Synonyms for Spring 2011 in Korea: blossoms, yellow dust, radioactive rain

I have been meaning to get back into blogging more regularly as part of a new organization-health-happiness kick I am on. I am more than halfway through my first April in South Korea, and I have gotten to experience some great aspects of living somewhere other than Minnesota or Iowa!

One delightful difference from MN is that instead of still getting snow on a daily basis like my family, I get to enjoy sunshine, cherry blossom trees and 60-75 degree F weather. The trees were blooming about a week ago, and now the pretty little flowers are slowly being taken away from the trees by the wind. But green and yellow are the prevalent colors of the plant life here, as opposed to the crappy, muddy brown of March.

Joann, a student from Asan, and me. Stylin’.

A tree blossoming right outside of my apartment

Up-close view

I have been told by coworkers and students that one downside to Korea in the springtime is yellow dust storms from China that can irritate your body for weeks. I am not looking forward to being attacked by yellow grit, that is for sure! I hope this year will not be too horrible. As soon as I experience yellow dust I will make sure to write about it.

On March 11th, 2011, a massive earthquake began ripping through Japan, which led to a huge, destructive tsunami. Thanks to these disasters, a nuclear plant in Japan has been damaged and has leaked out radioactive iodine and caesium into the sea (or so it is thought). I haven’t heard any proven facts, but many Koreans seem to be concerned that the rain water–which may come from Japan and their radioactive seawater– contains harmful elements able to contaminate anyone who goes outside during any sort of precipitation. So far, it has barely rained this term, but whenever it does there are students absent because their parents are so worried about radiation. Even if we do get radiation from the rain, it will be impossible to hide from it come June-August! Summer is supposed to be the rainiest season in Korea.

So, I am arming myself with my camera for the blossoms, a mask for the yellow dust, and I am starting a new diet rich in flavonoids and anti-cancer fruits to fight off possible radiation. And a sturdy umbrella : )

Bring on the Blossoms…

Since coming to Korea I have experienced snow, rain, fog, smog and sunshine. Well now I think its time to heat it up a bit more and bring on the gorgeous spring! Joseph, my co-worker, says that all the trees along the river in Buldang burst into blooming flowers as soon as it is warm enough. I am so excited!! I can’t stand the in-between of seasons- either be cold and snowy, rainy or sunny. No more rainy-cold! Blegh, its gross.

Spring and Fall in Minnesota were my favorite seasons. I love to see plants bloom and burst into color, and then to see the last flares of color before winter. I am hoping Korean seasons are somewhat akin to MN ones. Plus, I want to cover the ugly brown up. Perhaps once there is greenery, I won’t feel like I am living in some sort of suburban landfill. Waste is scattered everywhere on the ground here, garbage cans are scarce. I want to show the crying American Indian commercial to my kids some day, maybe take the Kindergarteners on a mission to save the environment and pick up trash in Buldang…

My Korean Laundry Nightmare

Oh my goodness gracious, you don’t know how hard it is to live in a foreign country until you try to use a washing machine with only foreign writing on it! I just spent about an hour trying to translate the words on my washing/drying machine, pressing buttons and adding detergent/softener before finally giving up and calling my poor boss, Han. He was nice enough to come right over and set me to rights. I think the water hookups were messed up, so he had to fix those as well. Now I am washing my towels (in 2x the regular amount of fabric softener and detergent! haha). They will be EXTRA clean and soft!

I was really worried at LotteMart today, I thought I would have to try out a Korean fabric softener. I tend to have skin reactions to the majority of detergents and softeners that arent Tide Original, Free or April Downy. Thankfully, on my way out of the aisle I came across Downy in April Fresh (it costs twice as much as the Korean softeners, about 6,900 KRW, but I don’t feel like breaking out in the coming months).

Phew. I’m glad I now know which buttons to be pressing and where I should be adding my liquids. Only downside is, I spent the majority of my afternoon wasting time trying to figure it all out, and I still have 3 loads left to do! And because the machine is a washer AND dryer, it takes an hour and 45 min per load. Oy vey…

My first [semi]successful LotteMart run!

One doesn’t realize how out of shape one is until one attempts to walk 1-2miles carrying a 30lb bag of goodies from LotteMart, the Korean equivalent of US Walmart! My arms now are practically oozing lactic acid that must have been pent up in my biceps since early last year, when I last attempted to work out on a daily basis. Ouch!

