Gangnam

Last night M and I went to Gangnam, the ritzy part of Seoul, and we found and bought clothes that fit us. No one told us that we couldn't try anything on and no one was mean to us. Success. Then we went out for a great meal of squid stir-fry. The squid was fresh and fantastic. Below some pics of dinner before and after.

Lunch for Two

After our haircuts Yelim and I decided to go for some lunch. Since most of the women in Seoul are always on a diet of some kind we decided to go for some low-cal sushi. Yelim took me to a favorite place of hers and I told her to choose what we would eat. The first dish that arrived was yellow tail sashimi with a chili pepper marmalade. Delicious. I told Yelim she made a good choice and she said she didn't order it and that it was "service", a term M and I have grown to know and love. It means it's free.

Next up was chicken salad. It was deep fried chicken chunks drenched in honey mustard sauce over lettuce and sliced fruit. Delicous of course, low cal not so much.

The salad was huge and I figured that with the service dish we'd be fine until dinner. Then two giant sushi rolls came our way. I don't even know what was in them because I was so preoccupied with what was on top of them. One was covered in smoked salmon, onions, and dill sauce like a sushi bagel. I don't even know what the other one was. It was a huge lunch for 4 people and we were only 2 people. 

If this is considered low calorie than my diet starts now.

Pics below.

Yellow tail sashimi

Chicken Salad

Dinner and Noriban

After haircuts, lunch, shopping, tea, and more shopping, Yelim and I met up with M and a friend of Yelim for some dinner. We went to a local Japanese tapas place and shared some great dishes and a couple bottles of Soju. After an after dinner drink we were off for some Noriban, Korean Karaoke. Yelim has a beautiful voice and she can sing the english songs (some that we never heard of) really really well. I have a horrible horrible singing voice and I swore in the past that I would never do Karaoke, but I did. And despite M's constant ridiculing (thanks hon) I had a great time doing it.

Below - some dinner and some Noriban.

Seoul doing it right, again: My trip to the hair salon

Yesterday I went to get a haircut with Yelim - one of the graduate students at the University, who is turning out to be a good friend. At the risk of sounding cheap (I don't have a job yet and I had no idea what the quality of the place would be) Before we went I told Yelim that I didn't want to spend too much. She told me it would cost somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 won, which roughly translates into somewhere between $8 and $18. Hmmm. I automatically go into my if-its-that-cheap-can-it-be-any-good mode that M hates so much. But I agree and our appointments are made.

We met at 12:30 and walked over to the trendy Eday neighborhood (surrounding Ehwa Women's University) and went into a modern soho-style hair salon. Everything is in earthy monochrome colors and the space is spread out and immaculate. Our coats and bags are immediatley taken away and plush robes are put onto us. Someone literally put the robe on and tied it for me. She took great care not to get my hair caught in the robe and to make sure it was placed on my shoulders just right. We're escorted to the tea lounge where we chose Iced green tea from a list of beverages and snacks.  I went to get my hair washed and got a great scalp massage. At this point I thought Yelim had mistakenly left a zero off of her price estimation, but it felt great, I was enjoying the experience, and there was not turning back now so why not just enjoy it. 

After my hair was cleaned it was combed so delicately and slowly that it felt like another massage. When I was brought to my stylist I mimed what I wanted - Yu Na, the South Korean figure skater was on in the back room so Yelim and most of the other staff dissappeard and I was on my own. The stylist took great care and he cut my hair very thoughtfully. After the back room errupted in applause and everyone returned, the stylist refused to let anyone near him while he was cutting. I appreciated that since when I go to any salon in NY I feel like the banter between stylists often distracts them from the most important thing - my hair. In the end he gave me a great trim and the side swept bangs that I see everywhere on the streets of Seoul. I was completely satisfied.

When I went to pay it did cost more than we had expected. It was 22,000 won - $19.13! Unbelievable. They also gave me a membership card that gives me 10% off my next visit!

I don't if I mentioned this before but there is no tipping in Korea - at all - ever. So it really only cost $19.13. I did't have to tip the woman who washed my hair, they man who cut it, the woman who served me the tea or the two women who dried my hair. I almost felt bad for not tipping but it's just not done in Korea. Not in restuarants, taxis, and not in hair salons.

I couldn't take pictures because they took my bag away and I was so swept up in the experience that I forgot to go back for my camera.

