seoulfulsojourn.net

We move TODAY into our permanent house and I’m quickly writing this before I leave the internet zone at the apartment in case the scheduled hookup for cable, phone, internet at our house later today doesn’t work (this is the 3rd attempt btw and I’ve learned to be VERY patient!).

Here’s a catch up and thoughts since I last wrote to go with the photos which I take everyday as I move around:

Men in these vests are UBIQUITOUS!!  Literally,10 or more on every city block and I still can’t figure out why exactly they need these many pockets for they certainly don’t seem to be “Katy No Pocket” Kangaroos and usually only one have a pen tucked into an upper pocket.  They come in all colors and I have noticed that those wearing the neon-green ones act as volunteer neighborhood watchdogs; they hang at street corners directing pedestrian traffic and helping those who ask questions.  The vests are for sale everywhere so if anyone wants to place a Christmas order, let me know!

 

I went furniture shopping in the Gangnam District.  This is definitely the fancy, fancy area of town where all the young, wealthyKoreans want to live and play as is evident by the number of Porsches, Masarattis, Mercedes on the streets, Chanel shopping bags being toted around by drivers for their female shoppers and by price tags of items in stores.  This is also the BOTOX part of town, as every block has small surgical centers or clinics for in-out services.  Of course I was hoping to see lots of ladies with bandaged faces scurrying out to waiting cars, but alas the tinted windows that ALL CARS HAVE HERE (including ours) prevented my ability to spy.  I will go back to investigate further as I’ve heard that Seoul is the world-wide capital for plastic surgery.  The cosmetic/beauty industry here is HUGE (makeup is one of the first vocab words in my beginning Korean book for example) and young girls and ladies are always out shopping for the latest beauty products and treatments.  Check out the funny facial masks (pig and dragon) that Daph and Zoe tried for fun.

No one, no one has grey hair here except the very, very elderly bent over little ol’ ladies and men.  Everyone dyes his/her hair black, and certainly the men do whereas the women may add a reddish brown tint instead of jet black.  I didn’t realize just how prevalent this dye-job trend was until I saw a grey-haired guest on Korean TV and noticed how absolutely bizarre he looked.

Daphne and I strolled around the picturesque Bukchon area just north of our apartment one afternoon.  This area has preserved many of the original Hanok houses and is home to one owned by the former President of S. Korea.  The area is quite busy with tourists on the weekend and has some Hanoks that have been remodeled and are now small hostels for folks wishing to spend the night in a Hanok.

Juxtaposed against these traditional homes are the silly plastic sculptures that are
“Photo Zone” features.  Often, there are long lines of people waiting to have their picture taken next to the figure as I did of Daphne next to Cco Cco Ro. There are also several K-Pop paraphernalia stores nestled into this historic part of town since the “new” is constantly rubbing shoulders with the “old”. 

Another popular activity, particularly among the many Chinese tourists that are in Seoul ALL the time, is called “Costume Experience”.  There’s a photo of 3 girls seated who are in costumes that they rented for an hour or two to walk around Bukchon.  We see folks in these costumes daily but have no real desire to try it ourselves though Bill would look great in one so I may plan this for fun!  See also the painting I saw at an art show that is of the Mona Lisa “en costume”.

The art show was in this futuristic building called the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.  Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi-British female architect, designed this cool structure and it has hosted the Andy Warhol and Coco Chanel Exhibits.  The Korean fascination with phallic symbols was evident throughout the art show as you can see in one picture I took.  At the pottery outing I describe later, there were several small phallic items for sale so, again, feel free to place your Christmas orders!!

 

A quick shot of our garden and some of the plants I put in.  Not much color/bloom yet and a lot of maintenance since the weather has been hot, but clear/not humid, and I’ve had to water them nearly everyday (a pain since we haven’t actually moved in yet…poor planning on my part!). Can you guess what are lined up on the ledge near the grass?  Persimmons!!!  We have a small tree in our yard and one branch was so weighted down with fruit that it snapped off so I’m trying to ripen the 70+ persimmons in the sun. I’m dreaming of making your persimmon pudding recipe so please try to dig it up and email it to me!!  There are GIANT persimmon trees across the street and I’m curious to see if someone harvests the fruit which is at least 30 ft. above street height.  It will be very messy if the persimmons are just allowed to fall….

