....and That and This

1. Driving the other day.  Stopped at a stop-light.  The car in front of me starts to slowly roll backwards.  At first I don't react, 'cause I'm sure that he'll put on his brakes, right......right?!  No.  I lay on my horn.  Then he hits me.  I'm thinking, "Seriously?", but I'm not concerned because I know there's no damage - he wasn't rolling fast enough.  I prepare for him to get out of the car, come and inspect, apologize.  I'll say it's no big deal.  He'll say, are you sure? and, I'm so sorry.  We'll get back into our cars and leave.  I quickly visualize it all in my head.  Didn't quite happen that way.  Instead, the light turned green and he DROVE AWAY!!!  The end.
2. Joe and I were out for a walk in the neighborhood.  A guy is walking towards us.  He seriously looks like he has just gotten off a shift at a coal mine.  Not only that, but he appears to be wearing children's clothes.  A hoody, with the hood up, the sleeves end at just below his elbows, and I can see about 8-10 inches of his stomach.  His pants, not intended to be capris, but they are, and tight.  And the best part - just as he get's in front of us, he puts his hand out in front of him and waves it, gesturing for us to get out of his way.  We did.

3. When we first moved here, I wrote this post about our first week in Korea.  I wrote about how Asian kids will sometimes open their eyes wide with their fingers to make "American" eyes, just like American kids will sometimes pull back the corners of their eyes to make "Asian" eyes.  The other day on the subway we saw this advertisement. 

Translation?  It's for some kind of youth program in Seoul, which has opened their eyes and ears, and taught them so much.  Most kids here go to school every other Saturday, so they only get every other Saturday off - they call it Nolto (not sure about the spelling on that).  Anyway, this program is on their days off, on Nolto.....'cause apparantly they don't need ANY free time to just be kids.  This advertisement says something to the effect of, Through the virtue/merits of this Seoul Nolto program, they are safer and smarter (having learned about emergency/safety skills, water and nature stuff, etc.  Anyway, my kids thought it was pretty funny and made me take a picture of it.

4. We visited the Cheonggyecheon River area in downtown Seoul.  Went to Kyobo bookstore, the largest and most famous bookstore in South Korea.  Fun for all.  Then we walked around the shops, looking for something to eat.  Korean BBQ?  French sandwich shop maybe?  Oooooo, Indian sounds good!  Okay, McDonald's it is.  Then a short stroll around the beginning of the river.  They had lanterns all along the river, left over from the lantern festival.  So pretty.

5. Speaking of the Cheonggyecheon River,  I love this article about it - "Why Seoul is a Legend in Urban Planning."  You see, the river used to be covered by an 8-lane, elevated freeway.  A restoration project, completed in 2005, brought it to its present glory.  Towards the end of the article there is a link to a 10 minute video about it.  If you have the time, it's very cool.

6. Alex graduated from preschool.  Caps and Gowns.  Songs.  Diplomas.  Gift Bags.  Luncheon.  The Works. 

The kids were adorable, and I enjoyed myself, BUT I still secretly think that preschool graduations (and kindergarten graduations, and elementary school graduations of any kind) are a little ridiculous - no offense to anyone who thinks they are important;)  High school and college graduation are a big deal.  Other than that.......  He had some really great teachers and teacher aides this year.  He was a little sad to leave them.

7.  I took the girls, and Alex, to Hello Kitty Town.  Joseph would have no part of this.  He would rather die.  Go figure;)  Sooooo, Hello Kitty vomited, and a restaurant and play area were born. 

This is not one of the places that is cheap/free, for which I often praise Seoul.  No.  It cost us some money.  But the kids loved it, the food was good, and Madelyn will be having a Hello Kitty birthday party this year.

8.  I can't tell you how many times I have reached for my debit card instead of my military ID when I drive up to our housing complex (we have to show our military ID to the gate guard in order to enter).  Luckily, I always catch myself.....but not today.  I handed the guard my debit card.  He was confused.  I'm just glad he didn't arrest me for trying to bribe him to let me onto government property:)

9.  We hiked up Namsan (nam=south, san=mountain), starting from our apartment complex.  Such a nice walk, with a million criss-crossing paths up the side of the mountain, trees, flowers, ponds, and great views of Seoul.  The kids were troopers, and were successfully bribed with snacks.

