#ochang bus

[pasteltofus]

Ochang Transportation Quickstart Guide

This is a quick overview of how to get to places in/to/from Ochang. 

Ochang is a suburban city of 60,000~ people, located north of Cheongju and close to the Cheongju Airport. Most of the time you can get to where you need to be by walking if you’re in the Homeplus/Lake Park area. 

Buses

713: (pictured left) This one takes you to Cheongju via the Northeast part (율량동). It’ll take 30 minutes to get to 율량동, a bit longer to get to downtown. A taxi from Ochang Plaza to Cheongju downtown (시내) will cost around 16,000 won.

717: (pictured right) This one wraps around Ochang and then goes to Cheongju, passing by the Hyundai and Lotte department stores.

53: (not pictured) Goes to 오송역, where you can take the KTX. It can take an hour and a half.

To Seoul

There is a bus that goes directly from Ochang Plaza to Seoul Nambu Station in Gangnam. You can buy tickets on the green bus app. (시외버스모바일) You need to change your iTunes Store to the Korean one to download this app. It takes around an hour and a half. The regular tickets cost around 8,300 and the premium ones cost around 11,600. 

To Cheongju Airport

A 10-minute taxi ride.

To Incheon Airport

There are four buses a day that go to the airport. Bus departure times (6:00, 11:50, 14:40, 16:40). You’ll tell the bus driver which terminal you’re heading to when you get on. It costs 18,000 won.

From Incheon Terminal 1 back to Ochang there are only four bus times: 7:35, 10:40, 16:40, and 19:10. From Terminal 2 the times are: 7:10, 10:15, 16:15, 18:45. It costs 18,000 won.

[elleiam]

Day trip to 내장산 (Naejangsan) ~

In my mind it was going to be one of the most tiring, crazy days - like why were we doing this to ourselves - but actually it turned out to be very worth it. Just look at the photos. 

Louise and I left our lovely town of Ochang at 6 in the morning, intending to take a taxi but being graced by bus 53 that would take us to Osong Station for only 500 won. The KTX ride to Jeongeup was painless (I don’t even remember it happening) and soon enough we were there. We packed onto a crowded bus of old hikers headed for any of the many mountains in that area, but most people there were destined for Naejangsan, a poppin’ location to see the fall leaves. We arrived to full-stop traffic before the bus driver decided to let us off just a few hundred meters away from the entrance - the time was 10 am.

Our train ticket back to Osong was at 1:14 pm, which gave us only a few hours to walk to Naejangsa Temple, get the photos we basically came for, take the one hour bus ride back, eat lunch (low priority), and get to the station. It was seriously a mission impossible in our minds, but I’m glad we decided to trust the universe and ourselves because guess which duo made it back to Jeongeup station with enough time to spare for a quick ramen party at the corner CU - that’s right, this duo.

Overall, I’d recognize my age next time and maybe give myself some more buffer room during travels. I’m 22 now and honestly my body AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE. Well, especially since we exercised for pretty much five hours straight the day before. More on that later ~

[risenled89-me-blog]

LED çipi Pazar geliştirmek devam ediyor, kurumsal 2017 yıllık üretim kapasitesi 80 milyon aylık ulaş

