Updates, Mikes Birthday and AirLand!

Since I am so very far behind in my posting I decided to jump ahead to what we are doing currently and then I will revisit our other adventures later. It has been difficult to sit and blog lately because of a few reasons. The first is we have all recently been sick. First Giulianna had a fever and a cough, then Rhyon got it and got his first ear infection as a result, followed by me getting sick with a really nasty sinus infection. The kids were both tested for RSV since another friend of ours had it, and we definitely didn't want to spread it to Baby Nick. As for the results on that, no one at 121 (The Army Hospital) called us to follow up. The good news is after a week of quarantine at home and lots of steam cleaning and Lysol we are all better. The second reason I have not been blogging is because I have been a crocheting maniac. Its impossible to crochet and blog! Since my last post I have finished Laurie's Broomstick Lace scarf, made an entire sweater, made a beaver from the book Rose (my sister-in law) sent me for Christmas, made a unicorn for a friends baby and started two other projects. I have also made some awesome new friends who also enjoy the craft. We get together every week and stitch, it's a lot of fun! And reason number 3 is simply that real life seems to just take over so much time. Keeping this place clean and the laundry under even a bit of control is more than a full time job! Last week I was totally Suzie Homemaker, the one day I did dishes, laundry, crocheted with friends and made cookies and pizza from scratch!

Mike also turned 29 on the 11th. We celebrated the beginning of his last year in his twenties by going out to dinner at a "German" restaurant around the corner. German is in quotations because they did a very good job trying. It was far from authentic and can be what happens when cultures try to imitate each other. It was good food though and we would go there again. After dinner we came back to the house, opened the door and SURPRISE our friends were there. I ordered a cake and invited Laurie and Ben, Christina and Christjan, and Doug over. We all sang "Happy Birthday", Mike blew out his Korean candles (they are very long and skinny), everyone had cake and the kids watched a movie while the grown ups just sat and chatted. It was a good night of great company and yummy cake! But don't worry, as Christjan pointed out it was healthy cake because it had fruit inside!!!!

The cake complete with Korean candles.

Christina and baby Nick.

Singing to Daddy/ Mike

More signing, good thing this was not a video!

Making wishes!

Our Friends.

Yes, Rhyon ate the whole thing!!!! Remember "There is no try, only do!"

The kids chowing down! Happy Birthday!!!!

Last week was also Valentines Day. Usually this is not really a big deal or worth mentioning but I have a funny story. I posted this on Facebook already but for my non-Facebook readers here it is. As any normal Tuesday, I was watching the little kids while Laurie drove the big girls to school when the doorbell rang followed by banging. I went flying down the stairs thinking it was the firemen. (Side story: The firemen have come twice now banging on our door asking me if we had a fire in our living room. They told me the silent alarm was going off at the station. I found this interesting since there is a sign in the foyer that says in case of fire we must call the station because the alarms are not directly connected, and second what good is a silent fire alarm!!! They were false alarms both times, and they are coming "someday" to fix it. Now word on that yet!) Anyway turned out to be a man delivering roses. I thought aww my husband got me something for Valentines Day (how unusual)! The card was labeled "My Princess" (thinking Mike never calls me that but ok) and so I signed the paper and was feeling excited about my delivery. Then I opened the card and it is signed "Love Ben". Now I am thinking ok, Ben had them delivered to my house for Laurie since she wouldn't be home during the time they would be delivered. So I called Mike to tell him about the flowers and to ask him to call Ben and find out what he wanted me to do with them. In the mean time Laurie called me and I couldn't help but to tell her about the surprise. When she came by to get Ellie later that afternoon she had called Ben herself to ask him about it. Come to find out Ben doesn't call Laurie "Princess" either and he told her they weren't from him! Well at that point is was like Ok they aren't for either of us but we have them so lets split them! Well it was a good thing we didn't because at about 4o'clock the delivery man came back! He took the roses with much relief that I hadn't opened them, Thanked me profusely and left. He had delivered them to the wrong place, turns out they were supposed to go next door. Later that evening I went next door and told my neighbors what had happened with their roses. They were very amused by my story and we all had a good laugh! It was a good Valentines memory for all. (Guess I should get to know my neighbors better too!)


