Maybe it's just because I've lived in New York for a while but Seoul seems exceptionally quiet and calm for a city its size. "What's missing?"I ask myself standing on a street corner where it's as if the volume has been turned way down. Occasionally you'll hear someone shouting or a child screeching, but less often. There's less of everything sonically. Care horns are shy here, only making a peep when absolutely necessary - like to avoid striking a pedestrian. Conversations usually (not always) happen just below the level of ambient noise instead of above it. When people talk on their phones they do so almost apologetically. "You said that very loud," my companion informs me. Which comes as a surprise because in the USA I'm known as a quiet talker. (Probably it didn't help that I was boasting about how strong the US dollar is at the time.) The other day I was in a mall and the quiet was shattered by the sound of a shrieking baby  - a surprisingly rare sound here. "It must be a foreign baby, I joked to myself." Turned out I was right. The overall effect is very calming. Like my ears have gone to a spa.