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!!!!
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