Home Plus!

Home Plus. What can I possibly say about Home Plus? How can I describe the complete perfection, grandeur, complex convenience that is Home Plus? Oh Home Plus, how I love you so.

Home Plus is Korea's version of Target. It's big. It's epic. It's one-stop shopping to the max. One of the teachers from my school took me there a few days ago, to point out where I could pick up a few essentials while I'm waiting to move into my place. When I arrived all I could think was, "my life just got about 5 billion times easier".

I'd been told by my kids at school that the best time to visit Home Plus is on a Saturday morning - that's when all the free food comes out, Costco style! So this morning I woke up around 8am and did the 15 minute walk or so to HP (I should mention that when walking anywhere in Busan this time of year, you'd better be prepared to sweat. I wake up each morning and for a few seconds I'm seriously convinced that I've been sleeping at the exotic frog & snake building at the Toronto Zoo because of the humidity...it's gross, but it makes your skin look like something out of a Calvin Klein ad).

When I got to HP at 8:30am it was already bumpin. People everywhere, grabbing sale items, ordering fresh fish, taste testing, etc. Employees are peppered throughout the store, standing on mini stools with microphones, enticing people to come over to try & buy the particular food they're selling. I did my best to avoid walking directly in front of any stands for fear that they'd start talking to me in Korean, as they did to everyone else who walked by, but it was inevitable. I ended up walking directly in front of two guys selling some sort of weird fish, and they started saying stuff to me. So I turned to them and shrugged my shoulders as if to say "Sorry - I don't speak Korean!". They proceeded to laugh at me in front of everyone as I finished walking by. Everyone nearby looked over at me, and I couldn't help but laugh too...it was so ridiculous and embarassing. I kept thinking "Guys, of all the people in this story WHY are you talking to the one person who is least likely to understand whatever the heck it is you have over there? And if you're NOT trying to sell to me, I really don't want to know what you're saying".

The rest of my trip to Home Plus was very successful. I'm all stocked up on convenience foods to stash in my mini hotel fridge...a bit of spicy Kimchi that a fantastic Korean woman helped me pick out (using her mime skills) some sushi, vegetable juice, fruit. Mmm I am so happy that Home Plus is helping me eat healthy again! The last few days have been a little questionable...