Korean Job Discussion Forums

[joyfulgirl]

it was the place, on my first morning here, that i stumbled to at 7am, after the long flight, and the hour in a stark apt. with 'what the fook am i doing HERE??' thoughts...for some sorta bread product. and it's always been there since, at all hours of the day or night. it's been a regular stop, on my way home after work, or late at night when i needed food or drink or water. with a sweet couple running it that'd reach fer my brand of ciggies even before i asked. i can't believe i've outlasted my family mart. and how normal is it to be sad a convenience store has closed? i should be more adaptable than this. there are 4 more in walking distance. but, so far from home, it's the little bits of usual that help u feel normal sometimes.

[cruisemonkey]

It is not normal to be sad a convenience store has closed... unless you are suffering from culture shock and transfering feelings/emotions normally reserved for people to a faceless corporate entity that doesn't know you exist and could not care less about you.

Go out tonight, get drunk and buy an oven.

[endofthewor1d]

hey joyfulgirl.
i understand where you're coming from, especially since you associate it with your first night in country. i've lived in a few different places, and i always had a special convenience store which i grew a little attached to at each one.
while i haven't yet felt the loss of losing one, this past week i've felt the joy of a new family mart opening up near me. sadly, though, they don't sell cigarettes.
hang in there. maybe something cool will pop up in its place.

[Dev]

I don't care for Family Mart, 7/11, GS25 and the other 24hr places. They're too expensive. I've got a Family Mart at the corner of my street, but never go there. 1,700 won for a liter of milk? Get outta town! I've found one of those "marts", small supermarkets, 3 blocks away that sells milk for 990 won a liter, a bottle of beer for 1000 won.

It's funny that they call it Family Mart 'cause I doubt that many families shop there - unless they've got money to burn.

[animalbirdfish]

What's amazing is how lazy - vis-a-vis restaurants and convenience stores - I've become since coming to Korea. There's just so bloody many of them that I find I can't be bothered to walk further than, say, next door, for a bottle of orange juice. The thought of going two blocks away to get my dinner fills me with dread.

Thing is, I hit the gym four days a week, go hiking any chance I get, walk everywhere - but I'll be damned if I'm going to walk more than two minutes to find a pharmacy.

[joyfulgirl]

i remember the way they smelled in japan. so different from here. maybe it was all the ki-moo-chi, not kimchi. or they had better pre-packaged lunches there, for a vegetarian. again it was a family mart i hit my first morning there. i went back to japan last year for a visit, and the smell of the family mart was home. er. ya know...familiar.. what's wrong that i'm stuck on convenience stores? i'm not sure my parents loved me enuf... just drunk and heading out to buy ciggies, and i gotta turn right, not left....

[Rteacher]

Screw the Family Mart - Try to ease off the booze and tobacco already...
(Of course, I might be the only always sober expat in Korea...)

[Hobophobic]

...and living proof sobriety is highly overrated for some...