Saturday, July 09, 2005
SEOUL DIARY
I’ve been in Seoul for a couple of days now but have been too busy to blog. A few random thoughts:
--I have engaged in my usual practice of querying whomever has the misfortune of sitting by me on the subway (or drive my taxi or whatever) concerning whatever issue I am interested in at the moment. The last few days it has been Tokdo/Takeshima. My impression based on my rather small and unrepresentative sample: most Koreans don’t really care about the issue in the way that the media might lead us to believe. “Of course it is ours” was the usual reply but there was no fervor in the reply and little interest in discussing the matter further. The only exception was the fact that the KAL stewardess wasted no time in coming on the intercom and announcing “Welcome to Korea” the minute we flew over Tokdo.
--Universities in Seoul seem to have a penchant for locating their housing for international guests as far from the main university entrance as possible (and usually up a steep hill to boot). This arrangement is probably good for my cardiovascular system but it is somewhat inconvenient. Having said that, it is a nice thing to have such housing at all!
--“Hubby” is still around, trying to make the case for Korea as the “Hub of Northeast Asia”
--Misspellings of English are still to be found (though seldom in such a prominent place as the Subway) as are humorous t-shirts (my favorite thus far is “Avoid costly septic repairs”).
--Does Bill Clinton know he is being used to announce that certain subway cars will be non-smoking?
Obviously I need to figure out how to use this new blogger "add image" feature.
More later.
--I have engaged in my usual practice of querying whomever has the misfortune of sitting by me on the subway (or drive my taxi or whatever) concerning whatever issue I am interested in at the moment. The last few days it has been Tokdo/Takeshima. My impression based on my rather small and unrepresentative sample: most Koreans don’t really care about the issue in the way that the media might lead us to believe. “Of course it is ours” was the usual reply but there was no fervor in the reply and little interest in discussing the matter further. The only exception was the fact that the KAL stewardess wasted no time in coming on the intercom and announcing “Welcome to Korea” the minute we flew over Tokdo.
--Universities in Seoul seem to have a penchant for locating their housing for international guests as far from the main university entrance as possible (and usually up a steep hill to boot). This arrangement is probably good for my cardiovascular system but it is somewhat inconvenient. Having said that, it is a nice thing to have such housing at all!
--“Hubby” is still around, trying to make the case for Korea as the “Hub of Northeast Asia”
--Misspellings of English are still to be found (though seldom in such a prominent place as the Subway) as are humorous t-shirts (my favorite thus far is “Avoid costly septic repairs”).
--Does Bill Clinton know he is being used to announce that certain subway cars will be non-smoking?
Obviously I need to figure out how to use this new blogger "add image" feature.
More later.
