So tonight I head back to the airport for one week in the UK and then to bring our kids back to their new life here. What are they going to make of this place?
At ages 5 and 3 their entire life experience has been Asian-based, and so in many ways they will likely see less weirdness than we do. The Koreans are a handsome race - strong-looking and handsome with high cheek bones, generous features and a willingness to smile and laugh heartily and often. I think the girls will be a focus for much attention from people here, but because of the respectful nature of the Koreans, I hope that they will endure less physical touching than they have had to deal with in the past from mainland Chinese in Hong Kong and the gentle Thais. And korean kids are soooo cute in their own way, that perhaps two blonde little western girls will present less of an attraction.
Already I can feel myself adapting to life here. The fashions are very different, and Koreans LOVE their complicated patterns and off-beat cuts. Assymetric tops for ladies are common, and the layered t-shirt effect is common. Lace trim and a colour palette that favours plum, yellow, turquiose green and apricot tones as well as lots of strong spots and stripes make for a colourful and interesting range of attire.
In bureaucratic terms life will likely be easy here. Everything is efficiently set up to provide minimum red tape and fuss. The subway has tickets of course, but once you have a credit card you can use that as your pass to travel eliminating the need for travel cards and another thing to remember.
When we go out at night, if we travel by car and then decide to have some beers, we can phone one of about 20 companies who will send a sober driver to our restaurant and drive us home. We tried this the other night and it was fantastic. To order this service you need to speak Korean or ask a waitress to call them for you.
Expat life is well set up with societies for everything that all have websites and responsive members to help with all newcomers questions: The Royal Asiatic Society for cultural tours, the British Women's Group for networking and the Seoul International Womens Association which includes a working women's network and charity raising activities thrtoughout the year. National societies from all over the world are thriving, websites abound with information on restaurants and bars.
Life here will be as good as we make it. If we work hard, master the language and remain permanently positive, I think we will be very happy. Let's see how I feel when I return.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
6 Beginning to settle
After a weekend of culture shock (and having to basically leave Insadong area after finding it all too weird!), Monday morning felt fine and I headed out into town to explore. Perhaps it is the jet lag lifting, but I felt much happier today to be wandering the streets of Seoul. On Sunday I had experienced a strong desire to go back and sit in our hotel room and watch english-speaking television. This was a very unusual sensation but one which hardworking hubby admitted to also feeling the previous weekend when he had watched three movies back-to-back and only ventured to the basement to buy snacks from the convenience store. People keep telling us that the Bill Murray film Lost in Translation will become our favourite film after living here for a while, and I think I will re-watch it when I am back home.
I can't remember feeling quite so foriegn in a place before. Everyone I see, each person who I watch making their way around Seoul, all the families, friends hanging out and chatting and laughing together - I feel that there is a huge distance until I could even ask them their names, let alone have any understanding of what makes them buzz. Like a vast ocean of cultural differences to cross.
Every night I dream the most wild and crazy dreams: last night I was hit by a truck taking my kids to their new schools and running late (but survived more or less intact) and then had to go and enrol in a new university as a fresher! I think this is a reaction to the changes in my life!
I have just looked back at the title I have given this blog, and realise that I havent written about settling in at all. Perhaps I should be a little more patient.
I can't remember feeling quite so foriegn in a place before. Everyone I see, each person who I watch making their way around Seoul, all the families, friends hanging out and chatting and laughing together - I feel that there is a huge distance until I could even ask them their names, let alone have any understanding of what makes them buzz. Like a vast ocean of cultural differences to cross.
Every night I dream the most wild and crazy dreams: last night I was hit by a truck taking my kids to their new schools and running late (but survived more or less intact) and then had to go and enrol in a new university as a fresher! I think this is a reaction to the changes in my life!
I have just looked back at the title I have given this blog, and realise that I havent written about settling in at all. Perhaps I should be a little more patient.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
5 First weekend in Seoul
So on Friday night we met up with some old friends (from our Brazil and Hong Kong days - hope they dont think we are stalking them!) and went out for dinner in the trendy Apgujeong area. This end of the road was quite different from our Apgujeong experience the other night - there was noone sitting on floors here and the roads were all crammed with big cars manned with drivers who were waiting outside and smoking cigarettes. Quite glitzy and posh prices. Later we went to a wildly expensive cafe for more drinks (see my other blog spot SeoulFoodGuide.blogspot.com for a review). It is all good fun, but even more expensive than Hong Kong or Singapore- the kind of town where people are rich enough to want to show it off by spending. Personally I find cash hard enough to get hold of that I do not share this desire!
