Garosu-gil (가로수-길): (part 1)

After my Sunday class, I decided to take a walk in Garosu-gil: the Mecca of boutiques, cool cafes, and any other consumerism-driven places. Endless one.^^ 

For Koreans or some expatriates, this has been a famous hang-out for years. But, foreigners or tourists, they only stated to notice this hip place recently, especially after Gangnam style brought attention to this Gangnam area. 

Just about 150 meters away from the exit 8 of Sinsa station (line 3), we would end up in a street....about 1 km long... 

with its undisputed and indispensable features of plastic surgery advertisement in town. It's a tinsel town of its own that makes it an attractive place to be. 

This, actually, looks like any other streets in Seoul where shops and cafes dot most of the spaces. But, if we look into it deeper...we'll find its own cuteness and attractiveness: exclusive to Garosu-gil.

Oh one more thing:

Blacksmith-like cafe is a cool hang out place in Garosu-gil.

 If you wanna have a chance..try it out once...

Eyra's Hour @ Myeongdong

Let's try putting it on. And the moment she put it on....she said she liked it.

Well..it's on sale..why not. 

So..she changed her outfit right on afterwards. Okay, dear..as long as you like it. 

The one-hour time we spent there and she got away with that that blue one:) 

Another summer outfit for her. 

Yup: one-hour, went it, put one on, got one, got home. 

A new Headset with Microphooe

Got back from Tesco's Homeplus at Shinseoldong. Just to get myself warm inside the buiding...^^ in the midst of chilling winter...going inside a mall is a bliss.^^But..the consequences of such an activity is....at times...an impulsive shopping. 

Out of the blue and nowhere...I was just strolling on the electronics section when my eyes caught some interesting thing that I'd want to buy. 

Of course I would not have bought it, had it not been so cheap...

it cost just a mere 3,900 Won or US$ 3.9. Hahahahaa..what a bargain.

And..I am using it for Skype-ing..^^

Thanks you HomePlus..Tesco

COEX Mall's Facade

 OTW to Bongeunsa: another story to tell. I might as well write down something about the time when we stopped at Samseong station where COEX mall was located.
The story was not about the mall itself, but more about what we did with the time when we were passing by the mall that day.

THe COEX mall sprung up for miles and miles if we ever happen to circle all the corners of the mall. It is connected with the World Trade Center and other convention and exhibition (coex) halls. 

The glass tower was rejuvenating the facade of Gangnam area.
International trade and business world-related endeavors seem to be mingled and mixed up in one-stop service & state of the arts' facilities.




What I could remember most from our passing-by trip through the glass high-rise mall was that it was a clean & well-spent afternoon.



The sun was about to set that time. See the glowing sun light being reflected on the surface of the building?
It does show how tall the building is.

I think the architecture of the building somewhat gives a different look to Gangnam area, especially when seen from across the river from the Gangbuk area.

Vivaldi Park Resort (again)

These are the videos I took when we were strolling around the Vivaldi Park at night. We were exhausted of skiing the whole day. But, the resort seemed to be so irresistibly tempting...for us ...just to let them slip away while we were sleeping. 

So, instead of going to bed early, in the midst of the Winter cold, we stepped out of our hotel room and rushed to find out that the hotel underground was full of entertainment for kids and adult alike. So, we had it covered. Skiing? check! Entertainment? check! Food? Sure!

Cheongnyangni at Night

We did not know that we spent almost half a day there. No, I mean...a few hours from late in the afternoon until early in the evening. That was the reason as to why we could see how Cheongnyangni looked like at night.

As for the other occassion whenever we go out, we also took the time to capture the moment. This time, Wawan—our friend—managed to be inside our picture .

The lighted xmas tree did shine up daringly in the midst of the crowd. Even some LED lights displays on the high wall of the store added up the Winter season’s atmosphere in the vicinity. The wind was blowing hard that time, the freezing temperature was also meagerly zipping through the loops in our not-that-thick jackets...^^

 Been fun being there, though.

So Tired of Shopping

In a good sense. Freya and Eyra had to undergo such a tremendous ‘ordeal’ of having to be with their parents who were busy taking their time off to shop. I know that it must be so tiresome and boring for them to be inside the mall without having nothing to do...but just tagging along their parents. (Of course, there were times when they were soooo excited of finding a new playground where they could spend some time there in da midst of our shopping spree).

