Sticker Shock aka Grocery Shopping in Seoul

Today we went to CostCo. There are four CostCos around Seoul. Now, in Las Vegas, going to CostCo in Summerlin is easy business. You decide what you need, get in your car, drive to CostCo, park your car, walk to the store, show your card and then shop.  Leave the store, get in your car, drive home, unload your purchases (the things you needed and all the impulse buys you didn't). End of story, easy breezy.

In Seoul, when you're a westerner whom doesn't read or speak Korean, it's a little more difficult. Now before, I go on, I just want to warn you, this content may not be suitable for small children and those who are weak of heart, if you need, stop here, go get a drink, and then come on back to continue reading...

So, the first step is you have to figure out which CostCo is closest to you by looking closely at the english maps, thank goodness, provided on the Korean CostCo website. Now, if you are thinking, "well that doesn't so hard, what's Stephanie complaining about," hold on, it gets better.

The next step, after you've ascertained which CostCo is closest to you, you then need to figure out HOW TO GET THERE via the subway. So, now this is pretty easy because thank goodness the City of Seoul provides a website called Hi Korea which is an all english web site which has an interactive subway map. Now, I know I don't have any clout in these matters, but I think whomever thought this up, should be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize or some other very important international award. Using the interactive map, you plug in your departing station, the one closest to your house. (For us we need to take a bus two stops to get to our closest subway station.) Then, you plug in your arriving station. Because the people at CostCo are so customer service friendly we know which station that is because they listed it on the website. We also know it because we are exceptionally advanced westerners and have in a short period of time have figured out the differences between "gu" and "dong" i.e. a neighborhood and a district. We've plugged in our stations and the map plans our subway route and tells us where we will need to transfer from one line to the next to get to our final station. Before you begin to think me faint of heart and really don't think this is such a bad process, you have to understand by this point in time, we've already invested about 20 minutes of time into this process. In that time back home, we could be parking our car at CostCo. Here, we are still sitting in front of our computer wishing for a full fridge and cupboards.

The third step, is the trickiest and most crucial to avoid frustration and lots of unnecessary walking and potential profanity in front of the child. Pull up Google Earth and plug in the "street address" (Did I mention in Seoul they don't name many of their streets like we do in the US. In order to find your way around on side streets you need to use landmarks in the area. Which is all well in good, if you know where the hell you are and know about any landmarks in the area!) So, back to the business at hand, you've got Google Earth Maps pulled up and are narrowing it down to the street level. So, this all seems pretty seamless right? The problem is that when Google Earth pulls up the map, guess what, all the directions and descriptions are in... you guessed it KOREAN! Thankfully for the nice people at Google they have this neat little program called "Translate", which comes in mighty handy when you need to plug in an address.  We've now translated and have isolated the subway station nearest to the CostCo where we'll be exiting and we've pinpointed CostCo on the map because there are no named streets, it's necessary to orient yourself based on the skyscrapers that are near the subway station and count intersections to get to CostCo. To be extra safe, it is not a bad idea to make a map of this route, so that after the long subway ride you can REMEMBER which direction and how many intersections you are supposed to walk to get  to mecca. This whole process takes an enormous amount of critical thinking skills and I have to say I feel as proud as if I just wrote a master's thesis paper.

By this time, you've invested about 45 - 60 minutes in the process. Back in Las Vegas, I could have driven to the store and been half-way through my shopping. In Seoul, I'm folding up my subway map, pocketing my little hand drawn schematic and putting on the armor to prepare for battle! And don't kid yourself, every time you step out of your door - it is battle!

For today's mission, we arrived safe and sound at our arrival subway station because we are super fantastic city-dwellers and thank goodness for Mike's many years of Ranger training, he immediately oriented us as we came up into the sunlight from the subway station to get to our ultimate destination. (Leaving the subway station correctly is actually harder then riding and transferring subway lines.)

Walking through the hallowed doors of CostCo, I become a little teary eyed; it was like being rescued at your own embassy (not that I know what that feels like, but I can imagine.) There is a very cool invention the Koreans have thought up in their stores because many of them are multiple levels because of the need to build "up" not "out" due to space constraints, it is called the cart conveyer belt. It is a giant conveyer belt that you and the cart ride on. Once on board, the cart's wheels lock into the conveyer belt floor and it will not move so you can easily move with your precious purchases between floors.

