Marga's Miniventure: FINDING KOREA IN CHINATOWN!!!!

- July 1, 2009, Friday

- Marga and I agreed to meet at Bookone, just in case the book that she was looking for was available. The book she was looking for was only available in Merriam Webster Bookstore (including Bookone) branches. As expected, the book she was looking for was no where to be found. Soon, the manager (??) called someone up and told us that the book was available in the Tandang Sora branch. They are willing to deliver it to Bookone from Tandang Sora on Monday so Marga can pick it up. I asked the manager if the Merriam branch in Carvajal had the copy, but he said they didn't. With my tingling senses going on, I told Marga that it's better if we still check out the Carvajal branch.

- We left Bookone and headed for Treats and Things to buy my clearbook. On the way out, I saw my long-lost-good-friend Raelene. We had a it of a small talk. :D:D:D:D

- I told Marga that we could check out a store in 168 selling some Korean stuff. Marga's eyes lightened up. Along the way, we talked about Kpop. Yes, I never knew I could relate to Kpop. Hahahaha.

- We arrived at the store in 168 and looked around for around 5 minutes. We left, and walked towards the nearby Chinatown. Again, we had a bit of kpop conversation madness. Hahahaha.

- After a few "miles", we finally arrived at Carvajal. For people who are not familiar with the Binondo area, Carvajal is a tiny tiny tiny tiny alley full of wonders. The tiny alley is home to many tiny shops, restaurants, a residential building, many stalls selling wet items, and yes, the Merriam Webster Bookstore branch we were looking for.

- Marga and I dashed upstairs to the books section and asked the second lady we could find. (The first lady was in the gift wrapping section :| :| :| :|) Fortunately, Marga's engineering book WAS AVAILABLE. *Thank you tingling senses*

- This wasn't the only highlight of Marga's miniventure. My eye set on a group of orange books in the next shelf. They were stocks of John Koo's Let's Speak Korean. Marga had been searching for the book since the beginning of eternity, becauase it was cheap but very effective. I bought my copy a few years ago for around 90 pesos....Due to inflation rates, Marga's copy was worth around 115php. Still cheap though. :) :) :) :)

- In the end, Marga was happy to have found her engineering book, but HAPPIER THAN HAPPY to have gotten a copy of John Koo's book. We can now both learn Korean together (with the same study material) in preparation for out postponed KOREATOWN TRIP. YEY!!!! :D:D:D:D

- I told Marga that we still had time for FOOD before her call time in DLSU. As always, I introduced Marga to Cafe Mezzanine. :D:D:D:D We had crab balls, raddish cake slices and we each had an order of hamburger and fries.

- Again, for the nth time, Marga and I talked about everything Korean related the whole time we were there. We talked about the Hangul alphabet....Korean survival phrases....Super Junior....SHINee (yey!!)....and more things Korean. Hahahaha.

- In the end, we both realized that we went to Chinatown for a Korean cause. *labo ata nito.* Marga realized that today was a sort of training day for her for our postponed Koreatown trip (it was supposed to be tomorrow. Sigh, it's ok though, more time to immerse myself in the ways of the Korean people.)


Dear Marga: Pag hindi ka na makalakad sa Koreatown next week, sisigawan lang kita ng "balli balli !!!!" Hahahaha. O di ba?? Kaya natin yan. Kung hindi makayanan ng rusty-Korean-speaking-powers natin, ngitian lang natin yung mga tao don, tapos turo here turo there. Hahahaha!!!! AJA!!!! HWAITING!!!!

Tapos kung may mangyaring masama sa Koreatown, sasabihin lang natin sa kanila "Sorry Sorry". HAHAHAHA. :D:D:D:D *wink wink*