Bus blows up in Seoul

Holy crap. (Full news story here.)

International Pillow Fight Day 2010

Yesterday was the 2010 International Pillow Fight Day. Here in Seoul, it took place in front of Seoul City Hall. It was awesome beyond belief. It was a bit amusing because most of the participants were fellow foreigners, with only a few Koreans involved (and the Koreans who were involved could speak English pretty well).

Now THIS is how the Korean War should've been settled.

Here's a video clip of it from EatYourKimchi.com (I actually saw Martina from that site at the event, but didn't put a name to her face until I got home):



And here are some photos I took at the event.

Korean weather is like Mariah Carey on a bender

On Saturday, Korea had the largest yellow dust storm ever recorded.

On Monday, it was snowing heavily in Seoul. The snowflakes were the sizes of loonies.

Today, on Wednesday, it's 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit). It's warm enough to open the windows because my room temperature is usually only 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit). Yes, I have a cold apartment.

However, apparently the yellow dust levels are "high" right now, which means I have to close my windows again.

Seriously, Korea's weather is like Mariah Carey on a bender this year.

Adventure in Korea: By the numbers

Contract statistics:
Number of days completed in contract: 209
Number of days left in contract: 156
Percentage of contract finished: 57.7%
Number of days in Korea: 217

School statistics:
Number of students whacked by co-teacher: approx. 46
Number of students sleeping in class: approx. 17
Number of times I've gotten lost in Korean Windows XP: 12
Months before I decided to say "screw it" and bring my own computer: 6.2 months
Number of times I bowed: approx. 6,100
Number of times a student has bowed to me: approx. 31,200
Number of times I bumped into a student outside of school: approx. 50
Number of cultural mistakes made at work: 13

Other statistics:
Amount of money saved per month: from 800,000 KRW to 1,300,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in fall, per month: 20,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in winter, per month: 130,000 KRW to 150,00 KRW
Hottest temperature experienced: 31 degrees C
Coldest temperature experienced: -21 degrees C
Number of stamps and visas in passport in past year: 13
Number of stamps and visas in passport before this year: 0
Number of times I've been mistaken for Korean: 189
Number of times I've been mistaken for Japanese: 56
Number of times I've been mistaken for American: 14
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Canadian: 0
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Chinese: 0
Number of verbally racist incidents: 9
Number of physically racist incidents: 0

In-jokes:
Number of seasons experienced: 3
Kilograms of kimchi consumed: 42.1 kg
Number of Hyundais and Kias spotted: approx. 47,000
Number of Toyotas spotted: approx. 5
Number of times I had to Konglishize a word to make myself understood: 21
Number of "gamsa hamnida"s: approx. 327,000
Number of "annyeong haseyo"s: approx. 410,000
Number of times I've crossed my arms into an X: approx. 12,000

Yellow Dust frenzy

For visitors to this blog from outside Korea, please note that this post's title is not meant to be racist. However, I fully support a "Banana Dust" for us white-washed Asians. We need our own dust. Now... "Black Dust" would simply be a stroke of awesomeness. It would look so freaking cool.

Anyways, every spring, northern China, Korea and Japan get covered frequently by dust storms originating from China, called "Yellow Dust" or "Asian Dust" (황사). Today, a huge dust storm hit northern China and Korea. It got so bad that I actually had to turn on the lights at 11:45am because it was so dark. It was like the apocalypse.

I headed out to take some photos, and ended up at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. Here's how it looked.

Above: Seoul World Cup Stadium, around 2pm and with its surroundings colored and sometimes obscured by Yellow Dust.

According to the official readings, the warning level today was between "very unhealthy" and "hazardous." It felt like I was in a world where the sun never really shines, like in Blade Runner or something.

Very scary stuff, and today is only the spring equinox -- only the start of the Yellow Dust season.

Oh... my... goodness...

It's been snowing for most of last night and half of today, and Seoul's streets are covered with snow and slush. The temperatures took a pretty big dive and it's been the coldest in a while.

So it came as a huge shock to me when I went to shop for groceries today near Seoul Station, and noticed something strange on the sidewalk. It looked like a person, and there was some sort of liquid coming out of him/her. Immediately I assumed that it was someone who drank too much soju and was throwing up; after all, Korea is known for people getting drunk.

