I did read a guide book before coming to Seoul but I didn’t know what I wanted to do yesterday. Marty had no strong opinion either but I gave him the guide book and asked him to decide. After a long lazy breakfast in our room we headed out for the day. The first stop was Samsung D’Light. Marty started raving about new phones and tablets, and well, what was I expecting when I handed him the guidebook?
I’m not overly excited by Samsung products, but it wasn’t a bad a way to spend an hour or so. I spent much of my time there playing Angry Birds on a variety of devices but I did look at some other things. There was a large LED display that looked really impressive. It played music when you touched the glass and Marty had a lot of fun moving around quickly making a lot of racket I was more excited by the interesting photographs that could be taken but I didn’t think it would be appropriate to spend too long taking pictures.
Marty at the LED Drum Display
There were also an exhibit that allowed you to put a picture of yourself into an old painting. It was using LCD technology, which in itself is nothing new, but it was on the front of a display cabinet containing cameras. Once you took the pictures you could email them or post them to twitter. The place was mostly empty so we did spend a bit of time messing around with this.
Karen, pretending to be serene
Once we left we decided to walk to the main bus station. Things didn’t go quite as planned as I got tired walking in the sun after about an hour. Thankfully Seoul is like Tokyo with a great public transport system and we were able to hop on a train. We had plans to go and see the Cathedral and to maybe do a bit of shopping. I wanted to stop walking for a while so we decided to try to find the shops first. We messed up. When we arrived at the shops we appeared to be in a hardware store district. I have no desire to buy a new set of ladders and at least four shops had displays of these. We gave up on shopping and starting walking again and did find the Cathedral. We also found the shopping area that had been recommended to Marty but then so had thousands of other people. In the end we just walked through the streets trying not to get crushed.
Busy Shopping Street, Seoul
. . .
I woke up and the road with seven lanes on one side wasn’t a dream, no matter how dream-like the view from our hotel room is.
Wide Road
When we moved to Tokyo we had great plans to go and visit the neighbouring countries. Great plans, but very little action. It’s Golden Week in Japan and instead of staying at home for the holiday we decided to escape the crowds in Tokyo to go and see the crowds in Seoul. We didn’t know anything much about the city apart from the fact that it’s very large, close to North Korea, and contains lots of spicy food. In my head Seoul was going to look something like Tokyo, but I was wrong.
We arrived at Incheon airport, which is about 40 kilometers outside the city, late last night. We did consider getting a bus but our plane had been delayed and it seemed easier to get a taxi. We got a bit confused as there were a number of different types of taxis but without too much hassle we were soon on our way to the city. Our driver had quite a bit of trouble understanding where we wanted to go but we had a map in our guide book. We should really have had the name and address of the hotel printed out in Korean, but we’ll know for next time.
It took no time at all to see the lights of the city, probably because the taxi flew along the wide empty roads. From the back seat I could see the speedometer. I asked Marty if he knew what unit of measurement they used for speed – miles or kilometers. He thankfully said kilometers as the car was moving at nearly 150 of these. When we got to the city we slowed down to about 90. Our driver wasn’t overly concerned about speed limits as the ones I glanced at the side of the road were for much lower speeds.
I could smell the river before I saw it. I do think that we crossed it but in the dark I couldn’t see if the bridge was anything other than long. Gazing across the river the city appeared to be full of very tall buildings. As well as the lights of the skyscrapers I spotted at least six large Christian crosses decorated with lights. Coming from Northern Ireland I have certainly seen crosses but those were mostly made out of wood or stone and do not glow in the dark. They also aren’t stuck on the roofs of what must be incredibly large churches.
As we got closer to the hotel I stopped gazing into the distance and focused on the roads as now there was a lot of traffic. In Tokyo they have built roads in the air but here there are wide roads on the ground. I counted seven lanes on our side of the road, four for going forward and three for turning. I tried to count the lanes on the other side of the road but there were too many cars and I was having difficulty believing that there could be seven lanes on any side of a road.
Wide Road
I have finally booked flights for my summer travel. I start travelling next week and will be away from home for 14 out of the next 21 weeks. I have booked 20 flights and plan to be in Seoul, Pittsburgh, Rome, Chicago, Madison, Amsterdam, Belfast, Frankfurt, London, Tallinn, and Sydney. I’m a bit apprehensive about the amount of travel I’ll be doing, but I will get to catch up with a lot of people. As well as a number of family events I’ll be attending YAPC::NA in Madison and YAPC::EU in Frankfurt. I’ll also be back home in time to attend YAPC::Asia in Tokyo. As always when I travel I will try to meet up with local Perl Mongers.
