Day 17: The Idea Of Distance

Not a lot happened today. I didn't have to work though because it was a national holiday (Independence Movement Day) which means a nice, long weekend for Scotty! (and still getting paid for it too - hooray!)
I talked to my parents on the phone for a bit this morning, and it's always great to hear their voices. The whole concept of "distance" is really a strange one for me. I mean I know that I live VERY FAR away from where I was born, but in all honesty Seoul doesn't really feel that much further away from Thunder Bay than when I lived in Vancouver. I guess for me, I've always measured distance in my head by using one of three categories:

(Using Thunder Bay as an example)
1) You live in Thunder Bay.
2) You don't live in Thunder Bay, but live close enough that you could visit fairly often, like on the weekend or for a holiday or special birthday dinner or something like that. (Kinda like how Winnipeg is to Thunder Bay, or Seattle is to Vancouver.)
3) You live far enough away that you can only really visit once a year.

Both Vancouver and Seoul fall into category #3. I guess in my head I've been living far from home for quite a while, now it just means a longer plane ride to get home. Does all of this sound strange? Does anyone else measure distance with these terms besides me?

Also, every once in a while, and usually at the most random of moments, this thought will suddenly pop into my head: "HOLY FUCK! I'M LIVING IN *ASIA!* WOW!!!!!!!!" It baffles me every time. As a child, Asia always seemed like it was on another planet while I was growing up in Thunder Bay - a place that was so far away it was almost beyond comprehension, a place that I would probably never ever get to visit in my lifetime (mind you, when I was a child, Port Arthur seemed far away from my house...) And now, here I am, living in Seoul, tens of thousands of kilometres away from where I grew up. CRAZY! And if I continue the thought about me living in Asia, I start to think about how places like Japan and China and RUSSIA are actually just around the corner from South Korea. WOW!!! Why these thoughts get me so excited or strike such a chord, I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's cause I studied geography in school so exploring the concepts of space and distance first-hand is really amazing for me, or maybe it goes back to that childhood idea of Asia being located somewhere near Neptune, but it really does get me everytime. I wonder if any of my other friends who've moved overseas have ever thought about this (Ryan in Taiwan? Jenn in Australia? Mimi in Hong Kong? Jen in Scotland? Any thoughts?)

Not wanting to waste a perfectly sunny (but cold, when does it start to get warm in Korea? Now would be nice, thank you very much...) day off, I thought I'd check off something from my list of places to visit in Seoul. I took the subway down to Yeouido Island - a large island on the south banks of the Han River. Yeouido is home to many of Seoul's tallest high rises, and is ringed by a string of riverfront parks and greenspaces - one of the nicest areas in the city for sure. The waterfront was bustling with activity today - I guess everyone was thinking the same idea as me - to get out and enjoy the city - and the park was just packed with families, happy couples, and groups of friends. Yeouido is really popular for biking and rollerblading and I discovered that today. The whole riverfront of Seoul, on both sides of the Han, actually has a long network of trails so it's possible to bike or blade from one end to the other on a continuous smooth path. This is pretty amazing for an Asian city, where waterfronts are usually just used for garbage disposal and industrial uses (or so I've been told by people who've been elsewhere in Asia.) You can even rent bikes from Yeouido - I didn't today, but definitely plan on doing that once the weather gets warmer. I walked around, just enjoying the sights of the city. I was pleasantly surprised to see jagged mountain peaks poking up from behind the city - I had never seen these before (either smog or the darkness of night had always obscured them) and they looked really beautiful, even from so far away. Yeouido is also home to two of Seoul's most famous landmarks - the Korean National Assembly, and 63 Building - the tallest in Korea (guess who many floors it has!) I took photos of both and spent the afternoon just taking it all in. A chilly day, but enjoyable nonetheless.