commute
If you look at the London Connections railway map, New Malden (a famous Korean community) is actually located in zone 4. Though your address on the envelopes still reads county Surrey, being five stops away from London, Waterloo, Raynes Park counts as part of the Greater London network, therefore, people wearing suits commuting by train to work in the city is an average daily scenery. I, on the other hand, am not thoroughly convinced that this area is just a stone's throw from London. In order to catch the train, it means that one has to lose an hour of extra sleep, eat breakfast, make packed lunch, ride to the train station, buy a ticket, fold your bike, then try and squeeze in onto the coaches with the other sardines--these sardines either put on a I-am-not-awake look, or are reading the free Metro. This gives me flashbacks of my stressful high school days when I had to wake up early to catch the bus, and be ready for our morning exams. The landscape is slightly different as well. They have the hugest supermarket where families come in with huge trolleys to buy a whole month's supply of food; you can even drive away with a washing machine! Community centres that have classes, canteens and swimming pools offer you a sense of belonging and local identity. All this subtly tells me: if you live in the suburbs, you most likely won't be living and feeding yourself alone.