Another SoKo Shopping Adventure

A creepy statue outside of Costco: "Let's look fondly at that little girl crying on the wall!"

Yesterday my friend Sheila and I decided to brave the Seoul bus system and make another trip to Costco. The whole trip usually takes about five hours and is a pretty jarring experience due to the language barriers, crowds and - most of all - the bus drivers.

I'm not sure if the bus drivers here in Seoul have had any sort of driving education, because they wield their massive bus like it's a Mini Cooper through traffic. I wish there was a way to adequately describe how terrifying this experience is, but there are no words. Let's just say that everyone looks particularly pale and shaky when they get off the bus, especially us waygooks.

While we were waiting for the bus, I decided to have a little sip of something to calm my stomach before the inevitable storm, and found this tantalizing selection:

Mmm! I love random!

Besides the usually beggars and business people at the bus stop, on this particular trip we had the pleasure of seeing an ajuma with maroon hair and purple velvet ruched pants. Pretty sweet.

A fashion statement, indeed.

After a long and somewhat stressful shopping endeavor, I left with some nice tastes of home: Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa, Kashi cereal, Cheerios, Carr's Table Water Crackers, Craisins, Tampons and - hallelujah - cheese! It's nearly impossible to find decent cheese in SoKo, and for a decent price.

A slight disparity in size: bulk Craisins vs. "bulk" tampons.

All in all, I'm glad there's a Costco where I can get some nice American products from time to time, even though the journey is long and nauseating. Enjoying some cheese and crackers makes it all worthwhile, and at least I know the Costco products aren't eons old like some of the things at the Foreign Foods Market in Itaewon:

I'm pretty sure this deodorant is older than me. Plus, they syrup I bought there already expired. Thanks, Foreign Foods Market.

SoKo Wedding

I like his sparkly suit jacket!

I had the honor of being invited to my coworkers wedding this past weekend, and I jumped at the chance to see a Korean wedding in action.

When we arrived at the wedding hall (Koreans don't usually get married in churches) we took pictures with the bride in the "Bride's Room", which was basically a public room where wedding attendees and whoever wanted to could gawk at the lovely lady. I felt like I was intruding to be in a picture with her right before her ceremony, but according to my Korean friends, that's how it's done.

The wedding hall.

The ceremony itself was super short. There wasn't a bridal party, and the bride and groom walked down the aisle both ways together. Probably the most unusual part was during the wedding, people were talking and milling around like they were just at some party and there wasn't a solemn exchange of vows happening. One woman behind me answered her phone and had a nice little chat. It was weird.

After the ceremony, there was a huge buffet, which we all paid to eat. Instead of wedding gifts, you give an envelope of money prior to the ceremony and get a meal ticket in return. Not exactly romantic, but I guess you don't have to worry about gift receipts, either.

Let's eat!

During the buffet, the bride and groom literally jogged in, lit something resembling an Olympic torch for the cameras, cut the cake for the cameras and held up a glass of champagne for the cameras... then left. No dancing. No greeting the guests. No enjoying their dinner. And promptly after eating, everyone left the banquet hall, too.

Although it was a beautiful wedding, I think I'd like my sacred ceremony to be a little more... sacred. No cell phones. No cash for food ticket deals. And there will most definitely be dancing.

Things I Miss Most

Missing the North Carolina Mountains

Here's a random list I thought of while I was enjoying a cup of tea (one of my daily half-dozen) and just reminiscing about home.

• Seeing Friends and Family- skype is great and all, but man, I miss you guys.
• Whole wheat products- they don't exist here. I saw what I thought was some wheat bread, but it turned out to be the regular white bread with brown food coloring. No lie.
• Cottage cheese- not sure why I miss this, but I do. Korea doesn't have much going on in the dairy department.
• Understanding my surroundings- oh, how I took this for granted!
• Amelies French Cafe in Charlotte- I miss meeting friends there, doing art, reading and sampling the many tasty pastries.
• Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa- My favorite restaurant in Charlotte.
• Art stores that carry my printing supplies- can't find them here, so I'm at the mercy of friends and family back home to send me supplies I need. Kind of frustrating.
• Shoe shopping- they don't carry anything over a size 7 here... so I can look at all the pretty, inexpensive shoes, but I might as well be Cinderella's stepsister. *sigh*
• Feeling like a normal-sized person- not some ridiculously tall behemoth of a woman.
• Lack of crowds- too. many. people.
• Driving where I need to go- taking the subway is okay... but it takes forever and is packed with throngs of people at any time of day or night. Standing room only for an hour trip? Yay.
• Trader Joe’s- oh, how I mss thee!
• Target- I took Target's awesomeness for granted all these years... never again!
• The mountains of North Carolina- they're just way better than the mountains here. For one thing, you can actually get away from people and enjoy a scenic overlook. Not so much here. It's literally like the sidewalk just extended up a mountain and people are just continuing on their daily lives.
• Autumn activities with my family- pumpkin carving, apple picking, cooke decorating... sigh.
• Magazines in English- that don't cost $15 and up at the one English bookstore over an hour away from where I live.
• Really good scented candles- I don't know why, but they just don't have quality scented candles here. Over the weekend I saw some "scented candles" that smelled like car fresheners and a small one (think votive) was 20,000 Won (about $18). Crazy.
• Baths- I just have a shathroom (shower/bathroom combo) with no tub in sight. Oh how I miss my bubble baths with a nice book...
• The Farmers Market- I just love the Charlotte Farmers' Market. Sure, there are markets here, but they're just not the same.
• Machine drying my laundry- So many of my clothes are crispy and crinkled from line drying. Sure, I feel green and all, but sometimes I'd just like a nice, fluffy towel instead of a body-size piece of sand paper.
• Baking- no one has ovens here... and I miss baking so much! Especially with Autumn here, I want to make my mom's famous pumpkin cookies.
• Fires- especially this time of year; I love a good fire in the fireplace or out at a campsite.
• Feeling like I belong- I really like it here, but I am still very aware that I'm an outsider, a foreigner, a waygook or however else you want to say it. I'm at the mercy of kind bilingual Koreans and while I have my little niche of friends, I still know I don't really fit here.

Of course, out of all of these things, the ones I miss the most are my family and friends. I dream about you guys a lot and I hold you in my heart.

Who wouldn't miss this? Me and my snuggly little buddy, Grady.

Noraebang!

Noraebang in Seoul!

I was never really crazy about karaoke in the States. Call me boring, but standing in front of an audience of total strangers while my voice cracks like a choirboy going through puberty is just not my idea of a good time. Nevertheless, when I heard about the popularity of karaoke in South Korea, I decided to give it a whirl. Maybe my hoarse and raspy vocal stylings would sound delightful in Korean! (Side note: they don't.)

After a tasty Thai dinner, a group of friends and I went out for some noraebang, which literally means "singing room" in Korean. While the idea of frightening away all my friends wasn't particularly appealing, at least my humiliation would be in private. We checked into our private room and all my inhibitions immediately flew out the door... it was awesome! It was karaoke on steroids; big screen TV, strobe lights, disco balls, tambourines... you name it! One interesting addition was that the TV/karaoke machine had all these random silent movie clips in the background of the song lyrics; everything from Korean ministers preaching to a sappy love scene with a boy and girl running through a field and then crying. It really added a certain... something.

While I'm fairly certain I did, in fact, frighten everyone else present, I had a great time! I sang (read: croaked/shouted) until I practically lost my voice. I'm hooked.

My friend Monica rockin' the tambourine!

Yes, we were singing Kris Kross "Jump"...