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:)

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This list of 10 things is dedicated to Mary....because, really, who else would you dedicate a list of 10 things to? 1. I would really love to be able to sleep-in until 8:00 in the morning. And I'm not talking about the kind of sleeping-in that consists of actually being woken up by your kids between 6:00 and 7:00 and then laying there until 8:00, trying to dose off, as your kids run around the house, playing/fighting, talking loudly, and coming into your bedroom every 15 minutes to ask what's for breakfast or if they can watch a movie. 2. Madelyn has started speaking in her own language. It kind of sounds spanish, but Joe assures me that it's not actually spanish. She started it when John and Joanna were visiting - we were at the war memorial, and there was a group of people near us speaking Korean. She went up to them and tried to talk to them in her language (I'm not sure they even noticed her), then the rest of the day she just kept doing it (to herself). She's still doing it (see video below). 3. I love dancing, especially in the privacy of my own home, but I just plain stink, and I know it, and that's okay. Which makes me feel like such a hypocrite, because I was dating this guy in college, and I stopped liking him after I went to a dance with him and he had absolutely no rhythm. Lame (me, not him). Ironically, my very first date with Joe was Latin dancing, and he still kept dating me. Anywho, one of my very favorite things in the world, other than watching Juli dance, is that I have conditioned all of my children to immediately start dancing as soon as a movie ends and the music comes on with the end credits. Yep, just like Pavlov's dog....only dancing is so much better than salivating, don't you think? 4. There is a Korean tradition, that dates back to ancient Chinese medicine, that says that when it's hot outside your inner body tries to cool down, putting your body out of balance (hot on outside/cool on inside). To bring balance, you should eat hot foods when it's hot outside and cold foods when it's cold otuside. Also, when food makes you sweat on a really hot day, Koreans think that is very shiwonhamnida, or refreshing. There is a day here in the summer (the hottest day in the summer), when it is popular among Korean males to eat a hot soup called boshintang. The main ingredient is dog meat. Ostensibly the Korean government banned it back in 1986, but it's still very easy to get. Added bonus - it's supposed to increase virility......riiiiiiight;) If we ever get a dog, Joe says we are going to name it Boshintag, and call it Bo for short. 5. When I'm rating books on GoodReads, I tend to go back and forth between being stingy and liberal with my stars. Then when I'm looking at them later I think, "I should have given that an extra star" or "Why did I give that so many stars". Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me? 6. Madelyn's hair is short again. Not by choice, but by bubblegum. She had been trying to grow her hair out like Cora, but thankfully she likes the new cut....maybe because I told her she looks more like Tinkerbell. I have always liked her hair short, but I was kind of diggin' it longer too, so I'm a little sad.

7. The milk we buy here is ultra-pasteurized, and it's fine, but sometimes it wigs me out that I can buy milk in March, and it doesn't expire until May - and that on top of the fact that I know it was shipped over here from the States, so who knows how long it's been since it actually came out of a cow. And saying "wigs me out" reminds me of earwigs, and they TOTALLY wig me out. As a kid I always had a fear of an earwig crawling in my ear while I was sleeping and chewing through to my brain. Even thinking about it now makes me want to sleep with earplugs, regardless of whether or not it's just a myth. Next to that, ultra-pasteurized milk is nothing. 8. I like Korea just fine, thank you very much, but my eyeballs don't....at all. They are so dang sensitive to the pollution, and sometimes they try to kill me in retaliation. Dear eyeballs, it wasn't my idea to come here, and I'm not responsible for the bad air. Plus, two against one just isn't fair. Can't we all just get a long? 9. Within a short period of time, 1)my friend Nicole's son got a popcorn kernal stuck in his ear and had to have it removed surgically; 2) my friend Mary's daughter got peas stuck in her ears (one in each) and had to have them removed surgically; 3) is this one of those things that happens in three's, because if it is, watch your kids carefully my friends! 10. Does this ever happen to you? You take a big ol' swig of water out of your glass or water bottle, and THEN you notice all the floaties in it - usually thanks to your kids. It's gross.

