Rain

I spent the past weekend in the sweltering mix of heat, humidity and pollution. This afternoon after a day of being packed into a small space with what seemed to be half the Korean population in order to view a smattering of pieces from the British Museum, I stepped out of the subway station to the first rain I've seen in more weeks thn I can count. There's something about rain at night in the city. I don't know if it's the quiet woosh that accompanies the otherwise annoying noise of traffic, the shimmering glint of headlights on the pavement or the camaraderie that exists among the pedestrian who are simply trying to stay dry.

I hadn't planned on rain and thus had a 15-minute walk home from the subway station in the rain with no umbrella. As one that has on numerous occasions walked from a cool, dry house into a summer rain-shower, I made the most of it. I stopped briefly to get a Falafel to go and enjoyed the light rain as I walked up the hill to my apartment. I tried not to think of what the water that occasionally flowed over my sandals and onto my feet carried. I deemed it more productive to think of the grime it wash washing away.

Upon arriving home I changed into dry clothes, opened a bottle of Smoking Loon Viognier and ate my falafel. Simple pleasures should not be underrated.

Asthmatics need not apply

I caught this view out my window this evening…




You can barely make out the outlines of 5 skyscrapers just behind the three power lines, just to the left of the utility pole. Those buildings are less than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) away.

Engrish

As anyone who has visited Asia can tell you, there is a lot of bad English here. I'm not talking about speaking skills. If it weren't for most Koreans English skills I wouldn't get anything done. However, since English is the second most common language here, it is often seen on signs, products and t-shirts, with varying degrees of success. This phenomenon is unique to Asia and has given a name: Engrish, from the difficulty native Asian speakers have differentiating the "l" and "r" sounds in English. There's a web site that's devoted to some jewels of Engrish called (appropriately enough) engrish.com. Most of the examples are from Japan, but every once in a while a Korean one will pop up. This is akin to an American who has a Chinese character tattooed on his or her body and trusts that it means "inner peace" and not "bean curd."

As I mentioned, I would be lost without the bilingual nature of Koreans. I especially congratulate them for translating their in-flight magazines. Who hasn't flipped through these brainless periodicals trying to find one article of interest to keep them occupied while waiting for the drink cart to arrive or the bad movie to start? On a recent flight on Asiana Airlines I turned to the entertainment section to check out exactly what bad movies I had the option of viewing. Turns out there were about 20 movie descriptions along with quotes from critics about the movie. In a fit of boredom I read one. That one so intrigued me that I read another…and another…and then I read them all. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The quotes were mostly from reputable US papers. It wasn't like the movie studio had to find a quote to put in a newspaper ad and the best they could do was "FUNNY!" and in very small type sources the quote to the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. For the life of me, the only reasons I can think of them putting these quote in the in-flight magazine are humor or that the writer just didn't understand what they meant. See for yourself. They are all the entire quotes, with no editing except the emphasis, which is mine. All are from Asiana Airline's in-flight entertainment magazine vol 11 no 5, May 2005

Coach Carter
Samuel L. Jackson plays the real-life coach of a high-school basketball team in this solid, unsurprising sports drama.
-A. O. Scott, New York Times

National Treasure
This one's no treasure. But it features a few interesting baubles.
-Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News

Oceans Twelve
Steven Soderbergh's unabashedly trivial sequel may be slim pickings but when it works, it's a blast.
-Manahla Dargis, New York Times

The Incredibles
Pixar's new animated action-comedy, about a superhero family stuck in middle-class suburban exile comes tantalizingly close to greatness.
-A. O. Scott, New York Times

Finding Neverland
Finding Neverland usually sustains its magic. Return to Earth though it must, the movie's joys and sorrows leave memorable impressions.
-John Wirt, Advocate (Baton Rouge)

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
News flash: Love ain't easy.
-Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune

Shall We Dance
Good natured fluff.
-Scott Von Doviak, Ft Worth Star-Telegram

And my personal favorite…

Grease
Grease hasn't improved much in two decades. It remains a juvenile remembrance of a mythologized 1950's, a musical lacking grace.
-Jeffrey Westohoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

More subway observations

As I mentioned before, I probably have an unhealthy fascination with public transport systems. I'm not a trainspotter, I can't tell the difference between two models of the same make of subway car, not can I tell you how many horsepower one has or how much it weighs. What fascinates me is the system.

