Regardless of what anyone says, or references they use, I refuse to believe that Cairo is more dense than Hong Kong for the simple fact that Hong Kong is on an island and has limited space to expand into (hence it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world). Cairo, on the other hand, is in the desert, with infinite space to expand into. Therefore, I must conclude, that Hong Kong is more dense.
@Matthew:
Yes, when I said that Cairo was the densest of the world's largest cities, I conveniently considered that list to be the most populace 19 cities . Although, considering the number of homeless people who are not counted in the Cairo census, it is conceivable that it is actually denser than Karachi (though I'm sure there are uncounted homeless there as well).
Sorry Erica, but you seem to be looking at total population, rather than density. HK is indeed more populace than Cairo (though many people regard the Cairo census to be sadly inacurate due to the number of homeless people who are not counted; I've heard estimates as high as 20 million for Cairo's "actual" population), but as far as density is concerned, Cairo is the undesputed winner, with a density of 9,031 people per square km, where HK has 5,179, and that despite the fact that HK's census almost certainly accounts for more of its actual population than Cairo's does.
Hong Kong is super-dense, but alas it is not first on the list.
According to Wikipedia (which seems to be the trusted source for the density argument...) I found that Cairo comes after Hong Kong on the population density on every page that I looked at. Here are three different measurements of population...all with HK listed before Cairo...
check it out below:
I was soooo confused when I came here (to the States) and NO ONE kissed any one! A hand shake?? Why? Are we interviewing for a job with this person? haha... Very nice. But seriously... in Canada I got more kisses and hugs than here, it's really strange. Must just be a U.S. thing...
And to think we turned down a job in Korea to go to Bolivia! You were not very happy about kissing when we first got there - but I was delighted! People still comment when they see you or your sister kiss us good-bye. It's a great tradition! mom
It's a bit expensive from where we live: 19,000 Won one way (normally that would be about $19, but right now it's $15). Matthew only pays like 7,000 or something.
It's a three hour ride with a 15 minute stop.
The buses run until about 9:00 PM. However, they get booked out (we purchased our tickets several hours earlier), so there's a good chance we would have had to spend the night.
Most of the metro signs had the name of the stop in both Korean and English... still incredibly confusing though, because with 12 lines there are way too many stops.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant, because Mexican food is incredibly difficult to find in Korea.
We eat squid all the time at school as Gunsan is known for its sea food; in Seoul we just looked.
Seoul is definitely more metropolitant/international than Gunsan; we didn't see that many foreigners (some), but we didn't stick out in the same way (people didn't tend to laugh or point or say "Hiiiiiii" when they saw us).
Still not much English, though probably a bit more than in Gunsan.
Watching your video, I had some random questions (I couldn't hear the sound well, so pardon me if these were answered in the video itself):
1. how much does the bus to Seoul cost?
2. how long did it take?
3. what would have happened if you missed the bus back (were there other ones later)?
4. were the metro signs all in Korean only? if so, how did you find your way around?
5. what did you eat during the day (did you go to McDonald's for Marisa)?
6. did you eat squid, or just look at them?
7. were there other non-Koreans in Seoul, i.e., did you guys blend in, or did you still stick out? did people laugh when they saw you?
8. how easy is/was it to get around with English in Seoul?
Well, one thing I learned from this post was that Quantum of Solace was apparently in Amman before either Seoul or the U.S. We didn't see it right when it opened, but we did (also) see it on Saturday night (3rd day in Amman). We enjoyed it, too, but they seem to have cut some small bits from the film, e.g., the explanation of what Quantum of Solace means (was that in the version you saw?). It's hard to know when they cut something, as you don't see it...
Thanks for these great posts. Your life there sounds so interesting. We must visit (in sha'allah).
Jordan, are you teaching adults, too? Are you having as much fun as Marisa?
And I agree that Cairo is definitely more dense than Hong Kong, though the pictures I've seen of people at the beach in Hong Kong look like you couldn't get much denser.
-Baba
P.S. Mommy read your stuff first and tried to post, but something didn't work, so I got here first. :-)
OK, I think after having lived here for two months I finally understand this well enough to explain it. I think.
