Costco
Costco is American chain that really represents the true spirit of America. Outside of Las Vegas, it might be one of the best single examples of what America is really about, the good and the bad.
That being said, America is about the car, and is not designed for the subway and a 20 minute walk. About halfway through my journey around the store I remembered this and put stuff back. But I still took it to the max and paid for it on my trip home. But I am now the proud owner of real coffee, a giant tub of peanut butter, and tampons (I don't know why they don't really use them here). Some of the stuff was kinda funny because you can tell it was directly imported from the USA. I bought a thing of hot chocolate (which they have here, but I don't know if they have the brand), and it is exactly like one from home just with a little sticker in Korean saying something. There was also some stuff (like cereal, which isn't that popular over here and is really expensive) which was measured in oz. and stuff without grams on it. The other good thing was that all the tags also had English on them.
Yesterday and the day before I went to the Korean versions of Target and K-Mart. So I am happy. Got of a lot of the little things I need. I also found a coffeemaker that I am going to buy, maybe tomorrow, I'll see what time I get out of work (cause I have to help set up decorations for Halloween).
I've decided I'm going to buy my microwave off craigslist. This is of course completely dependent on someone posting a microwave for sale. Of course people posted all the stuff I need about a week before I started looking on craigslist, so it was all gone. I'm pretty sure that craigslist is only used by ex-pats (and probably Americans at that), who are probably pretty transient to begin with, but are even more so since there is a large contingent of young (read cheap/poor/ready to sell even cheap stuff like used coffeemakers) American teachers on one year contracts that are always running out.
That being said, America is about the car, and is not designed for the subway and a 20 minute walk. About halfway through my journey around the store I remembered this and put stuff back. But I still took it to the max and paid for it on my trip home. But I am now the proud owner of real coffee, a giant tub of peanut butter, and tampons (I don't know why they don't really use them here). Some of the stuff was kinda funny because you can tell it was directly imported from the USA. I bought a thing of hot chocolate (which they have here, but I don't know if they have the brand), and it is exactly like one from home just with a little sticker in Korean saying something. There was also some stuff (like cereal, which isn't that popular over here and is really expensive) which was measured in oz. and stuff without grams on it. The other good thing was that all the tags also had English on them.
Yesterday and the day before I went to the Korean versions of Target and K-Mart. So I am happy. Got of a lot of the little things I need. I also found a coffeemaker that I am going to buy, maybe tomorrow, I'll see what time I get out of work (cause I have to help set up decorations for Halloween).
I've decided I'm going to buy my microwave off craigslist. This is of course completely dependent on someone posting a microwave for sale. Of course people posted all the stuff I need about a week before I started looking on craigslist, so it was all gone. I'm pretty sure that craigslist is only used by ex-pats (and probably Americans at that), who are probably pretty transient to begin with, but are even more so since there is a large contingent of young (read cheap/poor/ready to sell even cheap stuff like used coffeemakers) American teachers on one year contracts that are always running out.