Shop till you Drop

Buying anything in Korea is quite the adventure. Just walking out the door you have to be ready to face life for the first time, over and over again. Eight different K-POP songs blast fron twelve different directions as people (I think) ask me what I am looking. By the blank and amazed look on my face they must know I am a Newbe. I am a deer looking into their headlights. I see the 'Oh there goes another expat who has no clue' look all the time. I went to the LOTTE department store to realize not only is shopping a huge and favorite past time in Korea, but everyone goes to the same places at the same times. With bodies pressing in on all sides. I put my wallet in my front pocket, only to have have a secuirty guard pass me two seconds later holding a sign with bells on it that says 'watch for pick pockets'. Trying to find the Homever (think Walmart), I had to walk on the street with insane drivers buzzing and honking at me. Just finding the store in the highrise took almost a half hour. The host gave me a deep bow, and I stopped to return the respect. A group of teenages behind me giggled and broke out into conversation. I have fund that it is always best to pay, or try to pay as little as possible. The subway is a busy underground mall. Following the advice of the guidebook I decided to buy an automatic paycard. The machine asked how much money I should pay. So I put 20,000 won in to the machine--thinking I was buying a card with 20k on it. The card popped out, then another, then another, then another etc. until I had ten cards. How was I supposed to know you had to buy the card, then put money on it. So I found the information desk and explained my situation. By the smiles, I could tall they had seen this before. The official kindly refunded the money for nine of the cards. I almost have the numbers down well enough to understand them when I hear them at the normal rate of speech. Next, directions.