Saturday, January 16, 2010
This girl got into Delta's elite lounge :)
Ulsan to Seoul was a very early, short flight and I needed to transfer immediately to another airport upon arrival. The transfer was much easier than I expected, and I even had time for one last bibimbop meal before getting on the plane. Once again, I fortunately slept 10 out of the 14 hours I was on board but had a 6 hour layover in New York before arriving in Boston. I somehow talked my way into the Delta Skymiles club and hung out there drinking free drinks and eating free yummy food until boarding to fly to Boston. I was suppose to be in first class but the large plane I should have been on was bumped down to a really tiny one, so there was no first class anymore. Anyways, Colas picked me up at the airport which was the best welcome home I have had thus far coming back from survey :)
Adventures in Geong-ju
Of course I went to bed late, as normal; but this time I was trying to finish up my work so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore – until 4 am. Because of this, I didn’t get up early to go on my adventure day like I had wanted to. I got up at 11 am and wasn’t ready to leave until 12. I went back and forth about whether I wanted to take a bus or take a taxi to Geong-ju – the ancient capital of South Korea. Because of the little time I had left, and also due to the hotel pushing me to do so, I took a taxi there. This took about 45 minutes and cost me 60,000 won, which is equivalent to about $50. Not the #1 thing I would like to spend my $ on, but maybe was necessary since it was so late in the day. Once I Had arrived and told the taxi that no, I didn’t want him to wait for me (sorry you can’t convince me to pay you $70 just to hang around!) my first thought was OK, so how will I get home? So I bought my ticket and then tried asking someone if they could help out with that. Obviously there was no English, but another guy standing by overheard me trying to ask a question so he called his English-speaking friend who helped me out. In the big parking lot you can take a bus to the inter-city bus station, she said. Ok. I was relieved, I would worry about it after that’s all I needed to know.
I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.
After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.
I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.
We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.
Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.
I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.
After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.
I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.
We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.
Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.
Making Friends
Today… was just frustrating. I felt like nothing got done. I woke up late for my 10/1030 meeting, (got there right on the cusp of 10:30, luckily after waking up at 9:40 am and needing to shower). It was a good meeting but then I went all the way back to the hotel and (after a family discussion via skype – woohoo Steph for finally downloading it!) I had to go back to the exact same area I just was without realizing it. Koreans are so hesitant to speak English and even to just understand what you are saying – I got nothing from the two places that I needed to go. It sucked. I spent FOREVER looking for a cab in apparently the wrong place and finally managed 10 minutes to go re-ask for permission to survey the grocery store at the other Home Plus (30 minutes from where I just was) which I was granted for tomorrow.
I went to dinner with the girl that helped me out significantly with phone calls, and it was … pretty good, OK. She was very hard to read, she seemed happy to invite me out but she didn’t seem that happy to actually be out with me, if that makes any sense at all. I think she was just really shy, as I have come to realize the Korean personality just is. It was difficult to make conversation, and I even fell asleep on the car ride home (though I totally blame this on the butt-warmers on the seat). Her name is Ms. Bea – I can’t remember her Korean first name, she studied in England for a bit and she told me that she asked everyone to call her Lisa because that was easier for Westerners. So this is what I called her. She did try to teach me how to use chopsticks the right way (and I failed miserably as usual). We went to a nice buffet restaurant, and she explained to me what everything was. On the way out a Korean girl (probably just a little younger than myself) was waving profusely at me through a glass window; at first I thought she was waving at someone else (and I was a bit embarrassed) but I turned to look and there was no one there. Strange. When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately; I was exhausted and I was forced to get up 11 hours later for a realtor meeting. But, I felt very refreshed the whole remainder of the day and even had trouble sleeping that night.
