Navigating the Grocery Store

The next day I walked to the school and spent my first full 9:30 - 5:15 day, watching classes, which included "Hospital," "Dance," "Homestay," "Drama" and "Spelling Bee". OH and cafeteria food which was a disappointing medley of not quite Korean/not quite Western food.

After school I got directions to TESCO, the big Loblaws/Walmart store here, where you can buy everything it seems. I wandered around the food court for awhile before deciding on something familiar: a chicken burger and fries! Or not... the fries were what I'm used to, but the chicken burger was deep fried and taste-wise completely ambiguous, and had a lot of very sweet soy type sauce on it, as well as mayonnaise and lettuce. It makes me shudder to recall it.

Anyway, shopping was an experience, as most things are Korean with perhaps a word or two in English. It must have taken me two hours of wandering and miming and pointing and mumbling "Gam.sa.ham.ni.da" (thank you) before I had the ten or so items I came for.

At the checkout counter I shrugged and nodded and smiled my way through accepting bags and paying, but for some reason my broccoli was taken away from me, and I'm not sure if I will ever know why.

On the way home, a torrential downpour began. (Summer is monsoon season here, and I suppose we are still getting the tail end of it now) As I stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, absolutely drenched but happy that it was about 30 degrees out, a middle aged woman came up to me, put her umbrella over my head and attempted to extract one of my grocery bags from my hand. Somewhat startled I resisted, smiling and nodding and shrugging away, until she relented, but she continued to hold the umbrella over my head and then, when the light turned, angrily grabbed the bag from me in a flood of Korean, and then, using gestures and nods and pointing, walked me all the way home! I was shocked! I don't think that would happen anywhere else in the world, and sadly all I could do at our parting in thank you was to say my only Korean word, Gam.sa.ham.ni.da about fourteen times and to bow. She seemed to be happy with this though, and walked off into the night.