Smoking Ban in Korean Public Places

Smoking ban in billiard halls, indoor golf driving ranges, swimming pools and other small recreation areas in Korea. It's an interesting article from Korea Times about smoking ban. I just can't help to write my own reaction and idea after reading this.

Key points that took my attention. 

(1) There is a NEW law that bans smoking in billiard halls. I find playing billiard to be interesting specially when I was a kid but it has given me a bad picture of billiard halls as I was growing up. Why? Playing itself is not that bad but it is the place and the betting culture that accompanies it that bothers me. The main thing is actually the place where one would usually spot smokers in and around the billiard areas. It's not a place where I would want to hang out with even if I wanted to try to play billiards. 

On second thought, I am surprised that it is just now that rec rooms like these are included in the ban. 

(2) No food and drinks will NOT be allowed in restaurants' smoking rooms. That's a progressive one. Since smoking rooms now means a place where you can eat, drink and smoke. But not anymore. (This will start on January 1, 2015 next year.)

That is one good thing to look forward for the coming year for me. 

Technology and Me

My old laptop has been shelved for a while now that I have a new one. Well, not exactly shelved but I still use it at times that I need to use IE since my new one is a chromebook.

Hubby ordered it for me from Amazon in mid of November and it arrived more than a week later. Since shipping to ROK is tricky, he usually use a forwarding company Malltail. He got his own through that same route before paying about 30USD for shipping and extra 10% customs tax depending on the amount bought.

My new chromebook speed has been waay better and less complicated compared to the microsoft-run lappy before. It's good for basic computing, and streaming and everything online except IE sensitive sites like Korean online banking, government sites, and everything Korean related sites. For a country whose advance technology is touted for, it seems that their backbone is still Microsoft or windows related computers. I won't claim to be such a genius in technology coz I'm far from it but in cases like these, using a chromebook is charting a new territory. I, myself, has also been more familiar and comfortable with windows.

Going back to what prompted me to write this entry today is the printing aspect from chromebook. I was able to connect our classic printer to my hubby's account and shared it with mine. I had wanted to print something for a while but the printer is quite inaccessible for me before. Since chromebook cannot connect directly to printers (which is quite a downer for me) the alternative is to use the our windows-run turtle netbook (it's an old one and veeerryy slow) as the main one connected to the printer.

I just followed a few steps after googling how tos. First was connecting a google account from the turtle netbook to the printer, and sharing it with my own account. I accidentally connected the printer using my hubby's g. account so I still had to share it to my account so that I can use it. It could have been the other way but that's what you get when you don't read a bit more.

Here is what I followed for sharing. It might come in handy for me in the future. ;)

from chrome help site

trying out to print from chromebook from youtube

Enough suspense for me now. It's about time to find out for me how this cloud printing works for such a fancy name.

Warm Day Spell is Over!

Highest temp yesterday was 12 and I managed to go out with just a sleevelesd tank top under a regular jacket for a few minutes.

Today promises to be another rainy day just like last Friday. Weather forecasters warns that it will get colder this week starting with flurries on Monday. The accu weather simply describes Thursday as cold. Oh no! Those will be the days that I have plans of heading out!
It's time to preplan our clothes for the week again meticulously. P already caught a cold from riding bike late last Thursday afternoon and hubby and I have this scratchy feeling on our throats. It's time to stock up on vitamin c fruits and enough sleep.
And now for our bfast, I'll start peeling the apples!

posted from Bloggeroid

Ebony and Ivory Bookstore: English Used Bookstore Cheonan

This is the trail I followed to find the Ebony and Ivory bookstore. The sign already caught my eyes the few times we passed through the area and only through the fb group that I learned that it is a second-hand books' store. The directions were pretty solid. Coming from the Shinsege area, I walk past the the 7-11 store and I already spotted the black and white signboard even though it was written in Korean.  There were ample signs to follow so it felt like a scavenger hunt for me as I go downstairs to the basement.

