Life in the ‘big’ city

I’m not sure if it still says this but when you used to drive into town there was a sign that would say : Winnipeg, one great city. I always thought it should say : Winnipeg, we are SO a city.

Growing up in Westwood, I was often reminded of the unicity concept when I went to the local mall of the same name. (it’s no longer there)

It’s not so much one unit as it is a collection of smaller ones.

I never really noticed the difference until I moved to Korea and lived in the province that surrounds Seoul and is known as Gyeonggi-do.

Somewhere between twenty-five and thirty million people live in the Seoul metropolitan area. (roughly the population of Canada)

Seven million people use the subway system everyday.

After I got back from living there for a few years, things seemed a lot different. I certainly had a lot more personal space and everything seemed open and free.

The difference was really clear as I drove to the Paul McCartney concert this summer. The whole time I kept wondering what happened to all of the people and the buildings.

Where did they all go? Did they just disappear?

“You have to remind yourself that things here are just different, they are not wrong, it’s just different”. A friend of mine told this to me during an interview for my documentary about English teachers in Korea.

So often I would end these interviews by asking the person to offer any advice to any one back home who might want to go to Korea to be an English teacher but might be a little bit afraid.

Time after time people kept offering up the same advice. They would say that it was up to the person to make the best of it and that having an open mind really helped.

Sound advice. I need to follow it.

cheers,

rymr

ps: it is nice to see stars again. good to know they didn't go away.