Since this is my first blog entry in a RE-new-ED blog, I thought I would start at the beginning. The following post is one of the first diary entries I ever made after I arrived in Korea. It was written over 5 years ago and reading kind of makes me laugh at how ignorant I was about certain things. It is a good first hand account of someone first arriving in Korea and not knowing a thing about what is going on.

Stereotypes

I don't know why I called this entry stereotypes, but I am sure I will get to it! :)

Today was a day of total discovery. I washed my clothes for the first time and did so thinking "how am I gonna dry these things", since in South Korea they have washers, but not dryers. When I took out my first load and waited for the necessity to help me invent my way out of the situation, inspiration struck...the heated floor. I knew it would be useful for more than just keeping my tiny feet warm! I put the clothes on the floor went out on an errand and when I came back they were not only dry and slightly toasty, but also flat as boards and non-wrinkly...as long as they are placed on the floor flat they dry flat!

As a note to any who try this...make sure you clean the floor before you place your clean whites on the floor. Why do I always have to learn through mistakes! Anyway, my second load is drying right now and the ingenuity of it all makes me smile with self satisfaction.

As to the errand I went on. I started by going into work on my day off to work on understanding Hangul...or the Korean written language, for the ignorant (but there you go, now you are no longer ignorant). Anyway, I worked on it for about three hours figuring out the language patterns and I think I have grasped the basics ...understanding the pronunciations is hard in a many cases, but it helps to have 4 Korean born teachers around me at the school. An old childhood friend of mine (G. S) who has lived in South Korea for 3 years should be able to help me figure out a lot of my problems when I visit him in a couple of weeks.

A Korean owner of an English School I met on the bus ride to Gumi told me about E-Mart and stressed how cheap the prices were. I finally decided to take his advice and check out what all the hype was about. A quick mention about the taxi, when I got in I asked to go to "E-Mart" and he looked very confused finally he said "E-mah-tuh" and I nodded...apparently they call it E-mah-tuh...good to know.

Upon arriving after a quick drive that gave me a good look at the entire city...so far I have lived in and visited 3 Dongs (my home Hyong-Gok-Dong, Song-Jong-Dong and Downtown)...the city is more expansive that I had thought. The hills that surround my home Dong on three sides had led me to believe the city was smaller than it actually is.

E-Mart is kind of like Wal-mart, but instead of one giant one-floor warehouse, it is a 3 floor warehouse with the basement for produce, middle floor clothes and top floor random stuff (from Neo-Ikea to Radioshack). One thing that has always amazed me about the market and the bigger stores I have been to, has been the amount of employees...E-Mart was no different, in fact it is worse.

I have always been a no-pressure shopper. I hate when the store clerk asks me how I am doing and I dread going into small shoe stores because of that very reason. Here it was hard to escape, there is not just an employee every section, there is an employee every isle...sometimes more than one.

In fact my first time downtown I walked into a clothes shop and the store clerk followed me around 2 feet from me while I went from isle to isle looking for shirts...no lie a couple of times I stopped to turn around and was blocked by the clerk who almost stubbornly got out of the way.

Back to E-mah-tuh...I put on my head-phones and cranked up my music. 90% of Koreans can't speak any English, 9% speak English like I speak Korean and the 1% that can communicate ALWAYS wants to talk. So, when shopping I usually put on headphones partly to drown out the annoying "blah blah blah" of sellers of product, partly to drown out the terrible Korean-Muzak from the roof speakers and partly to keep separation from any Koreans that might want to talk English for practice.

The main floor really held no interest for me and was targeted at the majority of the shoppers...it was a giant woman's section. Jewelry, watches and shoes were right near the entrance with escalators going up and down. Clothes extended farther back, but they are of no interest to me, since most won't fit and I already own more good clothes than I have at any other time in my life. Coming to Korea at Christmas was a bonus for that!

I went up the escalator, which was set at such a high incline as to make you almost loose balance and fall, but not quite. I also did my best to avoid the clerks that guarded their isles staring down any shopper with intent to help whether it was needed or not. The head-phones helped in this and I kept my eyes to the ground, a habit I have picked up, since the locals always stare at me. Foreigners here are as rare as a black man in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan...1/10,000 from what I have seen. 