BBQ

We had some great BBQ last night. After setting up our charcoal grill the waitress poured a yellow milky substance around the perimeter of the grill. We had no idea what it was so we just looked and smiled like we always do. M chimed in with two possibilities: 1. A cold foamy substance that would act as a heat barrier that would "keep the table from going up in flames" or B. Tea. (I'm not sure which one was more ridiculous but I had no ideas so I wasn't in a position to judge.) It turns out that the substance was egg and we were being set up for an omlete that would accompany our BBQ. Again, Seoul doing it oh so right.

Below: M waiting outside the restaurant for a table, some empty soju bottles from the restaurant, the BBQ

Mandarin Oranges

It seems pretty common for fresh fruit, fresh fish and sometimes rotisserie chicken to be sold out of pickup trucks on the street. We decided to be bold and try a bushel (bushel?) worth of mandarin oranges - at least that's what we think they are. There were about 20 of them in the bag (is that bushel worthy?) and it cost us $1.70. They are adorable and so tiny that if you were a barbarian (not naming names) you could pop the whole thing in your mouth. They are quite delicious. Below you can see how small one is when compared to my watch.

Samples

You gotta love a place that gives out free samples. I've spent about $25 in two different Body Shop type of skin care stores and look at what I got in return.

The 3 white vials are skin whiteners. Both stores tried to get me to use some form of skin whitener or paler makeup.

food always makes it better

Yesterday started out to be a great day. M went to the office and I had the whole afternoon to myself. I thought I'd go back to Hongdae (the area surrounding Hongik University) for some shopping. We were there a couple of days ago and I spotted some things that I wanted to look at more closely. Okay, I wanted to buy them. Since the weather was so nice I decided to walk. On my way I ran into Hera, who is the graduate student who told me that I was pretty but that I should exercise more. She was so happy to see me and gave me a big hug. It was great to see a familiar face on the street and we talked for about 15 minutes. She told me again how pretty I was and then asked if I had a chance to start working out or to play squash. I was still pleased to see her and to chat about other things.

After that mini meeting on the street I called Mina, who is M's colleague's wife, and we made plans to go shopping on Tuesday. I've been in Seoul for three weeks and I already have a few friends and my social calendar is beginning to fill up. (Tomorrow I'm going to the hair salon with Yerim, another graduate student we met, and some of her friends. After getting hair cuts we are going to meet up with M and have a night out on the town.) As each day goes on I feel more and more like I actually live here. I even stopped calling our apartment the hotel.


Anyhow, I walked to Hongdae with no problems and was able to find the stores that I remembered from a few days back. I went into a few shoe shops and things started going down hill. First of all its really embarrassing to tell people my shoe size here. It's 255! Most places only carry shoes up to size 245. I found a few places that had 250 but 255 wasn't happening.


I moved on to clothing. I should say that up until this point I have not met anyone in Korea that was anything but nice to me. In fact I am grateful to all the people who have been super patient with my lack of Korean language abilities and for putting up with our barbarianism (much more on that later.) After getting a few odd looks from the saleswomen in the store I decided to ask if I could try on an adorable and affordable shirt. It was made out of a cottony stretch fabric and I am certain that it would fit. The shirt was a size small - that's my size. I went up to the sales clerk and asked/motioned to try on the shirt. She shook her head and said that I couldn't try it on because it only comes in that one size and that it wouldn't fit me. The few other girls in the shop giggled at me. It was so embarrassing but even more annoying because the shirt would have fit me! I thought that I'd just go somewhere else but the same thing kept happening. I can't tell for sure what they were saying each time but in the end I wasn't able to try anything on. I was in a bad mood but I kept on shopping. I finally passed a shoe store where the shoe salesman called me in to practice his english. He told me he had some shoes in my size and so I bought a pair of black low heeled shoes that seemed comfortable. I made it all better by buying some makeup (and the saleswomen were so nice and really helpful).

When I was done M came to meet me and he made it all better. We decided to start the night off early and went to the first Hof we saw. Soju and beer was no brainer but we had to choose something to eat with it. We ordered what looked like grilled sardines on the picture menu but they tasted more like what I think dirty fuzzy carpet would taste like. We drank up and decided to move on.

A few blocks away we found a happening Japanese place that was packed. We were able to get seats in the back, facing the open kitchen. We took our chances ordering another grilled fish from the picture menu and it was a huge success. We could see the chef preparing the fish and then putting it on the grill. We drank our booze and watched our fish being grilled while the room roared. It was a great atmosphere to lighten my mood. We de-boned the fish and dug in right away. It tasted like it was caught 5 minutes before we ate it. It was fresh and light yet smokey, salty and meaty. It smelled like grilled ocean. We ate as much as our chopsticks would allow. If we were at home we would have picked at it until every piece of meat was eaten and then we would have sucked on the fish bones just to be sure we didn't miss anything. Unfortunately for us we are trying to limit our barbarianism, at least in public, so there were definitely wasted bits of fish left on the plate. A shame if you ask me.