Spot the black and white sign?

This is what I saw upon reaching the landing. It looks a bit uninhabited and creepy at first but ...



when I turned right and spied this door...


it felt like home! (I just love bookstores and this setting is one unique place as it kind of gives me the old bookstore feeling.)

Right side books are actually old, almost collector's- items-kind-of-books.

Right in front of me are shelves of used books of every genre: from novels, self-help, reference books, children's books and other series. Hurray! This is nothing compared to the ones in the malls like Booksale that I frequent before.







Some other places of interest I've seen around the area. An Indian resto, a branch of a stationery store called Dream Office, and a uniform store.

posted from Bloggeroid

Thrift Shops in Cheonan: Clothes and whatnots

Is this a real animal or what? For a second, I thought it was. And even if I knew that it wasn't really one, it still freaked me out that I cannot bear to touch it. When I asked my hubby about it, he told me that it used to be quite popular when he was younger. It only made me think how much the norms had changed as this kind of thing would almost be taboo in this generation because of animal rights.

I like thrift shopping. Not only that it is thrifty, it's also earth friendly (environmentalist inner-self here) and fun! My grandma used to frequent such places when she goes to the market when I was a kid. I never go with her though but I know that those clothes that she brings home along with the fishes she got from the market were from the thrift stores in the area. 

Fast forward by decades and I had found myself going to these places as well. It's just fun to dig through the stuff and find unbelievably priced pieces that we can't find being sold in the regular stores as new. More often, buying used item at a good price is better than a new one that has questionable quality with almost a crazy price to boot. 

So now that I am the main "marketer" in my household, I am always in search of thrift shops. I only know of one small place in my current locality. A friend brought me there once and we check on it every now and then. I had to find another store at the nearby Cheonan City. 

I've searched for months online for these places and asked friends before heading there. My first try was a failure since I just went without any map at all and just simple oral directions like, once you get off the bus or station, walk a bit and go down. You'll easily find it. I mean go down where? Not a landmark was mentioned saved for the station. As much as we speak the same language, those kind of directions got me nowhere. 

My second attempt was with my hubby's help who searched online in Korean sites for such. He managed to point me to the right street where I found shops. It turned out to be the street mentioned in the Hulk (boxing/health club) owner's blog. Hah! 

So this is the street where I ended up exploring for the day. How I got there? In a roundabout way since I still "dropped" by around the Shinsegae area. But anyway, Cheonan Station Exit 1 is a good place to start. The station is on a sort of T intersection. Once you step out of the station area and turn right, that will be heading toward Daiso way. If you walked and reached spotted Daiso, you are on the wrong side. The same thing with the opposite way of that. Better cross the street towards GS25. But no, there are not pedestrians on that area. Haha..the nearest I've seen is the one near Daiso. (I like that store, huh?) :D

Or if you can spot the entrance to the underground, that's better coz there is the underground market that I have included in the map/link below. Let's say, you stayed on the ground (not gone under ^^) walk two or three blocks from GS25 heading to IBK bank. One would spot the World Food, Gimbap Nara (written in Korean), the Sijang Entrance and a MINI STOP at the other side of the street where you are walking. I remember turning right into a seemingly deserted street before I reached the underground entrance no. 7 (map below). And this is what I saw on an early weekday afternoon of November.

 

There were mostly clothes but this one of the last stores on the street surprised me when I took a peek of what was behind the plastic curtains. It looked like a mini second-hand department store. :D Clothes for kids, linens, books, toys, baby carriers, etc. It was such a delight to see them for the first time. Now I know where most of the apartment "dump" goes.





Here is the Naver map of my next photo target. Google map wasn't much help in this case. They really have limited info when it comes to Korea. Naver and Daum, unsurprisingly, provides a better map.

Cheonan Station Underground Market

Can't wait for my next adventure in Cheonan soon!

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10:43 12 Minute Rant: KIIP and everything

I just have to let this out of my system before I get to start my proper studying.

