tintiiin

Sustainability certainly has its different meanings. I guess no one can argue against that in a sense. Just by talking to my closest non-environmental/sustainability student friends I realize that my take on it is different, most often broader and in one way more holistic than theirs. Even among us; the persons knowing more and being more everyday up-to-date with the debate and progress, the understanding differs. It’s arguable if it is a good thing or not, however, I am not stepping in to that discussion but rather sharing some interesting reflections on how I perceive the Koreans’ take on sustainability. I bet this topic is going to be continued and altered as I spend more time in Korea. This will be my first thought, without having had the time and opportunity to discuss it with any locals. As far as I have come is adding sustainable development to what I major in in all these getting-to-know-each-other-conversations. The reaction is an “ahaaa, interesting”, no more, no less.

Living and being in Seoul, a metropolis, there are not many green spaces. On the other hand, it seems like the Koreans value green spaces. I have two indicators both connected to my campus. First, on my orientation the university staff was very eager to point out that the campus had a lot of green areas and spaces to enjoy nature and sun during breaks. Also, the campus is surrounded by mountains (Gwanak mountain) and the representative of the school encouraged us to hike to the summit some time during the semester. This brings me to the second indicator, the Koreans especially the middle-aged seem to love to hike. Not only are the streets, subways and restaurants close to my campus crowed with groups of two to ten well-equipped hikers during weekends, you can also see them during the week. The well-equipped feature is very interesting, apparently as a hiker you have to have the latest gear, the “right” models and walking sticks. The street across to mine has three outdoor gear stores, right next to each other. At least for me, latest fashion and hiking do not go together, but there are always two sides of the coin – unnecessary consumption and experiencing and coming close to nature. I would say that closeness to nature seem valued and as soon as you officially can say that you are doing something that brings the Koreans people closer to nature – brag about it. Today I saw an “eco-bridge”, I did not walk on it but it looked like it was a pedestrian bridge over a highway with a lot of trees, bushes and plants along. It seemed really nice. Also, I have seen quite a few plantations of trees and smaller plants on rooftops; go rooftop gardening!

Furthermore, Koreans walk slooooooowly, really slowly. Some of the escalators barely move, today I had a mental fight with myself; I was going down to the subway, standing in an escalator that barely moved. It was people around me, not crowed but still a few on the move. The interesting thing is, no one rushes past – everyone stands still and patiently waits for the escalator to drag its way down; why not walk!? It seems like they are not in a rush. I like that, even though I am overly unused to that and always tries to be a little faster. One possible explanation, especially in the context and relation to subways could be that the trains depart so often that you never have to run. My reply to that is firm and clear: not true. They (I do not know who actually) say the subway in Seoul is among the best in the world, I would not say that but I guess that depends on what you value. I value frequent trains, here I always have to wait – it is exactly the same as in Stockholm. But again, the Koreans seem to be calm. I think that a valuable characteristic.

The slow pace and the subway remind me of another reflection, the unwillingness to walk. Is it so that the convenient and covering public transport make the Koreans a bit lazy? I mean no offense, it is only an observation based on the default way to get to uni from the subway. It is possible to walk there, it takes twenty minutes and yes, it is a pretty heavy hill to climb but in my eyes it is no match and definitely a good way to get your every-day workout. However, walking is not the way to go, but the shuttle buses are. Of course it is good that they go, what if it rains or when it is freezing cold (or rather way too hot for your own good), what I was reacting on though is the outrageous idea it would be to walk that loooong walk to campus! Catastrophe! But I guess it would be outrageous to walk in high heels the 1.5 km. it is all about. High heels are for the record the way to dress here (as a woman), or rather, it is either that or running shoes.

Let me come back to you with updates on these issues and more observations.

The waiting continues. This time with a hurting arm. The coffee machine (yes, a real fancy one, and yes, I’ve had a luxurious coffee every day the last couple of months in my temporary free-time off-studying holiday place all-inclusive on the countryside with horses around, a constantly full fridge and good company) burnt me! My forearm has a reddish swollen triangle that burns! I’ve melted four ice cubes on the mark already. Feel sorry for me! Good coffee costs a lot.

In the waiting process of going to Seoul and start packing (which I really should get started with) I entertain myself with diverse activities. The kind of stuff you want to do but you always have too much other must-dos that come in the way. Sad thing is though, those things are seldom as fun and entertaining when they are the only things you do. Anyhow, I try to enjoy myself and appreciate the excess of time. One question that brings to mind is the (recurrent) one – why can’t humans hoard stuff like time, energy, company etc.? Why not? It would be so cool, and save us so much trouble!

