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!

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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.

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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.

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