I know I haven't finished blogging about my vacation, don't worry, another installment will follow this entry. I just decided to do a blog on a random tangent, about today. Today was a saturday full of serendipitous events, and as so few of those days happen, I wanted to catalogue and share such a day. And yes, it all started with garbage bags...
So, let me begin by explaining that the waste disposal system here in Korea is a bit convoluted for the foreigner. First, everything is separated; plastic, cardboard, glass, metal. Easy so far, right? Then food/organic trash goes into a separate bag. THEN everything else goes into a bag. Except you have to use special bags in order to throw your trash out. AND these bags are specific to your city (I live in Anyang City, so have to purchase my bags from a store in Anyang). And, a side note, or reminder, said bags are only labeled in Korean. AND only certain stores sell these bags. AND the cherry on top, the one store I know of that sells such bags, has closed since the last time I purchased my bags. This is when I found out not all convenience/grocery stores sells these bags, and have pretty much spent the last week on a quest to find them. No dice.
Back to today. On the way to meet a friend at the subway station this morning, I happen to glance in a random, hole-in-the-wall store, and lo and behold, there stacked against the window, were as many garbage bags as I could want. Trash bag mystery solved!
I was meeting a friend with the intent to locate a certain camera store that we heard about on the internet. I dutifully copied down a map from their website, and the next amazing event, though it may not seem so to you, is that we found the store on our first try, without backtracking or attempting to ask for directions (which in my experience is futile, me not speaking much Korean, and most Koreans not speaking any English). And, ironically, we ran into a student group handing out fliers advertising a free guide service for foreigners (you just shoot them an email, tell them where you want to go, and they set you up with someone who is studying English; they get conversation practice, you get a free guide). It was ironic because being lost is a perpetual state of existence for me in Korea, and we ran into them on the one day I happened to figure out where I was going.
After this, we headed to another area which was home to a pretty impressive camera district. Here on out, we relied on our sense of adventure and curiosity (no longer prepared with directions or maps, reverting to my natural state), and subsequently located film (for the cameras purchased at the previous successfully located store), and a store called "photopia," which, while unfortunately closed for the day, sounds like a good bet for getting that film developed.
The final act of amazingness for the day occurred during our search for a mexican restaurant called "Taco Rico." Though we should have known better, we again were without directions, and decided to methodically looked for the restaurant. However, this is located (we were pretty sure...) in a city called "Gagnam." This place is huge, and packed with people and a profusion of restaurants and stores. Its a mob scene on a good day. This day was a friday night. After meticulously surveying the streets in a grid pattern, we decided to abandon all logical search techniques, choosing instead to screw around with our recently bought cameras and wander aimlessly down side streets. At which point we practically ran into our intended destination. And better yet, we walk in, and there's a Mexican in the kitchen. And better STILL, the Koreans working there spoke SPANISH. Awesomeness. And the food was amazing.
Lesson learned today, when in search for something in Korea, try to put yourself in the right general area, then give up all hope, throw caution to the wind, and follow your whims. They're are almost always right.
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