I’ve been meaning to make some observations on our time in Korea but never got around to it, so here they are finally.
People
* Man, there are lots of Koreans there. Seriously. In other large cities, London or Kuwait City, for example, the majority of the population looks native to the land, but there are significant numbers of foreignors visible. I had expected to see at least a small dose of Americans in Seoul, due to the close ties between our countries and the presence of the US military. I was surprised, however, to observe very few non-Koreans on the streets or on public transportation; I probably only saw one or two foreignors or groups of foreignors on any given trip into the city, and that was usually at a shopping district.
* Koreans are, as a rule, slim with small frames. Koreans who are even somewhat chubby are rather uncommon, and I can probably count on one hand the number of outright fat Koreans I saw on the whole trip (almost two weeks in a city of 10 million individuals). I lost about 8 pounds while we were there; while some of that was from low appetite, I’m sure part of it was the typical Korean diet of rice and lots of vegetables, with smaller portions of meat and fish.
Country
* Korea is very mountainous and very green (about 70% mountain). The mountains are heavily wooded and what flat land exists is covered with either city or agriculture. (See this or this for illustration.) Even within Seoul, areas that would normally be unused in the US, such as beneath the eaves of bridges over the Han River, are given over to rice fields and gardens.
* Korea is very wired. It seems like everyone has cell phones, and using them as cameras and music players seems to be the norm. The two relatives we stayed with had broadband Internet connections, including the house “in the country” down by Jecheon. According to Tom Vasel, the Korean government has a goal along the lines of broadband in every house in Korea by 2008.
* Internet game cafes are everywhere in Seoul. I made a bet with D before we got there that one would be within walking distance of the house we stayed at. As it happens, you could see one out the window, and there was at least one on every block in the entire city, as far as I could tell. Anywhere you saw “PC” was a game cafe, or “game bar” as hyungsunim called it.
* Traffic in Seoul is very thick. I was surprised to see a lot of SUVs (Kia or Hyundai, of course) and mid-size sedans in addition to the smaller vehicles; usually, everywhere outside the US that has expensive gasoline has a higher proportion of smaller, more economical vehicles. In addition, a lot of vehicles in Korea use LPG; LPG stations could be found throughout Seoul in addition to gasoline stations.
Hm, I’m sure I had more to comment on, but now I’ve forgotten what all I wanted to say…
