Oops didn’t get up in time for the gym, but hopefully I will tomorrow… I haven’t updated my phone for the current time here in Korea, it’s still an hour behind Taiwanese time. So, when Edit called me at 9:45 the first thing I realized was that it was 9:45 and not 8:45, oops. 2 days in a row I got up late! What’s new. It was rainy and gross out today, we started late (around 12:30 pm!) and we didn’t have any luck with the business center (they wouldn’t do our phone calls for us), so the day wasn’t starting out too well. When we arrived in the mall they had a system so that you wouldn’t get rain on the floor; you put your umbrella in the plastic bag and rip it off, and you have an umbrella cover! Brilliant. We asked for permission and the manager of the grocery store used a lady who spoke English and manned the coffee counter to translate for us. What he told us is that technically we need to go through the marketing department on Monday, but if we wanted to do it today he would “close his eyes” and pretend he didn’t see anything. So, we kinda had permission, at least we knew we couldn’t get in trouble. When the manager was leaving (he appeared to have really important meetings to attend to) Edit and I performed a series of low bows to express “thank you I know it’s not in your place to say that it’s OK to write down prices in the whole mall, but we appreciate that you will allow us to”. Not many managers would ever do such a thing. There were many people who said “no prices” and wanted to know what we were doing, and many others who clearly disapproved, but we got through it without anyone trying to kick us out. A few ladies even stared over my shoulder as I wrote down the information, without saying a word to me. One lady at the counter where we initially asked for permission signaled to me that I had a pretty face. I’m sure she doesn’t see much like it in the sea of beautiful Asian people (they really are quite beautiful).
When we moved into the clothing section, one girl laughed at me as I was writing down the prices, and another one looked pissed when I knocked over a shirt – she reached down to grab it out of my hands and rearrange it herself before putting it back on the hanger; I was taken back by her rudeness. But, no one said I couldn’t write down the prices. There were 3 people at every corner trying to help you out which was quite annoying especially when I don’t even know how to say hello or goodbye or thank you in Korean (it’s really not easy to remember, I swear). Overall, the nice employees outnumbered the rude ones, but it’s so much easier to remember a bad experience. We had a lunch of some weird pumpkin and salad sandwhich, I had a chicken skewer with veggies, and we also shared a squash with cheese and seafood on top. All was very good grocery store food. I also may have had a krispy kreme donut for 2 days in a row (MAN are they addicting!)
For dinner, we tried to find grandmother’s bimbimbap amongst the “business clubs” for men looking for a peep show or maybe even a prostitute, but we found another bimbimbap restaurant after having absolutely no luck with English and striking out after looking for help in a Texan restaurant – (at one point during the explanation he said his memory was clean, whatever that means!). (Seriously, so much less English here than Taiwan!) The bimbimbap was really good. Shrimp in the middle, and a medley of cucumbers, mushrooms, cabbage, egg, lettuce, onions, etc. etc. which I mixed around with some kimchi, rice and pickled jalapenos made for a great meal, and a semi-healthy one too.
I couldn’t get in touch with the realtor today to go out for Halloween tonight, I was bummed a little, even though I really wasn’t in the mood to go out. I think her mailbox was full and her direct line kept on ringing and ringing. Oh well, I didn’t go to bed early tonight anyways.
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