A World of Adventure

The weekend was crazy! Saturday morning was pretty calm. But this weekend was the International Cultural Festival on Itaewon. So part of the street was shut down for the festivities. One of the festivities was a parade. That started at 3 on Saturday. Then we had Trick or Treating starting at 6 here on Hannam. So after nap time we walked up to Itaewon for the parade. We met our friend Doug there. The parade was pretty cool. There were lots of different people dressed in traditional outfits. There were Tae Kwon Do performances. The 8th Army Band was also in it. After the parade we walked back home and had some homemade pizza.

8th Army Band

Dragons!!!

A really big Dragon! This was really cool!

Doug became a seat for Giulianna so she could see. Problem was by putting her up there the Koreans could see her better so she became a photo target once again!

This also applied to Rhyon, even though he had a terrible snotty nose and looked gross! The Koreans just love him too!!!

Korean Band

Tae Kwon Do demonstration.

Not sure what the significance of them being dressed this way is, but everyone needs one of these hats, don't ya think?

All these people are representatives of other counties, it was an international festival after all!

This man has a very important role in Korean Folk culture, although I am not entirely sure what!

A traditional Korean Hat!

The back of the guy from the folk lore and a whole bunch of drummers!

These little kids were so cute! There is a video of them below! Very Talented little kids!!!

Korean School Kids. I think they performed a dance too.

Really pretty ladies in their traditional Hanboks. (Koreans love to make the peace sign in pictures for some reason...)

Wish I knew what that banner said....

Giulianna and I with some guys dressed as traditional warriors.

More little kid dancers.

CONFETTI!!!!

Korean Clowns!!! Can you say "NIGHTMARES"?

So the two people pulling the cart represent "Old Korean Generations" and all the people marching represent "New Korean Generations". This was supposed to represent the old and new working together for the future. (This was translated by my friend who just happened to be standing near us, Thanks Anna)

Family Picture of us with some traditionally dressed ladies.

So we see this dog on our way back home and of course have to stop and pet him. He was being pet by a few other people at the time and totally ignoring them. He didn't even notice me when I started petting him, but as soon as Giulianna walked over he turned and sniffed her. She is so amazing with animals, we really miss having ours with us!

This man walked out of his spot in the parade line and just came over and picked up Giulianna so I could take their picture! LOL

Doug, Mike and the kids.

Heinekin anyone? It's spooktacular!

Picture from the center of the street looking down on Itaewon.

The bridge/underpass going back to Hannam.

Mike hanging out waiting for us....

We were petting the biggest dog in Korea! He was so cute and HUGE! (Especially considering most Koreans own pocket pooches.)

After dinner, Laurie and I left the men in charge of the kids and went to set up and hand out candy! That was really fun. The best part of the whole thing were the Korean kids. They were all wearing little name tags with numbers on them that also said something about speaking very little English. They only word they could say was "candy". And the same kids kept coming through the line over and over. Eventually we started running out of candy and all Laurie had left was these Korean cookies Christina gave her. Well even the Korean kids didn't want them, but after three times through the line, that's what they got! There were other festivities as well. I somehow got myself entered into a costume contest while waiting for cotton candy. I was wearing my Renaissance dress. I had many complements on it throughout the night. Anyway, I was just standing there watching and the DJ came up to me and asked me to describe what I was wearing. I was entered, but didn't get enough cheers to win. Oh well, there really wasn't a prize, but I did get my cotton candy! The kids all had a great time. Their favorite thing was eating candy and cupcakes and just running around with their friends. Happy Halloween!!!

Trick or Treat!

Super Hero Family!

Laurie giving candy to the kids

There was a pretty big crowd.

All the Korean Kids were dressed in various colors of this costume.

Ben and his girls.

Love that face! Ellie looked so cute!

Peacock Boy!!! (and his bag of treats)

Another fun family, Sesame Street Rocks!!!!

Me giving the kids candy

This is one of my religious ed. students and I

The kids running a muck

Wrestling!

Princess Avery

Gracie the Little Monkey

Squish time!

Giulianna loves her friend Avery

There was a whole club of dragons, I found this very odd since it was last years costume from Old Navy. What are the odds of having all these kids living overseas wearing the same costume?

My favorite picture of Mr. Peacock!

