A World of Adventure

Earlier this week I got a call from Sue the modeling agent. I first got involved with her in July when we first arrived. She had come to see the kids and try clothes on them once before but we had plans for the weekend she needed us. Then we moved and I got a new phone number and its been tag ever since. Mike actually ran into her in the parking lot here on Hannam last week when he was carrying Rhyon and she mentioned to him that she would be calling us. So finally she did. She needed Rhyon on Thursday which was my day to drive the girls to school, but I rearranged my schedule with Laurie so that I could take Rhyon to his photo shoot.

I must say, wow what a great experience! Sue picked us up along with two other kids and their moms at 8:45am. After about a 20 minute drive we arrived at the photo studio, which looked pretty much like you would expect. There was a backdrop setup with a faux hardwood floor, a whole bunch of big lights and other equipment. We were given donuts and coffee and gimbap (rice and vegetables rolled in seaweed) for a snack. They took Rhyon pretty much right away and changed his clothes, and then took him off to hair and makeup. He was tolerating this pretty well until he saw me. Then they sat him on my lap and tried to finish what they were doing, which was a bit of a battle. He was then all set to go and get his picture taken! He did really great. Sue blew bubbles for him and made silly noises to make him smile. I was hiding slightly out of sight behind the lighting equipment because as soon as he saw me it was over and he would come try to find me. There were two little girls there as well. They took pictures of Rhyon with each girl and of each kid alone. The one girl did 2 outfits, the other did only 1, and Rhyon did 3. They did shots of him with and without hats with each outfit as well. I would say they must have taken 1,000 pictures of him easy. I really wish I could get copies of those proofs!!! Rhyon finished the shoot, he was the last one on the set and doing great until he saw me and walked off the set and that was it. When we were all done he was very tired as were the other kids. Sue called us a taxi, which she also paid for and sent us home. The poor little guy fell asleep in my arms on the way home. Rhyon got paid 150,000 won, plus 10,000 won for lunch and a 10,000 won bonus! It was a great morning, and I can't wait to see my little guy in print!!! (I will do my best to get as many copies as possible.) I will definitely be doing this again. Hopefully Giulianna will get a turn too! Oh and just to clarify this is Rhyon's money and is going into his savings account. Its a really cool way to invest in his future don't you think?!

Here are a few pictures I took with my I phone. Sorry about the quality, my camera battery was dead and I didn't know it.

The Studio

Rhyon saw me...

Looking around, taking it all in.

Trying to get 2 kids to pose is much harder than 1.

Sue blowing bubbles to get the kids attention.

The outfits were really cute, except that the pants were short enough to show the socks. I thought that was kinda weird.

Appeasing Rhyon with cookies!

The pictures go directly to these 2 screens. They can zoom in on each one and look at the result. They were awesome. The photographer did a great job! Like I said, I wish I could get proofs!!!

Playing with a balloon. Sue had tons of tricks. She was really great with the kids.

Sorry this is so light, the flash went off as I took it.

They were so cute!

This was the best picture I got!

Really zoomed in picture of Rhyon. They loved him!!!

Working with the other little girl.

Fuss Fuss Fuss!!!

And she was done...

But Rhyon kept on modeling for them!

That was the big event for this week. Saturday I spent at another baby shower for Laurie and then a Pampered Chef Party. Sunday was our usual church day and we went to the Navy club for breakfast. Nothing to exciting really. Next weekend is a long weekend so hopefully we will go do some fun stuff. As always I am looking forward to more adventures!

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.....