by kilroy » Sun Nov 07, 2004 6:24 am
so i just bought a new camera. it's a nikkon coolpix 4100. it's got 4 effective megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and takes movies with sound. i got with a case, rechargable batteries and a battery charger, a 128mb memory card, a usb port to upload them onto my computer, and av cables so the films can be watched on a real tv. all for 310,000 won (about 250 bucks).
my rommate and friend, seung min, helped me get it. we rode the train from onyang station (but with standing only tickets for a 1 and a half hour ride ) and arrived later at yongsa station, a newly constructed trainstation (i believe it was operational in march) around which there is a sprawling shopping mall which you enter into as soon as you leave the station. the place is still pretty new, and not all the retail spaces have been taken up yet. we went to a big electronics mart on the first floor, where there are rivalling vendors in different kiosks all around. i basically bounced from vendor to vendor and let seung min do his thing. you should have seen him! he was like a used car salesman, i swear! at one point, he had vendors almost arguing about who would give his wei gook friend (me) the best deal. when it came down to it, i bought the camera from a very professional-looking dude who sat me down and explained to me the cost for each thing i wanted (in korean, no less), and we (or rather, my friend) negotiated on an item by item basis. it was pretty cool.
after that, i treated him to dinner and we grabbed some baskin robbins and went outside the mall to wait for his friend who was on her way to meet us before we took off. at that point i chased away some shady drivers who were trying to rip off some less than savy travellers (less savy than me, can you imagine?). 20,000 won for a ride to itaewon! those fuckers were nuts! i asked them what they were looking for (it was the outback steakhouse in itaewon, which is the westerners quarter of seoul. really, what the fuck, why go to korea to eat at an american restarunt in the american part of the city? maybe i should have let them get ripped off), then explained how to get there by subway and bus, which would cost them about 1500 won each. seung min's friend was late, so we had to take off for the train before meeting her, unless we wanted to pay another 5000 won for tickets back. i told seung min that i'd make it up to him next time we were in seoul by having a huge bash. we rode on the train with standing tickets again, and the train ride back was much more uncomfortable than the ride to seoul. after we arrived in onyang, we caught a bus for shinchang and got back on campus at about 8:00pm. all in all, a pretty good day.
when they ask how you feeling
you tell em you feeling like something important died screaming
you tell em you feeling like something even more important arrived breathing
something you should probably try feeding