Yesterday I had a pointless realtor meeting at 10 am on a Sunday. He was a source we had met for years but I think he was getting old and his brain was getting slow. He was having a difficult time interpreting any of my questions; his young assistant was explaining things to him after I would try twice. Ugh it was frustrating. I got to practice the art of handing over your business card with two hands though. One of the other realtors I had met with (the first one from the UK) had mentioned this to me and it kicked in after I handed over the first one; I was rude (without even thinking) and didn’t give one of my cards to the assistant, but when I did I made up for it by getting this rule right. Everyone has the same last name here. There are millions of Oh’s, Kim’s, which especially stand out. I met 3 people with the last name of Oh just during my short trip in Ulsan.
I went back to the RIGHT Homeplus and did the survey there; the people were very friendly and were nice about saying sure. There were very few people who bothered me though I did have a lot of stares and someone asked me just “where are you from?” and I said “America.” They said ohhh and that was it. The little kids are so cute. They see someone who doesn’t look like them and immediately try speaking English. I have gotten many “hi’s!” and “hello’s!” from children learning English in elementary school. One even said to me “my name is ….” So I said, my name is Lauren. Then he got shy, said bye and ran away to go tell mom he spoke English with a foreign girl.
After having a similar meal to the one I had the night before (at the buffet restaurant at the hotel this night), Ms. Bea had made a ton of phonecalls for me – (even though a bit boring, she’s still pretty awesome!) so I checked these and headed down to the bar downstairs where I got a drink and did hours and hours of work writing up all my housing reports and clearing up all the C&S stuff. Two Phillipino girls were on stage in sexy little outfits trying to appeal to the foreign men with their sultry voices. Ms. Bea (Lisa) had told me that the Phillipino girls come up to make a living this way normally, and many times doing immoral things with foreigners.
I went to dinner with the girl that helped me out significantly with phone calls, and it was … pretty good, OK. She was very hard to read, she seemed happy to invite me out but she didn’t seem that happy to actually be out with me, if that makes any sense at all. I think she was just really shy, as I have come to realize the Korean personality just is. It was difficult to make conversation, and I even fell asleep on the car ride home (though I totally blame this on the butt-warmers on the seat). Her name is Ms. Bea – I can’t remember her Korean first name, she studied in England for a bit and she told me that she asked everyone to call her Lisa because that was easier for Westerners. So this is what I called her. She did try to teach me how to use chopsticks the right way (and I failed miserably as usual). We went to a nice buffet restaurant, and she explained to me what everything was. On the way out a Korean girl (probably just a little younger than myself) was waving profusely at me through a glass window; at first I thought she was waving at someone else (and I was a bit embarrassed) but I turned to look and there was no one there. Strange. When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately; I was exhausted and I was forced to get up 11 hours later for a realtor meeting. But, I felt very refreshed the whole remainder of the day and even had trouble sleeping that night.
Yesterday I had a pointless realtor meeting at 10 am on a Sunday. He was a source we had met for years but I think he was getting old and his brain was getting slow. He was having a difficult time interpreting any of my questions; his young assistant was explaining things to him after I would try twice. Ugh it was frustrating. I got to practice the art of handing over your business card with two hands though. One of the other realtors I had met with (the first one from the UK) had mentioned this to me and it kicked in after I handed over the first one; I was rude (without even thinking) and didn’t give one of my cards to the assistant, but when I did I made up for it by getting this rule right. Everyone has the same last name here. There are millions of Oh’s, Kim’s, which especially stand out. I met 3 people with the last name of Oh just during my short trip in Ulsan.
I went back to the RIGHT Homeplus and did the survey there; the people were very friendly and were nice about saying sure. There were very few people who bothered me though I did have a lot of stares and someone asked me just “where are you from?” and I said “America.” They said ohhh and that was it. The little kids are so cute. They see someone who doesn’t look like them and immediately try speaking English. I have gotten many “hi’s!” and “hello’s!” from children learning English in elementary school. One even said to me “my name is ….” So I said, my name is Lauren. Then he got shy, said bye and ran away to go tell mom he spoke English with a foreign girl.