So, now to the sticker shock. Paper products are very expensive in Korea. I'm not sure why, but I am going to be a semi-educated guess. For many years Korea was controlled by the Japanese. During WWII the Japanese deforested the entire country of it's hardwood trees. Napkins when you are eating out are cocktail size and in some restaurants you may not get any at all, but they will gladly give you a wet towelette at the end of your meal to wipe your face and hands. I love this practice because I am a very messy eater. Following are some prices of necessary paper goods needed around the house:

Please know that 1,000 won = $1.00 US (roughly - the exchange rate changes daily)

Napkins: 20,000 won
Paper towels: 20,000 won
TP: 22,000 won
Tissues: 9,760 won (a bargain)

PS: Can you spare a square, takes a new level of friendship here in Korea.

At this point in time, we haven't even gotten to the food level yet and we're already down 71,760 won (about $72.00 USD).

Next we hop on the handy conveyer belt and enjoy the lovely ride to the food level. Here there are of our familiar foods with lots of asian influences. Of course, if we were asian and wanted to buy rice cracker snacks, we'd pay about 8,000 won for a big old family size bag, but because we are spoiled Americans and want our tortilla and potato chips, we'll pay about 12,000 won per bag. Not quite double the price, but pretty damn close. Wheat bread is very hard to find in Korea because asians eat rice more often for their starch then bread, the most common bread is white. Now the white bread tastes like heaven, but as we know is not really good for our overall long term health. What I did manage to find was a black bean paste bread that had some wheat and rye flour in it. We'll see how it goes over with the kidlet for breakfast in the morning. One of the reasons breakfast food (i.e. cereal) is so expensive here is because Koreans don't eat a traditional breakfast like we westerners consume every morning. They will usually have left-overs from the prior night or have it made it to a fantastic dish called bimibap which is rice, egg, meat, and veges all served in a very hot stone bowl. It is delicious. I don't have the kitchen skills or tools to make bimibap for my family so we're sticking to our traditonal favorites.

Cheese and dairy is also crazy expensive and some produce is outrageous. I did however, succumb and buy more of those delicious apple mangoes. When I die, I'd like those served to me by the angles. Hopefully God will be able to afford them.

Here is a brief list of things you will find at CostCo in Seoul that you will probably not find at your local CostCo:

1. Fresh Octopous - in every form
2. Sea Cucumber
3. Fresh Snails
4. Fresh sushi and sashimi platters being made in front of you
5. Some sort of smallish silver fish - dead and on ice
6. Fresh Fluke or Flatfish swimming in a tank looking at you with both of their beady eyes on the same side of their head - love fluke, just don't really know how to prepare it wonderfully
7. Pickled Radish - very, very good
8. Peeled chestnuts in bulk
9. And an array of vegetables and herbs that I am still trying to figure out
and last but not least,
10. Every cut of bulgogi you can imagine - you know there are 32 different cuts of bulgogi (That is a fantastic dinner party bit of trivia) You can thank me later.


Here I need to make a brief segaway to tell a really cute story: This little Korean boy about Michaela's age, waves at Michaela and she waves back. He then comes right up to her with a big smile on his face and starts talking with her in Korean. Of course, she smiles politely and out of the side of her mouth says to me, "I don't know what he's saying." He then points to himself and says, "Jung". Clearly he's telling her his name. She says, "I'm Micheala." and I then say to him "We don't speak Korean." "Do you speak English?" He continues rapidly speaking in Korean - so obviously not, but he had something really important he wanted to tell Michaela. He then began pulling on his Auntie or Grandma (not sure, but older lady) and smiling and pointing at Michaela. These sweet old ladies then approach me with big smiles on their faces and start talking to me rapidly in Korean. I smile very nicely, bow, because they are my elders and I need to show respect and pull out the big guns of my burgeoning Korean and say "gham sa hamnida" (Good Morning). And then tell them, "I don't speak Korean." (Note to self need to learn how to say, "I don't speak Korean," in Korean). Then the little boy, puts his hand up to his head and makes the sign of a telephone to Michaela and starts giving her his telephone number! It was so cute and precious! After he walked away still smiling at her and smiling like a sick little puppy, she asked me, "Mom could we call every number in the phone book to try to get a hold of him.!" Ahh, young love.

