Monday, December 1, 2008

Chapter Thirty-One: Christmas Shopping Downtown

This weekend was not too exciting. Friday, I wanted to relax after Thanksgiving. Saturday, it was too cold and windy to wander around downtown. However, on Sunday, I finally got out of the apartment. I met up with the lovely Rosemary from Smith who is working at Daegu English Village. Since I missed the terror that was Black Friday on Long Island (such as a stampede of shoppers killing a Wal-Mart employee in Nassau), I decided I needed to start my Christmas shopping in Korea. We walked around pretty much the entire shopping district downtown. Somehow, we ended up in a labor rally.

Note the fists raised. I only figured out it was a labor rally because there was a tiny bit of English on a donation can. I think it also has something to do with the large number of people in wheelchairs who protest in this area on Sundays. Need to learn more.

What's Christmas shopping without some really awful food court food... like KFC? KFC in Korea is a little spicier and I don't think there are any mashed potatoes, but it's still pretty exciting.

And Krispy Kreme! That's right, Mom, you can't get Krispy Kreme in Riverhead anymore, but I can get it in Daegu. Note the red light on in the background. We had that awful problem where all we wanted when we went in was a glazed donut, but then they gave us the free ones because the light was on, so we were forced to buy another donut we didn't want. Since it is Korea, we got a green-tea powdered donut. It tasted pretty much like everything else green tea flavored I've had, which is to say, nothing like green tea.

Mmm, Christmas shopping!

And this is my new keyboard, with my Korean keyboard stickers. The amazing part of this is that now I can actually type in 한글(Hangul) because I now know where the proper keys are! Excellent! This picture might give you an idea of the sort of things you should expect from me for Christmas. I'll get you serious gifts when I get home but from Korea, you're getting the most ridiculous things I can find.

2 comments:

  1. Love the keyboard stickers!!! Wow!
    Your post reminded me of the Christmases I spent teaching in Japan - which were kind of depressing because I actually had to work on Christmas Day, since it's not celebrated there - but there are more Christians in Korea, right, so there should be a more Christmassy atmosphere? I hope so for you! Enjoy :-)

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  2. Nomnom Krispy Kreme. I need to go make donuts now. I'm happy they also do the red light in Korea.

    Also, I got your letter, thank you so much! The stationary was so cute! Yay mail! :-D

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