2009-01-29 - 5:14 a.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 This is the third day of the first lunar month. The holiday is over and I'm back to work. Started getting ready for the day about 9 a.m. Headed out for my exercise walk at 9:45. I live about 1/4th of the way up, on the side of Toedock-san. I went straight up my street {Ansangol-2-gil}, crossed the Gudo Ro and continued climbing up Toedock mountain for another ten minutes or so. This is a rather steep climb, rising about 250 feet altitude in less than a quarter mile.

It's a typical residential street in the older part of Gwangmyeong city,- brick walls enclosing very small concrete yards and brick houses. Some of the little yards have fruit trees in them. The most common are persimmon trees, although occasionally there is a jujube tree. Most of these houses are three stories tall and have from three to six apartments in them. Koreans call these houses "billa" which is spelled "villa." Each house has a metal gate made of thick pipes or wrought-iron rods that are close enough together that you can shove an advertizing flyer between them with small chance of it blowing away. Every day, distributors of these ads come around and give the residents new ones. Probably 99% of them go directly into the recycling bin for paper goods.

When I got to the end of this street, I turned left and headed slightly downhill toward Prugio Il Danji (One Complex). I was aiming to meet with three students in Building 104. This complex of apartment buildings is in the new style, all the buildings are 26 floors above-ground with 3 basement floors. Most of the buildings have ten apartments on each floor, and they are called "line style" apartment buildings because there are 5 elevators and stairwells, each serving 2 apartments on each floor. Each pair of buildings is surrounded with lawns, trees and flowering shrubbery. The construction company brought in fully-grown trees, some 25-40 feet tall, to plant in groves around the buildings. They are all fastened together with long bamboo poles which are tied to the trees with ropes and rubber straps. This is to provide the trees with support until they grow a proper root system. This apartment complex was just completed last year.

After I left this group, I headed down to the Life-Long Learning Center to meet with another group of 9 at noon. The ice was much more plentiful on this street than on the one I walked up. I was very grateful for the banister-rail on the sidewalk, and for the fact that some of the residents had partly cleaned that sidewalk. The sun had warmed the dark asphalt just enough so that the ice was "afloat." This street is even steeper than Ansangol-2-gil; the grade is close to 45 degrees on the upper part! It's just a bit less than a quarter-mile but at the end, I am 440 feet lower than the apartment complex.

It's another third of a mile to the learning center, but it's all level walking. This section is interesting because there are lots of small fruit and vegetable shops along the way. Fruits are sold separately from vegetables. Fruit shops sell bananas, apples, oranges and tomatoes; vegetable shops sell cucumbers, greens and root crops.

Finishing with the second gathering, I then hiked over to the "silver citizens diner" for a lunch of donkas (breaded pork cutlet with gravy), salad, kimchi and rice. I've mentioned this great little restaurant before. The owner/chef makes a mighty fine "lobster sauce" and noodles dish, too. Finally, I trudged back up the hill to my humble abode and took a 2-hour nap.

Thanks for reading. Happy Trails! ~ Sil

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