Here are a few pics. The first is one of the clothing stores that I'm mad at and the rest is at dinner.

Doing it right

I've been in Seoul for almost 3 weeks now and I continue to enjoy how well some things are done here.  Aside from the efficiency in beaurocratic things which I already mentioned on the blog, there are technological, architectural and even fashion-related marvels that make me smile.



First, we all know that the heat comes up through the floors in Korea, right? I knew it before I came but I didn't know that I'd love it so much or that it would be so practical. What's better than waking up and stepping out of bed to a warm floor? The beds are low to the ground here and so you're always warm when going to bed, and when one leaves their clothes on the floor (i'm not naming names) they are warm the next morning. I have 5 more months in Korea and I know I'm going to miss these warm, foot inviting floors.

Next is technology, which is not one of my strong areas so I'll keep it as basic as I understand it. Everything is at lightening speed here. If you want to pay by credit card the minute it's swiped you are asked for a signature. The whole city is wired with 3G or something stronger.

Cell phones have face-to-face video capability so that two people talking on their cell phones can see each other in real time on their screens. It's like cell phone skype. You can also watch real time television on your cell phone. The phones have little antennas that come out of nowhere and turn into small tvs. You can even use or cell phone for talking or watching tv on the subways because they are all 3g wired! (In NYC you would think that would translate into loud(er) train rides to work and loud(er) more obnoxiuos music or movies being played, etc. Nope, not here. More on my being civilized by Seoul later.)


Speaking of subways, the trains are fast, all stations have clear directions and stop notifications in three languages (Korean, English and Japanese) and both the stations and the trains are very clean.  All of the stations have several exits, sometimes as many as 14. There are little maps in the station that tell you which exit number would be the closest to your destination. That way you can walk underground in the station and smell the delicious and fresh smell of pancakaes being made. MMmm Mmmm.


Paying for the subway is probably one of the best parts of the whole system. Each ride is about 80 cents. Payment is mad by what's called T Money. You tap your credit card like T card at the entrance to the subway and it deducts 80 cents. You prepay your T Money and you can put as much as you want on it. Most taxis, phone booths, fast food places and some restuarants all accept T Money. So if you only left home with your T Money card you could take public transportation, a taxi, and have dinner.


Finally, I had to bring it back to fashion. I've noticed here that there is a dress code for a certain aged lady. I'd say that 99.9% of the women between the ages of 19 and 35 all wear very short skirts with thin black leggings and black high heeled shoes and black or dark colord tops. Very pretty, but very impractical considering the freezing weather and the cobblestone like streets. About two weeks ago on one of the coldest and windest days since we've been here all the young women were wearing the uniforms I described above and most of them without coats or with their coats undone. Not a hat, scarf, or gloves in site. I was wearing leggingngs under my jeans, 3 pairs of socks, winter boots, three shirts, a sweater and my staple puffy coat (no one over the age of 12 wears puffy coats in Seoul. No one but me.) I had my big furry hood up and my gloves on and I was still freezing. Women from Seoul are tough. Then I learned that their leggings were lined with fleece. Genius.
So I went to EMart - sort of like upscale Kmart or Target and bought a pair of fleece lined leggings. Okay so it didn't make up for a scarf, hat, gloves or a coat, but they did keep me alot warmer than I thought and they are oh so cute too.

Lunch in Itaewon

Today we spent the afternoon in Itaewon, where the US Army headquarters is located. The area is considered the "multicultural" part of Seoul, and indeed, there were people from all over the world in the area. We stopped in an "international" food store that had mostly South Asian and Arab spices and goods. After going to a book store and walking around we decided to get some Thai food for lunch (beef fried rice and yellow curry chicken pics below). We decided to walk to the electronics market in nearby Yongsan and followed the perimeter of the Army Base. It took about 45 minutes to get around the base. It's huge and heavily guarded and has 3 layers of barbed wire above the 12 foot high brick walls. Along the way we found the Korean National Museum, which we are looking forward to going back to.

Reading & Writing

M taught himself how to read and write in Korean (I know, I know, he's fantastic) and then he taught me. So now we can read a little bit of the language. It's a lot easier to learn than it looks but we still have a way to go before we can really read everything. So far I've got the consonants and vowels down. I'm working on double vowels next. Too bad that once we learn to read we still won't know what anything means.

