Beep beep beep beep beep...
Cathianne wakes up to the alarm of her phone. To her right she turns and sees an empty bed. Penny must have gone home to Seoul for the holiday. She was alone and thought of what to do for the day. The laboratory is surely empty today, most would surely be relaxing in their apartments.
Again, Cathianne decides to sleep some more. Laundry? Nah. She still has to buy some laundry soap and fab cons.
*** Today, March 1, Korea is celebrating it's National Holiday. This marks the day when the country revolted against Japan for it's freedom. Cathianne learned this trivia from MJ oppa. "It's not independence day, ok?" He first told her that it was Independence Day and after realizing, he kept correcting her about it and asked her to not speak of asking about Independence Day to Prof. JY. Haha... ***
11:00AM
Cathianne finally gets up and goes for the warm shower. After which, she opens up her netbook and hopes to get an internet connection in order to email her mom her palanca letter for her brother. Too bad, she couldn't log on using MJ oppa's portal ID even if she made sure that last night she logged out and shut down her computer in the lab.
She thinks of a meal for lunch but she just was in no mood to eat yet. She decides to take a visit at the lab in order to try the internet. To her surprise, GJ oppa was there and so busy working! On a holiday? Why so serious... She wanted to tease the oppa but let go instead and practiced her greeting "annyeonghaseo" to which he responded with a nod. She's wondering if she's saying it correctly. Maybe if she'd mumble more, it would be more "authentic". Haha!
As she opened the internet, she also could not log in! What else has she got to do? She cannot bother a busy person at work so she decided to go for a new discovery walk again at downtown Jochiwon.
Out of the building she walks and followed the straight path just in front of the main door. She walks past the library and followed the downhill road. To the right she goes, remembering the path to the restaurants. She takes sometime familiarizing the road and the houses along the area and takes a picture of the little house where she had dinner with her lab-mates last night. She takes view of the sceneries and imagines the beautiful photos she could take on her next photowalk and that will have to include that area next time. =)
Towards the end of the street, she sees a short tunnel like structure that is filled with junk appliances. She turns left while following the paved road and to the right of the road, she sees several things that seemed to have fallen off the side of the road. There was a pink travel bag that seemed to be still useful but it was wide open and emptied. She continues to walk until she passes by K5 and the BUY THE WAY convenience store. She finds the name catchy and funny. At the highway, she smells adventure getting closer again!
She crossed the same highway that had the half-football-designed plant boxes in the middle island of the road. Then as she reached the bridge, she decides to pass the other way. She seemed to have been there before with her two oppas but she was not yet familiar with the place that time when each brought her there for the mobile phone.
She crossed the same river but chose another bridge, the one to the right of the usual bridge that she crosses. From there, she continued walking until she reached some pubs and buildings. Astonished by the place, she roams around and decides to look for a bookstore to buy her dictionary. Round and round she goes and she realized that she's been going around like in a maze. She walks out of the place and turns to another block. Seeing the familiar black structure with the big logo MG on it, she goes on with her walk. She realized though that she is on the other side of the road and this is not the familiar path she used to walk still. She continues. She stumbles upon classy-looking pubs and elegant restaurants and thinks that the food in those places would definitely cost a lot. She just takes a photo of the place and found out that her android has gotten some wifi in the area. She decides to stay a while and look for a spot to keep the signal and send the email for her brother. Right in front of Rich Tree, a big, two-storey restaurant, she stands just across and leans on the railing. She starts typing her email and makes it fast because it's becoming colder for her --- being out in the open without the mittens to warm her hands because it's hard to type on the touch pad! BRAIN FREEZIN'! Her nose is starting to literally run.
After she sent her email, she walks to the perpendicular road and turns right, hoping that that's the way to Saenae Road this time. As she walked further, she noticed the street signs and none of them had "Saenae" on it! Uh oh!