10.  This is our neighborhood, Hannamdong.  We live in those tall white bldgs. right of center.

Please won't you be my neighbor?  Not for much longer though;)

Speaking of Lanterns....

Every year, Seoul has the Lotus Lantern Festival, right around Buddha's birthday.  It's a few days long, with lots of events, but one of the main highlights is the Lantern Parade.....and we've never been.  This year I was determined to go to the parade with the kids.  Joe, unfortunately, had to work the whole weekend and couldn't go with us.....I'm pretty sure he was not heartbroken over it;)  I thought I would drive there (I knew a place to park close by), but the first way I went was blocked off by police cars.  I back-tracked and headed a different way, and I hit bad traffic, grrrrrrr.  We finally got to the tunnel I needed, and wouldn't you know it, the police had it blocked off too.  It had never occurred to me that this thing would be so big that they wouldn't let cars anywhere near it.  And by that, I don't mean within a few blocks near it, I mean within 10 minutes drive (with no traffic) near it.  By this time we had been driving around for about 45 minutes (Yay for Seoul traffic).  I could have given up and just gone home, but I was DETERMINED to get to the dang parade!  I drove to base, parked the car, and we walked to the nearest subway station.  1/2 hr. later we came up out of the subway, and there was the parade right in front of us, already well under way.  It was worth it:)  The lantern floats were very cool.  The costumes were absolutely beautiful.  The music was traditional, and I loved it all. 

We walked up the street - FAR - catching up with the beginning of the parade.  The kids were troopers.  We stopped at McDonald's for an icecream.

We also saw Alex the Lion and some penguins from Madagascar (not really sure what they were doing there, other than watching the parade).  Alex (our Alex) was so excited to see them.  The penguin was quite nice and interacted with us, but it sure was hard to get the attention of Alex the Lion - he was REALLY into the parade:)  When he finally acknowledged us, Alex said, "My name is Alex too!!!)  It was soooo cute.

We finally got back home around 10:00pm - 4 hrs. after we had left home.  We were exhausted. One more thing checked off my list of things to do before we leave Korea:)

This and That

1. Mad-o-lantern = Madelyn + Jack-o-Lantern:)  Madelyn lost 3 teeth in a matter of days.

2. Last year we went to the Nonsan Strawberry Festival, which I blogged about here.  There was a photographer who followed us around all day (to our dismay), and this year we saw the fruits of our modeling labors, hahaha.  First, somebody told us that they had seen our pictures on the website for this years festival, so we checked it out and we had several pictures on there, including on the slide-show-header.  I linked to that on my fb page, and thought that would be the end of it.  But when all of our friends went to the festival this year, they saw this (which was the same picture on the website header):

And they brought us home this flyer.  Here Alex is pointing out a picture of Madelyn and a friend stirring strawberry jam.

 And here Alex is pointing out the other picture that made it everywhere.

 We didn't end up going to the strawberry festival this year - once was enough.  But it sure was funny to be so "famous";)

3.  This is a store in the mall devoted to Dalki and her friends - Dalki is the one with the pink hair in the middle.  There is also a Dalki theme park and Dalki play places around Korea.

 Dalki is a beloved Korean cartoon character similar to Strawberry Shortcake - dalki is the Korean word for strawberry.  While Strawberry Shortcake has friends such as Huckleberry Pie and Apple Dumplin', Dalki has friends named Subak (watermelon) and Dolbam (chestnut).  There are other characters in Strawberry Shortcake that aren't "friends", like the Purple Pieman and his sister Sour Grapes (yeah, I was a fan, obviously - I have a point to all of this, so hang in there).  Likewise, there is a character in the Dalki cartoons that lives apart from Dalki and her friends.  His name is Dongchimee, and he likes poop.  I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!  Ddong means poop in Korean, and chimee means poke or stick.  You can see him in the picture above, below Dalki, pointing, and again to the right side - he's the one with the pile of poop on his head - yep.  He thinks poop is so great that he collects it, makes it into art, and wears it on his head at all times.  In this store we found all kinds of poop inspired paraphanalia.  You just can't make this stuff up.  Seriously, ONLY IN KOREA!:)  As if that weren't bad enough, this character is most likely based on a Korean game/prank called ddongchim, which is when kids (or adults) poke each other hard in the bum with their finger.

