New Friends

Happy Wednesday!

Today I had a wonderful lunch get-together today with a group of GSG wives. The GSG is the Global Strategy Group that RCP is working in at Samsung. There is a really fabulous group called the GSG Better Halves which consists of all the wives/partners of GSG'ers. It is really a fantastic network and a treasure trove of information consisting of wives from each new group of GSG'ers that comes through twice a year. Since the new group has just started, all of the new wives have been here just about a month and are also brand new to everything. There is a Facebook page where everyone asks questions and posts events and information from everything like "Can anyone suggest a housekeeper?" to "Where can I have furniture custom made?" to "Anyone interested in sunbathing tomorrow?" 

Most of the GSG'ers stay and live in the Gangnam area, where the Samsung offices are located, but it looks like quite a few have chosen to live here in Hannam and in the U.N. Village so it looks like we'll have some neighbors!! One wife, Pria organized a pizza lunch at this great pizza place in our neighborhood and we had 10 ladies show up! It was great fun and I finally got to meet other people in my shoes. Most of them have been here a little longer than I have, so most have phones and have started Korean classes, so they have lots of helpful information, but everyone still seems to be figuring everything out at the same time which is comforting. The Better Halves group also gets together for coffee every Thursday, so when I attend one of those, I will be able to meet some who have been here a year and have some wisdom under their belts.

Tomorrow is a dinner for GSG members and their wives, so I will see some of them again tomorrow, but I think this will be a great support system in these first few months of getting settled. After lunch, Pria introduced a few of us to this hidden gem of a grocery store near the pizza place called Expat Mart. They had chicken stock! And green beans! They also carry a wide selection of Indian ingredients and if you don't see something, you can just ask them and they'll see if they can try to get it in stock. I want to ask for celery. It's the last ingredient I need before I can make tortilla soup. At least I found the stock!

Small sampling of the Better Halves.

From left to right (with prior place of residence):

Pria (London), Me, Priscilla (Hong Kong), Shing (Pennsylvania), Sindhu (London), Racha (Paris)