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(Note: If you have any information you think would be useful, please feel free to submit it in the comments and I’ll add it to the article!)

Welcome to Uijeongbu/Uijungbu/Uijongbu/의정부, foreigner/tourist/native English speaker/ESL teacher! Here is a guide to Uijeongbu that will really help if you’re new to the area (and also a foreigner!).

I would’ve written this post a long time ago but I think that a lot of the fun and excitement (and, of course, frustration) of coming to a new country, city, or language is exploring and finding things out on your own. On the other hand, I realise that many people don’t enjoy this and just want to be able to get around, a concept lost on many of the native Korean teachers here that don’t even try to acclimatise you unless you ask for it.

So here’s a ton of information that I either had to research on my own, ask for from other nice foreigners, or found out just now after months of being here. Some things may seem vital and other things trivial, but all of it I’ve found quite helpful at some point or another. Unfortunately, I can only base these bus routes on experience – I live near the Uijeongbu Homeplus so I don’t know too much about the City Hall or “station” area.

Taxis:

I was using taxis for the first little bit when I arrived since no one bothered to explain the bus system to me. One tip: always give the driver a big and popular point of reference (you may have to walk a bit, but it saves from any misdirection or the driver kicking you out because he doesn’t know what you’re talking about). Try to pronounce the name of the city right, for one thing. Uijeongbu = oo-ee-jung-boo (say the first two syllables very fast, together, but maintain the “oo” sound, don’t turn it into a “woo” sound. Keep the j hard, not like a “zh”). It shouldn’t cost much more than 5,000-6,000 won from Uijeongbu to the Homeplus area, for reference.

Bus Routes:

So, what should you know about buses? They’re the lifeblood of Korean transportation (sometimes faster and more comfortable than the crowded and often slow Metro) and you’ll want to get to know them quite fast, unless you’re a princess that requires taxi-ing everywhere. The ones in the Uijeongbu area will be a very solid, dark green and white on the bottom, whereas the Seoul buses are lime green all over.

You board the bus at the front and disembark at the back; apparently this is strange to some people. In Uijeongbu, you scan your T-Money when you get on and you scan when you get off as well (to let the card discern transfers between buses, or if you’re getting on the subway). In other areas, like Incheon, you only scan getting on.

(From Breanna):

Something else of note – most of the bigger bus stops (i.e. the ones with covered benches) will have the bus routes listed on them. If you’re going to to a station, you don’t have to read Korean to be able to tell if the buses that will come by that stop will go to your station – there’s a small colored number next to the stop indicating the subway line (i.e. 의정부역 would have a small blue “1″ next to it). Once you’re able to recognize the characters, this is even more helpful.

Also, if you listen carefully, most of the bigger busses will announce the next stop and the following stop in Korean. If you know the name of where you’re going but can’t hear the announcement, you can often ask the bus driver, and they will let you know when to get off if you’re afraid of missing your stop.

City buses:

One of the things that freaked me out most was the fact that I didn’t have a T-Money card and had to pay using cash. Unfortunatley, the fare (요금) signs are all in Korean, so I guessed. Anyway, it’s 1,000 won for the bigger buses and 800 won for the smaller buses. Get a T-Money card as fast as you can, though, because then you don’t have to pay for transfer between buses or from buses to the subway.

2 – This one stops right at the doors of Homeplus and goes to places such as Uijeongbu Station (의정부 ì—­). It’s a good “direct” bus from my area to the station but it only comes every 15 minutes or so, which makes it not worth waiting for most of the time.

23 – It travels to very important places such as Line 1′s Uijeongbu Station (의정부 ì—­), one of the main Uijeongbu post offices, Hyoja Middle School (and, thus, the High and Elementary schools nearby), Lotte Mart in Minlak-Dong (민락동), and so on. You can also walk to and from Homeplus from this bus stop.

10 – Another subway route, you can take this one to Line 1/7′s Dobongsan Station (도봉산 ì—­), which is what I use it for, but it also passes Line 1′s Mangwolsa Station (망월사 ì—­) but it also passes right outside Homeplus (whereas you have to walk from the 23). It also stops outside Hoeryong Station (회룡 ì—­).

72-1 – Yet another subway route, this bus takes you to a central transfer point in Seoul, Line 4/7′s Nowon Station (노원 ì—­), and also Lotte Department store nearby. This one also stops outside Hoeryong Station (회룡역)

72-3 – This one is a long bus-ride but it passes quite a few subway stations, including Uijeongbu, but most importantly Chang-Dong station (창동역). Note that it stops directly across from Homeplus.

Mini-buses

205-1 – Doesn’t go to many important places (for me, at least) but it does pass by one of the smaller hospitals in the Homeplus area.

