So, it's Saturday night. I'm sitting in the living room watching TV with Molly (CNN - my choice, not hers). The Hawaiian pizza we ordered for dinner was surprisingly good, and the cold Heineken washed it down nicely. George is in his room playing video games. Ursula is trying to make order of all the stuff we've dragged home these past couple of days. Doesn't sound so different from a typical Saturday night in Canada!
This morning George and I went for a run in the Grand Children's Park behind our place. The perimeter track is 3 km (by comparison, the Central Park loop in NYC is 10 km) and rubberized, so it's nice on old knees. We also found a sliding hill in part of the park we haven't visited before. There's obviously snow-making equipment, as kids and adults were riding tubes down, just like we do in Canada. What seemed strange is that within 500 metres of kids sliding on snow, we saw others riding a rollercoaster.
I think the park is the kids' favourite thing in Korea so far, especially the zoo (which also reminds me a bit of the Central Park zoo, as seen in Madagascar, except this one is free admission). After walking through with us the first day, they've gone back on their own to feed the rabbits and deer. They've seen the lions, tigers and sea lions, but haven't managed to catch the elephants or polar bears outside yet.
In many ways, it's hard to believe we only moved into our apartment yesterday morning. While there's still much to do, I think we've made great progress. Yesterday we went to IKEA: arrived at 3:00; left at 8:30. I'm not sure whose GDP I boosted (Korea's or Sweden's) but my wallet was much easier to carry when we walked out. Tomorrow morning all our stuff will get delivered. Yes, there's a new bed for Barry and Ursula, and a new couch for the living room that folds into a bed (hint, hint). Hope it all fits in here.
As a final observation, I'd like to note one more time that Seoul is a very big city. When I checked the online subway routing from our local station to IKEA, I noticed it was 32 km and 80 minutes. (Not bad for less than $2!) But seriously, every time we take the subway it's full. Trains run every 3 or 4 minutes along the 18 lines between more than 600 stations. I just looked at Wikipedia, and now I understand why it seems so busy - average ridership is 9.8 million passengers each day!
This morning George and I went for a run in the Grand Children's Park behind our place. The perimeter track is 3 km (by comparison, the Central Park loop in NYC is 10 km) and rubberized, so it's nice on old knees. We also found a sliding hill in part of the park we haven't visited before. There's obviously snow-making equipment, as kids and adults were riding tubes down, just like we do in Canada. What seemed strange is that within 500 metres of kids sliding on snow, we saw others riding a rollercoaster.
I think the park is the kids' favourite thing in Korea so far, especially the zoo (which also reminds me a bit of the Central Park zoo, as seen in Madagascar, except this one is free admission). After walking through with us the first day, they've gone back on their own to feed the rabbits and deer. They've seen the lions, tigers and sea lions, but haven't managed to catch the elephants or polar bears outside yet.
In many ways, it's hard to believe we only moved into our apartment yesterday morning. While there's still much to do, I think we've made great progress. Yesterday we went to IKEA: arrived at 3:00; left at 8:30. I'm not sure whose GDP I boosted (Korea's or Sweden's) but my wallet was much easier to carry when we walked out. Tomorrow morning all our stuff will get delivered. Yes, there's a new bed for Barry and Ursula, and a new couch for the living room that folds into a bed (hint, hint). Hope it all fits in here.
As a final observation, I'd like to note one more time that Seoul is a very big city. When I checked the online subway routing from our local station to IKEA, I noticed it was 32 km and 80 minutes. (Not bad for less than $2!) But seriously, every time we take the subway it's full. Trains run every 3 or 4 minutes along the 18 lines between more than 600 stations. I just looked at Wikipedia, and now I understand why it seems so busy - average ridership is 9.8 million passengers each day!
Molly and I testing the sofas at IKEA.
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