This past week, Bunny and I were alone in Cheonan holding down the fort while my parents were away at a conference. Save for a day trip up to Seoul, I spent most of my week here in the countryside painting and preparing for the AWEH art show, reading, writing, you know, just the usual stuff. The first week of living in Cheonan, I was really antsy the whole time and felt isolated from the rest of the world, but this week I'm much calmer and I'm learning to stop and smell the roses. While I miss friends, all the good restaurants, cafes, and just the general convenience of living in Seoul, I can't deny that I also love the open countryside here. The clean fresh air, the sound of birds, and even the stillness...
The other day I went on a lovely solo walk from my house to the Independence Hall of Korea. The sky was blue, the rice fields were green as ever, and there was a hint of autumn in the air. Ahh, these are the days~~~
rice paddies
I also passed by several creepy crawlies along the way:
A praying mantis crossing the sidewalk. It's got quite a pot-belly~
"Whut-chu lookin' at."
Saw loads of dragonflies basking in the warm sun~
This is merely the old, empty outer shell that a cicada left behind. Creeeepy.
Another praying mantis.
A teeny spider. Every time an ant would march past this guy, he would spin around to watch it, but he was too slow to chase any of them down. hehe.
A bigger spider with lots of treats stuck in its web...
That's it for the bugs I saw... I hope I didn't gross anyone out. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might know that I get excited about finding insects and photographing them... They fascinate me! You can see more of my bug blog posts here and here. :)
Here's the Independence Hall from a distance... I've been here more times than I can count, but I don't think I could ever get sick of this place. The grounds are so open, clean, relaxing... and it gives me a sense of being connected with history.
Mugunghwa, Korea's national flower
By the independence hall, there's a really big pond. Do you see those orange-yellow things in the water?
They're humongous koi fish. Some of them are almost 2ft long!
So colorful and beautiful, but also kinda freaky... especially when someone throws food in the pond and they all swarm to the same spot.
I like to walk...
... and feel grass between my toes.
A peaceful hang-out spot for me to rest and read my book. :)
Hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend!