I’m often asked if it is difficult for me to live in Seoul. When the weather is cold, some assume my native land would have better weather. When it’s hot, many assume I’m suffering more than most, and they ask how I can survive. The weather is the weather, but Seoul is something else!

I arrived in Seoul about 50 years ago in the dead of winter. It seemed unusually cold, but that’s probably because my duties kept me out on the streets for hours. In those days, the tiny “hole in the wall” bakeries were a welcome respite. Though the selection was limited, my biggest “like” was the small glass bottles of milk in the pot of hot water sitting on the coal-fired heater in the center of the room. One of the day's highlights was a bottle of milk, a spoon of sugar and a "soboro" bread — always fresh-baked on site, not in some distant factory. Although I will never miss the terrible soot that permeated the air in the winter, I miss those little glass bottles of warm milk.

Most of the world talks about Korea's fantastic economic development and the big conglomerates. However, those pundits miss what I think are some of the more important developments in........

© The Korea Times