Lotte Mart

Ah Lotte Mart... the WallyWorld of Korea. I walked to the local Lotte Mart yesterday in hopes of finding diapers. An I did, along with anything else I might want. I had heard from our friend Jeff that they make just about everything, but didn't realize he meant EVERYTHING! :) They have various floors dedicated to various aspects of daily living. The first floor was mostly reserved for clothing, accessories, perfumes and shoes. There were other odds and ends thrown in the mix, but it was mostly attire related. After finding the escalator, Corin and I took the cart up to the Second floor. There was a rather large toy section, arts and crafts, home-decor, pet supplies, and electronics. We roamed through hoping to find a good deal on perhaps some legos for the kid, and found the prices to be a wee bit high... so we rolled on in search of the next escalator. Of course on our way back, Corin convinced me to stop by the pet section to say hello to the birdies... then the turtles... then the hamsters... then the fish... and finally was distracted by one of his many adoring fans with a free ballon on a stick. The nice young woman was advertising for who knows what with these balloons and forced one into Corin's open hand with no complaints! Off to the escalators to discover a new floor. I found the groceries, cosmetics, and toiletries to be on the ground floor. It was packed wall to wall with people out doing their weekly grocery shopping. I had forgotten it was Saturday. As I wound through the maze of food stacked obstacles, I would grab various items to stock our "snack cabinet" for the rest of the week. I finally made my way to the very back corner where I was joyous to find DIAPERS! The one thing I had yet to see and the very thing I had set out to find! I scanned the prices of wipes and threw the cheapest batch into the cart... then I looked at the row of diapers and began to panic a little bit. Luckily, I had looked up the words "diaper" and "large" on google translator and written them down in Korean and the romanization version. As an assistant walked up, I decided it would be best to just show her my best attempt at Korean writing and she immediately looked up to find the size. She grabbed a box and shoved it in my cart. She then disappeared for a moment and came back with a bag of wipes. I smiled and thanked her. After she had left the area I walked over to the wipes isle to return the wipes to the shelf, but couldn't find the brand or even the same colored package. So, I just set them down on a shelf wondering to myself what they really were. Perhaps antibacterial wipes? Anyways, I made it to the checkout and decided I was extremely thankful for modern advances in technology. The checkout had a monitor with the price on it so that I did not have to guess what the cashier was saying. Of course I just handed her my card, so it wouldn't have really mattered either way, but it is nice to know how much money you are shelling out! :) After checking out we walked outside and hailed a taxi. I showed them my EPIK badge, which has the address of the university on it, and we were off to take home our Lotte Mart treasures! No Charades that day! The end. LL