Grocery Shoppin ROK style!

I LOVE to go shopping. Say what you will about my lack of masculinity but at least I'm not in denial about it. I could literally spend hours at the grocery store, even the small ones. I think my mild obsession with grocery shopping is rooted in three things;

1. I love the luxury of grocery stores. There's something incredibly satisfying about knowing that you can go inside a building and not only find the bear necessities but the finer things too. Grocery stores are an incredible testament to our evolution as a species. If I'm hungry, I don't need to go hunt down an animal, or forage in the woods for berries. I just drive three blocks and buy it!

2. In a grocery store, I'm constantly surprised by the kind of crap we pass off as food and it always puts a smile on my face to find the new crazy invention some marketer came up with to get kids to pester their parents to buy. There's almost an art to the many ways high fructose corn syrup can be crafted into things that resemble food. I appreciate that craftiness even if it is leading to the demise of western society.

3. I love food.

So when we decided to go to Korea, one of the many things on my list of things I will miss was our grocery store. After our first year here, it couldn't have proven to be more true. I freakin LOVE HEB, and am convinced that few other stores in the world can match it's affordability, customer service and wide selection. Yes, I will gladly advertise for you HEB and all you must do is continue to be a beacon of light and hope in this world. HOWEVER, one thing I was excited about prior to coming was seeing how grocery stores stacked up in Korea. I must say, while my heart still belongs to HEB, I have to give a tip of my hat to the new level of shopping extravagance that Koreans have taken their grocery stores to. I give you....EMART!

Now, don't be surprised by the apparent lack of space this store seems to occupy for where we Texans are known for building out, the Koreans build up, and up...and up some more. This "grocery" store took up 5 floors of this city block building and it's not even the biggest one around!

One bad thing that this "upwardness" results in is a rather long trip in between floors. The "walkalators" as I like to call them can add an extra 10 minutes to your exit time so making a quick run to the store for milk really isn't possible, BUT, instead of having to run 2 football fields to get to the shampoo like we would back home, you simply take the walkalator up a floor or two to the cosmetics floor.

One cool thing about the walkalators is that the ramps are rather steep, so to keep your cart from flying down the ramp, they have installed strong magnets on the wheels of each of the shopping carts that firmly lock your basket into place. Pretty clever if you ask me. 

Now before we left, I noticed that more and more stores were offering free samples of certain items a bit more frequently than usual. When we got to Korea, I was a bit surprised to see the sampleteers out in their stores as well. HOWEVER, they can be a bit deceiving for not all of the staff standing around are there to offer you a free tasty morsel.

Some of them are simply trying to drum up some business by telling you what amazing deal they have going on. And some of them are even working in the sex appeal just to add that extra edge.

My guess is, this is what happens when you have a population bursting at the seems and a job market that somehow seems to get increasingly smaller.

One last thing to note is that while we Texans also have our fair share of obsession with certain food products, Koreans seem to go a little overboard on having varieties of the same damn thing. Granted, most of the kimchi they offer are in fact different veggies prepared in kimchi fashion,

 
but Ramen? You just can't tell me that each brand has it's own unique flavor! It's freakin RAMEN!

And Tuna!? Why the heck is there so much tuna!? IT ALL TASTES LIKE TUNA!!!

And no grocery store is complete with out a foreign foods section, though I must say, this one was rather pitiful.

And as you check out, you have the option of either bagging your groceries, or simply grabbing a used box and tossing it all in. A great way to recycle in my opinion!

So there you have it. A typical Korean style grocery store.

For the record, I was rushed for time and didn't get to take any pictures of the other departments. Perhaps in a future post I will give you a taste of the rest of what Emart has to offer.

Trick Art Museum

 A friend of ours (a Korean friend) recently found a group deal to a trick art exhibit.  I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but it sounded fun and was going to cost us only about 6 bucks.  "Yea, sounds great!" I said

The day started out with rain, which explains my boots and umbrella, however despite or maybe because I wore rain gear, it didn't rain the rest of the day.

The museum itself is free to guests everyday, but their exhibits, such as the one we visited cost mula. It was a very Korean exhibit, and when I say Korean, I mean because Koreans love to take pictures of themselves.  Now, I am aware, that I have absolutely no room to judge as my camera seems to be out taking way too many photos ALL of the time, but this museum, well, let's just say, if you didn't bring a camera, it wouldn't be worth even the six bucks. It was all about the camera, all about the pictures.  The exhibit were "3D" pictures in which the viewer was encouraged to insert themself in the painting.

There was a magic show (all in Korean) with silly music and a bad magician, and even a caricature artist who wasn't very good.  And don't get me started on the "3D" show.  Only if you sat smack in the middle did you see "3D" which I did not, so instead, I saw two of everything even with my silly glasses.