 

Last weekend, I convinced Bill, Daphne and Zoe to walk around our new neighborhood despite the heat and steep, steep hills and we found our way into the park just north of our house.  It was nice and shaded and we had a great time playing on the equipment while the locals watched us with great curiosity.  There are several types of hula hoops made out of braided plastic or with studs on the inner circle that are designed to “massage” your torso as you hulu-hoop. Daphne, who is an expert hulu-hooper by the way, found it very painful though.  Bill found the machine that allows you to just hang out upside-down very relaxing and wanted to hang for quite awhile despite having to hold onto his Duke BB hat.  If we visit this equipment station frequently, we may develop our muscles like the figure shown…a deterrent for me, certainly!  The trails were actually a narrow carpet of woven burlap (see photo of our sneakers and pay careful attention to Bill’s new purple (feminine?!) ones that he found at a deep discount (I wonder why?).  Lots of stairs too which provoked Bill to call for races to the top.  The views were lovely and the outing a lot of fun though Bill’s knee was rather sore at dinner.

                                      

We went to the dentist!! Like all Cluetts, I believe, I am programmed to go to the dentist without fail every 6 months and it was TIME so Daph, Zoe and I went to Dr. Ye who couldn’t have been more pleasant.  The whole experience was a trip to say the least but pain free, thankfully.  We were all together in one room and took turns sitting in the chair looking at the giant x-ray images of our teeth while Dr. Ye assessed the situation and made recommendations. Each of us also had a lot of pictures taken by a regular camera with a huge zoom lens by two assistants, one who took the pictures and another who held our mouths open, worked with an air gun and mirror to get the correct shot.  These images were then immediately uploaded onto a computer and put on the giant monitor.  Super, super ugly photos of my very old teeth…horrifying, in fact!  The plaque behind Daphne’s lower retainer wire was just as disgusting, but the images were clearly motivating and she is paying more attention to this area and I’ve been back for a filling.  In fact, all three of us had to go back for fillings, Daphne and Zoe bravely doing this, novocaine injection and all, for the first time ever, let alone in Seoul!  My situation is complicated as the “direct” filing (this is what they call fillings put directly into your mouth and the only ones I’ve ever heard of (!) vs. an “indirect” filling which is made from a mold and then implanted) is failing.  Dr. Ye is going to do a minor adjustment and watch it for 6 months and hopefully I won’t have to have an “indirect” filling as I think this may be quite expensive.  Getting appointments here in Seoul, whether for a haircut, dentist, delivery, is a snap and usually happens within a day or two so….which is not always a great thing when the next appointment involves a filling.  A far cry from the month-long wait for dental appointments in NJ!

 

The next group of photos were taken around Bongwansa Temple and mountain.  I met my 4 friends (!!) for this outing  and you can see the peak we hiked and then some views of the city, fortress wall and a small temple (on full camera zoom) nestled into the mountain side.  We hope to find this temple on another outing.  There were signs posted along the trails like the image shown and one can hold one’s smart phone up to the sign and a signal will be transmitted to show your location if you’re in need of assistance.

 

   
State-of-the-art trail maintenance here and there were compressed air hoses at the bottom of the mountain so we could clean the dust of our shoes.  I liked the Buddhist statures near the temple, particularly those with long eyebrows since this is what Bill might look like if he didn’t get groomed every month or so. Frightening thought!

Last Friday, I went on an all-day bus tour with the American Women’s Club of Korea to a town an hour outside of the city known for its pottery.  We visiting 6 different shops and factories, stacked full of pottery, giant kimchi pots and all very dusty.  It was a very fun, social day, though exhausting.  I did find a complete set of pottery (see broken bowl image and mugs) for our house (75 pieces!) for less than $500 which is amazing given the crazy, crazy prices of virtually everything else here.  My order was made and delivered 2 days later and only one piece arrived broken which the shop has agreed to replace for free.  Love it!  We now have china for our home, and after visiting 4 different stores last night, I finally found silverware so we can eat tonight!!

I almost forgot to mention that we have a driver now!  Mr. Choi (pronounced “Chwei”… we think?) is at our disposal for 3 months and he has been a life-saver as I run around trying to get our house set up and negotiate the cable service, deliveries, etc.  And yes, he dyes his hair black…He drove Daphne and Zoe and I to IKEA and there we bought a modular sleeper sofa, desks, chairs and small bedside and console tables, all of which needed assembly IKEA-style.  Last Sunday, Daph, Zoe and I slowly and patiently assembled the items and unbelievably, they are all put together with barely any extra parts left over!  Bill stayed far, far away from the projects as this is not his “strong suit”.  We saved a lot of $ doing it ourselves since the assembly charge for the $1,000 sofa was $250.  I was reminded of my father who taught me the skills and patience necessary to accomplish this!  Mr. Choi was flabbergasted that we girls could do this!  A rather ugly bronze “pleather” beanbag chair I priced for Zoe was $260 and will give you a sense of the inflated prices here.  Really, really wish we’d been more thoughtful in what we chose to bring, but we were really scrambling in July so can’t be too hard on myself.  I do plan to pick up some items in NC…like deodorant which is very, very scarce here and only NIVEA (who even knew it made deodorant?) seems to be available for lots of $$$.

