Bucheon

I would like these posts to start getting more organized, but it's not looking like that's going to be the case today. It looks like this is going to be another post of random photos and descriptions. and therefore this post will just be about my trip to Bucheon! Yay for relatively coherent posts!

I've been enjoying my Chuseok holidays. My school has given us the Monday and Friday off, so with Tuesday through Thursday being the official holidays, I end up with the entire week off.

One of the things that I decided to do during my time off was to visit my old neighbourhood in Bucheon. It was really great to get back out there. I missed wandering the streets that I spent a year on back in the day (I also missed having a bike to get around, I forgot how large an area it was until I had to get everywhere on foot). I got a number of pictures to record what was the same and what was different.

I took the subway out to Songnae Station, and then a bus north to
the Sang-dong area where I used to live. I got off the bus near this
department store and walked up towards the apartment building
I used to live in.

418, my old apartment. A great many stories taller than
my current building, and situated in a very different type
of residential area, but both have their perks.

Here's the door to the actual apartment unit that I lived in. Purely
for nostalgic purposes, and very boring for anyone who didn't live
there. :)

The treed path by the stream that covered part of the route from the
apartment to the hagwon. There were fish in the stream again. I
didn't see any big ol' spiders or turtles this time though.

Here you can see ECC, the hagwon that I taught at, on the fourth floor.
I was closed because it was Sunday, so I wasn't able to go inside.
Many other things changed about the area, including the removal
of the chicken-stick place. Also the bank I used is not here anymore.
I saw a branch in a building that was under construction when I was
here, so I imagine they just moved there.

Just off the edge of the photo above to the left there's a little "belgium
waffle and coffee" place. As I hadn't eaten breakfast before I left for
Bucheon I decided to have a couple of waffles and a smoothie. The
waffles have strawberry jelly and choco-sauce, and they came with
saltines!

A photo of one of the many bar and restaurant lanes in the area.
This is just behind the hagwon. I very much want to go back out
some nice evening and sit out and eat and drink with people. I'll
probably plan an event and invite people out there sometime in the
 next month or so.

I did some shopping at the new giant shopping mall that opened
just after I left last time (so not all that new, but new to me). I bought
some shoes, and was very much impressed with the selection and
organization of the place. I may go back out again after I'm paid to
shop here and at the Savezone that you can see just down the street
on the corner.

I did some more shopping for a few little things I needed, and
eventually made my way back to the metro station. Here you can
see the sliding safety doors that were installed after I left last time.
I'm told they are not included at every station, which was far from the
case during my '06-'07 stay.

So yah, I've decided to do separate posts for the Bucheon trip, info about my school, and a miscellaneous  stuff post. It just seems to make sense, and hopefully will encourage me to put more work into making these things make sense rather than just dumping a bunch of unrelated stuff into a pile.