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If the
Bokhyun District were a square (which its not, but for the sake of
illustration, use your imagination), three sides of the square would be
bounded by water. Mind you, Daegu is not anywhere near the ocean nor
any major bodies of water. So how can it be bounded by water? When I
say that the neighborhood is surrounded by water, you’re probably
conjuring images of Lake Washington, Lake Union or Puget Sound, right?
Well, we don’t have anything as significant as those bodies of water
here; there are no ferries plying the water nor wooden boats bobbing in
the Ship Canal. But nonetheless, I have the Geumhogang River to the
North and West of me; the Sincheon River winds to the East. The fourth
side of the square can best be determined by the rail lines that come
into and out of DongDaegu Station. Bokhyun is almost an island in the
city. The heart of the District is the Bokhyun Five-Way Junction, which
as you can imagine is a pretty massive intersection.
The
population density here in Daegu is so high that services abound within
walking distance of anywhere; I have everything I need—not only in the
Bokhyun District—but right here on my own slice of the brownie. Keep in
mind that if the District is a square and the heart of it is a five-way
junction, we basically live on the surface of a giant urban brownie that
someone mistakenly sliced like a pie. On my fifth of the District, I
really do have everything I need. I basically have everything—within a
few blocks of my apartment—that would be contained in a small Heartland
city. The National University is even on my slice of the brownie. I
hardly even venture into the other sectors of the district. Every
couple of weeks, I need to get to Costco, which is down one leg of the
five-way junction. Nearly as infrequently, I need to get to the
International Airport, which is on another slice of the Bokhyun
Brownie. And if I ever need to cross over to another portion of the
brownie, I hardly go past the crease in frosting created by the street
that divides the slices. I hope I am illustrating the neighborhood well
enough. I know it sounds kind of goofy—an urban brownie—but this is,
comically enough, how I think of my neighborhood!
The National
University is quite a blessing. There are very few open spaces in the
urban core of the city (and even fewer greenspaces). And here at the
University, I have both. Granted it is no University of Washington or
University of British Columbia with vast open spaces, but I have enough
greenery to make me happy.
There are
only six ways to enter the University grounds; the rest is surrounded by
a cement wall. There are four primary gates and two man-gates; cars can
only enter through two of the gates. Each gate has a cluster of
commerce surrounding it—you know the normal university type of commerce
(bars, coffee shops, restaurants). The North Gate is the largest access
point for the University and thus, has the largest commercial district
(aptly named ‘North Gate’). The second most active gate is the East
Gate, which is surrounded by a few coffee shops and restaurants. One
coffee shop, ESSO is on the eighth floor of a building. From that shop,
you can see all of Daegu. It’s a pretty nice view, but you pay for it!
The West and the South Gates are fairly small, but each has its special
characteristics. Josh and I go to the South Gate to get Pizza Toast
from Big Momma’s House. And the West gate is a nice place to sit with a
coke under the trees in the summer. It is also a nice short cut to the
river.
There are
three ponds on the University Campus. The main pond is shaped like a
six-leaf clover and is filled with giant koi. The center of it is a
fountains shaped (oddly enough) like the University’s unique water
tower. Another pond is rather L-shaped and snakes its way around one
building. It is filled with lily pads, except for a ring of water
around the edges. There is a wooden bridge that crosses over a narrow
part. One night, a university student was doing a photo shoot there.
The entire pond and footbridge were covered in candles. It was very
romantic. The third pond is more or less oblong in shape with a long
footbridge running the length of the imaginary central axis of the
shape. It has no notable features. It is shallow and made of concrete
and has filled with leaves with the coming of autumn. There is a single
habitant of this pond: a small turtle.
There are two
basketball courts on the grounds with four nets and six nets
respectively. There are also a large number of tennis courts, which are
open to the public daily. In the tennis courts, there is even a singles
wall for solo athletes. The lights at the tennis courts stay on until
11:00, so it is very easy for me to get there after work to hit some
balls around. Since I bought my new tennis racquet and basketball, I’ve
been going to the University very often; I’ve come to deeply appreciate
the sound of a bouncing tennis or basketball in the stillness of a cold
night.
So is the
neighborhood really an island in the city? Our little Urban Brownie is
frosted with the International Airport, Costco, Restaurant Alley, the
National University (with its lively nightlife scene) and DongDaegu
Station (which can, on a whim, whisk me to any part of the Peninsula).
Really, the only times I need to cross my Korean Ship Canal or my Korean
Puget Sound is to get to Emart, Downtown or into the mountains for a
lazy weekend hike. Other Daegonians might not consider Bokhyun to be
the island in the center of the city. But for me, right now, it is my
island. And the bridges will be my ferries for the next six months. |
