Korean Kodak Moments

Quick shout out: In Montana there is a brand name of shoe called KEEN. It is for the outdoorsy type. Imagine my surprise to find that exact same kind of shoe here in South Korea of all places. There is an entire store that is devoted to KEEN. It just made me smile seeing KEEN while taking my afternoon jaunt around the city. Reminded me of a certain person.

Ok. Back to the Korea-ness.

#29. The bus system in Korean is phenomenal. For 1,000 won (less than $1) I can take a bus pretty much anywhere. It may take some time to get there but the $1 is well worth my time. The downside to the bus system are the smelly passengers. As I have said before...Koreans wear their clothes more than once so an entire bus filled to the brim with slightly dirty Koreans tends to be a bit on the smelly side.

#30. Koreans do not practice good dental care with their children. Kids have yellow, rotting teeth because Koreans feel that it is not important to take care of their teeth because baby teeth fall out. While on some level that does make sense ( I said SOME level) it's just gross.

So today was spent losing myself in downtown Pohang. The majority of my friends went to Seoul for the weekend but due to the fact I will not get paid for a few more weeks and the money is dwindling I decided to stay in town. I took in the sights and went to little shops, homeplus and finally Jukdo Market. The market has everything. Live and dead fish, fabric, vegetables, purses, clothing, hats, kitchen gadgets...everything. It's loud and the smell is overwhelming but it's awesome. I didn't end up buying anything at the market but now that I know where it is i'm sure it will only be a matter of time before I have my first Jukdo purcahse under myh belt.

I did however buy my first Korean t-shirt! Koreans love weird tshirts that make no sense. They also love tshirts with American colleges, states or sayings or on them. I saw one today that said "Indiana." One that said "Montana" on the front and "State" on the back. I even saw a "New Jersey." They love anything and everything to do with America. Mine says "Freak Love" with a girl wearing huge sunglasses. It rocks. trust me.

As soon as I get my charger from my mom get ready for pictures of everything I keep describing.

During my excursion around the city I stopped in at homeplus to get a few things for the apt and some food. My homeplus-ing takes quite a bit of time since i'm not used to where everyhthing is and Koreans think it's funny to move the produce. Often. I can just hear them laughing at eachother "hahaha...those Americans think honey mustard is in aisle 5. Let's fuck with them and move it to 4. Hehehe." Well if I spoke Korean i'm sure that would be what they're saying.

So i'm looking for honey mustard and as soon as I find it the song "We are the Champions" starts blaring over the loud speakers. Perfect timing. The Korean shoppers around me don't seem all that thrilled by it but I couldn't stop smiling. Not only do I have my honey mustart but this song is the first English song I have heard since I have been in Korea. I started to sing along under my breath when a little girl heard me and started to sing with me...complete with the use of an imaginary microphone.

It was such a Kodak Korean moment.

Becoming Domesticated

So I have a little favor from anyone that reads this thing. If you find something amusing that i've written give me a lil' comment. I'm a little cut off from the people from home and a comment every once in awhile would sure brighten up my day. Just a wee suggestion.

Ok..back to those Koreans we've all grown to love.

#14: Koreans hate snow. Today in Pohang we got about 2 inches of snow. In the Midwest 2 inches isn't enough to stop a football game or cause delays in travel of any kind. In Pohang its enough to cancel school, cause delays in all forms of transportation and be basically a pain in the ass. The city does not have any kind of snow removal vehicles so what do they use? Construction bulldozers. Yup. Bulldozers. The things that tear down buildings also have the dual purpose of acting like a snow plow. Koreans are ingenious.

#15: Koreans will wear the same outit multiple days in a row. In Korea there are washing machines..but not dryers. The lack of dryers forces people to reuse clothing more than once because to wash and dry it takes time. Lots of it. In America a kid wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same outfit to school multiple days in a row. In Korea it's kind of unusual to NOT see a kid wear the same outfit over and over again.

Today was a big day for me. I went on my first solo outing to Home Plus and didn't get lost. This coming from the girl who gets lost in Indianapolis (her home of 15+ years) and who ends up in Michigan when trying to get home from South Bend (and yes that actually happened). It took me the better part of an evening to get to the store, do my shopping and then find the bus to get back home...but I did it. All by myself. And I bought Sushi for dinner and made rice.

I'm becoming all domesticated and shit and I love it.