these shoes were made for shoppin'

Today, Thursday, was a day for shopping. While it pains me to use up precious funds, today's foray into groceries, electronics marts, basements, and big-and-tall stores was a necessary one. I hit the grocery to buy some bathroom-related items as well as a bit of food to replenish the supplies I had eaten (a can of spam here, some eggs and snacks there).

I then went over to my friend Sperwer's house and rummaged through his basement to see whether there was anything I truly needed during my month here (upshot: almost nothing, but I was tempted to take half of my old crap with me—long-forgotten books and such).

After that, I dropped everything at the apartment, waited a bit, then went out again to Yongsan's Electronics Market to find a long CAT-5 Ethernet cable for my laptop. Found it quickly, a 5-meter cable, then hopped in a cab for the short ride to Itaewon, where I went into a big-and-tall store and bought a white tee shirt (forgot to bring some tees from home).

At the end of a long day, I stopped at the local eyewear shop and got myself a set of new contact lenses. As expected, the whole process was amazingly inexpensive and took only about 25 to 30 minutes: I paid nothing for the eye exam, and paid only W70,000 for the lenses. That's about $63, US. In the States, those same lenses would have cost me $260: $90 for the eye exam, plus $170 for the lenses. I suspect that part of the reason why eyewear is so cheap in Korea is that a high proportion of the population has very bad eyes. There are glasses/contacts shops on almost every street corner here.

The most important purchase, though, was the CAT-5 cable. I can now sit and blog at the kitchen table while parked in a regular old chair—no more cross-legged nonsense, no more excruciating back pain, praise Allah.

PS: Sperwer has been working freakishly hard at bodybuilding for the past couple of years, and he's participating in the Mr. Seoul competition this coming May 5th. I plan to be there to root for him, despite my awkwardness at the thought of hanging around a bunch of greased-down musclemen. Since I just learned how to take pictures on my antiquated rent-a-phone, I may soon have something horrifying to put on the blog.


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