Hardworking hubby and I wandered down into Rodeo Drive until we found a groovy little bar with plastic tables and loads of same-age-as-us Koreans having a laugh on a Friday night. It was good to feel that we had landed in normal land, and to see Koreans having fun around us and see that they look pretty OK and fun, actually. They are a fashionable, good looking bunch and I reckon shopping must be a popular past time. The bill in Nori People was more normal too, with beers costing just $3 instead of $15 in the cafe - ouch!
While we were there it started to rain so we were trapped into having another one for the road while we waited for the storm to pass (shame...). As we sat there with rain streaming off the front canopy, a car drove by with a guy sitting on the bonnet for a giggle.
As we left, we got chatting to a drunk fat guy outside the convenience store. He was very jolly and did the usual "where you fom?" "Scotland", "Aaaahhhhh, Scotlan, whisky ha ha ha" exchange, until he tried to say something else which just came out in Korean and basically we were all just too drunk to make it work. Never mind, plenty of time.
We rocked into our apartment at about 2am and didn't surface until the room service lady rang that bloody bell again at 10.50 and burst in - this time round I beat her to it, though, and managed to grab my dressing gown first (so no naked guest thrills/horrors for her that day)!.
Hardworking hubby and I wandered down into Rodeo Drive until we found a groovy little bar with plastic tables and loads of same-age-as-us Koreans having a laugh on a Friday night. It was good to feel that we had landed in normal land, and to see Koreans having fun around us and see that they look pretty OK and fun, actually. They are a fashionable, good looking bunch and I reckon shopping must be a popular past time. The bill in Nori People was more normal too, with beers costing just $3 instead of $15 in the cafe - ouch!
While we were there it started to rain so we were trapped into having another one for the road while we waited for the storm to pass (shame...). As we sat there with rain streaming off the front canopy, a car drove by with a guy sitting on the bonnet for a giggle.
As we left, we got chatting to a drunk fat guy outside the convenience store. He was very jolly and did the usual "where you fom?" "Scotland", "Aaaahhhhh, Scotlan, whisky ha ha ha" exchange, until he tried to say something else which just came out in Korean and basically we were all just too drunk to make it work. Never mind, plenty of time.
We rocked into our apartment at about 2am and didn't surface until the room service lady rang that bloody bell again at 10.50 and burst in - this time round I beat her to it, though, and managed to grab my dressing gown first (so no naked guest thrills/horrors for her that day)!.
4 Stuck in a blog spot
This blogging business is supposed to be so easy, but I cant work out how to put anything on my blog in any order. I also couldnt work out how to switch on my bedside light in this serviced apartment the other day, or work the washing machine or the air conditioning. Am beginning to wonder if I am actually a techno moron after all, having denied it vigorously all my life...
Friday, July 21, 2006
3 Hunting for 'Koppee'
So, Hardworking Hubby has been living her for almost six weeks but has survived on a diet of either business entertaining or convenience store goodies. His preferred Family Mart snack is a pot of instant noodles with an egg cracked in the top - YUCK. There ain't no way I am eating that kind of muck. And even more important than food is getting a good coffee first thing in the morning. In Korea it is called "Koppee" because there is no sound for "f".
Yesterday I had a long search for fresh "Koppee", but was unsuccessful. Even after cunningly stealing some extra coffee bags from under the nose of the room service girl this morning, I knew that we had to do better than that, so today I tracked down the nearest supermarket to us, which is located in the basement of the very, very high end Hyundai Department Store.
My goodness this is an expensive place to live.... last night we stopped in Itaewon area on the way back to the car and bought a small box of Kelloggs bran flakes, 6 bananas and a litre of milk and it cost 9 US dollars. Even after by-passing the banks of perfume and handbags on the way to Hyundai's food court I was prepared to be shocked. Some things are really bad. Olive oil there was US$22 a bottle, fresh koppee was not even on sale (panic), a small box of fresh tomatoes were US$9. Dear me. So I just spent 50 bucks on some fruit, splashed out on a small pot of Pesto and some pasta and then wandered into the adjacent food court trying to sniff out the dumplings.
The food court is full of about 200 different dishes which are all utterly unrecognisable (even the ingredients are so out there that I have no idea what they are - seaweed or tripe, for example, an important diffference to distinguish). I literally sniffed my way around until I got to the familiar odour of soupy noodle dumpling things and pointed at one of the congealed sample dishes. It was pretty yummy although I have decided that small dried fish stirred into anything don't really add much to the dish. Normally I wouldn't put them in, but I have made a promise to myself to be a bit more expansive in my food experimentation here and so I added a few to my soup, ate one and then removed the remaining bits with my chop sticks. Ugh, hate them.
