I just wanted to hop in and say Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 25, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Feeling a bit homey
For some reason I've been lacking the motivation to make another blog post. I think I want to blame it on this busy time of year.
We will be moving soon. Our housing is taken care of by Isaac's company, so at least for the most part we don't have to handle the paperwork and coordination. We have looked at 5 different apartments within a 10 minute radius of our current place, and finally seem to have found one that will work out.
Looking for a new place was kind of funny. All of the apartments we looked at were in high rise 20 story buildings like ours, and even had the exact same layout of ours, with only minor changes like a mirrored floor plan or no closet. I felt like I wasn't quite sure what I should be checking out in these places. They all looked so similar to our own, just filled with other peoples' junk. Luckily Isaac and our company's real estate person were there to assess important things while I got distracted by photographs, friendly children and pets.
Our new place is only a 10 minute walk from where we are now, but boy does it seem far after settling into our current apartment. Isaac and I catch ourselves being sentimental, admiring how nice it is that our home overlooks a busy street corner, with so many businesses just outside our front door.
This is our street corner. In the top right corner is our apartment building, and although this picture is blurry, perhaps you can tell or imagine that there are plenty of resources nearby for whatever we quickly need or want to grab. Next to our apartment building you can see the headlights of several waiting cars. If you walk ten minutes up that street, you will reach our new place. So it's not such a long ways of course, but we have gotten a bit spoiled I guess. Our new place will be on the 19th floor so it has quite the nice view, and we share the elevator with less than half as many units as we do now, so that's wonderful too.
While I'm talking about areas that have begun to feel like home, I'll mention this place too. Yeongtong is a comfortable 20 minute walk from our house now, and this distance may decrease slightly once we move. It's where you go if you want to "go to town", having a movie theater and two large brand department/walmart/mall type stores. I don't know what you call these kind of stores, but they remind me of all three of those, having a little bit of everything.
Here's a shot of the main road through Yongteong. On the right is Home Plus and on the left (behind the building with trees on top, has a slanted odd roof) is Lotte Mart. These stores usually have one floor that is a large grocery store, another floor with a food court and other floors that feel like department stores with small sections and overly eager staff. Customer service tends to be outrageously good and attentive in South Korea, to the point where it is sometimes annoying.
The Lotte Mart on the left is where the movie theater is that I mentioned before, and its glowing red sign is visible from the 19th floor of our future place. On my recent trips inside these big stores, I took just a few photos of things that are a bit different.
Sloped escalators are the standard way to traverse between floors. When you push a big shopping cart onto it, the wheels automatically lock up, preventing them from rolling forwards or backwards.
These stores are so big, and there is such a large variety of many things. But the bread aisle is just sad. It's a little less than half the length on one side, and even of that, only a third is what I would consider "normal bread". If you look in the picture, what is closest on the left and bottom looks most familiar. Mostly, breads are sold in smaller loaves and packets, and they are more Asian style breads made with rice flour. These tend to be very fluffy, light and sweet, but not what I hope to find on a bread aisle. I've given up the search for finding whole wheat bread, I just don't think it's going to happen.
Now the instant noodle section is no joke! There are one and a half aisles (three sides, hope that makes sense) full of more speedy meals than you can ever imagine. The store was quite crowded this day, so I tried my best to only take shots where people weren't standing. But take my word for it, there are a lot of noodles.
I took a shot of the candy aisle just because it was so bright and cheerful. It is multicultural as well, having a wide selection of candies from all over the world, especially Japan, Europe and America. I guess people can compromise on other foods, but they need their comfort candy from home.
It wouldn't be Korea without aisles full of potted meats and special displays of Spam. It still seems odd to me that Spam is so popular here. Around Korean Thanksgiving back in September, I even saw special gift sets of Spam, decorated cans carefully laid in red velvety cases. We speculated before that it is because of the Korean War. The land and people were in a poor state back then after so much war and harsh occupation; food, especially meat, was scarce. American troops and their Spam must have been a welcomed sight. Please let me know if you know more about this. I'm very curious! It is such a quaint western influence, I can't help but think we have better things to offer the world than Spam.
The meat and fish sections of these stores are no joke either. Next time I go with Isaac I'll try to work up the courage to snap a few pictures to share. One more detail, since we were shopping.
I still struggle with quickly pulling out the right change at the register, the extra tens place still throws me off I guess. 1,000 won is a little less than 100 cents. So if my total is 8760 won from buying a few fruits and veggies, I've got to find 760 won in coins. Not a big deal, just a bit awkward after being used to credit cards and cents. I do like the simplicity of the coins. They say the amount on the face, like "five hundred won", and just say "Bank of South Korea" on the back.