After having a similar meal to the one I had the night before (at the buffet restaurant at the hotel this night), Ms. Bea had made a ton of phonecalls for me – (even though a bit boring, she’s still pretty awesome!) so I checked these and headed down to the bar downstairs where I got a drink and did hours and hours of work writing up all my housing reports and clearing up all the C&S stuff. Two Phillipino girls were on stage in sexy little outfits trying to appeal to the foreign men with their sultry voices. Ms. Bea (Lisa) had told me that the Phillipino girls come up to make a living this way normally, and many times doing immoral things with foreigners.
Hi are you American? Can I have your phone number?
In the grocery store a girl walked right up to me and said “hi! Are you American?” Yes…. “hi nice to meet you. Can I have your phone number so we can keep in touch?” This lady was definitely NOT Korean. She was Phillipino and asked me to come to a Phillipino/Korean cultural event she was holding tomorrow. So very random.
I got to my dinner meeting late. I hadn’t yet had to deal with traffic and I had a whole lot of it going back to the hotel. I showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with Mr. Neal Kim. We drank coffee while discussing the market and then we shared some dinner – Korean BBQ over a grill in the middle of our table. It was excellent and the Korean side dishes were plentiful. Then we had a beer at a Westernized bar and discussed politics and life. I tried to tell him about some of the bad experiences I’ve had here (though most have been nice) and he said that in general the Korean culture is quite friendly. I would agree with that, only if you can exclude the hotels. Also, I feel like some people look down on me a bit because I do not dress up all the time. He also didn’t know what my friend Surin/(Heather?) told me about the fact that girls wear whitening skin lotion. It was very interesting to hear about him saying his mom (and her family); when she was very young could barely afford to eat rice. Now she drives a Bentley. The Korean economy boomed over the past 30 years or so.
Ulsan is the largest manufacturing facility for Hyundai in the world. Everything here is Hyundai – the cars, the trucks, the equipment, the departments stores, my hotel, etc. etc. I have seen a ginormous boat lined with cars which I’m sure will be shipped to some undisclosed location soon. This is also a ship-building port. You don’t want to breath too much around this area, so I have been told. And there are “love motels” EVERYWHERE. For decent hotels, there are really only 2 in the city. But “love motels” are widely abundant. You can only guess what the name signified. Within such a shy culture, it’s very shocking to see such a thing as these very “loudly” advertised motels. OK I must head to bed. Goodnight!!
I got to my dinner meeting late. I hadn’t yet had to deal with traffic and I had a whole lot of it going back to the hotel. I showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with Mr. Neal Kim. We drank coffee while discussing the market and then we shared some dinner – Korean BBQ over a grill in the middle of our table. It was excellent and the Korean side dishes were plentiful. Then we had a beer at a Westernized bar and discussed politics and life. I tried to tell him about some of the bad experiences I’ve had here (though most have been nice) and he said that in general the Korean culture is quite friendly. I would agree with that, only if you can exclude the hotels. Also, I feel like some people look down on me a bit because I do not dress up all the time. He also didn’t know what my friend Surin/(Heather?) told me about the fact that girls wear whitening skin lotion. It was very interesting to hear about him saying his mom (and her family); when she was very young could barely afford to eat rice. Now she drives a Bentley. The Korean economy boomed over the past 30 years or so.
Ulsan is the largest manufacturing facility for Hyundai in the world. Everything here is Hyundai – the cars, the trucks, the equipment, the departments stores, my hotel, etc. etc. I have seen a ginormous boat lined with cars which I’m sure will be shipped to some undisclosed location soon. This is also a ship-building port. You don’t want to breath too much around this area, so I have been told. And there are “love motels” EVERYWHERE. For decent hotels, there are really only 2 in the city. But “love motels” are widely abundant. You can only guess what the name signified. Within such a shy culture, it’s very shocking to see such a thing as these very “loudly” advertised motels. OK I must head to bed. Goodnight!!