Finished my soup, went to the poshest supermarket toilet I have ever seen which had silver tiles and self flushing loos, and on leaving the establishment, spotted a coffee place with fresh coffee beans on sale. I am now typing with a mug of freshly ground and brewed "Jazz" filter coffee at my side and I am a much happier girl, I can tell you. The coffee cost 30 dollars for one bag, but to off-set this huge outlay, they gave me a free box of dairy creamer..... nice!
Yesterday I had a long search for fresh "Koppee", but was unsuccessful. Even after cunningly stealing some extra coffee bags from under the nose of the room service girl this morning, I knew that we had to do better than that, so today I tracked down the nearest supermarket to us, which is located in the basement of the very, very high end Hyundai Department Store.
My goodness this is an expensive place to live.... last night we stopped in Itaewon area on the way back to the car and bought a small box of Kelloggs bran flakes, 6 bananas and a litre of milk and it cost 9 US dollars. Even after by-passing the banks of perfume and handbags on the way to Hyundai's food court I was prepared to be shocked. Some things are really bad. Olive oil there was US$22 a bottle, fresh koppee was not even on sale (panic), a small box of fresh tomatoes were US$9. Dear me. So I just spent 50 bucks on some fruit, splashed out on a small pot of Pesto and some pasta and then wandered into the adjacent food court trying to sniff out the dumplings.
The food court is full of about 200 different dishes which are all utterly unrecognisable (even the ingredients are so out there that I have no idea what they are - seaweed or tripe, for example, an important diffference to distinguish). I literally sniffed my way around until I got to the familiar odour of soupy noodle dumpling things and pointed at one of the congealed sample dishes. It was pretty yummy although I have decided that small dried fish stirred into anything don't really add much to the dish. Normally I wouldn't put them in, but I have made a promise to myself to be a bit more expansive in my food experimentation here and so I added a few to my soup, ate one and then removed the remaining bits with my chop sticks. Ugh, hate them.
Finished my soup, went to the poshest supermarket toilet I have ever seen which had silver tiles and self flushing loos, and on leaving the establishment, spotted a coffee place with fresh coffee beans on sale. I am now typing with a mug of freshly ground and brewed "Jazz" filter coffee at my side and I am a much happier girl, I can tell you. The coffee cost 30 dollars for one bag, but to off-set this huge outlay, they gave me a free box of dairy creamer..... nice!
2 Life among the Koreans Day Two
I woke up as a bell went off in my room. I didnt know what time it was, or if this was my wake up call, mobile phone or door bell! Totally confused then realised it was room service. Before I could say anything, she had let herself in to see me naked staggering around the room. I think she said, " Oh sorry I will come back in a minute" but cannot be sure, as it was all in a torrent of fast Korean which I am sorry to say I am far from mastering at the moment.
It was 10.50am. Late to wake up.
Found one disgusting coffee bag (who ever thought that coffee could be made in the same way as tea? They are COMPLETELY different drinks) and make the most pathetically weak cup of coffee ever. There is only one coffee bag in the apartment - not enough to get me started really.
Husband phones on my new mobile. The ring tone is set to start with a horse whinnying and then a kind of jolly country and western number. I try to re-set it but the phone seems to be in Korean and I can only get into the call register menu, seemingly no matter what button I press.
I am to meet him for lunch.
I retraced my steps of the previous night to the underground and bought a ticket to Yeoksam Dong, just two stops away. To get there I had to walk through a massive paved square full of stark sculptures, like a massive linked pair of very veiny arms set in concrete. The square is above a huge underground mall called Coex, which features a range of rank looking fast food joints at the entrance to the subway.
The trains are massive and spotless and there are clean toilets on every platform - so efficient.
Get out of the subway and find my way to Star Tower, the font of our destiny in Seoul and where Hardworking will be putting in the hours while we are here. It is pretty smart, playing Schubert in the lobby and immaculately clean. I had to wait for a few minutes and watched the Koreans going in and out. They are all very business suited, Asian style. The men wear outrageous suits - a mixture of shiny suits or crazy pinstripes, with short legged trousers so that you can see their socks. My favourite was an Elvis-style business man with huge gold-framed shades and bracelet, white jacket and chequered black and white trousers over slip on shoes with a woven leather top. His hair was thinning on top and he had a slim, lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth for the whole time I watched him. I wonder what on earth his life is like....