Alien Registration card

We had a Meet the Parents moment at the Korean immigration office. (Remember the scene when Ben Stiller is trying to board the plane and he is sitting in row 13 but they are only boarding rows 1-12 and he's the only one at the gate? )



When we got to the immigration office to get a certificate of registration the office was completely empty - Just us and two office workers behind desks. No one else in site. We went up to one of the women behind the desk and told her that we needed a certificate. She looked at our hands like we were missing something and told us that we needed a number and pointed to the number taking machine. So we pulled number 23. Then, .5 seconds later the light above her desk lights up and number 23 pops up. We walked up to her desk and gave her the number and she gave us the certificate. It was all dependent on that number.

My ego

The University set us up with a teaching assistant who helped us get our alien registration papers in order. She was very helpful. Afterwards we took her for coffee and we had some simple conversation. Here's a little bit that stuck with me:

Her: You're so pretty.
Me: Wow, thank you, that's so sweet.
Her: You should exercise more.

Shopping

I just spent an entire hour alone in Seoul. I know it doesn't seem like much but M and I have been together for just about every minute since we arrived here 12 days ago. It was a fun hour. I went to Innisfree and bought all kinds of body scrubs and creams and lotions and conditioners and foot scrubs and and and.... but the best part was that the saleswoman hugged me when I left. Imagine that in NYC.

Dak Galbi - How I love you

Just a quick post to profess my love for Dak Galbi. It's so delicious I could cry. Here's how it looks when it gets to your table, and below, what it looks like when it's ready to be eaten.

Stairs

Considering all the street food and the focus on food in Seoul I was surprised at how thin everyone is here. Before I got here I heard that a lot of the young women in Seoul are really extra skinny - and they are - so that was no surprise. But it's not just the young women, it's everyone. In NYC, probably one of the thinner cities, about every 3rd or 4th person is "chubby". Here every 100th person is overweight and they are usually the Canadian English teachers. I think that aside from simple (unfair) genetics, people stay thin here because of all the stairs.

We decided to take a little walking tour of Ewha Women's University Yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day (although still freezing) and we willingly chose to walk up what felt like the Potemkin steps to the the upper area of the University. We thought it would be fun and a great photo op for the blog. Once we made it up all the stairs we decided it wasn't as much fun as we thought and we saw enough of the campus and we wanted out. It seemed that there would be an exit right around the corner of the next building. But there were only more stairs. We walked up staircase after staircase and pretty much hiked our way out of the campus. It took about 35 minutes, about 10 steep staircases and at least one hill to climb up to get out. By the time we reached the north gate of the University we were at the same level as their satellite dishes and electrical antennas. the air was thin and we were sweating.

I realize that the entire population of Seoul doesn't get lost on this one campus like we did, but they do take the subways and that's where the real stairs come in. There are many stations with escalators but most of them just have stairs. The stations are pretty deep down below ground and you have to climb your way up and down.

These are some of the stairs we walked up yesterday. There were many many more.

Socializing

Korean cutlure is very socially oriented and we have been trying to get in on the scene. It's very difficult for a few reasons.

1. In Korea it is rude to drink alcohol without eating something - or at least having some food on the table. Most drinking establishments (Hofs) have large plates of food (Anju) that the whole party shares. This causes a problem for parties of 2, like us, because if we go out for dinner and want to have a few drinks afterwards we have to order more food. Since the Anju is meant to be shared by a table of friends the dishes are rather large.

2. Making Korean friends is difficult. When we go out at night we try to meet people to talk to or to become friends with but there is very little english spoken and our Korean is non existant aside from a few food terms. It seems that once you are introduced to people here they are very warm and open up to you but it takes a while to get that first step going.

3. A lot of the Hofs have large booths with high walls or tables seperated by beads so that each party has their own private section. I love the idea of this and I deeply want to be a part of one of these parties, but sadly we wind up sitting alone at a tall booth without being able to see anyone or any of the fun going on.


The Strategy: If we don't eat dinner at a restuarant we can go to the Hofs and the large Anju will be our dinner. We would only pick Hofs that don't have high walled booths or seperated seating and would ask to be seated next to large parties where we might be able to strike up a conversation.



Result: Despite the extreme cold and slushy/snowy weather people were out and about all over. Following our first two rules, we didn't eat dinner and we looked for a Hof that had tables instead of booths. We found one and we asked to be seated next to a large group. So far, so good. We didn't eat dinner and we were starving. Our waiter gives us a menu completely in Korean. We ask him for some suggestions and with his limited english and our limited Korean food knowledge we are able to figure something out. We had a meaty lunch and so we asked about the vegetables. He points to the veg section on the menu and we ask him what the first vegetable dish was. He says: Cajun Chicken (hmmm?) So we go next on the list and he says pumpkin. Great! We've seen pumpkin seeds in a lot of the food we've had so far and thought it might be pumpkin soup or stew or anything hot and delicous to warm us up. We agree on Pumpkin and we order a bottle of soju (like vodka but less potent and tastes much much better) and two beers.