　 Shenzhen Risen OPTO Co, Ltd,sel ışık tedarikçi yol açtı,Alüminyum alaşım sel ışık üreticileri,su geçirmez led lambalar tedarikçi Çin 　　　　 Son zamanlarda, Yatırımcı İlişkileri platform Ouyang Shunchang şirketin LED üretim büyüyor, geçerli aylık üretim kapasitesi 600.000 ulaştı veya çok, belirli veri rapor lütfen şirket düzenli olarak söyledi. 　　　　Mevcut, esas olarak LED Epitaksiyel gofret yapan Avustralya okyanus Shunchang LED iş ve üretim chip ve sonuçta LED çipler, yarı iletken aydınlatma, LED çipi satış müşterileri için aşağı akım LED ambalaj iş alanında kullanılan bir çeşitli ürünleri satmak. 　　　　Ochang Shunchang bir büyük çip sanayi işletmeleri üretim haline gelmiştir, kar performansı özellikle iyidir. 　　　　2016, LED çipi Pazar entegrasyonu ve değişikliği yaşadı, sanayi konsantrasyonu daha da geliştirilmiş, daha sağlıklı ve makul piyasa yapısıdır. LED sanayi talep, düzenli bir şekilde sanayi konsolidasyona chip fiyatları ilk çeyreğinde yavaş yavaş daha yüksek bir bütün aç şu telefonu, yavaş yavaş da ikinci yarısı çip iş performans katkı ilk yarısında çok daha yüksek getirdi bir makul seviyeye döndürülen fiyat olarak piyasa derinliklerinden büyümeye devam ediyor. 　　　　 Bu anlaşılmaktadır ki Avustralya okyanus Shunchang çalıştırmak için bir tam kapasite korumak için 2016 LED üretim hattı, yıllık çıkış 2 inçlik çip 2.0 milyon tablet için eşdeğer, ürün performansı, kalite ve verim iyi durumda. 　　　　 2017 yıl sonra LED çipi Pazar geliştirmeye devam etmektedir. 　　　　(Şekil 2) faaliyete ilk çeyrek sonu itibarıyla birden fazla 400.000 (iki inç film için eşdeğer) üretmek için onun LED çipi koymak başladı, belgili tanımlık küçük parça üretim kapasitesi önemli bir artış 2017 yılında sonuna ikinci üç aylık üretim kapasitesi 600.000 ulaşacak bekleniyor. 　　　　Aslında, Avustralya okyanus Shunchang LED Epitaksiyel gofret kadar hız ve sanayi genişleme çip için 2016 yarısı inşaat ritim, Kasım 2016 ilgili cihazdan proje ikinci beri gelmesi ve devreye alma yüklemek başladı, yavaş yavaş üretim kapasitesi serbest bırakmak 2017 yılının ilk çeyreğinde başladı, 2017 çip üretim kapasitesini 80.000 ay ölçek başına ulaşması bekleniyor , ölçek ve ön planda LED çipi sektöründe karlılık elde etmek için. 　　　　 Ters yönde LED sanayi şirkete artırmak için ahşap Lin Sen Aralık 2016 Avustralya okyanus Shunchang yan Huai'an Ouyang Shunchang ikmal 500 milyon yuan için kendi fonları için uzantısı çabaları, zincir kayda değer olduğunu. 　　　　Stok yenileme, piyasa fiyatı öncelik tedarik Huai'an LED fotoelektrik üretimine göre ahşap Lin Sen fişleri, fotoelektrik LED imalatı piyasa fiyatı önceliğe göre cips Huai'an. 　　　　Aynı zamanda, yatırım, tamamlanmasından sonra düzeni planlama stratejik yatırım için ters yönde LED sanayi zinciri uzantısı, şirket daha fazla şirketin sanayi geliştirmek için zincir. 　　　　2017 Avustralya okyanus Shunchang yeni kapasite proje inşaat, 800.000 aylık, şirketin iş ölçek ve karlılık yükseltme elde etmek için hızlı bir şekilde yükseltmek için varolan kapasite. Epitaksiyel gofret yüksek verimliliğini korumak ve üretim kapasitesi çip için aynı zamanda. Daha fazla bilgi lütfen girin:http://www.outdoorlightingsupplier.com/

[pasteltofus]

Culture Shocks

More aptly titled “Just Some Differences I’ve Noticed.” but I wanted to go for the interest grabbing wow factor and get noticed by the SEO gods.

Bar Soaps Reign 🚽🤲💦

Back in California, I don’t remember if I’ve ever been to a public bathroom where there was a bar of soap instead of a liquid or foam soap dispenser. In Korea, especially outside of Seoul, that’s what you’re gonna find, if you find any at all hahaha. Somehow, although soap is…well, soap, using the communal bar always makes me cringe a little. Sometimes they’re on a stick and you just gotta make a grab at it. At least they don’t slip, I guess. 

