my another obsession

tiles.
lovely glossy tiles perfectly organized and glued on the wall.

beauuutiful pictures that reminded me of my long-time obsession (from Design*Sponge):

Filed under: fascination , design, love, obsession, tiles

this is the Subway

One thing I never appreciated but started to since I lived in New York was the subway in Seoul. Whenever I visited Seoul from New York, I was always impressed with its clean and nice facility.

Seoul is a gigantic metropolis (the second largest in the world according to wikipedia), and now it’s looking at 10 subway lines. I used to commute to school on green line which is a circle one, and from home to school it was almost exact opposite point of each other and it took me about an hour each way.

A few facts I found between New York vs. Seoul subways:
1. Since few years ago, Seoul started building the glass walls at every station claiming it prevents suicidal or accidental falls.

Even before the walls, there were arrow marks on the floor indicating where the doors will be. Not sure how much effective it has been in stopping people to jump off to rails, but at least it probably would stop people from throwing garbage (if it was in NYC). Stations are nicely cooled with A/C, it was almost shocking when I first experienced how hot and chocking it was at subway stops in NYC.

2. There are reserved seats for the elderly just like in New York, but people’s respect for those seats are very strict. If you are not over 40ish, you don’t want to bother looking at the empty yellow seats. I’ve witnessed some old man yelling at a boy who was resting at the ‘unqualified seat’ scolding how rude he was. It is very unproductive to leave the seats empty while there are no old people to fill in with, but people take it as a gesture to show their (enforced) respect for the elderly.


As far as I noticed in NY, people was most of the time reasonable in yielding their seats to the elderly or pregnant women. The ‘respect’ is rooted very deeply in the culture starting way back (like over 1000years?) from Confucianism, which has been updated and watered down over time, but there are still plenty things remained such as this one.

3. A couple of more shots of my home station showing rails and elevator for the handicaps. Hardly notice anyone using it however.. nice to have in case I guess.

4. Most people use RFID cards, usually a general feature of credit cards here or SIM cards in cell-phones.

5. We do get reception on cellphones in subway cars in Seoul. I’ve seen a poll in NYC when the city once considered getting the antenna in the cars, but people were concerned if it would get loud and obnoxious with people talking on the phones. I have to say although, it was true even several years ago, but I feel like the morale has been established, and now it’s hard to find people talking loud in the car. People rather do texting (a lot) or watch TV (through earphones) on their satellite DMB phones.

6. One thing I wish we had here is express lines. It would have made my life so much easier when I had to ride subway for like 2 hours last week to visit another side of Seoul.

Filed under: Versus , comparison, culture, seoul, subway, transportation

your bike is safe here

I never thought of Seoul as ’safe city’ until I experienced New York. I was stunned when I noticed how loosely the bikes were chained on the street in Seoul. People simply chained one of the wheels not even to any post, and no one seemed to worry if they would get stolen. I am also surprised with the noticeable increase on the number of bike riders in the city. You see everywhere high school girls and boys riding bikes after school in their uniforms. Very Asian scenery like you would see in old Asian movies or comics.

If you may know, people are paranoid with their bikes in New York as no matter how heavily you chain them, thieves find their way around to steal them. People make sure to chain every single parts like wheels, seats, or any attachments when they park, and ridiculously enough, they would even carry the seats or wheels with them when they have to run to a deli. (Funny, definition of ‘Theft’ on wikipedia shows exactly how people steal chained bikes.)

Here are some numbers on crime rates in New York versus Seoul I looked up out of curiosity. Predictably, New York shows higher numbers on every crimes BUT rape.. hah?!

Additional news on the new artsy bike racks in New York that came across to me. Nice gesture for those New Yorkers who still love to ride bikes despite the danger of stealing and roadkill!

Another interesting article on Bike Ride festival that just happened in New York. Cute how these fierce New York people can get excited with quite simple courtesy like this.

Filed under: Versus , bike, comparison, crime, culture

‘versus’ 시작의 고. About this new category ‘versus’

기억도 잘 나지 않는 어린 시절을 미국에서 보낸 것을 시작으로, 그 후 한국에서 성년까지 자라면서도 항상 미국 문화에 익숙하고 관심을 많이 가져온 나였다. 최근 몇 년을 뉴욕에서 보내게 되면서 미국문화에 대한 관심이 실질적인 경험으로 바뀔 수 있었고, 다시 돌아온 한국에서는 최근의 미국에서의 경험을 바탕으로 한국을 새로운 관찰자의 시각을 바라보게 되었다. 이 새로운 느낌과 감상이 일상으로 또 익숙해 지기 전까지 비슷하고도 다른 두 문화에 대한 내 관찰을 적어보고자 한다.

I spent my very early childhood in America, and ever since I’ve been always curious and comfortable with American culture while growing up in Korea. After spending recent few years in New York, my curiosity on American life has become real experiences, and as I returned to my hometown Korea, I’ve been noticing my perspective has been changed as an observer on the culture once I was accustomed to. I would like to write about my new discoveries between two similar yet different cultures until my eyes get dull with this new sensation.

Filed under: Versus , culture