Sunday, August 21, 2011

A quick tour of Songdo

Yet again, we've moved somewhere extraordinary. South America was latin spice, with plenty of edge. A bit dangerous, but a bit free as well. Turkey was an Islamic country, but with the secular spirit of Ataturk, a visionary for the future of a tolerant world. Korea is the future. It is George Jetson.

We've moved to New Songdo City, essentially a 30 billion dollar neighborhood that has sprung up from the mud flats surrounding the coastal city of Incheon, Korea. Most of the idea for this city has come from the obvious looking real-estate tycoon second to the right in this photo:

His name is Stan Gale, and he is gambling big on this place. He has essentially built a city of the future, and his plan is that it will attract international businesses to come and settle here. We, at Chadwick, will be teaching those international students. Hopefully. You can read more about Stan, who is seen here being chatted up by our PE teacher, Wyatt, here.



So, what does Stan's city of the future look like?

Well, it's tall, with lots of skyscrapers reaching to the sky, but it's also green. Gale has planned tons of green space, canals, lakes, parks, running trails, and lots and lots of trees to make this as comfortable an urban environment as possible.



Here, is Korea's tallest building.



And, here is our apartments. Not as tall, but impressive nonetheless. We're surrounded by several buildings, but they have places them in such a way that nobody has to actually have their vision obscured by another building. Several teachers even have a view of the sea!



We've got a subway stop our our door, a runnning park on the opposite corner, and a corner store that sells Guiness and Hoegarden beer. What more do you need? Just a good bar to have a party in, and here it is: Cafe Moim. DONE!












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