Observations II: Technology

I initially chose this title to be ironic about the time difference (since Korea is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time), but the united states is definitely lagging behind in this department. Its not that Koreans have things that we have never heard of, they just have better access to everything that is available.

For example, I haven't been in a car yet that doesn't have GPS mapping. Most everyone that I have run into also has a cell phone (or two depending on work). Many of the housing complexes are less than 5 years old. So they also have all of the newest and greatest things. Its not that they have 1-million inch LCD TVs, but they have all of the little things that make life easier. For example, apartments don't have heating ducts; they pipe the hot water through the floor and allow the heat to radiate into the apartment. Also each apartment building has a camera near the door and each apartment has an LCD built into the wall. So when someone comes to your apartment and they ask to be buzzed in, you can see them. This control is also connected to other parts of the building, handles the security features, most anything else that you can think of. Its really incredible.

Its not that they are doing incredible new things, they are just doing all of the cool little things that makes life easier. Roads are wide enough to handle traffic, roads don't have potholes all over the place (most are blacktop), your GPS will notify you when you come up on speed cameras or if you're speeding (it dings). Its just the little things.

Cars are much smaller than in the states too. This is to be expected because of the area, but the larger cars feel much bigger. We spent most of the day driving around in what would be called a mid sized car in America (think Ford Taurus) and while it was comfortable and had a lot of space in it, you could tell that it was difficult to manuver and it struggled in some of the parking garages. I'm sure that I'll continue to expand on this, being a tech nerd and all.