Koreans are so Helpful :)

Today I grabbed my trusty green bike, my mittens and toque and set out to look for a store rumored to be across the river. I needed to buy some mats for our apartment and this place was the best one to find them at. I had to ride my bike in freezing weather for 30 minutes and ask for directions in broken Korean 3 times....but I made it.

I found what I needed at the store and ended up leaving with 4 large mats, among some other things.  I had brought a backpack along to help carry them home but had left it in a locker, since I wasn't allowed to take it into the store. I took my purchases to the locker area, which was thankfully out a side door, so I was out of the way of most of the store traffic. I then decided to see if I could roll the mats up tight and put them in the backpack. As I was on the floor, looking ridiculous and trying to squish these mats up tight I noticed a security guard staring at  this crazy foreigner. Soon he hollered something in Korean and an older Korean woman who had been sweeping the floor came over. She started ranting in Korean and pushed me away. She was basically telling me that I wasn't doing it right and that I should let her do it.

So she laid out the mats again and rolled them up really tight. By this time I had come to realize that they were never going to fit in the backpack and still have it close, but I was simply not able to communicate that to the woman. Finally the two of us got the bottom half of the mats into the bag. Then the security guard came over and was trying to help close the bag around the mats. I'm sure the three of us looked a wild sight to the passers by. Finally, the old woman took my bag (which had other breakable items in the front) and kneels/sits on it to try to squish it closed. By this time I'm dying laughing and trying to hide it because it was such a ridiculous scene.

When the woman finally realized that the backpack was never going to close she started taking all the straps and buckling them across each other to try to "secure" the mats. At this point she noticed the other items in my cart and started shoving them into the open crevasses in the bag. I finally stopped her before she shoved the yogurt in and told her it was okay.

I grabbed the bag and my other items and headed out the door. I just dropped the extra items in the basket on the front of my bike. I now had a giant mass of mats mostly hanging out of my backpack, but still relatively secure. I decided not to try to reorganize and strap the mats to the back of my bike....it was just too cold. So I rode home on my little green bike with a giant mass on my back and still laughing about the scene I caused back at the store. :) Thankfully I got it all home safe and it really was nice of them to try to help.