Blue Light Special

Well friends, another Monday has come and gone here in Korea. It was National Foundation Day. Usually you can tell it is some sort of holiday when you see the Korean flag out along all the lampposts. I did have the sense to find out what it was. It celebrates the founding of the Korean Peninsula by Dangun in 2333BC. Talk about a national holiday! Most things were closed today due to that, except of course our school. Breaks of the biz being international and all.

So down to the main point of this blog. Shopping at Home Plus yesterday. As most of you know from previous writings, Things at Home Plus or E Mart aren't where they would normally be by any sort of American logic so you just always go in planning to spend a little time looking for what you need and finding a lot of what you don't need. Such was the case yesterday evening. When I finally acquired the few things I was looking for, I was headed down to the grocery section on the first floor. Two things jumped out at me down there.

In this first picture you can kind of see a row of massage chairs. Right next to the vegetable and fruit aisle. Because as all of us know, sometime you just really need a massage when buying some bananas and the like. I know I do. I also seemed to notice that many more men would sit here than women. I think of it as the enhanced version of where husbands go to sit while their wives shop. Could be a big hit in the states.

In this second picture there was a huge crowd around the apple produce area. I could not figure out why people were four deep for apples. From what I could tell they weren't any different from the ones we usually see at the market every week or have at school. I was pretty sure that they were on sale because of the color of the sign above them but even at that rate..IT'S APPLES! I decided to stay my distance because even the poor stock boys were getting trampled in the commotion and I don't even want to tell you about the poor little demo girl with slices of apples to taste. I really hope she just made it out alive. After going to school today I was able to find out from our wonderful Korean teacher that this was in essence a Blue Light Special. Oh the days of K-Mart Blue Light Specials! Never would we have seen the likes of one as crazy as this but they bring back fond memories. It is obvious to me now more than ever though that Koreans love their bargains. I am too scared to think what they would do if it were something really cool like a TV or even chocolate chip cookies. There could be injuries and hospitalizations for something like that. Well at least now I have another Korean mystery solved. Bring on tomorrow!