She decides to go further though and is having fun at the thought that she seems lost but is making some new discoveries of the small city. "So Jochiwon downtown is not just all Saenae, it's got more roads to elsewhere...Nice." ;-)
She finds out that she's in the residential area of the town and marks more places for her future photowalk of Jochiwon. She's seeing more beautiful landmarks and sceneries to take photos of. She remembers the music school, the huge brick-walled church, the what-seemed-to-be an elementary school, a dry cleaning shop, more hardware stores, etc. How she wished she's already fluent in Hangeul so she can start talking to the locals. Patience... "I will talk with them soon". =)
She decides to mark the church and walk the opposite direction. She saw the green tunnel and it seemed similar to the tunnel she used to walk in when going downtown but she was not so sure if it was the same. She decides to walk at the right side of the road. As she entered the tunnel, she sees the familiar huge intersection. Her instinct has done it again! She's back in the familiar pathway to downtown Jochiwon! Woooot! =))
As she was walking in the tunnel (this time, she's in the opposite tunnel from the one she normally enters) and tuning in to her shobe's ipod shuttle, she was totally taken by surprise when she realized that a motorcycle was beeping at her for already a few seconds! An old man in the motorcycle couldn't pass through the tunnel. Embarrassed about it, she bowed to show apology as the motorcycle passed through. She was feeling so cold for being out for so long and her spirit has jumped out from the sound of the beep. What a way to be lost and find the familiar roadway! An adventure it is. =))
Cathianne decides to go into the traditional market and tries to look for cheap buys for the things that she needed in her dorm. She needed some hangers, a soapdish and others that will help her keep things neat and tidy. She sees an alley in the left side and goes in it. As she was walking, she sees a store that seemed to be selling just about anything. It looks like the typical Filipino-Chinese-store-that-sells-almost-anything. She goes in and whoa-la! Perfect! Just the store that she was looking for. She finds almost all the things in her list and chose those that had prices KRW1,000 or below except for the container that will help her tidy her clothes, of course. That was the only one that was above a thousand. She took long in the store and carefully chose only what she needed to buy. She's got 7 items for 1000 each, one for 500 and one for 3000. The store owner was kind enough to help her with a basket for her things and she even gave her a potpourri for a souvenir, probably to keep her coming back as the lady seemed to have enjoyed watching her buy her needs carefully. She admitted at the store owner that she's a foreigner and hopes to find a bookstore nearby. The lady, though spoke in Hangeul, tried her best to give directions to the bookstore as Cathianne showed with the dictionary in her phone the word "bookstore" with Hangeul translation she cannot read. She said "kamsahapmida" to the lady and the lady bid her "annyeonghigyeseo". =)
*** Cathianne learned some phrases through talktomeinkorean.com and knew that "anneyonghigyeseo" means "go in peace", the way Koreans would bid farewell to those who were leaving. ***
As she continued to walk the alley, she discovers a shoe store to her left. It sold so many shoes and BOOTS WITH THE FUR! A post sign out of the glass door says 29,000 and she was not sure which of them were for only 29,000. So Cathianne decides to go in and ask the store owner. She greets the lady with "annyeonghaseo" and the lady answered back the same and spoke in Hangeul. Cathianne smiled and said she cannot speak but would like to ask for the price of the shoes. A little girl in the store, who seemed like the daughter of the store owner, was jumping on the sofa in the middle. The lady was kind enough and tried to speak in English so Cathianne would understand. The lady was smiling and said, "All (or everything is for 29,000)" and the cute little girl laughed and also said "All" while jumping. She was amazed to know that EVERYTHING was for KRW29,000, even the huge boots that came with fur! Seems to look like the perfect gift for her sisters and cousins (that, if she can save up a lot of her stipend, haha!). She decides to comeback and said "kamsahapmida" to the lady. When she asked for the directions to the bookstore, the lady was also kind enough to try to point the direction and gave Paris Baguette as a landmark even if she wanted to mean more but she cannot express in English anymore. Cathianne bid them "annyeonghigaseo". =)
At the end of the alley, she sees the rotonda at the left end of the main road. She marks in her "mind map" the Maru and SK Telecom stores at the corners to remember the alley so she can go back to the stores she went anytime. She turns right as advised by the two store owners she has asked and she sees the bookstore just across. She crosses the street and goes in. Unfortunately, most or all of the books are in Korean. She was hoping to find a book that will help her learn to write and read in Hangeul especially the basic characters that will speed up her learning. The lady in the cashier whom she asked could hardly understand her. She was shown a Korean-English dictionary but she needed the reverse kind. She decides to look at the row of books herself and did not find the kind of dictionary or self-help book she's looking for. How she hoped that there's an English bookstore nearby.
She gets out of the bookstore and turns left to another alley. She finds more pubs and restaurants and passes by a streetfood vendor. She wants to try but the vendor will probably not understand her. And she's been advised to keep away from unfamiliar foods for the meantime as she just got well from a bad stomachache a few days ago. She'll come back for it for sure and will ask one of her oppas to accompany her.
It was 4 or 5 in the afternoon and she was feeling hungry. She wanted to go for Dunkin Donuts but felt lazy to walk that far from where she was standing and she's already seeing GS25 in front of her. She goes in and takes a Hershey's chocolate drink and a burger for her lunch. She asked the lady to heat it up for her and she ate her meal in the table inside the store. As soon as she was through, she cleans her place and throws her trash in the garbage bins and the guy from the counter bid her "annyeong g'seo". Now she's full. =)
She walks back to the campus and passed by the familiar pathways. She's feeling really cold despite the meal. It was getting late and she hurried back to the campus. Uphill she walked and back to her dormitory. Warm at last!
