E-Mart

For those of you that can't figure it out, E-Mart is the equivalent to Walmart, but bigger. You can get food, electronics, home decor...basically anything you want can be found there. It is typically multiple stories and crazy busy. I have been to two in the three days that I have been here.

My first night my boss and his wife took me to E-Mart to get some stuff for my apartment. We arrived about 9:30, I was tired and moody and just wanted to sleep, but I pressed on. I wasn't sure who was paying for this stuff and as I only brought a limited supply of money with me I was being careful on what I was picking. I think that the principal noticed because he told me not to worry about the prices. His wife kept putting things in the cart and then he would yell at her and tell me to pick what I wanted. I had no idea what I needed or what anything was so I would have loved her to keep picking things for me.

In total they bought me the following:
Iron and ironing board
Rice Cooker (an expensive rice cooker at that)
Toaster
Pan
Pot
Knife
Toilet Paper
Cleaning Supplies
Food

When we went to pay it was about 11:15 and I was completely beat. When he swiped his credit card I heard the sound of a declined card. Then a bunch of Korean talking back and forth. The principal leaves and the wife grabs me to sit on a couch. The only thought that went through my head was "you have to be fucking kidding me" and I pondered curling up on the couch for a nap.

Half an hour later he comes back and tried again and the same thing. I would have found this situation slightly humorous if I hadn't been up for an obscene amount of hours. Then the girls behind him in line talk to him and they all go to the ATM, but here you can't just get money out at any time, and we were way past the time to get money. So he finally comes to me and asks if I have any money. I was scared to give him some and thankfully had separated my cash so he couldn't see the full 500,000Won that I had (the price of the groceries were about 250,000Won). I gave him 100,000Won (~$100), and prayed that I would get it back, I have heard many horror stories of Private School owners ripping off their foreign teachers. I didn't walk back in to my place until 12:30! What a long day.

Note: I did get the money back the next day

On Sunday my friend Jon and Krista (who I went to visit on Saturday night in Seoul which I will blog about later) came back to Incheon with me and we found a way to get to a different Emart by bus (so now I can go by myself!). I needed to get a plug for my laptop a pillow and some other stuff. They were great showing me some different food that was good and everything. This Emart was really nice but the food section was just so busy that eventually I just needed to get out. We picked up about 50,000Won worth of stuff though. I'm going to have to go on a stricter budget now and wait to pick up the rest of the stuff until I get paid.

It is awesome that I know how to get to Emart though, and I'm 95% sure that I know when to get on and off the bus too.