Bar Soap on a Stick, Nambu Bus Terminal, S. Korea, 2019

Bonus pop quiz: What is Song Joongki caressing in this photo? A. Handsoap/ B. Lotion / C. Hair Gel / D. Toothpaste

If you answered toothpaste, you are correct! Don’t be like me and wash your hands with another teacher’s toothpaste in the teacher’s bathroom! 

물Tissues, a Gift from Above 👏🤧✨

Back in the States, if you spill something that’s not water on your bag, all you can do is rub a napkin on it and smear more of whatever juice or sauce that you had. Then you end up holding your sticky bag with your sticky fingers and it is all very unfortunate. In Korea, many cafes or restaurants will have 물티슈 (lit. water tissue/ wet napkin) that you can use to wipe your hands or take care of accidents. They’re a big thing here. I always take one to keep for emergencies in my bag. You can use them for anything, from wiping your desk down to wiping your butt when there’s no toilet paper in the stall 🙃not that I’ve done that before or anything.

Most Likely to Survive in a Desert 🐫🌞🏜

That’s the superlative Koreans would win because they don’t drink water. I first noticed this when all the other ETAs had massive water bottles during Orientation but none of the Korean teachers did. At my school, none of the teachers or the students drink water during their meal. Only after they put away their tray do they go and take a teeny tiny sip of water from a tiny cup at the water dispenser. I always have to gulp my water down because my coteacher takes an ant-sized sip and waits for me outside the cafeteria. When I asked someone about this they said that they drink soup…but the soup is often very salty or spicy or both. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

This is what I have for lunch at school (This is one of the yummier days) How are you supposed to eat all this (especially the spicy rice cakes) without water?? 

Greyscale Converted Cars 🚐🚥🏁

If you want a car you can choose between three colors: black, white, or dark blue. Please upgrade to the premium plan for access to more colors. Also, Koreans only drive Korean cars. No Fords, BMWs, or Lexuses. Don’t even think about Toyotas. I haven’t seen a single Prius here, compared to the massive fleet back home. (This doesn’t apply…as much..in Seoul)

Trash on the Street 🗑🚮🚯

As you can see in the photo below, trash is literally piled up on the side of the street. Often it’s not even contained in bags; they’re just all tossed together. This confuses me because sometimes there’s a very thorough recycling process and you have to pay to throw trash away...and other times it’s just a bunch of mini landfills. Here’s what I walk past every day on my way to school. (You can see all the black and white cars in the school parking lot in the back)

Walking Time Estimates 🚶🏻‍♀️💨📱⏳

I often forget that Korea is not that big. Ochang, in particular, is not big at all. When Lauren and I first got here we thought it would take half an hour to walk from our apartments to the “downtown” area, but it only took around 10-15 minutes. I’ve come to distrust the walking time estimates on Kakao Maps.

Grapefruit flavored everything 🍊🥤🍷

Grapefruit lovers, rejoice. Grapefruit juice is found everywhere, and grapefruit ade (carbonated drink) is on every menu. You can find grapefruit flavored soju, grapefruit jellies, grapefruit scented cleaning supplies, you name it. My favorite fruit used to be grapefruit, but now it’s pomelo (it’s like an oversized grapefruit with a thick and soft rind).

Common culture shocks that I was already used to: skinship (excessive touching, among the same sex), communal dining, zero deodorant usage, most Asian culturey things like taking shoes off etc. 

[pasteltofus]

And that was how we never met. 

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My first attempt at drawing a comic of this length! I’ve doodled a bit before but I could never decide on an art style, couldn’t figure out how to perspective, didn’t like my art...more excuses, etc, ...but I wanted to just try and draw something. So I made this hybrid webtoon shoujo manga thing based on a story that happened to me on the bus last week. 

Hopefully, this will be the start of a series of webtoons based on my life in Ochang, Korea. I have a couple more stories I want to tell so please wait for them! 

[pasteltofus]

Spring Conference

Four days of teaching workshops, group discussions, research presentations, and exploring Jeju Island.

Lauren and I flew to Jeju Thursday night before the conference so we could go horseback riding Friday morning. When we arrived at the horse park, there was a dog sitting in front and it padded over to us as we approached! It licked my hand. ㅎㅅㅎ I always wish I could lead my horse on my own but alas my horse just automatically followed the horse in front. Towards the end, we rode the horses at a canter which was the most exciting part (besides the moment when Lauren’s horse almost ate my horse). I really want to ride a horse at full gallop!! 