The run was only halfway successful due to two of my purchases (a tv cord to attempt to get channels and a keyboard with Korean characters written on it) being duds. The tv cord didn’t do the trick and get me some Korean Sesame Street like I want, and the keyboard only plugs into non-laptop computers, as my comp. doesnt have the round, prongy hole that it needs to connect up. But it’s ok! All my other purchases are so delightful:

I bought some “Lovely Turtle” hand towels for my bathroom, a matching green after-shower mat for outside the bathroom door, a pricey (but totally worth it!) staightening/curling iron for my hair (the brand name is ANNA SHALL which I enjoy and I make new sentences, like “ANNA SHALL have an awesome day!”), an electric kettle for all my boiling water needs, and some fantastic fresh ingredients for the makings of my first stir-fry tonight! I’ll be making some veggies over rice (bap 밥), just like in the wok line at Luther.

Rather than wearing boring old black leggings, I have found some Norwegian-sweater-pattern leggings! haha they are so amazing, and actually super warm. I (ANNA SHALL) have to take a picture sometime in them.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about my LotteMart experience right now. Later, I will write a blog which attempts to explain why I believe so many Koreans are skinny-minnies!

안녕, so long : )

Beverage of Choice in Seoul: Coffee!

In my whole 2 days in Seoul, I have already come to realize how a city such as Seoul thrives. Coffee! There are coffee shops on every street, never fear- coffee is here! Walking through the COEX Mall with trainees today I even saw a young girl with pigtails sipping from a mocha coffee, the kind you find in refrigerated sections of all the Family Marts and 7-11’s. I guess in Korea the caffeine addiction starts pretty young! Tea is everywhere as well.

But it makes sense when you think about how late everyone stays up and how early everyone wakes up! Kids are at school from 8am to sometimes 8pm, and then they have homework for another 2-3 hours. There is a pressure to accomplish so much in so little time here! And there are so many people trying to go places, the traffic time just increases the need for focus once one is finally at the workplace or at home preparing for the next day. Rush, rush, rush. Java, java, java!

I am finding that I am also giving in to the caffeine craze. Gotta keep up in training! Gotta be peppy and keep my mind ready for anything!

Here are a few of the coffee shops, I might have to take more pictures of the other many coffee shops and create a coffee shop collage, haha : )

Pics of Seoul

24hours of travel= hotel bed feels AMAZING!

It’s 4:57am, I have been awake for an hour in my Seoul hotel room that I share with a lovely gal from Vermont named Jen. The reason for such early levantate-ing is the sleeping from approx. 8pm Korea-time. 8 hours works for me! Especially after all that traveling, oh my goodness! Woke up central time [Fri the 21st] at 4:30am, left MSP at 7:50am, arrived in ORD, left ORD at 11:30am and flew for 14 hours on a plane that was actually pretty darn comfy! For a plane.

I got a window seat, and thankfully there was no passenger in the middle seat, so an older Korean gentleman and I were able to have even more elbow and leg room. I drank as much water and non-caffeinated liquid as I could (I’ve heard water helps with jet lag) and got up to go to the bathroom whenever the gentleman did, which was about 4 times. Sleep was quite evasive, I managed maybe 3 hours of dozing time the entire flight. And I watched at least 5 movies! Most of which I had already seen thanks to Redbox : )

We got fed, watered, blanketed and pillowed, and even hot-toweled! It wasn’t a horrible trip, just long. I did my best to take a bazillion pictures of Korea as we were landing, but it was difficult as I was sitting right behind the right wing of the plane. And then I was here!

4:05pm here when I arrived. It took 3 hours to get through the congested traffic to the hotel that my company provides for us.

Jen and I met, talked a bit about training, about whether or not the tap water is safe to drink. After checking our respective emails, she headed to bed and I took my first Korean shower and finally took out my semi-dry contacts, which had been causing discomfort since halfway through the long plane ride. I will put up pictures of my room once its daylight! I guess the sun goes down around 6pm here, but I have no idea about sunrise yet. I suppose I shall find out!

Parallel Lines by Kings of Convenience is what I’m listening to right now. goooood stuff!

Alrighty, I’m off to find my plug adapter and make sure I can charge my laptop battery!

Peace, Anna