Express Bus Terminal GOTO Mall

What can I say about shopping in Korea? First of all, you can find pretty much anything. For me, not so much. It's a little hard for me to find clothes and VERY hard for me to find shoes. But if you are not on the heavy side and your shoe size is 7 or smaller, well, you are pretty much in heaven. Seoul is such a massive city with so many places to go that I am not sure that in these two years I'm going to see all of it. And then there's underground. I get overwhelmed with what I can see, and then I think of what I can't see. What's under my feet. The Express Bus Terminal GOTO Mall is part of it.

The Express Bus Terminal is a station, part of the Seoul Subway System, and also, as it name states, is the Bus Terminal for the city. In the station itself there's a crazy amount of shops and restaurants and it has underground access to the Shinsegae Mall and to the GOTO Mall. I haven't been to the Shinsegae Mall, but I hear it's really expensive. I plan on going window shopping and I caught a glimpse of their food court and it looks pretty amazing, so I might just drag the husband for lunch and walking around. 

The GOTO Mall, on the other hand, is one of my favorite places to go with the girls. They have amazing prices and great sales. Gorgeous fake jewelery, shoes, clothes, bags, household items, decor, flowers, restaurants. You can find everything here. I haven't seen a lot of electronics or stationery/craft supplies, but other than that, the place has pretty much everything I could be looking for.

Shoes and clothes are difficult for me. I'm an 8.5 and that's like... 260 in Korean sizing, and sometimes for them 250 is pushing it. When it comes to clothes I have found a couple of things but not a lot like someone skinnier or less "blessed in the chest area" would find. My butt and my boobs don't really fit their clothes, let's put it that way. But sometimes, by some miracle, I would find something I love, that is cheap and that fits and that makes me a happy girl.

 I am a fake jewelery hoarder so this is kinda paradise for me. I love accessorizing. But the real reason why this is such a paradise is the prices. Getting a chunky necklace for less than a dollar is a great bargain in anyone's book.

 Raise your hand if this reminds you of your teenage years, because it sure did the trick for me. I used to wear this kind of beads all the time when I was 14 or 15. Brought back sweet memories. I should have bought it but I don't know if I can still pull that off.

 Hello Kitty anyone?

This was my fourth time going to this place and I still haven't seen all of it. It's a great shopping area and I plan on going back a lot more times.

More Information:
Website: http://www.gotomall.kr/
 Closest Subway Station: Express Bus Terminal, Lines 3 and 7, Exit 8.

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Zayda

Myeong-dong Shopping Street

Myeong-Dong is a very popular shopping district in Seoul, and it quickly became one of my favorite places in the city. It has everything you need, from clothing to beauty stores to restaurants and anything in between. I was very happy to find a lot of American stores there, mostly because I'm on the bigger side and it is not easy for me to find clothes that fit in Korea, so the awesome 4-story Forever21 there... well, has saved my ass a couple of times. They have a main street with all the big stores and a lot of teeny-tiny streets where you can find all kinds of sweet little shops, street food, etc.

 What I love the most about shopping at Myeong-Dong is that they have all my favorite stores in the same place. Forever21, Converse, a fairly big Daiso, Etude, Roxy... the list goes on and on. I also find socks for my collection for 1000KRW (which is less than a dollar.)

The Myeong Dong Converse Store has a Custom Studio!

I was very excited to see that the Converse store has a Converse Custom Studio, I have played with the custom shoe making tool online but I can't wait to do it myself, hands on. I have to say this is something I have never seen before and I am pretty excited to try it out with my husband. I bet it's going to be a little bit pricey, but I will enjoy making my very own pair of Chucks that fit my personality.

 Myeong Dong also has a lot of street vendors, they set up their booths at 5:00PM on weekdays and all day during weekends. Beware, Myeong Dong is packed during weekends! It's a little easier to shop during weekdays when it's not so crowded. The best time would be in the morning, but if you want the street vendors as well, you'd have to wait 'til the afternoon.

 I have found Myeong Dong prices to be fair. It is not as cheap as Namdaemun or Dongdaemun, but way less expensive than a mall, and the fun thing is that you can find different stuff in every area. The American stores have their stuff priced around the same than in the States, with a couple exceptions, of course, but in my experience Forever21, Roxy and Converse have been around the same thing.

Guy dressed up as a kitty, advertising for one of the Cat Cafés

I just love Myeong Dong, and I can see myself going back plenty of times. I know there is also a Cathedral there somewhere, so I might have to explore that as well!

More Information:

- Myeong-dong Wikipedia 

- Closest Subway Station: Myeong-dong, Line 4 or Euljiro 1-ga, Line 2 

- Foreigner Friendly Area

Thanks for reading,

Love,

Zayda

St. John's Town Center - Jacksonville, FL

Ready to go.

Our backyard.

 

 

 

I really, really miss having a B&N close by.

Loved this sign!

TeeTrade Anyone?

