We Miss You Dad

Our Father's Day here is missing one very important thing - a father.  Joe is off to NCOA for 6 weeks in Japan, and we miss him oh so badly.  And what's worse, I won't even be drowning my sorrows in the U.S. Open - they play it in the middle of the night here:(  But I digress.  The kids and I put together a little something for Joe (we did something similar to this with just Cora and Joseph about 4 years ago, only about me instead of Joe, and I posted it here and here).  We love you Joe, and we can't wait until you get back. 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

What makes Dad happy?

      Cora - Family

      Joseph – Me, and the family

      Madelyn – When I say, “I love you”

      Alex – He loves us when he gives us hugs and kisses at night-time

How does Dad make you laugh?

      Cora – Being Dad

      Joseph – By being funny

      Madelyn – By making funny jokes

      Alex – Because he wants to tickle me

What does Dad do when you are not around?

      Cora – Work, or talk to Mom, or go biking

      Joseph – He does his job

      Madelyn – He plays games

      Alex – He will be sad when I was lost

What is Dad really good at?

      Cora - Biking

      Joseph - Biking

      Madelyn - Teaching

      Alex – He can play games or be nice to people or be nice to us at the park

What is Dad not very good at?

      Cora – Getting himself to go swimming

      Joseph – Air Hockey, because I beat him all the time

      Madelyn – Making Cora laugh

      Alex – When he's being bad, when he's doing bad things

 What does Dad do for a job?

      Cora – Works in the Air Force

      Joseph – He learns languages

      Madelyn – He learns Korean words

      Alex – He does something that he needs to do to grow

What does Dad like most about Mom?

      Cora – She's hot

      Joseph – She's nice

      Madelyn – She is his wife

      Alex – He likes her heart because he married her with rings

If Dad were a cartoon character, who would he be?

      Cora - Popeye

      Joseph – Jerry, from Tom and Jerry

      Madelyn – a Dad

      Alex – He would be a snowman, or a cartoon, or a music, or a star, like a fish

How are you and Dad the same?

      Cora – We both have dyslexic tendencies

      Joseph – We're male

      Madelyn – We're both people

      Alex – We will be the same size

How are you and Dad different?

      Cora – He doesn't like to go swimming

      Joseph – He's stronger than me

      Madelyn – We don't have the same color of eyes

      Alex – He is bigger than me

How do you know Dad loves you?

      Cora – He doesn't like to see me upset

      Joseph – He says it every day

      Madelyn – Because I'm his child

      Alex – Because he doesn't want me to get lost

It Is What It Is

I need to record this somewhere, and I know that I'm never going to write it in my journal because it will just take way too long -  because this is going to be looooong, but I type much faster then I write;)  And anyway, the purpose of this blog is to record my family history, and this is a part of my personal history, so here it is in all it's rawness. 
For the past 2 1/2 years I have been the district primary president for the English-speaking district here in Korea.  About a month ago, we were told that Sister Stevens, the 1st counselor in the primary general presidency, and Sister Dalton, the general young women's president, were coming to visit.  There were to be 3 meetings - an auxillary training on Saturday night, a smaller focus group for just the primary on Sunday afternoon, and two firesides on Sunday night, one with Sister Stevens, and one with Sister Dalton, at the same time, but in different locations.  I was VERY excited.  Visits like this are rare to Korea, or anywhere really, and I felt like it was such a great opportunity and blessing for our primary leaders.  I immediately e-mailed all the primary presidents from the different branches, told them the details, and asked who thought they could come.  I didn't get a response from anybody.  I knew some people were out of town, and some people just forget to reply to e-mails, so I sent out another e-mail a week and a half later.  This time everybody responded, but almost all of them said they weren't coming. 

This was very difficult for me to accept at first.  I admit, I was a bit prideful in my thinking - "I would NEVER miss an opportunity like this one!"  I thought I would be embarrassed if we didn't have a good turn-out, like it would be a bad reflection on ME or something - again, my pride.  Dumb pride.  And maybe even worse than that, and I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but I was even thinking how COOL it would be to meet her - that maybe I could get my picture with her, and I would post it here on my blog.  Maybe my motivation for not missing this opportunity was worse than any reasons that the others had for missing it.

Here's the thing.  It is NOT easy to get around here.  And some of our branches are as far away as 4 or 5 hours from Seoul.  It's not like Utah, where I grew up.  The stake center is within walking distance of your house, and you can drive to the conference center in well under an hour.  Even in Texas the stake center was 1 1/2 hrs. away, and we thought that was FAR.  It was.....but it's not.  2-5 hours is far, and you add weekend traffic to that in Korea, and you could be stuck on the road for 3-6 hours, or longer.  That kind of travel can be costly too.  You can take the train, which GREATLY reduces your travel time, but it's not cheap.  Plus, if you have kids.....well, that's a whole other thing to worry about.  Soooooo, it really is understandable that people weren't going to come.  Callings in the church are important, but there are other things that take precidence, and I just needed to remember that.

