We're on the Map!

Oh hi! We're at that purple dot on the southern side of the map.

We're on this map anyway! I thought I'd give everyone back at home (and anyone else that's curious) a better idea of life around Cheongju-si, especially in relation to where we live/work. I took a few screenshots of Cheongju, zoomed in to give you a better idea with a few highlights.

Cheongju is a decently sized city. In the map above, we live in Juklim-dong which is approximately where that purple dot is on the southern side of the city. Why purple? Because I happen to like purple, its a nice color. I would consider Cheongju to be a pretty large city, though it's no Daejeon or Seoul by any means. The most recent population numbers I remember seeing on Wikipedia for Cheongju put it around 700k, so it's not what I would call small.

Some people that we've talked to have come to understand part of the difficulty of living "out in the boonies" if you will. We can hop on any number of buses at our bus stop down the road, but you also have to wait for the buses and that can be trying in the cold. We're actually one bus stop away from one of the bus end points/rest areas for the drivers. It's also quite hard to catch a taxi out here too. The bus takes approximately 15 minutes to get from our closest stop to the bus terminal and closer to 45 minutes to get from home to Shinae (Downtown) if things work in your favor.

Riding the bus is kind of an adventure though. Sometimes the bus drivers are crazy, you see interesting people filtering off and on, they drive all crazy sometimes, you just never know. There was the one time where there was a person in a car behind us with major crazy bass going on (we're talking rattling windows here) and all the ajummas (older women) freaked out and the bus driver stopped and gave everyone their money back because they thought it was a problem with the bus.

Here is my other handy dandy map, complete with numbered purple dots. After some consulting with Zach I think I got it all figured out. As I said before, we live in that area in the far south on the map in Juklim-dong (1).

The small square to the north that is not numbered is the approximate region of two small convenience stores we sometimes visit to stock up on snacks and food for the week. The prices are reasonable at these places and we've even become familiar faces to those that work there. 

North of the small square is our second dot, Homeplus (2). This is where we shop for all our needs. Homeplus has pretty much anything and we end up there somewhat frequently. It's also next to the chicken place we like to go to. There for a while we would just walk up the road toward Homeplus and walk on the sidewalk. Then we discovered that we could cut through by going between some apartments and a school and take a bridge above the road and it really saved us some time. This area has several blocks worth of restaurants, cafes, and small shops. There's also a street vendor with delicious waffles.

If you head toward dot number 3 you hit the bus terminal area (3) in Gagyeong-dong. If you take the time to walk to and from there to home down at (1) it's approximately 30 minutes. We've walked it many times and will probably walk it many more. There's a nice park that we started exploring when we first got here, but didn't get the opportunity to look much otherwise. The bus terminal area is also bustling. There's a Lotte Mart, DreamPlus, a bookstore, lots of restaurants, a local street market and many other things. We sometimes hit up this area and go to Pizza Hut for dates! Also near the bus terminal is a fantastic cultural store where I hope to buy gifts to send/bring home and a man who is almost always selling battery powered toy dogs that walk around.

Dot number 4 is up to the northeast. This is Shinae or Downtown (4), which we frequent somewhat often. The spot I marked is just the start of the downtown area as it's quite large. This is the home area of the cat cafe we visited. There are tons of restaurants ranging from KFC and McDonalds to Italian to traditional Korean and more. There are many street vendors here and it's always bustling. Teens, kids, ajummas, you name it you see it all. Near a small video game store we visit sometimes there are typically people out selling their crafts and they're very well done. We also ran into the talent contest thing the one time. And there was the time we saw a small parade of people dressed as clowns that were handing out some sort of flier that we couldn't read. 

Number 5 in the middle area on the map is BCM (5). This is where Zach teaches the adult classes and I've visited the place a few times too. Yet another area we've walked to and from several times before. Taking the bus from home is about 20 minutes and the stop is just after the stop for Chungbuk University (which is huge and we intend to explore soon) but before you hit the huge stadium off to the left. Chungbuk University is that big area just South of the dot. There is a strip near the school for blocks and blocks that is all outdoor wear and hiking gear because Koreans love hiking.

As we discover more I might make a more detailed map (or make the ones above more exciting). Since it's getting cold out I'm not anticipating a whole lot of traveling until springtime, but I'm sure we'll be doing some local exploring.