A Study? Yes. Ok
Today I remembered that I was told that Koreans don’t like the Japanese. In fact, they don’t like Chinese or the Russians, and the older generations tend not to even like the Americans. Today was a good day, but a bit frustrating as well. After trying to finish up some last-minute things at one of the major grocery stores and realizing that things just didn’t seem completely right (almost all of the restaurants that were previously there were gone?), I realized that I surveyed the right grocery store in the wrong location, so I need to go back to another one (the right one) either tomorrow night or Saturday, ugh. I spent too much time pacing around the around trying to figure out where everything could have possibly gone. The security (basically whose job it is is to be nice, greet people and bow) must have thought I was nuts, Luckily, most likely the prices will be the same so I won’t need to make any major changes (just check on a few prices and check on the additions I made to see if they are there as well), but it’s still a pain regardless. I was hoping to use Saturday as a day-off but instead I think I’m going to need to spend some time filling up some holes and later, sipping tea at the restaurant and writing up my reports. On the way back from lugging my groceries (which included 3 bottles of wine for realtor gifts), I had a very talkative taxi driver who couldn’t speak English. He went on and on in Korean with an English word thrown in here and there and I think he wanted to believe that I could understand him, so I tried to nod my head, smile and laugh as much as I could to make him feel good. That’s an awkward situation which all you travelers out there know exactly what I mean, you’ve been through it.
I had lunch with a British guy who was married to a Korean woman and was responsible for housing at the Hyundai Foreigner’s Compound (which is a very popular place to live for foreigners who live in Ulsan). He brought along a guy who works for him who was from Boston, go figure. From there, I took a cab downtown to go to another department store to survey the grocery store. The manager the day before (as I mentioned above) told me it was fine to do the survey, whether or not he understood what that meant didn’t matter to me, so I tried to use his card in the grocery store when I was asked over and over what I was doing. One manager pointed out to me; “but this guy is only the director of the women’s department; I’m sorry but..” but I persisted over and over that he had spoken to the Lotte Department store in Seoul and everything was worked out and I was told it was fine. I was visibly getting frustrated. I think if you had to put a description to Korean attitude, it would be – “as long as you’re happy everything is ok”. They left me alone; all of them, once I started being persistent and becoming upset. It was great; anywhere else in the world you would be kicked out. Really, all I had for proof that my entry was approved was a flimsy business card from a man who oversees women’s clothing. How serious can you really take that.
Everywhere else I went to – book open throughout the rest of the departments – people hang around you and become very curious until you ask them to help you find something. There seriously must be one worker per every 3 feet squared in these crazy Korean markets – you are always surrounded by someone who is meant to be there to help you. They all took their job very seriously, too – and luckily didn’t ask too many questions except for… study? Yes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
I had lunch with a British guy who was married to a Korean woman and was responsible for housing at the Hyundai Foreigner’s Compound (which is a very popular place to live for foreigners who live in Ulsan). He brought along a guy who works for him who was from Boston, go figure. From there, I took a cab downtown to go to another department store to survey the grocery store. The manager the day before (as I mentioned above) told me it was fine to do the survey, whether or not he understood what that meant didn’t matter to me, so I tried to use his card in the grocery store when I was asked over and over what I was doing. One manager pointed out to me; “but this guy is only the director of the women’s department; I’m sorry but..” but I persisted over and over that he had spoken to the Lotte Department store in Seoul and everything was worked out and I was told it was fine. I was visibly getting frustrated. I think if you had to put a description to Korean attitude, it would be – “as long as you’re happy everything is ok”. They left me alone; all of them, once I started being persistent and becoming upset. It was great; anywhere else in the world you would be kicked out. Really, all I had for proof that my entry was approved was a flimsy business card from a man who oversees women’s clothing. How serious can you really take that.
