Another Thought for the Day...

Does the word 'nothing' have the same meaning as the word 'sholimotid'?

Seoul Walking

Four things you can learn about Korea from the fact that I am much more likely to bump into pedestrians while walking in Seoul than in New York:

1. Koreans walk on the left--although they do, like normal people, drive on the right.

2. Koreans, unlike New Yorkers, who all walk at the same brisk pace, have two different paces. One pace, a slow, contemplative, one might say Confucian pace, represents the old Korea: the Chosun Korea of sloped, tiled roofs, Buddhist monks and austere pottery. The other pace, a sort of restrained sprint, with arms fixed at sides, represents the new Korea: the capitalist Korea of poured concrete, evangelical Christianity and K-Pop.

3. There are simply far more Seoulites per square kilometer of land than New Yorkers: 17,200 Seoulites to 9,890 New Yorkers (according to Seoul City Government and nyc.gov, although the Seoul numbers are slightly more up-to-date). And in general there are far more South Koreans per square kilometer of land than Americans: 499.5 Koreans to 32.9 Americans as of July 2007 (according to the World Fact Book).

4. Finally, people in Seoul just stop walking in the middle of the aisle or the sidewalk for no reason. I'm not sure what you can learn from this exactly, but it's true.

Namdaemun Is Burning

In an incredibly odd turn of events, a man set fire to Namdaemun last night. Namdaemun (South Gate) is/was the 600-year-old, wood-and-stone gate that once to protect the edge of Seoul but now sits at its very center. Namdaemun is probably Korea's most revered national landmark, a remnant of the Chosun Dynasty, the glory days of Korea.

I went to the gate today to see it for myself. The entire ramparts of the gate were made of wood, and they are now in shambles. The lower stone base is fine, but the form of the gate, the gracefully sloped and tiled roof, so typically Korean, is totally gone. I presume the painted interior of the gate is destroyed as well. There are plans to rebuild it. No word yet on who started it or why.

Here are some photos I found online. I'll post my own once I develop my film.

UPDATE: They caught the culprit. Here's a story about it. Turns out he was just some cranky old guy angry about money.