Day Two

June 22, 2009
16:45KST

I woke up around 9:30, just as I had predicted the night before despite being a little jetlagged. I lounged around and just relaxed. At home, we never treated breakfast as a meal and ate whatever we had – whether it was toast, cereal, poptarts, or cake. But at my grandparents’ house my aunts prepare every meal like normal and I didn’t particularly feel like eating a full breakfast.

So two of my aunts (the oldest and youngest) and I went shopping for groceries. Korean-style shopping is definitely different. The mart reminded me of Target but with the full-scale produce and food of a supermarket (the only thing I can think of as an example would be Meijer, but even that doesn’t do it justice). I’ll take pictures the next time I go, but I did notice a few things.

Skincare and beauty products are all very expensive – because people in Korea will pay obscene amounts of money for them. My mom said that the beauty industry in Korea is doing fine despite the economic downturn because people will continue to buy those products. There are also mini stations of stuff – kind of how the jewelry section of Macy’s is set up, with people who staff different jewelry areas – but of clothes, electronics, or even food.

It’s definitely different. And my aunts will take me shopping at the department stores – way better shopping than in the US and much more fun. I couldn’t begin to explain without pictures, so I’ll definitely post those.