Everywhere else I went to – book open throughout the rest of the departments – people hang around you and become very curious until you ask them to help you find something. There seriously must be one worker per every 3 feet squared in these crazy Korean markets – you are always surrounded by someone who is meant to be there to help you. They all took their job very seriously, too – and luckily didn’t ask too many questions except for… study? Yes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Ulsan - Home of Hyundai
… Is a weird city. Very industrious here. Actually, this is the city where Hyundai manufactures all their cars. Everything is Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai, even all the heavy equipment. And, it’s a shipbuilding port. I have never seen so much heavy machinery in one place in my whole life. Yesterday after napping (since I only got a couple hours sleep at night), I went out to HomePlus (Tesco) to do the survey. I had almost finished and someone stopped me to ask what I was doing and told me no. A girl younger than I was. This made me mad. Of course, I didn’t have the name of the manager who told me it was alright and apparently she couldn’t reach him (it was around 11pm at this time, he had probably gone home from this 24 hour supermarket). Man, was I frustrated! I could feel my blood pressure rising. She ended up letting me finish since I was almost done, but she clearly disapproved. This pissed me off.
I got home much too late (I couldn’t believe for a second that it was already 12 am!) and room service wasn’t operating. I couldn’t eat dinner; I hadn’t eaten since about 7 am. I tried the well-expired Pringles and some well-expired mango juice from the mini-bar to hold me over. I couldn’t finish the Pringles though, they were very stale.
Once again I went to bed much too late. So, I didn’t get up until noon. I went to the front desk to ask about translator help and a girl offered to help me, well – a guy at the front desk offered for her actually, haha. She didn’t think it looked like many calls (little did she know) so she said she’d help. It took about two hours, and we weren’t finished but she needed to go to a meeting. She reluctantly said that we could continue when she was working on Saturday. But, then I offered her a good tip for her services. She refused, refused refused, but I insisted over and over and finally she accepted, but she wanted to take me out to dinner with it. What a deal, right? Not only that, she said she would prefer to come in on her day off to help me out and then we could go to dinner together. Good deal.
After that, I assumed incorrectly that part of the survey was at the Hyundai department store that was right next to my hotel. I wasted time asking for permission there. Good thing I planned to go to Lotte department store before finishing up with Hyundai, because there was another Hyundai downtown (where Lotte was – about a good 20 minutes from my hotel) that I was suppose to go to. When approaching Lotte, I saw it so I needed to double-check my notes. Getting permission at Lotte was very frustrating. I asked a manager who spoke little English. Literally, we went back and forth on the phone with a girl who was helping out in English trying to explain both of our sides to each other. He made about 1,534,574 phone calls before saying that he was sorry but he couldn’t help me for some reason that the “translator” gave me that I couldn’t understand. Then, I said well I did the same thing at the Lotte in Seoul and for some reason this created a different story. He made another 2,533,645 phone calls and finally said that it was OK, and I thought he said it was OK because they had confirmed that I did the same thing there. If that was the case, that would be funny because we got a very unofficial OK from the supermarket manager who said that “normally this is a very big process but I’ll close my eyes if you do the survey today”. This whole painful experience put me off about a full hour which sucked. When I finally walked away, I turned back to see him with his head down laughing hysterically (or maybe he was crying? Haha). Well buddy, I need to deal with this daily, so it can’t be that bad.
Then, I decided to re-ask at Hyundai downtown. Apparently my co-worker Joe was stopped and scolded by a manager, but I walked right up to someone who was not a manager (when I was looking for a manager) and they said it was fine, so I just proceeded finishing the survey without asking first. It was grand, I had no problems, and everyone was very willing to help out.
I went to Outback for dinner. Apparently you can order a Korean dish at Outback, so I did it. The meat wasn’t that good, but the shrimp and veggies on skewers was. So was the fried rice. I was starving, my stomach was beginning to eat itself since I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. I’m still so happy to be completely full. All for today, more tomorrow!
I got home much too late (I couldn’t believe for a second that it was already 12 am!) and room service wasn’t operating. I couldn’t eat dinner; I hadn’t eaten since about 7 am. I tried the well-expired Pringles and some well-expired mango juice from the mini-bar to hold me over. I couldn’t finish the Pringles though, they were very stale.
