Hello everyone,

Greetings from Seoul.  Here’s the news so far:

TIME: 

I arrived in my apartment about 10 p.m. Thursday local time, which could be anytime on Thursday depending on

your location.  I prepared a chart which you can download if you need help figuring that out:

www.geocities.com/reisefrau/worldtimechart.xls

THE APARTMENT:

I뭢 living in a high-rise apartment complex which is arranged very much like the blocks of flats I lived in

during my time in Kharkiv, Ukraine.  There are even gate guards for each apartment building.  The main

differences are the buildings here are in better condition and the roads between buildings are paved or

laid with bricks.  The cars parked outside are newer as well.

The apartment itself has three rooms plus a living/dining room space and a bathroom.  The walls

are white with some portions mirrored.  Nearly all of the furniture and floors are wood laminate.  Like

Ukraine and Moldova, shower curtains seem to be considered unnecessary but I guess I뭢 used to that. 

The bathroom faucet handle has to be pushed down instead of pulled up to and I뭢 slowly getting used to

that.  The only two things I can뭪 get used to so far are 1) the closets, which have a shelf right down the

middle and don뭪 leave enough room for my long skirts, dresses and pants to flow freely and 2) the living

room couch, which is rather hard and covered in a Halloween-orange vinyl that begs to be covered with a

Soviet carpet.  

THE WORK:

I don뭪 have to report for work until Monday, but when I arrived the Samsung representative who met me at the

airport gave me an employee information booklet.  I started reading through it and everything seems

reasonable except the dress code--some of my outfits with sweaters that I think are dressy may be

borderline appropriate at work.  Also, unnatural hair color and see-through blouses are prohibited.  I

guess it뭩 a good thing I never picked up those two interests in Ukraine or Moldova (and yes, I had ample

opportunity to do so there).  

I spoke with Tim, the academic coordinator, on the phone on Friday.  He told me I’ll be teaching

pronunciation (my first choice), oral communication, and Business English.  The last one is my least

favorite, which begs the question of why I뭢 working in a company I suppose.  But he said there are lots of

materials and people who have taught the class before.   That said, if you are in the field (business or

business English teaching) I hope I can pick your brain from time to time for ideas.

The other news about work is that the company is located 30-45 minutes south of where I live and the

only transportation (other than an expensive taxi) is the free employee bus. Working hours are Monday-Friday

8-5 so I have to catch the bus at 7:10 a.m.  I haven’t had to do that since high school so we’ll see how that

goes.  On the upside, all next week is prep week, when teachers prepare for classes, and on Friday there

will be a team-building sports day for the English, Japanese, and Chinese instructors.

THE FOOD:

So far I like Korean food.  On the plane I had a variation on bibimbap, a kind of salad with greens,

sprouts, seaweed, sesame oil, rice and red pepper paste.  Usually there is also a fried egg but instead

it was served with smoked salmon.  The red pepper paste came in a tube.  I used about one-quarter of it

and still felt the burn in my mouth after eating.  The Korean guy on the plane next to me used the whole

thing.  That scared me a little.

When I arrived at the airport we had to wait for another arriving Samsung employee so Miki (the Human

Resources manager who met me) took me to a restaurant in the airport.  I had my first taste of kimchi stew,

which I thought was really good.  Kimchi is any vegetable that is pickled with spices (red pepper

again) and garlic.  Miki was surprised that I was so adventurous, and that I could handle as much of the

spicy food as I did.  

True to what the guidebooks said, Korean dishes are served only with spoons and chopsticks.  Knives are

not brought to the table unless it뭩 a Western dish (Miki뭩 cheeseburger came with a fork and knife). 

Even the new silverware set the company purchased for me had only chopsticks and spoons, plus an extra bag

of forks.  Not to put Korean culture down or to suggest a connection to my own life, but I can뭪 help

thinking about the Peter Gabriel song about being in a mental institution (It뭩 nice here with a view of the

trees/Eating with a spoon, they don뭪 give you knives?

OTHER MINOR ADVENTURES IN DAILY LIVING:

Tim뭩 wife Jae is Korean and speaks both Korean and English.  He graciously called her up to ask her to

help me open a bank account and find a supermarket on Friday.  I have to have a bank account because I get

paid by direct deposit and have to pay an apartment maintenance fee from the account.  Banks aren’t open

on Saturdays so Friday was the day to do it.  The bank is in walking distance.  The people there were very

nice to me and tried to speak English when they could, but neither of us could manage more than two words at

a time in each other뭩 native language.  I still had to watch Jae write my address in Korean for me while

she struggled to control her 9-month old daughter at the same time.  It was a humbling experience.  On the

upside, for opening an account the bank gave me a box of Ziploc bags (plastic resealable bags for storing

food and other items).  I used to wash and reuse Ziploc bags in Ukraine and Moldova because they were

so rare and valuable to me, so you can imagine how happy I was to get a whole box here for free.  

Jae showed me where the nearby supermarket was, and again I was surprised to see so many western

Products--Skippy peanut butter, French뭩 mustard, Pace picante sauce, Philadelphia cream cheese, and so on. 

Still, I didn’t뭪 come here to eat American food so for dinner I bought a packet of fresh fish with pre-cut

vegetables and sprouts (about 4 dollars), a bottle of teriyaki sauce as a marinade (2.70), and a plastic bag

of kimchi stew from a vendor (2.50).  

Although the fish and vegetables were on a Styrofoam tray and wrapped in plastic with a price label on it,

thereby looking like something I would buy in the States, my reality check cleared the bank as soon as I

got home.  As I started taking the fish out of the container I noticed it was pretty bony, as though it

had been merely hacked into chunks without being deboned.  The kicker was seeing the head of the fish,

which had been tucked neatly under the meaty pieces.  It took several attempts to get close enough again to

pick up the fish tray and put it into the trash.  The more pleasant surprise waiting for me underneath the

vegetables was a packet which turned out to be red pepper paste.  Altogether it made a nice dish.

WRAP-UP:

This is called SoulMail in part because it뭩 a pun on the American pronunciation of Seoul, but also because

I hope we’ll stay connected with each other. So please do drop me a line back and let me know what뭩 going on

in your world--which plants are growing in the garden, children뭩 milestones, classes you are taking, how

your government is screwing up the country, what students are doing to make you crazy, etc.  It doesn’t have to be a tome like this; a few words will

do.  And don뭪 think what you are doing is ordinary or would sound ordinary to me.  It is as special to me as

anything I do here, if not more. 

Take care.

Bridget

This SoulMail is dedicated to the people who have been

the wind beneath my wings the past two months:  My

mother; my father and his wife, Janet; my Aunt Joan

and Uncle Joe; my brother, Phillip; Nick; Peter;

Christie; and Adam.