My Horse: *starts running* Me: THIS IS INCREDIBLE! PONYTA HAS EVOLVED INTO RAPIDASH, THE FASTEST SPRINTER IN THE WORLD OF POKEMON!

On Sunday, we went on a free tour of the island. We went to the Jeju Folk village, 성산 일출봉 (a UNESCO Heritage Site crater) and 주상절리대 (these hexagonal lava formed pillars).

The conference ended Monday at noon, but our flight wasn’t until 8:30pm so we went to downtown Seogwipo, where I bought this cute red shoulder bag and had quite possibly the best pasta I’ve eaten in my whole life. It was at a restaurant called Pasta Studio. I highly recommend it!

Bless Ochang for being a 10 min taxi ride from the Cheongju airport. This almost makes up for all those times we needed to take the 1 hour 717 bus to the Cheongju Bus Terminal or the 1.5 hour 53 bus to the Osong KTX station.

[pasteltofus]

Weekend Shenanigans

This past weekend was a lot of new faces and fun! On Friday, Lauren and I took the bus down to Cheongju to play board games with some other ETAs and their friends. I was feeling super sick on the bus ride and this old man asked me, “어디가 아파?” and when I vaguely gestured to all of me, he got up and motioned for me to take his seat. I refused but he insisted. 😭😭 For board games we ended up playing Avalon where everyone got the exact same roles twice…and was about to go for a three peat before we decided to forcibly reshuffle the role cards. It was a lot of fun, and I learned that I’m that I have a lying tic, whaaat.

On Saturday, Lauren and I went to what we thought was a yoga class but turned out to be a rather intense TRX session at a nice little studio in Sejong. We went with our Korean friends 혜미 and 윤선, who has a car~~ It was a nice car ride and we listened to IU’s new bop and some good vibes BTS.

The TRX class instructor was a little intimidating…she was really pretty and really toned. She kept yelling at us to tighten our core and keep our butts down. It was a nice workout but I think I was more impressed by the free coconut water and Rice Krispies.

Lauren and I hadn’t planned on it, but we also went to an ultimate frisbee pick up game in Daejeon at KAIST university. Our new friend Kyle (whom we had bonded with during our Avalon game the night prior) had offered to pick us up from Sejong. So nice!  Nathan, a second year ETA, was also coming along. Although we’d only met him twice I felt there was a sense of solidarity amongst us ETAs going into this unknown territory of ultimate frisbee and KAIST graduate students.

Ultimate frisbee was fun, but I felt bad for dragging my team down. There were some clearly experienced players and also people who were just tall and athletic. Being none of those things, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated that I wasn’t able to help out my team more. Yet, everyone was SUPER nice to us and tried very hard to include us by passing to us and also setting it up so that we could score. I was really grateful to our team leader who coached our ragtag team and gave us direction and support. (“STACK! STACK STACK STACK!!!”) Honestly, I’m just glad I didn’t get injured or ran over.

After our three hour game a few of us went to get dinner together. I was amazed at how considerate and adept Kyle was at managing the group. He made a group chat for all of us to share pictures, thus giving us all a way to contact our new friends. He arranged for Lauren and me to get a ride back home with a member of the group who also lived in Ochang. And he choose the restaurant and ordered and paid for all of us and even remembered I had wanted soondubu. Having been stuck in groups where it takes ten years just to decide where to eat, I was really impressed by how smoothly everything went. So much respect. During dinner I made friends with Junha, who is studying computer science and was really interested in my background in mobile games. We bonded right away when we found out we’re both 95ers (“omg  친구!!” and we shook hands enthusiastically it was cute).

On Sunday, Lauren and I woke up bright and early and took the KTX to Naejangsan to see the fall foliage. We were both pretty sore from the day before but the fall leaves were so pretty it was worth it!

I’m super glad I’m making friends with local Koreans as that was one of my goals coming into this grant year. I also convinced 혜미 to sign up for dance classes with me…I will make a post about my dance adventures soon!