But I guess, evolution takes its time. Our future generations might get lucky. Speaking of future generations it comes to mind that one thing I miss having time to do while being busy studying is engage in political discussions and keep myself updated of the political game. Hence, today’s entertainment was partly to watch the foreign affairs debate in the parliament, and a lot more interesting, watch one of the interviews in the show Nyfiken på Partiledaren on SVT Play. Today the choice fell on Åsa Romson, speaker for the Green Party. For you who haven’t seen the program, have a look; it’s a different portrait of the leaders of the parties in parliament as it covers a more personal angle of the politicians. There is no focus on what the party thinks and argues in certain political questions but rather their outlook on mankind, and what ideology means to them. Another important distinction to other attempts to cover politics and politicians take on issues is that it is not an interview per se, but a conversation between the politician and the guy leading the conversation (in this case a doctor and therapist).

However, what I wanted to comment on is how the different political leaders handle the unusual situation differently. Åsa seems a bit uncomfortable of talking about herself and her childhood as she tries to generalize her experiences. The conversation with the leaders is followed up in a studio with two commentators (one of them lectured on my Political Science basic course). The commentators lifted Åsa’s work with their interpretations of her performance. For my untrained eye I saw a pretty uncomfortable and grey person sitting in the chair, all the other leaders I’ve watched in the same show had caught my attention and become someone, a person and I felt I’d got to know them a bit. Åsa was still very vague, not as she avoided questions but rather as she didn’t have those great personal and attention-grabbing answers. The commentators’ analysis of this though came to a rather different conclusion than I had done in my quick judgment. The very “un-prominent” leader was in itself a formation of the party’s structure, ideology and ideas. The Green Party is about the ideas, not the social ties, it’s about the democratic organization not the leader, it’s about the joint conviction of including more people (read younger, not yet born etc.) not about who the people are. I hope the commentators interpreted Åsa fairly and correctly and in that case they did a great effort of helping the Greens to communicate their philosophy. Watch the show and judge for yourself.  

Now, let's do some more of those activites that I actually have time for - yoga.

Here we are, waiting and preparing. Hoping, with one half of my heart and mind that time would fly by, or at least that one week would fly by really quickly. The other half on the other hand demands a slowly development, in order to realize and grasp what will come. Personally, I believe that the second option here is potentially the most logical one, but at the same time very unrealistic. Truth is, you hardly will understand what’s going on until you’re in the middle of it, if even at that time.

What will happen in a week is that I go to Seoul, South Korea. Luckily not alone, but with my boyfriend. We’ll study there for a couple of months and then go on with exploring the rest of the country, and most likely also Japan. It’s really hard to grasp. I am surrounded with papers and documents, recently sorted in different piles; insurances, grades transcripts, admission papers, miscellaneous. Fun thing is, I also have copies of those documents on my folders in the computer. And the most important ones are also saved in the e-cloud. While the anxiety is growing, my organizing grows more frequent, and structured, and notorious. Poor BF. He is basically the opposite, keeping calm and relaxed. Good for him I say.

So, Seoul, what do we know about it? Let’s see the trends I’ve spotted so far:

• It’s hot, trendy. Everywhere I look (read Swedish newspapers and magazines) more and more attention is directed on the food, the culture, the innovation, the school system etc. in South Korea, namely Seoul.
• The country is in the forefront of innovation and technical solutions in order to create a sustainable urban life. They have road-powered buses, very efficient public transport, electronic solutions to a lot, and more. Plus, the UN office for sustainable development is situated in Incheon, just next to Seoul.
• There is (in my opinion) a very interesting combination of development, innovation and fresh thinking and hierarchy. The peninsula is home to the Confucianism tradition, which entails, among other ideas, a strong hierarchy. Elder people, people with different positions, people you know or not, they all are entitled different greetings ant different ways of paying respect. How does that work with innovation and new thinking? Let me come back to you on that one.
• Koreans work a lot. They do ore hours a week than most of us, spare time does not exist.
• They are genuinely helpful, and apparently they appreciate whenever foreigners try to speak Korean, hence the very structured and diverse rules of the languages deriving from their hierarchal traditions seem not to be applicable for non-Koreans. (Pew!)
• Their alphabet (based on characters just as Mandarin and Japanese) is supposedly easy to learn. I have started to explore the characters and the way they construct words (or rather syllables). I wouldn’t say it’s easy but, no, not as hard as I imagined. Lacking skills in other character-based languages I cannot argue how Hangul (the name of the Korean alphabet) is more or less easy than any other alphabet of the kind. Whenever I’ve learnt Korean and, let’s say Mandarin, I get back to you on that one too (yeah, riiiight!).

More or less, let’s evaluate and experience, handle the stress and keep sorting paper ‘til time’s up and flight’s leaving!