Catching up

Hello all - sorry for the lack of posts in the past two months. I was busy with math in the first month, and then busy with the general procrastination in the next. Oh, in between the two, I went to Korea. As I was only there for a week, I didn't get to do much (virtually no tourist stuff). It was nonetheless a very interesting trip to me for a few reasons: I haven't been there in about 10 years, and the only pictures of Korea I have seen came from a friend of mine, who is not Korean but traveled there last summer. I definitely saw many things he saw, but from a different perspective, I think. Here are a few things that I found cool.

1. Mobile TV's everywhere
Korean cell phones come equipped with some antennae things, and you get TV receptions everywhere. For free! So if you got on the subway, especially during the rush hours, you'd see pretty much everyone around you watching TVs on their cell phones.

2. Cheap food
Wow. If you're poor, you should move to Korea. The food prices are about half of those in Canada (and the food is really good, albeit with less ethnic diversity), with a few exceptions. I just didn't understand one thing: you can get a decent meal for less than 5000 won (about $5 CDN), but if you want desserts, or a cup of tea, those cost around 7000 - 10000 won (about the price of a really good meal). I guess only the rich people get those. No wonder everyone is so skinny!

3. Collectivism
I don't even know if this is the right word. What I noticed was that everyone dresses in the same way. Especially if you look at a group of friends, they look/dress so alike that you couldn't tell them apart. I had an amazing moment at a store, where about 10 girls were walking towards where I was standing, and all of them had the same hairstyle, same clothes, same glasses... Considering that not sticking out is a virtue in many Asian countries, this shouldn't be surprising, but it was still a cool sight to me.

4. Mountains
Korea has lots and lots of mountains. Apparently, when the Koreans built palaces and things, they liked to have it right underneath one as well. So when you look at those old buildings, you can almost always see a beautiful mountain in the background. And mountain climbing is a popular weekend pastime for many Koreans. It must be so nice to live in a city that pretty much looks like New York, and still have the nature so close. I know I'm jealous.

5. And... holy crap, nice people.
As some of you may recall, I was terrified of going to Korea. I knew very little about Korea, and spoke like a 10-year-old. But my experience with the Koreans was more positive than I could have ever imagined. My uncle took a week off work, so he could show me around. I was lost many, many times. No wonder - I didn't understand big words, and my family sucks at geography. So many times we walked around looking lost, and every time we did that, so many people offered to help, even without our asking. When I was about to take a picture by an unlit Christmas tree at dusk, the attendant turned on the light early for me because "it would look better in the picture." Those random acts of kindness definitely made my days while I was Korea, and those are the things that I remember the most.

I should have taken more pictures. Oh well. I will upload them onto Facebook. Hopefully taking less time than C.

That's about all that happened to me in the past two months. In any case, happy belated new year to you!