There is one more important update I need to make. The mailing address has been simplified. I don't know who I have told and who I have not so here it is.  
PSC 303 Box 83
APO, AP 96204
If you write more than that or the old way it will still get to us but it will take a lot longer! I have also learned that I can be called instead of just me calling you. We have yet to test this but here is how it is supposed to work. Dial 011 (tells the phone its international) then 82 (which is the country code for S.Korea) then 10 (which tells its a cell phone number) and then 74270620 (which is my number). So all together its 011-82-10-7427-0620. Not sure what this will cost either, but I am putting it out there!

So on to AirLand. Mike had a four day weekend with Friday and Monday off. Long weekends are ideal for doing stuff around the country because doing anything, anywhere on Saturday is pretty much guaranteed to be a mad house here. So after slumping around and not doing much all weekend we decided to go to this AirLand exhibit in Ilsan that was being advertised all over Facebook.  We left on our adventure around 10:30 and hiked up the hill to the subway. It was a long ride, over 20 stops. Ilsan is pretty far north too, not far from the border. The location of this event was in like a convention center in a park. We got off the subway and actually walked through two parks to get there. It was a brisk day but over all not to bad for a walk in the park. The park had a large pond and a really cool rock garden in it. It was like a movie, fully equipped with little old men sitting around playing a board game that reminded me of Othello. The first thing we had to do once we found the building and bought the tickets was take our shoes off! Giulianna had hers off before we made it through the door, she was so excited. The whole thing was a big room full of bounce houses and trampolines and inflatable bumper boats. It was pretty awesome. A friend of mine was actually there with her family too. They were really brave and drove, which is something we tend not to do. You just never know if there will be parking and using the subway might require a bit more walking but its easy and cheap! 

Part of the Lake in the Park.

The Rock garden, we were trying to decide if its also a water fall in the summer.

Rhyon was out cold, but Giulianna and I were enjoying the park.

Men playing a game in the park. Mike said its an ancient Chinese game, looks like Othello to me!

A map of the park, its pretty big.

We walked under this bridge to get to the convention center and the walls were painted with these huge flowers, it was really pretty. Of course Giulianna wanted to pose with the purple ones!

A view of the big end of the lake. It was really beautiful.

Me and the kids.

Giulianna inside the huge circle sculpture.

With the poster of what you will find inside AirLand!

An overall view of the inside.

Another inside view.

She can certainly fend for her self against all the Korean kids.

Inflatable fishing holes, totally Korean too, they were filled with fish and squid!  All the kids in yellow were with a school group, they were everywhere!

Rhyon found this cool Radio Flyer car to drive around.

The kids "driving" the ride. These were all included.

Stopping to have lunch. It was yummy! Gotta love sitting on the floor, Korean style!

Back to the fun! Rhyon had a blast crawling through the tubes and being bounced all over in this bounce house.

Mike and Giulianna climbing the stairs to the slide of "doom", it was really steep and really fast. Giulianna did it 3 times and the first time all by herself! Once was enough for me, it was a good rush!!!!

On the subway ride home I sat next to this very nice old man. He was loving the kids, and kept patting them both on the head and back. This is not unusual. It is also not unusual for people to give the kids stuff, like little packages of cookies or tangerines, etc. It never ceases to amaze me what someone will have in their purse to appease our children. Well this man must have been really wanting to give our kids something. He just all of a sudden sticks a liter of milk in the crook of my arm right next to Rhyon. (Rhyon was strapped to my front in the Pognae). Of course I did the only thing I knew to do, bow my head and say Thank You with a smile. I mean milk, really? It was very odd and I didn't even see him holding it. Any way a minute later he showed me the bag it came out of and turns out it was a 2 pack and he had another quart of milk. For some reason he decided to give that one to Giulianna. So now I was holding 2 liters of milk, given to me by a man on the subway! I said to Mike, I just hope his wife isn't pissed when he comes home without the milk! I think that gesture will be one of my top favorite Korean moments. In retrospect we should have taken his picture to commemorate this event. Its things like that which make living in Korea a very interesting experience. It is certainly an everyday adventure!


