Huam-dong

I walked around our neighborhood of Huam-dong yesterday to snap a few pictures of the things I see on an almost daily basis. I tried to be very covert in my picture taking since my neighborhood is not a huge tourist spot and most Koreans gave me funny looks when they saw me snapping pictures of octopi and marketplaces.

First stop: The Lucky market. If you turn left after this market, you'll be only a few yards away from our home. I visit this market occasionally to buy random Korean products for kicks (my favorite random purchases are often drinks and gum/candy) or to buy fresh produce. It's not an extremely large market, but it does have a good-sized section of produce though I've yet to figure out what everything is. There are, however, about 20 different kinds of tofu.

This is another market further down the street from us and is more typical of Asian markets in that the majority of the produce/products are outside on the street. This one is much smaller than our market, but it does have a better selection of gum. In case you were wondering....

I passed a lot of beautiful doors such as this during my wanderings. Buildings and architectural elements are always my favorite things to photograph and I'd love to leave Asia with a book full of doors.

I also wouldn't mind more pictures of the streets. This street is typical of the roads around here: hilly, narrow and full of obstacles.

But walking down the main street of Huam-dong, closer to the base, you'll come across the Home Sweet Home realty. Our very nice real estate agent (I guess that's what she is) named Julie works here and we call her if we have any problems. (Like when I somehow got locked out of our apartment this week and Julie sent some guy to pick the lock. That's a fun story.) We also come here every month to pay our exorbitant rent but thankfully, the government gives us money for that. (Though depending on the won rate, we sometimes have to put in some of our own money like this month because the dollar sucks right now. The exchange rate just keeps plummeting....which is not fun.) We couldn't afford to live here otherwise because the cost of our rent is almost as much as David makes in a month.

Across the street from the realty is Jeong Gam Eorin, our favorite Korean restaurant. We keep meaning to try out one of the other hundreds of Korean restaurants near our house but we just keep coming back to this one because it's so good. And they give you a kiwi pineapple apricot juice at the end of your meal that is simply delicious.

Thankfully, Jeong Gam Eorin is not a seafood restaurant (though we have gotten the odd seafood side dish now and then) but other restaurants that do specialize in seafood often have tanks full of sea creatures outside like all these octopi. I'm all for fresh seafood, but I don't like seeing my food alive right before I eat it.

As I got closer to Seoul Station (the subway stop closest to our house), I passed by this Presbyterian church. Like I said, I'm a sucker for buildings, especially things built out of stone.

This just seemed like a typical cityscape of Seoul. Small businesses and homes framed by large skyscrapers looming in the distance. You see this type of juxtaposition occasionally in some American cities, but you see it everywhere in Asia.

So now you know a little bit more what my neighborhood looks like. I need to carry my camera with me more often to capture some of the more bizarre and interesting things I see on a regular basis.