Your Free Ticket

A few weeks ago Joe's class (well, actually I think it was the whole department) went on a field trip to the National Museum of Korea, and Alex and I tagged along with them. It was so funny because they kind of treated us like children - we had to have our "buddy" (Joe picked me), and line up in a straight line in our pairs, and follow the teacher through the museum. I felt like I was in elementary school:) Our tour was in Korean, so at first Joe was trying to translate for me, but after a while we kind of just stopped paying attention. They took us through the museum very quickly and skipped a lot of parts, so we didn't get to see everything. What we did see, though, was really cool, and we would love to go back with all the kids to the museum's children area and special exhibits. We've walked around the outside of the museum so many times, it was nice to finely go inside. Consider this your free ticket to the museum:)

Of course, my very favorite exhibit was Alex. He was really the star of the show.

This was the first time I've ever taken pictures of people taking pictures of my kids. It's happened so many times, usually with teenagers or college-age kids. We'll be out in public, and sometimes we literally get swarmed. They give our kids all kinds of treats, and take pictures, and try to speak to them in English, and shake their hands or give them high fives.

It's seriously hard to teach stranger-danger here:) We don't want to be rude.

It's hard to be a celebrity.

Buddha looks Good for his Age

It was Buddha's birthday yesterday, and I couldn't not do anything (I could have just said I had to do something, but sometimes it's just fun to use a double negative). For Buddha's birthday in Korea they have the Lotus Lantern Festival. Of course, I realized too late that the big parade is actually the week before the birthday, rather than on the actual birthday - maybe we'll catch it next year. But I knew that all the lanterns would still be up, so we headed over to Jogyesa temple, in the heart of Seoul.

The lotus is a common symbol is Buddhism. The lotus starts in the mud at the bottom of the water, grows up through the darkness of the water, and blossoms in the light. In Buddhism it represents the process of shedding ignorance to attain wisdom. By making lotus lanterns, people are aspiring to achieve greater wisdom and spiritual enlightenment (I believe that I already mentioned that I love the symbolism in Buddhism:))

As we walked down the street leading to the temple, we saw thousands of lotus lanterns for sell, in every shop. No, we didn't buy any - maybe next year. The temple is tucked away in the middle of high rise buildings, just like everything else is here. This is what the temple usually looks like from outside.

(by they way, that white pine tree is a National natural monument, and is over 500 yrs. old) And this is inside.

But this is what it looked like outside yesterday

There were plenty of lotus lanterns, but mostly regular lanters to cover the whole sky.

The outside was one big canopy of lanterns. Beautiful.

The tags hanging down from each lantern are wishes that people make. Here's a volunteer hanging up wishes for people.

People leave all kinds of gifts for Buddha - flowers, fruit, money, etc.

They even pour perfume on Buddha. There was this little well there, and people were taking turn s dipping a ladle into....well, I don't kow what it was - it could have been perfume or water or something else - and then they would pour it over the little Buddha statue in the middle.

There was ringing of the bell, music and singing, etc. Everybody who made a small donation got one of these little ribbons to wear. Our kids got them just because they're cute.

There were so many people there, Madelyn really couldn't see anything.

I let her use my camera and take some pictures of what she was seeing.

There were some local dignitaries who attended the ceremony. I don't know who they were, but everybody sure seemed excited for them to be there.

Anyway, it was fun to see, and it was a beautiful day.

Anyone Can Do It

Happy Mother's Day

To My Mother

You were there, and you gave me life -
Your heart stopped,
And started,
So you could be my mother.

You were there, and you watched me -
My first smile;
My first step;
My first words were for you.

You were there, and you taught me -
About faith,
About love,
And finding joy in life.

You were there, and you comforted me -
Rocking me
Back and forth,
Even when I was too big.

You were there, and I felt your strength -
Not in your arms,
Or your voice,
But in your very soul.

You were there, and I watched you -
Your prayers;
Your hard work;
Your growth was for me.

You are here, and always will be -
My support;
My example;
Forever my mother and my heart.


To My Mother-in-law

When I was small, I disliked my name.
The R's made me stumble – My tongue would not tame.
My cheeks blushed red hot whenever I spoke.
My name, I thought sadly, was just a cruel joke.
But as I grew up and learned how to speak,
My feelings for my name became much less bleak.
My mother had chosen my name, and I learned
The right to this name was something to earn.
A woman of faith, of loyalty and love;
A woman who looked for strength from above.
This was my mother's favorite tale
In the Bible – A story I now knew so well.
My name grew to mean so much more to me;
A name to be proud of, to stand up, to be.
Now you're in my life, and I've learned even more -
Because of you, my name means more than before.
My mother could not know, when she named me so well,
Of my mother-in-law, and my love for Liddell.
Now the lines that I read have taken new life,
Since the very first day I became your son's wife.
The words are for you now, they speak of my love.
I know you and my name were gifts from above.

Ruth 1:16-17, “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."

Date Night

I love going on dates with Joe.....who wouldn't? Tonight we decided to go up to Seoul Tower (also called Namsan tower, because it is on top of Namsan mountain).
There is a hiking trail all the way up to the top, but we didn't have time to do that so we took the cable car up the mountain most of the way, and then hiked to the base of the tower. We climbed enough stairs to be glad that we didn't have all the kids with us.

The reason why we chose to go there for our date - we were ready to make a SERIOUS commitment to each other. True, we were married for time and all eternity just over 10 years ago, but I'm talking about a Korean soap opera style commitment (serious stuff). At the base of Seoul tower is an observation deck with a chain link fence around it. A couple of years ago, a few locals had put padlocks on the fence as a symbol of securing their love to each other. Similar "Locks of Love" can be found throughout the world, including at Tokyo tower. This is what the fence at Seoul Tower looked like back in 2007 (I found the photo on the internet)

Then a crazy thing happened, I think in 2008. Two popular Korean celebrities were on a reality show called "We've Got Married", and for their anniversary they came to Seoul Tower, put a padlock on the fence, and threw the key over the side. This unleashed a frenzy of formerly unexpressed love. So now I don't think that you're really committed to each other until you've locked your love at Seoul Tower. Here are the pictures we took today.

It's kind of hard to find a place anymore. You can't see the view through the fences anymore (too bad, short little kids).

The fences are starting to bend because of the weight of the thousands of locks. Here is our contribution.

If you can't tell, the silver one in the middle says Joe + Ruth (in a heart) locked on 5/7/10. It's official now.

Did we throw the key over the side?

No. I guess a lot of people do though, and that's why they put up these signs (yellow sign at the bottom).

Can you imagine being down below and getting hit on the head with a key? ouch.

P.S. if you were still not sure about coming to visit us in Korea, this should totally seal the deal. Don't you want to lock your love at Seoul Tower too? Let me re-issue our open invitation to one and all to come stay with us (free room and board - come on people) and see this amazing city.

After that we took the elevator up the tower to the big observation level on top. Here was the view.

In this first picture you can see our apartment complex right in the middle, in front of the river. All the green, sparsely populated area in front of that is the base. And here's the rest of Seoul.

It just keeps going on and on in every direction. Sometimes we forget that we are living in one of the largest cities in the world. There are almost 10 1/2 million people who live in Seoul - over 1 million of us are foreigners:), but Seoul is only about 233 square miles (so that's almost 45,000 people per square mile). For my UT people, that's like if you took everyone who lives in the state of Utah, and moved them all to Orem and Provo. Enjoy.

After the tower we grabbed a bite to eat at this little Korean place (Pho Auntie).

It was sooooooo good! I'm going back.

P.S. (again) If you come to visit us, I will take you to this restaurant, and you will like Korean food.

It was a good date.