愛 Korea: Day Two-- Baby Steps towards an Adventure!

The next morning I woke up at 6 am, for some godforsaken reason. I was starving-- had no food and no idea where to go to get some. Thankfully, I heard music coming from one of the other apartments and knocked on his door. Jeff, a Canadian, told me where a good grocery is located. The place is called Kim's Club at Garden 5. Garden 5 is a new mega-mall that is in the process of opening and is an eight minute walk from the school. Kim's Club is similar to Walmart in that you can find pretty much everything you need there at reasonable/cheap prices.

View of Garden 5 from School Elevator

The buildings themselves debuted in May or June 2010, but more and more stores are continually being worked on and will open later on. There are supposed to be over 8300 stores when it's complete.
So, thus begins my first adventure in Korea.

Starting from the School-- English Building (where my apartment is located--fourth floor)

After crossing the street, I have to follow this red brick road to Garden 5

This is a residential area known as Pine Tree Complex, so the area is really nice and quiet


Center of Residential Area


Wall with traditional Korean art-- perhaps a folk tale


Close Up

More path and lamp posts after crossing the residential center


Gate leading to a playground and exercise area for apartment dwellers

Playground

Exercise Machines

More Exercise Machines

Another playground

View of the proximity between children's playground and exercise area

The residential walkway leads to a boulevard, across from which is Garden 5

Close up of columns

At the end of the path, past these columns, there are two sculptures on either side of the path

Street sculpture at the end of the path

Close up of rings


Another View

Tri-fold Interactive Street sculpture


Second Side


Third Side


Finally arrived at Garden 5! You can't cross the 6 lane avenue, so I had to go down into the subway station and go through the other exit to end up at Garden 5

From Garden 5, pictures of the boulevard between Garden 5 and the Pine Tree Complex (Residential Area)

Boulevard

Different views of Garden 5

Garden 5 is divided into 5 sections: Young, Techno (Electronics), Fashion, Living, and Tools


Layout of Garden 5 sections

Entering Garden 5

Close up of sculpture


Center of Garden 5-- Pavilion with water fountains and places to sit and gather

EPIC FAILURE: Kim's Club didn't open until 10:30 am. I arrived at around 8:30. ^.^"
So, went into one of the buildings under construction to get something to drink.

Vitamin Water in Korea!

Well, had to wait for Kim's Club to open so I decided to explore the area a bit.

As soon as you leave the upper level of Garden 5 and go onto the street (as opposed to going towards the subway station), you can see this.

Yet another sculpture

AND

And another-- Korea is crazy about street art

Placard about metal artwork

Walked around some more and come across a very picturesque trellis(?) or gate

Gate leading to down to stream

A sign in Korean-- have no idea what it says

Found some wooden steps leading down to the waterway

Lamp post with speakers

A lot of (old) people were exercising by walking up and down these paths. These lamp posts, located every ten feet or so from each other, had speakers which played classical/opera music. I suppose to inspire energetic exercise.