Package Envy and some Shopping
I know I already posted a grocery list to compare the prices of Seoul to those in the UsofA, but I have to add this to the list: my haircut! I went to the salon on the first floor of my apartment today and had my handy dandy Korean to English dictionary. There’s a special section for the barber or beauty salon. I tried to talk to them without using it, but when I got to the word “layer” I was at a loss. Sun Jung was the helper girl who washed my hair and put the TV on an English channel. She turned to me and said, “Sex and City” and I laughed and said thanks. Then she changed it to Something About Mary, which was the less preferable option between the two shows, but I didn’t really care. She wanted to check out my translated book, so while I was getting a cut she stood next to me and asked me questions. I really enjoyed it because she’d read it, then ask me something new, then translate for the woman doing the cutting and they’d laugh or talk. I felt like I was their babydoll in a game of house or something. When all was said and done, my bill was 8,000 won. The equivalent? 8 bucks. EIGHT DOLLARS for a shampoo, cut and style. I don’t think I’ve paid less than four times that amount! What a steal!
Then I went to drop off my dry cleaning. It’ll take 3 days to be ready, but when you pay about $2.50 per piece, who cares?
I received my first package from Louisiana Friday night. Andy and I had just returned from work and I checked my mail. I figured the note on my box told me I had a package, so I brought it to the security guy. I had to sign all kinds of stuff to have my box released, which is good because not just any old Joe can snag it. Andy said he had package envy. Anyway, I opened it up to find two books from Margo! One of the girls in my English class, Bryn, and I were discussing Mountains Beyond Mountains, a phenomenal book we both just finished. She said now she’s reading Blink, and I hadn’t heard of it. It sounded cool, but she said I should read The Tipping Point first. I had no luck in finding these books when I went to the foreign bookstore, and I hadn’t yet checked on Amazon’s international shipping costs. I was so excited when Margo somehow knew that both of these books are on my list to read! Bryn half-joked about the refreshing experience that reading here is—it’s something I’ve always taken for granted and never really thought about, but there’s some truth to her comparison of swimming in words after you’ve had a full day of listening to Korean. And so! I’ll finish Confederacy of Dunces (I’m not enjoying it so far—waiting to get to the point—and I hope there is one) first and then move on to these goodies.
I went shopping this weekend in several different places. The first was the Galleria, an upscale mall with nothing but designer labels. I’d been told to check out Mango there, and I recognize the British store name from my summer in France. I don’t know who pays full price for clothes in this country, but I can’t rationalize shelling out 200 bones for a pair of pants when the lady at the end of my street has some cute green ones for $3. I did find a pair of jeans I thought I might like, but in the attempt to try them on, I realized that they were made for someone with no rear end. A Korean. I don’t even have a big behind, but to these people I probably have a ghetto booty. Man do I know some people with backsides that would blow an Asian away! So after that failed attempt, I went to the “underground” market, where you recognize many brands from home, but at a fraction of the cost. I found a pair of jeans and a turtleneck for reasonable prices. I went to Star Market in Itaewon and bought a great jacket! It’s warm and should last me until my big thick coat arrives, but I’m still hunting for a wool coat in the mean time. And can I just say that all these purchases were made with cash. No, I’m not claiming to be a baller, it’s just that plastic is so uncommon here that it’s frustrating. I’m going to see if my bank has debit cards that can double as a MC or Visa, because having to withdraw cash three times in one day just gets annoying, especially when their biggest bill is a 10,000won, which is about $10.
I went to the grocery store last night to get all the goods for this week. I’m on a no rice, no noodle, no fried food diet in an effort to remove the couple of pounds I gained from a few weeks with rice at at least one meal a day. I braved the fish section –you can imagine the smell with everything being so fresh that the heads are still on most—and lucked into some fresh salmon. YUM! I went home and decided to cook it for supper but was a little bummed when I didn’t have all the seasonings my dad uses for his world famous grilled salmon. It came with wasabi, and I’d just bought some French Dijon dressing, so I mixed the two and cooked the fish in that. DEEEEE-LISH! I was quite pleased with my creation. I put it on a spinach salad with a boiled egg (carrots and other fixins for the salad that I’m used to are few and far between here) and thought I did a pretty good job. I opted to have apple juice instead of red wine, but that was a bad move. I guess there’s no sugar in their juice, but it tasted like stale beer or something. Yuck! And I got the big bottle, too, because I like AJ so much. Not this kind! Oh well, still more to figure out after 2 months.
Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed
Then I went to drop off my dry cleaning. It’ll take 3 days to be ready, but when you pay about $2.50 per piece, who cares?
I received my first package from Louisiana Friday night. Andy and I had just returned from work and I checked my mail. I figured the note on my box told me I had a package, so I brought it to the security guy. I had to sign all kinds of stuff to have my box released, which is good because not just any old Joe can snag it. Andy said he had package envy. Anyway, I opened it up to find two books from Margo! One of the girls in my English class, Bryn, and I were discussing Mountains Beyond Mountains, a phenomenal book we both just finished. She said now she’s reading Blink, and I hadn’t heard of it. It sounded cool, but she said I should read The Tipping Point first. I had no luck in finding these books when I went to the foreign bookstore, and I hadn’t yet checked on Amazon’s international shipping costs. I was so excited when Margo somehow knew that both of these books are on my list to read! Bryn half-joked about the refreshing experience that reading here is—it’s something I’ve always taken for granted and never really thought about, but there’s some truth to her comparison of swimming in words after you’ve had a full day of listening to Korean. And so! I’ll finish Confederacy of Dunces (I’m not enjoying it so far—waiting to get to the point—and I hope there is one) first and then move on to these goodies.
I went shopping this weekend in several different places. The first was the Galleria, an upscale mall with nothing but designer labels. I’d been told to check out Mango there, and I recognize the British store name from my summer in France. I don’t know who pays full price for clothes in this country, but I can’t rationalize shelling out 200 bones for a pair of pants when the lady at the end of my street has some cute green ones for $3. I did find a pair of jeans I thought I might like, but in the attempt to try them on, I realized that they were made for someone with no rear end. A Korean. I don’t even have a big behind, but to these people I probably have a ghetto booty. Man do I know some people with backsides that would blow an Asian away! So after that failed attempt, I went to the “underground” market, where you recognize many brands from home, but at a fraction of the cost. I found a pair of jeans and a turtleneck for reasonable prices. I went to Star Market in Itaewon and bought a great jacket! It’s warm and should last me until my big thick coat arrives, but I’m still hunting for a wool coat in the mean time. And can I just say that all these purchases were made with cash. No, I’m not claiming to be a baller, it’s just that plastic is so uncommon here that it’s frustrating. I’m going to see if my bank has debit cards that can double as a MC or Visa, because having to withdraw cash three times in one day just gets annoying, especially when their biggest bill is a 10,000won, which is about $10.
I went to the grocery store last night to get all the goods for this week. I’m on a no rice, no noodle, no fried food diet in an effort to remove the couple of pounds I gained from a few weeks with rice at at least one meal a day. I braved the fish section –you can imagine the smell with everything being so fresh that the heads are still on most—and lucked into some fresh salmon. YUM! I went home and decided to cook it for supper but was a little bummed when I didn’t have all the seasonings my dad uses for his world famous grilled salmon. It came with wasabi, and I’d just bought some French Dijon dressing, so I mixed the two and cooked the fish in that. DEEEEE-LISH! I was quite pleased with my creation. I put it on a spinach salad with a boiled egg (carrots and other fixins for the salad that I’m used to are few and far between here) and thought I did a pretty good job. I opted to have apple juice instead of red wine, but that was a bad move. I guess there’s no sugar in their juice, but it tasted like stale beer or something. Yuck! And I got the big bottle, too, because I like AJ so much. Not this kind! Oh well, still more to figure out after 2 months.
Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed
posted by LSULiv | 3:00 PM
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