Annahilated

seoul survivor

after all the glitches, i'm here in seoul.

i can't believe i lasted this long. the moment i stepped out of incheon airport, i had the half-baked idea of taking the next flight back to manila. my gulay, ANG LAMIG! The air is stinging cold and very dry, it's so hard to breathe. i thought i'd never make the 5 meter walk across the parking lot! by the time we reached the car, i was shaking (and chris just had to tell me it's the first time he turned on the car heater this autumn).

this tropical bird assimilated to the temperature quite fast. even i surprised my self. now i don't feel the need to put on too many layers of clothing (the first day i had 5!) and better yet, i have not broken out in allergies nor asthma (surprise! surprise!).

anyway, since oppa and unnie can only show me around on weekends, i have to be on my own the rest of my stay here. to be honest, the idea frightened me at first, but in seoul only the really, really stupid will get lost. well, that is not say that you can find your way with eyes close. you have to least have a functional understanding of how the seoul subway system works (which is the best way to commute in seoul). it may look like a labyrinth, but all you have to do is follow the yellow brick road, meaning just follow the arrows, provided of course that you know where you are exiting or transferring. unlike in the philippines you do not need to pay again when you transfer to the next line. and, yeah, if you are not using a prepaid card, you better tell the ticket vendor where exactly your exit is, for while almost all stops cost 900 won, you can't just stop anywhere, the friggin exit won't open. it happened to me and i had to ask help from a good-looking university guy (in a country where english is semi-functional, ask help help from the youngest literate person you can find in the area) who had nicely opened the emergency exit for me. actually, i should just have crawled under (as some koreans who must have missed their stop do) since i paid anyway, but i didn't risk being dragged to the police station.

save for the exorbitant price, a mc chicken meal is 3,600 won or almost 250 pesos, seoul is a very liveable city. for a big city, it's very safe. stores here do not have guards nor a store clerk watching your every move and it's safe enough for children to travel on their own even at dusk. unlike manila, be prepared to walk a lot (heck, i can't believe i walked this much in my entire life) and move fast, time flies really fast here, no wonder koreans have a culture of 'pali-pali' (hurry up). in manila the same span of time is very long, but here i can't seem to finish all that i have planned for an equal period of time. i'd have to admit that i'm beginning to like the vibe here. though not cosmoplitan, it's a very modern with a touch of nostalgia. it's just as their tourism magazine describe it to be.


essential: mobile phone (in case i get lost), MAP, won, phone card (in case mobile phone konks out, camera!, and kikay kit of course. make sure to place them inside a messenger bag (it's the only bag 'seoulites' seem to use) if you want to be less conspicuous

posted by annahilated @ 7:38 AM