Indeed, every apartment building has recycling and compost bins – Koreans care about the environment. Moreover, there are a considerable number of mountains in Seoul and Bukhansan, the biggest one, is actually quite huge.
See, that's the view from the subway station but if you refer to an earlier post from the last time I went there, it looks more gorgeous from the other side!
Cars, I guess – although the subway system here is simply outstanding and people use it quite a lot... it’s always crowded!
As for factories, I haven’t seen that many but it seems logical that they would account for air pollution since cars can’t be the only ones to blame! Nonetheless if anyone has an answer…
So I went hiking today and here’s what Seoul looked like from above. Smoggy, eh? Especially compared to the blue sky.
I was up at 6am, cleaning my apartment and I decided to get some exercise.
Since I’ve been back last Saturday morning, I’ve been sick and slept a lot. On Sunday night my friends and I rented a cool hotel suite in Seoul and we had a lot of fun – giant shrimps for dinner, swimming pool, sauna, etc.
Real nice view from the place too! I think we were on the 17th floor. They actually had a special check-in for us on the 16th floor so you don't wait with the other "regular" costumers in the lobby. Hahaha we so didn't look like people renting an executive suite, they must have been shocked!
But I couldn’t sleep because of a bad cold so the next day I was up at 7am thinking that the steam room would do me good. I ended up crawling back to the room, throwing up and lying on the couch as the others were packing up. Chris was exhausted too and Twyla was also sick. All fun.
So I was a pain in the ass for all of them but I just didn’t feel like talking. I felt so nauseous, it was killing me. The cab ride was especially traumatic. Then the elevator all the way up… I barely reached my apartment and there it was again.
So merry Christmas to me! I still dunno what was wrong. Fatigue I guess. Still on jetlag (twice in two weeks!) and tired from the big fat flight. I don’t know but I spent the whole day sleeping so this morning I needed to move!
Just got back and it’s early but I’m wiped. Not hungry either but I should eat.
Today was actually nice – I read, took a nap on a big rock on the sunny side of the peak, wrote a few thoughts near a semi-frozen stream, and enjoyed the wonderful smell of wet earth and pine trees. I even took off my earphones to listen to the sound of dry leaves cracking under my feet.
I can’t believe I’m going back to work tomorrow. Do I even want to?
I miss my family. My sister is getting married in Cuba on January 1st and I can’t even be there because of work. It sucks. Maybe I should have been stronger and gone there. But then I would have either gotten fired, or they would have treated me pretty bad upon my return.
I’m a chicken. A push-over. Gotta figure some stuff out. Feels like my soul is as contaminated as Seoul!!
Meanwhile I visited a Buddhist temple in the forest and it reminded how I gotta be zen! You too my friends; don't let meaningless thoughts cluster your brain. Clear your mind. Clear your mind. Clear your mind I say!!!
