Pay Day

After about 7 weeks of penny-pinching, I finally got paid!!! It was a delicious feeling. Well. The first thing I got was a cell phone. In Korea, you can't really get a land line (unless you're a local, and even then no one has one). So. I needed a phone to be contacted by work / friends so that is the story of the cell phone. It's about $20-$30 a month. Depending on how much I talk. Also, my phone number is weird! It's in this arrangement: 000-0000-0000. It is very sleek. I also bought a little mushroom from Super Mario Bros. to put on the phone. Please observe:



It's a little blurry, but my camera also isn't the best. You get the idea.

I'm officially in the 21st century now. It's still a little confusing, but I'm getting used to it. My last cell phone was 9 years ago and it was the black and white Nokia 5110 . You know... the one that would just turn off whenever it felt like it? haha. The good old days.

The next day (Saturday) we went to Myung-dong again. It was pretty fun, and I got some clothing. Shopping is different here in Korea! Everything from sizes to the way they literally stand right next to you staring at you while you browse through the stores.

The first major thing I noticed was the sizes. I am usually a medium in Canada. I have a thin body, but my arms are long. That's somewhat normal in Canada. BUT. In Korea, if you have long arms like me, it's assumed that you're grossly obese. As a result, I would find things that fit me perfectly around the chest/stomach area, but the arms were short (I mean like half way up my forearm). When I found things that had the right arm length, the actual body of the shirt made me look wider than the Valles Marineris... SO. In most cases I ended up buying XL!!! (Which is still tight around my body!!)

Anyway, after some searching and hunting, and trying on and pushy sales people, I finally found some stuff. I will tell you the original price and the haggled down price along with these pictures.




This was 50 000 W, but I said 40 000 W. That's approximately $34.68 Canadian. (I'm using http://www.xe.com/ , so there's nothing approximate about that... lol!)

I like this one because the collar is different with the buttons, and it's lighter than my other sweaters that I wear to work. Also, it's very "old man", which I like. I think these are called cardigans.









The green sweater and this stripy burgundy dress shirt came from the same store. I wore them yesterday after I bought them. I was really daring here, I would never put burgundy with green, but it looked really nice. Anyway, they were supposed to be 28 000 each, (56 000 in total), but I got 50 000 in total ($43.35 CAN). A little pricey, but oh well. They look nice.






I think this was my 'best buy' of the day. I got a sweater and a little tie from "Forever 21". I wasn't allowed to haggle here, because it's a store something like Old Navy or the Gap. BUT. They were on sale. The shirt was 14000, and the tie was 12000 (26000 = $22.54 CAN). This is also something I'd never buy (The small tie especially...) but it's really popular in Korea so I'm calling this my "Korean outfit". haha. I need a white dress shirt to wear under the sweater to put the tie on... perhaps with my dark jeans and a dress shirt. I think that would look nice.

Lastly - and I think most importantly / practically - I bought a new winter jacket. I knew it got cold in Korea, but perhaps I didn't think that it would get as cold as home, or maybe I thought I could handle it... Anyway, I didn't bring my heavy winter jacket from home. It was too big to pack and it was rather large and made me look like Appa Sherpa. Also, we're going to China in 2 weeks, so I wanted a warm jacket because it's colder in Beijing than it is here. So this is my new jacket:

Rather snazzy I do believe. It was on a MAD sale. It was half off. The original price was 369 000 ($319.97), so the price I got it for was 185 000 ($160.42).

It's fur all in the inside except the sleeves (I wanted it to be in the sleeves too, but oh well). It is very comfy. I love the feeling of the fur around my neck! Also, I think it looks more "grown-up" than my corduroy jacket from the gap that is so old it's starting to turn red.

My goal in shopping yesterday was to find more clothes I can wear to work. I think I succeeded. I haven't gone shopping for a very long time, so that was fun. The last time I went shopping and bought that much stuff was probably while I was at Western 2 years ago! haha. Twas fun.

Well those were my purchases for yesterday. Needless to say, with those purchases and China coming up in 2 weeks, I shan't continue this financial frivolity. My goal is to save $1000 every pay cheque. The only exception I will make is for travel. (As that was one of the main reasons for coming here in the first place). SO. As such, I will be saving $1000 every pay cheque until May. I won't save $1000 from May's pay because I'm going to Japan that month. The same goes for July (when I'm leaning towards going to the Phillipenes), and when I leave (I'm going on a trip to somewhere random). In total, I should be coming back to Canada with around 10 000 000 Won. That's my goal anyway!

Alright, I hope everyone in Canada (and elsewhere) is well.

Until next time!