The month long week

Since this post is mostly about shopping, I'll add a few random pictures to help keep you entertained ;)

Common flowers here

Remember that post where I talked so much about the waiting game and everything happening at a snail's pace?  Well this week was more like a cheetah.  Oh ya, a cheetah that can sprint a loooooooooooooooooooooong distance.  What I mean by this is that we did so many things this week it went by extremely quickly while at the same time the amount of things we did probably could have been done in twice the time (ok so maybe not a whole month's worth but hyperbole makes for a better title, right?).  It sure feels like we've been here for over a week. 

But Kelsey, what could you have possibly done that took up so much of your first week?  The primary answer: shopping.  Seems like a young lady's greatest dream, eh? FALSE.  What I mean by this is that Trevor and I being the frugal deal-seeking type had to seek out all the best deals.  Within 7 days we went on a big shopping trip 5 of those days. 

A typical side street in the city

Our first stop was at Korea's Wal-Mart (although somewhat classier than most Wal-Marts I've seen) called HomePlus.  After moseying around for a while, we began to realize we had no idea how to go grocery shopping in Korea.  Buying the types of food we are used to gets really expensive because a lot of the food is imported.  Buying Korean food is also tricky because I have never cooked Korean cuisine so we didn't know what ingredients to buy.  Although we brought much home, it still seemed like we had nothing and we continued to live off of ramen for the time being.

Cute little park 15 min away

You'll all recognize destination 2.  Every foreigner's homesickness remedy: Costco. I admit my high hopes for Costco were quickly deflated.  I've always known they sell everything in bulk and I guess it was more bulky than I thought which made everything seem extremely expensive. Several items purchased that day will potentially last us the whole year we are here.  While at Costco there were several items we decided not to purchase because we thought we saw better prices at HomePlus.  Once again we had a good load of groceries but still didn't have what we needed to start making full blown meals.

More of the park

Costco and HomePlus both seemed to carry produce that seemed overly pricey and so we were holding out on buying fruits and vegetables until we could find some place like a farmer's market.  Trevor knew they existed but didn't quite know where to go to find one.  After some research we finally found one across town.  I was so relieved once we got there to see quite reasonable prices especially on the vegetables.  Fresh carrots, potatoes, peppers, garlic cloves, and onions filled our giant pink polka-dot mesh bag.  It became quite heavy and Trevor volunteered to carry it despite the girly design ;) (He's so good to me!).

One day on his way home from work, Trevor found a small neighborhood grocer so we decided to check that out.  It's within walking distance which means we don't have to take the bus or a taxi which saves on $.  Several prices were comparable to HomePlus but most items were slightly more expensive so the bus ride may or may not be worth it.  It is good to know I can get groceries within walking distance if need be.  We did get a few items here but decided we should hit up HomePlus one more time for the week.

Our last stop to HomePlus finally readied us to really get cooking.  More on the food we've encountered as well as other activities our first week coming soon so check back in within the next week for more fun!