The City never sleeps...except apparently when I wake up...

I am at work right now (oddly once again the first one...do people not like to get up early on Saturdays? wow, that's a strange one than from the States... =P) after having had a most walk-filled morning. Went to E-Mart (claimed to be equivalent of Wal-Mart here but when was the last time shaving cream cost round $7 at Wal-Mart??) this morning via Subway & arrived at 8am only to discover from the guard/white-collar workers smoking out front/Dunkin' Donuts clerk that it does not open until 11am... grrrrrr and after my having to ask so many peeps where it was ("E-Mart..E-Mart"...gosh I sounded like Wall-E....) what's a girl need to do to get a hair dryer around here? (Not looking for brand-quality either...literally just one that blows...that's what he said...hahaa sry...) Hair stores there weren't open till 10am so found myself heading back to Subway only to get semi-lost at various stops...nice that people are not only willing to tell you the way (though in Korean so it's not like I understand much anyways) but actually walk with you to towards the place you need to go (one pair of guys said they were just returning home from drinking...somehow my waking sched seems reversed here...but no worries I am determined to adjust =P)...returned to Kangnam where I searched for hair salon (for magic straight!) only to find of course that none were open at this hour...hence now at work (where I am planning my courses...the pressure sure seems on now..we were told yesterday that the son of CEO of Megabox movie chain attends here as does the daughter of a Samsung chief executive... thus pretty sums up to --> C2 really needs to know her shhhh...)

Last night went to Dongdaemun shopping district...GOOOOORGEOUS. Lights EVERYWHERE in all different colors, towers & buildings stretching up but not so high that you feel dwarfed--just high enough so that it feels glamorous & protecting. Highlight of the night were watching young teens performing various dance routines to latest kpop hits...one groups of girls danced to SonDambi & others Pussycat style (while admittedly they were very good indeed, the GWS part of me immediately wanted to shout "you are too young for such displays of hypersexuality!"...actually I did shout it but give the music peeps probably just thought I was singing along really off tune)...another group of guys + 1 girl w/ impressive chereography danced to "Sorry Sorry" by Super Junior & "Again and Again" by 2PM...another group of break-dancer guys (yes, asian break-dancers they do indeed exist..good ones too)...but for me the highlight was one girl who got up dressed in very casual fashion & sang to "Ducks Fly" (don't know whose song this is, only that DBSK's Max Changmin sang this at various concerts) in a very comical way (give every high note, whereas some use their hand gestures to somehow psychologically help them reach them, she did tae-kwon-do moves)--in all, this was VERY different from what most people in her position would do on stage outside in front of a large crowd & I was most impressed by her boldness/spunk--w/ that kind of spirit, maybe we'll see her in Berkeley one day... =). Spent the rest of the night shopping round...tried on one very soft silk dress/large shirt like thing..gorgeous colors but it was so soft & airy felt like you weren't wearing anything...Emperor's New Clothes kinda thing...

That is all for now. Must prep for practice presentation we must give in an hour.

XoSeoulXo,

C2