Hello Cat! Cat Cafe Adventures

As many of you already know, when we left home in the US for South Korea we had to leave our two favorite fuzz balls at home. Izzy and Benny are in good hands though, but we miss them a lot. Instead of two cats running around we have children on weekdays and our boss on those days and all the rest. It's just not the same as two snuggly, meowing cats.

So I was super excited when we first moved here to find out that Korea has different kinds of cafes, some of which are cat and dog cafes. Well, we have known that there was in Choengju from the beginning and knew of its location in Shinae (that's downtown), but hadn't actually made it there yet. After going to lunch in Shinae with two friends from the UK we decided we'd check out the cat cafe. It was a good idea and we had a good time. You get a drink and a snack and you can hang out and play with the cats, all for 8,000 won each.

The whole concept of pet cafes is a very interesting considering the living situation of animals here and people's general disregard for animals and their well being. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that these cats were certainly not neutered, and possibly not spayed either. I wonder how they handle that.

That said, I give you the cat cafe, Hello Cat, which is located on the 4th floor of a building in Shinae.

As you first walk inside the cat cafe, to the left is this board of cat pictures and what I am going to assume are profiles. In the same guesstimate I will assume that the small poster to the left is rules for while you are at the cafe. One of those rules being that you leave the cats with the yellow scarves alone (for whatever reason).

This is the view looking toward the entrance of the cafe. There are double doors and there is a small area where you remove your shoes (as you do in many places) and to keep that cats from just escaping out the doors. The swing is a nice touch. :)

These kitties were napping pretty much the whole time we were there, despite being bugged by  all the girls.

This is another view of the cat cafe after you turn left once you pass the swing. You can sit at tables near the window or visit their small library. If you look carefully you can see the white cat on the table near the tree. 

The cafe provides cat toys, so the kids were all running around with the little sticks trying to get their attention.

This little girl was too cute. Since we were the weird foreigners in a novel place, I think we became a novelty too. All the kids were trying to practice their English and say hi. This little girl knew some English, but she got really shy when I started to ask her questions. We played with the kitten together for a little while.

This is the view from our seats since we were on the 4th floor. Yes, that is a cat sleeping on the bed at the window.

Zach made a friend! And that's my iced green tea latte. 

I think that everyone is happy with this arrangement. 

This little troublemaker was attempting to get into my bag. It was proposed that I should shove the rest of him in my bag and take him home with me. :)

This was the cutest fuzzball. We went in and it was sleeping and when we left it was still sleeping. So precious!

Everyone flocks to the cats, wherever they may go. By the way, check out the girl's weird shirt...

Without further ado, I give you Sir Grumpy Fluff (my name, obviously). He was trying to escape and not succeeding. He was very much displeased with his lack of success.

Aww, look at that adorably grumpy face.

We had a really fun time at the cafe though, we'll definitely have to visit again and hopefully I can get some more pictures. We need to check out the dog cafes too, but the closest one is in Daejeon. I'm sure we'll make it that way sometime in the near future.

Happy almost Chuseok!

They were all so excited this morning! That's James at the table and Julia and Stella twirling around the room.

Things have been busy and not lately, so updates have been slow. Chuseok (which is like Korean thanksgiving) is coming up on Sunday, September 30th and so we are going to have a 5 day weekend in which I am hoping to do some major updates. The pictures in my camera need to be uploaded! I also need to do a recap of our trip to Seoul, which Zach talked about, but I haven't done so yet.

Anyway, the above picture is from this morning when the girls came to school dressed in their traditional hanboks. They had run up to the second floor and were yelling "Man teacher!", trying to get my attention up on the third floor. Not being dressed yet or anything, I hopped out of my pjs and into clothes and went downstairs. I heard Zach talking to them downstairs while I was getting ready and he just said "awwww, you guys are soooo cute!" and then I finally went downstairs to see for myself.

Both of our classes were decked out in hanboks today and they were so adorable. They seem much less complicated than Japanese kimonos, and I think I like them better too. I took tons of pictures today though, so along with the trip pictures and others from recent events they should be going up in posts in the next few days.

In other news, we just got back from our quick trip to HomePlus which was absolutely packed with people shopping for food and gifts for Chuseok. We accomplished our mission of acquiring some alcohol and other miscellaneous food items since places will be closed for a couple of days.