And then I noticed that the head looked strange. It looked like TWO heads. And they both looked bald. And then I realized that those aren't heads. I was wondering what they were when the person stood up. Suddenly it became clear what I just saw.

It was a woman who pulled down her pants and was peeing on the sidewalk, with her butt exposed for everyone to view. The two "heads" were her butt cheeks. The "vomit" was actually urine. So she was urinating in public with her butt exposed to the snowy weather (and towards oncoming traffic!) in central Seoul.

I think I'm going to have a few nightmares tonight.

안녕히 가세요, Korea! 你好, Hong Kong!

I'm about to leave for the airport on my way to Hong Kong, where I'll remain until the end of the month. It's 4:47am and I'm sleepy as hell. I leave you with this:



In Korea, it's common to have people so drunk that they pass out in public. In fact, there's even a website out there dedicated to this. I finally got a chance to submit my own pic for that site. This guy was snoring loudly while passed out in a parking space belonging to an apartment building about 5 minutes from my building. It was -5 degrees C, so he was really out of it to be passed out like that!

How a fire and the "rape tax" convinced me to get a Mac

South Korea is not a Mac-friendly country. Most people who know anything about this country will tell you that. 99% of the country uses Microsoft Windows, and 99% of those people use Internet Explorer. I already knew that when I came here, so I wasn't surprised to find that almost everything computer-related for sale in Seoul is designed for PCs.

Therefore, it is with great irony that earlier today, I bought a new MacBook here in Seoul.

Why get a new computer? Well, there were a few reasons why. My HP Pavilion laptop has had its share of problems in the past, and it has been showing signs of wiring problems since September. For example, the monitor would blink and you would hear a high pitched noise every time it did. The batteries and adapter were both dying -- it wouldn't charge more than 25% to 35%, and even before this started happening, the batteries had a tendency to consume a lot of power sometimes and little power at other times; in other words, battery consumption was unpredictable.

And yesterday, the monitor blacked out. Yet, it wasn't completely black -- I could still see the windows on the screen and everything, but it was just blacked out. And every time it happened, I would smell something similar to burning, and the smell would be coming from the fan. That was quite scary. Fixing all of these problems would likely cost more than the laptop itself.

Coming home from work today, I was surprised to find that my usual view of Namsan from my shortcut was obscured by a HUGE fire. It was a clear day, but the smoke covered the whole view of Namsan. A firefighting helicopter had to come in to drop fire retardant on the area, like in a forest fighter. The fire probably destroyed at least 3 or 4 buildings. After the burning smell from my laptop, seeing the fire freaked me out a little, and convinced me that it might be a good time to get a new laptop. I already said that my next laptop would be a Mac, so it was a no-brainer.

I saw a good price at a Seoul electronics market called TechnoMart the other day. The price was identical to Future Shop back in Canada. However, TechnoMart was cheaper because of the incoming HST sales tax in British Columbia this summer -- or, as I like to call it, the "rape tax," because it feels like the government is raping us for money. And it appears like the tax rate is increasing even more very soon. Partially thanks to the rape tax, I was convinced to buy a Mac in South Korea -- one of the most Mac-unfriendly places in the world.

With the rape tax in mind, it was already cheaper. But Seoul's electronics dealers usually give you a deal if you say that you want to pay in cash, so I got it reduced by another 100,000 KRW ($100 Canadian) -- and it was already cheaper than Canada!

This was surprising because it seems that Apple products tend to be more expensive in South Korea, generally speaking. It's rare to see a Mac in use over here, but there is an increasing number of Apple specialty dealers. The dealer I bought my MacBook from basically said that South Korean technology is changing quickly in favor of Apple products (especially after the iPhone's debut this past winter), and a lot of Apple dealers are trying to get ahead of the competition.

Appreciating Seoul

It's no secret that places annoy me. I get annoyed with Vancouver. I get annoyed with Southern California. I get annoyed with... well, almost every place I go to. I don't know, but the more familiar I become with a city, the more I get annoyed with it. (It's not always annoyed in a bad way though.) So it seems inevitable that I will get annoyed with Seoul.

Before the snow came and hit the city, I used to like making trips out to far places, like in Gyeonggi-do (the province around Seoul) or in Incheon. I had no idea why, until the other day.

