Helpful Seoul.

While I will continue to post thoughts on gers [because I still have some more], I figure it's also time to move on to Seoul, since I've already been there and gone. While it's not one of my research sites, I still had my eyes and ears open, and my camera and sketchbook at the ready.

Seoul is one of the friendliest places I've ever been: from our first outing, where an nice old man bought us drinks at a grocery store, we were continually delighted with people's friendliness. It wasn't a far leap to see the extension to the most helpful "mini-infrastructure," especially surrounding bikes. Seoul is an incredibly wired, fast-paced place, and within that craziness, there were constant touches of urban thoughtfulness. Some of my favorites:

Recycling is everywhere - though being able to speak Korean helps...

Interactive touchscreen city maps in the subway!!

My favorite - mini ramp to roll you bike up from the subway!!

The view from the "bike" we rented in the Olympic Park: note markings, lanes, colored pavement...

Our touring contraption for the Olympic Park. It cornered like it was on rails...

Public bike pumps installed at bike racks.

Public accupressure walk. I did it. It hurt.

Other nice touches: the subway cards ["T-money"] were extremely easy to use, and had refill machines all over the subway stations. You can use T-money for cabs, buses, trains, the airport express, everything. It costs 3000 won to set up your card [about $3] and then 900 won per ride [about 90 cents]. We rode the subway everywhere - the cleanest, nicest subway I've ever seen. I also liked the umbrella-wrapper stands that were outside each building. If you're carrying a wet umbrella, insert it into this stand, and out comes a plastic cover over your umbrella. While I'm not a fan of the waste it generates, it is a thoughtful touch. 

And, I liked the shoe insets just inside the doors of residences. Like many other places in Asia, it's customary to remove your shoes upon entering a Korean home, and this little step provides an area to remove your shoes, corral the dirt, and give a threshold between outside and inside.

And finally: there were more flat screens, video screens, and media devices per square foot than I've ever seen in my life. Each subway car alone had at least 12-16 screens, showing the route, advertisements, what to do in an emergency, etc. The screens showed where the train was between stations, making announcements in Korean and English [with a happy little song at each stop, of course]. Above ground, the screens and flashing signs became overwhelming [especially since we'd come straight from Ulaanbaatar] - though not surprising, in the home of Samsung and seemingly hundreds of other media technology companies. My favorite colliding of worlds: the movie advertisement for "Oasis of the Seas," the cruise ship that the wharf in Falmouth, Jamaica was built specially for.

50' tall video screen plays images of "Oasis of the Seas" in downtown Seoul, in the biggest cross-world-research-site-connection-mind-screw-worlds-colliding moment of the past year.