The Seomun Market

Last Sunday, February 10th we decided to venture out and

experience some of the local culture in Daegu. Since the city has so many markets in the streets we thought we would try out one of them and of course we figured we may as well start with the biggest and most famous of them all, The Seomun Market. It is actually one of the original three markets in Korea. After taking quite a subway ride across the city and then walking for a bit we found ourselves in front of our destination. Although we really had no idea what to expect as far as what might be available for purchse at the market or what the prices might be like, we were excited for a genuine Korean experience!

Like most shopping in Korea, the selection was just insane... you could buy anything from socks to dogs (and no, we don't know if the dogs were for eating or for pets, I choose not to think about it) to clothes to lunch! We didn't actually buy anything while we were there but we did manage to spend over two hours (in the cold) wandering up and down the alleyways in sheer amazement...

This shirt is pretty much the representative "Konglish" shirt you can find at the markets... sometimes the saying make sense, sometimes I think they just write stuff on clothes simply to see English words... I don't really get it but to each his own I guess! Just in case you can't actually read the shirt, it said "N-Mass bread is very common made from flour, water, yeast, a milk. There is more fibre in wholemeal bread than in white bread." Odd I know, its like wearing an advertisement for brown bread...

So then we came to the area of the market where they had the live animals... it was so weird to see literally like 10 or 20 chickens or rabbits like stacked on top of each other in one small little cage... I also don't know if you were supposed to pick one out when it was alive and then they kill it for you or what but we kind just steered clear of asking any questions! However, this is where I saw the cutest little puppy and I wanted to take him home with us but alas, a little Korean apartment is no home for a puppy... :( So here are some of our pics from the adventure to take a look at.... our first

outing to the market was very intriguing and we will for sure be heading over there again!

Grains for sale

Really don't get the whole Korean obsession with socks that have characters and pics on them!

When I saw this food stall I swore I would never eat intestines.... never say never!

Jay checking out the merchanise.... this dog says "Green-a-Toto" on it... but it doesn't look very green to me!

Eating out in Korea/Moving to our new place

Wow!!!! So life has been very busy over the last week and a half over here making it very difficult to keep up with the ole' blog. The good news about that however is that now we get a double issue of "Jay and Gar's Korean Adventures".
The first discussion is about eating out at a dining-in restaurant. Last Saturday we went out for an authentic Korean meal. Although one may think that it is odd that we haven't done that yet, it is not really. Going out here can be very daunting because if there are no pictures on the menu then you are really taking a gamble at what you might end up eating. So we had a couple of our friends (Sia and Mariam) take us out to a restaurant. Sia has been here for five or six months now and really knows whats going on more or less with ordering and whatnot. When we arrived at the restaurant, first we took off our shoes and then sat down, on the floor at the table of our choice. Just like you see on T.V., the table had very short legs and there were cusions for us to sit on. There was already tea waiting for us when we go to our table. Next we got menus, which actually did have pictures on them which made it much easier to decide what we wanted. At this particular restaurant you basically decided on a type of meat that you want to to eat and then you received side dishes and rice with that meat. We ordered the pork meal, Sia and Mariam ordered the bulgogi beef and we decided we would all share everything. After we ordered the food we also ordered a couple of bottles of soju. For those who do not know, soju is Korean liquor that is best served ICE COLD. When luke warm or just a little bit chilled this stuff tastes like rubbing alcohol but when it is chilled very well it actually isn't horrible. As we waited for the food to start coming out we did a couple of shots of soju and before we knew it we had our meals. When I tell you that there was enough food for about 12 people, I am not even exaggerating. It was insane. There was the pork that we ordered and the bulgogi beef that Mariam and Sia ordered (if you ever get the chance to try bulgogi, do it, it's DELICIOUS), along with oysters, clams, rice, kim chi, a garlic paste, roasted whole pieces of garlic, cooked vegetables, mushrooms, two whole fish, and so much more. The food was amazing and as we ate, we eneded up drinking 3 bottles of soju. One of the very cool things about this retaurant and many others, from what I am told, is that there is a button that you can push that lets your server know that you need something and as soon as you push it they will be over within seconds to see what it is that you need. The service here is absoultely fantastic, especially considering that tipping is not a part of the culture here. After we were through eating we asked for the bill which came to 34 000 won which is about $36 Canadian. For the amount of food that we had on our table and three bottles of liquor, what a steal!!!! After we left the restaurant we went out to a pub where we enjoyed flavoured soju. This stuff was amazing. You can get almost any flavour you would ever desire and its just crushed fruit and soju. At 6000 won per pitcher its a heck of a deal!!! I recommend the kiwi and the strawberry! Be careful with soju as you cannot tell you're even drinking and then all of a sudden, BAM! You're walking crooked and slurring like never before!
The second part of this installment will focus on our big move. We were told before we left that we would be in small apartment when we first got here and then we would be moving into a bigger place very soon. Our time had come and we were movin' on up!!! The only problem was that we were moving on the Lunar New Year Holiday so not only were we doing it all ourselves but we were doing it without a truck! the good news for us is that we were only moving around the corner. We managed to pack all of our belongings, move everything, including some furniture and a bunch of food as well as unpack and set everything up, all in one afternoon. The plan was simple, we would both pack things in the old apartment, then we brought the first stuff over, Gar started unpacking while I brought everything else over and then I helped unpack the remainder when I was done lugging stuff over. People must have thought we were crazy carrying all kinds of random household items back and forth between two apartments about 700 metres away from each other. However, now it is done and we have a bigger place with much more functionable room.

Here are some pictures of the new place:

Guest Room.... not to worry for anyone coming to visit, there will be a bed when you get here!

The kitchen/dining area... small but WAY bigger than the old place (and not a hallway!)...

The balcony/laundry room and our fancy new bathroom.... like the dolphins on the wall?

Our new bedroom with a bigger TV and little desk area for us to work at...

So that is about it... hope you liked the tour of the new place and stay tuned for updates!