::A Geek in Korea::

Yesterday was our shopping expedition. We were told to pick up fry pans as gifts to our relatives back in Korea. They had to pick a large, hard to pack, cumbersome object as their gifts. We picked up three cheap fry pans on a tip from one of our American relatives. We got them for half of their normal price, which meant we picked up all three for the price of one in Korea. If it wasn’t so cheap I would have complained, as it’s taking up roughly a third of all our suitcase space now.

We also did some shopping for items we couldn’t get in Korea. Everyone on the family has been raving about "Croc" shoes. Foam injected shoes. They are indestructible and comfortable, but incredibly ugly. My mother offered to buy us two pairs, so we each go one of our own. They work as slippers and shoes for the house. I’m still not comfortable about wearing shoes in the house, and have developed the Korean mindset that the floors of the house are basically "dirty" as a result.

You can’t just walk outside all day, walk inside, and pretend you aren’t getting the floors dirty after living in Korea. I’ve scrubbed the floors (once) in my apartment in Korea before. The amount of dirt is astounding.  My wife won’t set clothes on the floor when she unpacks. Everything stays in the suitcase or on the bed. Anything that touches the ground gets washed. This is partly because she’s a neat person, but also because my family has a dryer, so washing clothes doesn’t take all day.

We had hoped to go to King’s Island, a local amusement and roller coaster park, but got rained out. Instead, we headed over and picked up my Grandmother. After a tour of her house where she showed off her haul from her trip to Korea and China, as well as all of our gifts, she had lots of reminders of us. We then headed back to my parent’s house.

We plan to see Superman Returns in an IMAX theater in 3D, as per one of my friend’s recommendations. I’ve already seen the film, but the last time I saw a 3D movie was, well, the last time 3D movies were cool in the late 80’s. From there, we head to my other grandmother’s house, where the family will have an old fashioned country dinner.