Thank you Costco for helping me make my little world right..

So I hope to not bore you with blog posts such as "I'm at the cafe now" or "went to Costco!" on the blog ever again...so indulge me just this once..."I went to Costco!"

To preface this story, I must tell you I have yet to find cheese here. I can however find cheese like substances filled with some sort of shrimp or lobster flavoring, which I would rather not get into...but my kinda cheese...nada. This is a problem I decided to share via facebook, and learned that last year, a Costco opened in Busan, South Korea. It is far from where I am (come to find out) but it has all the food I know and love and more. So I am in. for. one. adventure...

I after work I decide I am going where I have literally never gone before, which in Busan is basically...everywhere. (Pathetic!) I was told I can take a particular street from my school and in mere minutes end up at the subway. Name of the street? I still have no idea. I figured it couldn't be that hard to find a subway station...I mean seriously...

When I ended up at the highway...I figured I did something wrong...so I did the most logical thing...I just kept walking...and turning...and walking...I completely thought I was going in the right direction and would eventually turn myself around...and an hour (or longer) later when I ended up at the Dongnae subway stop rather than the Sajik station, I realized I may have been a little off. (see map...Sajik:red line, dongnae: orange)





Luckily this station is a MASSIVE yellow building that says very clearly DONGNAE SUBWAY STATION in English...for those of us who also need the arrows to point the way when driving in a circle...


I take the subway, just fine thanks to the city's willingness to make all signs in English, and end up at my stop. mind you, this is as far as I planned in "operation cheese". I look around...and find that this is not just any subway exit...there are 10 or so exits to different parts of the streets above...and an underground mall...

eny.miny.miney.moe...catch a tiger...

out of the subway I found a taxi and said "COST-TA-CO!" I was told this was the way to say it here...whoever told me that was wrong. The taxi driver looked and me and thought for a long moment before beginning to list all of the words pronounced with C in Korean...there were many...so I tried again...I my good 'ol American (and slightly sad/defeated because I now realize I am not going to get cheese tonight) accent..."Costco?" As if I were asking permission...and that lil taxi driver looked and me and just started laughing like "why didn't you say so! Costco we go!"

I took out my handy little book of Korean phrases and frantically started to look for the pronunciation for "thank you!" As soon as I find it, I start practicing it, and realize that we are at Costco, and I have no idea how we got there...but I know how to say thank you...he kindly says "you're welcome!" (I think) and speeds away, and I realize it doesn't matter. Big cheesy smile spreads across my face...

I try to walk in, and I have no card...obviously...but I also have no Korean. So I try to sneak by...doesn't work...I just repeat "buy? buy? me buy?" until someone lets me in. After a depressing game of charades followed by me convincing the only English speaker there to fill out the form for me...I was in!

And...so was the rest of Busan. If at any point in time you don't believe that there really are 3.6 million people in this city, just go to Costco. I never thought a Costco could feel small until I came here...It was a madhouse...but hooo...a few minutes and thoughtless body checks later I was in a cheese mecca...and 2 pounds of creamy tillamook cobly-jack cheese were mine...I could barely contain myself...

So I didn't...I decided to sit right outside the store and open up my cheese...So I sat on a cement slab near the entrance, and pryed the vaccumn-packed seal off with my teeth...taking in chunk after little chunck of cheese while I contemplated 1. Where I am, and 2. How I get back to where I know where I am...Then I realize that I am looking pretty ridiculous...and there are little Korean men behind me laughing (at me?). Now really, it's time to stop being so blatantly foreign...and down-right weird and start getting home.

I get in a taxi and hope that "Subway" is as easy as "Costco". not so much...nor is this Taxi man as happy...So then I try metro. Why I still don't know, because 1. I am obviously not in Mexico anymore and 2. this clearly confuses the man even more. So I go back to my handly little book of korean phrases and frantically findt the "transportation" section...there is no word for subway...great...I have bus, train, plane, bike, car, taxi, and no freaking subway...well...some charades...and pictures later, this wonderful, and very patient Taxi driver and I have communicated...

I am no sooner on the subway (and feeling very, very proud of my first "successful" adventure in South Korea) when the cutest little Korean girl comes on the subway...picks the seat right next to me and with ALL confidence in the world looks me in the eye and says "hello!" with a big smile. I get this big cheesy grin on my face as well and feel like everything is right in my world...and not just because I have cheese...


(*please note: This may seem like a small feat to many of you...but to me it was a pretty big deal...to those who made it all the way to the end...thanks for reading!)