The girls are all wide hipped and slim, young ones wearing pretty floral dresses and cardigans in colours like pastel green, apricot and acid yellow. Older women wear kick-ass suits that look like they are straight out of Armani (and judging by the street of shops which we passed on the way back from Apgujeong the other night, they probably are. In about 10 mins we passed two Louis Vuitton outlets, Gucci, Armani, Hugo Boss, Escada, etc etc etc - all of them basically there on one road). The whole place exudes wealth, everyone looks really together and I have only seen one mad old lady on the subway who was walking along with a transistor radio around her neck begging. I havent seen any police yet, but I wonder what happens to vagrants in this part of town - reckon they might be "removed".
We found a dumpling restaurant around the corner from Hardworking's office and sat on chairs this time (Hardworking finds it very hard to cross his legs under a low table!). Delicious dumplings in a thin mushroom soup, filled with chopped pork and garlic and onion. My mouth is watering as I write this since we now have bananas in the apartment and i havent had lunch.
Strangest breakfast I have probably ever eaten, but we went to Coffee Bean afterwards for a reassuringly good coffee (agh, relief!). They call it KOPPEE BEAN on account of there being no "f" sound in korean.
In fact i am so hungry now I am going to take my phrase book out and try to order some more of this top Korean nosh.
It was 10.50am. Late to wake up.
Found one disgusting coffee bag (who ever thought that coffee could be made in the same way as tea? They are COMPLETELY different drinks) and make the most pathetically weak cup of coffee ever. There is only one coffee bag in the apartment - not enough to get me started really.
Husband phones on my new mobile. The ring tone is set to start with a horse whinnying and then a kind of jolly country and western number. I try to re-set it but the phone seems to be in Korean and I can only get into the call register menu, seemingly no matter what button I press.
I am to meet him for lunch.
I retraced my steps of the previous night to the underground and bought a ticket to Yeoksam Dong, just two stops away. To get there I had to walk through a massive paved square full of stark sculptures, like a massive linked pair of very veiny arms set in concrete. The square is above a huge underground mall called Coex, which features a range of rank looking fast food joints at the entrance to the subway.
The trains are massive and spotless and there are clean toilets on every platform - so efficient.
Get out of the subway and find my way to Star Tower, the font of our destiny in Seoul and where Hardworking will be putting in the hours while we are here. It is pretty smart, playing Schubert in the lobby and immaculately clean. I had to wait for a few minutes and watched the Koreans going in and out. They are all very business suited, Asian style. The men wear outrageous suits - a mixture of shiny suits or crazy pinstripes, with short legged trousers so that you can see their socks. My favourite was an Elvis-style business man with huge gold-framed shades and bracelet, white jacket and chequered black and white trousers over slip on shoes with a woven leather top. His hair was thinning on top and he had a slim, lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth for the whole time I watched him. I wonder what on earth his life is like....
The girls are all wide hipped and slim, young ones wearing pretty floral dresses and cardigans in colours like pastel green, apricot and acid yellow. Older women wear kick-ass suits that look like they are straight out of Armani (and judging by the street of shops which we passed on the way back from Apgujeong the other night, they probably are. In about 10 mins we passed two Louis Vuitton outlets, Gucci, Armani, Hugo Boss, Escada, etc etc etc - all of them basically there on one road). The whole place exudes wealth, everyone looks really together and I have only seen one mad old lady on the subway who was walking along with a transistor radio around her neck begging. I havent seen any police yet, but I wonder what happens to vagrants in this part of town - reckon they might be "removed".
We found a dumpling restaurant around the corner from Hardworking's office and sat on chairs this time (Hardworking finds it very hard to cross his legs under a low table!). Delicious dumplings in a thin mushroom soup, filled with chopped pork and garlic and onion. My mouth is watering as I write this since we now have bananas in the apartment and i havent had lunch.
Strangest breakfast I have probably ever eaten, but we went to Coffee Bean afterwards for a reassuringly good coffee (agh, relief!). They call it KOPPEE BEAN on account of there being no "f" sound in korean.
In fact i am so hungry now I am going to take my phrase book out and try to order some more of this top Korean nosh.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
1 Just arrived
It has been four days since I stepped on real grass.
Flying to Seoul was great after my wonderful upgrade to business class on not one, but both legs of my flight - what a pleasant way to travel when you are used to the total shag of cattle class.
Our plane from London to Dubai was delayed so me and this cool old barrister from Melbourne drank Moet and chatted away on the runway for two hours while the staff fannied about fixing a small light that wasnt working. Drank so much Moet actually, that I suffered from a rather nasty hangover headache all the way to the middle east... lesson - don't get too excited about business class, you sad loser!
