So last weekend while I was at the 4th annual Seoul World DJ Festival, I saw a girl who was wearing these amazing red boots. Unfortunately, I lost my camera so I do not have a picture of her, but I can show you a picture of the boots. I recognized the logo on the back as being TOMS. TOMS is an earth friendly shoe company that donates one pair of shoes to children around the world for every pair that they sell. As soon as I returned home from the festival I was on a mission to find these boots. So my first question was where, in a country that only makes shoes up to a size 8, am I going to find these boots. First stop for anything and everything in Korea is of course, G-market.
Now if you live in Korea you are well aware of the benefits of G-market, but for those of you who do not have this amazing luxury back in the States let me break it down for you. G-market is an online...well market, that sells everything. I mean literally everything. It is like amazon.com but even better. They have picnic tables, shoes, food, TVs. The only thing that I can compare it to in the States is Walmart. The difference is that it is all online and everything gets delivered straight to your door in as little as one to two days. The other cool thing about G-market, along with many other on-line websites in Korea, is that you can pay for some things by adding the amount on to your cellphone bill, I heart Korea's creativity. Now the first time you go to this site it can be a little overwhelming. I don't recommend it to anyone who is predisposed to having seizures. It is shopping on acid. All these flashing signs and pictures. The web pages and the products available on them are grabbing your attention and then bitch slapping you into submission until you finally submit and buy something. What's funny about this site is that it is a perfect representation of the Korean-style shopping. The only thing that is missing is really loud K pop playing in the background.
Anytime that I have gone into major shopping areas in Korea, I feel the same panic that I did as a small child when I was afraid I would loose my mother in a crowd. It is terrifying and a definite culture shock. You know you have made it to the right area when you get off the subway and there is just a mass of people heading toward the incessant thump of K pop.
(Let me just mention on a side note that Koreans walking around while shopping are by far the most irritating people to walk behind. They do the "zombie crawl", which is where a couple, man and woman, woman and woman, even man and man, will walk arm in arm slowly taking in the sights and sounds of the day while zig-zagging on the walk way without any regard to the people who are behind them. They love to walk at glacial pace and then suddenly stop in the middle and stare or point at something...SOOOOOOOOOO frustrating when you are just trying to get from point A to point B)
So back to shopping...there are neon signs everywhere, the shops are built in such a way that it is just one after another after another stacked at least three stories high. On the street level there are vendors everywhere selling such things as sunglasses, purses, socks (lots of socks, but that is for a different blog), scarves, and pretty much anything you could find in the store but cheaper. In addition to the vendors who sell clothing and apparel there are tons of street vendors selling food and pirated movies. Once you have navigated your way through the crowds, around the vendors, and still have managed to retain your hearing from the deafening noise of music and girls with mega phones, you may be fortunate enough to have reached your desired destination. *warning*warning*warning* Just because you have found a store does not mean you have found a sanctuary for your senses. Once inside these stores there is either an overwhelming amount of products to choose from or you have sales girls coming up to you trying to help you shop, and it is still extremely packed with people. Just as an example of how overwhelming shopping can be, the Forever 21 in Seoul is FOUR STORIES HIGH! I had to wait for twenty minutes to get a changing room. But I am not complaining. I am simply in awe of the level of materialism that exists in a country, which twenty years ago was one of the poorest countries in the world. It is things like this that are so different to America that really make me appreciate this country. I told my friend the other day that when people ask what I like most about Korea I think I would have to say that there is always something to laugh about. How could anyone ever feel depressed in a country that is so quirky? It's great! I realized that I spend way too much wasted time on sites like Facebook and I need to spend more time blogging so that my friends and family at home can be included in these fascinating observations of the country I now call home. After rambling on and on about shopping you might be asking yourself well did you find the boots? Yes, yes I did and one day they will be mine, just not today because I am saving my money (your welcome Dad).
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