Out and About

Yesterday was pretty fun.  There was some sort of music store that Michael and I spotted the other day so we decided to go and see what they had, Michael tried to go the other day but it was closed.  Well, it was a repair shop and did not sell any instruments, or at least that's what we think.  The guy working there was very nice and told us where we could find a store that sold guitars, luckily we spotted the E-Mart on our last outing so we new what he was talking about.  Outside of the E-Mart is pretty happening it's right new the Jinju fortress and there are a bunch of other department stores and lots and lots of people.  Down a side ally we found the music store, mostly pianos but Mike was able to get is hands on one of the guitars, they had to move a couple of pianos to get to it.  They were very accommodating and said to call ahead if we ever want to come back and someone would be there that spoke English or something I guess.  

Our goal was to get to the other side of the river so we started walking again.  But then, we spotted music store after music store, maybe 3 more stores, we had to go into all of them and Michael got to play guitar in everyone!  That made him very happy and he also got to scoop out some amps so when his guitar come he can buy one for it.  

When we got to the river there were lots of paddle boats out, we had seen them the other day but it was raining and Wednesday so no one was on them.  I want to go back and paddle boat sometime!   Just before the bridge we got some street food, still not really sure what it was, some sort of meat on a stick with bbq sauce and some sort of seaweed wrapped up with noodles inside breaded and fried.  We found the cultural art center very cool looking building.  There are paths on both sides of the river so we walked down to the path there was another outdoor gym but also bikes that you could rent! and the bamboo forest! mmmm and yes Jude you will be seeing lots of pictures of bamboo because it's just so cool, I think we should make our backyard into a bamboo forest!  

At this point we decided to look for the Cheonjeon si-chang (market).  While we were looking I spotted a housewares store and bought a cutting board, which I am very excited about because we've been looking for one for a week now!  A couple more blocks down we found the market.  It was pretty dead because it was almost 4pm at this point and a lot of the shops were either closed or closing up.  There were still a few shops open, so I bought some lotus root type thing, some red beans for rice and beans, still have to find cilantro, a LOT of tomatoes, some good smelling seasoning that I don't know what to use on or for ha, and some green peppers that I did not think were hot because we ate them the other night at dinner and they weren't hot but when I got home and took a bite into on it was HOT!  It was a little uncomfortable at the market because we were being stared at the whole time but whatever, I definitely want to go back earlier in the day when it's most likely more happening.  Oh yea we HAVE to learn our numbers soon, I have a couple of them down but not all of them.  

Last night we decided we wanted to go out, so we went back to the Industrial University area, and ended up at the same bar as Friday night because we didn't know where else to go.  It was fun but sitting there Mike and I really wished we spoke Korean so that we could talk to other people.  When we got in the cab to go home he wasn't understanding where I was trying to tell him to go, so I pulled out the map and pointed to the University of National Education where we work.  After a few minutes of driving I felt like we weren't going in the right direction but I didn't know how to say so and thought that maybe since I've only been there once he was taking a new way that I didn't know about back.  Well, turns out we ended up at the wrong University oops.  The taxi driver had to call over some guy from the street and have him help tell where we wanted to go.  The entire ride back he was repeating over and over to us how to say where we wanted to go, it was very nice of him and now we have it written down and have been practicing! 

Well, it's Sunday morning and we should really get out on another jaunt.  We're going to try and make it to Jinyang Ho (the lake).