These are a few photos taken from our first two weeks in Seoul on my iPhone It has been very hot and humid everyday (Bill often sweats through 3 different outfits/day if we are out and about…which is a huge drag since we don’t have a dryer in our temporary apartment and laundry is less than fun) 
and the grey cast to the pictures captures the muggy weather. We long for the clear blue skies of Maine and NJ!
The city is immense and dense as you can see from the photo taken from our apartment window…zoom in to see the chipmunk(?) figure on top of the building…and looking out from a park. The lamb smelling a pile of poop (?!) is a featured piece of art in our apartment complex lobby and the other sculptures are just examples of the type of childlike art that is found all over the city. There’s a certain innocence and love of childlike creatures/art/culture that permeates this society and we are guessing that it is related to the horrific past from which this country has only recently emerged. The 40 years of Japanese domination/war/poverty that only really ended in the 1970s is just not that long ago and it wasn’t until 1975 that the S.Korea economy overtook the N. Korean one. Yet today, with its hustle and bustle, this gigantic modern city of 10 million bares not a shred of relationship to its former poor, rural history and instead ignores it, celebrating simple, happy, childlike icons everywhere.
Namson Park is a huge pedestrian only public space (like Central Park) that surrounds Namsan Mountain on top of which sits the Seoul Tower spindle. I found this park on a walk and stayed in the comfort of green foliage, silence and shade for several hours. For this suburban girl, it was a needed reprieve from city life! Despite the nice map, I got very lost and had to ask no fewer than 3 people for directions to get out. The exercise machines are scattered throughout and are in use by old and young. Koreans are thin and like to walk everywhere…complete with hiking shoes, sticks, water bottles. The city is very hilly in several neighborhoods and it makes Bill and I think of SF with its steep streets and staircases in the sidewalks. Not so much fun in the hot, humid weather though….
The public restrooms everywhere (subway, street, parks, stores) are SO CLEAN and always in use by even the fanciest dressed ladies. I was a bit suspect, but desperation forced me into one in Namsan Park and it was a lovely, clean experience with potable water, toilet paper and a clear mirror. Our country has a lot to learn from Korea in this area! The toilets pictured are in the Lotte Department store…one for mom and one for a youth. There was also a separate baby seat not pictured mounted on the other wall…all in the same clean stall.
Last weekend we went up to our permanent house with the realtor even though our lease doesn’t start until 9/2 so we could show Daph and Zoe our home-to-be. It was as peaceful and beautiful as we remembered when we chose it in June. The other pictures are from a main shopping street in the neighborhood just south of our house where we explored last Sunday. I just love these traditional Hanok style buildings and have eaten in a few restaurants in restored Hanoks already. We met the landlord and his wife who live next door. Despite the language barrier, they invited us into their home so we could get an idea of what type of furniture we might want to buy for our huge dining room and living room. The realtor served as translator and she has offered to take me to the furniture district later. I can’t wait for this project!!! I’ve joined the American Womens Club of Korea (AWC) and the Seoul International Womens Club (SIWA) and will go on an all day tour of famous pottery vendors where I plan to get our china, vases and kimchi pots (to serve as decorative urns only!) for our home. Cash only so I’ll be restricted! I also plan to work in the garden and pot up the troughs that are on the terrace. Digging in the dirt and playing with green plants will feel great after living in our high-rise service apartment which is even more cramped now that our air shipment arrived…see photo of boxes that now live on floor of Zoe’s room. ugh.
There are a few pictures of Seoul Foreign School which both D and Z attend, as well as the bright yellow bus they board (reluctantly) every morning. I went to the welcome coffee for Newcomers last week and will attend my first PTA meeting tomorrow. I’ll also probably volunteer to help with the US Booth at the International Bazaar where I’ll help cook and serve American food (hamburgers and hotdogs, of course!) The school community has been friendly to me and the kids are finding friends. Daphne even had a sleepover this past weekend!
