French Christmas Market.

This weekend, two of my friends (Melina and Maria) and I went to what we were told was a French Christmas market. It was in the French quarter of Gangnam (yeah, they have one of those here, and no, there is no chinatown. You have to go north for that one).

I have to say I was pretty excited about being at a Christmas market. I really missed the ones in Germany where you could drink mulled wine, eat real German gingerbread and buy all manner of crafty Christmasy things. Boy was I disappointed. Though it was in the French quarter and run by French nationals, all that was authentically French about it was the contemptuous sneers. They had some books in French and a French bakery selling baked goods at outrageous prices ($6 for an eclair? Non merci), but everything else was just western things that they sell at Lotte Mart or E Mart gathered together.

Maria, who speaks French but has been slowly forgetting it in favor of Korean, was given the 'you, pathetic person, are not French' look by the guy we bought sausages from whom she tried to converse with. This only served to make her more nervous when she tried to speak to the next French person we saw. The next guy, luckily, was very kind and encouraging and got her talking despite her nervousness.

I bought some Gouda and some cute Christmas cards that have Korean themes done in a decidedly French style. We ended the rest of the day shopping at the underground shopping mall in Nambu Bus Terminal. Its surprising how much goes on underground here. It's part of the Korean efficiency thing. There isn't enough space for everything so they've found creative ways to make more room. Having shops and restaurants on the second or third floors (when is the last time you saw that in America?), having large, sprawling shopping complexes entirely under ground, next to the subway. I swear we walked forever and never saw the end of it.

I am, however, almost done with my Christmas shopping. Jealous?

Shabu Shabu, Clothes Shopping and Iron Man 2

So, this week was fun.

Like I said, we had children's day on Wednesday so we had the day off. Can't say I really used it other than to do laundry and clean my apartment which gets so dirty so fast its insane.

But then on Friday me and a couple friends went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant which is where you have a pot of broth boiling in the middle and you stick things in there like mushrooms and lettuce and meat to cook. You fish the stuff out and eat it and in the end you have a nice broth left. Well, me and my friend Jeremy were sharing a pot and we pretty much did everything your not supposed to do; the waitress kept on walking by and laughing at us, at which point we'd salute her with out drinks and throw something else inappropriate into the pot.

Besides the pot, they also had a buffet and in this buffet there was several kinds of salad. Some had meat in them which I thought was cooked. So I'm happily munching away on this one salad which just consists of this cherry red substance smothered in dressing. At first I thought it was something like pickled beets but as I got a closer look it was clear it was some sort of meat.

This didn't bother me, after all, it tasted pretty good. The fact that it was probably horse meat (which I had before in China and so I could identify due to its distinctive color) didn't really bother me either. But then it occurred to me that meat is not normally bright red when its cooked. I asked Jeremy what his opinion was on this subject and he suggested we throw it in the pot - if it turned a different color then it was raw. Of course it did and I learned that I have been eating raw meat this whole time. Can I not be culturally sensitive for a second and say EW? I'm sorry, but eating raw meat freaks me out. I know plenty of people do it, but its way too Bear Grylls for me.

Overall, however, the meal was great and we made a new friend, Patrick, from Ireland. Our little group seems to be ever expanding.

The next day, various plans were made - Patrick, Jeremy and Ryan wanted to go downtown and see the friendship fair where they had a bunch of clubs and organizations you could sign up for. Leslie and Stephanie wanted to go downtown to go clothes shopping. Initially, I wanted to go with the boys but they wanted to wake up early and I was not down with that. So, after missing the rendezvous time for the boys, I ended up joining the girls.

We tried to go downtown but every single bus was packed - on certain buses they won't let you on if there isn't a seat open. We ended up staying in Suji and going clothes shopping locally which was actually a great idea. We found a lot of great deals and bought accessories and were incredibly girly the whole day - something none of us are really predisposed towards.

We shopped so much that I am STILL tired the next day. But I guess it was worth it if i got some shirts to wear to work and some nice sandals that aren't flip flops.

We found a bunch of shirts that had funny or misspelled sayings on them which was always a laugh. Things like "You krow you want it" or "You're good but I'm bettet". My favorite it one that says "Its got a lot of no memory" which just makes no sense. I bought a hat that is rooting for the 'Super Dry Celtics' and a shirt that is advertising the 'super dry motorcycle club'. I'm not sure what the obsession is with 'Super dry' but I intend to find out.

We ended the day by finally seeing Iron Man 2 (its been out for a week here) which was very good and just what I expected - bickering, and then explosions. Though I think it was ridiculous how they replaced one of the main characters with Don Cheadle. I mean, I love Don Cheadle, don't get me wrong, but did they think we weren't going to notice? It kind of ruined the continuity of the story for me. However, Scarlett Johanson kicked so much butt that I guess I can forgive. And of course, they shamelessly plugged the new Thor movie at the end after the credits. They are leading an obvious trail up to the Avengers movie which I just found out Joss Wheadon (creator of firefly, Buffy, and Dr.Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog) is going to be directing. I was uninterested in that movie up until I heard about that. Should be good.

Today, I plan to sit and relax. I'm still tired from yesterday and I have some American TV watching and cleaning to catch up on. I'm in for a lazy Sunday.