206 – This one doesn’t go to many important places but it does go to Line 1′s Kaneung/Ganeung Station (가능 ì—­). Make sure to note this station was once called Uijeongbu Bukbu station, as some older maps may list it as such. It also, very circuituously, makes its way to Uijeongbu Station, but I wouldn’t recommend this route; it takes way too long. It does, however, pass directly outside the Lotte Mart near City Hall. This one passes directly outside Homeplus.

Express/Highway buses:

Note: Like the regular and mini-buses, you can use your T-Money card.

1001 – This one travels from Jongno 3,5 (종로 xê°€ ì—­) ( to the Uijeongbu area. I’m almost certain you can get on at the stops right outside the Kyeonggi-do Provincial Office 2, even though they aren’t listed. I’m thinking this bus can be quite useful if you’re on Line 1 and you know you aren’t going to make the last train to Uijeongbu.

3100 – You can board this one from the Homeplus area, it goes, apparently, to Nowon and other stations, but most importantly, it ends up in Kangnam/Gangnam and right near the station as well (강남 ì—­).

3700 – An express bus to Incheon. You must board this one at the Uijeongbu Bus Terminal (accessible by bus 72-1, 23).

???? – If there’s a bus directly from Hongdae to Uijeongbu, I’d love to know.

So. now I've been here for two weeks and things still haven't really settled down for me yet. I still don't have a phone or internet at home and now my trusty steed, my three week old laptop, has already died, leaving me completely disconnected. If I didn't have my iPod at home, I don't know what I would do with myself.

And speaking of home… here's the view of the school from my apartment. If you look close enough, you can see a student leaning out her window talking on her cell phone in the second row, third block from the left in the left side window grid.  

These are the scads of students that walk by my window every morning to get to school. It's just a tad bit zombie-ish in more ways than one.

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth…

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Annyeonghaseyo! (Hello! politely)

Uijeongbu at night – so beautiful and it was very serene at this moment, surprisingly.

So I’ve been here for a week now.

One week. I’ve been here for one week. Wow.

There’s so much to write and recall, I feel like I can barely get it down. I’ll inevitably be missing a bunch of memories, details and thoughts in this post, but I think I need to just post this before I put it off for good.

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I suppose the West Coast must be more enlightened than the East, since I’m using free wireless here at Vancouver International Airport whereas I had to use my computer internetless like a neolithic trogdolyte at Pearson.

As a preface, if you detect a hint of glee in the following post, it’s probably because I’m typing this post on my new laptop, and, in true yuppie form, I’m typing it up as I sip a coffee at Starbucks.

So as expected, I’ve incurred yet another delay on my way to Korea. This one isn’t half as serious as Transcriptgate, but here I am, waiting another ten days when I should only be waiting three.
I actually just got back to Markham from the Korean Consulate, which took around 3 hours roundtrip because of the rain; and we all know what rain does to highways. This is actually the third day in a row that I’ve driven to and from the consulate, each time feeling both enraged and despondent. I gather that the information that I’ve been given pertains only to the Korean-American Embassy, because procedures here in Toronto are really different. For example, I’ve had to order my fifth transcript for this entire procedure whereas my American counterparts would probably only need one.

A lot of people have been saying that it’s a sign that I’ve been delayed so much; that Canada doesn’t want me to leave. Well, I don’t particularly want to leave now either but I think that for (and I’m trying not to sound too melodramatic here) the good of my life, I should leave. Not only because my current home life feels somewhat poisonous, but more so that I’ve been convinced thoroughly by M that the exchange experience is a crucial one. I’m feeling it more and more everyday. The chance to live, work, travel and take care of myself, all by myself, is alluring and probably something that is long overdue for me. Most people experience this in university but since I was about a stone’s throw away from home at University of Toronto, I was always within grasp of my parents.

And I feel like I shouldn’t be backing down. As most of you know, and have pointed out on several occasions, I have something of a victim-complex. I know that others have gone through this before (at least that’s what my agent told me) and I know that lots of foreigners have trouble getting their visas so I shouldn’t feel too special. So I think that the only way to solve this complex is to really just be strong and push through and live it out. If I don’t, I feel like it’ll be a slippery slope of defeat after defeat, capitulation and capitulation, until I find that I’m 30 and living in my parent’s basement.

I think only one other person I’ve talked to has really understood what I mean when I say I don’t like to drag out goodbyes. I really dislike the feeling of having a last goodbye with someone, whether it be just a phone call or even spending a whole day together, and then seeing them the next day or the next week and have that awkward conversation. The feeling of finality, of closure and conclusion from the goodbye are suddenly wiped out and, again, to sound melodramatic, the grieving process is interrupted. Once I leave, I want to be gone.

Basically, it just sucks to always have people say, “you’re still here?”