Free Medical Check-up for Foreigners

My mind is a bit disturbed now after receiving a phone call. A classmate and I were walking to the train station after our class a few weeks ago when there was a gentleman who was giving out fliers and and some sort of ticket. I am not a big fan of such specially if I don't see what kind of group it is coming from. It's usually a church, an NGO or some company. This one sounds like a church but I didn't notice any logo or something or sorts.

We were made to write down some stuff, phone number and all. I was really hesitant to stop and chat that long specially in the cold. And as much as I am tempted to lie about even just a digit, I can't. I was told that it's a free medical thing, where we will be picked up at some location and be given a ride to somewhere. When I asked what is the final destination, perhaps a hospital, they mentioned some place which, of course, I don't know. Anyway, he said someone who can speak better English will call me.

I got the phone today and it turned out not any better than the first guy. I was told that the pick up place was to be at a store near the station, (different from what the guy mentioned before) which was better this time. The thing is, I didn't get where they will be taking us after that.

I am not sure of that kind of set up. I need to know where the final location be so I can plot it on the map and figure out the place. I don't want to be whisked away again without knowing where I'll be heading and get sick on the ride. I don't know them, I don't know where they'll be taking us and I am inclined to join even if it's for a free something. I need to know where and how long.

I had signed up once last summer for an activity without knowing where it's going to be and I ended up in panic on the way to the final location. And worst, slightly feeling sick after catching a ride home with another car other than the one that took us there in the first place. As much as I was grateful for the ride, I had to say that she was a terrible driver. I don't know how long has she been driving that funky SUV of hers but no thank you. Id' rather have the option of knowing where I'll be going and be able to figure out how to get home on my own if I needed to do so.

As for that free medical check up or a chance to practice Korean, I think I'll pass on that. They might have a novel intention of helping out foreigners in town but language poses as a big problem in communication. Who knows? They might just actually herd us into some place and butcher us for our innards. Hah! There goes my overactive imagination.

Lesson learned: know where exactly I'm going so I can prepare my ginger!

Moving in Korea (for the nth time for me) (Part 1)

We are moving again. Like, not really nth time but just the third time during my four years living here so far. I've lived here for three years back when I first got here and we only moved once at that time.

On our second one this time, we are moving for the second time. The good thing is that our moves here ROK had only been within the same city. I previous place is just within walking distance and I can still go back to pick up something I've forgotten to pack. Haha! Or maybe finish up the clean up in the old place.

How am I getting on with the move? Well, I've stocked on the boxes from the grocery whenever we do our shopping. I always choose the fruit boxes for mandarin, apples, and alike for packing our grocery. They're pretty sturdy. Soju bottle boxes, fabric conditioner or any boxes for liquid products that would be heavy will do. I also save boxes of any stuff we ordered for delivery like oats, laptops, etc. (Hubby has ordered three chromebooks during these past six months.)

Now, I'm starting to pack stuff bit by bit. I'll just have to remember to separately pack the beddings, kitchen, and clothings that we will be needing immediately. Off to my list for now.

Clothing and Sizes

My son is growing fast...or should I say his feet are! The last shoes I bought for him back in Ph was a 36 and about 230 when we got here last year. Then came around springtime and he was a 235. I was quite ecstatic for a while that we can actually share sneakers for a couple of months. Came winter time and we had to get some winter footwear, he ended up with a 245 when we ordered 235. It was a bit big but it turned out perfect by the end of January and good for this year's winter it seems.

The same thing goes with the clothes. I got him 130 winter jacket before we moved around early 2014 and bought _ _ _ for his spring/summer clothes. I supposed that he can still wear these until this year. The underclothes I got for him for the winter were 150, the biggest available that I found in Uniqlo. Hopefully, this will last for at least two winters since it's stretchable and worn under anyway.

Now, I'm thinking of getting him some winter clothes and shoes for next year with the off-season sale just around the corner. The problem is the sizing thing.The most size that I can get under kids' is 160 and 260. Most sizes available are up to 150 and 240. I have yet to figure out what size should I get for him to fit for next year's winter. That is a very tricky thing to do with his growth rate that I cannot pretty much still predict.

