Costco

When we first moved here, with all the culture shock, we were really dying for north american foods. Fortunately our friend Katie had a hookup: Costco! We met her during Chloe's break, and headed to Yeongdeungpo station. It was about an hour by subway, an another 10 minute walk. And freezing cold today!

As we shopped, we noticed it was pretty much the same as home, with a few Korean products added. Mainly the giant giant containers

of that gochujang (Korean spicy sauce) and soy sauce. Also, weird fish, everywhere. The size of everything was a bit of an issue- we aren't a family of 5. We found ketchup, but we didn't need four huge bottles of it. We found laundry detergent, but we didn't need a gallon of it. We found hotdog buns, but we didn't need 20 of them (strange thing, you can find hotdogs, but not hotdog buns at the grocery stores). We found bacon, but we didn't need... well, ok, we needed bacon.

We bought a printer, so Chloe could print out her lesson plans. We bought pillows, North American size (damn those teeny tiny Korean ones!). We bought chips, because Sam gets really frustrated with Korean chips- they're really sweet, and not salty, it's odd. We bought

cheddar cheese because we can't find it anywhere else.

We ate lunch there too, these weird sandwich wrap things. It took awhile to get a table, and Koreans are really pushy, so our politeness lost us some time. It was a bit difficult to get these things home- the printer and those pillows alone were bulky enough, and we had to squish into the subway for an hour long ride home. But we managed, and were much happier for it. As soon as we get our alien cards, we're signing up!