Once again I went to bed much too late. So, I didn’t get up until noon. I went to the front desk to ask about translator help and a girl offered to help me, well – a guy at the front desk offered for her actually, haha. She didn’t think it looked like many calls (little did she know) so she said she’d help. It took about two hours, and we weren’t finished but she needed to go to a meeting. She reluctantly said that we could continue when she was working on Saturday. But, then I offered her a good tip for her services. She refused, refused refused, but I insisted over and over and finally she accepted, but she wanted to take me out to dinner with it. What a deal, right? Not only that, she said she would prefer to come in on her day off to help me out and then we could go to dinner together. Good deal.
After that, I assumed incorrectly that part of the survey was at the Hyundai department store that was right next to my hotel. I wasted time asking for permission there. Good thing I planned to go to Lotte department store before finishing up with Hyundai, because there was another Hyundai downtown (where Lotte was – about a good 20 minutes from my hotel) that I was suppose to go to. When approaching Lotte, I saw it so I needed to double-check my notes. Getting permission at Lotte was very frustrating. I asked a manager who spoke little English. Literally, we went back and forth on the phone with a girl who was helping out in English trying to explain both of our sides to each other. He made about 1,534,574 phone calls before saying that he was sorry but he couldn’t help me for some reason that the “translator” gave me that I couldn’t understand. Then, I said well I did the same thing at the Lotte in Seoul and for some reason this created a different story. He made another 2,533,645 phone calls and finally said that it was OK, and I thought he said it was OK because they had confirmed that I did the same thing there. If that was the case, that would be funny because we got a very unofficial OK from the supermarket manager who said that “normally this is a very big process but I’ll close my eyes if you do the survey today”. This whole painful experience put me off about a full hour which sucked. When I finally walked away, I turned back to see him with his head down laughing hysterically (or maybe he was crying? Haha). Well buddy, I need to deal with this daily, so it can’t be that bad.
Then, I decided to re-ask at Hyundai downtown. Apparently my co-worker Joe was stopped and scolded by a manager, but I walked right up to someone who was not a manager (when I was looking for a manager) and they said it was fine, so I just proceeded finishing the survey without asking first. It was grand, I had no problems, and everyone was very willing to help out.
I went to Outback for dinner. Apparently you can order a Korean dish at Outback, so I did it. The meat wasn’t that good, but the shrimp and veggies on skewers was. So was the fried rice. I was starving, my stomach was beginning to eat itself since I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. I’m still so happy to be completely full. All for today, more tomorrow!
I have been to Russia
Here, in Yuzhno, they drive on both the right and the left side. When I told Yulja I was surprised, it seemed to her that she didn’t even know that some drove on the left side. Most drive on the right. But, on the way to the hotel my taxi was driving on the left side. Like I said, Yuzhno is nothing to write home about – stern people, soviet-style housing, seemingly very little driving organization on the road, and everything is dark, dark, dark (including the weather while I was there), but they have beautiful mountains in the near distance. I was very observant of these after it had snowed, the day after Yulja’s and my trek back to the hotel from another hotel where we had our dinner, in a snow storm. At first she had told me that she needed to go home and cook dinner for her husband, (because a good wife does that), but her husband was preoccupied with a friend so she was able to eat with me.
When we were in one of the electronic stores Yulja pointed out a guy to me who was playing with a chain in his hand. She said, do you see that man? Yes… we watch out for these guys. Usually the Russian mobsters do things like that. They are dangerous people, you have to watch out (not just tourists but local people) because they’ll come up to you and ask if you have any sunflower seeds or cigarettes and they get mad if you don’t have the right answer. I don’t really know what “mad” meant, but I really didn’t want to find out.
But, after all, now I can say I have been to Russia.
When we were in one of the electronic stores Yulja pointed out a guy to me who was playing with a chain in his hand. She said, do you see that man? Yes… we watch out for these guys. Usually the Russian mobsters do things like that. They are dangerous people, you have to watch out (not just tourists but local people) because they’ll come up to you and ask if you have any sunflower seeds or cigarettes and they get mad if you don’t have the right answer. I don’t really know what “mad” meant, but I really didn’t want to find out.
But, after all, now I can say I have been to Russia.
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