Things work so well here it reduces one’s stress. Examples – free wifi is almost everywhere and devices automatically connect even when we are 3 floors underground riding the subway. They give you a buzzer at all food counters so you never wonder if your order is forgotten or have to wait long for your next drink. There are drawers in the side of tables in most casual eating venues that contain chopsticks, spoons and napkins so you can grab your own utensils/extra napkins without summoning a server. Your table too often has a buzzer so you can summon servers quickly and you always just get up and go pay on the way out so no rigamarole of asking for the check, calculating a tip (non-existent here), waiting for the receipt, etc.
Parking lots scan license plates as you enter and leave, tracking the time and amount owed, so no tickets are ever needed. Apparently, if you get in a car accident and need repairs, the work is done the NEXT DAY and your car is “good as new”. (We don’t plan to test this however Bill did have a minor incident while parking and the car was picked up, the tiny dent fixed and the car returned to his office all within 3 hours by the company from which it is leased…for no charge!). Our credit cards double as mass transit cards so we tend to only need to carry one credit card ever and use it all day long to buy stuff and move around the city on the subway, in taxis, buses. Korean Air’s check-in line always moves quickly. Zoe hates to fly and her first question when we take a trip is whether its on Korean air which puts her at ease – there will be no snaffus with check-in, seats, bags, etc. Getting a new battery for my Ebel watch took less than 15 minutes even though this brand isn’t sold in Korea. There are no paper checks here; all payments are made electronically at ATMS by selecting the “money transfer” option and then providing details of payee’s bank account. Our dishwasher broke and the next day a service man came in the morning to diagnose the problem, only to return later in the day with a brand new motor which he quickly installed. This was in sharp contrast to our memories of living for nearly 3 weeks without a working refrigerator in Pennington while we waited for service appointment, parts to be ordered and work order completed!
When one needs to have a prescription filled, the process is so efficient. There are usually small pharmacies in the same building as the doctor’s office or just across the street. Once there, I’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes for my order to be filled and then each day’s pills are presented like the featured image of this post to make it all super simple. Crazy cheap too. Love it.
A year ago last February we decided to go to Pyeongchang, venue of the 2018 Winter Olympics, for a long weekend with another family. Luckily, we got 8 inches of fresh snow so enjoyed one of the best ski weeks in Korea that winter. We didn’t have any of our ski equipment but were able to rent everything we needed in about 15 minutes at a local shop for about $50! The store even had racks and racks of ski clothing (jackets, pants, gloves, etc) for rent, albeit NOT the trendiest skiwear out there, but perfectly clean and functional. Images of waiting hours and hours to rent skies in CO ski shops, at exhorbitant prices came flooding to mind as we breeezed through this Korean experience. Same thing when we went to buy lift tickets…a snap and a bargain relative to US prices. The Olympic Venue was FAR FROM READY and it is truly hard to imagine that this small ski town will soon host millions of visitors and atheletes from around the world. Big avenues were being constructed, underground optic fiber/power was being laid and sites were being cleared for construction of various game venues/buildings/hotels but there was A LOT to accomplish in less than 24 months. Given the rapid, efficient rate of construction here, though, we have no doubt that Pyeongchang will be totally transformed and ready to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. AND… we just got tickets to the Women’s Gold Medal Ice Hockey game through the lottery and hope to entice Daphne back from St. Lawrence on 2/22/18!! Not quite “FB-ready ski vacation” pictures, but a few for a memories captured here:
Driving in Seoul at first seemed completely overwhelming and intimidating for so very many reasons, but now we are both quite comfortable behind the wheel and even allow Daphne to drive in our neighborhood although she doesn’t have an international DL. We’ve come to appreciate how efficiently heavy traffic is managed in this vast city through the ; 1) frequent use of u-turns (permitted on most streets when you are waiting at a red light and want to reverse direction and irregardless of whether you are first “in line” at the traffic light); 2) lack of stop signs on small steets which allows traffic to just flow based on who got to the intersection first, who is going noticeably faster, or just plain “guts”; and 3) smart cars/interactive traffic signals that allow your car to “talk” the road thereby warning you via an audible “ding” when you’re driving over the speed limit, going over a speed bump, approaching a tunnel, traffic camera, etc. all of which make the roads safer and minimizes accidents . Motorcyclists frequently drive on the sidewalks if this makes sense and is safe, just as cars sometimes park on the sidewalks so as to not disrupt traffic. As Bill says…it’s all about FLOW…the millions of cars and trucks in this city just flow in a way that impresses us each day.
Dental and orthodontic care are handled by the same office such that when one goes for a dental check up, an orthodontic consultation is available and then once in braces, a check up/wire tightening includes a quick dental cleaning as well. Bill’s higgledy-piggledly teeth were transformed in just one year, as he will proudly show you when you next see him. Due to my ripe old age and rapidly converging bottom teeth which decided to twist, turn, overlap each other despite the years I spent in braces as a teenager, I too signed up for the world-renowed dentistry services here in Korea and am now in braces! The brackets took less than 15 minutes to put on, don’t really annoy me and most of all, have straightened my teeth in just 5 weeks!! I was only supposed to be in them for 3 months, but yesterday I was informed they could come off next week…what joy!!! I will then get a permanent wire behind my bottom teeth to hold them in place as I “advance further in years”. No vanity here as I share these lovely pictures:
And now….here is the final, new and improved, version of Amanda at 53 yrs.:
Virtually everything can be ordered on the web and delivered to your home quickly. While online shopping penetration rates in Korea pale to those in China, the digital buyer percentage rate in Korea is estimated to be at least 65% and increasing rapidly since over 90% of Koreans own a smart phone. Being a small country with a very dense population, Korea has exceptionally high fulfillment rates which make online shopping extremely efficient. The few times I’ve needed a different (always larger…since we generally have bigger feet, bodies than our Korean counterparts) size of shoes or clothes, I’ve been amazed to learn that the desired item will arrive at my house the next day for absolutely no charge as if every merchant were Zappos or Amazon prime! I often do my grocery shopping on the way home from class and ask that the groceries be delivered whenever they are too heavy to carry the 15 minutes it takes me to walk home. Several times, I’ve arrived home to find the the motorcyled driver waiting for me with my items. One time, Bill and I forgot about the delivery and were chatting over a green tea latte, when my the driver called my cell phone to say he was at our door. Quickly, I handed my phone to a nearby Korean to explain that we would scurry home quickly and that the delivery could be left by the door. Such efficiency surprises us often, truly…as does the willingness of strangers to help us out of these situations we sometimes get into.
Dialing 1330 comes in handy when we get in “foreigner situations” too. This efficient, friendly services has proved invaluable several times and I hope there are similar services offered in the States for foreigners, but I doubt it. By dialing 1330 at anytime, anyday of the week, I am instantly connected (no wait time ever!) to an English speaking Korean who stands ready to help…period! I have used this service to help me: 1) to figure out if the wholesale flower market was open on a “soft” holiday when I couldn’t tell from the website; 2) to decifier the instructions for my rice cooker; 3) to order dance performance tickets online when the ticketing system rejected my Macbook since it doesn’t run on Windows which is the platform of choice in this Samsung-dominated electronics market; 4) to register for Korean language classes..5) and most importantly, understand what was going on when Bill fell and we had to call the paramedics. It is so comforting to know 1330 exists and I just hope we don’t ever need it because our Northern neighbors decided to play nasty and all hell breaks loose!!
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