A World of Adventure: The final stretch until... Mike's Return!!!

The last week was very much improved to the previous week especially. My biggest hurdle and accomplishment for the week was dealing with the car. As you know it wouldn't unlock either with the key pad or manually. The reason the keypad didn't work was because the battery died! And the manual locks didn't work, come to find out because they were missing parts. So on Tuesday I called Bill, the man who sold us the car and he said they would call me in the morning the next day to come out and open it to see where the problem was. I spent most of Wednesday morning waiting for them to come. That's when we found out about the battery, which they jumped. I drove it around our housing complex and let it run for a bit. But when I went out to run errands later that afternoon, it had enough juice to unlock but not start. Long story short Bill didn't get to come back and jump it again til Thursday. I let it run for over an hour this time, which worked and I was able to do my errands. The story doesn't end there. We had arranged that on Friday they would come get the car to fix the manual locks on the doors. Bill said the mechanic gets in at 10am, I will call you then. Well by 11:45 I still hadn't heard anything so I called him. Basically I spent the rest of the day waiting around for them to come get the car, evaluate how long it would take to fix it and then wait for Bill to call me and pick me up so I could go get it. All this was essential so I could pick Mike up the next day. It was frustrating and exhausting waiting around like that. But it has been taken care of and all is well with our car!

The week also provided a couple opportunities where I was able to meet two of my neighbors. The funny thing is that one gave me a futon and the other a stroller! These two ladies are very nice and I look forward to establishing friendships with them both.

Rhyon is really walking now. We had some time to spend on the playground this week which has rubber floors. He really likes walking on this because its softer to fall on than the floors in the house. He was walking all over the place. He now walks all over the house too. Rhyon will be running very soon!

Mike got back to Yongsan early Saturday morning, but was not due to be released until 3pm. However even that didn't happen and we ended up killing time for almost 2 hours before he was allowed to leave and go home. But boy were we all happy when we finally got home. Its amazing how much the environment changes when he is here. Thankfully the Army gave them Monday off as well so we still had a pretty normal weekend.

Sunday we decided to just go for a walk. So we ventured out the back gate and up to Itaewon, which is the main street for shopping and food in this area. We went shopping here before when we first arrived. This time was nicer because of a few things, we had a stroller, it wasn't as super hot, and we didn't have to hike up a steep hill to get home! We were able to buy more and discover shops and places we didn't see before. If you want a souvenir from Korea that's the place to go. And never accept the price of the first thing you see. Someone down the street will have a better deal, and when they do snatch it up! The one story I have of this particular trip is quite comical. We had been in this one building before which is kinda a mix of a flea market/ mall. This time we went in looking for a potty for Giulianna which the sign said was on the 2nd floor. We didn't even know there was a second floor the first time. We discovered there was not only a second but a third! We went all the way up. When we got to the top there were some ladies selling clothes. Mostly mens dress shirts, jackets and ties. There was another lady selling knock off designer clothes too. Well as I was being haggled into buy a "designer" sweater, and dealing with Giulianna who was hysterical over a popped balloon, Mike was fighting his own loosing battle. Mike said there were 4 women at one time, two ogling at Rhyon and asking about his heritage, while 2 more were talking Mike into buying 2 dress shirts. They told him the original price of the shirts was 52,000 won each, they talked him down to buying them at 20,000 won each by the time I walked over. He kept trying to tell they he doesn't wear dress shirts, which is generally true. Well so as I walk over he hands them 50,000 won to pay for the shirts expecting 10,000 won in change. He never got any change, because that's when they started telling me what a beautiful lady I was and how I needed a Channel scarf. Then they tried getting me to buy some really ugly shirt, I humored them by trying it on but I held my ground that I didn't like it. I walked away and was again being haggled by the first lady. Finally we are ready to leave and I asked Mike if he got his change. At which he said no, they talked him into a tie too!!!! It was hilarious! Mike totally got haggled!!!! Just to give a ballpark reference to the above story, 50,000 won is almost $50 US, depending on the days exchange rate.

As for pictures this week, I didn't really take many. But here is what I have anyway. Stay tuned for next week, we are thinking about heading to Seoul Land which is an amusement park, and we have a birthday party Sunday for one of the kids new friends! The biggest part of the adventure will be possibly riding the subway to Seoul Land......

Both kids are now walking!!!

This was a coffee table for sale in a furniture shop, all the shiny is abalone shell. It was a work of art. Cost about 4,000,000 won aka $4 thousand dollars! It was just beautiful!!!!