E-Mart is a large store that is comparable to Walmart. It has everything from appliances to clothing to food. It has two floors with ramp escalators to get up and down with your cart. The escalator is actually magnetic so that your shopping cart sticks to it.
There was classical music playing throughout the store as we shopped, interrupted every now and then by the cartoonish-sounding store song. The song is sung in Korean except for the “happy, happy, happy E-Mart” line. It was hard not to smile when hearing the song while shopping but I’m sure the store employees feel much differently about it 🙂
We met up with one of Johnnie’s old Korean friends (this is Johnnie’s second time stationed here) who treated us to dinner at a Vietnamese Pho restaurant. Pho is a soup-type dish made with broth, rice noodles, meat (optional), veggies, and spices. Our friend made us add beansprouts, onion, hot peppers, and tons of spicy sauce because that’s how the locals do it. We were all sweating by the end of the meal but eating spicy food revs up your metabolism, right? I went with the seafood Pho that had shrimp, crab, and squid. Eewww I know – but yes, I ate it all (even the squids) and I loved it 🙂
The E-Mart song is actually "Happy Talk" from the musical "South Pacific."