Hot Child in the City

I was talking to Laura about moving to Toronto when I get home before I left. I said that living in Korea would give me a taste of what it'd be like to live in the city back home. She scoffed: living in Korea isn't a CITY, it's a metropolis, and it really isn't a fair comparison. Well, I have done some thinking about it, and I can confidently compare Anyang (including Beomgye and Pyeongchon, where we spend most of our leisure time) to Toronto. I've included some pictures so you can get a feel for what it's like to travel around our fair city.

This is a shot taken from inside the bus. The city is spread before us, awash with lights.

Looks like Toronto, non?

Think of Anyang (where I live) like the Hamilton mountain: a little older, with less diversity, a whole lot less nightlife. And think of Beomgye and Pyongchon (they are virtually beside each other. You can easily walk from one part of town to the next) as downtown Hamilton (but nicer!). I'll shorten it to "B/P" for simplicity sake. It's got the nightlife, restaurants, vast numbers of people (ew, I'm imagining Gore Park now. Please don't do this if you are doing a comparison). I just wanted you to get an idea as to the distance between Anyang and B/P and the difference between the day to day life there.

Typical Korean bus

The bus ride to B/P takes about ten minutes and on the way we pass E-Mart, the wonderful place to shop on a Sunday (free samples, Costco-styles), shopping "centres" like large department stores that also sell food, and various bars we frequent. This photo shows pretty much all those things, again, lit up like Christmas.