Family Picture

Friends! The Schusters', Hirschs' and Rauhalas'

Sunday was a lot more low key. We had "Church School", as Giulianna calls it, in the morning. Followed by Church. We had two very tired children, so much so that Giulianna asked to take a nap! But I convinced Mike that we should walk down Itaewon anyway and see what else the festival had to offer. The answer was GNATS!!! They were everywhere! Yuck! Other than that though they had some food from different countries. Apparently the food which represents America is ... pizza. There was some Persian and Indian kabobs, Italy was Italian Sausage, and lots of Korean food. Giulianna had ice cream and I had a kabab. Nothing too exciting. There was a guy making balloon animals, which I thought were free. So I told Giulianna to go and get one, so she did. We were walking away after saying "Thank You" and the guy kept waving at us, when finally he told us that it would be 3000 won. That's almost $3 for a balloon animal!!! What is the world coming too? Well we paid it, just to avoid a scene from a very over tired slightly cranky little girl. There was however something actually cool that was free. According to the festival brochure you could make a family motto. So basically you read through a huge pamphlet with sayings in it and picked one you liked. The pamphlets were in various language translations as well. Then a skilled Korean wrote it for you in calligraphy on a piece of rice paper in traditional Hangul. This was really cool and I was very careful not to wrinkle ours as I will be framing it. The lady who did ours has won multiple prestigious awards for her work and is a member of the Maegok Institute of Korean Calligraphy and Arts. She even rewrote ours twice because she messed up the very last letter the first time. The festival also had various stage performers, which we watched a couple of. It was a very good but busy weekend. Now we need some time this week to recover.....

Giulianna wearing a Hanbok. This was actually a few weeks ago on Itaewon. It looks really cute on her, but we didn't buy it.

Getting ready to write our motto.

Our choice was number 55. It says "Wisdom in Head, Love in Heart, Smile on Face and Work on Hand."

This man was writing someone else' motto.

The last step is adding her stamp. Its like their signature. Mike said this practice dates back to ancient times.

Last time I posted I was awaiting our last shipment of stuff. Indeed it came. That was not really a big deal. They came, dropped off a bunch of boxes in about half an hour and then left. The unpacking challenge was all mine, which was actually preferable. I had pretty much everything unpacked by the time Mike got home from work. I still have some miscellaneous stuff around that needs to be reorganized and found a new home but over all we are finally moved in!

Thursday was a very busy day. The girls had a special day at school on Thursday. They had a little parade for the parents which included them singing a song. All the kids dressed up in different "Helping Career" outfits. Giulianna was a nurse and Avery was an astronaut. Avery's class also did an extra little song and dance for their parents. They were so cute! They did an awesome job!! Check out the video!!! After I picked them up, I asked them what they wanted for lunch since I forgot to bring them one. Avery wanted a hamburger, and what better place for a hamburger than... McDonalds! This would be no big deal if we were stateside but the McDonalds here isn't a super place to go to. The only one I know of is on Itaewon, there is no drive thru and definitely no parking. The easiest way to get there is to drive across post and park up by the gas station and walk there. SO we did. The girls loved their lunch (so did I)! Ordering is quite fun too since the people at the counter only speak some English. To order the kids Happy Meals they had a picture card so they could point to what they want. After lunch and some rest time in the car the girls had their last dance class (at least for a while). They did really good in class that day. The decision to take them out of dance really is for the best though. At least they ended on a good note! The other note worthy thing that happened that day was that Ben's Mom arrived from the states. This is most important because it means Laurie is getting close to having that baby, and everyone loves a baby!!!!!

Here comes the parade!

The kid right in front of Giulianna is her friend Vladamir, and that's Kiera behind her.

Giulianna was supposed to be a nurse. I guess the dress up clothes haven't been updated in 20 plus years!


Getting ready to sing!

Avery the astronaut right in the middle, singing her song.


Singing and dancing.

Giulianna's class

Avery's Class

The little nurse!

Avery the astronaut

Yummy! McDonalds!!!

Very happy with her special treat.

Yay We got toys!

This sign is at the entrance of Itaewon, and I never get a picture, so here is one of the girls cuz I was prepared that time!

Last dance class. (They actually paid attention!)

Taking her turn dancing with Ms. Michelle

Everybody stretch!

Here are the videos of the above mentioned songs...

Friday we had a Halloween play date party at Christina's house. It was really fun. The kids played a game, made a macaroni skeleton and we all ate lots of food!!! After the party I laid Rhyon down for a nap. Instead of taking advantage of his rest time he decided to turn on the light and fan in the room several times, play with his musical alligator and then scream to get out of his crib. He had no nap which is a huge surprise since he is the 3 hour nap kid. I just hope the no nap thing isn't a new trend, I very much prefer my break in the afternoon!!!