I couldn't stay in my apartment forever. 12 boxes of KD can only last for so long. haha. And I needed a few other things too, like laundry detergent.
There's a little grocery store on the complex, right next to the barber shop (woo!) and the boys were telling me that it's not much more expensive than if we were to go to a full sized grocery store in the city. There's no harm in going shopping there then to pick up some needed stuff :)
I grab my camera and my jacket and I head out the door. While I'm out there I test the door opening system and it all seems to work like TJ told me it would, awesome, I'm not locked out :) I test the one in the lobby too, works like a charm.
I walk outside the building and start taking some pictures... This is part of the buidling I live in. The one on the right, attached to that frame structure is my building, 201:
There's a courtyard next to the barber shop and grocery store that has some pretty cool monuments. The centerpiece is this mirrored ball:
(Self portrait in the mirrored ball, showing the buildings behind me)
I head into the grocery store and was greeted by a woman working behind the counter. The store isn't much bigger than about 24'x24' or so, and it's pretty packed. I head to the back where the fridge racks are and I start looking for some milk. I pick this one up and think that looks close enough, wouldn't you agree?
(Got Milk? I'm not really sure!)
At this point I'm hearing the lady at the counter in the opposite end of the store talking loudly in Korean, I'm assuming she's talking on the phone because there are pauses in her speech, and I think she knows I can't understand her.
Anyway, I continue on my journey for food and see this bag, which looks kinda good:
(The one center left)
After I take that picture I hear the lady get louder and closer to me. I'm not sure what she wants but she comes right up to me with a pretty concerned look on her face talking to me in Korean. I take a step back and say "I don't speak Korean!!" I'm not sure what the hell she wants, but she points and my camera and at the rack that I was taking pictures of, so I'm assuming that she really doesn't want me talking pictures of the food in the store. I keep telling her I can't understand what she's saying, but clearly she doesn't either because she keeps talking and talking faster and faster and I don't know what the hell to do. She starts pointing more at the camera, as if wanting to see what the pictures are. I frantically hit the review button and show her the two pictures I took of the milk and of the bag of stew-ish stuff and she suddenly becomes relaxed. She has a smile on her face now and she seems to be more pleasant. I sigh a sigh of relief while she keeps talking and walks back to where she came from. I continue to shop around, picking up a bunch of things that look familar, but don't have a lot of English on them (what's the point of buying pringles? where's the fun in that?) I head up to the counter and pay for my food. I think her and I had a moment. We definitely bonded ;) haha.
I still have no idea what she assumed I was doing, or was worried about with my camera, and why showing her those pictures made it all better... Maybe she thought I was taking a picture of her through the security mirror? Maybe she just really didn't know what I was doing and was afraid of the unknown... That's probably the case.
So I head back to the apartment and lay out all the goodies on the table:
5KG of laundry detergent - 13,000KRW
Some interesting looking cereal with a Korean girl wrestler or something - 3,000KRW
Some milk looking stuff - 2,500KRW
the bags of stew - 3,800KRW
A bag of various crunchy pastries - 2,000KRW
A chocolate bar - 450KRW
A bag of Korean Bugles - 650KRW
Not a bad pile of stuff for around $25CAD :)
The bugles taste good, just like the ones back home, just less salty and less tasty, but I don't mind them at all that way.
The chocolate bar literally tasted like sun tan lotion smells, I don't know how they managed that, but I'm impressed.
The laundry detergent smelled good. What else can I say about laundry detergent?
The patries are pretty good, except for the rice crispies square looking things, they taste like burnt rice or something. Meh, can't win 'em all!
Ok, that's it for now. My fingers are a little sore; I've been typing for about 10 hours now.. haha.
I dont' know what my next post will be, but it could be a while. I might just wait until something interesting happens, or I take some nice pictures.
I just want you all to know that I'm safe, I'm happy, and I'm figuring this all out. Wish me luck on my first day in Wolsong tomorrow!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, Take care for now!
(Note: This blog post was imported from my old blogger site to this new WordPress blog.)