My 1st Month

Well, lookie here . . . I just arrived to Korea exactly a month ago today!

Wow, it feels like a long time ago, yet at the same time it doesn't . . .

Since I last posted, I went to Seoul during the weekend and spent some time with a few of my friends from orientation. At least now, I know how to get to the train station and can go again on my own (my coordinator had to go to a meeting and she took me with her in the train so I can learn how to get to Seoul and back).

During the week, nothing too special, other than I heard how Chusok (the Korean Thanksgiving) is making most of my students--especially the housewives--really stressed. This holiday goes from Tuesday to Thursday (Sept. 21 - 23). Does it always fall on these dates? Not necessarily: it all depends on the lunar calendar.

How is Chusok celebrated? Everyone goes to visit their parents/grandparents/ancestors' graves. Usually, they start with the husbands'/fathers' side of the family 1st, then the wives'/mothers' side, but sometimes they don't have enough time with all the traveling and cooking and what-not. So basically, it's about family, food, and giving thanks . . . kinda like American Thanksgiving.

Some sesame seeds I crushed in the mortar with pestle.

This was in Saboten (a Japanese restaurant) my friends and I ate in Saturday night. It's on the 6th or 7th floor of some amazingly popular mall.

My dinner. Hooray for finally trying a typical japanese meal! It's called Udon (wheat-flour noodle soup).

The only downside was that it was not filling.

No worries: I didn't touch the shrimp or the pork cutlet.





A new mall that's connected to the one we ate in. It's called "Times Square". Don't care about the stores . . . at all, but the arcade was pretty cool, the cinema looked awesome, and there's a Thai restaurant that's calling my name.

A display of artistic scooters.

I came back to Cheonan Sunday early afternoon. Would've loved to stay, but I need to run a few errands, like grocery shopping. I went to a store called "E-Mart". Kinda like American Wal-Mart . . . on steroids/as a mall.

Was able to find and buy most of what I needed . . . then hunger struck. I felt like trying something that was familiar to me. Got the Big Mac meal for less than what I would've paid in the States (so far, the only thing that was cheaper than in the States, besides public transportation).

During the week (Tuesday?), I saw this scene above (minus fish-eye application). I've already seen this once or twice before. This is how people move in and out of these 10+ floor apartment buildings.

There it goes, going up.

Kinda random, but it struck me how nice the playground actually looks. . . only I don't feel at all invited to even think about going there.

Ah, it looks like someone from the 9th (?) floor needs some supplies delivered to their balcony as well.