There are no recliners in Korea

I will often hear someone complain about a lack of services in Korea. When Americans complain that there are no groceries on Mondays, there's no clothing for 2 year olds, or there are no pediatric dentists, it sounds ridiculous to me. There are four million people living in this city, and somehow they eat, get dental care, and clothe their children even when they don't have access to our on-post services. They don't live in huts and use witch doctors; this is a civilized country with top notch services. I know trying to communicate with sign language and a Korean dictionary can get tiring, but come on. Quit being so xenophobic, I think, and go off base once and awhile! So when Bobby's recliner broke and we were not happy with the single recliner they were selling at the PX, we went down to furniture alley to see what Korea had to offer. Furniture alley, as is typical in Korea, consists of several different furniture stores selling the same chairs and sofas. We discovered very quickly that Korean furniture is not for us. The chairs and sofas are rather hard. They are the kind of furniture you find in a doctor's waiting room, and not at all something I can stretch out on with a book. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since we knew that about Korean beds. Koreans have been sitting on the floor for centuries, so I guess they like their furniture to be hard. There are also absolutely no recliners.

So, ironically, we are finally financially able to replace our beat up, stained old furniture and there are almost no options for us. Bobby got out the electric drill and some coat hangers and patched his chair back together. We will now wait for the PX to bring in a new recliner, one that we will hopefully like. At least we have access to the PX!

A Nefarious Alarm Clock and Lots of Wandering

A really old earth wall and a temple of some sort

One of many shopping arcades

At 5am while I was failing to sleep, I pushed a button on our alarm clock with a little light on it to illuminate the display. The light in our foyer came on. We have been trying to figure out why some of our outlets randomly fail to work, and I think I've solved the mystery. Our “alarm clock” also controls all of the outlets, lights, and climate control in our room. Knowing this does not fix our inability to make outlets work on our command, but now I know we're not dealing with an electronics imp. Incidentally, our alarm clock appears to also call for a maid or tell them not to disturb me. Who knew such an innocuous device could be a technological overlord.

Today we went to Daelsong Park, which houses the oldest standing piece of earth wall. I imagine it once kept barbarians out (to support this, Bobby and I shook our fists over the side a couple of times, saying "damn you Mongolians.") There we also encountered an animal gulag, to my dismay. I was so excited to tell Bobby that Daegu had a zoo, but it depressed him to see it. We went searching for lunch and stumbled upon a gigantic market, which seemed impossible to get out of. I hope eventually I will be going to the market to find cooking ingredients, but I am definitely not ready yet! I never saw so many dried fish.

While we were wandering, we found a massive underground clothing market and a really tall department store with different levels for every store. We took escalators up to the top while I gripped the handle and tried not to look down.

Daegu seems to be a city with tons of stores. The shops are divided into districts: the one we saw today must have been the clothing district. We also wandered through the tools and industrial implements district and the electronics district. I can see how this may be handy. If I am looking for something in particular, I have plenty of places to look before I find what I want. On the other hand, going to one store for all of my needs seems fairly impossible.

Last night we wandered into a restaurant, and the friendly owner talked to us about his trip to New York and urged me to try the dalseot bip bim bap, which was fantastic. I still haven't encountered the famous Asian sushi conveyor belt, but hopefully it's a matter of time.