Incidentally, how bad is Shinsegae getting? I went there with a 50,000 won gift certificate. It was a Teacher's Day gift from my Physiotherapy class. I used to like going to Shinsegae for the various items I could get there that were really hard to find anywhere else. Like Kraft Dinner, dill pickles, Japanese sour candies, good spaghetti sauce, Kraft Parmesan Cheese etc. Now they have nothing there I want. Try as I might I couldn't even spend 10,000 won of my 50. I bought a bag of Poco Loco Nacho Cheese chips. Yuck! The little "Sool" store they have there is massively overpriced and has nothing I can't buy elsewhere. Shinsegae used to be pretty good. What happened?
I remembered a little alcohol shop I used to buy Canadian Rye from when I taught at Chonnam University. It was in the Chun Dae Hoo Moon area. Expensive, but a good little place to find something other than beer and soju to drink. I decided that since I'm on holidays and have nothing to do, why not walk? It's a good hour and a half from Seokang to Chonnam the way I go. I do a LOT of walking and I love a nice LONG walk from time to time. And it's perfect fall walking weather these days. So I slipped on my trusty Reebok runners, the heels of which have been reinforced with duct tape. I've had them for 2 1/2 years and they've been ratched for about a year. The soles are gone so I put in an insole. The heels are always the first thing to go on my runners because I usually don't tie them tight so my shoe slips around a lot. Hence the duct tape. Don't chuck it, duck it, right?
The reason I don't buy a new pair is because they are size US 11. The only places that have this size are shoe stores located near army bases. I bought them in a shoe store in Eui Jung Boo. There's a US military base there. I've been looking for over a year but still haven't found a pair of runners that fit. Pretty sad. We'll come back to this recurring sadness.
So I'm in Chun Dae Hoo Moon looking around at all the brand new stores that have gone up since the last time I was there about a year ago. The place changes every day! It's crazy! But I get to the Miller Time/Bob's Noraebang corner. This, unfortunately, is where a lot of my evenings in Hoo Moon ended up. I say unfortunately because of the caterwauling at Bob's that usually punctuated those evenings with vocal finality. The little alcohol shoppe was just around the corner from Bob's. I walk around the corner and to my mild surprise there is now a restaurant there. A spicy food restaurant with an English name something like "Willy Nilly Chilli" but not quite as good as that. Heh heh. I just made that up! I like it!
Anyhoo, that was disappointing because I knew that if I didn't manage to find some spiced rum there, I could always get some rye and I had just run out of Crown Royal. In fact that bottle of rye may have been what had brought me to Hoo Moon the last time I was there a year ago.
To cut a long blog post short, I ended up settling for Smirnoff Ice. It's new to Korea. I've always liked it especially over ice after a bit of exercise in the summer. It was awesome after a ball game! They also have this tasty new product they call Smirnoff mule? It's vodka with ginger ale. I like that too. And they have T-shirts in every 4-pack! T-shirts! Extra LARGE T-shirts! Tee shirts are not easy for me to find.
I think I paid about 20 bucks for a 4-pack of each but considering I had expanded my wardrobe, the booze was a bonus. So I got home and opened up the cases. There was a bottle-shaped extra inside. THAT was the T-shirt. After unwrapping it and unfolding it, sure enough, it was a wrinkly white t-shirt and on the tab it said, "XL," so I put it on.
My head barely fit through the head hole and my arms barely fit through the sleeves. The wrinkles don't look like they'll ever go away and if this shirt doesn't expand after washing then I'd say it's an XL for kids. And kids really shouldn't be buying Smirnoff Ice.
If you look in the picture I am holding the OTHER tee shirt in my hand. That's how it comes. If you zoom in you can see all the wrinkles in the shirt I'm wearing. Even though it's stretched pretty much to its limit. Disregard the belly hanging out the bottom.
So on goes the adventure of finding good booze and big clothes. If anyone has some shoes that are too big for them I'll trade you for two T-shirts that are too small for me.
2 comments:
Hey Dave...
I know where you can go to pick up "waegookin" sized shoes without heading off to an American base. Mokpo! When Angie and I were in Korea I used to shop for my shoes (and I'm a size 12 US) in either two places. They were Lotte Mart - the one that is down by the seaside walking path and opposite the Woomi Park Ville Apartment complex and the pedestrian mall area beside the Mokpo Railway Station. If you walk out of the station and cross the road, you'll see a Kwangju Bank branch in front of you. Turn left and walk a couple of dozen metres and take the first right hand turn into the pedestrian area. You'll find a bunch of shoe stores there selling name brands like Nike, Reebok etc. They were quite good in stocking size 11+ shoes.
Hope that helps.
Your big footed friend
Dave
Hey, cool! I think this just might help. I looked around the Peng Sung area over Christmas to no avail even though there's a base there. I'll have to try this. Thanks, Sasquatch.
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