There’s a single turf field in the middle of campus which is in high demand. Zoe started school soccer and scored 5 goals in the first practice…kids chanting her name. Not surprising, but organized sports, in general, are MUCH less emphasized here…but then again that may be the case everywhere outside the US!!! I also enrolled both girls in a Saturday soccer program in hopes of finding a more competitive situation and Zoe may play on a coed team on the US Army Base though the coach is known to be INSANE…a real screamer who often brings tears to the eyes of his disciples. We will go watch a practice first to gauge Zoe’s reaction to his behavior. A few SFS moms have warned me about him….
We continue to explore ice hockey options for Daphne and found a solution…sort of. She and Bill met a Korean player/coach/owner of the skate shop at one of the rinks on Saturday after contacting him by phone. He speaks very little English and asked Daphne if it was “her first time”? When she replied “no” and indicated that she’d played since she was little (imagine hand gestures), he said “oh! She is excellent, then?”…to which Bill and Daph replied “yes!!”. She was invited to coach the MS players from SFS the next day and to consider playing on “the beer league” team which is a mixed bag, mostly older men with two young women that plays pick-up games on the weekends. It is a team for 18 yrs and older folks, but he told Daph to just keep her age a “secret”. Bill didn’t think Daph would be interested in either option, but she jumped at the coaching and went back last night to skate with 10 yr. olds. She was nervous and had to come up with drills on her own, but was so, so happy to be on the ice!! We will see about the “beer league”…
Food, finding familiar food to eat, cook, and buying it is a real challenge for me!! The packaging and signs are all in Korean and the measurement system is metric. For the most part, I’ve discovered (the hard way) that one mustn’t touch the food oneself. Instead, there’s a lot of pointing and gesturing the amount/number to salespeople who then double wrap in plastic (grrr!) the item and weigh it for you EVEN IF it’s already shrink wrapped in plastic…like link sausage, e.g. Kimchi is SERIOUS BUSINESS and there are opportunities to sample throughout the market with helpful clerks standing by to dish out the numerous varieties…can’t say we’ve taken advantage of this yet! No where to be found are: celery, most cheeses, English muffins, deli flats/pita bread, most spices, deli meats, and bacon. Mushrooms are plentiful and come in all shapes and sizes.
I won’t even begin to describe the fish section, but just picture live eels swimming in tanks and folks asking for them. It’s hard to figure out what white powdery substances are when the labels are in Korean…is is flour, salt, sugar, corn starch…as you can see from the confusing selection of items where I bought flour.
I have found a few key items (chocolate chips, baking soda, vanilla…see picture of first batch of cookies I made on the broiler pan since they don’t sell baking items and generally buy pastries vs. make them), goldfish, hummus, tortillas) at a foreign market much to the delight of all of us. Of course, the 10 items I bought cost nearly $200. Food prices in general are high, but restaurant food is not. Daph and I bravely bought a skewer of chicken and scallions from a street vendor yesterday and it was delicious. Hunger has motivated me several times to try food I wouldn’t have otherwise and I’ve eaten at the public lunch counter in two different department stores…pointing at what looks the least scary!!
Desperation also drove me to get a manicure, and in fact, desperation, drives me to do a lot daily. I asked for a French manicure figuring that was pretty universal..and look what I got!! 
It looks as if I’ve been dragging my nails in blood…crazy and I’ll be choosing something else this week and signing up for a pedicure too. Still, a bit of pampering felt great. Daphne got her hair cut yesterday at a place recommended to us by SFS moms and I quizzed the salon about dyeing my hair (yikes!!). I made an appointment for 9/4 since I seem to have a brand new patch of Korean grey hairs sprouting out of my right temple…grrrr! While Daphne got her hair cut, I thought I’d get a foot massage at a place directly below the salon since I’ve heard Korean massage services are excellent. It was PURE TORTURE and I even like firm pressure!! I was sweating and didn’t have the word for “stop” or “softer” or “too hard” and the woman didn’t speak a word of English. Not one bit relaxing and a far cry from the reflexology I was imagining when I walked in. I wish I’d taken a selfie of the “cute” outfit I was asked to change into…not a robe, but more like hospital scrubs shorts and top in pea-green, mustard yellow color. Truly special.
