The fountain is out, it's officially spring. All the cherry blossom festivals reinforce that as well.
And voting day happened. As a foreigner, I don't get to participate in elections in any way other than watching ajummas dance on street corners, which is sadly no more. They did have polling booths in my apartment building's lobby, it was quite strange to walk through and get bowed at on the way in and out of my building.
Another thing that spring has signaled for me, is that Chungju finally feels like home. I may not have as many cool spots to go to as my old neighbourhood in Daegu, but with things finally turning green, Chungju has really grown on me.
I remember the first day, back in late February, that I biked into the city (I didn't really know where I was going I just wanted to explore). It started to rain/snow and everyone had out an umbrella, except for me, but I refuse to use umbrellas for snow. It just isn't going to happen. I was waiting for the light to change to cross the street, and a suited up ajeosshi stepped up beside me and shared his umbrella. It was my first heart warming moment in Chungju.
My drawing to commemorate that memory.
And recently, while biking the fantastically long trail around Chungju, I was stopped by a man on a scooter and thanked profusely for unknown reasons. Maybe it was just for biking, or enjoying Chungju? Either way it was awesome.
And another time, while waiting to cross at an intersection, a city worker shared his orange with me. Maybe it's just that I ride my bike a lot, but people here seem much kinder to bikers than I experienced in my past two years in Korea. It has definitely helped make me feel at home. To the point that I've finally accepted "good" as being the word to describe Chungju. Sure, it isn't dynamic Busan, colourful Daegu, or hi Seoul, but it is its own special little place. And to that, I have to give a whole lot of thumbs up.
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