First Trip to LotteMart for Groceries

The most difficult thing about working in a private academy (and there aren't many difficult things...) is that I get out of work after 8, wait potentially 40 minutes for the bus (the 751 intentionally avoids me), and don't get home and put all my stuff away until around 9-9:30pm. Either I just want to relax or everything is closing, but regardless of the situation I often find myself living off of 7-11's ramen stash every night. Probably not the best solution.

So since today was Saturday, I decided to try grocery shopping for the first time. I already knew there was a LotteMart underneath City 7, about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. Easy. I head to LotteMart with my umbrella in hand since it's raining pretty steadily, but the trip wasn't too bad. This LotteMart iss not as big as the one between Dogye and Shinchon, but it's still pretty big. It's Korea's WalMart, essentially.

I head to the toy section first because one of the things I definitely needed was some easy adaptable game for my kids to play so I could get them to lighten up about speaking English in the classroom. I tried it with Uno the other day on some of my older kids and it works really well. Unfortunately Uno was like 15 bucks? And every other game was very specific or had rules in Korean that I couldn't possibly comprehend. Board games didn't see to be the answer. There was Jenga, which gave me pause when I thought about all the potential in terms of sentence construction games and such (can only remove the type of word needed to finish a sentence), but I really need to develop that game more first in my head before I drop the money of something I really may not use. I settled on a deck of cards in plastic case (always gotta think about the rain during monsoon season in Korea) that were only about $2. Kind of simple, but that's good. It means a malleable product for a multitude of games like blackjack, go fish, indian poker...whatever. I grabbed that and moved on.


I meditated briefly on a rice cooker, which would probably be good in the long run, but I decided it was probably a little early for that. Now, I'm glad I decided against it (more on that later). I head over to the groceries and almost want to burst into tears once I see the price of fruit. Fruit in Korea is astronomically expensive. A bunch of grapes cost anywhere from $7-$10. Vegetables were a little confusing too, because I didn't know if that was the price per pound or what, but fruit was what really killed me because that was like 90% of my diet back in America. Needless to say, I freaked out when I saw the canned fruit aisle and canned fruit only cost about $1.50 (a can of peaches) to $3 (a can of mangos). I bought like 6 big cans of fruit.

Korea has Nutella, I think we'll be okay.

I also found peanut butter and jelly, which are a little more expensive than in America, but not by much. Bread was a killer because it only comes in tiny little half-loafs at about $3 a pop, but it was a necessity. I have to stick to what I know for now, until I can learn to cook something or get more acquainted with Korean products. It seemed dumb to buy a bunch of stuff I had no idea what it was or if I would like it. Sticking to the basics for now.

Anyone who knows me also knows Orange Juice is just about the only thing I drink besides beer. The OJ I bought at the big LotteMart last time was kind of gross, but better than nothing. This time, I found OJ 50% a half-gallon. I decided, what the hell, and bought two. Luckily for me, this turned out to be some DAMN good orange juice. Like Sunny D with out that nasty sugary taste. Also grabbed some milk and a giant box of Frosted Flakes. Some girl had a booth set up with little samples of Frosted Flakes to try and wanted me to try some but I was like "please girl, I know what Frosted Flakes taste like" (But I didn't actually say that). She was super excited when I bought a box of her Frosted Flakes. I did try a sample of the milk however, because I wasn't sure if it was milk or yogurt. Koreans are huge fans of the drinkable yogurt concept and a bunch of milk cartons were actually filled with yogurt. Yogurt is relatively cheap in Korea, or the same price as America. I grabbed some of that (to keep getting my fruit fix).

Those cartons are yogurt, not milk.

Now, to explain what makes this shopping trip obviously more complicated than it needed to be, you should know that, to get a shopping cart, you must deposit 100 Won in a little slot. I did not have 100 Won. I thought about taking an unattended cart, but I already stand out enough here without being labeled a cart bandit. Instead, I opted for one of those little green Publix-style "I only need milk, bread, and eggs" arm baskets. By this time in my shopping adventure, I have fully loaded down this little green basket to the point at which the whole thing is bowing in from the weight of all my canned fruit, jelly, peanut butter, yogurt, milk, and juices and I have to carry it with both hands. I decide that's as much as I'm getting today and head to the register.

After checking out and purchasing a few plastic bags (which are not free in Korea), I realize I am required to bag my own groceries -_-; I probably should have gotten a summer job at Publix, becaue it would have been really useful now. I had only purchased two bags (fairly deep though) and the next person had begun ringing up their items so I had to keep reshuffling my items to get them to fit properly. The damn giant box of frosted flakes had really screwed me over.

Heading out with an extremely heavy bag in each arm, I realized there was no way I could make that walk back home, and I definitely needed a bus. Problem was, I couldn't find a bus stop. I walked maybe 4 blocks in the pouring rain (arms full, so no umbrella) until I got to a bus stop. I only had two goals at this point: 1) Make it home safely and 2) Don't let my bread get squished. If my bread had gotten squished, that would have ruined my whole damn day. I was a little impatient waiting for the 213 bus (which was the one I was comfortable with writing) and jumped on the 501 (which I knew went in the same general direction). Lucky for me, the 501 is my boy! It stops maybe a 2 blocks from my apartment, which is way better than the 213.