After all that, I still needed unbleached white flour to make cookies, pancakes, muffins, and waffles, all of which are my specialty. I'm not boasting, but my family will tell you I do good baked stuff.

Now, we've just dropped about 650,000 won at CostCo. Yes, you read right, I typed 650,000 won we have two carts full and need to get back home. Of course, even though we are now bonafide city dwellers, we are not stupid, we can not take all of this crap on the subway. So, thankfully, Mike calls his office and gets a cab to come pick us up. We had so much stuff, that we filled the cabbie's trunk and had stuff in his front passenger seat and Michaela got to sit with a collapsable hamper in her lap. A good time was had by all.

So, I mentioned I still needed flour. The next stop, Haddon Supermarket, which is a well known ExPat market just up the street from our home (3 stops on the 110 B bus). Now, I use the word "supermarket" here loosely and really only say it because that's the name of the place on their sign and if you ever come to Seoul and need pepperoni you'll know exactly where to go. But when you go to Haddon Supermarket, you'd better visit your local branch of KEB bank and get some serious amounts of KRW (won) before stepping through their doors. I finally found my flour and it only cost... (drum roll)... 9,000 won. Yep, you read right, about $9.00 for flour. My family better savor every bite of each pancake I make with that flour and by God there better not be any morsels going into the trash! Six items and 34,000 won lighter, I had completed my purchases. The nice thing about the Haddon Supermarket is that they will deliver your groceries for you for free. I figure for those prices, they should deliver it and cook my meal - maybe even clean the dishes afterwards.

So, after today's little excursion, I've decided the street vendors selling beautiful produce in and around my neighborhood will become my new best friends and we'll be making frequent trips to CostCo, but only after pay day. I've also decided that when Mike heads back to the States in August, he's bringing an extra suitcase that we can fill up with flour and paper products!

Now, I hope you've finished your glass of wine, beer, vodka, gin - whatever your liquor of choice is and have had some good chuckles at this blog. It's time for me to go drink...  (heavily)

Peace,
Stephanie

It's a SMALL World, after all...

 We got to see our friend Sandy today. On Skype you ask? No, in SEOUL! She is here for two days with her flight crew for a month long around the world trip she's on with her employer! So we hopped on the subway - figured out the crazy transfers, because we were in a part of the city that Mike had never been in and picked her up at her BEAUTIFUL hotel - the JW Marriott in Central Seoul (I gotta say, I've stayed in a few hotels in my day and for those of you who know me, know I'm partial to Marriott's, but this hotel was PREMO)! They even had in-door driving ranges! Love it!

Anyway we had a fantastic korean meal, (yes for you smart asses out there, korean food is very good), and then brought her back to our apartment. The brave soul said she wanted to ride the subway home with us. It took us 2 transfers, 3 subway lines, and a bus but we made it back to Hannam-dong (about a 45 minute journey). Just another day in the life of a city-dweller. What an awesome and fun afternoon. It was so nice to see such a good friend and share a little bit of our life here with her.

In addition to that we got to Skype with Nana and Poppy, Kacee Mae and Piper for the first time today and it was fantastic! Plus as an added bonus, our friends Sierra, Savanna and Paul Skyped us for a little visit with Michaela.

Today was a good day.

Peace,
Stephanie

This One's For Nonno...

I may have mentioned we live in a neighborhood called Hannam-dong and in a community called UN Village. As the name obviously states, this part of town is home to many of the foreign embassies in Korea. This morning it was a little cooler and slightly overcast, so Michaela and I decided to hit our neighborhood for a little walk.


What did we come upon on the road behind our house? The Ambasciata Italiana - yep, that's right the Italian Embassy is literally right up the street! So, I'm thinking they probably have some familiar comfort foods there! Wonder if we camp out front with our pasta bowls and some sad looking faces, if they'd take mercy on us or just call security?...


Peace,
Stephanie

It's all about baby steps...

Today marked a two milestones, Michaela and I went on the 110 bus to Itaewon to search out the Global Village Center there and got a bit lost - not terribly - but a bit. Thankfully, we stumbled upon a tourist kiosk on the street with an English speaking guide! She directed us to our destination and off we went.