There is such a large contrast between Seoul and the areas outside of Seoul. I was on my way to Anyang the other day, and once I was outside of Seoul, there was a large atmospheric change. Suddenly, I really started to feel conscious of the fact that there is a lot less English. Even ordering a burger proved to be a mountainous task. Even though the area looks like a much better neighborhood to be in, it doesn't seem to be a place where a newly-arrived frightened foreigner (ie. me) would want to be to start out in South Korea; the areas outside the big cities don't seem to be well-equipped for non-Koreans. Why should they be? It's not like non-Koreans find these areas to be large tourist hotspots.

On the bus ride back, it was getting dark. As the bus crossed from Gyeonggi-do to Seoul, there was again the huge shift in atmosphere. There was suddenly a lot of English (some of it incorrectly used). There were signs that it was an international city, even though some of them weren't entirely successful, like the cellphone store that had a banner outside advertising some deal to foreigners -- but the banner was written in Korean. But at least the effort was there, which is more than I can say for the areas outside Seoul.

Back in Vancouver, I remember how many times I would go somewhere far from the city, just to re-energize myself. I would get away from Vancouver and go somewhere far like White Rock or Langley, where it's so quiet and so far from everything that you feel like you can scream and there's a chance that nobody would hear you, before coming back to the city, where things are convenient and faster-paced.

I guess here in Seoul, I need to find that release once in a while too. I need to go somewhere drastically different from the norm once in a while, only to come back and appreciate the fact that I live in Seoul. In comparison to its surroundings, Seoul is actually quite worldly, despite the large number of improvements that can be made. Is Seoul the best place for foreigners? I don't think so. Is it heading in the right direction in terms of internationalization? Probably. Would I be happier working in Seoul than elsewhere? Definitely.

---

In other news:

• The temperatures are finally back above freezing today. It's amazing how 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) suddenly feels warm after a week of terrible weather.
• It's also amazing how much snow can melt in 6 degrees C (43 degrees F). The streets are wet out there and it looks like it rained, but it didn't.
• Yesterday was an awful work day. The students were almost scared of the material, and actually bailed on me after their scheduled classroom cleaning. But ironically, today was brilliant. They cooperated and didn't need me to force them to work on the stuff I assigned to them. It was amazing how one day was awful and one day was brilliant.
• I really want to make sushi, but can't find out how to prepare the rice.
• My laptop battery is doing weird things. Windows Vista said the battery is "plugged in, not charging." Jay suggested that it's an adapter problem. I hope so, because replacing an adapter is certainly a lot cheaper than replacing an entire battery.

Brrrr, it's cold in here...

I woke up this morning to a balmy -19 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). According to the Korea Times, it was the lowest official temperature for Seoul in six years. (You might remember that last week, it was -21 degrees Celsius. It was not an official figure.) "Even the usually warm southern resort island of Jeju registered minus 0.9 degrees," says the article. Thankfully, it's supposed to get warmer starting this weekend, possibly back to above-freezing temperatures.

But in comes Murphy's law -- because of the cold temperatures and how many people here have no gas heating and must heat their homes with electricity (me included), there is a warning that there might a possible power blackout next week due to high energy consumption. In fact, earlier today, South Korea set a new record in peak power use.

The current forecast for the rest of the week:

Tonight: -11 C (12 F) <-- the weather gadget on the right side of this page says -13 C as I write this.
Day Thurs.: -10 C (14 F)
Night Thurs.: -6 C (21 F)
Day Fri.: -2 C (28 F)
Night Fri.: -8 C (17 F)
Day Sat.: -3 C (26 F)
Night Sat.: -10 C (14 F)

With that said, I can't wait until my trip to Hong Kong... It's like the light at the end of the snowy ice tunnel.

Snowy wonderland

Because this was a "work from home" week, I've been staying inside for almost the entire week to avoid the snow outside; my friend Kavita knows, but I'm in an EXTREMELY hilly area and snow has made my area quite dangerous.

But yesterday, I finally wandered outside. Some areas are still quite dangerous and slippery (and resemble skating rinks), but some of the areas have been cleared.

Near the Lotte Mart at the Seoul bullet train station (where I do my shopping), there was a large snow bank. How large, you ask? Well, this picture will tell you:

Above: The large snow bank outside Seoul Station's Lotte Mart.

I really feel sorry for the teachers who had to teach winter camp this past week. Mine starts on Monday, so I got to skip the huge snowfall and stay home. I didn't even go outside for lunch. The snow has made me a cook, as I learned how to make several new dishes ths week. I guess there's a benefit to all of this.