Take, for example, a relatively simple subway system…Washington DC's Metro. There are five lines with 86 stations. The system has over 100 miles of track and carries over 600,000 people into and out of the District on a daily basis. The immediate logistical difficulties are obvious. How far apart should trains be? How many cars should be on a train? How can you coordinate two lines so that they don't dump two trains full of people at rush hour into a small station? Now take those problems and move them to Seoul, where there are 9 lines (run by three separate companies, no less, but still interconnected) and over 360 stations.

These problems boggle the mind, but it's the human interface element that truly fascinates me, and that is where the Seoul Subway excels. For starters almost all signage is in Korean, English and Chinese. There is almost nobody in Korea (tourists included) who does not speak at least one of these languages. It does pretty blatantly exclude the Japanese, but that's a cultural thing (what with the whole occupation thing during WWII). Secondly, there are marks on the platform where the doors will be when the train arrives. People naturally line up at these footprint. Perhaps I should say "gather" as the Koreans are not well know for their queuing skills. Those two are no-brainers, but for the great stuff you have to do some real thinking. Understand the mindset of the typical subway rider.

Imagine you're coming home after a long week of work. It's Saturday evening and you're looking forward to your one-day weekend. You zone out as the subway rumbles through stop after stop. The monotone voice announced each stop (in three languages) but you barely notice. You need to change trains at Ichon station, but the car is so crowded and you've been zoning in and out you really don't know where you are. Suddenly, you hear birds chirping. What? Your mind suddenly shifts gears and you hear "The next station is Ichon. The exit doors are on your left."

Subtlety #1: Stations announcements for stations that allow you to change to another line are preceded by an out-of-place (but somewhat calming) sound, be it birds or a short string melody. This allows your brain to re-focus and pay closer attention to the announcement.

So you have exited the train and you need to find your way to the other line. Well, you could follow the signs to the track. Or you could look at a map of the station:




Is seems fairly standard. A 3-D-ish view of the station, a red "You Are Here" dot, emergency exits, etc. But wait…walk to the other side of the same sign and you see this:




Take a moment and think about what is going on here. The signs are drawn based on the user's perspective. A rider looking at the first sign would turn right to get to the escalators, while a rider looking at the second sign would turn left. While this might seem like a very minor thing, and would at least double the number of station maps that are required, it makes the the system that much more user-friendly.

Speaking as someone who is 7-13 hours ahead of most of his friends and family perspective is very important. I've found myself using phrases such as "tomorrow my time, tonight your time" as often as a lecturer uses "to my left, your right."

Absence

It has been almost three months since my last entry, and much has happened (in addition to transitioning this blog to a new host). I hope to do more rapid postings in the near future to bring you up to speed. I'll begin where I left off…

In late March I visited the island of Cheju-do. Technically, that's redundant, as the -do suffix means island. As one who cringes at people who say "ATM machine" or "PIN number" I should be setting the example. So, in early March I visited Cheju-do, or the island of Cheju.

Cheju-do is located off the southern tip of Korea. It's called the "Honeymooners Island" as many Korean couples Honeymoon there. It's also been called "The Hawaii of Korea." When I heard this I scoffed, thinking there was no way that a small island between China and Japan could be similar to Hawaii. I was right…but only partly. Cheju-do is a volcanic island and shares that trait with Hawaii. Everywhere you go there are walls made of volcanic stone and large fields of crops with piles of rock off to the side, the remnants of clearing the area. As the island is further south than the rest of Korea it is warmer and actually has a few palm trees and some surprisingly inviting looking water.




Most of my time was spent driving around the island, but we did get some time to visit two interesting spots. The first was Seongsan Illculbong (Sunrise Peak). It's an extinct volcanic crater on the far eastern edge of the island, hence the "sunrise" moniker. The path to the top was paved and more a steep sidewalk with stairs than a trail, but it took a good 30 minutes to reach the top. As it was a standard hazy day the view was less than spectacular, but it would make for an interesting hike in the pre-dawn hours.




The next morning before we had to fly back we visited the Jesangjeolri Seashore. This is not so much a seashore as it is a cliff, but the cliffs are made up of almost perfectly hexagonal pillars. There is some scientific explanation for this, probably similar to how Devil's Tower was formed. I just don't know what it is.