So let me just run by it. Would it be safe to get a 260 for his shoes? How about the clothes, would a 160 fit him for next winter? Now, come to think of, it might just as I remember a 140 Prospecs which turned out to be bigger. So I think, 160 won't be bad for the clothes. Alright, now I got to keep an eye for these sizes when they go on sale somewhere or when I hit the thrift shop after classes one of these days. Now, if I can just figure out when to do any of these shopping coz I have yet to pack for another move soon. I just hope that move can get going soon.

So back to packing now!

Language and Skills

Language and skills: these are very important things that an immigrant to Germany, or any other country, has to have in order to successfully integrate. This is what the successful immigrants had similarly remarked in the documentaries I've seen from dw.de.

From a young asylum seeker from Togo to an Arab medical student who both managed to survive living in a foreign land. The asylum seeker learned and earned his baking certificate while the Arab medical student managed to cross the language boundaries and became a medical doctor. These are just a couple of successful immigrant stories. I just had to make a note of this here. 

Arab Students in Germany

Young Immigrants  Part 1, Part 2

Getting Too Familar with Arirang TV Channel

I've been watching dw.de documentaries lately and there are really a lot of interesting features that I find missing in the Arirang TV programming. Is it just I didn't search the site very well or just I have this impression that Korean still has this self-centered view of the world, that it's not really open to the global audience? They only show everything about Korean in the channel, and the website would usually be filled with Hallyu content or political issues about their backyard and next door neighbors, the seas around it, and lots of Korean culture. One can just get sick of all these at one point.

A few years back when I use to watch these two channels on cable, I have never really found much difference. I only remember watching a certain sitcom on Arirang at that time. Nothing much captivated me maybe because most will have to be subtitled? Things have change a bit since then. I just learned that the channel was in its early years at that time. It has grown in terms of technological part, the contents have been more on K-Pop which they have really capitalized on, and more programs are accessible without subtitles.

Nonetheless, I still find myself switching to dw.de more often to watch their documentaries. I know that the Korean local broadcasting companies have more varied programming for locals compared to what I see on Arirang which basically comes across as a propaganda channel of sorts. I just wonder why they can't put some more variety in their programming. Arirang Channel's subheading is the window of the world to Korea which translates as "this is how Korea want the world to see it" kind of thinking. Almost very reflective of the Korean culture of got to look good all the time.

That doesn't make it real. How would people believe if everything they see is good? There's got to be some sense of reality somewhere to build a good media reputation. Just my oho. (own humble opinion)

Mandu-Making (Korean Dumplings) and Banking (take nth)

Today is the mandu-making with the multicultural center. We set out for the place around 9:45 then headed back around 1:30. We filled up lots of mandu wrappers among the 16 migrant women who showed up to help the other Korean women who did most of the work. The ingredients were all chopped up when we got there and they were still boiling the newly-made mandus when we left.

I would have stayed and helped til everything was finished if I had only known it would be that much. I've seen two big basins of mandu mixed and made today. Amazing. I hope to see the kimchi-making this coming fall.

We got back to downtown at almost two o'clock and I headed to the Dong office to get the document for me to open a Multicultural Acct. I had to pay two grand for 2 copies of that. I was surprised coz last time, it only cost about half of that for another kind of document. It was pretty funny how these things work. Another thing that I find surprising was I was able to pay with a debit card. A bit embarrassing not to have any paper bills in my wallet but the card works.

After I got the document, I stopped by the ATM to withdraw some cash before heading to the bank. When I got there, I had to withdraw again to put in the initial deposit for the special savings account. I managed to accomplish what I came for: opening the special savings account and a dollar account. It turns out that my previous dollar account can still be resurrected and I just have to get a replacement for the lost bank book. This were all done through Korean and typed in translation in the teller's mobile phone. I finally accomplished the banking thing so it's time to head back home.

I managed to pack two boxes of P' English books today. I am really trying to get ahead in this packing things to lessen the stress around the moving day. Hopefully, I'll manage to get some more packing and cleaning tomorrow. 

