Macaiyla's Yapping

I didn’t really do too much yesterday. It almost felt like a wasted day. I woke up around 6am again but I didn’t go to the gym like I normally do. Instead, I told Tyler I would go on an adventure to look for a grocery store. So I waited in bed until around 8ish. I edited some vlog content, posted my new blog on here, helped with Tyler and Tarzaned’s laundry, and did some online shopping for our new house.

Apparently in Korea there are a lot of E-Marts here. The last 3-4 E-Marts I’ve came across have been very small stores. I had already visited a random market near our hotel and even that was small too. We really need to find a store with meat and more cookable options. So instead of googling for hours again trying to figure out what is good and bad, I decided to take a walk. I walked for about 2 hours. No destination in mind and not using my gps at all. Just walking around staring into each store like your typical lost foreigner. As I walked the busy streets, I noticed a lot of soccer (football) related stores. I had absolutely no idea that soccer was popular in Korea. Each store has a multitude of shoes and shirts to buy for their favorite teams. I even came across stores that were hand making new clothing for those stores. It was really cool to see. Most of these people just leave their doors wide open and anyone can see what they’re up to. I have heard that Korea is very safe country so I would presume that is probably why.

After looking around for a bit, I finally came across what I would call a bakery. I’m not sure if that’s what it is called in Korea. The name of the store is Paris Baguette. It was a very tiny and cute store that made fresh bread, pastries, small breakfast items, and drinks (mainly tea and coffee). I got some stuff for us to try and headed back towards the direction of our hotel. While on the way back, I noticed another freaking E-Mart 24 across from me. I’ve only ever looked in them, not actually walked into them. So this time I said fuck it I’m gonna check it out and see if they have groceries. When I walked in it basically reminded me of your typical American 7/11, QuikTrip, etc. It has a lot if you need simple things like toiletry or snacks, but no groceries like meats, breads, etc. I did end up leaving with a full back of stuff regardless but still, I ended up failing my goal of finding an actual grocery store. So today (May 6th) I plan to take a taxi to another location and adventure more for some damn food!

Once I got back to the room, I still continued to edit my vlog (still not finished) and relax in bed. Mizkif hit me up earlier while I was shopping around 10am and asked if I wanted to hangout around 4pm. I told him we could but he needed to give me the address so I could see how far I am from him. The traffic in Seoul or at least my area is really bad so I’d most likely have to leave early to make sure I meet him on time for the Maid Cafe thing. I waited for him to give me the address and he never did. Emiru ended up messaging me around 2:30pm with the address, told me the event starts at 5, and that I should come a bit earlier. I got ready super early just to be safe and ended up getting there by taxi around 4:24pm. After telling her I was there, I never got a response back from her or Mizkif. I was there for 2 hours walking and shopping so it ended up working out.

I presumed this would happen. In the most non-toxic way I can put it, I know Mizkif does this a lot. I have low expectations for anything he says to me and I feel this way about most people on Twitch to begin with. So it wasn’t a surprise. I only ended up going to that area early not because of Emiru or Miz, but because I had passed that area in my taxi the other day with Nick (LS) and wanted to explore it because there are a lot of shops and I wanted to check out the Nike and Adidas store. It ended up being a well worth visit because I found Tyler a good pair of shoes, I got some exclusive clothes from Nike/Adidas, and even found a really good skincare item from Belif. It may end up being one of my favorite emulsions of all time. So I’m glad I went out.

When I visited the Nike store, there were 2 workers there who spoke pretty good English. I asked them both if they know a lot, but they told me not much. I think they were cutting themselves short. They were super helpful, kind, and pleasant to talk to. The one guy who rung me out was beyond nice. He told me he liked my perfume, he thought I was beautiful (lol) and he even told me about something called Children’s Day. Basically it is a day that honors children in Korea. Kids don’t have school and some people don’t work (but he made a joke and said “except me”). Then he ran away for a second, came back, and told me he got me a gift. It was a pretty big box! When I came home I opened it and it was a nice Nike bag. It was so kind of him to do that. I kept telling him “thank you” in Korean. He was also teaching me how to properly say it as I was checking out. But that was a really wholesome and cute experience. It really made my day.

After all of that, I flagged a taxi down with my palm facing down (remember it’s a respect thing in their culture). I was really nervous but I got the first taxi I waived down! I was so happy to do such a basic task like that haha. Prior to getting to Korea I googled about taxis/ubers and many sites mentioned that Taxi’s don’t like picking up foreigners because it’s hard to communicate. Nick also mentioned this to me too. The ride was very easy. I just showed him the address in Korean and that was it. You can’t show them the address in English it needs to be Korean. The other day another foreigner was waiting at a taxi stand with me, tried to get in, and the guy denied her because he could not read her address. I even got ballsy and showed my taxi driver my hotel in English to test this theory and he had no idea what it meant. Even showing him the map of it and a picture. Also side note, taxis are really cheap here. They cannot hustle you for your money by taking you to a longer route or they can (supposedly) get fined 10,000 (can’t remember if that is USD or KRW). So if you ever visit don’t be afraid!

Yeah anyways that’s basically it. Came home, ordered Tyler some food, and fell asleep around 9. Cool. Alright thanks for reading if you did. Cheers again to another good day in Korea. And sorry I am slacking on the vlogs. Will try to work harder.

-M