Yesterday 8 of my girlfriends and I went to Seoul for the day.  Some of us had never been to the Flower Market just off the IC outside Seoul.  A mere 45 min. from Songtan and we were there.  The hazy, sprinkling day was perfect for a day of shopping and lunch.

Some pics of the beautiful flowers we wandered through.  The girls who had been there before informed us that the flower market was pretty empty, that usually it’s twice as packed with vendors and stalls.  It was enough for us to take in!  The top floor is full of baskets, ribbon, wrapping paper, silk flowers, vases and wedding decor.  For 2500 Won or $2.50 each I got  a 25 yd. roll of ribbon and for those of you that aren’t as excited about ribbon as I am – take my word for it, it was a steal.  The baskets are a bargain too, I got a set of two lined nesting market baskets for $12.

The ground floor is aisle after sweet-smelling aisle of flowers.  Since the flowers are, of course, seasonal, it seemed that most vendors had the same inventory but that didn’t stop us.  For about $15 I came home with a bunch each of sunflowers, 2 different kinds of mums, ranunculus, and some pretty pink-tipped carnations.  I’m not usually a carnation fan but these were the prettiest carnations I had ever seen.

Afer the flower market we headed into the heart of Seoul to Yongsan for some lunch at Oasis at the Dragon Hill Lodge.  When you live in Korea, you don’t realize how much you miss Mexican food until you haven’t had it in months.  There’s nothing like a 2 hour lunch with some hilarious gals combined with Thanksgiving turkey-sized burritos and a refried-bean loving baby.  That would be Timothy, my friend Megan’s adorable 18-month-old, who seems to always be the ladies man when it comes to our group.  The lunchtime conversation revolved around our frustration with finding meat at the commissary when the Korean’s purchase all 50 ribeyes in one fell swoop.  Poor Debra had her ribeyes snatched right from under her nose – imagine!

After lunch we headed over to Chosun Gift Shop.  Many of you may remember my last Chosun post.   Chosun is our Pier 1 in Asia.  They just reopened after a month-long vacation and were slightly picked over, which is great for them.  I did manage to come home with more baskets and some cute sarongs for Hawaii.

A quick stop at Starbucks for the ride home and we were all back in Osan by 4:30 PM.  A fun-filled day was had by all!