Hardworking hubby had run out of gas on the motorway trying to drive his brand new car on the wrong side of the road from the city he doesn't yet know to the airport, so he wasn't there to meet me. I called him on his mobile as he raced along, foot on the floor. He had driven half way around South Korea trying to find a) gas and b) Incheon Airport (which is disappointingly for him nowhere near the town of Incheon - I couldn't blame him really, an easy assumption to make!). Fortunately, a nice guy helped him back onto the right road by driving through Incheon for 15 minutes leading him back to the motorway.
We cruised the 30kms back into Seoul in no time in our new, sleek, corporate mobile. Compared to our old Mitsubishi truck this car is smooth! It is also very hard to find in carparks as it is exactly the same as all the other corporate mobiles on the roads - a black executive car. Boring but free, so who cares?
We got to our serviced apartment which has a big view of Kangnam-Gu district of Seoul then headed out to find supper. Hardworking as been here for nearly 2 months so I thought he might have somewhere in mind...
We went to Apgujeoung area which he had heard was cool, and had already been there once a while ago. I think we must have come out of the subway on a funny exit because it was pretty unremarkable at first sight. We wandered around and then came across a barbecue place which looked okay and still had some residual diners in it (so we weren't breaking our rule of never eating in a restaurant with no other customers).
It was delicious. Man, Korean barbecue is good. We sat on the floor on either side of a low table which had a cool stainless steel, shiny, mini-chimney sucky thing hanging down from the ceiling above our own little grill to hoover up all the smoke from the meat cooking. Hardworking hubby managed to order some meat and the waitress brought a whole heap of condiments, salads, soups etc for us to eat together with our meat tit bits. Bloody yummy and all washed down with a small bottle of Soju ( the local tipple made with potatoes apparently, not as mad as tequila, kind of like sweet Sake) and a couple of bottles of Cash beer.
Taxi back to the apartment for one more beer, like we really needed it but having so much fun being back together after 6 weeks of almost total separation, and to sleep. So knackereed that going to bed at the equivalent of 4pm made no difference and I slept through the night. Day one in Korea complete!
Flying to Seoul was great after my wonderful upgrade to business class on not one, but both legs of my flight - what a pleasant way to travel when you are used to the total shag of cattle class.
Our plane from London to Dubai was delayed so me and this cool old barrister from Melbourne drank Moet and chatted away on the runway for two hours while the staff fannied about fixing a small light that wasnt working. Drank so much Moet actually, that I suffered from a rather nasty hangover headache all the way to the middle east... lesson - don't get too excited about business class, you sad loser!
Hardworking hubby had run out of gas on the motorway trying to drive his brand new car on the wrong side of the road from the city he doesn't yet know to the airport, so he wasn't there to meet me. I called him on his mobile as he raced along, foot on the floor. He had driven half way around South Korea trying to find a) gas and b) Incheon Airport (which is disappointingly for him nowhere near the town of Incheon - I couldn't blame him really, an easy assumption to make!). Fortunately, a nice guy helped him back onto the right road by driving through Incheon for 15 minutes leading him back to the motorway.
We cruised the 30kms back into Seoul in no time in our new, sleek, corporate mobile. Compared to our old Mitsubishi truck this car is smooth! It is also very hard to find in carparks as it is exactly the same as all the other corporate mobiles on the roads - a black executive car. Boring but free, so who cares?
We got to our serviced apartment which has a big view of Kangnam-Gu district of Seoul then headed out to find supper. Hardworking as been here for nearly 2 months so I thought he might have somewhere in mind...
We went to Apgujeoung area which he had heard was cool, and had already been there once a while ago. I think we must have come out of the subway on a funny exit because it was pretty unremarkable at first sight. We wandered around and then came across a barbecue place which looked okay and still had some residual diners in it (so we weren't breaking our rule of never eating in a restaurant with no other customers).
It was delicious. Man, Korean barbecue is good. We sat on the floor on either side of a low table which had a cool stainless steel, shiny, mini-chimney sucky thing hanging down from the ceiling above our own little grill to hoover up all the smoke from the meat cooking. Hardworking hubby managed to order some meat and the waitress brought a whole heap of condiments, salads, soups etc for us to eat together with our meat tit bits. Bloody yummy and all washed down with a small bottle of Soju ( the local tipple made with potatoes apparently, not as mad as tequila, kind of like sweet Sake) and a couple of bottles of Cash beer.
Taxi back to the apartment for one more beer, like we really needed it but having so much fun being back together after 6 weeks of almost total separation, and to sleep. So knackereed that going to bed at the equivalent of 4pm made no difference and I slept through the night. Day one in Korea complete!
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