Well as the time here speeds by us, we are trying to see everything. Impossible. But hey, we try. We work Saturdays, so that gives us one day a week to explore. This past weekend we headed off to a market we were unfamiliar with in Daegu.
As soon as we stepped off the subway at Chilsong market, we knew something was "a little fishy". The scent of fish and other things we could not identify immediately assaulted our nose. We are used to the strange smells here. But this one was extraordinarily fish-a-stinkish. We headed up to wander the streets, but I have to admit that it was completely my fault that we were back on the subway about 10 minutes later. Somedays I can take the smell, and somedays I can't. This was apparently a day I could not.
So we headed back to more familiar and less stinky territory downtown. We wanted to continue Brett's eternal search for the perfect man-bag. The man-bag's here in Korea tend to be larger and prettier than my purse...and therefore quite unsatisfactory to the manly Brett. We thought perhaps the used clothing stores might have the perfect solution. There is an entire street of used clothing stores in Daegu. It is a wonderful way to spend a day. Somehow looking through someone elses junk is way more fun than sorting and cleaning your own.
The second store we went into had two ajumas (older ladies) sitting amongst the piles and racks of discarded items. "Uh-sus-ay-oh" (welcome) they greeted us. There, hanging from the wall was the man-bag of Brett's dreams (or at least the best he could hope to do in Korea). It was small, and leather.....no hint of glitter, shiny metal, or gawdy fake name brand labels. As Brett tried it on, one of the ajuma's tugged on my arm.
"American?"
"Aniyo (no), Canadian."
"Ahhhhhhh. Ohhhhhhhhh. Canadian. Very beautiful."
"Kamsahamnida!" (thank you)
The two ladies then talked away to us in Korean. We think they were saying that I was so tall for a girl, and they are so very short. One of them then grabbed my wrist to test my bone structure. The other one had to do the same. They pinched my arms, patted my legs, imitated how tall I was with their arms fully stretched out above their heads, and then said "Oooooh S curve" and traced the side of my hip. It was a bigger medical than my doctor does! However, the results were positive. They thought my shape was attractive although it is very different to the extremely slim Korean figure. A nice compliment!
We then met up with Matt and Mel for some western style cheesy nachos. We both decided that our bodies have become unaccustomed to the greasiness of western style food. We much prefer the clean rice and veggie style Korean food that we have most nights...although those nachos tasted mighty yummy. As we left the restaurant, we stopped to look at the alcohol-in-a-ziploc-bag store/stand. We decided that this was indeed an adventure that would have to wait for another night...one where we don't have to get up the next morning. Mixed drinks in ziploc bags? Oh so dangerously attractive!
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