Things that make you go hmmm

I've been wanting to post on a few collected oddities that I've noticed over the course of the past month (and yes, it's been a month already...) but haven't for one reason or another. One is that I want to get pictures of some of these, but I haven't had my camera with me at the opportune times - for instance, some of the most document-worthy events happen when I go out to lunch, or dinner, and I don't have my camera with me. The mantra has to change...wallet, keys - no cell phone, ha! - camera...

Anyway - one of these little nuances that continues to amaze me involves parking...so picture a typical parking lot, say at a park, with two rows of cars on either side parked next to each other, perpendicular to the curb. There's space in the middle of course so you can drive through, back out, etc. But picture that space filled with two rows of cars, parked in a line that is completely blocking the cars parked perpendicular to the curb. Now there's just a narrow strip in the middle, between the blocking cars. See the improvised graphic below for details (I will get a photo, I promise) and try to guess how the orange cars get out. If you don't want to know the answer before guessing how it's done, don't read below the graphic...:



Ok, so the answer is....:



The cars in blue are in neutral. If one of them is blocking your car, you simply push it until it's not blocking anymore (Yes, you too grandma), and you're good to go. So the parking spots you really want are those blocking the cars - which of course requires excellent timing and/or luck on your part to accomplish. It's amazing how much this is a non-issue to them - just another part of urban life, using the space you have and dealing with it. I've never seen this done in any other city without someone's headlights getting broken or, at the very least, the car getting towed. Of course, there are still way too many cars here (and little respect for pedestrians), but I have to admire the demonstrated human capacity for adapting to a distinct shortage of space.

Another one is the very unique concept of "mixed use" that seems to work perfectly well here. Sure, it's an idea that's been tossed around a lot in the last ten years by urban planner types, architects, developers, as a cure-all for downtown revitalization. Usually what they like to have us picture are trendy street-level restaurants, cafes, boutiques and the like, with their patrons stacked comfortably above in equally trendy condos. Of course there are plenty of variations on this theme - some places are grittier or more culturally cosmopolitan than others, for example - but the general formula is more or less pretty similar. Well, the book on mixed use has been rewritten my friends. Here (and this is basically a suburb of Seoul, keep in mind), upon entering the main shopping/nightlife area - framed on either side by six stories of neon, plastered on every square inch of the buildings, and going on for blocks - you will encounter every kind of use imaginable, squeezed into every square inch of space: live fish restaurants, video game rooms, country western and jazz bars, right next to each other, an endless array of noraebangs and their slightly more disreputable cousins, the norea-bars, quiet coffee shops, theaters, barber shops, insurance offices, stationary shops, and on and on, all right next to or stacked on top of each other. My favorite mixed-use combination so far is this shady place called "Rich Business & Black Hole Room" (the only hint of what it actually is being a neon "motel" sign prominently displayed out front), and right next door, literally, is a church (you can tell because there's a steeple sticking out of the top of that particular area of the building). And there are plenty of other examples of these, peacefully coexisting, perhaps mutually benefitting each other. Sure, the irony is there - but that's just how things are set up here, just one leaseholder and another, right next door, minding his own business, doing what it is he's here on earth to do, making a living.

Churches are another story of their own. There are hundreds of them, thousands maybe, in Seoul and in the outlying areas - they're everywhere. Most of them in fact are just in buildings like the large ones that line the streets of Anyang, and the only way you know they are there is by the two story-or-so steeple that juts out the top, like a candle on a birthday cake. And most of the steeples look exactly the same - as churches come and go, I'm assuming the steeple is just removed and put on a new building, wherever a new church is going. And religion seems to be a pretty open topic - I've been asked to go to church with people several times. Confucian beliefs still predominate, but it seems that Christianity has grown quite rapidly. I don't know exactly why, but it's an interesting shift. Confucian beliefs are part of the very traditional part of Korea that is somewhat at odds with modern, Western-influenced culture, and might be seen to be constraining, especially to females. Christianity might be a response to this for people who seek some sort of structured spirituality that can be accomodated in their everyday lives. I really don't know, but it would be interesting to find out more about this...

Anyway, I'm afraid another blog entry is nearing its end as my focus is starting to dwindle and sleep calls my name. There are plenty of other things that took me a while to get used to here, or not even that, just struck me pretty plainly as interesting and different. Which I guess is predictable in a foreign country, but they certainly make for good thought-fodder...

The last lingering question/riddle I will leave off on is why people, when walking toward you, seem to expect to be passed on the left, and not the right, as seems to be the norm in the States. They don't drive on the left. But if I'm correct, up until 2000 or so, the reading was done right to left. Coincidence? I don't have an answer - thesis anyone?

Time for bed I think... ~Sean-Toki