Humidity and Korean Winter

Weather: Sunny, supposedly warmer at -1 degrees C high temps but with the wind chill factor in, it still feels colder than usual. There's even steam whenever I breathe outside. 

The air is drier today with 47% percent of humidity. I was finally able to run one of our thick winter blankets in the machine with hopes that it will dry out by tonight. It's been a while since I have planned on doing so but I cannot afford to go blanket-less for a night with the colder temps these past few weeks. When it got warmer, the humidity is pretty high also so there is less tendency for the clothes to dry. We do have an extra blanket but these are thinner that the super winter ones we have.

I'm so looking forward to spring soon when I can move about the house more freely. 
There is the spring cleaning to plan out and getting back to school for my son and my offline Korean language classes too. Those I need to prepare for the following months. 

Then, there is also the Korean New Year and our possible move again. Oh, boy! I'm starting to like spring!

Banana Bread in a Mug and Rice Cooker

There were 5 bananas turning brown on the counter so I thought about baking some banana bread. I had to google again for some recipes for that and here's what I managed to find.

For the mug recipe:
Mug Banana Cakes (originally from this blog) but I tweaked it a bit since I know that bananas do tend be sweet. 
(The original post)
Ingredients
1 T butter, melted (or flavourless oil)
1 tbsp milk
1 ripe banana (mashed)
3 tbsp plain flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg (lightly beaten)

My Version:
3 T flour
2 T brown sugar
1/2  t b.powder
3 T mashed banana
1 T oil
2 T milk
cinnamon

I omitted the egg for an eggless version trial as reference for the future. 
I nuked it in 2+2 minutes. I am not sure what level though since our latest MW is in Korean. 
It turned out a bit paler than what I had done before. Maybe because I usually mixed in whole wheat flour mixed before. 

As for the banana bread in the rice cooker, I referred to evanandrachel blog which I also tweaked a bit again because of the sweetness level. 

RECIPE:
3 C                  ---> 1 cup of wheat flour (or 1 1/2 cups of white flour)
1/2 C or 6 - 7 T ---> 3/4 cups brown sugar (or the same amount of white sugar)
3 t                --->   1 1/2 tsp baking soda
dashes  ---> 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 med./lg bananas)
1/2 C ---> 1/3 cups softened butter
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
cinnamon to taste

January 2015 in the Kitchen!

Christmas and New Year has come and gone but I wasn't able to really cook what I wanted for the season. Why? It was just so cold in the kitchen that I would only venture out there for quick survival cooking. Meaning, I just cook anything so we can eat something. Sometimes, my husband is the one who takes over and manages better than me. 

Pasta has been what I had been thinking of making. I was only thinking of Carbonara but I cooked more pasta than what I needed. I found some more other ingredients to be able to make chicken macaroni since we also had some leftover chicken meat. I found almost everything that I needed like apple, raisin, mayo, carrots, garlic, etc. Most of these were like the last ones so I basically finished up my supply. I just had to buy a can of pineapple but what I ended up buying a fruit cocktail can coz it was selling at the same prize as the other one. I figured that I can also get the pineapples from the fruit cocktail plus I can still have the other fruits. 

So I still have the macaroni salad and leftover fruit cocktail sitting in the fridge waiting for me. I already finished up the raisins originally for my oats, I will be using those fruit cocktail instead. I just hope I get to finish them before they spoil. 

Another one that I have waiting for me to make is the banana that we bought last week and has been sitting on the counter with its skin turning brown soon. I just had to make it into a bread because nobody seems to be interested in eating them anymore. It's a different brand from what we are used to (Del Monte, or Dole). The label has a sticker that says, "Manna." It doesn't taste that good I think, although it's a bit smaller which is just about the right serving for me. 

Well, I just had to chop them well, mix 'em up with other stuff and hopefully make a decent banana "BRAKE" again. (BRAKE= bread/cake) I'll use the rice cooker this time but once I get a decent microwavable dish to cook in the microwave which we got this week, I will definitely try a bread in there by adding a glass of water while nuking just like what I saw in another website making a whole wheat flour loaf. But then again, the 5-minute choc cup cake was a favorite when we had our old microwave and my favorite Luminarc mug which was broken just last month. ㅠㅠ 

Good days are still up ahead anyway. It's time to get started on that banana brake. 