4. Pizza is getting more and more popular in Korea, but it is very unique here.  We have had toppings like bacon wrapped potato wedges, shrimp, sweet potatoes, and hotdogs.  They drizzle dressings on some of their pizzas like bsalmic dressing.  Oh, and don't forget corn - if you order a plain cheese pizza, you might want to ask for no corn.  In America, you might get condiments with your pizza like parmesan cheese and marinara sauce.  In Korea, you're more likely to get pickles and mayonaise.???

5. Cora's class went on a fieldtrip to a Kimchi museum (yes, our school has A LOT of fieldtrips towards the end of the year, and yes, I chaperoned).  It was kind of lame, but it's always good to see pictures of kimchee cleaning out a colon.

 And we got a picture of Cora taking a fake bite of fake kimchee from a fake Korean lady.

6.  The only thing I love seeing more than the cherry blossoms in spring are when the cherry blossoms start falling off the trees and look like snow falling down.  We took a moment to savor the fallen blossoms, and play in the "snow".

7. Here are some things I've overheard people say lately.

Let me double check and make sure I'm not lying to you - said a woman giving information to Joe.

Korea has the worst internet - they're like an 8th world country - said a lady I passed who was talking on the phone.

You can't choose not to go to Korea, because you're already here - said a mom to her son.

Mom, put on some music and make me dance - said Joseph.....and I did, and he did;)

It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop on a haystack - said Mike Tyson in an interview, hahahaha

Why do hills always have to go up? - said Cora on a hike.
Dog's get poop, and cat's get milk - said Alex.  What?  Because dogs go poop, and cats lick the milk, he explained.

8. Our kids and their friends are superheroes.

9. One thing you have to get used to when you are in the military is saying goodbye.  You move a lot, and your friends move.  The beginning of summer is a big PCS (Permanent Change of Station) season, so we are saying good bye to A LOT of friends in the next couple of months.  The turn-over at church is unbelievable, and can be a big challenge when filling callings.  We wish all of our friends good luck at their new duty stations - God be with you 'till we meet again:)

10.  Oh, and speaking of moving, WE HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT!!!  Joe will be starting a class at the end of August in Monterey, CA to learn Iraqi (a dialect of Arabic).  We will be there for 1 1/2 yrs., and then we are hoping to get stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia.  I realize that this may make some people nervous, but there is no need.  Arabic linguists do their job state-side, and Joe is not any more likely to get deployed than he is now as a Korean linguist.  Joe will maintain his Korean language too.  We are VERY excited about this assignment, and about being so close to family!:)  Some, if not all, of you may have heard about the "fake" assignment we got a few weeks ago.  The military advertised for, and then assigned Joe to a class for Serbo-Croatian, but a couple of days later they told us that "that class doesn't actually exist".  What?!!!  Only the military (shaking my head).  We laughed it off, but it was really quite disappointing.  The people that Joe had been talking to felt pretty bad about the whole thing and said that they would try to work with us and get us into another class if they could.  We were pretty skeptical, but it actually worked out.  We can't wait!

I Chaperone - It's What I Do

Joseph's class went to the 63 Building,  which was the tallest building outside of North America (having 63 floors) at the time it was built in 1985, and was the tallest building in Korea until 2003.

I was the last chaperone to volunteer, and I got the biggest group - all boys.

So when I volunteered to chaperone the the field trip, I was expecting to get a good view of Seoul from the observation deck, but.........we didn't get any higher than the 1st floor.  Oh well, other than the observation deck, I guess the ground floor is the happenin' place to be.  We went to their IMAX theatre and watched a 3D tribute of the international efforts to help the people of Haiti after the earthquake there in 2010.  Once we figured out the translator headsets, I thought it was quite touching.

Next we went to the aquarium there.  Not as good as the one at COEX mall, but it was still fun.

One cool thing that they had at this aquarium was a swimming/dance show inside the big fish tank.  Cool, and kind of weird.  I kept thinking there must be a lot of fish poop in there with her, but whatever;)

And last, we went to the wax museum.  Ummmmm, wow.  I don't know what else to say;)

And that was our day:)