I survived the great snowstorm of 2010 and all I got are these pics and videos

Article from the Korea Herald yesterday (emphasis added):

Heavy snow blanketed the Seoul metropolitan area yesterday, causing traffic chaos on the first work day of the new year and delaying or canceling scores of flights.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the snow that began falling early in the morning piled up around the nation's central regions, with more than 25.2 centimeters accumulating in Seoul, as of noon yesterday.

The snow in Seoul was the heaviest in 41 years and second heaviest since the nation started observing snowfall back in 1937, the weather agency added.

Albert told me it was snowing in Beijing. The storm was supposed to lose power over the Yellow Sea but that didn't happen. Luckily, the night before, I went out and had bulgogi (marinated beef stew mixed with rice) for dinner, and also did some grocery shopping on the way home. My apartment has always been well-stocked with food in case of weather emergencies (and also because I don't think going out in cold weather is a good idea). Also, this is a "work from home" week for me, so staying inside in my relatively warm apartment was an obvious choice.

Here are some photos...

Above: the view outside my apartment.

My apartment has a very small population -- there are about six units in total. Everyone else left for work earlier in the day, so it was very quiet. I went downstairs to see if the postal delivery person managed to make it through the snow. Because everyone left for work, the front door was left alone during the snow and it was partially blocked. I had to work hard to get it open.

Needless to say, nobody got their mail yesterday or today.

Above: My apartment building's front door -- trapped by snow.

The snow had briefly stopped when I went downstairs, so I got to open the front door and take some photos of my street during this brief pause. Shortly after these photos, it continued to snow even more. The final measurement I took later that night was 10.5 inches (27 centimeters) of snow.

Above: My side street, during a small pause halfway through the snowfall.

Above: This car was definitely not going anywhere. By the end of the day, it was 100% covered with snow.

And here's a little video I took shortly before the photos:

Ah, F this...

Found in Seoul's Itaewon international tourist area:


Ah, F this S...

Oh, Korea. Sometimes you're just silly.

Yesterday, I posted a rant about how we English speakers tend to take English for granted. I also said:

In a way, it isn't for lack of trying, because many places and chains here have English names and no Korean names. But simply naming places with English doesn't always result in language proficiency. Sure, many businesses (both Korean-owned and Western-owned) have English names, but once you see their marketing slogans -- when they're forced to string English words together rather than using them autonomously from one another -- you suddenly realize that South Korea has a long way to go because the slogan is often non-sensical or grammatically incorrect. You know your standards for Koreans using correct English have lowered when you don't wince at Lotteria's Borat-like "Happy Time!" slogan anymore.

So, naturally, I had to come across this gem near my apartment and adjacent to Sookmyung Women's University:

Above: "Timeless Time The of Coffee Tree." Whoa, dude. Deeeeeeep...

Oh, Korea.

Korea, Korea, Korea...

South Korea Sights: Cheonggyecheon

Above: Cheonggyecheon in its modern form, as seen from its starting point.

When South Korea began its rapid industrialization after the Korean War, there were some sacrifices that had to be made, especially in Seoul. One of them involved the environmental and aural aspects of the city itself. Cheonggyecheon was originally a natural stream that went through most of central Seoul, and emptied into the Han River (which then in turn emptied into the Yellow Sea).

During the Japanese occupation, the colonial government intended to cover up the stream numerous times. After the Korean War, the stream attracted people who eventually made the side of the stream their home. The living conditions around it soon went downhill, and this drastically affected Seoul's image in a negative way. Along with the demands of rapid industrialization and modernization, the South Korean government decided to go through with what the Japanese colonial government wanted to do, and covered it up to make way for a highway in 1976.

Above: The giant cone (and water source) marking the starting point of Cheonggyecheon.

This came at an environmental price though -- because of what was done, the stream completely dried up and ceased to resemble anything like its original form. In 2003, the Seoul mayor at the time (and current president of South Korea) Lee Myung-bak announced plans to restore the stream. The plan was ambitious from the start, because the stream would have to be artificially re-created and the water pumped in (rather than relying on natural water sources). It also promised to drastically change the transportation infrastructure of the city.

The stream re-opened in 2005 and proved to be a dramatic success. The stream, which stretches for about 6 kilometers, also provides a greenbelt for pedestrians and is currently a popular tourist attraction.

