The city takes about 15 minutes to walk to or a short 3 minute cab ride. However, within only about 10 minutes down from our street is a bunch of useful stores...electronic stores, grocery stores, an outdoor market, and the underground mall!! Most weekends we'll go out to our JejuSi downtown area and meet up with a bunch of our friends we know from EPIK, and Korean friends we've been meeting. We have a few bars ....The Bar, The Factory, and Island Stone... that we like to go to, and they have mostly all foreigners, or as they call us in Korea, "Way guks", our favorite American drinks (white russians, coronas, jack and coke), and lots of mixed music. Right now I'm loving Island Stone because it has great music and they always have a bartender show each night we've been there! Check it out from the video! There's lots of restaurants all over and little stands to get food at pretty much any time of night, and most bars stay opened until the last person leaves. And there's this cute little photo shop place where you can go after drinking and dress up in these ridiculous outfits and take pics....check out the one that Keith and I did!! I'll have to start going there each week! :)There are many places to shop in the downtown area. Department stores are very popular, along with the traditional Korean outdoor markets, where you can find pretty much everything that you could find at a Walmart or Target. It is especially good to get fresh fruit and veggies at these markets. You can bargain pretty much everywhere...just say..."kaka chuseo", which means "discount"...my co-teacher taught it to me! And to ask how much something costs...just say, "Uhl ma ip ni kka?"
There are also many little stores and the big underground mall where there are little open shops set up. These are mainly filled with clothes for all ages and tons of shoes and purses! You have to be quick with making decisions and usually you can't try on the clothes, or at least foreigners cannot because they are afraid of you stretching their clothes! It is fun to go shopping at this mall but also frustrating at times because things fit very differently since the bodyshapes of Koreans are more of a boyish figure ...long and lean with no hips or shape, and they are all tinier. Also, you can't be indecisive or the Koreans working at the store will get annoyed.
There are also bath or face stores where you can find things for you skin and for the shower, and makeup. Since we live on the island, though, the underground mall can be quiet expensive if you are not looking under the sale items. For this reason, it is popular for Koreans to order clothes or other specific items on the internet from the mainland...I guess shipping is supposed to be very cheap. There are also huge Lotte marts and E-marts, which are the indoor 2 or 3 floor grocery stores.
I have also learned that crosswalks take a very long time to use when walking around the city, although you do not have to push the buttom because they all work automatically. It takes long though because each lane goes one at a time. I still have not figured out all the rules to driving but I know that pedestrians do not seem to have the right of way and drivers can be crazy here, especially when riding the buses! Cabs and buses are very inexpensive...buses costing only 1,000 won to ride ($1), and 2,000 won for transfers. Cabs are usually only a few thousand won (a few dollars) if you are sharing the cab with others. Also, walking to the underground mall and shopping areas downtown only takes about 14-15 minutes. Some of my EPIK friends here are beginning to buy cars (for only about $1,500 US!) and motorcycles which are also easy to use and you can drive on sidewalks! So transportation does not seem to be a problem.
We have also found there to be sooo many restaurants and places to eat. We try to buy a few groceries for breakfast (lunch is provided at school and is taken out of our paycheck at the end of each month), and little snacks for after school or for dinner. It is sometimes even cheaper to eat out though, especially if we grab a roll of Kimbop...the Korean-style sushi rolls, or Mandu...dumplings filled with lots of vegetables and pork. There are lots of healthy options when eating out so we try to have a balance between eating at home and out. Plus, it's fun to try new food and meet more Koreans when out at restaurants and sometimes we get to sit on the floor with the lower table and take our shoes off!
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