First Day Off: Grocery Shopping!

Today was our first day off.  I slept in until 8:15 (over two hours later than I normally sleep :) ).  As usual, I got up and chatted with family.  Julia called us at about 9:30, but we ignored it, worried she was going to call us in for training.  Bad, I know, but we felt like it was our turn to take advantage of cultural differences.  Maybe we were still asleep... she'll never know.

We walked downtown to Lotte Mart and then later to HomeMart (we knew we could get mustard and other less common imports there).  We're trying to work up the courage to shop for produce at the open market (we guess the prices are lower), but our limited ability in Korean as of yet holds us back.  Maybe after we're more comfortable.  The weather was hot and humid today, but the walk still wasn't bad.  It takes about 45 minutes to walk to the middle of town.

I took quite a few pictures today, so I'll get on with posting them. 

 

First, a random one.  I've shown you all what our bed looked like before we put our bedding on it.  Now it's more representative of our "style." (^^  <- Korean smiley). 

Second, another random one!  The phones here come with two batteries.  You can't charge them in the phone, you put them in a separate charger that connects to the wall plug.  Oh, and the wall charger (cord) comes separately.

On our way, we saw this "home  schooling" place.  I think it's a tutoring business.  The windows were wrapped with pictures of people apparently renown for their intelligence.  Not many of them appeared to be Korean.

The other side of the window.

 

You may have to turn your head  to the right to make sense of this one (my computer's being weird about rotating the photos).  It's a lock for the shopping carts.  You pay 100 won (about ten cents) to get one out, but then you get it back when you return it.

George Foreman and Jackie Chan come together at Lotte Mart!

On a box at Lotte Mart.

I found some Kit Kats at Lotte Mart.  I guess I mean I found some KicKer!  I didn't get any though.  We're poor.  We got wafer cookies instead.

 

Forties.  Always forties.  They are everywhere and more common then cans or bottles in bulk.  This is at Lotte Mart and it's only part of the selection.

Strange name for a brand of cookies.  I mean, why her finger, specifically?

 

Snickers at exorbitant prices ($8-15)!

Packaging for the packaging. That's ketchup and may, respectively.

GIANT "Asian" pears.  At least that's what we call them in the states.  But, these are twice the size.

Ice cream!  Good variety and very good prices (less than a buck for most ice cream bars and cones which are very popular). This was at Lotte Mart, but we got some ice cream when we were done at HomeMart.  Ian had a "Hurricane" chocolate cone and I had a cookies and cream ice cream sandwich-y thing.  Instead of the chocolate cracker thing, there was thin, but dense vanilla cake on either side.  

 

Ian illustrating our grocery load.There were also a couple things in my backpack.

So, we took a cab instead of walking.  Cabs are really cheap.  Ian wonders how the drivers make a living.

 Our Philippino bananas.  They were only about $2.10 or so.

At HomeMart, Ian petted the Budweiser.  It's strange- the things you are happy to see.

Ian demonstrating how low our peep hole is on our apartment door.

Our "American" spoils from HomeMart.  That's "cheese" in the middle.  We'll see how that goes.

Ian is a popcorn hoarder.

  

Our giant spaghetti and garlic bread dinner.  When Ian went to put in the noodles, all of them went into the pot.  We found some "wheat-ish" bread.  It's much better than the Wonder Bread type stuff we had before.

Well. that's all folks.  Tomorrow I might post the pictures I took of the won (currency here).  I also may post some thoughts on social behavior here if we don't do much tomorrow.  Happy Labor Day Weekend!