And this ends today's adventure for Cathianne. c",)
Cathianne wakes up to the alarm of her phone. To her right she turns and sees an empty bed. Penny must have gone home to Seoul for the holiday. She was alone and thought of what to do for the day. The laboratory is surely empty today, most would surely be relaxing in their apartments.
Again, Cathianne decides to sleep some more. Laundry? Nah. She still has to buy some laundry soap and fab cons.
*** Today, March 1, Korea is celebrating it's National Holiday. This marks the day when the country revolted against Japan for it's freedom. Cathianne learned this trivia from MJ oppa. "It's not independence day, ok?" He first told her that it was Independence Day and after realizing, he kept correcting her about it and asked her to not speak of asking about Independence Day to Prof. JY. Haha... ***
11:00AM
Cathianne finally gets up and goes for the warm shower. After which, she opens up her netbook and hopes to get an internet connection in order to email her mom her palanca letter for her brother. Too bad, she couldn't log on using MJ oppa's portal ID even if she made sure that last night she logged out and shut down her computer in the lab.
She thinks of a meal for lunch but she just was in no mood to eat yet. She decides to take a visit at the lab in order to try the internet. To her surprise, GJ oppa was there and so busy working! On a holiday? Why so serious... She wanted to tease the oppa but let go instead and practiced her greeting "annyeonghaseo" to which he responded with a nod. She's wondering if she's saying it correctly. Maybe if she'd mumble more, it would be more "authentic". Haha!
As she opened the internet, she also could not log in! What else has she got to do? She cannot bother a busy person at work so she decided to go for a new discovery walk again at downtown Jochiwon.
Out of the building she walks and followed the straight path just in front of the main door. She walks past the library and followed the downhill road. To the right she goes, remembering the path to the restaurants. She takes sometime familiarizing the road and the houses along the area and takes a picture of the little house where she had dinner with her lab-mates last night. She takes view of the sceneries and imagines the beautiful photos she could take on her next photowalk and that will have to include that area next time. =)
Towards the end of the street, she sees a short tunnel like structure that is filled with junk appliances. She turns left while following the paved road and to the right of the road, she sees several things that seemed to have fallen off the side of the road. There was a pink travel bag that seemed to be still useful but it was wide open and emptied. She continues to walk until she passes by K5 and the BUY THE WAY convenience store. She finds the name catchy and funny. At the highway, she smells adventure getting closer again!
She crossed the same highway that had the half-football-designed plant boxes in the middle island of the road. Then as she reached the bridge, she decides to pass the other way. She seemed to have been there before with her two oppas but she was not yet familiar with the place that time when each brought her there for the mobile phone.
She crossed the same river but chose another bridge, the one to the right of the usual bridge that she crosses. From there, she continued walking until she reached some pubs and buildings. Astonished by the place, she roams around and decides to look for a bookstore to buy her dictionary. Round and round she goes and she realized that she's been going around like in a maze. She walks out of the place and turns to another block. Seeing the familiar black structure with the big logo MG on it, she goes on with her walk. She realized though that she is on the other side of the road and this is not the familiar path she used to walk still. She continues. She stumbles upon classy-looking pubs and elegant restaurants and thinks that the food in those places would definitely cost a lot. She just takes a photo of the place and found out that her android has gotten some wifi in the area. She decides to stay a while and look for a spot to keep the signal and send the email for her brother. Right in front of Rich Tree, a big, two-storey restaurant, she stands just across and leans on the railing. She starts typing her email and makes it fast because it's becoming colder for her --- being out in the open without the mittens to warm her hands because it's hard to type on the touch pad! BRAIN FREEZIN'! Her nose is starting to literally run.
After she sent her email, she walks to the perpendicular road and turns right, hoping that that's the way to Saenae Road this time. As she walked further, she noticed the street signs and none of them had "Saenae" on it! Uh oh!