When you are born, you are one year old. ('Cause you know, you spent 9 months in the womb, and that's close enough to a year.) You then get one year older on every New Year's Day (this used to be on the lunar calendar but I think that they've finally switched to just using January 1st as New Year's Day). That's all there is to it. This means that you do not get one year older on your birthday, and every single person in Korea gets one year older at every New Year. (There's a tradition that eating the special New Year's rice cakes causes you to grow a year older; apparently children will try to eat as many as they can while adults will try to skip out of it.) This also means that if your birthday is late in the year, you will usually be two years older than your Western age, not one: a baby born on December 30th will turn 2 years old on January 1st!
The easiest way of finding your Korean age is to simply forget your Western age, subtract the year you were born from the current year, and add 1. I was born in 1985, so I am 24 in Korean years. In January I'll be 25 (even though in Western terms I won't even be 24 until May 27th).
PS: So far as I can tell the students don't actually want your number, it's just a pleasantry.
Believe what you want Marisa, but God knows the truth.
And yes, thanks for mentioning the broken subway cards and the Mexican lunch (which was amazingly good considering that it seemed to be owned and run by all-Koreans.
The video was a bit longer (and, if you remember, included a magnificent squid scene); but alas, YouTube only accepts 10 minutes or shorter (and I figure most people probably don't want to watch longer than that anyway).
Your bus seems to have gone an awful lot faster than mine, and I could have sworn that the movie was longer... whatever, great video!
I laughed very hard at watching myself get stuck in the Seoul subway ticket gates (and at the whole final montage), but my pride compells me to mention that I am capable of using a subway pass---I just had a bum card that didn't work most of the time.
Good times! We also had a delicious Mexican lunch (which in Korea you can only get in Seoul).
Sorry Marisa, but according to Wikipedia Cairo has almost twice the population density of Hong Kong (though Hong Kong is nevertheless more dense than either Tokyo or Seoul).
Actually, they do take our school lunches out of our paychecks. (That's one reason why I think that it's a silly idea to bring your own lunch to school.) But yeah, eating out is gratis, which is really pretty nice.
But all of the pictures were taken in the same spot. I need to see pictures of places in the city besides the park.
Also I need you to come and take pictures of the many beautiful spots around Chungju, since your picture-taking abilities are far superior to mine.
The highs have been around 20, with the lows dipping down below 10 (that's high 60's into the 40's, for you Fahrenheit people).
That is beautiful. What are the temperatures like there?
Regardless of what anyone says, or references they use, I refuse to believe that Cairo is more dense than Hong Kong for the simple fact that Hong Kong is on an island and has limited space to expand into (hence it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world). Cairo, on the other hand, is in the desert, with infinite space to expand into. Therefore, I must conclude, that Hong Kong is more dense.
@Matthew:
Yes, when I said that Cairo was the densest of the world's largest cities, I conveniently considered that list to be the most populace 19 cities . Although, considering the number of homeless people who are not counted in the Cairo census, it is conceivable that it is actually denser than Karachi (though I'm sure there are uncounted homeless there as well).
Sorry Erica, but you seem to be looking at total population, rather than density. HK is indeed more populace than Cairo (though many people regard the Cairo census to be sadly inacurate due to the number of homeless people who are not counted; I've heard estimates as high as 20 million for Cairo's "actual" population), but as far as density is concerned, Cairo is the undesputed winner, with a density of 9,031 people per square km, where HK has 5,179, and that despite the fact that HK's census almost certainly accounts for more of its actual population than Cairo's does.
Hong Kong is super-dense, but alas it is not first on the list.
According to Wikipedia (which seems to be the trusted source for the density argument...) I found that Cairo comes after Hong Kong on the population density on every page that I looked at. Here are three different measurements of population...all with HK listed before Cairo...
check it out below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population
Let me know where the information is to prove otherwise...
P.S. For you, Marisa. :)
I was soooo confused when I came here (to the States) and NO ONE kissed any one! A hand shake?? Why? Are we interviewing for a job with this person? haha... Very nice. But seriously... in Canada I got more kisses and hugs than here, it's really strange. Must just be a U.S. thing...
And to think we turned down a job in Korea to go to Bolivia! You were not very happy about kissing when we first got there - but I was delighted! People still comment when they see you or your sister kiss us good-bye. It's a great tradition! mom
Wow I'm old. Almost 26 in fact
.
