The Adventures of the Soothing Moistener, the Christmas Cake and the Animal Cap

Buying presents is not my speciality. Usually I try to go by my own instincts, and I usually fail, but it never stops me from dusting it off and trying again.
Well, my lovely instincts went off right here in Seoul. Since I’m about to visit Japan for a while, I’ll be seeing Esti and Esti – one of them is having her birthday and the other one is my best friend and the accommodation proprietor of my future home in Kyoto. So I wanted to buy, well, stuff.
There were two things that had caught my instincts attention on the spot. One, was the variety of beauty and make-up shops that litter the streets of Seoul. Many of them are quite elegantly shaped and they offer many colourful ointments, serums, moisteners, skin brighteners, perfumes and so on. But most important, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, can be tested. And since I am a foreigner they usually stay away from me and just glare while I’m trying all sorts of stuff on myself. I can proudly say I’ve got less wrinkles in my eyes now. And my hands are very soft and scenty. But that’s beside the point.
So I got a hold of the first present. The second one was a bit more complicated:
I’ve had my eyes on the prize since day one, but didn’t know how to collect it. I saw it in a place called `Paris baguette`, which is a chain bakery all across Seoul. They had an advertisement of some hot chick and some lovely kids wearing some cute furry animal caps with paws. And in a teasing way, all the workers were wearing them as well.
I knew I had to get this cap, but didn’t know how. At first, I assumed that I would find a similar cap in the various markets and malls across the city, and indeed there were many caps of many animal shapes and colours. But it wasn’t THE cap. I think the paws had me...
Anyways, after giving up on finding the exact same cap as the store has to offer, I finally gathered my strength and confronted one of the `Paris baguette` peachy clerks. Now you must know by now that most of my intellectual conversations with Koreans consist mainly of pointing and growling at something, and I’m not talking about quantum physics. And so, as was explained, I `uga buga`d a little bit with the charming little clerk only to find out that in order to hold in my possession the notorious animal cap, I must purchase an 18$ or above worth of a Christmas cake, starting from the 21st of December (It was the 20th that day). Then, and only then, would I be getting the cap, and for free. `Great!`, I thought to myself, `now what should I do?`
And so, I slept on it. Not on the cap, nor on the cake... but on my imaginary pillow, pondering how silly it would be to buy an 18$ Christmas cake just to get the damn cap… However, it seems as though I’ve already made up my mind, even prior to the upcoming purchase. So that’s how it came to be, that on the 21st of December, I bought a damn Christmas cake for a damn furry animal cap (with paws!) just in order to ease my own mind, and to, hopefully, please my dear friend.