At one point the conveyor belt/escalator just stopped. However, I couldn't just start walking up the ramp, because the people in front of me with their carts were blocking my way. I couldn't understand why they didn't just push the carts up...I mean sure, the ramp was steep, but they could have done it. Instead they just stood around talking, standing in place, blocking the aisle of the ramp. It was really irritating. I began to think all kinds of negative thoughts about how lazy Koreans were and wonder why they didn't just push ahead. It wasn't until I had left the store and gone back to work that my boss explained that the conveyor belts and carts had magnetic attachments. It was impossible for the people with the carts to continue up the ramp, because they were stuck in place. I felt like a moron...my first experience of cross-cultural judgment and I was on the wrong end.

Anyway, I didn't really find the prices to be that cheap. I bought a 1 knife, 1 spoon and 1 fork for $6 Can, and the batteries were cheap (20 AA for $8), but overall it was pretty pricey). I headed downstairs and was absolutely blown away!

I found where all the tall Koreans work...in the E-mart basement! It was absolutely unreal. 6'4'' South Koreans walking around like nothing was out of the normal...it was quite jarring to go for two weeks being the tallest guy in the city to being the town midget!

These giant Korean clerks were more numerous, if less crazy for enforcing their help upon the unwilling. There were tall beautiful women at the end of every second isle waring short pink mini-skirts giving away free samples...of food. And the Booze section was huge! I still can't bring myself to buy alchohol at any establishment other than a bar. I live alone and cannot see why hard liquor and groceries should ever mix (Conservative Canadian Upbringing Alert!).

It turns out Mall-Rage transcends borders and the shoppers here are just as stupid as back home in Walmart. Example: leaving cart at angle taking up whole of busy isle. I mean, you think these giant Koreans could use their giant arms and move the carts! :)

The produce was only slightly cheaper than back-home, but it was nice to able to buy pork-n-beans and snickers bars. A pack of 4 mach-3 razors goes for about $20. I also got some local equivalent of scope, which has a pleasant taste, without the addition of alchohol, for $3. Unfortunately, my main goal of finding some Excel or Dentine gum could not be met...the gum here sucks! I will have to tell James and Anita to bring me some when the come over in June!

Almost done bare with me....

I went to pay with some trepidation, as I had only brought around 50,000 won with me and though I have a Korean bank card...I have never used a debit machine here. I loaded up my groceries and took off my head-phones...I knew she wouldn't be able to talk English, but it just feels rude to wear the things when exchanging money...I know, I know I am a social norm junkie.

Anyway, everything was going smoothly until I saw the price of 53,000 won exceeded my cash inventory. I took out my debit card and looked for a machine...thinking "I can't read Korean yet, and come to think of it is my account checking or saving". However, I was saved and as it turns out, all you need to do is slide the card through and enter you PIN. Excellent I had done it...or had I...clerk said something to me in an excited tone and refused to give me my card back. She then pressed some button and the cashier sign #12 began flashing while emitting a whining pitch!

The people behind me got that look on their faces that also transcends borders...the "dammit I chose the wrong line" look...and the clerk held my card in two hands and tried to wave down a store manager. He obviously did not see the flashing #12 or hear the noise because soon after she motioned for me to pick up my bags and follow her.

Seeing the stocky manager talk to the still-excited clerk caused me heart to beat a little faster. I have always had a fear/dislike of authority and many thoughts went through my head, "did I not have enough money, did I enter the wrong PIN, why are they still letting me hold onto the groceries?". I was waved over to some office type environment on the right side of the store and greeted by a clerk who actually said "hello". I responded with a confused look on my face...she told me write my name and phone number on a pad that had many names and phone numbers on it. Upon following her directions she gave me my card back along with a pseudo-money note for 5000 won.

I asked her why, she said it was a gift certificate and waved me on. Apparently, there had been no trouble after-all...the stores computer must have picked up that I was a first time shopper or something. So not only did I get an extra adrenaline surge, but I also got a gift certificate for $6.50...whoopee!

I guess I didn't get to why I called this journal entry Stereotypes after-all.