Attending and speaking at the Perl conferences is important to me but I haven’t managed to come up with an interesting talk this year. I will be speaking about The Perl Foundation at YAPC::NA and I may do this as well at YAPC::EU. But I had really wanted to create a lightning talk based around the number 25 as YAPC::EU will be my 25th YAPC and this year marks the 25th anniversary of Perl. I still have time to get inspired, but I have so many Perl related things that I’m working on that I don’t know if I’ll manage to make the talk a priority.
. . .I love spring in Japan. The summers are hot and humid, but spring feels like a good Irish summer. Yesterday, I finally felt well enough to venture outside to see the cherry blossoms. It’s one of the most talked about seasons in Japan, but it is fleeting. I feared that I would miss it, but there are still many flowering trees in this area.
I’m not sure how much longer the flowers will last. The streets are covered in petals and when the wind picks it snows cherry blossoms.
Sakura Snow
I’ve had a dull week. It had the potential to be fun, my wedding anniversary was on Monday, but I’m still ill. I’m finding it hard to concentrate, I have no energy, and I’m sure there are many things I would like to be doing other than sleeping. I don’t understand what is going on in my head but I’m driving myself mad. When I’m healthy curling up with a book in the afternoon and having a nap is such a luxury yet when I’m ill it seems like such a waste of time.
I was reading somewhere* recently that one of the central tenants of the Western worldview is that we should always be engaged in some sort of outward task. The author talked about the Swahili word for “Westerner” which translates to something like “one who moves around” or “who wanders aimlessly”. There is no doubt that when I’m sitting at home I feel as if I should be doing something, that I should achieve something every single day. Today I managed to make dinner, which is more than I managed yesterday, but it still feels like I’ve wasted a day. Of course it would be idiotic to do too much when I’m ill, but I have not found the balance between listening to my body and fighting illness.
*I’m not entirely sure which book I was reading but it was probably “Hide and Seek – The Psychology of Self-Deception” by Neel Burton.
. . .The wind is screaming around the apartment and I have been watching the lights sway as the building moves. We knew the storm was coming so I’ve been inside most of the day and Marty left work before lunch time. We won’t be going out tonight.
. . .When describing the age difference between myself and my baby sister I have often said, “I’ll be 40 when she’s 18″. That year has finally arrived, Sarah is 18 today and I’ll be 40 soon. I’ll have to come up with a new phrase.
Happy Birthday Sarah!
. . .
I took ill at the start of March and every day since I’ve expected to feel better. There were days in the month when things did improve, but then a day later I would wake up and feel as if someone had stabbed me in the throat again. Yesterday I went to see the doctor as it was fairly obvious that wishful thinking the infection away wasn’t working.
I will only go and see a doctor if I feel I have no other choice. But in Japan you are expected to go and see a doctor as soon as you suspect that you are ill, even if you think that illness may be nothing other than a cold. The doctor was not happy that I had waited nearly 4 weeks to see someone. I was not happy that the doctor spent his time with me typing notes on his computer and asking me questions as I was expecting him to examine me or maybe even look at me. At the point where I was wondering why I couldn’t just have sent an email diagnosing myself he did look at my throat. He then prescribed four different types of medication. He didn’t tell me much about them, but then I knew that the pharmacist would do this.
When I saw the pharmacist he also wasn’t happy that I had waited for weeks, his assumption being that the symptoms had started maybe a day ago. He told me that I was being given medication for my throat and sinus infection that included a pain killer, throat tablet, decongestant, and something for the cough. I was given detailed verbal instructions on how to take the medication and a detailed printout. If I had received this medication in the United Kingdom I would have been given some additional information. The throat tablet was an antibiotic. I wasn’t told that nor was I told that it is important to take the full course of antibiotics. It makes me suspect that in Japan people take the medication that they are given and don’t just stop taking it when they feel better. I also wasn’t told about possible side effects the most important one being that one of the drugs would make me drowsy. Maybe I’m supposed to stay inside and do nothing for the next 7 days?
As always after a visit to a Japanese doctor I arrived home with what seemed like far too much medication. But I will be good and take it for the next 7 days as I would like to be able to talk without pain.
Medication for Throat Infection
I have a family event to sing at soon, and my voice won’t behave. As well as being out of practice I have a cold that makes me sound nasally. I have been using vocal exercises to try to strengthen the lower end of my range but I got bored singing “ne-aw” and “me-may-ma-moo” and decided to use one verse of Summertime as an exercise instead. That way I got to sound less like a donkey, or at least I hope I do.
. . .