In Korea [Day 1]

Arrived in South Korea at about 11am this morning. Not a bad flight, but a bit crowded and the guy sitting next to me was fidget-y and had lots of arms. Watched three movies though, "Shall we Dance", "Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason", and "Cellular". Cellular is a truly 'B' movie, but on that scale, Edge of Reason is hardly an 'F'. Totally awful and Rene Z. just embarrasses the rest of the cast. Useless, but I'll write more on the other blog.
Easy bus into the City Air Terminal in about an hour and a short taxi ride down to the hotel. The first thing that hits you on the bus is the total lack of colour. Everything is grey and beige, with the dormant trees and grass brown from the dry winter here. But the hills are also all sculptured and rounded, and even the little hills of gravel used at building sites are covered with non-descript netting. On the way I think I saw three graveyards, but I might be wrong. They were stepped hills, with little mounds of gravel on them and with small head markers on them. Maybe they were something else, and it is certainly an unpleasant place to rest, right next to the motorway.
Koreans are great. Very friendly, lots of English and welcome to use it. Young people are often carrying large textbooks and seem happy and studious. At the motorway toll-gate, whereas Japan only uses men to collect money, Korea only uses women. The status of women here is clearly very low, although Korean women can be much more aggressive and openly intelligent than Japanese (who are taught from an early age to hide and cover their intelligence), but they're not treated very well. On the other than, you see lots of very romantic looking couples being affectionate to each other, something you still rarely see in Japan.
After checking in and sleeping for a couple of hours, I met RH and had a 'Breakfast Tea Latte'. For the order, the server asked RH his name to which he replied, "David Beckham". The server didn't even bat an eyelid and entered it on the receipt, so RH now has his own David Beckham receipt. After chatting for an hour or so, he went off to meet others and I headed back. The garlic on the train was a bit strong and the guy throwing up in the corner of the crowded carriage didn't help -- but luckily the smell only just began to reach me by the time I got off. Not nice, but there is a tradition of over drinking here.
Right to bed. My presentation is ready, we'll see how we go tomorrow.