Saturday Adventure

Today was the first day I was able to sleep in and venture out around Daejon! I watched the high school girls soccer match, and part of the boys, then decided to explore Daejon. The weather was beautiful today, it was in the high 60's! It was a very windy day, there was sand and all sorts of things blowing around as I walked into town.

I decided that I was going to try and find E-Mart. Many of the teachers here recommended that I go there, they said it was the Walmart of Korea and that I would find anything I needed. I started off walking in the general direction that the teachers said it would be in, "walk about 20-25 minutes that way and veer right". So, I did.

In a perfect world, I would have ended up at E-Mart exactly where I was supposed to be. Instead I took a detour and found a fun area that was much better than just a supermarket! I'm still not quite sure where I was (maybe a suburb of Daejon) but it was a good 35 minute walk from school. There were all kinds of local clothes shops, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, markets and even hairdressers. Everything was brightly colored and there were advertisements everywhere! There were lots of people walking along enjoying the beautiful weather!

Start of the shops and markets

Korean Goodwill

I ended up browsing through the shops trying to figure out what was in each shop. I went through many small "stationary shops" that had all sorts of paper, notebooks, pencils, pens and such- all of the cute stationary Korea is notorious for.

I did my grocery shopping and had lunch during my outing as well. I bought different things at about 3 separate markets. I found some fresh strawberries that were reasonably priced (the ones I've seen before have been about 12,000 W = 12 USD)! I have struggled with the currency conversion here so far, even though it is very easy. Today while I was looking at things in the shops I struggled to put things in my basket. It wasn't until I got to the milk section and decided that I needed milk for my cereal regardless of the price, and I put it in my cart for 3,000 W. It wasn't until I checked out that I was reminded that 3,000 W was only 3 dollars.

On my way back home after all of my shopping was complete, I decided to be brave and try some street food. I stopped at the busiest stall and put up one finger and said "One juseyo" (one please), hoping to be understood. Thankfully, it worked and I was given a cup of fried something. I'm still not too sure what it was, I think it was a mixture of fried chicken, squid and tofu. I grabbed my cup and hopped over to another stall to get a blue ginseng slushy. To my surprise, it was very good (sharp tasting) and I enjoyed my fried cup of goodness and blue slushy for lunch.

My street food lunch

For dessert, I stopped at a gourmet rice cake bakery. There were two older ladies making the rice cakes and all I was able to afford was a small delicacy. As I was paying, the ladies saw my family photo in my wallet and asked me where I was from. When I told them I was an American student teacher working at TCIS, they pointed to my mom in the photo and said "she is boooytiful american". I laughed and tried to tell them that my mother was Moroccan. I wish that I could have video taped their responses, for about a minute they went on a tangent in Korean and all I could understand was "maroko". Its moments like those where I realize that I am completely helpless and can't communicate.

My gourmet rice cake dessert

As I was walking back to school, I came across a group of elderly Koreans. They were singing and passing things out to people walking by. I was very curious as to what they were doing so I tried to stop and ask. I had no clue what the old man was saying but he put his arm around me and started mumbling. Then he gave me a paper and sent me on my way. I was very confused and kept walking. When I got home, I looked at the paper he gave me and it all clicked.

Tract given to me by an elderly Korean man 

The tracts are from a Bible Society in Pennsylvania