Etiquette Buttons & Beetles?!?!

Today we woke up early and were ready for a busy day! Will's uncle is a taxi driver and he has graciously been driving us around for 20% off. just kidding. He is funny though b/c he, along with the rest of Will's family, is really worried about us. They always tell Will not to lose me when we go in public places. It's actually pretty sweet.

Anyways, first we went to the Coex. It's this huge building with an indoor shopping mall, movie theater, convention center, aquarium, hotel, etc. It's totally random and huge. One thing I noticed that is pretty popular here is the parking garage had "women only" parking spaces near the entrances. I liked that. Anyways, the Coex is below.

The Coex also houses the Kimchi museum. It's all about the history of kimchi and you guys are missing out on a very rich history. They also showed you how they made kimchi in the old day and had samples. Here's Will getting a sample from an ah-ji-ma.

Next we had lunch at the food court. Our favorite part of any trip is eating the food and so we took our time to figure out what to get. My meal below was ramen and kimbap. It only costs about $4!!! Isn't that great? It was yummy. Will got bulgogi omorice. He didn't like it that much because there were hardly any bulgogi and just lots of mushrooms. Also, random note about Koreans: they drink water out of the TINIEST cups like we're having a tea party.

One of the stores connected to the Coex building is the Hyundai department store. Yes, besides making shitty cars, they make awesome 10 level department stores. Seriously, this place is freaking awesome. There's a level with a full on grocery store complete with produce and a meat department and live squid. Then there's an entire level with a food court and vendors ranging from dried fish to cupcakes to gyros to pizza to rice cakes to burgers. It's really happening. We'll have to go back there to eat lunch another day. Then there's about 5 levels of super fancy high end clothing and then there's electronics, furniture, etc. It's cool! The best part though was the etiquette button! Have you heard of this??!?! Well, I was going to the bathroom and was confused because there were too many buttons (which by the way, Koreans love bidets!).
Anyways, there were two buttons behind the toilet (low water, high water) and then there was another button on the right side near the toilet paper. It was called the "etiquette button." I wasn't sure what it was so I pushed it. When you push the button it makes a very realistic sound that simulates the toilet flushing so you can camouflage any embarrassing sounds. Isn't that awesome?!?! I had to press it three times. : ) hahaha

Afterward, Will's uncle drove us to the N Seoul Tower. It's a huge tower on top of a mountain where you overlook the city. You can only drive to the top if you have a foreigner with you. Otherwise you have to walk up and it is REALLY steep. We're talking people walking at 45* angles. Although it was neat to go, I think Will's uncle is the one who really wanted to go and he just needed some foreigners with him so he could avoid the hike. Here's the view from the top. It's pretty cool!

Later that evening, we met ANOTHER one of Will's aunts. She's the third we've met so far. She took us to a fancy dinner at a sashimi place. It was yummy! As some of you may know, Koreans eat tons of "sides" with their meals. They're always different but they usually bring you 4-5 sides. One of them was the picture below! Can you guess what it is??

Will had never seen this before but we had an idea of what it was but wasn't sure. Will wasn't sure how to ask in Korean what "type" of food it was so he asked if it was a live thing. They laughed and said "It's not alive now." well, you guessed it, it was some type of silk beetle! I had to try one (okay, 2) and it wasn't so bad. If I had to be Andrew Zimmern from the Travel channel, I'd say it was "earthy and proteiny." Will passed on this delicacy and stuck to the sashimi.

Then, even though we were exhausted at this point we decided to stop by this area that has "night shopping." I don't really get it but there's this area where there's 10 story department stores and street vendors that sell a bunch of stuff (mainly cheap clothes and knock-off stuff) but it's only at night from 11pm-4am. We got sick of looking around and now we're at our hotel ready to hit the sheets!

Tomorrow we're going to outdoor markets and having dinner with Will's cousin for shabu-shabu. Hope it'll be yummy!