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8月24日 Leaving KoreaOver 6 years of my life has been spent in this random country. For three years, I lived in a isolated suburb called Song Buk Dong. Back then I was still flying for United Airlines and spent half the time out of town. Whenever I was in Seoul, I felt like I had to sit through sooo much traffic every day in order to get anywhere and I couldn't make any friends because I was away all the time. I also kept thinking that it was better eveywhere else I travelled to. I despised Korea back then and I was making no effort to understand this country because I was sure we would leave at any given moment. Actually it wasn't Korea I didn't like, it was just my situation. When my husband got recruited to work for a different bank, I insisted on moving to Itaewon, a place where all the foreigners, shopping, and international restaurants are. Itaewon is becoming more visually attractive now, but it's still a dump, but who cares. It's in the middle of the city and it's in Itaewon where I learned to appreciate Korea and life as an expat. Since then, I started my website, seoulstyle.com, made loads of friends and appeared in over 30 Korean magazines and 3 newspapers. I even did some acting and wrote a guide book for Seoul for the LUXE city guides. My website has taken off in a major way and people often rely on seoulstyle to make their lives in Seoul more fun. I get e-mails from people thanking me every day. It feels good to know that you've helped make life better for people and that you've made a positive impact on people's lives. I already miss seoulstyle.com and the purpose it's given to my sojourn here in Korea. So I'm sitting at The PARK restaurant waiting for my friend Jiwon. We threw a party together there over a year ago. She was a little late, so I was just reminiscing about that party and how much fun we had promoting it. (We dranks so much champange, it was like 7-up after a while!) Then there were all the other parties and glam events I had a chance to go to. I thought about all the lazy afternoons drinking coffee and wine at Dosan Park with my girlfriends. I missed Hongdae with all it's funky watering holes and artsy hangouts. I missed Insadong and it's tradtional architecture. I thought about the restaurant where I love to eat Mak Kook Soo, or the local dive where I go to for twenjang chigaee. I already missed the Korean sauna, my meticulous hairdresser and my amazing nail place. I missed Tongdaemun and night shopping. I missed the Itaewon underground market. Most of all, I'm going to miss my friends and all the great relationships I've forged while here. The past three years in Seoul have been so great and leaving here feels like I'm really turning the page on a long happy chapter of my life. Who knows what the future will bring? Yet it keeps coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop it, until you die. In fact, it's kind of a death for me. Like a snake sheds it's skin, I feel like I'm shedding Korea. The question now is how will I reinvent my life in Hong Kong? 8月16日 August Holiday in ParisI had to go back to Paris again to finish up decorating our flat. Luckily, I got a free business class ticket from Hong Kong using my husband's frequent flyer miles! Unfortunately, when I arrived in Paris, nobody was working and I needed to get stuff done.
The fridge was broken-the repairman was on vacation. The couch and table needed to be delivered- the factory was on vacation, the delivery man was on vacation, the lady who sold me the furniture was on vacation. We were looking for a restaurant to eat at- we had to go to 3 different places before we found one that was open. They were all closed for the holidays.
Even my family-in-law was on vacation!!!
I tried my best to proceed under these unfortunate circumstances, and I did manage to get a few things done. The place looked like a toolshed when I left last time. There were tools and saw dust everywhere. There were unopened boxes and all kinds of deconstructed furniture parts.
It was up to me to put the closet together, unwrap and move the beds and decorate the rooms. I also needed to lug miscellaneous things (fans, plants, paintings, plates etc...) from our other flat to the new one. Then I had to photograph the place for marketing purposes. I managed to do it all despite the lazy attitudes of all the Parisians. (The ones who were still in Paris seemed to have mentally gone on hoilday!) I realized that French people are very conscious about wasting energy and resources.
They have these lights called minuterie that turn on for about a minute and turn off automatically. Hence, when you get to your apt. building, it will be pitch black and you have to grope around in the dark to find the light swich for the minuterie. All buildings have this. It's a little scary if you're in the wrong neigborhood. Also there is no air-conditioning, anywhere. What a waste of energy! All the refigerators and appliances say how much energy the machine takes up, so you'll know roughly how much you'll be paying for electricity. There are only one set of bathrooms on the fifth floor of BHV, the dept store where I was buying all the stuff for the flat. You wouldn't want to waste all that water now would you???? Also, when I had to throw away mounds of cardboard boxes from the flat, I actually had to call a number to get the recycling guys to pick it up. I couldn't just throw it in any old trashbin! One must recycle, otherwsie it's a waste!
Some of the cars are super tiny. You wouldn't want to guzzle gas, now would you? There are also outlets for electric cars in some parking lots. It's very inconveinient all this stuff, but I was glad not to be wasting the earth's resources. If Americans did this sort of thing, maybe we wouldn't have to depend so much on Middle-eastern oil. Anyway, I finally accomplished my mission and found myself at a cafe watching the world go by. I saw this interesting little girl and she had this SLR camera that looked way too big for her hands. She was going around taking what looked like really cool photos. She must have been about 8 years old. Her and her family sat down at the table across from me. They didn't speak French. At some point, this flower lady was selling flowers out of a basket and the girl got up from her table and ran after her. Then she came back and gave me a little rose. It was so cute! I don't know what inspired her to do that. I guess she sensed that we were kindred spirits. The family invited me to their table and they were so cool. They were German. (very strangely, I have an affinity for Germans) They were so open-minded, intelligent and fun. The little girl had a Chinese name that sounded like Yukxitia (something like that) it was the name of a flower. They also wanted their boy to do an exchange program in Japan. They were such a good example of a family. Thoughts on moving to Hong KongI thought I'd be able to at least spend the month of august in Seoul since we're finally leaving Korea, but I had to go travelling again. This time we set off for a visit to Hong Kong, where we landed in the middle of a typhoon. My husband's new position with his bank will take us back there in mid-october. I have mixed feelings about moving back to Hong Kong. I loved living in Hong Kong in the late nineties. But being back there now, at one point I felt suffocated, like Hong Kong would be too small for me.
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