Bill and I went on an evening river boat cruise on the Han river with folks from the American Women’s Club (spouses joined so Bill wasn’t the only male!).  It was sooooo nice to talk in English the entire evening, eat mostly recognizable food and drink WINE!  Wine is very much a luxury item here and not really a drink of choice so only served at the fanciest restaurants. Bill especially enjoyed the chance to socialize with non-Koreans since he has had to go to several work dinners and drink lots of Soju (Koreanrice wine a bit like sake).  It is usually poured as a shot and then dumped into beer and chugged.  Last week, he went to dinner with about 40 of the folks from one of his branch offices and they EACH stood and gave him a welcome toast which wasn’t so bad, but each one also saluted him with a shot of Soju and THAT was really, really hard.  Bill’s translator was right by his side the whole night, as she is everyday, and finally she and another colleague who spoke English ended the Soju toasting.  A quiet, mouse of a woman that Bill has known for years actually got quite frisky and kept trying to sit on his lap (?!!) until she was politely ushered away by what Bill refers to as his “handler”.  Needless to say, it is not much fun sleeping next to Mr. Soju after these evenings, particularly since his whole body seems to exude the smell of the Korean food he’s eaten at these dinners.  Hopefully, the Soju dinners will subside as Bill finishes being introduced to the Korean Citibank team.  I haven’t tried Soju myself and am curious, but it’s largely part of the male culture.  Probably just as well…

Daphne and Zoe continue to adjust to life in Seoul.  Daph misses her friends and life in NJ terribly and is generally having a pretty rough time.  Hopefully the arrival of her hockey bag and the opportunity to play, versus coach, hockey will help, but this move has not been easy for our teenager who was about to start driving, be an upperclassman, go to Prom, lead the PDS Panther hockey team, etc.  On the bright side (we hope!), she is going to China in November on a school sponsored (but we pay $) service/boondoggle trip to learn about and pet Pandas!  Her first choice was to go to Thailand and play with elephants, but Pandas sound “cool” and there’s another “Discovery Week” trip next year.  Still, it’s hard to watch her tears and “hear” her silences.

Zoe is busier than Daph in general because it has been soccer season for the MS, though it just ended this week.  She has enjoyed the team, tried out the striker position after years of playing right back, made friends and played in two weekend Jamborees held at other nearby schools.  Both girls have friends, but both also miss their “true”, deeper friendships from home.  The internet has been a blessing for the most part, though at times it magnifies the distance and loneliness.  I find it very hard to keep up with everyone in the States, but perhaps this will change as we get settled and I’m not so busy with relocation details.  On verra….

My Korean lessons, both private and group public class, are going well but take up a lot of my time.  Between the lessons and the homework/studying, I am frankly quite over-whelmed and often frustrated by my inability to remember words, letters, phrases.  But, as my friend Christina pointed out, we are making good progress and just need to step back and consider how many things are now rote.  I downloaded a Korean character keyboard on my phone and try to send a little text to Mr. Choi or our realtor…a simple “thank you” or the like everyday. The material has gotten decidedly more difficult now that I have to learn all the subject markers and number systems.  There are different numbers for counting items like apples, your phone number and general math, for example.  If I ask for 3 apples I say “ge” after apple, but if I order bottles of water, I need to say “byong” after water and “myong” if I’m referring to people, “gwan” if to books, etc. There are hundreds of these subject markers and it amazes me!  Yesterday, we learned in class that Korean numbers are like the Chinese and grouped by 10,000s vs. 1,000s.  So when saying “65,000” , I actually say “6 10,000s and 5 thousands”…mind-blowing especially since they place the commas like we do at the thousand mark.  Go figure?  I don’t think Bill knows this either which is a bit frightening since he’s head of the commercial bank for Citibank Korea!!!!

Back to the photos and you’ll see me in a wrap given to me to cover my too short dress when I toured a Buddhist temple in our neighborhood.  The Temple was built on land donated by a very successful female restaurant owner and is also open to the public for “Temple Stay” visits which are quite popular here.  I don’t think I can get much buy-in for this adventure from my “team” given the 3:30am wakeup for morning meditation and silences required throughout the day.

