there goes the neighborhood

that is to say, our apartment and our... dong

Wolpyong Dong (left) and Manyeon Dong (right) frame a tunnel
bypassing a major intersection.

Korean cities are broken down into "dongs," which are usually 5-10 square blocks of commercial buildings, some of which have apartments above the street level stores and restaurants. Most dongs are also surrounded by huge blocks of high-rise apartment buildings. Many cities, Taejon included, have a downtown area that is like one huge dong: something like 50 square blocks of shopping, dining, the local city hall, train and bus stations, etc. Taejon's downtown area boasts two large underground shopping malls and several big department stores.

We live in Manyeon Dong, in the "urban suburbs" of sprawling (and always growing) Taejon. Manyeon Dong is only about 4 years old, so most of the buildings are in pretty good shape, the high-rise apartment blocks are nice and modern, and many of the area's wealthier families have settled here. It's a great location, because we're just a few minutes' walk from a nice river with parks on both banks, and Expo Park, the 1993 World's Fair site. Wanna go downtown? It's just a 10 minute cab ride that costs about 4500 Korean Won (US$ 3.50).

Who's in the kitchen with Cheris?	Our apartment is in the commerical section of our dong, above a resturant. It's really small, but we're coping, and there's a possibility of getting a bigger place soon. We've adapted to cooking at home with a single gas burner and no oven.
A typical Korean-apartment bathroom is really amusing. There's no bathtub or shower stall: the bathroom is the shower stall; there's a drain in the middle of a slightly inward-sloping floor, and the shower is on a hose that comes out of the sink fixture. It's actually kind of fun, and the bathroom stays really clean with little effort.	Careful not to soak the toilet paper!

It hits your eye like a big pizza pie...
Moon over Manyeon Dong.

It's a great place to live, with so much stuff within walking distance. Especially nice is the fact that work is just three minutes' walk from our place. We're spoiled for future commutes.
rear window: just like the Hitchcock movie
The view from our apartment's rear window.

Here's a batch of pics from around the neighborhood.

A field near neighboring Wolpyong Dong.	Construction everywhere; pretty stuff too.

Apartments surrounding Manyeon Dong.	Ah, we love dem purty flowers.

View of the nearby river and mountains.	A Texas-size spider in our neighborhood.

Cool house across the street from our place.	There are a lot of pictures here, we know-- sorry the page loads so slowly.

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