The Global Village Center is a fantastic resource! I would advise anyone who is visiting a foreign country, especially a non-English speaking one, check out on the internet if there is such a resource in the area where you'll be visiting. I left the Center with a ton of information and helpful advice. I learned there are english speaking translators to help you find the appropriate medical care, there are foreign only taxi cabs (with english speaking dispatchers and drivers), I finally was able to figure out the complicated garbage removal rules here in Seoul. (This is serious business, if you don't follow the rules strictly you can be fined from 100,000 to 300,000 won.) I applaud the efforts to go green and love the fact that they compost their food waste here, but it is difficult for even the most ecology minded westerner to figure out the process when the appropriate bags and garbage cans are all written in Korean.

And to that point, I signed up for absolute beginner Korean classes at the Global Village Center. I'm excited and nervous about starting since Michaela has already told me she'll learn Korean much quicker then me because she is younger and I am old. It's always good to be reminded of your age so gently.

I also contacted the American Women's Club of Seoul. One of the organizations dedicated to expatriate women who live and work in Seoul. In addition to it's social function, this group raises a lot of money for local charities. I'll be attending a newcomers coffee in August and am seriously looking forward to meeting these other ladies. Many of them are experienced expats having been moved from assignment to assignment with various companies.

Since this blog has been a lot about working around the language barriers here in Korea...

9 REASONS WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO READ KOREAN AT HOME:

1. So you can work your dishwasher
2. So you can work your washing machine
3. So you can work the remote control
4. So you can work your telephone
5. So you can work your intercom system
6. So you can work your microwave
7. So you can work your circuit breakers
8. So you can work your thermostats
9. So you can work your keyless entry front door

You get the picture... Speaking of pictures, as soon as I can get to the electronics market and get a new digital camera purchased, I will begin posting photos. 

Peace,

Stephanie

A Tour of Seoul and other ramblings...

Well we successfully made it to the Immigration office and have started the process of obtaining our alien registration card. Thank goodness for Joowon Lee from SK Telecom. She and a colleague are responsible for the foreign employees that are hired by SK Holdings. She has been Mike's and now our ombudsman every step of the way. Without her assistance yesterday, what took us less then one hour to accomplish at Immigration, would have taken us on our own at least three to four hours. So, as it turned out the trip to Immigration was uneventful. While we were waiting for our appointment, I asked Joowon how many foreign employees the company currently employs, expecting her to say several hundred, the answer about 20! That answer put a lot of perspective on many things that have occurred leading up to our actual move. It is also highlighted the specific skill set the company is looking for with foreign employees. I felt very proud of Michael that he was selected to join this company for his excellent piloting skills.

What dawned on me as we made our way from our section of Seoul in Hannam-dong to the northeast side of town is how absolutely huge this city is. We have made several trips with Mike around the city, but it was all underground in the subway. Taking a taxi and seeing so many different sections of this city was an amazing experience. Soon after we got on the highway, we passed a huge gold building on the other side of the Han River. It is shaped like an hour-glass, skinny in the middle. I asked Joowon what that building was called; it is so opulent that I figured it must be a headquarters for one of the large companies in Korea. It is called "63" because it has 63 floors and is home to apartments, shops, restaurants and markets. Joowon said that shortly another building will be constructed that will be even taller and "63" will no longer be the tallest skyscraper in Seoul. In a way, Seoul reminds me a lot of Las Vegas when we first moved there with cranes all over the sky-line. The same is true for Seoul, there is so much building of new construction and rehabilitation of existing structures going on. This city and country is truly on the move up.

As we made our way in the taxi I also noticed that large apartment complexes would have the name "Samsung" or "Hyundai" emblazoned on the side of them. I asked Joowoon if workers from those companies lived in those complexes and she told me no that an apartment complex is named for the construction company whom built it. She said SK has buildings too. This highlights the fact that Korea's chaebols are powerful economic forces. A chaebol is a large family run conglomerate. The company itself maybe traded on the open exchange, whether in total or it's subsidiary companies, but the leadership is handed down father to son. It is a fascinating history to read about the evolution of these chaebols in Korea. There are three biggies here (names you are all familiar with): Hyundai, Samsung, LG and now SK, which is the fourth largest. These companies don't just make one product, but have many different industrial lines of business i.e. construction, fuel, telecom, energy, life sciences, electronics, cars, etc.. You get the picture. Out of all of the chaebols, SK is the most vertically integrated in it's lines of business. I will not expound upon that here in this blog, but if you are a business minded person and want to learn more just do some web searches and you'll get to read very interesting history about these companies. (I like to read Hoover's profile of companies.)

