Mom, I Have to Go to the Bathroom

Sometimes these words come at the most inconvenient time and/or place.

This (don't be offended) is not what you usually expect to see, as a woman, when you go to a public restroom.

Not a drunk clown, but a man using a urinal....well, not that you'd expect to see a drunk clown either....would you? But if it's a unisex public bathroom, then it is disconcertingly inevitable....the man using a urinal, not a drunk clown....although, which one is really more disconcerting? Hmmmmmm. (Marissa, is this Blu's worst nightmare?) Anyway, I'm not really a fan of unisex public bathrooms.

Alex used one of these (squatting toilet)

for the first time the other day (he had to poop). He was able to figure it out and go with no problem (with my help, of course), but when we first walked in the stall he took one look at it and said, "This isn't right Mom." Yep, I know kid.

A lot of times the public toilets here are not stocked with toilet paper in them. Sometimes you'll see vending machines with toilet paper. Or better yet, sometimes you'll get approached by Christian people handing out these.

What better way to advertise your church then on a packet of toilet paper?

The older plumbing in Korea is inadequate for flushing toilet paper - it's just not powerful enough, and it will clog the toilet. You know how there's usually a waste basket in every stall? In Korea, if there is a waste basket in the stall, it is for one thing - to throw away your toilet paper after you've wiped. Don't flush it - so say the signs. In new buildings and apartments you don't really have that problem, but sometimes when you're out and about, it gets archaic.

You've heard of soap on a rope? How about soap on a metal rod?

Did you know (of course you didn't) that the little old cleaning ladies in Korea (ajuma) do not make sure the men's room is empty before going in to clean it.....they don't care. They've literally mopped inbetween Joe's legs as he's standing at the urinal. Yes, I'm serious. It makes me laugh so hard just thinking about it - sorry Joe:)

So there you have it - all you ever wanted to know about public bathrooms here and more....much, much more;) Oh, and have I mentioned that I really like having all my kids out of diapers?:)

4 Years and Counting

Birthday Dinner

Birthday Cake
Birthday Present

Birthday Boy

Last year on Alex's birthday I wrote about how, at three years old, he was no longer a baby. And yet now that he's four, he's still my baby. I don't think this is going to change anytime soon. Alex has grown a lot this past year. He got himself out of diapers. He is a Sunbeam. He likes to salute people in uniforms. He calls people "dude". He loves biking. He likes to play with cars and playdough. He colors all the time. He knows his way around the Nintendo DS. His range of facial expressions is endless. I don't think he's afraid of anything. He is a ninja. He is a dancer. I really, really like him....we all do:)

It Smells Like Spring

We had a busy and fun Spring Break this past week. Joe only had to work 2 days, and I think we went somewhere every single day that he was off. The weather was perfect for all of our adventures, and Spring sure does smell good.

We went to Everland a couple of times, and they have a lot of animals there. They don't necessarily smell good, but I could have watched these chimpanzees all day. Here's a picture of our monkeys watching the monkeys.

They are so human-like, it is fascinating.

Admit it, I bet that if you are married you do some sort of maitenance on your spouse (i.e. pop zits, pick things off them, etc.). You're just like a monkey.

Look at this face!

Now, what does smell good, and abounds in Korea, are the cherry blossoms. We went to the Hannam Yeouido Spring Flower Festival. The streets were packed with people.

The parks along the river were full.

But once again, I had an idea in my head of what the flower festival would be like, and I was wrong. I thought that at a flower festival there would be a ton of vendors selling flowers. Silly me. But there were a ton of food vendors.

Take a closer look.

Now that's a smell I'd like to avoid. Bundaegi - silk worm larvae. you can have it roasted or boiled. Either way, it stinks. I will never try it....ever. And finally, back at Everland, they were having their Tulip Festival (Korea loves festivals, can you tell?). We got some fun pictures in front of all the tulips.

There were way more flowers here than there were at the flower festival, and yes, they were even selling tulips! Way to go Everland:)

And speaking of Everland, I've decided to go on this.

The T-Express has the world's steepest drop on a wooden roller coaster. It is also the world's ninth fastest, fourth tallest, and sixth longest wooden roller coaster. It was ranked the world's #1 best, most thrilling roller coaster by the Themepark Review, and ranked #1 on the official coaster poll in 2008 and 2010. With stats like that, who can resist, right? Actually, every time we go to Everland, and I look up at this beast, I get a little scared. But I've decided I HAVE to go on it. I will let you know how it goes, if I survive. And if you didn't already have a good enough reason to come and visit us in Korea, this might just be it:)

Berry Dirty

My friend Kimberly invited us to go down to the Nonsan Strawberry Festival on Friday. Both of our husbands were workings, so we set out on our own with six kids in tow.

I think before we got there, we thought that the picture above (which was taken from the website advertising the festival) was a good representation of what we would experience that day. But at the end of the day I took the picture below, and I think that summed things up much better:)

MUD! The festival was in a big field, and it had rained ALL day the previous day. The parking was also in the field, and there were many spinning tires going nowhere and spraying mud everywhere. Luckily, I am such a skilled driver, that getting stuck in the mud was not an option for us. Getting shoes in the mud, however, was inevitable. These poor ladies had on their traditional hanbok, with little white shoes.

In addition to the muddy conditions, we didn't get to pick any strawberries. We found out later that you have to pre-register to pick strawberries, and that the fields where you pick them aren't at the same place as the festival. Despite the disappointments, we had a really good time. We had strawberry juice, and strawberry icecream. and strawberries covered in chocolate, and strawberry jam on toast with cucumber slices (we ARE in Korea), and the kids colored strawberry masks, and Kimberly's kids made strawberry soap.

Of course, the kids' favorite part of the festival had nothing to do with strawberries. There was an area with animals that you could look at, and pet some of them. We spent at least half an hour there. Neither of our families have pets, so we let the kids get their fill. These bear cubs were so cute and so little. Where the heck is their mother?!

Everyone got a turn with the birds.

Alex was the only one brave enough for the snake.

The best of the best were these bins with baby rabbits and mice. When we first got there, we joined this group of pre-schoolers.

There were about 30 of them, and even though they had a couple of teachers with them, there was NO adult supervision. Some of these "pre-schoolers" were really just toddlers, and they had no idea how to correctly handle these animals. There was pinching, and grabbing, and sqeezing, and dropping, and THROWING for heaven's sake. I rescued 5 mice that had been dropped/thrown out of the bins, and Kimberly got a few more. We were cringing the whole time, and trying to tell the kids to be careful. Of course, they didn't understand us because we weren't speaking Korean. Cora, my big-hearted daughter, was in an animal-rights-activist frenzy. This face says it all.

After the school kids left, things were a bit more calm, and all of our kids were very careful with the animals.

The funniest thing that happened at the festival was that we became famous. Okay, not really, but were were stalked. When we first got there we were approached by a man and his assistant. They were taking pictures and video for all the promotional stuff for next year's festival. They followed us around all day.

We finally had to say no more pictures. Besides, there were other American's there who needed to have their 15 minutes of fame too:) All in all, it was a very successful festival, and we're glad we went...

...even if our shoes will never be the same:)