I'm sorry if this post was kind of rambling. December has a way of scrambling the brains. I think our upcoming move and the holiday season has us feeling a little off kilter. I'm holding out for a white Christmas though, just over a week away from the big day and it's not an impossibility. I guess we'll see.
We will be moving soon. Our housing is taken care of by Isaac's company, so at least for the most part we don't have to handle the paperwork and coordination. We have looked at 5 different apartments within a 10 minute radius of our current place, and finally seem to have found one that will work out.
Looking for a new place was kind of funny. All of the apartments we looked at were in high rise 20 story buildings like ours, and even had the exact same layout of ours, with only minor changes like a mirrored floor plan or no closet. I felt like I wasn't quite sure what I should be checking out in these places. They all looked so similar to our own, just filled with other peoples' junk. Luckily Isaac and our company's real estate person were there to assess important things while I got distracted by photographs, friendly children and pets.
Our new place is only a 10 minute walk from where we are now, but boy does it seem far after settling into our current apartment. Isaac and I catch ourselves being sentimental, admiring how nice it is that our home overlooks a busy street corner, with so many businesses just outside our front door.
This is our street corner. In the top right corner is our apartment building, and although this picture is blurry, perhaps you can tell or imagine that there are plenty of resources nearby for whatever we quickly need or want to grab. Next to our apartment building you can see the headlights of several waiting cars. If you walk ten minutes up that street, you will reach our new place. So it's not such a long ways of course, but we have gotten a bit spoiled I guess. Our new place will be on the 19th floor so it has quite the nice view, and we share the elevator with less than half as many units as we do now, so that's wonderful too.
While I'm talking about areas that have begun to feel like home, I'll mention this place too. Yeongtong is a comfortable 20 minute walk from our house now, and this distance may decrease slightly once we move. It's where you go if you want to "go to town", having a movie theater and two large brand department/walmart/mall type stores. I don't know what you call these kind of stores, but they remind me of all three of those, having a little bit of everything.
Here's a shot of the main road through Yongteong. On the right is Home Plus and on the left (behind the building with trees on top, has a slanted odd roof) is Lotte Mart. These stores usually have one floor that is a large grocery store, another floor with a food court and other floors that feel like department stores with small sections and overly eager staff. Customer service tends to be outrageously good and attentive in South Korea, to the point where it is sometimes annoying.
The Lotte Mart on the left is where the movie theater is that I mentioned before, and its glowing red sign is visible from the 19th floor of our future place. On my recent trips inside these big stores, I took just a few photos of things that are a bit different.
Sloped escalators are the standard way to traverse between floors. When you push a big shopping cart onto it, the wheels automatically lock up, preventing them from rolling forwards or backwards.
These stores are so big, and there is such a large variety of many things. But the bread aisle is just sad. It's a little less than half the length on one side, and even of that, only a third is what I would consider "normal bread". If you look in the picture, what is closest on the left and bottom looks most familiar. Mostly, breads are sold in smaller loaves and packets, and they are more Asian style breads made with rice flour. These tend to be very fluffy, light and sweet, but not what I hope to find on a bread aisle. I've given up the search for finding whole wheat bread, I just don't think it's going to happen.
Now the instant noodle section is no joke! There are one and a half aisles (three sides, hope that makes sense) full of more speedy meals than you can ever imagine. The store was quite crowded this day, so I tried my best to only take shots where people weren't standing. But take my word for it, there are a lot of noodles.
I took a shot of the candy aisle just because it was so bright and cheerful. It is multicultural as well, having a wide selection of candies from all over the world, especially Japan, Europe and America. I guess people can compromise on other foods, but they need their comfort candy from home.
It wouldn't be Korea without aisles full of potted meats and special displays of Spam. It still seems odd to me that Spam is so popular here. Around Korean Thanksgiving back in September, I even saw special gift sets of Spam, decorated cans carefully laid in red velvety cases. We speculated before that it is because of the Korean War. The land and people were in a poor state back then after so much war and harsh occupation; food, especially meat, was scarce. American troops and their Spam must have been a welcomed sight. Please let me know if you know more about this. I'm very curious! It is such a quaint western influence, I can't help but think we have better things to offer the world than Spam.
The meat and fish sections of these stores are no joke either. Next time I go with Isaac I'll try to work up the courage to snap a few pictures to share. One more detail, since we were shopping.
I still struggle with quickly pulling out the right change at the register, the extra tens place still throws me off I guess. 1,000 won is a little less than 100 cents. So if my total is 8760 won from buying a few fruits and veggies, I've got to find 760 won in coins. Not a big deal, just a bit awkward after being used to credit cards and cents. I do like the simplicity of the coins. They say the amount on the face, like "five hundred won", and just say "Bank of South Korea" on the back.
I'm sorry if this post was kind of rambling. December has a way of scrambling the brains. I think our upcoming move and the holiday season has us feeling a little off kilter. I'm holding out for a white Christmas though, just over a week away from the big day and it's not an impossibility. I guess we'll see.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Memory Trick
WARNING: This is basically just a book report. If you stop reading, I'll understand.
One thing I have done a lot of these past few months is read. Of course pictures of Korean adventures are more exciting, but I am also experiencing new things with each book I read. So since this blog is about keeping in touch and what I've been up to, I feel like it's okay to share this type of thing every now and then. I just can't stop talking about this book, and Isaac is probably about sick of the snippets and random facts I keep sharing.
So the book is Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. It is unique because it is: so interesting that it's hard to put down, non-fiction AND teaches a practical skill.
Basic summary: Joshua Foer is a journalist who was given the assignment to cover a memory competition. He became entranced by these mental athletes, who could memorize strings of meaningless numbers, poetry and decks of cards in record time. Even more surprising to him was that those he interviewed seemed and even professed to be utterly average people. Beneath the wings of a memory champion, Joshua began a year of training to become a mental athlete himself and went on to win the American memory competition just one year after entering this strange culture. This book tells his story and recounts his research all about memory - our brains, history of methods, society's changing perspectives and human anomalies.
This book challenged my ideas about memory and what it means to memorize. I have heard many criticisms about schools requiring memorization. Over the past two years in my teacher's education program, I developed a wrinkled-nose-smelling-something-bad sort of face in reaction to the word "memorize". This book showed me that such negative views towards memorization are a result of our current culture's misuse and misunderstanding of this lost skill.
Contrary to what I have always heard and often thought myself, memorization does not have to be a mindless, robotic task. Effective memorization, as employed by many generations of great thinkers before internet and books were around, is done using wild creativity and imagination. The basic idea is that you create an outlandish mental image which will help you retain whatever information desired. For this is how our memory works naturally. The reason any American can tell you what they were doing on September 11 is because it was an abnormal and surprising day.
So using this method, memory is the ability to paint strange mental snapshots. The more senses you can imagine, the deeper, more memorable the image will be. That sounds much less intimidating than the memorization I tried in school, repeating lines of poems and definitions again and again.
Another aspect that helps our memories is location. Foer and the mental athletes refer to memory palaces, which are locations very familiar to you which you can comfortably walk through in your mind and insert the crazy snapshots you form. Popular memory palaces places like your childhood home or old high school.
This idea is the basis on which world-class mental athletes do much of their performing. To memorize numbers or playing cards, they create a system, assigning an atypical and specific image to each number or card - which can then be combined to create strings of images just like my walk up the driveway, allowing them to recreate the correct order of a string of numbers or cards.
Although memorizing the order of a deck of cards is a cool party trick, I wanted to try out this method on something a bit more useful. So I have begun to memorize Korean vocabulary words, imagining fun and unlikely images and inserting them in my childhood home. I thought I would share the first few just to give you an idea. And because I can't stand to have no pictures, I did some doodles on my cellphone just for fun.
가까스로 ga-kka-seu-ro | adv. barely, nearly
My list starts with me turning off the engine of my car in the driveway. There is a giant crow on the windshield violently pecking at it, yelling "ga! kka!" as cracks spread across the glass like a spiderweb. I know the verb form of this Korean word means to be close, so having a crow pecking close to my face just barely not breaking the windshield makes this image vivid and connects it to the specific word.
세다 se-da | v. to be strong, severe
고르다 go-reu-da | v. to choose, to make level
It has been a fun and useful exercise to try this memorization method. I am beginning to recognize the words I learned in conversation, like Isaac's father telling me last weekend to choose where we would eat dinner. "Betty-a, gol-la!" That's the conjugated form of the third word on my list.
So if you've made it far, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you found this interesting, and maybe even feel inspired to pick up the book or try this method too to remember something, whether it's a new acquaintance's name or your to-do list.
One thing I have done a lot of these past few months is read. Of course pictures of Korean adventures are more exciting, but I am also experiencing new things with each book I read. So since this blog is about keeping in touch and what I've been up to, I feel like it's okay to share this type of thing every now and then. I just can't stop talking about this book, and Isaac is probably about sick of the snippets and random facts I keep sharing.
So the book is Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. It is unique because it is: so interesting that it's hard to put down, non-fiction AND teaches a practical skill.
Basic summary: Joshua Foer is a journalist who was given the assignment to cover a memory competition. He became entranced by these mental athletes, who could memorize strings of meaningless numbers, poetry and decks of cards in record time. Even more surprising to him was that those he interviewed seemed and even professed to be utterly average people. Beneath the wings of a memory champion, Joshua began a year of training to become a mental athlete himself and went on to win the American memory competition just one year after entering this strange culture. This book tells his story and recounts his research all about memory - our brains, history of methods, society's changing perspectives and human anomalies.
This book challenged my ideas about memory and what it means to memorize. I have heard many criticisms about schools requiring memorization. Over the past two years in my teacher's education program, I developed a wrinkled-nose-smelling-something-bad sort of face in reaction to the word "memorize". This book showed me that such negative views towards memorization are a result of our current culture's misuse and misunderstanding of this lost skill.
Contrary to what I have always heard and often thought myself, memorization does not have to be a mindless, robotic task. Effective memorization, as employed by many generations of great thinkers before internet and books were around, is done using wild creativity and imagination. The basic idea is that you create an outlandish mental image which will help you retain whatever information desired. For this is how our memory works naturally. The reason any American can tell you what they were doing on September 11 is because it was an abnormal and surprising day.
So using this method, memory is the ability to paint strange mental snapshots. The more senses you can imagine, the deeper, more memorable the image will be. That sounds much less intimidating than the memorization I tried in school, repeating lines of poems and definitions again and again.
Another aspect that helps our memories is location. Foer and the mental athletes refer to memory palaces, which are locations very familiar to you which you can comfortably walk through in your mind and insert the crazy snapshots you form. Popular memory palaces places like your childhood home or old high school.
This idea is the basis on which world-class mental athletes do much of their performing. To memorize numbers or playing cards, they create a system, assigning an atypical and specific image to each number or card - which can then be combined to create strings of images just like my walk up the driveway, allowing them to recreate the correct order of a string of numbers or cards.
Although memorizing the order of a deck of cards is a cool party trick, I wanted to try out this method on something a bit more useful. So I have begun to memorize Korean vocabulary words, imagining fun and unlikely images and inserting them in my childhood home. I thought I would share the first few just to give you an idea. And because I can't stand to have no pictures, I did some doodles on my cellphone just for fun.
가까스로 ga-kka-seu-ro | adv. barely, nearly
My list starts with me turning off the engine of my car in the driveway. There is a giant crow on the windshield violently pecking at it, yelling "ga! kka!" as cracks spread across the glass like a spiderweb. I know the verb form of this Korean word means to be close, so having a crow pecking close to my face just barely not breaking the windshield makes this image vivid and connects it to the specific word.
세다 se-da | v. to be strong, severe
I get out of the car, assume an impressive martial arts pose, yelling "se" in my best Asian accent. Then crying "da!" I leap through the air to kick the bird. This word was totally new to me, but imagining bashful Betty yelling and furiously jumping seems so ridiculous that I easily remember it.
고르다 go-reu-da | v. to choose, to make level
I walk towards my house, still in the gravel driveway when our dog Rocky appears beside me. On top of his high, broad back there is a silver tray holding two drinks, pink lemonade and regular lemonade. I hesitate, trying to choose which one I want and impressed at Rocky's balance.
I'll stop now, because as you can see, there is nothing miraculous about this process. But I think that is the beauty of it, that it is so simple and doable. Without much effort, maybe 15 minutes daily over the past week spent imagining silly scenes, I have memorized 60 Korean words and their meanings. If I can't sleep or when I am bored, I can walk through my memory palace and check on each word and its definition to see if anything is fuzzy.
It has been a fun and useful exercise to try this memorization method. I am beginning to recognize the words I learned in conversation, like Isaac's father telling me last weekend to choose where we would eat dinner. "Betty-a, gol-la!" That's the conjugated form of the third word on my list.
So if you've made it far, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you found this interesting, and maybe even feel inspired to pick up the book or try this method too to remember something, whether it's a new acquaintance's name or your to-do list.
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