Agro Fish Market

One of the biggest landmarks in town is the Agro-Fishery Market. A huge blue-roofed complex a couple minutes from school. I've been looking at it for weeks and finally walked over one morning last week with my friend Peter. Of the two main buildings, one is dedicated to fruit and vegetables and the other to fish. We walked out of the latter a little nauseous and with soggy shoes. Both reminded me of the big market in Florence I visited as a kid with my family. Agro caters to commercial buyers but anyone can walk in and pick up a couple pieces of fruit, or an octopus. I bought some green and red peppers. They went into some very good fajitas.

Local Hike & View of Anyang

Its hard to overstate the difference between Korean and English. I thought I was bad at Spanish...I know for certain I'm bad at Korean. Luckily most Koreans don't expect you to be any good at it. I started Korean classes a couple weeks ago and have learned a lot. Its possible that I'll be able to have a conversation with a cabbie before I leave, but not definite. The alphabet is systematic and easy to learn but with an ear for language as bad as mine its hard to get over the initial "what is this". Surprisingly the most frustrating result of my difficulty with the language has been my inability to remember the names of places I've been and the ones I want to visit. I've seen a lot of great spots in Seoul since I've been here, but would have a hard time remembering the names of 1/3 of them. They're so alien they go in one ear and out the other. I end up describing places using their landmarks, which isn't very effective (Korean architecture is pretty boring and homogenous).

The pictures above are from an amazing hike a fellow teacher took me on last Friday. I was amazed to find a bit of nature so close to my apartment. When I travel out of my little town all I see are building-lined streets or the inside of a subway tube. I forget that I'm in a hilly little pocket of greater Seoul. The first 3 shots are the view from the hike's peak. My building is amongst the tall white ones in the foreground of picture #2. Seoul is beyond the mountains and to the right. Hopefully you can see what I mean when I say Korean architecture is a little boring. I've recently learned that the pictures show Anyang, and that Pyeongchon (what I've referred to as my neighborhood) is really just a section of Anyang...........I'm still learning my way around (see paragraph above).

Main Street Pyeongchon

This is the main street of my little part of Seoul. Work is just off it, my apartment building is right on it, commute is 4 minutes. In the last picture I'm standing on a pedestrian overpass over the one big road that bisects main street. I call it main street because I have no idea what the street is actually called. Something I should probably figure out. A big grocery store right across the street serves as the local landmark. Especially useful when trying to communicate with cab drivers at the end of the night. The metro stops running at 12:30 and doesn't start up again until 6:00. Unless we want to have a particularly late night my friends and I usually cab it home at the end of Friday and Saturday nights.

Pyeongchong

My little corner of Seoul is called Pyeongchon, relatively close to the metro stop of the same name. It's a distinct neighborhood with one main commercial street. Not as dense as New York but at least as high. My apartment is on the 12th of 15 floors. It is a small enough place that I'm already pretty familiar with it, though lots and lots of restaurants still to try. Below is the view from my window. I'll take some pictures of the main street soon.