Stop & Chat: January 15

Uh... today wasn't supposed to be as long or busy as it ended up being. We needed to go into Yongsan for some paperwork that needed to be filled and M's day off correlated with two of his friends' weekends, so we all got together and explored. There were three main places we went to: a new to us multi building mall of sorts, Itaewon, and the mall by Yongsan that we always go to.

Okay. Are you ready for picture spam? No? Too bad. LOL

We were so tempted to pick up some food at the bakery. I love going to the bakery because Korean bakeries have such amazing prices and, depending on where you go, a wide variety of products to choose from. The only issue I have is Koreans evidently love to add a honey glaze to all breads. I prefer my garlic bread nonsweet, thank you very much!

We were there pretty early in the morning, around 10, so a lot of shops and vendors hadn't fully set up yet.

I really cannot figure out why I took this picture. Maybe it was to allow you guys to see some of the stuff that was available? A general look of a store's shelving? To try and convey how familiar and yet alien it is to look at products that you know but are covered in packaging that you cannot read?

Look at all this laundry detergent! In bags! I'm not sure if you can make out some of the prices but it's cheap to keep your clothes clean in Korea. Yay!!

I thought it was interesting to see how minimalistic this packaging is compared to when I buy cotton pads/swabs/balls in the States. I kind of like this look and packaging better!

Makeup sponge galore. I use makeup sponges for nail art, but I don't have any of my nail art supplies here. The shapes were fun to look at, though!

We had some fun looking through a pet store and looking at the variety of animals that were on display.

Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, birds, turtles, fish... there was a lot to look at.

There was also a puppy display, which absolutely killed M and I. I was very surprised to realize how much I yearn for a pet again.

A day or so ago I took some time to completely reread my last year's worth of posts. I cried while reading Diana's post, but I also realized that I no longer carried that weight of guilt and regret which was rather evident in a lot of my posts. I could no longer say that I was grieving her loss enough to taint the thought of another pet in our lives. Whenever we talked about it I always said "it wouldn't be fair to the new dog. We are just trying to replace Diana." This time while M and I were looking at the little balls of furry love in front of us, I actually participated in our theoretical conversation about which one we would take home.

Now I'm torn. On one hand, it wouldn't be wise to pick up a pet when we have a several moves every few years ahead of us for the rest of our lives. Stateside would be one thing, but we could also get overseas again, and that is something I do not want to put any pet through for whatever reason. It's stressful all around. On the other hand, I really really miss having a being that is soft and furry and loving and ours to love and care for and interact with. Now that we've been home for a few hours and had time to think on it we know that it's not the right time or place, but it still hurts a little every time we see those little furry balls of joy rolling around and being cute.

Just a view of one of the hallways in the multi building mall.

I don't know why this picture is here, either. Look at that colorful chair, though!

Some floors had this cool indoor plant setup that I thought looked really nice.

A closer look. I'm not sure if the screens were supposed to say anything, but they were off when we checked it out.

Hardware stuff. One of the guys we'd gone out with needed some hardware items for some models he's currently working on. He found what he was looking for and we decided it was time to drive into Yongsan and check out the malls closer to there. This particular mall is only a 10 minute drive from the house.

Our trip to itaewon wasn't very eventful or long. We just needed to use one of the several money exchanges to get a better conversion rate on some cash we had withdrawn while on post. Our biggest target was the mall which had the stores the guys were interested in.

I had plenty of time in Gundam this time around. Something about guys getting together and looking at stuff they really like makes them go gaga. I suppose that's fine considering I like to do that too when surrounded by the right people and in the right location. :) Here are some pictures that I took while walking around.

Star Wars X-Wing models! Cool!

After we looked around that store, we dropped off K's (oh yeah, did I mention that one of the guys that accompanied us was K from this post?) electric guitar at one of the numerous stores for a fix to... something. I'm not sure what. One of the tuner pegs wasn't turning correctly and there was something else wrong that I can't remember. The guy gave us a two hour estimate on how long it would take so we spent that time walking around the entire mall.

One of the electronics displays. I promise I'll get better at pointing the phone and/or camera up better so you can see more than just the floor. I'm still antsy about taking pictures in public. lol

What, you didn't think we wouldn't eat out while waiting for the guitar, did you? We ended up eating at California Pizza Kitchen.
Yes, this menu is in English! Our waitress was kind enough to give us an English menu so we would not have to guess on what we were getting or limit ourselves to whatever had pictures.

I got a blueberry lemonade soda type drink. It was delicious and not to sweet!

M got a Sicilian pizza. I can't believe he ate that entire thing.

I got garlic cream fettuccine which had both chicken and shrimp. Yummy! After we ate, we walked around some more and then picked up K's guitar before calling it a night. Only our night never ended. It took over two hours for us to drive back home. Seoul traffic is no joke.

M stayed awake for over 24 hours because of this outing. We left almost immediately after he got home from his shift and were only supposed to be out for a few hours. Instead, we didn't get back home until 8 or 9 at night. He's konked out on the couch (he wanted to lay down by me while I was still moving around and doing stuff in the living room) and I doubt he's going to wake up any time soon. I'm pretty sure he's going to be spending most of tomorrow sleeping. Poor guy. The past few days have really taken their toll on him.

Okay, I know this post wasn't very heavy on the text and I apologize for those of you who like it when I ramble. I'm exhausted and I want to go to bed. I feel like today there wasn't much to talk about, anyways. All of my pictures did the talking for me. :)

How has your day gone?