Whirlwind

Can I just say, I LOVE FAMILY! Can I also say, I just took about 300 pictures in the past 5 days. Joe's oldest brother John, and his wife Joanna, and their oldest daughter Hannah came to visit us for a few days. Joanna served her mission here in Korea, and then her and John lived her for a year teaching English when they were first married. Now they want their kids to be able to experience this beautiful country, and Hannah was the lucky first one. They got in on Thursday, and left on Tuesday - not much time, but we sure saw/did a lot while they were here. My calves can attest to that (I can't complain though, because they did way more walking then I did - one day they had over 22,000 steps, and if you've ever used a pedometer, then you know that's a lot).

Thursday - First was Seoul Tower. My kids hadn't been there yet either, so I think that was fun for them.

Last time when Joe and I went it was during the day, so it was fun to see that city at night from up there.

I tried to find our lock of love, but couldn't - I know it's there somewhere:)

We rode the subway there and back, which my kids always love.

Joanna was really hoping to run into a drunk on the subway, and we finally did on the weekend. Joe spotted him first when he fell over. Then he got on the same train as us, and sat near us, barely able to hold himself upright. That's when Joanna noticed that he had thrown up on his own coat. I think she was really pleased, hehehehe;)

Alex, who has always been a Daddy's boy, instantly bonded with John. It was very cute, and John spoiled him to death by carrying him everywhere.

We stopped at a street vendor and John and Joanna introduced us to oh deng, which is....well, it's hard to describe, but it's like a processed fish pancake on a stick, only it's not extremely fishy. They were actually pretty good, and my kids loved them.

Then we got some Korean-style Chinese food. Yum.

Friday - This day was spent mostly shopping at Itaewon and Namdaemun. I mostly stayed home with the kids. Joe and Cora went with them to Namdaemun. We did meet up for lunch and dinner though - Korean, of course. We ate Korean most of the time they were here, and it was fun because they actually introduced us to some things we hadn't tried before, and we shared something with them that they hadn't tried before. I can't remember which day it was, but one day we went to the neighborhood bakery. We were only going to get a snack, but it ended up being lunch because we got soooooo much food.

Saturday - Korean War Memorial. Yes, we've been there a hundred times, but it never gets old. Outside they had an area set up for a traditional Korean wedding. It was cool to see, but we missed the actual wedding darn it.

There was one area of the museum that we had never been to, and that was the area where you can learn what to do in case of an emergency. There was a display of Seoul with a nuclear bomb hanging over it that made us laugh. There were gas masks, and how to use them. But my favorite part was the dress-up area.

I'm not really sure what it had to do with emergencies. Are they anti-radioactive suits? Are they superhero suits? Or is it just about how to be fashionable in an emergency? Maybe all three.

Sunday - We visited 2 temples: one LDS, and one buddhist.

This is the Jogyesa temple in downtown Seoul. Again, fun to see at night with all the lights.

Monday - The older kids were in school, but the rest of us went to visit Gyeongbok Palace.

We have been here before too, but one thing that we had never done before also involved dressing up. There was a little area near a gift shop where you could try on Hanbok, or traditional Korean dress. Hannah and I jumped at the chance.

Literally, we jumped. You see, the lady who dressed up before us was taking the funniest pictures, one of which was jumping up into the air. We thought it was so funny, that we just had to try it ourselves.

Hmmmm, didn't quite make it. That's okay, it was fun anyway.

John, Joanna, and Hannah also took some great little video clips of the trip, which I will post below. One is of us jumping. One is of Alex dancing to the chantings of a buddhist monk. And one is of the changing of the guard at the palace. We absolutely loved having them here and hope they come back with their other kids. They have to come back, because they are now indebted to us for introducing them to "Community":)