We have mentioned before how ingenious Koreans are in the methods they use in performing certain tasks. This sequence was shot on the street leading from our apartment to the Mission Office. In the top photo two workmen are brightening up the neighborhood for winter by applying a wallpaper-like covering to the light poles along the street. The designs are colorful and attractive and really look nice. The next photos show how the construction process works when it is necessary to put in new underground infrastructure. In this case, new waterlines. The sidewalks are not made of poured concrete. Rather, they are made up of carefully placed, wavy bricks that interlock and are put down on a several inch thick base of coarse sand. They lock themselves in place and no bonding material is used. When it is necessary to put in new underground improvments, they just pull up the tiles, dig their hole, insert the stuff, cover it back up, apply a layer of sand and refit the tiles into place! It is incredible and the savings have to be huge since no concrete must be torn-up or replaced. This procedure also makes the process a very efficient one. While they are torn-up, the sidewalks are covered in a type of cloth (like a thin rug...see striped material above) and you just walk on that. Installing entirely new waterlines along a section about a mile long took only about a week and a half from start to finish!! This probably wouldn't work in the States because someone would trip and then sue the city. In Korea, however, that's not a problem because if someone trips and gets hurt, everyone just feels bad for them. Suing for such things is pretty much unheard of.