Have I told anyone that I'm obsessing about the shirt.woot community? No? Well, I am. I'm pretty sure I told you last week. I have found a new hobby. I just love it. Everyone is nice, it's fun to look at the designs. The Derby is always exciting, just as much as waiting for a new shirt everyday. Anyway, T-shirts from the last random arrived last night! I was not disappointed, I liked the two I got for me, I'm just not crazy in love with them. My husband? Yeah, he really liked his and he is keeping it. He got Boba Fetch 

 I got Lapwing Sunset:

and Cell Division

I think they are both pretty cute but I immediately put them in ziploc bags and I'm offering them for trade or sale, they're both on WL. I am on teetrade.org under ZaydaBarros if anyone reading out there would like to trade. You can also contact me here :) I figure I can trade them for something I like better or sell them and if I can't, after a while I'll just keep them for myself because they're not bad at all :) It was really exciting opening our random shirts and we will definitely be doing this again!

On Shirt.Woot and why I love it.

I've known about Woot ever since I moved to America, I think. To me, it wasn't more than a daily deal website like others I've seen before. It had pretty good deals, sometimes we would buy stuff from it and it would be nice. Nothing major. I was browsing random stuff about 3 weeks ago and I came across this fantastic design:

It's called The Dark Knight and it's a design from the talented Nathan W. Pyle. It was the shirt of the day on Shirt.Woot. I went ahead and bought it as a present for my husband for just 10 bucks. Days went by and I kept thinking about the shirt and how dumb I had been for not realizing that they have woman's sizes so, I went ahead and bought one for myself. This one, for $15 because they're only $10 when they are the deal of the day. No, we are not gonna wear it at the same time like some kind of Thundercat couple (<--- Inside joke) I just loved it so much that I wanted it for me as well. After that, I started to explore the website and I found out it is a pretty awesome community. Makes me wish I was a freaking designer! If you follow me on Twitter, you probably noticed that I have been obsessing over this website for the last couple of weeks and here are the reasons why:

Exclusive Designs: All of their designs are theirs and only theirs. You can't get this shirts anywhere else but on their website. Which kinda means they are also sold for a limited time, depending on how popular they become. If you can find the exact same shirt somewhere else... that designer is in trouble.

Free Shipping: All shirts have free standard shipping through smartpost. I am cheap and I love free shipping. Enough said.

Quality: I've bought three shirts from them so far and the quality of the shirts is great. They are soft but don't feel cheap and are very well printed. This is the other shirt I got:

Meatatarian

 Good Income for Designers: You get paid well if your shirt gets picked, it's all in their website if any of you designers out there want to read about it. I think it's pretty cool. And anyone can enter the Derby, even if you're not a designer, which I think it's an amazing opportunity for anyone with a good idea and talent. I've been telling a few designers I know but they are not listening.

The Derby: This is my favorite part of this website. I just think it's pretty cool and keeps me interested, even if I end up not buying the winning shirts, it's nice to see what people come up with. Every Thursday they announce a theme for the Derby (sometimes the themes are pretty random... like this week's "over-indulgence") on Friday, the Derby opens and you can submit your design and voting starts. Only people who have bought something from any of the Woot sites can vote, which I think is awesome 'cause it would be hard to cheat and vote a million times from different email accounts and stuff like that. Also, you can vote for as many shirts you want, but you can only vote once. This goes on for a week and then they sell the 3 top shirts from the Derby, which they don't announce until the day it goes on sale to keep the mystery. Cool, cool, cool.

Bonus: Randomness: Last Monday, they were selling a "Random Shirt" deal for $6.66. Apparently this is something they do often, because I was reading some comments and people kept saying they got awesome shirts and they kept suggesting you always buy 3. I did, and we're waiting on them.. hopefully they are cool shirts. If not, they can go in the PJ/Gym/HouseClothes drawer but if at least one of them is awesome, I would be satisfied.

Aaaanyway, just wanted to share my latest obsession with this website! If you're reading this, that means you made it through this painful post and you have my eternal love for that. Thank you!

Love, 

~Zayda~

P.S.: No, shirt.woot didn't pay me or gave me free shirts to write this. I'm not "famous" enough for any company to do that. This is all out of pure and untainted love.

Mail-In Monday #6

Last week, my mailbox was filled with great stuff!

Incoming:

I got my ATC from Jennafer from Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Magazine. It was beautiful, creative and I loved it! I have it displayed on my work space!

Thank You Jennafer!

I won a giveaway on Destiny's Blog and it was a lovely headband from Raspberry Bowtique . You should all check out the stuff they have available on their store, it is lovely!

It came beautifully Packaged

Thank you, Elena!

I ordered some stuff from Ashley's Store, After Nine To Five. I was very impressed because it got here in no time! I loved everything and can't wait to wear them. It had a beautiful note inside from Ashley and Nathan:

My stuff came in this lovely tins!

This is what I bought:

The Silver Lantern Earrings

Capture The Moment Necklace

A Pirate's Life For Me Necklace

 And the lovely Ashley threw in these earrings for FREE! Isn't she awesome? Thank you, Ashley!

Arr, Matey! Earrings

I also won a giveaway on Mikayla's Blog and it was this lovely Camera Necklace from Zenbu Trading Co. I love it! Now I have three different camera necklaces!

Thank you to all the lovely people that made my week a little better by sending handmade cuteness my way!

Love,