I started writing this post in June and never got back to it and now its August!!! How did this happen?! I haven't posted in almost three months! What happened to May, June and July? Well everything is the answer. I have so much to post about now it is not even funny!
I have stuff to catch up on that we did back in January that we just did again in May with my parents. Yep, my parents were here! They love me so much they traveled across the world to see me! Well, not just me but the kids, and Mike and Korea. We had a great visit and stayed very busy. Dad was here for about 10 days while Mom got to stay for about 5 weeks. We also took a vacation to Jeju island, the southern most island in Korea, while Mom was here, but more on that later. On top of them being here, I have been crocheting like a mad woman trying to get all my squares done for our "Happy Hookers of Korea" Granny swap. I have completed some other projects as well. I have also been spending extra time with some of the very special people we have met here. Quite a few of them have left over the last few months or will be leaving very soon. We have also celebrated four birthdays including the Army's, Father's day and our Anniversary! So all of that left me with no time to sit and blog. I am going to try and catch up a bit now....
Some of the squares from our swap project! Thats right thats not even all of them. Since this picture was taken there have been probably twice that swapped overall.
Our squares laid out on swap day, again not all of them!
The kids eating their pizza Korean style on the floor. This was our last get together with the Rauhala family before they left. We miss them terribly!!!
Within the same week my friend Darla and her son Matthew left as well. We miss both of you too!
My sweet friend Dasha also left in early July. These are the flowers she gave me for my birthday. I miss her too!!!
At the beginning of July my friend Kathy and her family also left. However they are only gone for the summer and will be back! But we still miss them and having play dates!
And finally, last week we said see ya later to another great friend, Bridgette. This is the afghan some of the "Happy Hookers" made for her as a parting gift. We will miss you too!
One thing of noted importance is we (the kids and I) have officially been here for a year! That seems like such a weird thing to think about. I was very used to saying "we have been here almost a year", when the guy next to me getting a pedicure asked me the how long have you been here question. I went to respond and realized it had been exactly one year that day! Thinking about that really makes me miss everyone back home, but it is nice to think that we are way over the hump and only have a few months left! As for finding out where we will be going next, Mike thought we would find out in July. However it turns out we are on cycle 2 of the branch assignments so it looks like we may not know until Octoberish. Our date for leaving here is still January and that will not change.
The day we arrived at the Incheon International Airport. Rhyon not even able to walk by himself yet! Those darn kids grow so fast!
Rhyon turned two last week! I can hardly believe it. He is talking more an knows the whole alphabet now. He has been much better since his surgery at the end of May. For anyone who didn't know, he had some minor surgery in May at one of the Korean hospitals. That was an interesting experience to say the least. By that I mean they took really good care of him but some of the things they do in the hospitals here are much different then our American ways. For instance, in the states the patient would be in a room either by themselves or with one other person separated by a curtain. Here Rhyon was on one bed in a room with 5 other patients and no separation curtains. My Mom called it ward style. Being the only Americans in the room was also a fun addition to that situation as my very blonde haired blue eyed kid was the main attraction to several family members of another patient. Another difference was that the surgery was supposed to start at 8 and it did! In fact at about 7:45 the poor Doctor must have been running late and came in winded to talk to us and explain stuff before hand, and then ran off to get ready right away! They also put Rhyon to sleep in my arms, which would never happen in the states. Mom said something about there being an unprotected airway and that being a really bad thing to do. However, I think Rhyon and I both preferred it that way. The other really nice thing they did was there was a screen in the waiting area that showed each patients name and time for the surgery start and end. This was a really nice feature, knowing exactly how your kid was doing. Within a couple of days Rhyon was much better and with a greatly improved attitude. I am also hoping to work on potty training soon but my biggest challenge right now is even getting Rhyon to sit on the potty at all. Wish me luck!
Rhyon doing some art at Ms. Lauries'.
Rhyon before his surgery.
Ward style room at hospital.
Another view of Rhyon's room.
Ellie giving Rhyon his present.
Everyone playing with the racetrack I made Rhyon for his Birthday.
When in Korea, get a Pororo cake from Paris Baguette!
Balloon says Happy Birthday in Hangul. Sorry its upside down, it was taped on the ceiling.
Every cake comes with streamer poppers! Yay!!!
Me and the birthday boy.
He is so sweet to share his cake with Mommy!
Opening presents, he really likes his "Cars" book.
