Grocery shopping

Grocery shopping has never been one of my favorite chores.  Even in America, I always put off going grocery shopping.  I've always hated navigating the crowded aisles with huge carts everywhere.  Then there's the whole spending money part which I also don't particularly care for.

Although grocery shopping is no long the daunting task it was when I first moved to Korea, largely on account of the fact where I know where everything I need is now, it is still a chore I simply detest.

Don't get me wrong, I love Homeplus.  It's no Target, but it's definitely the best substitute for it.  However, just about every time I go into Homeplus on a Sunday afternoon I end up getting incredibly frustrated.  One of the differences between America and Korea is the whole concept of personal space.  That is, it just doesn't really exist in Korea.  I guess it makes sense for a country with such a high population density, but when you're shopping it means that people have no problem bumping into you, or just leaving you with no breathing room whatsoever.

This couldn't be more evident than at checkout time.  In America, we of course have baggers at grocery stores who nicely put all of our things into bags for us.  Once all your things are put into your bags and back into your cart, the next person gets his or her turn.

Now, in my mind, this is a great system.  No one is rushed and your things usually end up in a somewhat logical position in your bags.

Of course, this is NOT how it works in Korea.  In Korea, there is no person to bag your groceries.  Ok, that's fine. I can totally live with bagging my own things.  However, the part that drives me absolutely crazy is how as you put your things in your bags there is already someone standing right next to you.  It's like they push you out of the way before you even pay.  And once you have paid--well, you better watch out.  You better bet that the next person's items will be scanned regardless of whether or not you've put all your things into your bags.  And that person who has been standing next to you the whole time will REALLY be pushing you out of the way now.

I should mention that the Korean people don't think they are being rude by doing this.  It's just the way things are in Korea.  Likewise, when someone bumps into you they won't say sorry.  Although we consider that rude, that custom just doesn't exist in Korea.

This may seem like a small thing, but it is something that has bothered me literally every week I have gone grocery shopping.  Sometimes it really is the small, mundane things that remind you that you're actually living in another country with a very different culture.

Thailand Part IV: Chiang Mai, Day 3 (Tigers!!)

After sleeping for what must have been over 14 hours, I was feeling better, although still somewhat hesitant to each much.  Still, it was on with our plans for the day--there wasn't much time to waste! Luckily we had a Starbucks not far from our hotel, so I got a muffin to test out the whole eating food thing.  Yes, I feel somewhat guilty that I was in one of the countries with the most famous cuisines in the world, yet ate at Starbucks.  But somehow I don't think jumping right back into Thai food would have been prudent.  

After a quick breakfast, we found a tuk-tuk to take us to the Tiger Kingdom.  I would say two main things come to mind for many people when they come to Chiang Mai: elephants and tigers. Having already taken care of the former the day before, it was time to see some tigers!  For those of you who haven't already seen my facebook pictures, Tiger Kingdom is a place where you can get up and personal with tigers of all ages. You can decide which size tigers you want to see, but Megan and I decided that since we will probably only get once chance in our lives to hang out with tigers, we should see all the sizes--small, medium, large, and babies.  YOLO!

The tigers at Tiger Kingdom aren't chained down at all like they are at some other similar type of destinations.  I didn't come across any incidents of tiger attacks at the Tiger Kingdom (there are instances at another place in Thailand), but the tigers definitely aren't drugged (as they also allegedly are at the other place).  The tigers are handled and trained from a very young age and given plenty of food so they aren't looking to eat any people. Before you enter the enclosures with the tigers they give you a few simple directions to approach the tigers from behind and not to touch their heads. Besides that, you're not really given a lot of other instructions. Of course, you sign your life away before you enter the park, but I guess that's to be expected. Nothing like beginning your day by crossing your fingers you don't get eaten by a big cat.

When it was out turn to enter with the small tigers, my initial reaction was "these are the small tigers?!"  They seemed huge.  And I was incredibly aware of the fact that if they wanted to, those "little" guys could demolish me.  The tiger's trainers of course had absolutely no reservations and instructed us into a number of strange poses.  As Megan said "I never thought I'd hear someone telling me to put my face on a tiger."