Anyway, even if we had only a few people there, I was still excited about the prospect of meeting with Sister Stevens and maybe getting some one-on-one council with her.  I would take really good notes, and share everything I learned with everyone who couldn't make it.

So Saturday came, and I wanted to make sure that we got there in plenty of time.  It usually takes us about 1/2 hour to get to the church, so we left an hour before the meeting was supposed to start, giving ourselves a little extra time for traffic.  We underestimated Seoul traffic on a Saturday night, and got to the church 1 hour and 15 minutes later - 15 minutes late.  This is why we usually never drive anywhere on Saturday night.  Okay, so a little hiccup there, but what came next was way worse.

We were at the WRONG church building.

When referring to church buildings here in Seoul, they all have names.  The Yeongdeungpo building or the Cheongun building.  We don't say, "it's the building at________(fill in the blank with the address)", because the address looks like this: 1542-11, Pyeongni 5-dong Seo-gu DAEGU CITY,703-850.  What does that even mean?!!!:)  Not like those blessed easy addresses in Utah - 100 W. 300 N.  So anyway, this meeting was supposed to be at the Sindang chapel, but the whole time I was thinking in my head that it was at the Sinchon chapel, which is the one we went to.  Of course, nobody was there, at which point I realized my mistake, and panicked, because I had NO IDEA where the Sindang chapel was! 

I called a friend who I thought might be going to the meeting to find out where the right church was.  She wasn't at the meeting, but told me where she thought it was.  We were about 30 minutes away, so we decided it was still worth going.  It took us 45 minutes to get there.  It was the wrong church too.

So 2 hrs. of driving time into this personal nightmare, the meeting is already half-way over, and I have no idea where to go.

So we went home.

I was embarrassed and disappointed, but I consoled myself in the thought that at least I had the focus group the next day, which would be a little less formal, and would still give me a chance to sit down and talk with Sister Stevens and ask her some questions.  Plus the fireside later that night.  When we got home I e-mailed the district president and 2nd counselor and told them what had happened.  I got a response later that night from the 2nd counselor.  He said I would be blessed for my good intentions.  Then he dropped another bomb - the focus group had been cancelled. 

I can't tell you how that hurt my heart.  I kept thinking things like, "If I had been more in-tune with the spirit, then I wouldn't have made the mistake about the chapel.  If I hadn't been judgmental of others....  If I hadn't had stupid thoughts like taking a picture with her...."  But I knew I couldn't dwell on thoughts like that.  I knew they weren't from a good source, and they wouldn't do me any good anyway.  And God is not spiteful.  No, never.  The 2nd counselor said he'd share his notes with me from the auxillary training, and I could still go to the fireside.

The next day was Sunday, and at church we had the pleasure of hearing Sister Dalton speak in our sacrament meeting.  Also there was a member of the seventy (I can't remember his name, so I'll just call him Elder).  During Elder's talk I started to lose it.  He talked about how lucky we were to have Sister Dalton and Sister Stevens in Korea, and an opportunity to hear them speak was something we didn't want to miss out on.  I kept thinking, "I KNOW how lucky we are, and I MISSED IT!!!"  All of the feelings of embarrassment, disappointment and sadness from the previous evening returned ten-fold.  I cried through the rest of the meeting.  I cried when I went and spoke to the District pres. after the meeting - and I think that scared him a little;)  But I got myself together in time to substitute in nursery, and was looking forward to the fireside that night.

Another confession here.  A little tiny part of me, way in the back of my brain, was hoping that when I went to the fireside that night and introduced myself to Sister Stevens, and told her how sorry I was for missing the meeting and how much I wanted to talk with her, then she would somehow find a few minutes to meet with me personally, and it would be really great, etc. Ugghhhh!

Well, I went to the fireside, and it was really nice, and I really enjoyed it, and I was so glad I went.  Afterwards, I went up and introduced myself to Sister Stevens, and told her how sorry I was that I had missed the meeting.....and then I started crying again.  I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm a total baby - get a hold of yourself Ruth!  Sister Stevens was sympathetic, but honestly, she didn't know me from Tom, Dick or Harry.  I went home, crying the whole way, of course.

So, lessons learned? 1) None of this was ever about ME, duh!, 2) Don't be judgmental (you'd think I would have already learned that by now), 3) Irony can be painful, and 4) Sometimes things just go really bad - the end - get over it.

There you have it kids, the story of one of the worst weekends of my life in regards to any calling I've ever had.  I'm over it now.  I am not perfect (I think I've mentioned that before).  I'm just trying to do the best I can, like everyone else.  I mess up along the way.  I learn stuff.  I keep going. 

....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:)