Another Trip to Dongdaemun Market

The train pulling into Suwon Station. See the serviceman to the
right of the picture, we see a lot of them around Seoul Station. A
Korean man must serve a two+ year term in the military or give
up his citizenship.

Entrance to the train. Your ticket tells you what car you are in and
you are also assigned seats just like on an airplane. We (Curt) made
the mistake of trying to exit the train last week by the rear of the car
since our seats were closed to that exit. Wrong! We ended up going
against people entering the train and had a really hard time getting
off the train. For a moment, I was afraid the train would leave with
us still on it. Sometimes it stops for only a minute.

This is some kind of train attendant. They wear
white gloves as they work.

Dongdaemun Shopping Center where all the fabric and beads are.

Another building in the same area. This was taken during lunch time

and shows you what Koreans do during lunch. I've never seen so

many white shirts in one area.

Hanbok silk fabric I bought. It was $4.00 US a yard. I couldn't believe
the prices.

A bunch of beads I bought. They were $1.00-$2.00 US a bag.

More wire and findings. This spending has got to stop!

A housewarming gift from the wife of a co-worker of my husband's.

The gift also included this apron and oven mitt

which Curt is modeling for me. He is becoming

more Korean everyday hence the apron and

peace sign. Korean men will wear aprons when
working in the kitchen. Women wear them too!

Namdaemun Market - Beads and Findings

Row after row of bead and finding vendors. This is a wholesale market.

Tiffani had the largest selection of sterling findings I have
ever seen. I should have brought a shopping list. I forgot
to buy toggle clasps. Oh well, we will have to go back.

This is Seo Woo and a store that specializes in gemstones. I was
overwhelmed at their selection.

A picture of me going through the beads at Seo Woo.

What I bought at Seo Woo. Some of it, I don't even know what it is
at this point.

The left side of the picture is the rest of the gemstones

I bought at Seo Woo, the right side is the sterling silver

findings I bought at Tiffani. I needed bead caps and

that's what I bought. But now I can think of a bunch

of other things I needed!

A big THANK YOU to Rae at http://www.raescreations.com/ for her help in my bead finding quest here in Seoul. Her blog mentioned beading shopping in Namdaemun Market and I knew where we were going on our next trip to Seoul. We had trouble finding the Mesa Shopping Mall in Namdaemum Market which is where the bead shops were located. We even had a picture from Rae's blog but we still had to ask several times to find it.

It was also pouring rain most of the day and we were drenched.

We did have an interesting thing happen. Since it was raining, we both had umbrellas and had to close them to enter several of the shops in Namdaemun Market. Curt always went first into the store and I followed. I was asked in two different stores to leave my wet umbrella outside of the shop. Most shops have a bucket for umbrellas. I did know about this but I had seen some other Korean customers go in with their umbrellas and I really wasn't thinking. They never said anything to Curt just me causing me to have to leave the store and then return. I think this happened three times before it sank into me. Do you know how it is when you are looking into a shop window and see something you like and you just go into the store. I'm not even thinking at that time, I'm on a mission! That's why it happened so many times. Curt couldn't believe they wouldn't say anything to him. He thinks they are a little intimidated of him because he is quite tall.

I did start to take it personally which I shouldn't have. I know about the wet umbrellas in stores. A lot of stores and restaurants actually have disposable plastic umbrella covers(bags) in the entryway to their stores. Suwon Station even has one where it blows air into the plastic cover so you just stick your wet umbrella into it and rip off the bag with your umbrella in it. Will I ever learn?