Earthquakes can never prepare you for thunder and lightning

These past couple of weeks have been full of unstable weather here in Seoul. Every day, I would look out the window and try to predict whether it will be raining or not. At least back in Vancouver, you could tell -- if it's cloudy there, it'll likely remain cloudy for much of the day (or the week, for that matter). Here, it can change in an instant.

So imagine how I felt when I went to bed and it was still relatively clear, only to be awakened at around 3am by lightning and thunder. I stirred, looked around and went like, "Oh. It's thundering and lightning(ing?). Great." And then I buried my head back in the pillow again.

And then...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

I've been through earthquakes before, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened. The whole room shook and the boom was deafening. I nearly fell out of bed in surprise. "What the bloody hell?" I thought. I had a tough time sleeping after that.

This morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I wondered if that boom and the shaking came from a direct lightning strike. I wonder if my poor little apartment was struck by lightning. The power was fine but even if there was a surge, the lights were off (obviously, since I was sleeping) so I couldn't tell anyway. But either my apartment got a direct hit, or a neighboring unit or building did (since my windows are about a foot away from the neighboring buildings).

Scary.

What happens in Korea stays in Korea...

After being in Korea for a little over a month, there are certain things that are guaranteed to happen. Here are some things that become a way life after a while.

• from your obscured view of Seoul Tower on your way to work, you can differentiate between mist, fog, smog and just plain airborne crap.
• you hear "T-Money" and don't instinctively think it's a name of a rapper.
• motorcycles nearly running you down on the sidewalk no longer faze you.
• you learn to ignore the people selling their homemade CDs on the subways.
• your local supermarket chain (Lotte Mart, E-Mart, etc.) has some of their employees dressed either in traditional Korean hanbok (한복, dress) or dressed like female anime characters. And then you see one of them on break at the food court... so imagine a tired-looking Sailor Moon at a food court slurping back some noodles.
  
• the local supermarket chain has greeters like Wal-Mart, but not only do they "bow" welcome to you, they also wipe down the push handle of your shopping cart on your way in.
• your neighborhood has crappy sanitation and power lines tangled all over the place above you as you go down the street, yet you consider the international district of Itaewon (이태원) to be much seedier and more of a slum.
• you see South Korean soldiers out on the streets in full garb on a daily basis.
• you can differentiate between the "good" and "bad/hooligan" US soldiers.
• you see more Dunkin' Donuts locations in Seoul than any major city on the west coast of the United States.
• every car you see is either a Hyundai, Kia, Renault/Samsung, Daewoo or Ssangyong. The other day, I saw a Ford and a Honda next to each other near Seoul Station, and nearly had a heart attack due to the surprise.
• you find out about Dokdo (독도).
• you know how to avoid discussing Dokdo.
• you know not to call Dokdo "Takeshima."
• you know how not to display any affection for Japan, regardless of whether you have any or not.
• you start thinking that 20 MB per second is a "slow internet connection."
• on your way to work, there'd be at least one convenience store.
• on your way to work, there'd be at least one hagwon (학원, private education academy).
• on your way to work, there'd be at least one PC bang (PC방, internet cafe).
• on your way to work, there'd be at least one "budongsan" (부동산, real estate office).
• you avoid looking inside the wastebasket next to toilets in the public washrooms. (Those in South Korea will know exactly why.)
• an address means diddly squat when you're actually on the streets trying to look for it.
• seeing two men on the streets with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders doesn't draw any assumptions of homosexuality.
• being drunk in public is acceptable (and sometimes encouraged).
• you see cabinets full of gas masks on the platforms of subway stations.
• avoiding flying blobs of spit and phlegm while on the street becomes a life skill.
• the word "dong" (동, neighborhood) stops having sexual connotations, once you realize that you live in one.
• the subway train losing power between Seoul Station and Namyeong Station no longer alarms you.
• a phrase like "I'm not going to drive... I'm in a hurry, so I'll take public transit" makes perfect logical sense.
• you know that "b" is actually pronounced like "p," and "j" is actually pronounced like "ch," and "g" is actually pronounced like "k," and so on.
• when you order something from a Korean restaurant, you'll get more than what you order; in particular, you'll probably get kimchi and salad.
• being a millionaire is nothing to brag about, since 1 million KRW is only something like $940 CAD.
• you find out why there's a "Don't throw your key away" sign at the "love lock fence" at the foot of Seoul Tower.
• you know that takeout delivery will likely provide you with real (non-paper) plates and utensils, and you know what to do with them afterwards.