The more time we spent with the tigers, the more at ease I felt, but I never lost sight of the fact that I was surrounded by animals who could do some serious damage to me if they so wished.  We especially started to feel nervous when the tigers would start to play with each other or the trainers would encourage them to play. Having grown up with cats, I know that if you get them into a playful mood they get worked up and are likely to playfully attack you.  I actually found myself thinking quite a bit of my cats at home (yes, I know tigers are just a little different from domestic cats), but when they had us do things like touch their bellies or play with their tails, all I could think of was how my cats at home would have swatted me away (well, maybe Baxter wouldn't)...but still, it felt counterintuitive to all of my cat-handling habits that have been formed throughout my life.

The small tigers...that didn't seem so small at first. 

so beautiful!

I love this picture!

"OK, lay down on the tiger"  Wait...did someone really tell me to lay on a TIGER?!

Medium tiger

Nevertheless, being at the Tiger Kingdom was an amazing experience, even if at times it felt like the strangest photo shoot I'll ever have in my life.  But tigers are truly extraordinarily beautiful animals, even more so when you see them up close.  Tigers have always been my favorite animals to see at the zoo (yes, in my awkward middle school years I was really obsessed with animals and had a period where I wanted to be a vet/zookeeper.  I loved big cats so much that I spent my money on a book all about tigers.  What kind of middle schooler spends the little Christmas money they have on a book about tigers? THIS GIRL).  Anywho, clearly I never went down the vet/zookeeper road in life, but I still enjoyed all the animal interaction we got in Thailand-it fulfilled some of my long lost childhood dreams.

Love that beautiful face!

And this would be when they told us to make a mustache with the tiger's tail.

A little freaked out by the fact that my head out easily fit in his mouth...

Our time with the small, medium, and large tigers was pretty similar, but we saved the best for last--the baby tigers!  These guys (and girls) were TOO CUTE! I mean, how could you not love those little faces?  They were pure bundles of energy, but we got to feed a bottle to one of them, and then as we posed for some pictures with one, another guy jumped right up on our backs, creating some of my favorite candid pictures ever.  Just so cute.  I really wish I could have taken one home with me!

Again, not my idea. 

Oh, hey there!

I still look at the pictures from that day and can't believe that it really happened. It was really cool, and I'm glad we went and spent the extra money to see all the tigers and to get a photographer for the large and baby tigers.  Sometimes it's worth it to spend the extra money and go all out.

After we got back to our hotel, we took a little break (I was feeling fine, but I still felt really tired).  Once it got closer to evening we headed out to the night market.  Chiang Mai has a very well-known night market, so we were pumped to finally do some SHOPPING!

McDonalds, Thai-style.  Note: don't worry, we didn't actually eat in Mcdonalds while in Thailand.

Vendors, vendors everywhere!

Banana pancake.  Made with about 2 tons of butters, but I was told it was a must-try in Thailand! It was worth it!

Delicious and super cheap smoothies made with real, fresh fruit! YUM!

And shop we did.  You could buy just about anything at the market, and of course it was CHEAP!  What's not to love?  We bought plenty of souvenirs, got some banana pancakes and smoothies, caught a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, and called it a night.

Another successful day in Chaing Mai, if I do say so myself.

Church in Korea, shopping, and getting into the Christmas spirit

If you read my earlier posts from the end of last week, you are already familiar with how I was feeling earlier this week. Basically, there wasn't any part of me that wanted to be here or do anything.  I spent all of yesterday being lazy, essentially switching between reading and watching the West Wing for the entirety of the day.

This morning I had plans to go to church with one of my friends in Jeomchon.  I'm really lucky to have been put in a town with so many other Christians.  We meet once a week to have a bible study, and it's really become one of the highlights of my week.  We have about seven members in our group, which I guess is amazing because just a year ago there were really only two Christians out of the Jeomchon English teachers.
Anyway, out of our group there's one other catholic, and we've been been determined to find a Roman Catholic church.  It's proved more difficult than we originally thought, considering we see churches around us all the time.  However, my friend was told by one teacher at his school that there is a catholic church in Jeomchon, so this morning we were ready to go to what we thought was a 10:00 mass.

