the hunt for a printer continues

So I'm blogging this from E-Mart's food court, having just noshed on W13,000 worth of Burger King. Good ol' BK is more expensive in Korea: W13,000 is approximately the price I'd pay for a much larger BK meal in the States. The Coke here is half the size of the Coke at home, as are the fries. This particular BK branch doesn't serve Double Whoppers, which makes me sad. (They do have some sort of double burger, but it looks embarrassingly scrawny.)

I came to E-Mart this evening to continue my search for a decent printer. No staffer was available to help me; I asked one lady if she could answer some questions, but she said that she wasn't responsible for printers. She pointed to a staffer who, according to her, would be more knowledgeable, but he was tied up with a group of twentysomethings buying a laptop. The female staffer asked whether I'd be willing to wait; I said yes.

Then I waited... and waited... and waited...

Eventually, I decided just to take some notes about the printer/scanner I was interested in—a simple-looking Samsung that cost around W160,000 (about $150, US). I wanted to know whether the thing could scan in color (I didn't care about black-and-white printing), and whether it was compatible with my Macs. After waiting as long as I had, I decided it might be better just to look the information up online myself, and to find out whether Mac-compatible printer drivers were available for download.

After that, I wandered back downstairs, looked around for a bathroom squeegee and for contact-lens fluid, and went to the food court. Like a lot of Korean food courts, this one was set up with a Burger King that did its own thing, and a bank of Korean-food counters that would serve whatever one ordered at the main cashier station. All the food being served was laid out on display: exquisitely formed, creepily realistic plastic models of exactly what one would receive (I really need to take a picture of this, but you've doubtless seen this sort of marketing before). Burger King had its own cashiers, so I went there, ordered a meal, figured out that "iptime" was the best free Wi-Fi service to hook up to, and here I am, blogging.

I also discovered that Bus 158 goes from my neighborhood right to E-Mart, so there's no need to get off at Anshim Station and walk ten minutes. I'll take 158 home, do some online research about the printer I want, and go from there.


_