 

I also visited the Furniture Museum in our neighborhood which was peaceful and informative.  It’s a private museum but I’ll try to schedule a tour whenever any of you are in town…???

A few other observations:

1)  We are all TALL…or at least NOT SHORT…anymore!  I didn’t really notice this until Daphne introduced me to her best friend, Maud, who is Dutch and then I felt once again like the shrimp I am anywhere but in Korea.  Kind of a nice change though, as is the fact that practically no one wears heels here.  All comfortable flats or perhaps a low chunky platform sandal.  I have only worn heels twice in 6 weeks and it almost feels strange now.

2) There are parking spaces in buildings and on the streets designated for WOMEN ONLY!!  See the photo of a pink lady and pink curb.  These are not for pregnant, sick or elderly women, but any female and there is a whole side of the Citibank garage reserved for we women.  Wahoo!

3)  Every street, every metro station, every big building has this elaborate system of raised floor panels or pavement.  See photos of street in yellow and raised metal lines in our apartment building.  I finally asked and learned that it is for blind people and the dots vs. dashes indicate stairs, a curb, a doorway, etc.  The absolutely bizarre thing is that THERE ARE NO BLIND PEOPLE ever on the street as far as I can tell. This isn’t just left over from the “olden days” either, as all new construction is similarly demarcated.  I finally shared my observation with Mr. Choi and he laughed hard and agreed with me that there aren’t any blind people using this guide system and yet it is everywhere.  There are also bifocals to borrow at all banks/post offices as you can see in the photo which is quite handy since my eyes (and everything else!) are definitely getting old!

4)  One almost always pays for one’s food upon ordering and the check is brought to the table directly after your order is given to the kitchen. There’s also no tipping here. We actually like the system since it makes the exit after dinner very quick and straight-forward.  You just get up and go vs. flagging down a waiter to ask for a check, calculating the tip, waiting for the cc slip to come back to be signed, etc. Our US procedure seems very cumbersome by comparison.

5) A quick photo of meat prices in case you don’t believe me about the cost of food here!  Basically, divide that 350,000 Won number by 1,000 and you get $350-500 for not very much meat. And…the hamburger meat I bought was dreadful so we go out forKorean BBQ to satisfy our beef cravings and it is actually good! Next to the beef picture is one of “water kimchi” which is usually served with any meal you order and I actually like it!  It is very bland, not spicy at all and a bit like a gently pickled chunk of cabbage in slightly-flavored broth. We like certain steamed dumplings also….light, full of veggies and delicious!

The fried egg photo represents what we discovered after living at our apartment for nearly 6 weeks.  In addition to the buffet food (combination of breakfast cereals, toast, salad bar, soup, weird Korean dinner dishes…and good coffee, thankfully) which we’ve been eating every morning since we arrived, I found out that I could ask the kitchen for eggs!!!!!  I was thrilled and I’ve had fried eggs ever since…4 days in a row.  I also have stooped so low as to “steal” the celery that is sometimes in the salad bar because I am so desperate for some CRUNCH in my tuna and egg salad sandwiches. Still hunting for chutney, but will procure some in NC as it is dearly missed by all of us.

6) A few shots of our Insa-dong neighborhood that we are leaving today.  I marvel at the veggies planted in the troughs on the main thoroughfare.  Who plants them?  Who is allowed to harvest the lettuce (and it IS being picked), carrots and kale?  There are two photos of a cute tea house near our apartment which is surrounded by little art galleries.  Exhibits change weekly and each time there is an opening, large funeral looking flower arrangements like the one in my photo are placed outside the gallery, shop, restaurant.  We see these large arrangements being delivered on trucks and bikes all over town and I thought they were for funerals until I asked because it just didn’t make sense.  At one of the galleries, I splurged and bought a nice painting, over-ridding Bill who has since “come around”.  It felt frivolous at the time since I had yet to buy the IKEA furniture, dishes, glasses, or really anything for our house, but I know we will love it in our dining room.  Art purchases aren’t ever really rational anyway…just have to follow our hearts and take the plunge!

 

7) Finally…our family “business” cards were delivered by the relocation company.  Aside from mis-spelling Daphne’s name (they will correct that), we now can hand out our information to anyone who is interested!  The cards help taxi drivers find our house since it is in a lesser well-known part of the city.  Feel free to request a card and drop by….!!!!

 

The internet was just connected upstairs in our house and we await a special cable to get it working in Daphne and Zoe’s downstairs lair.  I’m sending this from Bill’s office and the last photo is his view outside…truly lovely!