First, I skipped class today mainly because of that damn spelling test. I really don't understand why we have to do that if it isn't part of the test. Maybe for the pronunciation? We were told that it's for the vocabulary. Pardon me but if we're testing for vocabulary, spelling test is not the way to do it. If that spelling test will come out as pronunciation part in the level test, then maybe. But that, again, should be more on the listening part: sound discrimination or something akin to that. Please don't give me the crap that it's for vocabulary.

Second, it's just frustrating to try to study and learn my husband's language. I can say that he does help me usually but the least and easiest way for him to do so is simply just speak Korean at home. I'm not saying all the time especially the crucial things where details are very important. It's just basically being able for me as a learner to hear more of the language and how it's used. The thing is not only that I hear English from him most of the time, I also hear other languages like Chinese, Spanish and French sometimes when he's studying. Why can't he do those other languages when I'm out of earshot? I need to hear and immerse myself with a lot of Korean so it the sounds and words would be familiar for me.We've been doing English for a long time and I think that it's my turn to be immersed and learn Korean.

One minute left. Going back to the KIIP. I really wonder how they run this program. Anyway, the book is like Korean grammar squeezed in all together. I'm surviving the grammar part with the use of Korean Grammar in Use book alongside, as well as vocab translations and explanations from my hubby.

Now for a more constructive way to end this post...I've googled about KIIP again and it came out with interesting results compared with the ones I found a few months ago.

TO note the sites...here are the links:
waygook forums:
main: http://www.waygook.org/index.php?action=search2

http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,66873.msg497854.html#msg497854

http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,79900.msg503955.html#msg503955

TOPIK practice test
http://www.naldaramjui.com/TOPIK

KIIP practice test
http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,80560.0.html

KIIP Notes from blogger chase
http://chasingatale.blogspot.kr/2013/09/kiip-intermediate-1-grammar-cheat-sheet.html


KLEC
http://klec.cuk.ac.kr/eng/course/course_03.html

Busy November 2

First week of November- We went to Yonginsan for a short hike with a guide for kids. It was rather short and I was thinking of hanging out some more after the hike. The thing is our packed food was not enough and we didn't bring enough cash, even the cards, so our day out was cut short.

Second week - A family moved into town, P got somehow adopted three new pet turtles suddenly so we had to figure out how to deal with these new pets. Plus there is also an upcoming orchestra regular performance by next week at Gimpo.

The kids had practice while parents met for a meeting and helped out in arranging the chairs and music stands. It was not much work with a lot of hands. But boy, did we feel hot in the early winter after that.

P and I decided not join the bus ride and opted to take a short walk. It turned out to be a short hike after we chose to explore the pathway above the tunnel through the staircase around the opening.

I already tried riding the bike through the tunnel last time and it was quite challenging. So when me and my son spotted the stairs, it seemed like an interesting new path to get to the lake park area. Good thing that he was quite up to it. I like it when people can be flexible and be up to little adventures every now and then.




What we found was like a magical land for me. I can almost imagine a story setting in those woods: starting from the staircase by the tunnel, finding a possible pathway, figuring out which way are for human and which ones is made for the water and simply enjoying the beautiful fall colors around.

Too bad that I needed to use the rest room, my son wasn't wearing a jacket and my husband will be waiting for us at the parking lot that we had to hurry through that magical land.

It was quite a sunny day and cold was relative to how much you move. The terrain was pretty steep at some part but there were a few benches along the way. I would have loved to be able to walk through that place again in a more leisurely occasion.

Uniqlo Haul (prep for winter)

My second Uniqlo haul. They had a 10th-year-anniversary 4-day sale and I thought that it can be a good time to add some heat tech undergarments for us.

