Bye Seoul

Another three months in Seoul have come and gone. Tomorrow I return home.

Today is quite likely the peak moment of my Korean language speaking ability for my entire life. Unless of course I manage to return to Korea for an extended stay some time in the future.

Here's a recent picture taken on the Seoul National University Campus. The main gymnasium is on the left (building #71); just behind it you can see the dark gray top of the Language Education Institute building. The hills form a backdrop to the similar profile of the new buildings under construction, draped in blue.


The blog will now become dormant again. Thanks for reading!

Gyotong Anjeon

Last fall I posted a few entries on traffic and parking.
I've become a lot more accustomed to dealing with Korean drivers as a pedestrian. The first key insight was the realization that both drivers and pedestrians tolerate a much higher degree of proximity between motor vehicle and human body than they do in the US.

Before, I thought that a driver backing straight into me either didn't see me, or was planning to run me over. Now I realize that the driver HAS seen me; s/he is still backing up because the car is still more than a foot away from me. Similarly, a driver turning into the street as I'm crossing it isn't planning to hit me; s/he is planning to miss me by six inches.

The second realization is that there is no such thing as right of way. Whoever, driver or pedestrian, gets into the path of the other first gets to go.

Once I'd internalized these two rules, walking around in traffic got a lot easier. Instead of flinching or jumping or changing direction when I'm buzzed by a motorbike or car, I just keep going. Nobody gets confused, and nobody gets hit.

I still think this system is a lot more dangerous than the customs we have in the States -- the margin for error here is a lot smaller, and I imagine it must lead to more accidents.

One thing that is particularly dangerous is the scarcity of exclusive walkways for pedestrians. Cars often drive up onto and across sidewalks to reach parking spaces located between the sidewalk and the storefront. Cars also often park illegally on the side of narrow alleys, completely blocking sidewalks (if there are any) and reducing available street width to the point where a car and a pedestrian can't both fit side by side.

I've mentioned before that parking rules don't seem to be enforced at all. Here are a few more examples of that.

This is the sidewalk on the SNU campus heading up to the Language Education Building, a sliver of which is visible on the left side of the picture. I walk this route almost every weekday, coming from the main gate.

As you can see, there is no parking allowed on this side of the street, as indicated by the unbroken yellow line. Yet there is always a line of cars parked halfway up onto the sidewalk. Sometimes the line of cars extends all the way down the full length of the road. It's very frustrating as a pedestrian, because there isn't enough room on the sidewalk if people are walking in both directions at once. Yet despite the fact that there are dozens of campus employees regulating traffic within a few hundred yards of this spot, these cars are never ticketed or towed.

In the picture below, I've reached the LEI building, and am looking left down a narrow road running along the edge of the building. Parking is only allowed on one side of this narrow road -- the left side -- but that rule is completely ignored.


I think the no parking sign in the foreground has been placed there, on the corner, so that a small space will be left open for pedestrians to get up onto the sidewalk after crossing the street.

Here's a picture I took two blocks east of my building. The white car is parked on the sidewalk, completely blocking it. The black car is double-parked next to it, in a no-parking zone.

What's funny about this is that they are both parked directly across the street from the local police station.


Since I don't know where else in the blog to put this, I've thrown it in here. A few weeks ago I went out to get a 200-won cup of coffee (about 20 cents) from the vending machine in the lobby of our classroom building, and this is what it looked like:

Pretty cool, huh?

Hakkyo-e daninda

I've been trying to think of different ways to give you a sense of what my regular life is like here. I thought it might be interesting to create a photographic record of my daily trip to school. This sequence of photos was taken on March 13, between 8:22 am and 8:57 am. It was a somewhat atypical day in that there were fewer people out on the street than normal. I wondered for a while if it was some sort of holiday. But it wasn't. (The following day was Hwaiteu Dei, but that's irrelevant.)

There are two ways for me to go to campus. One is to go out immediately to the main road, and catch a local green bus to the campus gate. This costs 900 won (about $1), and is usually the fastest way, since there is little walking involved. The other way is to walk about 10 minutes, catch a free shuttle bus provided by the university, and then walk another 10 minutes from the campus bus stop to my classroom building. It takes longer, but it's free and the bus ride is more comfortable. On March 13, I did the latter.

Leaving my dormitory, I turn left. Then I continue along the small alleyways as long as possible.



This vegetable truck is parked in the same spot every morning, loaded down with onions. I've seen the owner making deliveries to the little local restaurants.







Here's the local elementary school.


Turning left, so the school is on my right:



Here I emerge onto the main street:


Because the school is nearby, there are crossing guards.


When the light changes, they hold their "stop" flags up where the drivers can see them.




See that tall building in the picture above, on the left? It's the "Egg Yellow" mall building. Here's a close-up:


There's the subway station, up ahead.


I'm not going to take the subway, but the station also serves as a pedestrian tunnel for crossing the intersection.


Down we go:


And up the other side. Now it's crowded -- these are all students, pouring out of the subway cars and heading up to get on buses to the campus:




Here I'm in a long line to board a bus. The lines move very quickly. The campus provides a lot of buses and they circulate frequently.


I got a seat this time. The buses are very comfortable.


Those people still waiting outside will get on the next one:


Off we go!


Here's the main gate:


A few of the green city buses actually go into campus. Here we pass one of them:


That's the main administration building visible ahead:


And here's the stop. Off the bus!


Now the walk across campus.


That's Kyujanggak up ahead in the picture above, and on the left in the picture below.


There's a big construction project going on at the law school.



This curvy thing is the Multimedia Lecture Building. There are a lot of new and architecturally interesting buildings on campus.


This is the campus museum:


There are a number of internal gates on campus that regulate automobile access.


Turning right after the gate, I'm very close to the classroom building now.


This is the Graduate School of Public Administration, across the street from the Language Education Institute.


And here's the Language Education Institute. That's the Fanco Café.


Across the courtyard to the old building:


And here's my classroom!


The next several pictures were taken on different days.

To go home on the shuttle bus, you line up at the same place where I got off. Here I'm standing in line for my shuttle bus, looking across at the line for another shuttle going to a different destination.



My shuttle has arrived. As soon as the passengers finish disembarking, we'll get on.


Walking home after getting off the bus, I discovered this little batting cage. It's not far from the subway station. Koreans really like baseball.


It's only 500 won (about 50 cents) for 17 balls. The guy below has just come from the office. He's taken off his jacket, but he's still wearing his tie and dress shirt as he takes his swings.


There's a middle school somewhere near my dorm room, but I haven't figured out where it is yet. Most days I see lots of students when I'm heading off to school, but I encountered hardly any on March 13. The picture below was taken today. The girls look really cute in their winter school uniforms, with their ties and plaid skirts (click the image for a closer view).