My Neighborhood

As I mentioned before, I live in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do (population: about 630,000).  Anyang is a city about 35 miles from Seoul. (Koreans don't pronounce Seoul as one syllable like we do, "sole" or "soul"; there is an extra vowel in there.  As soon as I can perfect it I will pass along the pronunciation.) The older downtown area is called Manan Gu, or Il Bonga (sp?), according to my director.  I live in this area.  The bus terminal is also located here but it isn't a building, it's a section of the main road where all buses travel. The Anyang Subway station is also in walking distance from my apartment.  I can hop on the subway and go to Seoul rather conveniently. Here are some photos of my neighborhood.

I took this picture from the CGV, a tall building that houses a cinema,a Hot Tracks (bookstore and stationary), a UNI-QLO, a cafe,and a few restaurants.  The glass structure in the background of the picture is Anyang Station.  There is an Outback Restaurant in the building opposite this one.  I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure squid shows up on the menu.



I'm standing on the overpass that connects the sidewalks.  The buses pick up and drop off here. 

 

A traffic sign.  The green cross at the bottom is a symbol for medical care (not marijuana, as it is in CO and CA).

Alley of my building.  I put my trash out on the front step and it gets picked up in the morning, then sorted at the nearby center.

Here is some information about addresses in Korea.  I've taken it directly from the 8th Edition of Lonely Planet's guide to Korea, published April 2010:

                              ...in Korea, the actual 'address' is seldom very useful. There are very
                              few signs labelling street names. Indeed, most streets do not even have
                              names at all. Every house and building does have an official number,
                              although it's rarely to be found on the outside - and if it is, it's likely
                              to be in hangeul. To complicate matters further, since numbers are
                              assigned to houses when they are built, house No 27 could be next
                              to house No 234. Many larger buildings have names - knowing this
                              may often prove more useful than knowing the address.

(I'm not sure of the proper way to cite borrowed information on a blog, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules.)  Anyway, for all you folks who think I'm crazy when I tell you I don't know what my address is, I'm not kidding, I really don't know what it is.  And I've asked my director and I still don't know.  But there are mailboxes in the building and I've gotten bills already so I still need to get down to the bottom of it.  Color me confused.  Teachers I've talked to say they have their mail sent to their school.  (I got my ARC today and I will open a bank account this week.  Maybe I can shed more light on that soon: does the bank and cell phone company need my address? Hmm.)

Il Bonga, or First Street, is a popular area with a lot of restaurants and shopping.  It reminds me of Downtown Crossing in Boston, but with a few more blocks.  (No Filene's Basement here, though.)

 

 

In some areas, the lights on the curb light up to stop and to walk:

 

 

I felt I was waiting for the traffic lights to change for an abnormally long amount of time so I timed it at different stops. They were about 2 full minutes long! It's hard to cross the streets (or jaywalk) here because there are so many lanes of traffic, you actually have to wait for the Walk signal.

 

When I arrived in April, I noticed that crews were hanging up lanterns all over the city.  It is to celebrate Buddha's birthday which is this Friday, May 17th.  I hear that it is like celebrating Christmas, so of course the city is decorated a few weeks earlier.  Here are some pictures of the lanterns.

 

 

I haven't done all the research for Buddha's birthday but I'll learn more this weekend.  His birthday is a public holiday in Korea so I don't have school!  But my director has planned a trip for the teachers to go to Kwang-gu (sp?) for the long weekend.  It should be fun!  And I'll make sure to post all about it. So stay tuned!