We dropped by at the store at almost 6 and there were queues  at the cashiers. A lot more people are still shopping. The otherwise almost deserted place on regular days like when I dropped by a couple of times before is surprisingly full. I had very limited time to stay there since I came with my husband and son. The younger one was pretty full so I didn't hear a lot of complain from him but the adult was not and he was pretty much in a hurry to go. He complained of being hungry, and hot coz there were quite a lot of people inside. And that is after we've gotten his pairs of pants and underpants! Some people can really be....

Nuff said, I got them what they need  and I'll shop for my own stuff by myself next time. That is exactly why I prefer to shop by myself. So here's what we managed to get yesterday (all marked down):

2 pairs leggings (kids) - 9,900 down to 7,900
2 pairs leggings (men) - 19,900 down to 12,900
1 pair leggings (women) - 19,900 down to 12,900
2 pairs jeans (men)  - 10,000 (off-season sale so I don't know what's the original price)
1 pair jeans (women)  - 3,900 (off-season sale also)

We decided not to get the undershirt tops for kiddo coz we weren't sure about the price. I plan to check it out again today or tomorrow.

The jeans were not part of the shopping list for the winter but the hanguk ajussi can possibly get away with it for the winter. And my pair of jeans at 4k is quite a steal that I cannot resist. It's in my warmer-days list anyway. :D

Now, I really have to get my son's clothes somewhere.

Busy November 2014

Lots of things keeping us busy this month: P's Oongong orchestra activities, school activities this coming Friday, family moving in town and my KIIPS Korean class wrapping up level 2.





Not to mention our teaching stints, winterizing our place and ourselves..just much to do.
More on my lappy next time. Too sleepy for the day now.

posted from Bloggeroid

Foot Soak at the Onyang Market Entrance

My second time to do a foot soak around the Onyang Market entrance. This is across from the CUL building, with Popeye's on the first floor. It's right after you cross the pedestrian crossing going to the market. There were almost a dozen of ajussis, ajumman, halmoni and halaboji soaking up in the hot spring.

I feel that I was the youngest one there since I wasn't able to convince my son to join me. He opted to go and find a hotteok seller nearby to eat some hotteok. I sent him out and about without much worries about crossing the streets coz the pedestrian crossings are quite sound.

First, I took off my socks and pop them in my back pocket. Then, I rinsed my feet at a tap on the end of the foot bath strip along the street and tiptoed to find an empty seat. Some ajussis motioned for me to seat to the nearest space at the end which I tried but I found it quite hot. It seems that it was the hottest part. I had to move a bit farther to find the temperature that I can endure. Last time I was there, my feet really turned red but not this time around. The outside autumn temperature must have cooled the water a bit now.

After ten or 15 minutes later, I whisked out the small towel that I brought along to dry my feet and put on my socks and shoes. I noticed one ajumma who simply dried her feet by patting it lightly with her socks. I'm not sure that it's enough to dry my feet.

I wonder when until when they can keep this open before winter. It was closed until around February, early March this year when I first looked for it. It made me really want to soak my whole body in a hot spring soon. This is going to be a thing to do this coming winter I hope.

posted from Bloggeroid

Winter Accessories

I'm still building up my winter stuff to prepare myself for the cold.

I found some interesting stuff from a short vid from TTMIK Talk series which features a walk in Seoul during a snowy day. After googling for it, it seems to be called as ten-finger mitten or convertible half finger glove with mitten in another page.

And I also found a knitting pattern for it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to knit. Sucks!  

Chinese Food -- Korean Style

Delicious looking food but not a thing I can eat. Good thing is that I already had an early dinner. 

Set Menu from the Chinese Resto in the sangga basement

Palbuche (looks like chopsuey or stir fry mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and vegies)

Tangsuyuk

Gochu Japche (gochu is mostly bell pepper though)

Keun Mandu or King Dumplings

Homemade vege dumplings for me. I will soon make some.

posted from Bloggeroid

Apple Bread: Take 2

I just used half cup sugar but it was still a bit sweet for me. Nonetheless, it was still edible except that my son insisted on eating it with an apple jam.

posted from Bloggeroid

Arirang All Throughout

Arirang is to Korean music here in Korea. Sure, there is the more modern and popular Kpop but when we talk of Korean music, the traditional way, Arirang it is.

