Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Chuseok really Seoks this year: Rain in Seoul and Seyo's Got Good Timing

I may never have told you the story of the most touching gesture I had from a friend on Chuseok: in my first year, a buddy spent the whole day of Chuseok with me, down at Gyeongbok Palace and Namsangol Folk Village, because he couldn't imagine someone being alone on Chuseok day.  I was really touched by that.

This year, I'm with Wifeoseyo and her awesome family.  We drank some seriously classy Ballantine's whisky: me, my pop and brother-in-law, and have had a great old time bopping around Daegu.

This evening, Wifeoseyo got online and saw news reports that basically, Seoul is currently completely under water.


Here be a shot borrowed from news sources.

the images on the news are incredible, too.  Is it seriously like this?

(another - source)

So from a sensible person (say, wifeoseyo)'s perspective, looks like I got out of town just...in...time.

From a blogger's perspective, holy crap I'm missing out on the greatest blog photo essay this year!!!  And that's why bloggers are different from ordinary people.  Sensible people say "I'm not doing that.  That's buttflapping crazy!"  Bloggers say "I'm in.  Just let me get my camera."


The mad blogger in me wishes I was there, so I could put on my bathing suit, strap on some water wings, put my camera in a dicapac (got one for the honeymoon with coral) and go out exploring Seoul underwater... hoping I didn't get washed out to the Han River, like my buddy Joe almost did.

If you have a floody Seoul story, share it in the comments.

6 comments:

Lauren said...

There were foot deep puddles in Hyehwa, I'm shocked that it was -apparently- that bad...i'm intrigued to find out if it was!

JIW said...

THe river outside my officetell got really high. A couple were making their way down the path when they finally realized it was overflowing. First the tried to walk by it on the grassy side of the wall. Then the river rose more. So they turned around and went back. Seriously ...I worried for them.

chiam said...

I've been defending my place all day.

Breda said...

I got more soaked today than I've ever been while not in the shower. I hope it doesn't rain again tomorrow!

gordsellar said...

In Bucheon, Line 1 was flooded and shut down, but the biggest chaos on the street was the exploded manholes that had been paved over. It took me 2 hours to get from Yeokgok to Shindorim (usually a 15-20 min trip), but I wasn't really in peril at any point.

The really crazy flooding was, apparently, in the area of Hongdae and around SNU. But it did make a mess of the city, and all transport between Incheon and Seoul was shut down for some time. For the second time in a month.

And sadly, too many people are going to start saying, "See? This is why we need the Four Rivers Restoration Project." Argh.

Erik said...

I had to walk through a a river in 대치 that used to be known as a street. I'd scratch the swim trunks and water wings idea. That water was nasty. You would have wanted full foul weather gear including waders.