I almost forgot, I have one more story for this post. Even I have to admit this was pretty funny, but I wish it had happened to someone else and not ME! The whole subway ride home I had to pee, and with Rhyon perched perfectly on my bladder in the Pognae I didn't think I would make it from the station by our house all the way down the big hill and up all the stairs to our house, especially in the cold. I figured I was talented enough to go to the bathroom without having to take Rhyon off, so I went. I figured using the Handicapped stall was a goo idea because of the bars on the wall to help me get up again when I was done. The going part was just fine and even a bit enjoyable because the seat was heated. Koreans love fancy toilet seats. These things do everything except complex math problems. Anyway, I finished my business and went to flush the potty. There were lots of buttons on the side, but nothing that  was clearly a flusher. So I looked on the back and on the wall, no lever. So what do you do now? Start pushing buttons on the side. Big Mistake!!!! I found the butt washer button and didn't know it. Slowly this little lever comes down from inside the toilet, and I am thinking this is cool its gonna spray the inside and flush it. Oh No that is not at all what happened. The lever started spraying water, and not a little water either. We are talking full shower like spray. It was so powerful it soaked me, hit the door and made standing water on the floor. I was in the stall screaming and trying to dodge the water while trying to get closer to the toilet to figure out how to shut it off! It was a very good thing Rhyon had his hood on, because we looked like we had been in a down pour. I managed to get it off, but I never did figure out how to flush the toilet. I walked out of the stall, looking and feeling like a total idiot, walked over and washed my hands. There were 3 Korean women standing there brushing their hair and I can only imagine what they were thinking.  Thankfully the cleaning lady walked in as I walked out. When Mike saw me all I could do was laugh. As he so kindly pointed out, Not only did I get to go pee but Rhyon and I both got a shower too, now that is efficiency! Guess I better learn to read a little Hangul just so I can flush the toilet!!!!

Coex Mall and Aquarium

I am pretty sure by now you are all aware that Korea is in many ways different than America. One of these examples is the way in which stuff tends to be organized. For example in America we might have several tourist destinations near each other, especially in a city, but we don't tend to locate them all in one building or mall. In Korea everything is connected and you are usually able to do several different things in one place if the mood hits you. That is how the Coex Mall is. This mall is enormous, and that word doesn't do it justice. First of all it literally has its own subway stop, it lets you off right in the mall. The mall contains not only lots of stores but, a book store that would put any Barnes and Noble to shame, a 3-D movie theater, a museum about Kimchi, a blood donation center, several doctors offices and dentists, a surgery clinic, a Duty Free and an Aquarium. We are not talking a few fish either, it was huge and took us a few hours to get through.

Our plan for the day was to go to the Aquarium. Many of my friends have been there and highly recommended it. I really do find it strange though that the Aquarium is in the mall. I mean in America that would just never happen, either you go to the mall or the aquarium, not one to get to the other. Anyway, when we got to Coex Mall we walked up to this beautiful shimmering plaza. It was all decorated for the Holidays with these stings of silver discs that reflected the sun light. It was so beautiful, even the Koreans were stopping to take pictures.

Welcome to Coex Mall.

The pretty things reflected light everywhere!

