If Yeonggwang County is Hantucky, then Ilsan may be Hanhattan. I’m playing with neologisms, of course: “Han” just means “Korea.”
Hanhattan has miles of wide, square streets, high rises, high density… with broad, well-designed parks. Anyway. I had a weird epiphany, walking along, just now, coming back to my hotel: since first coming to Ilsan, I’ve had trouble remembering the name of Ilsan’s “main drag.” I think of it, in my mind, as “Broadway.” But I’ve always had trouble retaining its “real” name. Then today, I looked up at a sign, and saw it spelled out, and suddenly it made perfect sense to me: 중앙로 [jung ang no] – it simply means Central Avenue. How freaking obvious! It only took me 37 months to figure it out. I always thought it was some obscure directional place name, like so many Korean roads and streets.
Here’s a picture of Central Avenue, along a stretch between Jeongbalsan and Madu stations. It looks like this for most of its 8 kilometer length. High rises and big stores and shops and apartment buildings the whole way.
Here’s a picture I took earlier, when Ilsan at Jeongbalsan plaza was feeling exceptionally newyorky. The horse-drawn carriage for tourists was the clincher. These have been appearing here and there in Korea, recently. I’m not sure what to think of it – it’s clearly imported from the West. But it’s kind of cool, too.
Here’s a picture from my friend Curt’s son’s 돌 [dol] – special first birthday party. Curt and his wife, daughter, son…
I also got to see former coworker Grace, as well as some of Curt’s more extended family, including his mom (who I met early last year when I went with Curt to his hometown at Jangsu). And I got to see Pete (not Peter S. nor Peter J., but yet a different Pete), who was a former boss that I tangled with, back when I worked at the LinguaForum hagwon in the spring of 2008. He seemed shocked to see I still was in Korea, and dumbfounded to hear I was working in a public school. Well… Oh well.
Here is a cute little girl who was deeply enamored of her party balloons.
