Cultural Immersion at Homeplus

Animal therapy in Korea. The hamster's name is Timothy. The half grown cats, from top to bottom, are Stewie, Milton, and Princess.


There will be few times in my life where I can expand for multiple paragraphs on a grocery store trip.

Homeplus is the three-story grocery/everything store two blocks away from my house. My coworkers and I often drag ourselves there after work at 10 pm, exhausted and starving. We lean over our carts, throwing things in without enough discretion or presence of mind, stretch as we ride up the slanted human transveyor belts, and spend over $100. It's not pretty.

Meagan and I (our friends are now comparing us to a married couple, and they may not be that off...) went around seven today (Saturday). Now, this is a very different time to go, as there are about five times as many employees working, and they are all screaming into microphone-headsets. It's as if Korea transported its street market culture from decades ago into this high-tech superstore. I can see that pork is on sale, I don't need a permed middle-aged woman hollering about it, at me, indistinguishably, as I walk by. This used to really irritate me, making me feel nervous and freaked out. But I'm used to it now.

And little by little, like a cat who gets more and more bold about jumping on the table to get the really good food, I'm starting to get bold at Homeplus. Tonight, I decided I would eat all of the samples. I usually avoid the apron-wearing matrons, smiling hospitably, frying small pieces of pork on their portable burners, waving at customers. I can't communicate very well without a lot of charades and bowing, and to be honest, I was too concerned about my pride. But tonight, I was hungry.

And begins our story.

It started with the mandarins. I walked over and picked one up. Meagan took this bold act as inspiration and did the same. Still shy, I smiled and quickly ducked away, but as I looked over my shoulder, the fruit lady was handing Meagan an entire, unpeeled mandarin. She told her it was for her and her friend. I walked around, trying to distinguish between leeks, green onions, cabbage, and other various green leaves and grass, and came back to find Meagan meticulously peeling our mandarin into the cart.

Next came the tofu. There was another clerk (I swear, there are over 100 during the day, at every possible corner of every aisle, and there are many aisles) restocking the tofu. I leaned over, jumpy as a squirrel, trying to eye the cheapest one. Too late. She loudly greeted me and pointed to the two-for-one deal. I smiled and tightened my grip on the smallest package possible. She said thank you in Korea and let me pass. Whew. Sigh of relief. But then there were tofu SAMPLES. I tried one. BEST tofu I've ever had in my life. This lady had an entire cooking show going on- dipping it in egg, frying it in grapeseed oil, drizzling it with "oriental dressing", I was stunned. So stunned that I even paused for a moment. She was pleased. She tried to ask me where I was from, but I thought she asked me where I lived, and as I told her my school name she said ANI (no), and then I realized. "USA," I said, smiling awkwardly. Then, she formed an entire sentence around the English word "son", and maybe "phone number", and it seemed to be a question. Did she want to give me her son's phone number? I smiled and... just smiled. Hmm... communication FAIL. (Not rare). She then asked me what city and I told her Virginia. (Yes, city. It's what she was wondering.) "OOHhhh!" she cooed approvingly. At this point Meagan had found me (I wander a lot in the grocery store) and we were pushing our cart. I happened to be carrying a naked head of broccoli (you're supposed to take it to someone so they can bag it and weigh it before you buy it, and I always wait until the last minute), and it was suddenly snatched out of my hand by a grinning, short, plump woman who put it in a bag and tied it for me. When you are a foreigner in Korea, sometimes it feels like you escaped your special needs class, and everyone knows and is trying to help.

There is a huge, sprawling table covered in different kinds of old-school Korean candy. Some of it looks like fritos, some of it looks like tree bark, and other pieces look like rocks. It's all various shades of tan and brown, and the stuff I tried was good. The man at this table was really excited to practice his English. "How do you do?" he giggled at us. "Uh.. good, fine..." we replied, along with some various Korean greetings. "Korean old day candy," he explained proudly. I think he asked us where we were from, but by the time it was all over (about 10 seconds) we had both exhausted all our vocabulary in each others' language, and he was beaming from ear to ear.

As we pushed our cart through the meat, puzzled over the -always terrible- dairy options, and squinted at the -always the worst- selection of cheese (Asia and cheese. Not compatible). I suddenly had to go back to the tofu lady. I had to figure out how she made that amazing fried tofu, and I had to buy more. I grabbed the two-for-one box set. I approached her table, with what I hoped was a teachable expression. I had grabbed some green onions and eggs. "This, this, this?" I said in Korean. She treated me like she was my grandma. She picked up some tofu with some chopsticks, and took me through the cooking process, step by step. Then she made me eat some, and then some more. Mmmm... I can't wait to make it at home.

It was more dangerous being alone, because some loud boisterous somewhere-else-in-Asia foreign men stopped what they were doing to alert each other and watch me pass. AHHH stupid Western hair and Western-ness. A small child walking with her mom, hand in hand, abruptly stopped and gasped when she looked up and saw me. I waved at her.

I totally understand why the famous people don't enjoy being famous. Just saying.

So anyways, I'm off to read because we went to the library today and me always being the overachiever checked out five books. The book I thought I'd finish it the library but didn't is Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox", the book I half-read through a few months ago (The Space Between Us- an Indian story about the caste system and life in it), number three in the Chronicles of Narnia series (trying to read all of that), Nicholas Sparks for a light read, and a Martin Luther King Jr. biography the size of the Bible. Good job Ansan library.

God has totally answered prayers lately because sometimes I get so weird from living alone and now having to plan in my classroom alone (my never satisfied boss was irritated that the teachers talk to each other while they're at school), and my parents prayed for me and other people are too and I totally felt it. It's all kinds of things that make life here difficult sometimes, but mostly I'm an incurable extrovert and the whole living alone thing (while very luxurious and relaxing and peaceful) makes my head start going crazy! So thanks for your prayers. Also I need to pray for other people more because I'm so selfish about that so can you tell me what and I'm going to write it on a paper on my wall. K thanks.

Ahhhh!!! Where does Saturday go?!?