Journey to Asia

(copied from my computer notes, from Feb 18)

My 2nd day in South Korea

Seoul is really amazing! Even though I know from last time how huge and crowded and busy it is in Seoul, it was still a shock. Just walking down the street is exhilarating! Speaking of walking around outside, its really cold out there! Last night, when the plane landed, it was 28F. I don't think its quite so cold now, at midday, but its still really cold.

I am currently eating a bowl of rice with kimchi, and drinking mango juice. Mango juice is pretty cheap, and can be found at any Mart, so its my preferred drink here. That, and Chilsung "Cida" - a Sprite-like drink that is also everywhere (칠성사이다). There is an endless supply of rice and kimchi in the kitchen downstairs, free for all residents at this goshiwon (really small apartment), so I think I can save a lot of money on food. I went to a mart across the street earlier and bought a couple bowls, spoons, and chopsticks, and milk, mango juice, cereal, and kim (dried seaweed that tastes good with rice).

After getting those groceries, I went to the nearest subway entrance, recharged my old transit card (it uses RFID so you can just wave it in front of the subway turn-stile-thingy or the place on the bus or train), and then rode the subway for about 2 hours to learn how to use it. I went south to about the middle of Seoul, just south of the Han river, explored a giant underground mall (many malls in Seoul are at least partly underground, connected to the subway), then re-traced my steps back to Sinchon (the name of the sub-section of Seoul where Yonsei is).

Also, the flight was really cool ; the plane (747) went north-west from Chicago, through Canada, just barely south of the Arctic circle, then across Alaska (I saw Juneau from my window), then just inside of Siberia before flying over the ocean east of Vladivostok, over Sapporo, over Kyoto, then got on the last airplane (777) from Tokyo to Seoul. Japan is very interesting to look at from the air ; there are about a million rice farms all over Japan, and canals and some huge river going through Kyoto. The mountains appear to be uninhabited, except for lots of winding roads, and most of Japan (and Korea too) are mountains. Mount Fuji is incredible - I knew what it looked like from pictures, but I never expected it to be so huge -- it totally dwarfs the city next to it (cant remember if it was Kyoto or Tokyo; Tokyo I think). The whole of Mt. Fuji is covered in snow or glacier, and you can see how maybe a quarter of Japan's land is a result of some ancient lava-flow from Fuji. That mountain was so huge it seemed to reach up to the plane, through 2 different layers of clouds... it was incredible!

An interesting thing about the mountains I saw once over Asia was the cloud formation over them. I have seen the same mountain-cloud formation in East Asian paintings. Over the mountain is a could that mimmicks the shape of the mountain - and that huge cloud just sits there over the mountain, and doesnt move on. I saw that on most of the mountains I saw from the plane once in Asia, but I don't recall seeing the same thing anywhere in North America. Anyways..

Also of note, the whole world seems to be covered in snow right now... well duh - its winter... but the snow never ended, from Chicago to Seoul. Even the ocean was covered in snow or ice. The ocean north of Japan is almost unbroken ice. I dont remember so much snow/ice last time. But I slept more last time.

The geological features of Canada were fascinating. I could clearly see the land that was shaped by lava-flows (mostly the middle of Canada), and the mountains in the west of Canada and in Alaska that were formed by tectonics pushing land up. All over Canada were rivers of ice -- I dont think the ice ever melts -- it appeared that the ice carved out the twisty ice-flows over a really long time. I saw enough glaciers that I think I have determined 3 main types of glaciers : the solid-mass type that covers a huge section of land, the river-glaciers (ice flows), and the more spotty type that is often right next to the solid type. That last one might not be a glacier, but I lack geological vocabulary, so that is how I am grouping it for now. I could also see a few human settlements out there, close to the arctic circle. I saw 3 or 4, and each looked like it could contain a couple thousand people. Those places looked like really crappy places to live.

Well, I am tired of typing for now. Thats the gist of my journey and first 2 days here. If its not prohibitively cold, I will explore some more, as I have a lot of time before the start of the semester. The next step for Yonsei is the International Student Orientation, on the 24th. That will be held in the "Baekyang" Hall (백양관). It was hard to find out that location: Yonsei didnt tell me where the orientation would be held in any of their materials...