Happy Holidays

I read somewhere that under no circumstances should I refer to Chuseok as ‘Korean Thanksgiving.’  But according to all other accounts, it is sort of a Korean version of Thanksgiving.

I’ll just refer to it as Chuseok and be grateful that I have a full week off.

Jared and I nearly decided to go to Taiwan for the week, but decided not to.  As it turned out, Taiwan was walloped by a typhoon, so I guess that worked out for the best.

To prepare for our week in Yeongwol, we took a bus to Jecheon and got Jared a new guitar.

The thin walls in our apartment probably mean that our neighbors are now recipients of a daily concert, but so far nobody’s complaining.  I guess Beatles’ songs and Eagle-Eyed Cherry are going down well.

We also price-shopped for bicycles around Wonju, Jecheon and Yeongwol.  For ease and convenience of transport, we decided to purchase bikes from the shop nearest to us.

My bike is pink.  This is my third bike ever – first purchase since approximately 1993 – and all of them have been pink.  I haven’t had a basket since I was in the single digits, but I am proud to cycle with a basket now.  I do feel kind of like the Wicked Witch of the West, but I try not to think about it.

The pink panther (as I have spontaneously named my bike, this second) is made for a Korean market, which means that it is slightly smaller than my legs would like.  Also like my first bike, it has no gears, but it does have handbrakes, which is a step up.

Tomorrow we’re going to take the bikes out to Gossi Cave, which is allegedly an easy ride about 12km out of town.  Failing this, we’ll go to the nonthreatening Teddy Bear Museum.

Besides these plans, we have been spending a bit of time getting the apartment up to scratch.  Here is what it looks like:

 Our kitchen/dining room area.  Stickers courtesy of a previous resident.
 
Living room/bathroom/bedroom.  Taken from the kitchen/dining room. 

Not shown is the second bedroom, which we use as an office.  We’re currently storing the bikes out back, next to the clothes drying rack.

Life is chugging along pretty well.  As Jared pointed out today, we are already 1/10th of the way through our yearlong contract.  Though if things keep going this way, it’s very possible we’ll sign on for another year.

Free apartment, helpful colleagues, scenic views, friendly neighbors and five weeks of vacation?  It’s hard to argue against that.