That is the theme for the concert we recently watched over the weekend ---Arirang, all throughout the concert. It was played on different instruments and styles.

The main instrument was the flute, accompanied by the piano most of the time. It was also joined in by a cello at one point and a band for the latter part. The cello part was quite short but I think that that piece was one of the most authentic or close to the traditional sound of the popular version of Arirang.

The concert opened with an instrumental medley of different versions of the song from diffeent parts of Korea. Each area has their own take on the song. Some have sad tones while others are downright melancholic when it is sung.

The flute shared the stage with four other younger guys on the latter part of the night. They took care of the drums, lead/rhythm and bass guitars, as well as my personal favorite instrument, piano.They played Arirang in other arrangements like waltz, bossa, pop, jazz and even rock as encore.

The piano guy was my favorite. Why? He has quite a personality from the minute he showed up in a pair of walking shorts and beanie on his head. He played the piano with fun written all over it. I would like to bring home that piano guy with his piano.

Sorry for the flute guy, even though it was a refreshing instrument, I'm a shameless piano fan.

posted from Bloggeroid

Uniqlo Haul for the Coming Winter

Uhmm, yes. It's for my winter haul. As early as September. I should have done some winter shopping when we got here and catch the after-winter sale but...I am not a big shopping gurl at all. I just think I need to get some comfortable and warm things to keep me alive this coming winter.

The temperature is getting colder for me so I thought it best to start preparing for it with a Uniqlo shopping trip. It set me back for almost 80 USD.

I got a hooded zip up sweater (slightly discounted), two turtle neck heat tech long sleeves (@ 5 bucks each), a heat tech long-sleeved bra top (regular price at 30 bucks), another kid's heat tech long sleeved undershirt and a pair of socks.

A pair or two of heat tech leggings was on my list but it was pretty thin for my taste that I decided to think about it again. I still a couple of useful ones for the winter as underpants but not much for a decent one that I can wear by itself. I may have to check around some more or maybe just try the regular leggings.

The turtle necks had been pretty comfy to wear at home for now, along with an indoor zipped up sweater. I may have to keep an eye for the bottoms next time. Fleece lined ones won't be bad at all.

posted from Bloggeroid

Oncheon-dero

Spotted along Oncheondero near a high school are a couple of quick bites for students.




Still along the same road, but FARTHER along....is the the Home Mart. It is a newly opened supermarket sometime in the summer this year which had a raffle event for three months to kick off things. And this is how the raffle thing went.

I'm not sure how much would the purchase receipt is needed to get a raffle stub which one will fill up with the name and mobile phone number. This is dropped in transparent box outside to be drawn from every month. There were different sets of prizes mostly home appliances from small blenders to big washing machines at that.


The thing that strikes me differently was one should be there when they do the draw. If the name got picked but the person was not there at that time, the prize is forfeited and they will keep on drawing for another paper until they have the same person in attendance. That is quite new for me.  I now wonder how raffle draws go in other countries. :D

Under the Onyang-yok Sijang

Chestnut season starts before Chuseok as I spied this ajussi selling fresh and big chestnut at 600/kilo with the options of peeled or unpeeled. Awesome.

They were the same couple (I'm not sure if husband and wife or father and daughter team though) that sold well dried dates a few weeks ago. They're one seller to keep an eye for next time. :D

The market day under the Onyang Station happens on dates that ends in 4 and 9. That means 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, 29th of the month.

Giant Clams? (I'm not sure but I don't eat these)

Library Bins -- Post-Chuseok State

The local library was closed for four consecutive days for the Chuseok Holiday last week. It started on the Sunday to Wednesday. They usually close on Mondays during regular days.

We had a set of books due last weekend but we only managed to drop it off last Wednesday. And this is what I saw! Overflowing!





