyway, I finished about 5/6 of the bottle and ended up feeling very dizzy. Then it was time for dinner. It's like we never stop eating in Korea. We just had drinks at the Angel in us place.

This photo was taken to see if my face was red. But not really, right?

This was the restaurant we had our dinner. The meat was so cheap! Much cheaper than the one we had in Myeongdong. It was so popular and was already packed when we reached so we had to take a number and wait outside. The wait wasn't too long, and they had seats outside for people like us who had to wait. Pretty good service.

The details on my textured top and my new bag that I just bought earlier in the day at Hongdae subway station.

The meat is so cheap! Nothing above 15 000 won. So we ordered quite a bit, I think one serving each of pork and beef. There was so much meat that the vege that they gave us to wrap the meat was not enough and we had to keep asking for more vege.

The sauce that I love so much! One portion each for each of us!

Waiting for the meat to come! Look at the corn salad on the right. Never had such a side dish before so it was nice to try it! But it was rather sweet rather than salty.

Taking photos of the restaurant. When I took these photos my mum/brother asked me who I was taking or if there was an idol somewhere. Hahaha.

I'm a paparazzi! Hahaha. .

We ordered quite a lot of food because it was cheap. This is dwaenjang jjiggae if I recall correctly since there is tofu. But it looks a little too red to be dwaenjang jjiggae. This was to share I think!

We each had one of this! Steamed egg! So cheap and nice.

And the meat~~

Some photos of our room. I think it's good that they made the effort to type the notice in English as well as Korean, but I couldn't help but notice some of their spelling errors.

Very self-sufficient like a small house. But pretty small. Most of the time I couldn't walk around without having to move something out of the way. But still, I liked this guesthouse!

Really hope to go to Korea again next year, or some time soon!