However, when we got to the church it didn't look anything like a catholic church, and I was pretty certain it had to be some other denomination.  We also found out that the service didn't start until 11, which meant that we had an hour to kill.  We were directed to a little cafe that is part of the church, so we sat there and had some coffee while we waited.

As we were sitting talking, a group of kids entered.  One girl immediately ran up and gave me a hug.  I was instantly in love with these kids.  There were three girls and one boy in this group of kids, and they continued to play with for the next twenty minutes.  They were 8 years old, which means they knew a few basic English sentences, but were still amazed at seeing foreigners.

This was an awesome way to start the day.  I love teaching high school, but I've always been around young kids in some capacity or another, and since I've been in Korea I've really missed this part of my life.  It did my heart well to be around some kids, even for just a little while.

When it was near 11:00 we went upstairs to enter the church. We knew pretty much instantly that it in fact wasn't a catholic church.  Of course, there wasn't much we could do at this point, especially since there was a nice older man who sat next to us and was translating everything the minister was saying.

In the middle of the service, the man who was translating for us asked us to write down our names.  Ummm ok?  About ten minutes later the minister was talking, and before we knew it we were told to stand and saw ourselves on a big video screen that they have to project things during the service (interesting because the church isn't even that big).  Anyway, everyone clapped for us as we were welcomed to the church.

After the service was done we were greeted by a bunch of people, and multiple old ladies were hugging me, smiling, and saying things to me in Korean. They wanted us to go eat with them, but my friend told them that we had to go.  We also found out that the church was in fact Presbyterian, at which point I reminded my friend that I totally knew it wasn't catholic when we saw the building.  Oh well, it was um, an experience? Of course, now we feel obligated to go back at least one more time because the guy who was there told us he was going to get English bibles for us. Plus, I kind of want to see those kids again :)

Oh man.  So, the quest  for a catholic church continues.

After church, my friend and I went to Homeplus because we each had to pick up a few things.  Of course, Homeplus is essentially one of those stores like Target, where a "few things" always turns into a $50 minimum. While we were there I decided to finally buy an actual coffee maker, and a little Christmas tree.  Yes, the cold weather had officially made me decide that I just can't stand all this instant coffee anymore.  So, even though it was overpriced, I now own an actual coffee maker.  I also decided I can't stand the thought of going the whole Christmas season without a Christmas tree, so I bought small tree and the coordinating overpriced decorations.

The shopping trip was made even more delightful due to the abundance of snapchats I received from my friends back home.  As soon as we got back home I met up with them all on skype, and since it was about 1 AM at home by that point, they were indeed in rare form.  Gosh, I miss that crazy group of people!

After I finished my call with them, I met up with two friends and we headed downtown for some dakgalbi, which is my favorite Korean meal. After dinner, we got some coffee in a nearby coffee shop until we saw the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the downtown area light up, at which point we headed outside to get a look.

Apparently this is the first year there's been a tree like this in Jeomchon.  I'm glad they're getting in the holiday spirit just in time for my first Christmas here.  I also love that there's a CROSS on top of the tree.  In a public place! It's not like Korea is an all-Christian country, there's a significant Buddhist population here.  But still, apparently associating Christ with Christmas isn't as outrageous as it is in America.  Also, notice the apple and omija, Mungyeong's signature fruits.  Love you, Korea.

Inspired by the Christmas spirit, I promptly made a point to set up my own Christmas tree as soon as I got home.

And here is my little tree! It's kind of a Charlie Brown tree--not too full and not too special, but now that my Christmas music is on and my living room is lit up by these lights, it feels a whole lot more like home, and it certainly feels much warmer in here.  

When this weekend started I felt the most homesick and for lack of a better word, "blah" than I had the whole time I'd been in Korea.  Now that this weekend is finishing, I feel full of love and thanks for my life and those I had met in Korea.  When I came to Korea, I said that I knew God would put me where I was meant to be, and now that I am here, I have no doubts that that is just what happened.