@Doug's questions:
I think we should post the squid video by itself. It can join the Monster Crabs, maybe the best video ever.
That is extra good to know about the phone number. The girl who asked was a little intense, so it was hard to tell what was going on...
Watching your video, I had some random questions (I couldn't hear the sound well, so pardon me if these were answered in the video itself):
1. how much does the bus to Seoul cost?
2. how long did it take?
3. what would have happened if you missed the bus back (were there other ones later)?
4. were the metro signs all in Korean only? if so, how did you find your way around?
5. what did you eat during the day (did you go to McDonald's for Marisa)?
6. did you eat squid, or just look at them?
7. were there other non-Koreans in Seoul, i.e., did you guys blend in, or did you still stick out? did people laugh when they saw you?
8. how easy is/was it to get around with English in Seoul?
Keep the culture coming,
Baba
Well, one thing I learned from this post was that Quantum of Solace was apparently in Amman before either Seoul or the U.S. We didn't see it right when it opened, but we did (also) see it on Saturday night (3rd day in Amman). We enjoyed it, too, but they seem to have cut some small bits from the film, e.g., the explanation of what Quantum of Solace means (was that in the version you saw?). It's hard to know when they cut something, as you don't see it...
Thanks for these great posts. Your life there sounds so interesting. We must visit (in sha'allah).
Jordan, are you teaching adults, too? Are you having as much fun as Marisa?
And I agree that Cairo is definitely more dense than Hong Kong, though the pictures I've seen of people at the beach in Hong Kong look like you couldn't get much denser.
-Baba
P.S. Mommy read your stuff first and tried to post, but something didn't work, so I got here first. :-)
Can I have pepero? Can I have one if we visit Korea? Or can you bring some with you to Amman? They look inviting. Do they taste as good as they look?
And why didn't you get anything, when Marisa had such an armful?
-Baba
OK, I think after having lived here for two months I finally understand this well enough to explain it. I think.
When you are born, you are one year old. ('Cause you know, you spent 9 months in the womb, and that's close enough to a year.) You then get one year older on every New Year's Day (this used to be on the lunar calendar but I think that they've finally switched to just using January 1st as New Year's Day). That's all there is to it. This means that you do not get one year older on your birthday, and every single person in Korea gets one year older at every New Year. (There's a tradition that eating the special New Year's rice cakes causes you to grow a year older; apparently children will try to eat as many as they can while adults will try to skip out of it.) This also means that if your birthday is late in the year, you will usually be two years older than your Western age, not one: a baby born on December 30th will turn 2 years old on January 1st!
The easiest way of finding your Korean age is to simply forget your Western age, subtract the year you were born from the current year, and add 1. I was born in 1985, so I am 24 in Korean years. In January I'll be 25 (even though in Western terms I won't even be 24 until May 27th).
PS: So far as I can tell the students don't actually want your number, it's just a pleasantry.
Apparently Karachi is denser than Cairo...
I shall miss them, they were quite fantastic and squidy.
Believe what you want Marisa, but God knows the truth.
And yes, thanks for mentioning the broken subway cards and the Mexican lunch (which was amazingly good considering that it seemed to be owned and run by all-Koreans.
The video was a bit longer (and, if you remember, included a magnificent squid scene); but alas, YouTube only accepts 10 minutes or shorter (and I figure most people probably don't want to watch longer than that anyway).
I do not believe that Cairo is more dense than Hong Kong. Hong Kong has 7 million people living on PART of an island.
Your bus seems to have gone an awful lot faster than mine, and I could have sworn that the movie was longer... whatever, great video!
I laughed very hard at watching myself get stuck in the Seoul subway ticket gates (and at the whole final montage), but my pride compells me to mention that I am capable of using a subway pass---I just had a bum card that didn't work most of the time.
Good times! We also had a delicious Mexican lunch (which in Korea you can only get in Seoul).
Sorry Marisa, but according to Wikipedia Cairo has almost twice the population density of Hong Kong (though Hong Kong is nevertheless more dense than either Tokyo or Seoul).
Actually, they do take our school lunches out of our paychecks. (That's one reason why I think that it's a silly idea to bring your own lunch to school.) But yeah, eating out is gratis, which is really pretty nice.
That's the kind of culture for me. All you can eat and you never have to pay?! (Or maybe they take it out of your paycheck? :-)