As for Giulianna, she has been busy just being a kid and making me crazy. She turned 4 at the end of May. We didn't really do much for her Birthday, but she did get to bring cupcakes to school and wear her Birthday Crown around all day. We had a little confusion with her school registration for the fall, but thats fixed now. Its been really hot and humid here so its hard to be outside sometimes which means pent up energy and much more TV watching then I would like for her. Yesterday we were on post hanging out with some friends there and on the way home Giulianna wanted to stop and paint pottery at the Arts and Crafts building so we did. Last week to expunge some energy we walked to McDonalds for lunch. We take places like that and their drive-thrus for granted in the states. Going to McD's here is a very rare treat and a major effort! We would be spending more time in the pool, but the one here on Hannam has been closed for repairs for the second time this season, which means having to take the bus to post in order to use a pool. Not impossible, but a pain! Thankfully one of Giulianna's best friends lives two doors down so she gets to play with Avery a couple times a week. She finally got called to model for the first time a few weeks ago and I will post pictures from that in the future. She is signed up for another gig next week too, so thats exciting!
Giulianna with the Ariel I made her for her birthday!
Thats Giu in the middle with the pink crown.
Happy Birthday!
Giulianna at a modeling gig. (More in future post)
Lovin on her brother.
Mike has been pretty much doing the daily thing, going to work, coming home, sleeping and repeat! The biggest change for me has been joining Thirty-One gifts. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, its a company that sells some really awesome bags and organizing totes etc. I have my own website, www.mythirtyone.com/RachelSchuster/. I have been trying to get some parties booked to get my business up and running but, no success with that yet. On Saturdays I get to have some no kids time while Mike stays home with them and I go do whatever, which has been really nice. For our 6th Wedding Anniversary Mike and I went and saw Wicked at Blue Square Theatre. It was awesome as usual, and this time included Mikes commentary on the flaws in the storyline. I pointed out to him that its hard to take a very awesome novel and turn it into a two act play with out changing a few things. We are now both planning to read the book, seeing as I only read half of it the first time.
Mike and I.
Picture of the stage for Wicked. Notice the telepromter screens. They narrated the whole thing in Hangul since the actors spoke English. I think it would really suck to have to read subtitles during live theatre.
They had all these cases with props and costumes from the show. It was awesome to see this stuff up close. You miss so much detail as an audience member.
Someone clearly didn't want his picture taken....
Close up of Elphaba's dress. It was so beautiful!
The famous shoes!
Me with the dress of Glinda.
Dragon just like the one on the stage. It was very cool. And Mike is smiling, he actually enjoyed the show!
My dinner.
An example of our awesome friends, not only did they babysit so we could go out, but Laurie and Ben also made us special Anniversary cookies! Yum Yum!!!
Sorry about the long time between posts. I hope this one fills in some of the missing blanks for you as to what we have been doing. Its amazing sometimes how fast time flies with just the silly day to day stuff. I will try to crochet less and blog a little more and get caught up on all the stuff I have to share! There is lots and lots more to come.....
Two weeks ago Christina took me on a little adventure to the Dr. Fish Cafe'. I touched briefly on what Dr Fish is in my Coex Aquarium post. Dr.Fish is basically this particular kind of fish that eat the dead skin cells off for you. The Dr Fish Cafe experience is a big thing here, that many people do. I have been wanting to go for quite a while but didn't know where exactly to find it. It's only called Dr Fish by us foreigners, the name of the place is actually the Rest Tree Cafe'.
I have had mini experiences on my fingers while at both the Coex Aquarium and the 63 City building Aquarium. I can now say having a bunch of fish nibble your fingers for a few minutes is nothing when you have a swarm of them nibbling your feet for a full half hour, but we will get to that...
So with Christina as my tour guide we headed to the subway and to Banpo. Now I really found Banpo to be a very nice area. They had some really nice upper end stores on their main street as well as a Krispy Kreme! We decided to find the cafe' first and check the hours and then head off to find a place to eat. Turns out like most places in Korea they were open late, til 23:00 or 11pm. And compared to many other things in the city that's actually pretty early! So then we went into the streets behind the buildings lining the main road and found almost an entirely different world. Restaurants everywhere, gobs of people, bars, cafe's, candy stores, street vendors and of course Korean style Karaoke. ( Korean style karaoke is basically where you and your pals get a private little room where you sing and drink to your hearts content! They are all over the city, and something I have yet to experience. That should provide some interesting material for a post someday!)
Not sure at all what the "man in the box" is all about, but its another of the many things in Korea that makes a great picture!
Inside the restaurant.
Christina, she is so lovely!
I love Korean Pepsi! Yes it is different, smaller serving size and made with real sugar!
