Well, I am finally posting. Work and life got a little crazy, and something had to give. That something was side projects, like blogging. However, I’m back from a week in Seoul and I’m almost adjusted to this time zone. When I travel, people always seems to tell me to take lots of pictures, which I enviably never do. However, I did manage this time around. Here’s a map of an underground mall in Seoul. These malls and subway stations are sprawling and can cover a few city blocks. Like in Tokyo, directions to a location often tell you the specific exit, which are numbered, you need to take. Getting from one end of the station to another can take twenty minutes to walk on the street, which makes using the correct exit rather important.
On my free day, I took the Circle Line (formerly called Line 2) all the way around. I was going from City Hall to the Coex Mall at the Samseong station, which is not quite half way around. So I went there and returned going the same direction. (Counter clockwise if you’re curious.) Being non-rush hour, it was quite relaxing, and the people watching is always good. It was also much warmer than cold Korean winter air outside.
I decided to forgo the standard shot of a teenager watching television (DMB) or talking on their mobile in the subway. Flickr is full of photo displaying Koreans using the high bandwidth in the subway that we dream about back home. Thankfully, earbuds are always used. Conversations are at low volume, with one hand holding the phone and the other covering the mouth to limit the noise to others. After a week of seeing it, I started doing it myself. I’m not sure New Yorkers would be so polite, when mobile phones finally work on the MTA. It’s striking how the culture of use evolved differently here.
