Girls Night!

I needed to go shopping for Chris for Red Day, which is Valentine's Day for guys in Korea (we explain more about this in another post). I asked some of the teachers at the school if they wanted to take me shopping, since I don't completely know my way around. So the two teachers that I went with are named Claire and Janelle. We began our night with a cup of coffee at the Paris Baguette located in the same building as our school is. We decided where to go shopping and discussed the rest of our plans for the evening. After taking a short bus ride back to our apartment to drop off some things, we searched for a Seoul taxi. There are two different kinds of taxis: those that go to Seoul and those that stay in the city. We had to stop a few taxis and ask before we found one that would take us to Seoul.
We decided to go shopping in Itaewon. Itaewon is the place that you would most commonly find foreigners, specifically teachers and soldiers. It is located near one of the US military bases, so you will find many soldiers there. The girls took me first to a building with a lot of souvenir like items that were specific to Korea. I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy Chris there. We might get some things later, or look at that kind of stuff to bring back home with us. We then went to a men's dress store to look at some clothing found something small for him there.
I had asked Claire to help me find a women's clothing store while we were out. It is difficult to find clothing here in Korea. While at this store, called Big and Tall for women, I learned that the smallest size would be an American size 10. Now, I know many people that would not find that to be considered large, but here everything runs smaller. The prices weren't unbelievably cheap, but they were reasonable for the most part. I found a cute Aeropostale hoodie and a couple other shirts to wear for comfort, as I had brought mostly dress clothes with me to Korea. I needed some comfortable clothing to wear outside of school. We started discussing dinner and Janelle suggested Indian food. I mention that I had never had Indian food, so that's where we went.
I believe the place was called Agri. I could be completely wrong on that. It was basically an underground restaurant. It had a very dim lit atmosphere with both Indian and European accents. This menu had the most English I have seen yet. It not only told you what each item was in English, but also gave a good description of each dish. The price range was quite a bit higher than Chris and I have been spending here. I spent 19,000 won on my whole meal. I had lamb makhni with garlic naan. The lamb was cooked with a mild curry and had a creamy flavor to it as well. I ordered lamb, because I have only had it one other time. It was very tender and delicious. The garlic naan was a bit too much garlic for me. I had to learn how to eat the food also. Basically from watching Claire and Janelle, you are suppose to dip the naan in the sauce. There was a lot of sauce so I wasn't sure what to do with all of it. Janelle ended up finishing my naan for me because I was too full.

We had planned to go to a place called the Traveler's Bar and Grill. Thursday night is ladies night and there are discounts on drinks. Well, the other teachers canceled on us and we mostly wanted to go there to socialize over the drinking part. So, we decided to head back home. Since we went home a bit earlier, Janelle introduced me to a very nice arts and crafts store in the building across the street from our apartments. I found a gift for Chris there. They had reasonably priced art supplies there as well as several things that I feel I could find useful to help with my teaching this coming year.

All in all, I had a very nice night and hope to enjoy more girl time this year. Chris spent his evening exploring different parts of Bundang.