While waiting for our Pumpkin dish to come we keep looking over at the table next to us with puppy dog eyes. We are practically begging them to talk to us. They are having a great time. None of them even look in our direction, not once. I see our server coming towards us with a plate that doesn't look like it should be for us. He puts it on our table and we realize that it's Pumpkin ice cream.

So now it's freezing cold out, we are starving, we have beer and pumpkin ice cream for dinner and we still haven't spoken to anyone there besides the waiter.

More details about plan B soon. Pumpkin Ice Cream below.

Gwangjang Market

Last week while taking in some sites we decided to look for Dongdaemun Market - Seoul's bustling fashion market. When we finally reached the market it was huge. I'd say about 5 NYC blocks long packed with stores and wholesale clothing. It was too big and we were too tired and too hungry to even step foot inside. Instead we headed to a local food market we passed on our way. Gwangjang, the food market, was huge and filled with food stalls that are seperated into 4 sections. The first section was the least appetizing, to us. It was the blood sausage and pigs foot area. Lot's of pig snouts and feet sticking out of boiling cauldrons. We weren't convinced that this was the place for us. We kept going and found the fried section. What doesn't taste good fried? All kinds of vegetables, potatoes and fish were being battered and deep fried and served with one of our favorite Korean foods, pa jun, a scallion pancake. Our dinner prospects were getting better. We went to another stretch of the market and found the sashimi and fish area. This looked good but we thought we were too new to the area to eat raw fish from a street vendor - even if hundreds of other people were doing it. And there were hundreds of people at the market. It was so packed that it was hard to get passed one food stall to the next.

We decided to go back to the fried foods section and we got a hearty variety of foods for 5,000 won ($4.25) plus a bottle of Soju (more on soju later) for 3,000 won ($2.55). We sat on the heated benches surrounding the food stall with our dinner and soju and tried to converese in what little ways we could with the people around us (more on trying to make friends in Seoul later). We found the food in Seoul to be relatively cheap so far but this complete dinner for $6.80 was fantastic. And to top it off the woman who cooked our food gave us a free fried fish and some tea to top it all off.

Seoul Food

I obsess over food. It's the first thing I think of in the morning and it stays with me all day and all night. My husband says that I love food more than I love him. (He's a really close second.) For me, being in Seoul is like being in food heaven. There are more places to get food in Seoul than anywhere I've ever been. Food is everywhere - and it's great!

The number of restaurants on one block is astounding. I thought NYC had a lot of restaurants but there's no comparision to Seoul. I'm used to restaurants lining the streets on eye level, but here you'll miss much of it if you don't look up. All the buildings are filled with restaurants and bars from the ground floor up. One building will have 3 or 4 restaurants and at least one bar (Hof) on the upper floors. And if the restuarants aren't enough to keep you satisfied you can get great food at the food stalls linining the streets, the many large food markets all around, the top floors of the fancy Hyundai department stores all have food courts, the supermarkets all have prepared food vendors, and there are 24 hour "buy the way" food markets all over Seoul in case you get the munchies in the middle of the night. More on types of food and food culture later..

Seoul - Week 1

We arrived in Seoul a little over a week ago and I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write about our trip. Up until now we have been touring the city and spending a lot of time outdoors. It's mostly been cold and rainy, so I'm thrilled to be indoors writing this blog. I'm writing from our apartment which was the cause of a lot of stress - for me - before we arrived. We were only given two details of what our apartment would be like before we got here: a somewhat small studio across from the front gates of the University. Isn't the phrase "somewhat small studio" redundant?Doesn't the word studio mean that it will be somewhat small? Did this mean it was going to be extra small? I had nightmares of what it might be like. On top of the size issue we didn't know if it would be furnished, and if so, with what? would we have a bed? dishes? a stove?? I couldn't stop obsessing over this. I had no choice but to overcome my anxiety about the aparmtent and move on to obsessing over the 24 hour journey it would take to get us here. I was relieved when we arrived and I saw our place. It's a cozy wrap around studio on the 9th floor of a modern office tel just 2 blocks away from all of the action of Sinchon. I'd even say it's a somewhat large studio - compared to places I've seen in NYC. We have great views of the city, a doorman who is very nice (but who doesn't speak English so he tries to speak to us in Japanese), and we are located between two subway lines. Phew!