Paper or Plastic?

I keep having to remind myself I'm not on vacation; we will be here for two years. I have to tell myself that because I want to buy everything new I see. Here in Waegwan they don't have malls, they have shop lined streets and alleys and byways. It's really fascinating and exciting to me. I have been told that they do have their own version of our "Mcmalls" but I haven't seen one yet. We have also been to what was basically a farmers market that included just as many stalls of seafood as produce. I didn't know what most of it was. I've also found various shop that sell handmade pottery, handmade dolls, some handmade traditional Korean clothes, and handmade wooden furniture. Anything handmade is my weakness. But the hard part about shopping (other than saying no) is that it is basically a cash only system. Being American my idea of paying with cash is swiping my debit card. At most of the shops this is not an option. And ATMs aren't ubiquitous here. So when you withdraw cash, you have to make sure you get enough to pay for everything. I mean rent, utilities, groceries, everything. It's very strange to take out that much cash at once. Especially when $1 = 1170 won. (The rate changes daily.) So $100 is like 117,000 won. So you go to the ATM and withdraw $1,000 to pay bills and you've got roughly 1,170,000 won. (The ATM on post lets you withdraw is US $ or won.) You can see how looking at so many extra zeros can make you a bit nervous about which button to push.

Eating at the restaurants is even more exciting, largely because being illiterate in Korean you really never know what you're going to get. We've been to a couple that were fantastic. They had great food and even better decor. One was like stepping into an English rose garden tea party. Our 4 year was fascinated. Heck, I was fascinated. It had a menu for 'foreigners' which of course we are but I thought the huge label on the front stating that was hilarious. It was an Italian place. I had seafood risotto, Korean style. The seafood was squid, tentacles, tiny mussels, and tiny shrimp. It was delicious!

The other did not have a 'foreigners' menu but did, thank goodness, have plenty of pictures on the menu so we just pointed. It was a plate full of kebabs and I have no idea what any of it was but it was all fantastic. These two restaurants actually let us pay with some USDs because we didn't have enough won, and as I said you can't just run to the corner ATM; it's not there. So trying to figure out how much of each currency we should give them was a bit puzzling. Also, do you tip? Is that an American thing? We still don't know, so if you do please tell me! (BTW, we have been doing it just in case!)

I'll leave you with this quote that happily applies to my husband and I:

"We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops." Henny Youngman