Won is a confusing currency for a little-bit-slow-on-the-math Indian. When the eye sees the price of an eraser to be 2000won, the brain makes sense of it and inevitably divides it by 20 to compare it with the Indian Rupee and responds with a eye-popping, shocking look and shares the shock with the dried-up mouth which involuntarily starts rambling about how we should have packed 50more erasers
from India to counter this exact eventuality. It is so hard to remove the "worth for your rupee" attitude from an Indian.
Always proud to be an Indian, we set off shopping in shopping malls for these knicks and knacks before the start of school. When the currency conversion became an overload as the count of zeroes became an exponential increase, i ditched shopping at these huge a/ced (or Air con-ed, here in Korea, pun intended) and felt the need to get some value for my won even though it would mean that i have to practice my play-acting skills infront of giggling Koreans ajummas (old ladies). That meant leaving the comforts of placarded boards which poster the preposterous rates to olmayo-ing (how much is it?) the achummas and ajaussis with absolute surety that i am not going to understand their answer! (Koreans dont even use a bit of English, even in their number system. They use the Korean words for numbers. They also use another set of numbers- The Chinese numbers for telling time etc. Double set of numbers to memorize, again my brain goes into overdrive, and blame starts blurting out about how we should have moved to some other country where they atleast have a simpler language) Little did that matter to the Sherni of the South, who is still a little-bit-slow-on-the-math, and we made the courageous trip to Dongdaemun.
Now Dongdaemun is a huge area, and quite hep i must add, with high end shopping malls towering the streets. But it is also hugely famous for its street vendors who have set up miles of shack-shops (with A/C) and selling wholesale items for dirt cheap prices. Maybe they dont pay as much of a rent or for advertisements, and thats what make them sell goods at these attractive prices. But the prices are so low, that nobody asks the olmayo (how much is it?) question. They just grab a basket, dump everything they need and shove it to the owner. He then pulls out numbers from memory (or at random- who knows!) and comes up with an approximate, admissible number for both parties and the cash deal is done! Bill? What is that?
There is a separate area, in Dongdaemun, specializing
stationery items. Thats were we went first. Rows and rows of goods in streets after streets of shops- Angry birds, Doraemon, Hello Kitty and many other kid-adored graphics adorned everything that a kid could ever want and on many things that a kid would never need. Enticing, alluring and seducing both the parent and child together so that the zeroes you didnt want to spend on a little bit of stuff in the mall could be lost in the satisfying thought that you got lot more value for your money :)
The most memorable quote i got from an English speaking Korean : "Take this. This made in Korea. Very good. That made in China. No good :)"
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| Dongdaemun streets are bordered with high-end malls in tall, high rises on a sweaty, grey day in Seoul |
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| Sticklers for stickers posing infront of the sticker shop! |
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| Toys, Games and everything imaginable for a kid in Dongdaemun |
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| Paper, pens, notebooks? Anything stationary available here! |
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| Kid Paradise! |
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| Oh, yes! Lego is available too. |
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| Crossing the Cheonggyecheon river, would have led me into the wholesale clothing shops, which i was denied, owing to the zeros already spent. |
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| But i went fearlessly into the shoe shops, not minding the dull lighting and the angry looks from the shopping-phobic companions to grab a good pair of high-heeled wonder for a bargain! |
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| Shoes for Kids, women or men. For a bargain! |
Thursday Challenge- Stationery
