Yoga Pictures

My yoga teacher took a bunch of pictures of me at the studio a couple weeks ago to put on her website. She gave me a cd today with them. They're mostly pictures of me with my eyes closed, but there's one of us together and one of the building:


Her name is Lee So Hyun, Lee being her family name. I look like a giant next to her. When we do things like swing our body parts around or twist back and forth, it takes me like 20% longer to finish each repetition.





Lee So Hyun Feeling Yoga

Shopping

Today I went shopping at E-mart, which is kind of like Target. It looks massive from the outside, but I found out after going to the wrong floors a bunch of times, that it has three floors for shopping, and the rest of the probably ten floors, below and above, are for parking. The first floor is a grocery store, but it doesn't seem to be any cheaper than my GS, so I don't bother. The second floor is housewares, personal hygiene, appliances, electronics, and entertainment. The third floor is clothing, shoes, bags and accessories, and cosmetics.

There are two sets of flat (so the carts can go up them) escalators. They confuse me, but I think I've got it down now. One set allows you to traverse floors without paying at each floor, and the other doesn't. The latter also doesn't allow you to get to the second floor shopping area for some reason.

Shopping is always a weird experience. I've mentioned the amount of employees around retail stores before, and how much they're into customer service. It's getting a little awkward for me now. They'll come around to a customer, even if she's foreign and clearly doesn't speak Korean, and loom about after the greeting to see if they can help. Sometimes I ask for help, and they can figure out what I'm saying, but mostly I don't need it. I feel kind of bad for the employees, because they have to watch me like hawks. I just don't know the rules. A couple weeks ago I tried to go into the grocery part of E-mart with my bag of already-paid-for items. The greeter had to run after me and confiscate my bag, since it wasn't allowed into that area. I might steal. Today, I got stopped trying to walk out of the clothing area with two shirts still on the hangers. The lady took the hangers away from me and put my shirts into a clear plastic bag. I would never have guessed that the hangers had to stay. They don't blame me, though. They're always really nice about it.


Shopping is also really weird because of what passes for clothing here. It's really quite funny. I wish I could bring a camera into the stores and take pictures of the clothes, but that's probably against the rules, or at least pretty gauche. I've been trying to find plain cotton t shirts, but I don't think they make them here. The few t shirts I've been able to find are all decked out with cutesy wutesy kitties and bunnies and unicorns and rainbows and stuff. And this is the women's section, mind you, not the kids' section. I did manage to get a plain yellow tank top for only four bucks today, and this t shirt for about seven. It was one of the few not sickeningly cute t shirts around, but I still wish it didn't have anything on it.


If you can't tell, it says "Stylish Du Jeans," which of course doesn't make any sense. The picture is of a guy taking a photo of a girl holding a book with a photograph on the open page. How postmodern.




I was able to find several button-down shirts that I liked, but it took some searching. I ended up with this one, which has thin yellow, blue, and silver vertical stripes, and two cool pockets. It goes well with the yellow tank top.





A lot of the button down shirts are collarless, which kind of kills it a little for me. They also have a lot of plaid going around in the button downs, which is hilarious. There were millions of shirts that are supposed to look like two shirts--short sleeved t shirts over long sleeved t shirts, sweaters over buccaneer-frilled blouses, tank tops over t shirts, jackets over blouses, stuff like that. It's mostly really hideous. If it's not cutesy wutesy, it looks like something someone threw away in the 80's. There are a lot of pirate stripes, collars decorated with massive plastic jewels, tunic shirts, shirts with bows and ribbons tied around the collar, and awful prints.

I have to say, though, that I haven't really had to stifle laughter seeing how Koreans dress. As hideous as the stuff looks on the rack, somehow it seems to come together on the people.


Getting back to the employees, I have to note how some of them are dressed. I didn't notice this until today, but some of the young female employees wear pleated miniskirts and baby tees as a uniform. It's really odd. They also wear these things on their legs below the knee. They're just a cylinder of fabric, with an elastic band holding them up just below the knee, and broadening out enough to cover the shoes at the bottom. I'm not sure why they wear them. I guess it's pure fashion. I first saw them as I was looking down at something, and I though they might be for covering shoes in the rain, since it's rainy today. But then I noticed it was an employee, and that several of them were wearing them. I think I've seen these things in video games, too.


