Saturday, April 04, 2020

bit by bit, freedom of movement is being whittled away

It almost feels like a gesture of defiance, but I'm meeting my Korean buddy JW Saturday morning to do a relatively short 12-kilometer walk from Yeouido Station to the Gayang Bridge, and from there into town. We'll probably eat lunch in town (the Gayang Bridge is on the waaay western side of Seoul—a testimony to just how wide Seoul is) and get on the subway at Gayang Station to head back to our respective domiciles.

Friday afternoon, I received yet another text message from the ROK government. This one informed us that certain local bike paths would be closed off for the weekend: the Banpo Creek, the Yangjae Creek (close to my neighborhood), and the Yeoui Creek, which you can hit if you walk or bike far enough along the Yangjae Creek path. No text messages—that I know of—about closing off the Han River path. I suppose we'll find out Saturday morning whether the Han has been closed off, too. At a guess, probably not. We need to preserve at least a semblance of freedom, ja?

More on the walk later.



2 comments:

  1. What is the reasoning behind closing a bike path? It seems like the least likely place for virus transmission. I shake my head in wonder at the pointless actions government institutes for "our own good and protection of others". I'm sure that's what the police will say to me just prior to pulling the trigger.

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  2. Our school is now closed, or at least restricted (technically, it's 출입제한) to "outsiders" (외부인) starting from today and continuing for two weeks. For the next three Sundays they are also preventing all cars from entering campus, unless absolutely essential.

    (If that seems a little weird, keep in mind that tons of people come to SNU for picnics amidst the spring flowers.)

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