She decides to go further though and is having fun at the thought that she seems lost but is making some new discoveries of the small city. "So Jochiwon downtown is not just all Saenae, it's got more roads to elsewhere...Nice." ;-)
She finds out that she's in the residential area of the town and marks more places for her future photowalk of Jochiwon. She's seeing more beautiful landmarks and sceneries to take photos of. She remembers the music school, the huge brick-walled church, the what-seemed-to-be an elementary school, a dry cleaning shop, more hardware stores, etc. How she wished she's already fluent in Hangeul so she can start talking to the locals. Patience... "I will talk with them soon". =)
She decides to mark the church and walk the opposite direction. She saw the green tunnel and it seemed similar to the tunnel she used to walk in when going downtown but she was not so sure if it was the same. She decides to walk at the right side of the road. As she entered the tunnel, she sees the familiar huge intersection. Her instinct has done it again! She's back in the familiar pathway to downtown Jochiwon! Woooot! =))
As she was walking in the tunnel (this time, she's in the opposite tunnel from the one she normally enters) and tuning in to her shobe's ipod shuttle, she was totally taken by surprise when she realized that a motorcycle was beeping at her for already a few seconds! An old man in the motorcycle couldn't pass through the tunnel. Embarrassed about it, she bowed to show apology as the motorcycle passed through. She was feeling so cold for being out for so long and her spirit has jumped out from the sound of the beep. What a way to be lost and find the familiar roadway! An adventure it is. =))
Cathianne decides to go into the traditional market and tries to look for cheap buys for the things that she needed in her dorm. She needed some hangers, a soapdish and others that will help her keep things neat and tidy. She sees an alley in the left side and goes in it. As she was walking, she sees a store that seemed to be selling just about anything. It looks like the typical Filipino-Chinese-store-that-sells-almost-anything. She goes in and whoa-la! Perfect! Just the store that she was looking for. She finds almost all the things in her list and chose those that had prices KRW1,000 or below except for the container that will help her tidy her clothes, of course. That was the only one that was above a thousand. She took long in the store and carefully chose only what she needed to buy. She's got 7 items for 1000 each, one for 500 and one for 3000. The store owner was kind enough to help her with a basket for her things and she even gave her a potpourri for a souvenir, probably to keep her coming back as the lady seemed to have enjoyed watching her buy her needs carefully. She admitted at the store owner that she's a foreigner and hopes to find a bookstore nearby. The lady, though spoke in Hangeul, tried her best to give directions to the bookstore as Cathianne showed with the dictionary in her phone the word "bookstore" with Hangeul translation she cannot read. She said "kamsahapmida" to the lady and the lady bid her "annyeonghigyeseo". =)
*** Cathianne learned some phrases through talktomeinkorean.com and knew that "anneyonghigyeseo" means "go in peace", the way Koreans would bid farewell to those who were leaving. ***
As she continued to walk the alley, she discovers a shoe store to her left. It sold so many shoes and BOOTS WITH THE FUR! A post sign out of the glass door says 29,000 and she was not sure which of them were for only 29,000. So Cathianne decides to go in and ask the store owner. She greets the lady with "annyeonghaseo" and the lady answered back the same and spoke in Hangeul. Cathianne smiled and said she cannot speak but would like to ask for the price of the shoes. A little girl in the store, who seemed like the daughter of the store owner, was jumping on the sofa in the middle. The lady was kind enough and tried to speak in English so Cathianne would understand. The lady was smiling and said, "All (or everything is for 29,000)" and the cute little girl laughed and also said "All" while jumping. She was amazed to know that EVERYTHING was for KRW29,000, even the huge boots that came with fur! Seems to look like the perfect gift for her sisters and cousins (that, if she can save up a lot of her stipend, haha!). She decides to comeback and said "kamsahapmida" to the lady. When she asked for the directions to the bookstore, the lady was also kind enough to try to point the direction and gave Paris Baguette as a landmark even if she wanted to mean more but she cannot express in English anymore. Cathianne bid them "annyeonghigaseo". =)
At the end of the alley, she sees the rotonda at the left end of the main road. She marks in her "mind map" the Maru and SK Telecom stores at the corners to remember the alley so she can go back to the stores she went anytime. She turns right as advised by the two store owners she has asked and she sees the bookstore just across. She crosses the street and goes in. Unfortunately, most or all of the books are in Korean. She was hoping to find a book that will help her learn to write and read in Hangeul especially the basic characters that will speed up her learning. The lady in the cashier whom she asked could hardly understand her. She was shown a Korean-English dictionary but she needed the reverse kind. She decides to look at the row of books herself and did not find the kind of dictionary or self-help book she's looking for. How she hoped that there's an English bookstore nearby.
She gets out of the bookstore and turns left to another alley. She finds more pubs and restaurants and passes by a streetfood vendor. She wants to try but the vendor will probably not understand her. And she's been advised to keep away from unfamiliar foods for the meantime as she just got well from a bad stomachache a few days ago. She'll come back for it for sure and will ask one of her oppas to accompany her.
It was 4 or 5 in the afternoon and she was feeling hungry. She wanted to go for Dunkin Donuts but felt lazy to walk that far from where she was standing and she's already seeing GS25 in front of her. She goes in and takes a Hershey's chocolate drink and a burger for her lunch. She asked the lady to heat it up for her and she ate her meal in the table inside the store. As soon as she was through, she cleans her place and throws her trash in the garbage bins and the guy from the counter bid her "annyeong g'seo". Now she's full. =)
She walks back to the campus and passed by the familiar pathways. She's feeling really cold despite the meal. It was getting late and she hurried back to the campus. Uphill she walked and back to her dormitory. Warm at last!
And this ends today's adventure for Cathianne. c",)
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