Seoul Day 8/29 Market Day

Well theres something wrong with the router in the HIK Hostel. I'm fairly sure the DNS is broken.

Anyhow today was really interesting. We went to two Markets. Again the weather is perfect, I'm sweating a bit, but its only about 25-26 degrees out. The first Market we went to Nongdemoon, The South Gate. We went there around 10 in the morning. It was the first market I've got to except for pikes place, and the scale couldn't compare. We spent 2 hours wondering around the same number of blocks documenting the items being sold and I don't feel like we really got a good feel for what was there. We walked into someones house right in the center of market We didn't realize it at the time of course, but it gave us roof access. We got some nice shots showing private space in this very public area. The market is really best described as chaotic There was some informal order, but for the most part it looked like there was no structure at all. Much less ordered than Pikes Place.

I also got asked how tall I was like 15 times. Its getting kind of annoying now. I once even got called a gentleman. Apparently people are always wondering if my roommate is a girl or not. Heyoung the Korean on our trip has told us that little Korean kids are talking about it all the time.

In the afternoon there were sketchbook reviews and presentations I got destroyed by both of them. Then promptly took a nap. At night we went to another market. Dongdemoon. This place was amazing. Apparently the largest market in the world. It went from wholesalers to street vendors in scale. We walked into a few department stores only to find that the entire store was wholesale for the street vendors. I bought my first engrish shirt there. I hope its still funny back in the states. Sadly something that I ate with dinner didn't agree with me so I was feeling kind of sick later on at night. I did manage to snap some cool pictures with Matt's DSLR and noticed some amazing patterns in the city. At night arterials the naturally blocked off by vendors and the street become a place of market. Its pretty amazing. Something that you could never do in the states. Mathias and I walked back to the Hostel along Chong Gye Chong River. I'll write more about that river tomorrow. We made it back at like 2am and I promptly passed out.