My very pretty dinner, it was a shrimp statue and this thing was kinda like fried uncooked spaghetti.
We decided to eat at a place with a huge Lucky Cat on the outside. I think it was a Japanese restaurant. Dining in Korea is awesome. Each table in the place was equipped with its own call bell, so you just buzz when you need something. This is so nice because you never have the annoying waitress come when you have a mouth full of food or when you are in the middle of a conversation. It also means they come when you need them without having to flag them down. The other bonus is no tipping here. The food of this place was great, the atmosphere was very interesting with a definite Asian flare the downside was it allowed smoking. That was OK until some girls sat at the table next to us and I had smoke being blown right in my face as I was eating.
A view of the street from behind the cafe'. At the very top of the picture are some windows, that is a karaoke place.
Another zoomed out view. At the bottom of the picture is a flatbed truck where the guy was only selling candy!
After dinner we went over to Dr. Fish. It is a Cafe' just like any other except there is a small platform by the window with two tanks of fish recessed into it. The deal is you go to the counter and order your beverage and for 2,000 won extra you get 30mins with the fish. Christina and I got our coffee and waffle and consumed that while enjoying some non child related or interrupted conversation. Then we decided we were ready for the fish! We told the assistant we were ready and he brought us over to the platform where we removed our shoes. Then we stuck our feet into a center tub where he washed them off. At last we were ready, and so were the fish! They were big suckers! Like 3 to 5 inches. The ones at the aquariums looked like sardines, so that was a shocker! Then they were all at the surface with their big sucker faces just waiting for our flesh!!!
My Caramel waffle, they are so good!!!!
Our very fancy coffee.
The inside of the cafe'. The fish are over under the large window to the left.
All the fish waiting...
My initial reaction!
Whoa!!! What a weird feeling that initial feet in the water was. I can not begin to tell you what maybe 100 or more fish attacking your feet at one moment feels like. All I know is that for the most part, in a very strange way, I liked it!!! Christina had done this before and was hesitating putting her feet in, then finally she did. She was ok with it until she started thinking that they were fish chewing on her feet! It was really funny and fun and weird. The worst was when they would get the very front of my toes, that made me jump.
Christina's reaction
Trying very hard not to think about the fact they are fish!
Sitting in the fish bath was really nice since it gave a great view of the street below us. Seoul is so beautiful at night with all the lights and billboards. There are always people somewhere. It's always a party full of bright lights, food and something to buy! At exactly 30 minutes the guy came back and told us our time was up. He washed our feet again in the center tub and we were on our way.
The view of the street from the cafe' window. Nice billboard, yes?!
Looking down at my feet.
Dr. Fish Zone!
Gotta love the English Translation on the directions!
We had some nightlife exploring to do! While walking around earlier deciding where to eat we saw a sign for creating your own stickers. We decided this was a cool thing to do so why not. Well we got in the place and there were like 8 or 10 of these booths where you walk in and make funny faces and they print on stickers. Let me tell you they were all full and there were people waiting in line for almost all of them. So we decided on one that looked extra Korean Quirky! The entire thing was obviously in Hangul so we weren't certain on what we were doing but we went with the flow and had a great time. It might sound cheesy but making funny faces to crazy backgrounds like a rabid bear is quite entertaining. When you are all done the machine spits out two little photo albums and your pictures. Then you follow directions written in Hangul and assisted with a few pictures to fold all your pictures into a tiny album. Mine is currently attached to my wallet where I get to laugh at us every day.
Sticker booth.
Another one...just for example.
Christina with our complete book and extra photos!
Me and my book. Sorry you don't get to see the actual photos!!!!
After that great bit of fun we went to Krispy Kreme and bought a few doughnuts. That was interesting because the girl at the counter couldn't speak any English and we don't speak any Hangul. Usually the point method works pretty well but she wasn't getting it. I managed to buy half a dozen even though I only wanted 4 and Christina got 1 because she finally just gave up trying to communicate with the girl. We also grabbed a little street food snack of a doughnut like puff filled with a nutty bean paste. Those things are so good when warm, no matter how full you are there is always room for some of them! After that we headed home. I bought some crazy socks in the subway, pirates and hippies. Korea is famous for its crazy socks, and they even make them here, so its extra cool. I will have to buy a ton and ship them to everyone for Christmas! It was a really great night. Christina was so proud she got to show me something for a change, I usually end up being the tour guide...LOL!
One more picture of something very random and Korean, The Kinki Robot... Hmmmm!!