I am soon learning that, in Korea, you don't build up a shopping list and wait for shit to run out before you go shopping. You make little micro-trips. At least, if you don't have a car. There is also the problem of plastic bags that I always run into: do I save them to reuse for shopping? Or do I use them for trash? It's always a choice I'm so torn between and Korea makes me hoard plastic bags like a packrat. I'll probably have to make another trip out today for basic household supplies like dish soap and something akin to Oxyclean, but for that I'll just go to the KSMart near my apt (more like Publix - slightly more expensive but built for convenience).

Now that daily life is starting to get under control, I'm think I'm finally ready to see the kinds of things Changwon has to offer me! I know there's a gun range near my house and a golf academy as well. I'll keep you posted on what I find out about those...

Hope you're enjoying sleeping, America!

First Day At The Hagwon

I started sleeping somewhat normally today. Jetlag seems to be wearing off. I woke up around 9am, worked out and then killed some time while I waited for school to start. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I accidentally left my contact cases in America, so this is my MacGyver invention to replace it for the time being.

12:30pm rolled around and I headed out to find some food before I had to report in for my first day of lessons. I strolled into a promising looking restaurant and I immediately realize that there is no picture menu. There are pictures in one place and words in another and I have no way to figure out what is what. Luckily they weren't too busy and the owner took the time to help me out. I just pointed at a picture in the row and said "Can I have that?" and he counts over "One, Two, Three?" (Third picture over?),  I tell him no, fourth picture and he says "Udon!" so I repeat "Udon. One." and take my seat.

He brings over my udon and it is a bowl of noodle soup with some pickled vegetables on the side. I grab my chopsticks and start grabbing for the udon out of the bowl only to nearly sear my tongue from the heat of the soup. The owner comes over and tells me I'm eating it wrong. He gestures for me to put the noodles in a side bowl and mix it with the pickled vegetables so I do, embarrassed. The udon isn't bad. It's really thick and starchy...kind of like spaghetti but more filling and kind of squishy. It is extremely difficult to eat udon with chopsticks! It was sliding all over the place and when I slurped it the noodles smacked me in the face. I tried finishing it all, but it was extremely filling. I asked to pay and it ended up being 3000 Won for the whole meal (A little under $3). I'm going to eat there more often.

I leave with a bow and a "Kamsamnida!" and resume my walk to the school. I'm still extremely early so I walk past the school and further down the street to see what's on the other side. They have a Dunkin Donuts, a Baskin Robbins and even a Korean Hooters!

I saw a bunch of children in school uniforms walking around, so I took that as my cue to start heading back.

Korean Hooters

I arrive at the school still early and meet with the other teachers as well as an American teach from California named Kimyn. She helped prep me for the lesson and lead the first few activities so I could get the hang of it. Around the third class, I was leading it by myself and it was quite a bit of fun. The difficult part is that I don't really get any knowledge of the course material in advance since I'm not the primary teacher and I have to make up games and exercises on the fly. For one class, we were learning about directions and hunting for treasure so we ended up running around the whole campus and causing a ruckus. They're very lax about that kind of stuff and it was fun for everyone. It's kind of nice that I get to be the "good cop" and my job is primarily just to make learning English fun.

We played this one game that was like team based tic-tac-toe but you had to spell the word correctly to get on the board. Girls v. Boys. The hardest part is that some of the children are shy and not confident int their ability so they don't speak up in class as much. Other kids take over. The middle classes (9-13) were the easiest to work with while the 8 year olds and 16 year olds were sometimes challenging because they were most self-conscious about their language skills.

Modified language tic-tac-toe

Every student has their own English name that they choose and some are really adorable. One kid's name is Adonis and I asked him "Do you know Adonis is...God of Beauty?" (tried to simplify it as much as possible) and he said "Yes! I know!" haha.

In-between classes, I stopped at a water cooler and two girls were whispering by it. As I get my water, one girl says "Teacher?" to which I reply "yes?" and she gets all flustered, saying "You are....no...no...nevermind." I'm curious now, so I say "No, tell me! I am what?" and she said "very tall!"  and then runs off embarrassed.

I go grab lunch witht he other teachers which turns out to be a home-cooked meal by my co-teacher Rachel and it is sooooooooooooo delicious! I also learn the word for delicious: Ma-Shi-Se-Yo! [but written like 맛았어요 (mas-iss-e-yo)]. Korean food is so filling! I feel bad getting full so fast when they make so much food. I want to eat it all to show how much I like it!

The teachers all talk at lunch about a girl Kelly who told one of the teachers she thought I was "Very handsome" and suddenly I am reminded of the little girl by the water cooler. I describe this girl to my co-teachers and they confirm it is her. So that's what she originally wanted to tell me. Haha.

Kelly is in my next class and when the students all ask me questions about myself she asks "do you have a girlfriend?" It was adorable. Girls named Kelly apparently have a thing for me because in my high school class, a girl named Kelly asked me the same question and then giggled and said "you are very handsome." I suppose it's good that I wore glasses today because everyone freaked out when they found out I had blue eyes. lol

I think tomorrow may be harder than today, because today was mostly just introductions. I need to start building a library of education games to whip out because I'm significantly lacking in the "fun AND educational" side of class for some of these lessons.

Kimyn shows me around town after classes and I now know where the grocery store is [I bought a bottle of soju (liquor) for 1000 Won...less than a dollar], the dry cleaners, and a big shopping area called City 7 right by my house. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but for now I'm really exhausted.

잘자!