Tomorrow is Monday, the start of a new week. I'm not dreading it, like I used to when I taught middle school. But I'm not excited for it either, it's going to be a long four days until the weekend. And potentially someone will be going into my apartment tomorrow while I'm not home to do something gas related? But my handler left me the relieving note "don't worry about safety ;)" without any reason as to why I shouldn't be worried. But maybe the winking emoticon is supposed to make up for that...
Either way, here are some awesome moments from the weekend:
Abby has a sock fetish. Wear socks and she attacks your feet, it's a pretty normal response.
Mac and cheese, with broccoli and sriracha sauce.
Getting chauffeured around the mountains by another teacher, in a little van. It's still snowing at the end of March. Chungju is a lot colder than Daegu.
Having a stowaway in the back of said van. Keeping it classy.
Posing with weird pepper statues while giving the thumbs up.
고추/gochu/pepper is slang for penis in Korean, so that may explain why the statue is very enthusiastically giving the thumbs up with the giant pepper.
And the pièce de résistance:
I went on a biking trip to the biggest
문구/stationary/art supply store in Chungju along with a friend and I mentioned that there was a McDonald's beside it. He opted to buy a hamburger while I was sorting through the supplies, which tends to be a lengthy process. He came back with the food and was going to eat it outside, but they told him to go and eat it in their small back room kitchen/storage area, which was a huge conversation topic among the store owners and shoppers. I walked outside after making my purchase, at which point, one of the shop owners busted out the door, wildly miming eating and shouting "friend, hambuhguh, friend!!!"
I returned, and sure enough, there he was nonchalantly eating a hamburger in their mini kitchen, at which point they made it clear that I should sit and wait until he was finished. They were so thoughtful. Especially since it was so cold and windy outside, and their kitchen had ondol (floor heating) that was nice and toasty.
Hey! would love to know where the art store is. I need my art fix!!
ReplyDeletei bike everywhere so i'm not sure how to get there by bus... it's a big yellow store, in the northern part of chungju on gookwondae-roe, right beside a mcdonald's. there's also another (smaller) art store that's more south and close to the river that has a bigger selection of fine art supplies (and canvas) but not really any cool crafty stuff. what kind of supplies are you looking for?
ReplyDeletei'll try and make a map and post it later.
here's a map of approximately where they are. i don't know if you've been to alpha before, but the one here is really small and lacking in supplies. i'd definitely go with the big store by mcdonald's for best all around selection. i live down by hoam lake, so it's much farther for me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213634821146140121297.0004bc9c52c5a9f0cd257&msa=0&ll=36.971015,127.930641&spn=0.039293,0.055189