 

Microwave at last!

We got a second-hand Samsung microwave today from another expat in the nearby city. It was roughly 40 minutes drive to get there but it wasn't so bad I guess. We took a different route from the usual which the "Navi"/GPS Navigation in the car gives out. We mapped out our possible route going through Samsung area in Tanjeung to get to Cheonan. It turned out well, with less traffic light involve on the way. The car GPS usually takes us through the downtown of cities so it's getting totally annoying for me to see all those stop lights.

The nuke was a bit dirty, but works well. I just had to clean it up a bit before trying it out to reheat some food. I can now try the five-minute-cup cake again, and other things. I just have to figure out how to work it as it has all the buttons in Korean. The manual online is also available only in Korean.

And another thing is to get myself a microwavable dish soon so I can cook other things there. I am also eyeing a two-sided pan for the frozen fish in the fridge. It's very tricky (read: stinky) to do a lot of frying with all the doors and windows closed during winter.

Problem is we have no decent spot for the nuke in the kitchen now. Oh well, I just hope that things will continue to look up and we'll be able to move to a more spacious place this year.

Hello 2015 Health

First weekend of 2015 didn't come well for me as I feel pain in my lower back. I wanted to soak it in a hot tub since yesterday but it was just too inconvenient. I may use a hot water bottle today and other hot packs around. The water bottle worked a bit to ease the pain last week when I used it on the way to the Ski Resort.

Is it just the cold, or is there something wrong with my innards? ^^, I sure don't want a worse bout of UTI now. Drink more water, keep clean and get enough rest. I should not really ever take for granted health.

I also had to endure my right hand hurt while we were parking upon arrival there. It got caught when P accidentally tried to close the car door while I still holding on to the door latch to keep the car from moving. It's like a nail was driven into my palm and it's been sore up until today, 5th day. Hopefully it will all be gone before a week. It's just harder to move around and do even simple things when a part of your body is "out of order".

My body screams for something warm or hot. It needs something to alleviate the lower back pain. I just hope it isn't because of anything worse. I do have some muscle pain pills I got from the hospital last time. Next time that I get a chance for a check up, my order list will be urinalysis, and possibly MRI. I'm pretty curious now how much would these cost of I actually just show up and pay for these since there is medical insurance anyway.

Well, that's something I will have to check on next time. It's time to google for lower back pain remedy for now.

Forevermore, Philippine Teleserye

This is top billed by Enrique Gil and Liza Soberana, the girl who played Daniel Padilla's girlfriend from Singapore in "Got to Believe in Magic." Such a pretty face this girl but she still has a lot to prove in her acting skills. This is one such good break though. She had us at her stint in G2B so it would be interesting to see her in a new series, her own at that. There's just something how she speaks though. Her Tagalog sounds odd at times. They also got the twins from "the Voice Philippines" in these series as they provide, or try to that is, the comic relief. 

After I watched the pilot episode, it does seem interesting. The thing is when I moved on to the second episode, I finally realized that it is exactly on the same vein as the G2B since they were made by the same people behind that. The main line is rich boy, poor girl from a close knit community. The community is a small group in the uplands in Benguet this time, compared to the circus family in G2B. The rich boy's backdrop is changed into a the father and the heir-seeking grandma from the mom and granddad in G2B. They just added a little twist to the mom role here. It's just funny that the demanding mom in G2B was played by Carmina Villaroel and the dad here is played by Zoren Legaspi, both real couples off-screen. 

Well, I'm into 3rd episode now so let's see how long I can hang on to this by-the-book predictable storyline. The only fun part here is Liza's lovable face and the unique Baguio setting. I am currently watching in the middle of winter and I can only guess if it is as cold as it looks there. Though I am sure it is colder here at less than 0 degrees Celsius. 

Brr..lunchtime.  

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!

posted from Bloggeroid

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.