Thursday: Shopping

Note sign for the Peace Office Building between hotel and Lotte

Mothers with kids at crossing near city hall rotary

I woke up early and had breakfast in the room with some stuff I got yesterday at the bakery. After showering I went out and walked to the circle to try to find a hat at Lotte department store. I've been seeing the word SangGa (상가) on a lot of signs and thinking sangga is Sanskrit for a Buddhist congregation I asked a group of men next to the Peace Sanga (picture to right) and was told it means office building. Google tells me it means downtown. Either way it is not Buddhist. I've only seen one monk in Changwon, in Lotte.

I didn't see a hat I wanted and what I did see was expensive. I also looked for a watch but they were all wrist watches and I still want something to wear on my belt loop, so I didn't even check prices. I had a light lunch at the sushi bar and left to check Lotte Mart across the street, and then E-Mart but still nothing. Between Lotte Mart and E-Mart I sat and did some reading and just watched people go by. There were a lot of mothers with kids, some on their backs and some walking along together.

In E-Mart I got a phone call from Yeji asking where I was, and if I had had lunch (yes) and suggesting we meet for coffee. We did, at a coffee shop in one of the stores. She said she hoped their children would have eyes like mine and I started to try to explain gene theory (blue eyes are recessive so it is not possible, as she would not have that gene and both parents would have to have it). I failed and in any case she was speaking poetically and I was speaking scientifically – two different worlds. I felt anxious about this misunderstanding for the rest of the day. She gave me a salve for my sore muscles.

I walked back, and when I arrived I found the maid did the laundry and it was hanging everywhere drying.. I had dinner at an Indian restaurant (lamb), then got pastry for breakfast. I then sat outside on a wall in front of the hotel, watching the world go by. Geoffrey showed up unexpectedly and we went out to look for cuff links. He got dinner from a street vendor. After we returned I went back to my place on the sidewalk to watch the comings and goings at an ex-pats bar across the street. I called Yeji to apologize and explain about eye color and thank her for the medicine.