Michaela has been very interested in "fitting in" since we have arrived in Korea. When we landed in Incheon and were making our way to baggage claim, she looked up at me and matter of factly stated that she looks a little Korean with her dark hair and eyes and I don't look at all Korean so she thinks I'll be kicked out of the country. (And BTW she didn't seem to concerned by this fact.) Anyway, as the days have passed, and I have been repeatedly subjected to the blatant hostile stares of the Koreans, I have begun to feel a bit the same way. There are vast differences between the Asian and western women. From our style of dress, body types, mannerisms, love of the sun, etc.. (what's up with those huge visors? sunscreen works the same and is much more fashion forward). I had been feeling maybe I should become slightly more "asian" in my dress (i.e. less halter tops and shorts and more frilly layers and pants) until we were having lunch yesterday and I saw walking down the street three gorgeous exotic creatures of either French of Italian descent. They were leggy, long-haired, mini-dressed, stiletto heeled and walking proud. Rude stares be damned from the Koreans, I would continue to walk proud like these lovely European ladies!

Now for a brief editorial: many Koreans are rude. They stare at you, may even point or jeer you in public. I find this offensive, but trying to be culturally aware also am trying to deal with it tactfully and not stare, jeer, or point back. What is so interesting, is that for all of their obvious "disdain" of westerners (read Americans) they LOVE our culture. You can not walk down the street, without seeing European or American fashion styles, our hip-hop and rap music blares from all of the sound systems in restaurants, shops, and ring tones on their cell phones, they have english sayings written on their graphic tee-shirts. In fact the young Koreans look no different in their appearance than young adults in any large metropolitan city. So, I have to ask, "why the disdain?" You love so much about our culture, but yet you "dis" the people who created it? Seems a little hypocritical, you can decide.

So, we have accomplished much in the past week since arriving on the shores of Korea. We're acclimating to city-life, we're more successfully grocery shopping (gotta get to CostCo when Mike gets back), we've applied for our Alien Registration cards, and we're learning our neighborhood with all of it's places of business. Michaela actually said to me yesterday that when she grows up she wants to live in Korea - the resiliency of children - me I'm not so sure, but am still game for this adventure.

Peace,
Stephanie

Big City - Countryside Noises

Every morning at exactly 5:00 AM a rooster crows somewhere near my neighborhood. The first time I heard him, I thought I must be hearing things. Seoul is a city of 20 million and one of the largest sprawling metro areas on the planet earth - a rooster? Really? Every morning this little guy cries to his buddy's in the area and two or three roosters sing the song of morning.

If I close my eyes tight I can almost transport myself to Kauai or even my childhood farm in upstate New York, where the call of the rooster is common-place, but then I open up the curtains to the wall of windows in the living room and look out over our neighborhood and see that we are still in Seoul; with it's rolling topography and the city built-upon those hills stacked up like dominoes. 

This rooster is a reminder of the days in the not so distant past when Seoul was a small town and an emerging economy. I love this morning alarm clock.

Today we go to a local community center that serves foreigners and see what offerings they have to help us assimilate a bit easier. Later on we go to Immigration with a representative from Mike's company to help us get our Alien Registration cards.

more to follow...

Peace,

Stephanie

Finally A blogger!

I have finally joined the blogasphere and am feeling a little liberated and a little uneasy.  I hope you all will enjoy reading the posts, seeing the pictures, and living this experience with us. Please forgive any blunders I may make along the way, I'm still learning about this medium.

I appreciate all the fun and loving responses I received from my email chronicling our first few days here in Seoul. It is a comfort to know that we are missed and cared for back in the States.

Mike is leaving Seoul today for a 4 day trip, so Michaela and I will be "flying solo" in our new world. I'm sure I will have some funny posts in the next few days. We visit the Immigration office on Thursday, that trip alone should prove to be chock full of good material.

Peace,
Stephanie