Ok, ready to shop, but not sure where. It's not like we had a car and could head over to Best Buy. Even if we had a car, it's not like they had a Best Buy in Seoul, so we weren't sure what to even type into our app as far as businesses go. Once again, we decided to turn to Robert, our Korean host. A quick text to Robert had us walking 10 minutes to a local Hi-Mart. I took a photo of an iron off the internet and saved it to my camera roll on my ipad and brought it with us to the Hi-mart. Upon greeting our young, male associates, we promptly showed one of them the photo of the iron. He thought we wanted THAT EXACT model of iron, but since my Korean language abilities were lacking, I couldn't really tell him that we would take any version of any iron. I used my 2 fingers to give him the Pulp Fiction eyes and point move so he understood that I wanted to see the irons. He understood and brought us over to their selection. They ranged in price from $15 to $100. I chose one that cost $27. It was really nice too, and had a great steam feature on it. The same iron in the states would cost me $85. I know, because I own it. LOL! Seriously. The same one! Go figure!
We were able to make this purchase without knowing a lick of Korean. I really think the internet has changed the world for the better. It made our lives in Korea so much easier. With the ability to caputure photos from the internet, use Google translate when we had wi-fi, research places before we visited, get maps, and find subway route info, I can't imagine taking this trip without it. Thank You, Al Gore, for discovering the internet. (No, I do not believe Al Gore invented the internet, but I thought it would sound funny).
After removing the wrinkles from our Namsan outfits, Teppy continued to use the iron on a daily basis. We really got our money out of it. We decided to leave it in the apt. when we left so Robert and his other guests could use it too. Plus, we had no use for it in America AND it was too bulky to fit in our suitcases. It was a really great iron and we were thrilled to get it so cheap.