South Korea is definitely struggling a little bit. But not a day goes by when I don't see some news item that seems to indicate that, at least so far, they're weathering things pretty well here, compared to many places. Of course, many "developing" countries seem to be handling this thing better than the "developed" ones, which lends some credence to my periodic casual assertion that despite its apparent prosperity, its membership in the OECD, etc., South Korea is still, at heart, a developing country.
The evidence today was more direct, if entirely subjective. I've been doing a lot of random-bus-riding. Well, not entirely random. But bravely just getting on buses to see where they take me. Today I ended up in Yeongdeungpo on a #9706, and then after walking around some, I took a subway to Gangnam. And there, lo and behold, there was a new Starbucks opening up, near the Nonhyeon subway station. Here I thought Starbucks was closing hundreds (even thousands) of stores, worldwide, to try to survive the recession. But not in Gangnam. Brand new Starbucks… only blocks away from two other Starbucks I've been to. I mean… as a shareholder, I have to go, don't I? Hah. Well, anyway. New Starbucks.
I studied Korean for a while, and then I read the most recent copy of the Economist and finally took yet another random bus back home. I had to stand the whole trip, which made me remember traveling in Mexico, where I remember at least once standing for an eight hour bus trip from DF to Morelia.