2002.04.02

We arrived in Seoul Korea last night at 9pm.  I am impressed by the splendour of the city.  Incheon airport is brand new and ultra-modern.  Our trip into Seoul was affordable and very nice.  The city itself is monstrous (same population as Tokyo), but from the moment we arrived we received genuine help and friendliness from airport staff, bus driver and passengers.  I can get used to this.  People seem much more open than in Japan, very curious about where we’re from, and generally delighted to hear Toronto as everyone seems to at least have visited, or knows someone living in TO.  In some strange way, Seoul reminds me of home…  not sure how that can be as I’m in Asia, hardly anyone speaks English, I’m faced with yet another script I can’t read…  it must be the directness of the place; no averted eyes.

Men in suits directed us personally to our yogwan—an affordable, Korean-style sort of Inn.  The manager is a sweet, older woman whose English vocabulary starts and ends with “tomorrow”, “key” and a rough mouthed repetition of “thank you”.  But she’s all smiles!  When we got lost trying to find our way back to the proper Insadong alleyway, she came out to find us (after another helpful stranger used their cell phone to ring up our yogwan).  When she found us, she trudged us “home” like disobedient 6 year-olds and gave us joking smacks on the back (pretty powerful for an old woman) to reprimand our silliness.  Ever since she has thought of us as a bit of a joke, and so points us in the proper direction when we leave for the day.