First Impressionist Thoughts & some pictures.

I like Korea. So far, of all the places I've been - Korea reminds me of Israel the most. Not Jerusalem, but Haifa where I was staying a couple summers back. If I had to give it a ratio I'd say 8 parts Israel, 1 part Holland and 1 part Mexico.

I think its the plethora of apartments, the superfluity of taxi trips, the cornucopia of corner stores, the smell of the apartment staircases, the heat and humidity, my love affair with the a/c unit, the foreign script on everything in sight, and my lack of local language skills that makes it feel like Israel. I never really felt all that foreign, or completely reliant on pointing and waving and hoping people understood me in Europe or Mexico....

It's very green here, as I said before...you can see in the photo (from the top of my apartment) that I'm at the edge of the city, close to the forest. Behind that green fence is the highway, and after that is forest. My school is about a ten minute walk away (its not in the picture, but its off to the right where the city starts again)

The part that reminds me of Holland is how there is a little park in every neighbourhood with a basketball hoop etc. No soccer goals though. Dang. And here there's random workout equipment everywhere....like chin up bars and stuff, but also like (non-electric) stairmasters and hip machines in every park too...its strange. I'll try and subtly get a video of one of the old ladies who's always swinging wildly back and forth in the park by my house....

What else? Everyone here smokes which is weird...and if you walk around at night there's always drunk Korean businessmen in suits stumbling out of the bars.

The are restaurants and food vendors everywhere, and its much cheaper to eat out than at home. That picture is us (Kyle, Amy and I) eating Galbi. In this case it was beef. A plate of good beef, that we roast ourselves on that hot coal grill in the middle of the table. If you want more pictures and stuff of the food, you can check out Amy's blog or my facebook. I'll post more on the food later I'm sure. So far so good on that front.

Oh, and I climbed the tallest apartment in Wonju to get some night shots, past the random motorcycle blocking the staircase, the creepy dark stairs, the roof of doom, ladder of death (complete with Shelob). Anyways, here's some views of Wonju at night from the air as well as from the street.

Wrapping up with some more first impressionistic thoughts: the sinks and showerheads were designed for hobbits I've decided, they have no organized garbage system, so you throw it on the street and they pick it up...it stinks especially in the heat...so you have to hold your breath a lot of times...everyone either stares at me or says hello, and there are no white people. Stay tuned for pictures and stories from Chiaksan National Park/Birobong Peak (downloading now) and a Seoul sojourn tommorow. Cheers -Matt