A Day in the Life of Zach Teacher and Amanda Teacher (2/2/13 edition)

Happy Saturday! I've decided that today will be a recap day because I sometimes like to attempt to make sure this blog is updated in a timely fashion. Pretend with me that this is, in fact, the case. Since this is the case, I'll walk you through our day, so that you too can experience life as an expat in South Korea.

Now, this weekend is a bit unusual in the fact that we've recently had issues with large wasps in our room. They haven't been spotted elsewhere, but lately they've been showing up in our room. It's the beginning of February and needless to say, this is a bit unusual for this time of year. Did I also mention that wasps are rather aggressive and not my choice of roommates? As of yesterday, February 1st, we have had 6 wasps, large wasps, come to visit. Pretty weird.

We couldn't figure out where they were coming from, but then I noticed yesterday that the corner of the light had dropped down from the ceiling and it seemed probable that this was where they were coming from. So top priority today was to stop at Homeplus to pick up some duct tape to take care of that little problem. Zach will tell you more about our crazy wasp adventures in another post coming up.

So upon waking up (after a somewhat restless night, even though wasps are diurnal), spending a little time waking up and relaxing, and getting dressed we headed to Homeplus for the necessary materials for our anti-wasp mission. I did snap some decent shots of these azure winged magpies this morning though, before we headed out.

It's been hovering around freezing temperatures depending on the time of day, so I found some very pretty natural artwork this morning on the way toward town. Frost and frozen water are very interesting.

Frosty!

After making a brief detour at the local Paris Baguette for breakfast munchies we stopped at Homeplus. We were surprised to find some sort of mystery sale going on when we went up to the second floor. There were red boxes at a small table just near the checkout area and two ladies were taking money and rallying people forward. The cost of a single box was 1000 won and after a little debate we decided why not, and pulled forth our 2000 won.

Victory is mine! And also Zach's.

We had to take the items out of the boxes so we could wander around the store without too many problems, so we stowed them away. I'd say we got a pretty good deal, the items we got are below.

It's also almost the start of the Lunar New Year here, so there are lots of gift boxes and sets of items to be given away as gifts. Here's just a small handful of featured items.

We also ran into something cute up on the second floor. Zach wanted to take it home and I would have liked to as well, but we can't have pets and I don't know how we'd get it home. :(  Instead we just admired the hedgehog's cuteness from the other side of the glass and noticed that Homeplus has an escapee on their hands.

Lizard-zilla is on the loose!

Finally, having secured a few gifts to be sent homeward, admired the adorable critters, and obtained the necessary tape for our project, we headed back homeward. The ceiling/light was a pretty quick project between tightening a loose screw and taping up the gap, but I'll let Zach talk more about that later.

We had a quick lunch and then spent some time doing things here including cleaning, organizing, studying, and playing some games. Finally, I got bored after getting things all cleaned up and we decided to head to Chungdae a bit earlier than originally planned since I figured it'd be nice to have more daylight rather than less. We were lucky enough to hop on the 105 bus before too long and take the ~15 minute ride to the Chungdae area. Chungdae is part of Cheongju that is a little more bar and restaurant laden with a crowd leaning more toward younger people and foreigners since it's the home of most of the foreign bars in the city. I took a few pictures along the way as we roamed around.

These little guys and gals were so cute, I was excited and made a lot of noise and scared them. Sorry!

Check out the upside-down tea kettles, super neat.

We found this neat looking doorway on our walk.

Koreans aren't the most cleanly people. Sadly, you find a lot of trash and waste piled up on the streets.

This thing resides right outside a restaurant on the small streets of Chungdae. It's been around since Christmas, maybe before that, but it freaks me out. When you walk by or get close she bows and speaks.

These painted wings are right outside of this small restaurant, we had to get pictures, of course.

The sign reads: Wink: Pub and Restaurant for Women. Don't ask me!

This sign was on some sort of building, though I couldn't tell you what kind. It's neat to see Keith Haring's work in so many places. Also, I <3 king Kong! Some of my kids would love this.

We found a small arcade which I hope to visit again while we wandered, it's right near the boardgame cafe that we had visited previously. There are a variety of toy game machines right outside of the arcade, most of which are crane games. I figured since it was only 1000 won for 6 tries I would give it a shot. They have cute plushies from different things, but I finally managed to win myself a cute Chopper from One Piece, he's so cute. I'm hoping to visit again and actually check the place out (and win a few more cute prizes too). 

We finally decided that it was time for dinner and stopped at Pizziaolo, which is a small Italian restaurant close to the foreigner bars. We'd been there once before with two Korean students and it was delicious, so we figured we'd stop again. They serve water in a wine bottle with a sprig of rosemary in it and it's quite refreshing. Zach ordered pasta (Carbonara) and I ordered pizza (Margherita) and we sat upstairs on the second floor and watched outside as it got dark. 

Having finished our meals we stopped at a small store next door that is similar to Claire's where I picked up a few things since I'm trying to do a lot of gift shopping lately. I also saw some earrings that I had seen previously and finally got them. Finally, we headed toward the bus stop and hopped on the 105 a few minutes afterward and came home. Here are some of my collected items for the day.

Here's the Chopper plush that I won from the game, a piece of walnut pie from Paris Baguette, and dark chocolate cubes that I found at Lotte Mart. A successful day? I'd say so.

Now we're winding down for the night and hoping that the wasp problem has been solved. The Seollal holiday is upcoming here in South Korea so we'll have some time off, I'm really hoping to be able to get out and take some pictures since I just haven't had the opportunity lately.