Elena Sosa Lerin

Walking the sidewalks is a slalom dodging street vendors, raging motorbikes and drunken men. People push and pull, cab drivers pick and choose their customers and their destinations, coffee tastes like a sweaty sock and, unlike in other spots in Asia, foreigners here are as cranky and serious on the street as the old Korean ladies are in the subway.

The only way to cope is to stop resisting. Embrace chaos. Everything is part of the scenery. No one else here (certainly not Koreans) is paying attention, so why should you? Just say to yourself: ``Wow, that's crazy, we don't have that back home. La-la-la, doo-dee-doo, keep on walking.???? I know. That's harsh and simplistic. But chaos can be wonderful sometimes. There's a certain sense of freedom that comes with it, a sense of uncertainty.

Back in oh-so-lovely Canada, everything's figured out, regulated, predictable, under control. Here in Seoul, they figure things out differently. Sometimes it even seems they haven't figured it out. You never know the next step. Isn't that a great way to avoid the trap of a boring routine?

Scary? Probably. But it's stimulating. It truly is impressive that Korea keeps chugging along, especially if you consider that just 50 years ago the politics of this country were mayhem and the economy was laughable.

Korea's democratization today gives hope to nations that are currently in chaos, and Koreans, with their 11 ^th most powerful economy, can surely laugh at those who mocked them in the past.

And everything happened while the country was dealing with ``Dear Leader???? who's barely 50 kilometers away and has some nukes up his sleeve. Is the Korean system imperfect and flawed? Absolutely! But the Korean tenacity is something to that should be commended.