I needed to buy a new purse, too. The strap on mine broke, and it's too small for me now, anyway, since I want to carry around my dictionary and a map, and I have to add my reading glasses to the bag when I go to work. I've been looking for weeks for some sort of subtle satchel, but no look. The purses are as gawdy as the clothes, but frankly, purses are gawdy anywhere. I hate purses. This one's okay, though. It's olive green, if you can't tell, with brown trim.





All in all, I spent about a hundred bucks today, with the shirts and bag and a bunch of toiletry items I had to get. My whole goal in shopping today was to get a bunch of candy to give as rewards to my students, but I was not able to find anything that wasn't chocolate and expensive. Figures.

My Neighborhood

It occurs to me that I showed you pictures of the inside of my apartment, but not the outside. Not that it's very interesting. In case you're interested, here are some pictures of my neighborhood:

This is the front of my building. I'm in the back left corner on the first floor, so you can't see my apartment, unfortunately.






This is the view from my back window. Just a dumpy street. Because my building is evidently built into a slope, the back of my apartment has a balcony, even though I'm on the first floor, and I could climb out my side window onto the ground, if I wanted. I think I've mentioned in another entry that the balcony isn't supposed to be for hanging out, though. It's only a couple feet wide, and there isn't a door to get onto it. I had to climb through a small, knee-high window to get onto it and take this shot. Cats hang out on it a lot, though.



This is the view of my block from in front of my building. My apartment building is to the right, outside the frame. You can see the tip of the Nambu Library on the left. To the left of the library is what seems to be a piano school. Next door to my building are a seamstress and a little jewelry store. A little past them are a boutique for kids and a clothing boutique, both of which are probably very expensive. Down past the library are two food stands, one at which I buy soup to take home a lot. There are also a couple little restaurants I've been meaning to visit. At the end of the block on the left is a bar called Orange Western Liquor. Even if I cared for bars, I probably wouldn't go there. I've only seen middle aged men going in there--no young people or foreigners, even though it's foreign alcohol. It's probably not the place for me.



This is the Nambu Library. I haven't been in there yet, but some of my students tell me it has some English books. I'll probably check it out once I run out of the books I brought with me. It's funny having a library right across the street, and on a little side street at that. Korea doesn't have residential areas and business areas. It's all one big smorgasbord.

Shoes and Shoe Abuse

I've been looking at people's shoes a lot here. They seem to wear the same kinds of shoes that we do, for the most part. They just do different things with them.

For example, Korean women wear high heels everywhere, and with everything. To work, walking in the park, shopping, even to (but not during) yoga.

Everyone else wears sneakers, it seems. I see a lot of Chuck Taylors, which is cool. And a lot of Chuck Taylor knockoffs. Also Adidas, Nikes, and all the other popular brands we know and love.

What they don't like to do here is tie and untie shoes. You have to take them off so often, that it has become not worth it to wear shoes properly. You can't go into your home or anyone else's without removing your shoes, as we tend to realize about Asian cultures. Even service people, like the cable guy, have to take off their shoes before going into anyone's home. The internet guy did that at my apartment when I got it installed, and I thought it was kind of funny.

You also have to take off your shoes at many restaurants, which I didn't expect. If the resturant has tables and chairs, you don't have to take off your shoes, but most Korean restaurants still use tables that require you to sit on the floor, on cushions. Or, they trick you, and the table looks like it's a floor, but it's really just a recessed table, with benches built into the floor. Those tricky trickies. When you get to the restaurant, the lobby has a bunch of cubbies that you can leave your shoes in, but most people just leave them on the floor, in front of the little step up to the main restaurant floor. Then they get moved off to the side by employees and you have to search for them when you leave. You have to put your shoes back on to go to the bathroom, which is located by the lobby for shoe purposes (at least partially, I assume).

I don't have to take off my shoes at work, but I talked to a teacher in Seoul who says at his school, which is public, they have to take off their shoes and wear slippers inside. I wonder if other workplaces are like that.

With all this shoe removal, shoes become kind of a hassle. Thus, the shoe abuse comes in. They just slip on their shoes and walk on the backs, crushing the heel of the shoe. It kind of kills me. But they don't seem to mind it. I haven't noticed a lot of backless shoes around here, which I think need to be introduced en masse.

I feel like an asshole when I go out with my boss and she has to wait for me to put my entire shoe over my foot and bend down to tie it. Those thirty seconds are really long.