We certainly look like foreigners in this city of black hair. In fact, one family excitedly rushed up to us and asked to be in a picture with us. After several photos with different family members, we finally figured out that they were just fascinated/enamored with Daphne’s long blonde hair!!
Everyday we work hard on our Korean. Daphne and Zoe are taking it in school and I’m working with a book and audio tape I bought in a bookstore. We’ve put words/phrases up on the kitchen wall and we watch KWOW (Korean Word of the Week) videos on You Tube.
It is NOT an easy language to pronounce or learn and I can’t wait until my private tutoring lessons start in early September. Everyone is extremely friendly, helpful and nice to us despite our lack of Korean and we loudly say Hello, Goodbye and Thank you…the only 3 words we know…all day long. There are at least four double consonants (g/k, d/t, l/r and b/p) which are written the same but vary in pronunciation much to the dismay of all of us. There must be rules, but I can’t for the life of me figure it out though I try to listen to the subway announcements/audio tapes and guess whether the word I can now read is pronounced as “gagu” or “kagu” or “gaku” or “kaku”.
Bill has a translator with him all day at work and is learning to compose his speeches before opening his mouth vs. jumping in whenever he has something to add to the discussion. This is a challenge and not his style, but the only real option at work. He had “the best work week ever” last week at the bank. You can see his office building in the photo and it is only a 10 min. walk away from our service apartment, and yet he has managed to get hopelessly lost and drenched in sweat several mornings on his way to the office. The weird circular building on stilts in a nearby Samsung building (one of many) that is our guidepost whenever we need a point of reference when trying to get “home”. 
Everyday at noon for an hour, the lights are turned off throughout Bill’s office building and all the secretaries go to lunch. Bill turns his lights on and works in the silence and then asks his assistant to bring him a sandwich upon her return since finding familiar lunch food is way too challenging for him. At 5pm everyday, union workers swarm the building, knocking on doors, interrupting meetings, and encourage everyone to go home. Bill and other senior managers ignore this but he does leave at about 6:30pm every night to eat with us. yay.
Last week, we were both surprised by a military drill. I was walking on the streets to meet Bill and his assistant in hopes of getting our Korean phones (no luck) and all of a sudden all traffic came to a standstill around me. Police officers were at each intersection, all traffic lights were blinking yellow, all subways stopped, and all pedestrians just stood around waiting. I thought it was a parade on the particular avenue where I was so I asked Bill to walk towards me, He reported that his elevator banks were locked! After inquiries, we learn asking folks that is was a planned military drill that happens every month, mid month, in preparation for an attack by N. Korea! Crazy to see how this huge city just stopped. No one, and I mean no one, tried to ignore the signal and everyone happily obeyed the police officers until the all clear was signaled 20 minutes later. There was an eerie, yet peaceful silence as this metropolis stood still. This never, ever would have happened in NYC!!!
As far as N. Korea and all the recent scuffles on the border, it doesn’t really make the news here. I can find chatter on CNN but it certainly isn’t a header on the local Korean news, or at least as much as I can tell without speaking Korean! Tours of the DMZ are very common and we plan to do this once we get more settled. We are looking forward to our trip to Kyoto later in September and are curious if our “Asian radar” is not sensitive enough to readily detected the cultural differences between Korea and Japan!
That’s all for now as I’m going to try to get phones today…a task that I have failed to tackle 3x already!
AnNeong Ga Sae Yo! (Goodbye said to those when you are the one leaving though probably NOT the correct goodbye to write in an email!)
seoulfulsojourn.net 