You might ask how we get the taxi drivers to take us home without street names? Well, you basically tell them the area or neighborhood you live and then direct them left/right/straight to your building. Apparently it's an old Asian method of finding your way around town. Works OK until you get a cabbie that doesn't know your neighborhood, like yesterday. Add to the fact that all the streets look the same and we can get lost pretty quick.In fact, a lot of things are determined by the neighborhood here in South Korea, including what color and size trash bag you should use. I was told that since I live in Han-sup (2 syllables) I need to use a certain trash bag than another neighborhood with fewer or more syllables. No kidding... I'm not making this up!
Back to my shopping experience... I managed to get to HomePlus and around the store no problem. I noticed while shopping how much I rely on product packaging/branding to find items on the shelf. For instance, Oreo cookies have the same packaging of blue background and white lettering, only in Korean of course. If I look close enough, I can phonetically spell-out the Korean label and it will sound like O-re-O. Too fun.
I'm even doing OK at checkout because I know the currency, my numbers and words for "thank you" and "bags" -- important because you have to buy every bag at the cashier.I've been told that Koreans love signs on their buildings and I can now confirm that this is absolutely true. Check out these photos of the street just outside the HomePlus store where I went shopping today... they call it 'Little Las Vegas'.
