Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Korea Day Whatever This Is: Pizza Boxes and Yarn

Yep, I have lost track of whatever day it is here for the blog purposes, so screw it. It's another day in Korea anyways :oP I had a little adventure today which I'll talk about at the end, but first, a random musing about pizza boxes here. We ate at Little Fox pizza last night and this is how the box came to us:

I loved the bow. There's just something about seeing a pizza box with a little red bow tied around it that makes you smile. Pizza places in the States should do this. :oP

Today I walked around downtown some more in search of possible Christmas ideas to give DF. I was walking down Cheap Street when this little place caught my eye.

I saw big balls of multi-colored string at the bottom of the window, so I decided to poke my head inside. I would have taken pictures in there, but I was immediately swept up by a jabbering Korean lady who proceeded to tell me God only knows what, but I assume it had to do with yarn. Yep, I found a Naju yarn store. There were three other women in there and they were staring at my hair. One even touched it. Then they showed me around the store and pulled out balls of yarn left and right, trying to see if it matched my blue jacket OK. I picked out some purple CashWool that I was handed and was looking for needles. I did the universal knitting sign language of I need needles and the woman who swept me up goes off to the side and grabs two different circular bamboo needles with a plastic cord between them. I get to the counter and they write up that needles and four balls of cash wool would be 24,000 won. 24 bucks isn't too bad for a cashmere/wool blend and two circular needles, so I agreed and paid the woman. They all shook my hand and made the universal knitting sign at me as I walked out the door.

See, knitters anywhere in the world, even when they don't speak your language, can recognize each other. Oh, here's what I bought. The color is awful and it's actually a really bright purple.


I'll be back there before I leave for sure.

My adventure of the day started after this. I spent most of the rest of my money on yarn and needles, so I knew I wouldn't be buying anything else today until I am able to change over some more money. So, I decided to ride the 160 bus to wherever it stopped. It only costs 1,000 won, so I hopped on and rode. I rode and rode and went out into the countryside. It was nice to get outside of town for a while. I saw some signs for Gwangju and wondered if the bus was going to take me all the way there. Yep, it did. Gwangju rocks. They are civilized even since they have a Starbucks :oP Yep, no Starbies in Naju. Gwangju was huge and I walked around for a little bit with my mouth open, forgetting to take pictures. I'll be back there on Friday to catch a bus to Busan, so I'll take pictures then. I hopped on the 160 bus heading back towards Naju and made my way back. 3 hours later, I was back here, petting wool and eating a goldfish cake.

Yeah, so goldfish cakes rock. I think it's basically a bean paste inside some breading, but they are really good and really cheap. I bought a bunch on the way home so that I can have the rest for breakfast tomorrow. Anyways, that's been my day so far. Tonight we're going out to eat with DF's friend Ashley. He's a pretty nice guy from what I've seen the couple of times I've met him, so it should be fun.

Must go pet cashwool some more :oP

Knit on...

4 comments:

Noneofyourbusiness. said...

Your yarn is pretty, and that was a GREAT deal! I'm so glad you're having a good time! You're being way more adventurous than I'd probably be if I was there- riding a bus for 3 hours by yourself! I hope you got some knitting in! :)

Janis said...

Nice! I wasn't really into knitting when I was in Japan, so I don't have any yarn store experiences there.

How are Korean pizza flavors? Japan has some pretty weird ones. The one I remember most was tuna, corn and mayo.

The little fish cakes are called "tai yaki" in Japan. I have no idea what they are called in Korea. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. You can sometimes get varieties with custard cream or chocolate in them too.

Robyn Wade said...

Wow, what an amazing adventure and I can't even believe the great deal you got on yarn.

Knitting Magic Girl said...

The pizza is about the same as American pizza from what I could tell. They do load everything up with onions and peppers though, which I'm not a fan of. DF said he had pizza with corn on it before, but I don't know if it gets weirder than that here or not. The menu is in Korean, so it's hard to know what you're ordering. I just pointed to the word Beef in Korean and asked for that :oP