Jesse Bemused

Remember that game show Supermarket Sweep?  Grocery shopping in Korea is not like that at all. Nor is it that fun. 

The supermarket we went to was called Home Plus (Home+ ?) and it was about 3 stories, maybe more. They sell clothing, appliances, food, and lord knows what else. I am happy to say that I bought a rice cooker! I almost got in trouble though… the first one I picked out was made in China. OH NO! THANKFULLY, the saleswoman quickly corrected my folly and I soon had a purple Korean made rice cooker. I believe she said to me, “No. Made in China.” I also got a water boiler but I did not have the same issue as I had with the rice cooker, so it must be Korean. 

It was actually kind of stressful. I spent what felt like 10 minutes picking out shampoo and conditioner, not because there was such a variety (mostly they choices were: Hydrating, Volumizing, and Repairing), but because I couldn’t tell what was what. I ended up being lame and just going with Korean Herbal Essences. In other words, I have much to learn about being adventurous. 

There were no grocery bags at this place. Instead ala costco style (THEY HAVE A COSTCO HERE BTW) you put your groceries in old boxes. Tre eco friendly but also a little smelly. Also you have to pay roughly 10 cents American (aka 100 won) for a grocery cart, but NO WORRIES you get .008 cents (8 won) back once you return it.

I, of course, spent to much. But as one of my colleagues said, “You know you’re an adult when you spend more than $100 on groceries.” My response: “Then I don’t want to be an adult.”

The classroom website I made is SO COOL. No exaggerations here.

Now it’s time to go swimming!

There must have been 30 of them! What???

I realize that I should probably share something about my journey to Korea.

The flight was 13 hours. Everything was wicked high tech (Like instead of shades, there was a button to tint the windows). I already wrote about the airplane food (hint hint go to my food blog). There was something that was CRAZY cool and it was in Boston (go figure!). There was a projection of a person on a 3D board outside of security so it kind of looked like a real person was telling you how to go through security. VERY COOL. Very futuristic. 

I first arrived in Japan and it looked beautiful from the plane. 

Honestly, in my opinion South Korea looked cooler by plane (but we weren’t allowed to take pictures from the plane. OH WELL). 

I got out of the airport with all of my luggage! Though normally I would be thankful for not losing any of my luggage, the rest of my night probably would have been easier with less luggage. I ended up on a wild goose chase around Incheon, trying to find a hotel no one had ever heard of. I was successful thanks to the Hyatt concierge, Nick, who drove me around Incheon and stayed with me until we had found the hotel and brought my luggage up with the other concierge. SO NICE! I am so grateful for his help. Before I had made my way to the Hyatt, I had been shlepping around Incheon in long sleeves and pants in 88 degree weather with 4 GIANT suitcases. Needless to say, I was shvitzing and delirious from lack of sleep (Luckily, eventually I was taken pity on by 2 strangers who helped me carry my luggage).

The room was great, the taxi the next day was awesome. We worked together to find the school as the GPS had decided the school didn’t exist. But now I’m here and unpacked! The only thing that could make this better would be if I could figure out how to use the air conditioner, but sadly it’s in Korean. 

Lessons learned:

• Strangers can be really nice and helpful!
• Sleep on the 13 hour plane ride, you might need the energy to search for your hotel for 2 hours
• It’s important to know Korean in Korea

I am pleased to report that I am safe and sound in Incheon, South Korea! YES!

The flight was great… though I could have definitely benefited from some more legroom (typical).

Now to talk about something cool. Airplane food. We were fed about every 3 hour. When they brought me my first tray, I was excited but also confused. Though I could definitely recognize 75% of the tray, there was one box which contained items that I could only guess at (except for the cherry tomato… that one I got).

There were two items that looked like meatballs, a scoop of something orange, something tempura, and the cherry tomato.  I tried asking the gentleman next to me, but unfortunately he spoke very little english. I tried the orange scoop and it was good! But I still had NO IDEA what it was. After some intervening from the flight attendant (who was wearing an adorable lilac apron with little cartoons on them) and an ipad app that translated Korean to English, we discovered that the meat balls were fish and the orange scoops was PUMPKIN mashed potatoes. We also got VANILLA HAAGEN DAZS! 

The second meal wasn’t as exciting. To see a link go to my food blog WWW.KIMCHIANDJESSE.TUMBLR.COM. Here you can read about all the cool food I eat on my travels.

In conclusion, I’m super excited for everything in Korea… and I still have no idea what that tempura thing was… 

(Source: kimchiandjesse)