To Mecca and Back

Greetings,

Today we made the great trek to the Korean location most visited by foreigners...the historic site known simply as Costco. And yes, it's real, and it's spectacular.

Don't get us wrong, we love Korean food and have so far been pretty adventurous with our meal choices (including one particularly painful episode which saw us saying "I'll have what he's having" without indeed knowing what he was having), but as I'm sure most of you can understand, you can only live for so long on bulgogi, korean barbeque, and sugary garlic bread. So with the simple goal of attaining the much sought-after, and rarely found, staples of western cuisine, we spent an entire Sunday on one grocery shopping trip. As you can imagine it was slightly difficult to make such a trip to another city without a car or any experience with the Korean bus or rail system, but with the help of our new friends, Katie and Robin, we are proud to say that not only was the mission accomplished, but that apart from a broken suitcase handle, there were no casualties to report.

Ulsan is equipped with a Hyundai Department Store, a Walmart, a Megamart, a Carrefour, a Home Plus, and a Lotte Department Store, but all of these combined cannot match the sheer magnificence that is Costco...

One cannot rely on mere shopping bags alone when stocking up at Costco, so with the advice of more seasoned veterans, we began our journey with a giant suitcase, a backpack, and enough guts to put John Wayne to shame.

This is Ulsan bus depot, where we eagerly awaited our chariot.

As mentioned before, this is Katie and Robin, who have been in Ulsan since last October and make the Costco trip about once a month.

While this might look like an ordinary shopping cart to the untrained eye, a careful inspection will reveal that there are over 18 pounds of pretzels stowed in the undercarriage. We were forced to cut off part of Robin's head, but it was a sacrifice we willingly made to bring you this abberation in snack food consumption.

It is moments like these that you just can't find in Canada: being absolutely extactic at finding Honey Nut Cheerios and dill pickles.

Speaking of things you just can't find in Canada, here's Robin receiving his free sample of Heineken beer. Fortunately for everyone involved, they cut you off after your eighth sippy-cup, so Shayne wasn't able to repeat last week's incident at the local grocery store (just kidding...or are we?)

Shayne at the check-out, holding his two jumbo jars of olives as though they were gold medals won on behalf of Canada in the art of shopping. Seconds after this picture was taken, the crowd hoisted him on their shoulders and did a victory lap around the warehouse (editor's note, in Jo's version of the story there were no medals and the cashier simply looked at Shayne as though he had eaten one too many pickles if you know what I mean).


One picture can hardly capture how four foreigners managed to stuff themselves, a driver, and seven bags (each weighing about 100 pounds) into one small Kia sedan. In fact, we didn't leave Robin out of the photo, he's merely trapped under all of the bags. We can only say one thing: Thank God for air conditioning.

After completing this epic trek, not only is our kitchen fully stocked with breakfast cereal, pickles, meats of many varieties, taco kits, and enough margerine to oil up the entire Italian soccer team, we managed to spend a day with some great people and experience what it truly means to be a member of the ex-pat community in Ulsan.

Cheers,
Jo and Shayne