Jana and I met up at Bucheon City Hall station today to explore the area and look for a place for me to stay. After wandering through the very large Hyundai department store, we had lunch at the food court of the eMart across the street from the department store. We then went in search of somewhere to stay, asking people on the street and in a few real estate offices. (Well, Jana did all the asking; I just stood there and smiled and nodded like I knew what they were talking about.) We finally ran into a very nice ajusshi (a polite term for an older gentleman you don't know) who actually took us up to a goshiwon on the 7th floor of a nearby building instead of just giving us directions.
For all my talk yesterday of not wanting to bother with a goshiwon unless it was necessary, this one seemed nicer and more comfortable. The rooms were still tiny, but were bigger than the ones in Seoul (by maybe six inches, but still an improvement), and they had a room available with a large window that took up most of the far wall. Seeing the place in the day might have also helped; we visited all the places around Konkuk University at night. The manager was quite surprised when we came in, and honestly didn't know how much to charge us for only five days (since the rooms are usually rented by the month). She made an offer of 80,000 won for the five days, but when I showed my reluctance she lowered the price to 70,000 won. I wasn't expecting to say yes, but it felt like a good place, it would let me explore the Bucheon area, and the price was right. I'll have to use the public bathroom and showers, and I'll be their novelty foreigner for a few days, but I will have access to free rice, kimchi and some other side dishes in the public kitchen!
I signed a small agreement and paid upfront, and then we had to go. Jana had a private lesson back in Seoul and we'd taken a bit longer than we'd expected, so she had to rush off. I took the time to map out the route to the goshiwon very careful, taking notes on directions and landmarks and walking back there twice to make absolutely sure I knew how to find it again. I wandered around some more on my own to take some pictures of the numerous sculptures, and eventually made my way to a movie theater on the 5th floor of a department store connected to the Hyundai department store. There wasn't anything I wanted to see, but I suspect it will be nice to have a movie theater right across the street from my school. I was getting hungry around 5:30 pm, and the department store had two conveyor-belt sushi places, but it felt a little too early for dinner, so I headed back to Incheon.
It's been automatic for me to refer to Incheon as 'home', but very soon it'll be Bucheon I'll call 'home'. I didn't pay much attention to the area when I came for my interview - why bother if I don't know how the interview will go, I figured - but it feels like a place where I could be quite comfortable.
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