But we had fun with our friends, and as I enjoy taking photos, even though the lighting they had set up were awful and washed out everything, it was a very enjoyable day.

this one was by far the coolest. Can you spot me?

Oh no, kyle's being run over!

escaping from a painting.

in an upside down house.

falling through the sky

the gator is eating me!

save the building!

funny mirrors

and of course kyle's favorite part- weapons!

Don't play with fire

the coat before the burn.

Don't play with fire, and don't stand too close to a heater.  I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing how much I hate the cold.  At this point, I probably don't need to go into more details about how the cold completely debilitates every limb and turns me into a icicle-covered slug.  However, my solutions to warming up are not always the most advised.  For example, once when camping in the hill country with Leslie and Jen (my lovely friend soul mates from high school) I tried to warm my feet by the fire.  It was summer, and in Texas, that means generally it is hot, however, even in Texas, by night time, the air cools down quite a bit, and my feet are the first things to get cold. I believe I had put socks on, however, for some reason, I had kept my flip flops on.  (Note to readers: do not do this)  Why would wearing flip flops next to a fire be such a bad idea?  Fire melts rubber or plastic or whatever Old Navy flip flops are made from.  The fire melted the bottom  so much that the thong broke, and the shoes were never again wearable.
In Chile, I was so cold, I made an unconscious effort to gain weight.  You read correctly. I was so cold, I ate more; more than I normally would in an effort to protect my body from the gelid temperatures.  I did not like the results in the summer time.

And in Korea, what did I do? I stood too close to the heater.  In the auditorium, there is no central heating, but instead a large industrial heater was responsible for warming the room. I couldn't get warm enough, so I slowly inched closer and closer to the heater, while still wearing my large insulated coat. I didn't even notice the huge burn mark until after the ceremony had concluded. I didn't notice the huge brown blotch on my jacket I purchased in Italy in 2005.  I continued to wear it throughout the winter season, even with the unseemly blotch, but I even my cheapness has its limits.  I will miss that jacket.  We had fun times together.

The "Free" Trip

So I meant to write this post ages ago, but since I can't seem to ever sit down to write about it, I am just going to do a brief play by play.

You might have seen the video I posted last month. If you didn't, click here to view it.

We were told that we were being offered a "free trip."  And there was a boat ride involved.  

"yippee!" we said

At 11 pm at night we boarded the equivalent to a polar express except that instead of Christmas themed, was solar system themed.  I felt like I was bound for outer space.

We conked out until we were woken at 3 am to board a bus.

This bus took us to a beach, the purpose of which was to watch the sunrise.  Either we were facing the wrong direction or the fog made it impossible to make out the sun, but I never saw a sunrise.  The sky did gradually get lighter, but it was far from spectacular when all I really wanted to do was to sleep.

The bathhouse was next.  I thought maybe there would be places to sleep like in a normal jimjilbang, but alas, no, only lots of naked Korean women cleaning, and scrubbing vigorously and the multiple pools of bath water.  I was sleepy and grumpy and not delighted to be sleep cleaning.

Psychodelic train. We weren't sure it was going to take us anywhere sane!

someone put a lot of time and effort into this train

happy to be on the spaced out train

on our way to the green tea fields

Next stop: Green tea field. In the early morning dew, the green tea field glittered like gossamer. The humidity's percentage level was so high that I felt we were constantly swimming, breathing in droplets as we toured the bushes of tea.  It was beautiful, and moving, and cheered me up from my previous zombie level I had been previously been participating at.

the fog also had an effect on the trees

the entrance

but the fog did make it the scenery stunning.

Non of us could dry off as the humidity was literally tangible.

too bad our hair is drenched

We then headed to a pottery festival.  There were many activities to be had, including spinning (I think that's the appropriate term), but unlike at the mud festival, the pottery festival did NOT  offer to fire our pot bowl.  Which basically means that the hardened, unglazed, unfired bowl becomes a waste of space.  It serves no purpose except to sit uncomplimentary in our kitchen as it cannot be used for food as it cannot be washed.    Oh well, making it was fun anyways.

The boat ride mysteriously was nixed, and the final market before we were to return home ended up to be closed this particular Saturday.

yummy silkworks!

Before returning on our psychedelic train ride home, we visited the train museum.  Kyle and I found a petting zoo, and spend most of our time petting and feeding the adorable rabbits. The donkey's however hilarious, were not as cute.  Especially when he mistook my dress for food, and chopped down rather powerfully on my leg, leaving a significant bruise which lasted for weeks.


This trip had been free, so although the trip had obvious holes, it was lovely regardless and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.