Cheonan Dance Festival Street Parade

This weekend is the annual International Dance Festival here in Cheonan. Last night I saw the street parade with all of the different teams from each different country. Countries included Korea, Japan, China, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, and countries from the Russian federation.

Enjoy!

 

Living in Cheonan: The Lake at Dankook University

It's pretty busy in the Cheonan downtown area, but thankfully, there are places close by where you can go for a walk and spend time in nature.

Tonight I went for a walk around the lake at the Dankook University Cheonan Campus (about 5 minutes by bus or a half hour walk from downtown). There was a beautiful sunset and there were lots of people out fishing, walking, and doing other kinds of exercise.

Living in an Officetel in Korea

In May, my roommate (Jin-yi) and I moved from the university dormitory to an Officetel in downtown Cheonan.

An Officetel (I think it's a combination of "office" and "hotel") is a place where people can work and/or live. Ours is a one-room and includes a kitchen with a fridge/freezer, bathroom, washer/dryer, and storage.

Here's the "kitchen"...



And the hallway, with the fridge/freezer and closets on the left and a bathroom and more closets on the right...



Our Officetel is on the 16th floor with a view of the north part of the city and mountains...





Since the Officetel is downtown, it is easier to shop for food and transportation is really convenient. I also see other foreigners often, which I like. I miss the peaceful quiet of living in the country at the university but I still go there often so I can enjoy it then.

More about living in an Officetel and our surroundings later...

What's Your Dream?

Today I went to the Immigration Office in Cheonan to get my alien registration card. The office runs on Wednesdays out of the Ministry of Labour office. I was thankful to have Kim Young Rim (one of the employees here at UBE) go with me to speak Korean with the clerk. The office was packed--Kim Young Rim told me that many new immigrants from Vietnam, the Phillipines, Singapore, and Malaysia come to Cheonan to find work. Most of the work is physical labour.

On the way back, waiting for the bus, we saw this statue. I think it's part of an outdoor art exhibit.

What's your dream? One of my dreams is for people with brain damage and neurological challenges around the world to be able to live to their full potential. Having some kind of vision, goal, or dream in my life is important to me. It has to be something that is big enough that I will have to overcome obstacles to achieve it and so that it touches and impacts many people.

Whatever your dream is, make a plan to achieve it and keep making changes to your plan as needed. Make your dream and plan known and the universe will help make it happen. Not sure what your dream is?...Ask your brain! The answer is already inside of you!

A Trip to E-Mart

Today I took a taxi by myself to E-mart (the Korean equivalent of Walmart) to buy some supplies I needed. From UBE, you have to call a taxi. It costs about 10, 000 won (or 10 USD) to get to Cheonan. The taxi driver asked me where I was from and told me his brother lives in Vancouver.

E-mart is clean and there are lots of people working there and giving out free samples of food and other products. Walmart couldn't compete in the South Korean market so the company that runs the E-mart stores bought it out in 2006.

These are pictures of the street E-mart is on. You can see the taxi stand and some building going on in the background (there is lots of construction happening in Cheonan, especially new apartment buildings outside of the city).

Hike to Mt. Huksong

A view of Cheonan.

This is Professor Shim in front of an old fortress. KBS (The Korean Broadcasting Service)'s broadcasting tower is in the background.
Professor Shim took Professor Hong and I on a hike to the top of Mt. Huksong, behind UBE. The hike was good brain training for me. I actually asked to go on the hike because I saw a grassy path behind the university and heard that I could take it to the Cyber University building. When Professor Shim offered to take us, I didn't realize he meant to the top of the mountain.

The walk (after the grassy path:) was very steep. My legs felt like jelly, there were mosquitoes, I was sweating a lot and breathing very heavily, and a lot of doubts came into my head. I thought to myself, this hike is a lot like life. I wanted to achieve my goal (get to the top) but there were a lot of thoughts and emotions trying to convince me that it would be better just to turn around. Despite the obstacles, I kept making the choice to keep going. As you can see from the pictures, it was well worth it.

Later, Professor Shim, who works in the department of Brain Education, told us about his research on brainwaves. He uses EEG measurements to show the benefits of Brain Education on the brain. He studies the relationship between the brain and the mind so that people can understand how their thoughts and emotions affect their brain and therefore their physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Cheonan City Scape

I arrived in Korea yesterday. Professor Hong, who is the English professor here at UBE (that's her picture), met me with a smiling face at the Incheon international airport and we took a bus to Cheonan.

In Cheonan, I ordered my first meal in Korean (more like a snack--it was a bagel and iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts). I will be more adventurous with food soon:). Actually, I was speaking English and the clerk was speaking Korean but I understood what she was saying (mostly:).

From Cheonan, we took a taxi to UBE (about half an hour). The road to the university was winding and surrounded by rolling hills. There are lots of seroka (this is the bird's name in Polish, I'm not sure what it is in English) and pine trees. At night, it was very quiet and the crickets and cicadas were singing. I slept very well on the heated floor in a room in the dormintory and felt refreshed in the morning.

The term will start next Saturday so there are mostly staff at the university. I will find out more today about the program, where I will be living, and where I will be working part-time.

I promise to post some pictures soon!