#samsan

Modern Samsan, 2024

I kind of dig SamSan's Korean neo-traditional fusion sound on "The Money".

I would consider myself mostly an extrovert, but I also have an introverted side. I love being around people, but I really do value my alone time. And in the past four weeks (Sunday marked 4 weeks since arriving at UNIST!) the only alone time I have had is going to the library to study. I have constantly been around people, which is wonderful! On Sunday, there was nothing we had to do. So I decided to venture to Samsan by myself, since I needed to get a navy blue t-shirt to go underneath the romper I bought in Busan and I knew just the place to get it, Uniqlo, a Japanese brand store. I mostly just wanted to have a day to relax and read my book, but I wanted to get away from UNIST because campus gets old after a while. So I rode there, happened to ride the bus with Daejin and talked with him a bit, then easily found the shirt I was looking for at Uniqlo. I browsed a bit, then checked out a couple of places I haven’t been yet in my two previous group trips to Samsan. At the ginormous underground Lotte department store I found some cute & cheap souvenirs for my friends back home! Then I weaved amongst crowds to the food section, got some samples, and was flagged down by a lady who communicated with me in Korean/English/body language that they were having a buy-one get-one deal on sushi rolls, so I bought some since I was hungry. Then I found a coffee shop that I haven’t tried yet, Holly’s Coffee, ordered a latte and sat down to read The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton, which I grabbed randomly from the thrift shop in Ann Arbor back in June. It’s very good so far! Once again, coffee is so darn expensive here, but the cafe had a nice vibe to it. After reading for a while I checked out the Hyundai department store. I’ve learned that the cheap stuff is sold on the basement floor of these giant stores, and things get more expensive as you go up. I waltzed into a third-floor designer clothing area, and looked at the price tag on a colorful, floral skirt. 595,000 won! That’s $510! I freaked out, realizing that I am probably not even supposed to touch clothes this fancy, and got out of there quickly! My final stop was a random office building, where I took the elevator up to the 15th floor, found a window, opened it, stuck my iPhone out and took a bunch of photos of the sunset over the Ulsan skyline. I was terrified that I would drop my phone to its death but I had to get the photos, the view was too wonderful! Then I rode the bus home and spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, and taking Photobooth photos with my roomies. A quality Sunday!