A trip to the market...

    Yesterday after school was over we walked to Lotte Mart, which is Korea's largest department store, to get some stuff for our apartment. The weather was gorgeous, bright and sunny at sunset. Even though it is halfway through October, it was really warm (hence the shorts and t-shirts), probably just over 20 degrees plus the humidity. The walk to Lotte Mart only took 15 minutes but along the way is a beautiful lake, not sure the name of it, that has really nice walking paths along it that are really popular. 

    Lotte Mart is crazy, it is the best place to shop nearby, kind of like a Walmart in a sense, but 4 stories high with an outlet part that sells designer clothing. Some things are a lot cheaper here than in Canada and some things are oddly expensive like pillowcases. 

    Reading the labels is obviously difficult, but there are a lot of the same brands so you just kind of have to guess about what things are. The language is really a challenge, even more so with the different alphabet so you can`t even read things and guess how to say them. Hopefully we will learn more but for now it is only hello and thank-you. Good thing we`ve got a full year to learn!
  

  After Lotte Mart, our boss Simon took us and 3 other English teachers to the Korean Symphony that was celebrating some famous Korean composer and war hero. Not really my scene, but it was interesting to see more of the city and do something new. While we were waiting in the lobby before the show, the mayor of Gwangju came in and did a couple of interviews for Korean news groups. Oddly enough the mayor`s people asked us to be in the background of all the shots, I guess because they like the look of Westerners. Pretty strange though, Simon just laughed. 

   It`s been a really long week, and we are both really glad that it is Friday, both for sleep and for more time to explore. Apparently we are going to some ice bar tonight, so expect another update tomorrow!