But, the feeling of being here in the first days and having to do some out-shopping must have been so exhausting for them. Wefelt sorry for them, for sure, but  they had to be with us.
So sleepy were they....that they just fell asleep inside the cart, especially Eyra. As for Freya, she just fell asleep so soundly on the bench while we were waiting for the line at the cashier.
I think this Dept. Store is the easiest to get with and the nearest to our home.

Night Shopping

It was meant to be a usual night-out for dinner--nothing else.
What was supposed to be a dinner-then-go-straight-home occasion turned into a prolonged night of shopping. Not to our nearby E-Mart--where we mostly go.....BUT to a 20-minute-ride-by-metro shopping center called HOME PLUS at Yongdo station.

On the way back home...

It was supposed to be me and Wawan having dinner.
Then....Ilya, my friend from Kazakhstan, reminded me as to whether I wanted to go to E-mart for daily shopping.
As I had also a plan of going out for buying some stuffs, I asked him out to go to Homeplus, instead. Afterall, I've been meaning to ask Wawan to go there as I had promised him some weeks ago. ^^
So, here we were.
Three of us were walking down to the Metro station when someone we knew showed up walking towards us. It was Elmira.

Since she was actually not in the mood of going back to the dorm--well, she kinda like to stay out for some more shopping....as I learned, so...she decided to join us.
---off we went to Home Plus....thinking that it was like weekend. Well, in fact...we ARE in the midst of holiday.

After 20 minute ride from our campus, we got there at about 8 pm. Since the store opens 24 hours, it did not matter what time we got there as it'd be open as usual.
We started our shopping journey from the food and fresh market section where we encountered lots of discounted foodstuffs. We bought some potato crisps and other stuffs.
Then..we went to fashion and toys section where we spent most of our time. We were like zoomed into the labyrinth of endless temptations since Winter fashion was on sale. Wawan, Ilya, and Elmira were undoubtedly tempted to buy some for themselves. As for me, I bought some gloves for my daughters.
let's highlight what we bought: Emmi could not decide which one to choose to buy, as to whether the red sweater or the blue one. She ended up buying BOTH:) *chuckles*

on our way back home. hwajangsil? ^^ (it's a toilet)

Ilya bought this dog-shaped pencil-case where he put his three little mice that he bought into it. So, instead of mice eating cat, he made a funny rendition of mice eating dog:)
As for Wawan, he could not decide as to what kind of sweater to buy--just like what Emmi was experiencing. But, he bought one in the end-the better one.

Then....we went to the 2nd floor where electronic section was. We checked out the prices of rice cooker, camera, television set, toaster, mixer, and others that we might need to buy later on.
The time flew so fast that we had to rush home since it was already 11 pm.
As a token of our memories of doing some midnight shopping, we took some pictures as posted on this entry.

The lights lightened up the night

Still around Doota Tower @ Dongdaemun.

the trees are all drenched in the sparkling lights

After taking an elevator down into the main atrium of the tower, we managed to take lots of pictures of us of course.....celebrating or enjoying the lightened up ambiance of the already vibrant vicinity in the area.

carefully posed so as not to get electrocuted:) hahaha

It was not yet X-mast or anything, but the sparkling bulb lights that dotted the main entrance or main plaza with its all imaginatively created bulb lights did impress the walkers or passers by in the area. No wonder that a lot of people did take their time to stop to take a pose or pics in front of or inside the lights--literally.
So did we.

Yahwe, Dita & Minju

Who could have resisted the temptingly decorated
 lights like these ones. Well, for some people, they may look so fake or trivial: Yet, for some like us...it was like a treasure to hunt.....since we like enjoying the atmosphere of any possibilities that sprung up upon us...even as simple as these lightened up lights in front of a mall:) ^^

Dita, Me, Ryan, Yahwe

We are the newly created circle of friends from Indonesia & Malaysia. It is a nice feeling to know that we can communicate in Malay & Indonesian language in Korea. And what's more: Korean language has also become the medium for our communication. English? Well, naturally. But the most important fun part was the time when we sort of mixed them up so as to make it gado-gado language that broke any communication barriers:)

 Minju, Dita, Yahwe, and Ryan.
Shoppers are we? Naaaaaa
Just a bunch of accidental tourists who found a niche of cool stuffs right here in Seoul.