I just returned from a quick shopping trip in the neighborhood, and I'm moved to write how nice it is:
our apartment building is mounted on the side of a hill, so we walk about fifty yards down a steep alley to the district center, with five "BBQ" (i.e. grill-your-own meat) restaurants in a cluster, along with a tiny hotdog shop, a fashion clothing shop, an optician, and a specialty pigs-knuckle restaurant (good for your joints!). Upstairs is a pub (kind of grimy), and then around the corner for the taxi-stand cigarette vendor, an outdoor coffee vending machine right where we wait for our morning bus to school (only 30 cents for a tiny cup of instant coffee!), a decrepit pharmacy, then a jeweler shop. In the same block is the local public-bathhouse and a discount housewares store. Across the street are the chain stores: 7-11 and Paris Baguette. A bit further up the street, after a couple more little restaurants and clothing stores, is Song's Florist along with the post office, facing the Overnight-Delivery guy and the little police station. Across from the florist is the butcher shop and the recently-added Lotteria (Korea's version of McDonalds) and the pet grooming salon and the ramen shop and the nice new pharmacy...and the supermarket.
So I walk to Song's florist. He's not there, but I greet his wife and son, both watching TV -- I explain that I'd like a bouquet of flowers for $15, as usual (she confirms the translation with her 5th grade son), which I will pick up after grocery shopping. I walk across the 2-lane Bogwang Road to the supermarket, which has big sales on vegetables in season--certain cabbages, purple grapes, some mushrooms, none of which appeal to me. At the cash-register, I ask for delivery, so I write down our address, the cashier boxes up the groceries, giving me the eggs to carry myself. No problem. I walk back across the street to pick up the flowers -- beautiful assortment of roses and others. Back by Paris Baguette to pick up a fresh baguette ($1.50) and try to ignore all the pastries. Over to the housewares store where I remember to get some paper cups for school event, and some hangers, and toothpaste--the guy says "just give me $3"! (I was ready to pay double). And I walk back up the hill happy; and I'm getting some exercise, and don't have to fight traffic.
Oh, I almost forgot--I first went down the hill in hopes of retrieving my shoes from the shoeshine guy. Apparently a concession offered to veterans, the little shoeshine closets are standalone containers that sit on a sidewalk -- in our case, across from our "bus stop". I've gone to the guy about once a month, so he recognizes me. This past week as we all wait for our bus in the morning, he has been hanging out with a couple buddies on the stoop, drinking vending-machine coffee. So on Thursday morning I brought my shoes down and gave them to him to shine($3) told him I would pick them up that evening...I forgot. He saw me this morning at the bus stop, and asked about the shoes--I told him I'd be back later. Evidently he closed up early today, for the weekend holiday. Ah well, I'll check back on Monday.
The taxi stand and public bus stop are also near that corner: three different buses go all different directions. Two of them go to the street in front of our school. $1.10 is now the base fare within the city, including a subway transfer (fare just raised last month from $1).
The barber shop ($12/haircut) is surprisingly far, about fifty yards further up hill beyond the housewares store.
Oh, and the riverwalk is about 50 yards downhill in the other direction--the bicycle/walking trail extends for 15 miles along the Han River bank in either direction, with a similar trail on the opposite bank. Chris rides his bike to work across the river, mostly along the bike trail.
Yes, the alleyway and the streets are sometimes a bit smelly, and some people don't curb their dogs, and the wind can be fierce, blowing up the hill. But it is such a lively and productive neighborhood, surprisingly quiet for all that is going on. Drivers are aggressive but rarely blow their horn. Shopkeepers don't generally play music. The occasional PA system on a truck may announce a political candidate or a sale on fresh fish, and some grocers hawk their vegetables with portable announcers on the sidewalk.
An added bonus is the fact that BogwangDong used to host a municipal bus terminal -- we benefit in that most taxi drivers recognize the name easily, yet we don't have to cope with the bus traffic any more.
our apartment building is mounted on the side of a hill, so we walk about fifty yards down a steep alley to the district center, with five "BBQ" (i.e. grill-your-own meat) restaurants in a cluster, along with a tiny hotdog shop, a fashion clothing shop, an optician, and a specialty pigs-knuckle restaurant (good for your joints!). Upstairs is a pub (kind of grimy), and then around the corner for the taxi-stand cigarette vendor, an outdoor coffee vending machine right where we wait for our morning bus to school (only 30 cents for a tiny cup of instant coffee!), a decrepit pharmacy, then a jeweler shop. In the same block is the local public-bathhouse and a discount housewares store. Across the street are the chain stores: 7-11 and Paris Baguette. A bit further up the street, after a couple more little restaurants and clothing stores, is Song's Florist along with the post office, facing the Overnight-Delivery guy and the little police station. Across from the florist is the butcher shop and the recently-added Lotteria (Korea's version of McDonalds) and the pet grooming salon and the ramen shop and the nice new pharmacy...and the supermarket.
So I walk to Song's florist. He's not there, but I greet his wife and son, both watching TV -- I explain that I'd like a bouquet of flowers for $15, as usual (she confirms the translation with her 5th grade son), which I will pick up after grocery shopping. I walk across the 2-lane Bogwang Road to the supermarket, which has big sales on vegetables in season--certain cabbages, purple grapes, some mushrooms, none of which appeal to me. At the cash-register, I ask for delivery, so I write down our address, the cashier boxes up the groceries, giving me the eggs to carry myself. No problem. I walk back across the street to pick up the flowers -- beautiful assortment of roses and others. Back by Paris Baguette to pick up a fresh baguette ($1.50) and try to ignore all the pastries. Over to the housewares store where I remember to get some paper cups for school event, and some hangers, and toothpaste--the guy says "just give me $3"! (I was ready to pay double). And I walk back up the hill happy; and I'm getting some exercise, and don't have to fight traffic.
Oh, I almost forgot--I first went down the hill in hopes of retrieving my shoes from the shoeshine guy. Apparently a concession offered to veterans, the little shoeshine closets are standalone containers that sit on a sidewalk -- in our case, across from our "bus stop". I've gone to the guy about once a month, so he recognizes me. This past week as we all wait for our bus in the morning, he has been hanging out with a couple buddies on the stoop, drinking vending-machine coffee. So on Thursday morning I brought my shoes down and gave them to him to shine($3) told him I would pick them up that evening...I forgot. He saw me this morning at the bus stop, and asked about the shoes--I told him I'd be back later. Evidently he closed up early today, for the weekend holiday. Ah well, I'll check back on Monday.
The taxi stand and public bus stop are also near that corner: three different buses go all different directions. Two of them go to the street in front of our school. $1.10 is now the base fare within the city, including a subway transfer (fare just raised last month from $1).
The barber shop ($12/haircut) is surprisingly far, about fifty yards further up hill beyond the housewares store.
Oh, and the riverwalk is about 50 yards downhill in the other direction--the bicycle/walking trail extends for 15 miles along the Han River bank in either direction, with a similar trail on the opposite bank. Chris rides his bike to work across the river, mostly along the bike trail.
Yes, the alleyway and the streets are sometimes a bit smelly, and some people don't curb their dogs, and the wind can be fierce, blowing up the hill. But it is such a lively and productive neighborhood, surprisingly quiet for all that is going on. Drivers are aggressive but rarely blow their horn. Shopkeepers don't generally play music. The occasional PA system on a truck may announce a political candidate or a sale on fresh fish, and some grocers hawk their vegetables with portable announcers on the sidewalk.
An added bonus is the fact that BogwangDong used to host a municipal bus terminal -- we benefit in that most taxi drivers recognize the name easily, yet we don't have to cope with the bus traffic any more.
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