first ferry ride

I had my first ferry adventure out of Okpo yesterday. Brenda and I took the ferry to Pusan (or Busan - it is spelled either way). We weren't too prepared - all we had was a list of the ferry times and a couple of places to possibly go in Pusan. Unfortunately, it was also quite cold and windy but we pressed on. The ferry terminal is only a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment. I met Brenda there.

The ferry isn't cheap -19,200 won each way (approximately $20 each way). But it is fairly nice - thankfully you sat inside with comfortable seats. Not knowing how I would feel, I chose to sit in the middle section of the boat. Even though it was a bit choppy at times, I had no problems with seasickness. I wanted to look out the window more, but was afraid I would get sick. It only took around 45 minutes and we were walking out to get a taxi (what Ken suggested). It will become obvious later what we should have done at that time....!

The cab took us to the Lotte Hotel, where the Lotte Department Store is attached to it. The hotel lobby is beautiful and you walk through some doors into the entry to the department store. We were a little early and had to wait outside while the salespeople had some sore of pep talk and did their morning stretches (to music of course). Then the doors finally opened. The store definitely wasn't a Penneys, or even a Dillard's or Macy's. More like a Saks or a Nordstroms. Every designer name you could think of was posted. We decided to go to the top floor (9th) and work our way down to see what was there.

Even though a group of people came in with us, it felt like we were the only ones there. Kind of on display. I told Brenda I felt like the President walking through the store, the way everyone was just standing at their posts with the "presidential-like" music playing. Then the music changed and everyone seemed to be getting to business and moving around. We decided that maybe it was their national anthem or something. I will have to ask someone.

The 9th floor had restaurants and various other floors housed clothing and housewares. Some of the bed linens were just beautiful. Anyway, after looking around we returned to the 9th floor for lunch. We decided on TGI Fridays since it was something we couldn't normally get. They also had a Starbucks, a Krispy Kreme and a Pizza Hut along with various Korean and other Asian restaurants.

While we were eating, we saw a couple come in that were possibly American (I have found that just because they aren't Korean, they aren't necessarily American). It turns out they were Americans that had been there for 3 years teaching English. Anyway, they gave us a suggestion on where to go and told us to just take the subway. Having lived in Paris and navigated their system just fine, I told Brenda we would be okay since we had a subway map. However, it wasn't that easy. The signs weren't very clear and the machine that you got your tokens from had no English on them. Brenda saw a line of people scanning their resident cards (which we have) and getting a token. Luckily we didn't stand in that line - we later decided that the elderly got their tokens free in that line!! An older couple that spoke some English came up to us and helped us get a token and on our way. We were felling pretty smart at that point.

The area we went to was called Na Dam Song - it had recognizable shops and alot of street stalls too. We definitely want to go back to that area - it was more to our liking than the Lotte. Like I said, it was soooo cold, so we ducked into Dunkin Donuts for some coffee and a doughnut before we hit the subway again. We finally figured where to go and got off where we were supposed to. But when we emerged from the underground, no ferry terminal was in sight. We started walking with coffee in hand toward the harbor area. We were a bit nervous when we saw the International Ferry (NOT where we needed) but after walking a few blocks more we came to where we got off the original ferry. Like I said before, we should have looked at our surroundings more when we had left the ferry in the morning because we couldn't figure out where to buy our ticket. After much motioning and such, we got a ferry worker to backtrack us back to a building we had passed to get tickets. By then we had thrown away our coffee and were trotting a bit. The ferry left a couple minutes after we got on. I realize I had neglected to tell you that it was the last ferry leaving for Okpo. It wasn't the end of the world if we had missed it though - we could take another ferry in an hour for another nearby town. Ken or Norm would have had to pick us up though.

We had quite a day but hopefully next time I will be able to tell you about my purchases. The only thing we bought was the food we ate!!

big weekend

My first Saturday here was quite eventful (considering my days so far have consisted of unpacking, walking, foraging for food and preparing it)! On Saturday morning, Ken and I went over to Goysomething which is the town next to us about 10 minutes away. They also have a shipyard there - the Samsung Shipyard. The town is larger than Okpo and has a Tesco there. Now, I remember Tesco from my Aberdeen days so I guess it is somehow related.

Ken said he had heard that we should get there before 10 a.m. since it can get very crowded. So we headed out (in a car, for once) after stopping at Dunkin Donuts for a doughnut to go. It is easy to find the building since it is on the main road but we had a little difficulty in understanding where to park so we parked in an open lot behind the building and walked around to the front entrance. The building is 4 stories and the top 3 house items like clothes, jewelry, appliances, etc. The bottom floor is the grocery part.

When we walked in, there was a greeter (just like WalMart, but a younger greeter with a sash on, not a vest, that bowed to you). I think we were one of the first ones to get there. We were in the store for 2 1/2 hours looking at everything and trying to fiqure out what some things where. And there is always someone there to help you. Right after you put some potatoes in a plastic bag, someone appears, takes it from you, weighs it and puts a sticker on it. They have mostly vegetables that I can recognize but also alot that I don't know. We stuck with bananas, potatoes, mushrooms, lettuce (they actually have iceberg here), tomatoes, onions and oranges.
The meat selection is not as plentiful as we know it. I did pick up a package of boneless chicken breast that cost alot for 6 small breasts. Pork is plentiful here and I also got some thin sliced kind of boneless pork chops. The ground beef is from Australia and is very lean. The rest of the beef is very expensive even though they do eat beef here.

I was hoping to find some frozen vegetables, but to no avail. I guess they just shop fresh. You do encounter some American food items at all of the grocery stores, some more expensive than others - like peanut butter, microwave popcorn, mustard, etc. They also have items that look like the packaging from the U.S. - like Ritz crackers, Oreos, some chips. However, not everything tastes the same. I bought some tomato juice that said it was Del Monte and it was awful. So I guess it will be trial and error with buying food.

When we finally left with our full basket, we realized that we didn't know how to get it to our car. So we trucked up to the floor we came in on to go out the front door. By that time, the floor was open and people were shopping. We realized that no one had a grocery cart. No sooner than Ken had said "I feel funny walking around with a grocery cart, no one else has one" , than a lady stopped us from going out the front door! So we made our way to the parking garage that we were supposed to park in and Ken went and got the car and picked me up in the garage. Quite the morning.