I have Seoul. It reminds me of adventures and maybe pirates and those incredibly huge ships crossing the ocean while sailors pray so no horrific aquatic creature would emerge from the deep waters and swallow them alive, back in those days where Earth was so obviously flat, when people would kept journals neatly illustrated with ink sketches. So I expect to see just that. A thorough description of a country and pictures of interesting things the author, a Canadian 27-year-old guy currently teaching in Korea, has to offer.
His posts go back to February, 2005 when he was getting ready to go to Korea. He makes clear that his purpose is merely keeping friends and family posted on his life there, which struck me as a ‘don’t expect much’ warning. And maybe it was. I take interest on the subject — adapting to a new country and having all these notes about its culture. I also happen to be an English teacher (although taking my poor English you might think I’m telling a lie or you’d feel sorry for my students), which could make this blog one of my favorites. There is a fair amount of entries on how life really is there or how he interacts with locals. You can check some videos and lots of pictures, which makes the blog interesting after all. Also, I have this feeling that he tries to be humorous, but doesn’t quite succeed. At least the entries are not that funny, but it could be due to the cultural gap here (me being Brazilian), or perhaps I’m just not in a good mood. You know how we girls are always subject to these mood swings. I have to admit I smiled a few times though.
The design of the blog is really simple but that is not a negative point. I myself believe that content should matter much more than looks (and that goes for blogs, books and guys, ha!). You can also check his flickr photo albums. Everything works fine. Archives, comments, links. The only thing missing is a Shaun’s profile (and it’s hard to find his name there).
Overall, it is a good blog as in ‘I could check it monthly or at least every fortnight’. He writes okay, he’s somewhat funny and getting to share his experience in Seoul gives us this sense that we are, as readers, close to him. I’ll give it a 4.
I have Seoul