Pay Day

October 25th

First: I finally got the internet and posted all my back-dated blogs – all except the one from my birthday which I accidentally left in the ‘draft’ pile and which I’ve now posted. It makes sense of some of the subsequent ones so it may be worth going back to. And so on with the story.

It’s Saturday morning and after finally figuring out internet banking for my new NongHyup bank account, I check my balance and find over two million won in there. It was pay day yesterday – very prompt payment. Time to go shopping. I have a list and I’ve checked out what’s what in the town, so with shiny new cash card and a translation of ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ in my purse, I set out to spend.

The first shop I come across is ‘Beautiplex’ and I need mascara and lipstick. Like all the shops in Namhae, it’s small and for a shopaphobic like me, intimidating. Shop assistants don’t just hover; personal space is much smaller in Korea and combined with a deeply service oriented culture, they practically hang on to your arm while you browse. I feel committed to buying something. Helpfully, the Korean word for mascara is ‘mascara’ so the first item is easily selected. With the assistance of the all-too-willing assistant I choose what I think is a lip stain and matching gloss. At the till I interrupt a conversation between another assistant and an old lady who is sitting on a stool in front of the counter. They end their chat and the little old lady, who barely reaches my chest, gets up to leave, looking up at me with a warm smile.

The woman at the counter helpfully taps out the amount due on a calculator when I say that I can’t understand Korea and continues to explain in great detail, in Korean, the directions for using the several freebies she’s dropping into a bag.. The bag is nearly full. I offer profuse thanks and leave.

Next stop is the Adidas shop. I’ve owned possibly two pairs of trainers in my whole life, not having found the need for anything remotely resembling sportswear since being banned from P.E. by Miss Badley back in 1976, but all that is about to change. Along with being pretty and demure, it is a requirement of Korean culture to socialise with ones colleagues. My colleagues play volleyball every Wednesday. Though I seriously doubt I’ll achieve ‘pretty and demure’ while tramping around a volley ball court like a big galoot, at least I’ll be dressed appropriately. The shop assistants throw in a free pair of socks which marginally offsets the shocking price of trainers and track pants.

I wander to the outskirts of town to the big Samsung shop. It’s big for Namhae, but the display of cameras amounts to eight. I bought my last camera about 4 or 5 years ago and I’m well impressed by the developments since then. The young girl who serves me shows me the pros and cons of each one, or tries to. With my usual impatient shopping style, I settle on the pink one after about two minutes. It looks nice and is the mid priced one – what more do I need?

What I desperately need are work shirts, but the clothes shops are either cheap and nasty or prim and expensive. I go for cheap and nasty first. I find a nice top that will do for work and look through the t-shirts which I still need to complete my volleyball ensemble. The male shop assistant tears himself away from the conversation with his colleague and pulls out a few t-shirts for my inspection. I choose the two with the least glitter and fewest grammatical errors; it being compulsory here to have random English words and sentences plastered across any item of casual clothing. I recalled the hoodie one of my students wore on the school trip with the words to Madonna’s ‘Jump’ on the back – if only I could find that one. Instead I buy one covered in what seems to be the text of a computer manual and another with Rock! emblazoned across the chest.

I try a shop that looks like it may have some good clothes, but nothing would fit me unless I lose 20 kilos and have my bones removed. The three female shop assistants are sitting around a small table drinking tea and invite me to join them despite the fact that they speak no English. I pass up the offer and move on as I’m now hitting my shopping interest threshold, having been out now for almost an hour. One last shop on my way home – it looks a bit old-ladyish but I try anyway.

Scanning the rails I know that I don’t want to be paying these prices for what looks to me like mother of the bride blouses, but the three assistants are closing in on me and once again I feel committed. I spot some decent looking jeans – of course they have the obligatory sparkly bits and they aren’t cheap – but I need new jeans. They also look like they might fit me which is a bonus here. I indicate to the assistant that I don’t know what size I am; she eyes me up and down and offers me some to try. They are huge. I try to explain that they are too big and she hunts out the back, returning with an even bigger pair. After much gesticulating and frowning, the penny drops and she finds a smaller pair. I take them, along with a shirt that caught my eye, to the changing room – actually a two-foot square space between the shop and the store room. The jeans fit with room to spare but it’s too much hassle to risk trying for smaller.

I come out of the changing rooms to a semi-circle of shop assistants eager to serve. ‘These’ I say, pointing to the jeans ‘yeh’ (which conveniently is ‘yes’ in Korean) ‘this’ I say, pointing to the shirt ‘anio’. This little bit of Korean gets a rapturous reception - I am rewarded with another free pair of socks, a further 5% discount on top of the 30% already advertised on the window and the impression that I’ve just made the day of three very happy shop assistants.

It’s time to go home so I stop off at a supermarket to buy a bottle of beer and some cigarettes. In an attempt to feign respectability, I’ve tried to spread my booze and fags purchases amongst the various stores around town, yet despite this the girl at the counter reaches behind her for 20 Raison menthol before I even ask.

At home I retrieve my laundry from the rooftop washing machine and unpack my goods, trying on everything as I do. I’m particularly pleased with the top I bought for work and now that I know what size fits I may go back and get another in a different colour. The lip gloss and stain turn out to be two identical lip glosses, but I got three lots of moisturiser, two bars of soap and two sachets each of shampoo and conditioner for free, so I’m not complaining.

Tomorrow I want to go out a play with my new camera, but I also have a stack of students’ tests to mark, lessons to plan and other things I want to do, including learning Hangeul - Korean writing, which, it seems, is very simple and can be learned in a weekend. It’s just as well I have no social life, I wouldn’t have time for one if I did have any friends.