Consumer Culture

My pants are wrinkled and I'm nowhere near business casual, let alone business business. I need an iron. And some nicer clothes.

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There are places to buy things every 2 feet here. Socks, underwear, utensils, plants, apples, rotisserie chickens, pancakes, squid jerky, sesame leaves, shower shoes, utensils, peanuts, live clams, fish shaped cakes with bean paste middle... On any busy street are shops and street vendors, on any given side alley, you might find an open air market. I live right near 3 marketplaces (that I know of) that combine tiny storefronts with covered stalls to carry all your daily essentials. The most fun, so far, to venture through is up behind my apartment, on the way towards the little mountain that you'd never guess was hiding back there.

Does anyone know how to get a whole octopus home from the market? Will they cut it into pieces for me if I ask? Or am I just going to have to put it on a tarp and employ several of my beefiest friends to help me carry it?



Not long ago, I ate what was basically brined fish jerky. Snack fish are big here. Along with snack squid and snack octopus.



Chili pepper chili pepper chili pepper. Imagine this many chili peppers. Okay, multiply it by about 15, imagine it in giant heaping piles on sheets on the ground being sorted through by aging Korean ladies. Hello! Welcome to the streets of Seoul!



I'm already beginning to suffer from withdrawal from the taste of chili peppers when I eat anything that's not spicy. Some people complain about the spice, and granted, in can obscure other flavors, but DANG it's exciting to eat food that makes your face go numb. Okay, maybe not for everyone, but I dig it.