I am quite happy that the libraries here are well-used and readers managed to fill these bins. The more readers, the merrier. ^^

posted from Bloggeroid

Post Chuseok Affairs

Post Chuseok Affairs

Title is inspired from Sherlock Holmes' titles. However, this should have been better titled as Post-Chuseok Effects for Foreign Wives in Korea which sounds more apt for an academic paper.

IT isn't unheard of that divorce rate for Koreans goes up after a big national holiday such as Chuseok and New Year. The usual cause or maybe catalyst would be the humongous preparations that the wives have to do during these occasions. Traditionally speaking, women do all the chores and men do almost nothing in preparing all of the food and whatnots that are needed for the traditional observance. This is a common issue for Korean women nowadays.

I pretty much know about this part but what I learned this time is there are other aspect in these traditional holidays that can also cause some disagreements, or possibly divorce if it can go worse. This is the bowing part. I have not been pressed to do that since the first time I refused because of religious reasons. I never realized that some Korean families are very strict about that to a point that they might actually raise the issue of a possible divorce case. 

Some foreign wives do feel a little uncomfortable in not doing so, specially the CHristian foreign wives. Yet, it is more uncomfortable if they do suddenly change and follow the local norms. I, myself, am a bit on the same boat even if I was fortunate enough to have a more understanding and open-minded extended Korean family. I've just realized how blessed I am that I didn't hear any negative repercussions about it. Or if there ever was, I am just so oblivious and numb. 

Neighborhood Festival-- Korean style

I am sitting in the middle of a Korean event for Chuseok in the neighborhood apartment complex. It started at 2 and still running until 9 at night.

There was a dumpling-making event where mostly old people joined in. They were making the seompyeon pretty fast and I cannot almost keep up with them in filling their well-shaped rice dough. I totally gave up making my own  shapes since they weren't as pretty and quickly-formed as most of the old ladies'. I resigned myself to the job of spooning in the sesame+sugar filling for them instead.

There was this grandmother who made a bit bigger seompyeon and I had to spoon out the filling twice the amount more than what the others made.

I also notice that some made theirs quite differently only to find out that they came from another province. That is quite interesting coz one can probably guess where they're from through the style of shaping their seompyeon.



A few younger kids also joined in after school let out later in the afternoon. They tried to make some but they are obviously inexperienced compared to the grandmothers.

It seems like the tedious job of making these Chuseok rice cake can be a fun event if shared with other people. The grandmothers even sang and dance along with some live entertainment while they were making the seompyeons. I even got bumped a few times while a grandmother was dancing but of course, all I can do is try to avoid her. :D She sure had fun, eh?

They all got some rest after and sat down to watch the show. There were guitar acts, duets and mid-age girl group, young and adult traditional drummers, a choir, and even jump ropers.

There was also a singing contest open to all---that means-- for all ages with a limit of two minutes for each of the almost two dozens of candidates. The youngest was a 4th-grader girl who sang an English song, and oldest would probably be the grandmother who had a bit of hard time scaling up the stair without any hand bar but she sang pretty well. The singing range varied from not-so-good to quite good ones.

A few that stood out from my memory, aside from the one I already mentioned, was a gentleman who did look like a man (he even came with his son on stage) but sounded like a woman's voice the minute he started singing. He quite good, if not the best, though. He sang his a little upbeat song like a pro and everybody seemed to have a good time. If it wasn't a contest with a time limit, we would have enjoyed another song from him.  





It is pretty interesting how they had the stage set up from a big truck that comes with stage light, and a screen projector. This basically served as the stage wall, with the stage itself enough to hold more than a dozen people.

It wasn't such a bad traditional event after all. The crowd was just enough. But the Kpop style sound was a bit too much for me at the end. I actually prefer the well-choreographed choir of the city singing songs form my all-time-favorite movie, the Sound of Music. It was quite long and tiring but fun for a first-timer like me nonetheless. 

 

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