Once we entered the building we needed to locate the Aquarium which required finding a map. The maps were touch screen and interactive. You could change the language and scroll or search for your destination. We also used the signs to find our way. On our hike across this place we discovered lots of cool places to distract our attention. The best though was this awesome uber epic Hello Kitty Store!!!! Mike was not a fan of all the pink to say the least, but Giulianna and I had a blast. It turns out she is almost as cute and in demand as Hello Kitty. As soon as we went in the store she was mobbed by Korean ladies pawing at her and petting her, and telling her she was a princess. Anyways, Mike was right about the pink, it was almost like swimming in a bottle of Pepto Bismol, although you cant really tell by the pictures. But if there is something you want and you want Hello Kitty on it and its not in that store it doesn't exist. I mean I bought a really cool spatula/spoon with Hello Kitty on it and yes it is pink! They have clocks, car accessories, clothes, toys, kitchen utensils, toilet seat covers, pens, blankets, umbrellas, and the list goes on.

After our stop in the Hello Kitty emporium we finally found our way to the Aquarium.

The entry and ticket area are on one level and then you go up a big escalator to get to see the actual exhibits.

The entrance.

The first room of fish.

The puffer fish came to check Rhyon out. (According to the sign he was a Balloon Fish, gotta love translation!)

A lot of the tanks were open top. This was interesting, especially for Salt Water fish, you would never see that in the US because no one would respect that and all the fish would be dead!

After the first room Rhyon was so excited we decided to let him out of the stroller. This was a bit of a mistake on our part because he was so over excited that he couldn't contain himself and was running every where! I swear at one point I heard him say fish, but to this day I have been unable to get him to repeat it. There were a lot of really nice exhibits. I will share a few pics and try not to bore everyone with a million pictures of fish. It is always more fun to look at them yourself than look through 100 pictures someone took. The one exhibit that I am sure you will all find extremely comical will be pointed out below....

A very descriptive sign, again I love translation!

The kids looking at the fish.

Not sure why there was a chipmunk in the Korean, Korean Fish section but there was!

Rhyon loves watching fish.

Another cool open air exhibit. Rhyon had a blast going over the bridge 1000 times too.

Yeah that's a fish in the potty!

 I promised an exhibit worth looking at! The whole section was fish in things like sinks, refrigerators, beds, phone booths and even a computer. It was silly but very well done.

Close up!

Fish computer.

 There is a place here called the Dr. Fish Cafe and it is a cafe you go to to let the fish nibble your feet while you enjoy your beverage and they essentially give you a pedicure. We haven't been there yet but we will. Keep an eye out for that future post! Well the aquarium let you get a mini mani but testing your hand in the fish tank. Rhyon wasn't so convinced but the rest of us enjoyed it. The fish really loved me, I had a ton of them. The secret is not to move, which was lost on the kids.

Thats Giulianna in the lower left trying to get some fish!

My hand getting a nibble.

Trying to get Rhyon to do it, but he wouldn't keep his hand in.

The next big section was the Amazon. The whole area was pretty cool to look at. They had the biggest electric eels I have ever seen!

The Amazon (I just noticed you can see out into the mall from here!)

Really big Electric Eels!

Scuba Steve er Giulianna!!!

Yep putting your hands in would be a bad idea, after all it was an open air shark tank!

This was a very cool exhibit!

These were very weird looking manatees, they had strange eyes...

I wish the sign had some English on it so I could at least know some more info. Guess I better do some research and learn about "Asian" manatees.

Sign on the touch tank, HAHAHA Don't throw them! I just love the translation!!!

Cool tunnel thing. We saw a stingray swim over head!

It was clean the penguin exhibit day, so we didn't really get to see them and this was the last exhibit.

Giulianna wanted to see what kind of penguin she was as tall as.

The last few pictures are of the mall. Pretty much as described above.

An interactive touch screen map.

Surgical clinic anyone? Its right down the hall from the Outback Steakhouse and the TGIFridays!

Blood clinic very convenient!

Try out Wii Dance 2, Koreans rule at this game. They were so fun to watch, sorry no video.

Giulianna reading dinosaur train in Hangul! (Well reading about as well as she does in English.)

Close up of the page.

We have been up to so much I haven't had the time to blog as often as I should. There is still more to come. I have a lot of catching up to do....