The Korman Buzz

This is the place to enter contact information for your organization. Just click the Edit link.

The Korman Buzz

The Korman-Jacobs Buzz

October 2009

From:
Larry Korman
I have been in Seoul, Korea for about two and a half weeks and still have not learned a word of Korean, but I do know how to shake hands and bow. It is a place that embraces its heritage and integrates modern society and growth but has the wisdom not to endanger the historic sites. Last week we finally had all documents completed and approval for my temporary immigration status to begin working. I am hoping to start working the week of 5 October so we can get our study completed by the end of February. I hope everyone has a healthy and happy New Year.
Larry

Dearest Uncle Mel,
Hello from the Bloom/Opfermann family! We hope you are doing well. Here's an item for the next Buzz:
This is Jill Bloom, Rosalie (Korman) and Hal Bloom's daughter. As with most of my correspondence, this item centers around Dewy's and my son Val (Velvel Shmuel). In July, Val followed family tradition when he reached a height taller than Bubbee (Rosalie) and ate a home-baked (of course) pie (pumpkin) off the top of her head! He is the fifth grandchild to achieve that milestone. Val turned 13 in August, and has now grown an inch or two more. Yielding to years of requests, we finally let him register for football this year. He likes it, but it is a little hard on me--gone are the nurturing coaches of soccer. Val's coach is a nice man, but he does what all the other football coaches do, that is, yell, gesticulate, and order 25 pushups whenever a player messes up in practice. Val says he doesn't mind. They haven't won a game yet, but I think that would just be icing on the cake for Val if they did. Val's class will travel to Boston for one week in October, with stops at Woods Hole, MIT, and Plymouth. As for Dewy and myself, we are both experimenting with new cuisines. We have a vegetable garden at a little farmette we bought in Pennsylvania, and I have been preserving tomatoes, green beans, and basil (in pesto). I am excited to harvest the Jerusalem artichokes my father gave me. We are also looking forward to seeing more of Michelle, my brother Jerry's daughter. She is moving to DC later this month to take a job at the National Institutes of Health. You'll have to hear more about that from Jerry and Roberta, and Bunny (my sister) and her husband Gary will have to be the ones to write about daughter Aurora's new college experiences! We hope all of you are well, and wish you a Happy New Year. May your names be inscribed in the Book of Life.
Dear Uncle Mel--thanks so much for maintaining the Buzz. I read it as soon as you tell us it's out there every time. Love,
Jill

More Letters

From:
Sharon Korman
Hello fellow life travelers,

I haven't written an update in a great while...I guess I have been too busy just doing my life. This is a good thing.
Much has gone on in recent months.
My trip to Colorado was wonderful. I got to go to Hal's high school graduation....I was/am so proud! I got to see many good friends. I had a fantastically successful and fun yard sale and I got to have Thanksgiving dinner, on Memorial Day but it was Thanksgiving dinner none-the-less. I felt incredible loved up and it was nice to have some Colorado sun.
At my yard sale I sold the great majority of my household items and furniture. Expensive shipping costs can make one quite cutthroat in downsizing decisions. I was pleased to have many of my favorite items to go good homes.
I packed up my precious personal items that I did not sell to be shipped to France. This meant from the Denver shipping hub by truck to North Carolina, by ship to England and then again by truck to Paris. It was done; I cut the umbilical cord. No legal anything that ties me to any address in the states. I have my friends and family of course but my home is now Paris.

When I returned to Paris, I thought I would be energetic and raring to go but the truth is I got depressed again! Damn it! I always keep under-estimating how big each of the steps of changing ones country
truly are. As usual despite the mood (which my friends here tell me is normal given the circumstances) I kept going on. What else can you do?
Despite a bit of turn-over my client load remained steady throughout the summer while I spent time looking for office space and working on a quilt that I am making for my French teacher in exchange for my on going lessons.

The summer went on rather slowly and calmly. August is a month in Paris where just about everyone seems to leave on vacation for anywhere from two to 4 weeks. Literally certain neighborhoods have a feel of being a ghost town. Shops close, work stops, the streets are deserted; it is a bit bizarre.
I saw on a news program one night that during august 40% of French businesses close!! Pretty incredible. For me it was great. Paris is a calmer, easier city with so many people gone. I took in a few art shows; my favorite was a retrospective of Kandinsky at Centre Pompidou. I had a couple of visitors, and took a couple of day trips. A mix of work and play that was quite a nice pace. That and therapy helped my mood improve.

Looking for office space proved frustrating. The costs are high and the choice of smaller spaces limited. Additionally renting space here is another type of financial and bureaucratic nightmare.
If you find a place that you like, you must prove that financially you can afford it by providing anywhere from 3-6 months of a deposit or ''caution''. The you must pay the fee of the realtor plus the legal fee for the contract.
As an example, I looked at a space to share with others for 1500 euros per month plus 200 euros ''charges'' - (the gardienne, and cleaning of the common areas). The total move in expense would have been over 10,000 euros!
You would think I was buying something....which is even worse, as you might imagine. Anyway, given my current financial situation this sort of thing was just not going to work for me. As it turned out another anglophone psychotherapist was looking for some space for himself and invited me to rent his second office. He got to pay all the extras and have his name on the lease with all the legal responsibility, leaving me to only have to pay my monthly rent and a measly one-month deposit! So now I am in the midst of furnishing my very own office here in Paris. I have also ordered a ''mezzanine bed'' for my studio. I will ''gagner d'espace'' and actually be able to create a little living room below the platform bed! Petit ?  petit my comfort grows.
I have begun to have contact and a relationship with my first cousin here in Paris. Olivier is the son of my mother's half-sister Francine. I wrote to Francine last spring and we met in Paris in June. She and my mother have had a bit of a rocky relationship resultant of the difficulties that they both suffered during the war. So I must admit I was cautious about contacting her. But she received me warmly and we continue to have contact. I hope to visit her at her home in the south of France sometime this winter. Olivier lives just outside of Paris so we can get together more frequently. It has been wonderful to find real family here.
Love Sharon
[Editors note] Be sure to read the next issue of the BUZZ for November. More exciting news from Sharon.


October Birthdays

October 3 Luis Parra
October 7 Steven Benjamin Fine
October 10 Dennis Opfermann
October 10 Jeremy Bloom
October 18 David Arnold Fine
October 21 Henry Korman
October 24 Daniel Braun
October 28 Jill Opfermann
October 29 Robin Korman

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
4 Ava Shanfield
5 Richard Sargeant
17 Charles Siebert
20 Diane Stacy
27 Jacob Fine
NOVEMBER ANNIVERSARIES
Ellen & Darryl Carson

MEMORIALS
November 25,2006 BARRY BERMAN KISLEV-4 12/3/1997