Today our co-worker Isaac and his girlfriend took Chelsea, Megan and I to Costco in Seoul. The drive was only about 25 minutes, but parking took about another 20 minutes. Isaac helped me sign up for a membership card, 35,000 won, and we were off.
The place was a mad house, with giant shopping carts, crowded aisles and oversized products, we were lucky to get out of there alive. We found some much needed ingredients for our taco night however that we have been unable to find anywhere else.
We picked up some pepper jack cheese, ground beef (can be found elsewhere but for about four times the price found at Costco), oatmeal, and best of all Honeynut Cheerios. Won’t continue on with our whole list, but we are set for the taco night now, we’re thinking Saturday.
After braving the aisles, then the long checkout, we parked our carts and hit up the food court. I got a Bogogi Bake, which was more or less like a Philly Cheese without the peppers, but baked in a pizza type crust. Was delicious.
We then headed back to Dongtan, happy with our take. Upon getting back, Chelsea and Megan set out for coffee and stumbled upon a new dollar store that had just opened up, a 3,000 won store in Korean terms. The place apparently has everything that we had needed when we first got here, but for next to nothing! Probably could have saved at least $200 had this place opened three weeks ago, but alas, we were not that lucky. We’re going to check it out more closely though tomorrow morning.
As for teaching, our middle school classes started yesterday. The kids are 14-15 years old, and decent at English. My last class today was a new one and they tried to keep me away from working by asking lots of questions, which was fun to see them work together, but finally they couldn’t think of anymore. All the kids are great and can’t wait to get to know them all better and figure out what makes them tick.
Tomorrow night Megan, Chelsea and I are going to our friends Bryan and Selina’s Christmas party. We’re going to see if any of our Korean co-workers want to come and it should be a blast. Bryan and Selina are a fun couple, and as long as we can find the place we’re looking forward to a fun night of partying. Then hopefully tacos on Saturday with some co-workers at our place and then rest on Sunday…and we need it…
~Ian