What is that in your mouth?

Sometimes after work, I get the munchies. I'm lucky that it happens here because South Korea has street food everywhere you look. So sometimes I go to a vendor across the street from the school to buy a bite to eat. I have a favorite, and it costs me 500 won (which is about 45 cents Canadian).

Basically, most of the deep fried stuff you see from street food vendors need to be re-fried when you want it. So you pick one, give it to the vendor and he/she will deep fry it for you and put either sweet sauce or hot sauce on top after it's re-fried. My favorite snack has sweet sauce.

Since it's across from the school after classes have ended, some students have inevitably spotted me buying a snack once in a while. A few of them were amazed. "Teacher, do you know what's in that?" (quotes have been edited for grammar and clarity ;) )

I shrugged. "I don't know. But it's yummy, and that's all that matters."

The students then informed me that it was sticky rice mixed with pig's blood and cow lungs and intestines, all deep fried and put on a stick.

I shrugged again. "Oh well."

The students gaped at me. "I just told you what it's made of. Aren't you afraid?"

I looked at the students for the longest time. "Well... no."

"Why?"

I paused. "Well, first of all, I'm Chinese..."

It's been one month

Well, it's been exactly one month since I landed here in South Korea. In some ways, the month flew by quite quickly, but in other ways, it seemed like a slow crawl.

It feels like a long time since I stepped off the plane at Incheon International Airport, but it's been only about four weeks. In those four weeks, I've spent time in orientation and training, moved from a hotel to the orientation venue to an apartment, went through the motions of worrying about whether I will get a shoebox or a love motel or a proper apartment, figured out how much things cost around here, and so on. It felt like a Jack Bauer day in 24.

There are some aspects of the culture that I'm getting used to, but there are still some days when the smallest tendencies annoy me. For example, a lot of people here seem to have no sense of direction. Yesterday, I was standing at the edge of an aisle at the supermarket. Nobody was around me except for a woman pushing a shopping cart. She is looking right in my direction and rams the cart into me. Then she looked all confused and surprised, as if to say, "Holy crap, where did YOU come from? I never saw you coming." I was looking at her, like, "Dude... I've been standing here for well over a minute. I'm wearing a bright orange shirt. How can you not see me?" But anyways...

My internet at the apartment has finally been cut off (as I was using a rather, ahem, free way of surfing the web until now, using a combination of VPN and a password-protected connection), so I'll be offline from home for a while. But I should be back up in a few days.

I also have a cell phone (finally). Those who want the number can send me a message and I'll give it to you. (If you are phoning from North America, you must pay for long distance charges, obviously.)

But there are good aspects too. My school has been spoiling me for the most part, and treating me like a king. I've heard some nightmare stories from Dave's ESL. I'm aware that negativity reigns supreme there, but I wanted to be cautious. My experience has been almost the opposite of every negative thing posted there. Case in point: Instead of trying to eek their way out of my contract's terms (as some schools try to do), my school actually looked over the contract a week in and realized that they neglected to provide me with some of the apartment furnishings mentioned in it. So with that, I got a microwave and TV for my place. As Borat would say: "Very niiiice."

And finally, the KFC here in Seoul tastes a lot better than the KFC in Canada, despite being around the same price. KFC in Canada sucks.

You'd think Hyundai would've learned...

When I left the Vancouver area, a new subway line called the Canada Line was opening on the same day; it connects my hometown of Richmond to downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport.

The trains are made by Hyundai Rotem, the EXACT SAME company that makes subway trains here in Seoul (and also in Incheon). One issue that the subway trains have here is the amount of heat generated by the machinery under the train's floor. Because of this, the air conditioning on board many Seoul subway trains can prove quite futile (unless the train isn't crowded).

It turns out that despite the response I got from one of the Canada Line open house events, this problem wasn't rectified; I've been told by friends back home that the air conditioning on the Canada Line trains is equally futile, and it looks like it's because of the exact same reason as the Seoul trains.

I'm slightly surprised that they didn't fix this problem. The Seoul trains weren't built yesterday, so they would've known about this issue already. There was plenty of time, even before the Canada Line started construction, to look into this problem. Instead, we now have a bunch of trains with the same drawback as their older model counterparts. It doesn't seem quite progressive, does it?