Home Again!

Yea! I get to go to California! I didn't think this day would come so soon - only four months after arriving here. (Has it only been four months? Sheesh.) My plan was to travel back home in mid-July so I could escape the awful heat and humidity of summer I keep being warned about, but, with Marc's encouragement, we decided I'd go home earlier so I could make it to my little-not-so-little cousin's wedding. Yea! And we'll get to see my grandparents and a bunch of other relatives at the same time. I'm so excited! I sort of gave up on the wedding because it means a flight to CA and then another flight all the way to Indiana one week later, aka. a TON of jet-lag with two kids, which isn't fun to deal with. Anyway, Marc was tired of me complaining about not going, so he encouraged me to buck up and made the trip happen! Thanks, Colt ;)

It will be nice to get out of here for awhile, but, believe it or not, it's a little bittersweet with the timing and all. Going home now means Toby will miss the last month of school, which he LOVES. That makes me sad. We'll miss out on Spring Fest -one of those fun festivals where the whole community comes out for food, mingling, bouncy houses, the works. I love that kind of thing. I'll be gone for the few weeks out of the year when the weather is actually really nice - not freezing, gale force winds, or hot and sticky. This would probably be the time of year to finally get acquainted with our neighbors who will likely be out washing their cars and BBQing. And there's a few things I'll miss like Monday/Thursday play group, my own house, and seeing whatever our garden produces. Oh, and Zumba! I'm really going to miss my twice-weekly classes. I also feel bad that Marc can't come right away and he'll miss out on some of the fun things we'll be doing in San Diego, mainly eating.

BUT I am willing to accept those minor grievances...BECAUSE...I get to see my family, relatives and a gazillion friends, breathe the fresh salty sea air, eat real Mexican food, go to the beach, not be in Korea, possibly sleep in occasionally, watch movies, know where the heck I'm going, read signs, communicate effectively, shop at Ikea and Trader Joe's, not stick out in crowds, not worry about insects the size of small mammals eating my flesh, enjoy watching the boys have a ton of fun with my parents and vice versa, eat at my favorite restaurants and just feel good about being somewhere that I GET. I understand San Diego - a comfort easily taken for granted. It's a weird feeling living somewhere and really having no clue what's going on or understanding the who/what/why and how of the people and culture here.

What I am most certainly NOT looking forward to is the fourteen-ish hour flight including a layover by myself with two boys. Actually, its really just Jonah. I could fly around the world 3 times with Toby, no prob. Jonah has a hard time driving 20 minutes to the mall. The flight leaves at 5:00P so my HOPE is that within a few hours he'll be ready for bed and sleep a good long time, unlike the trip over here in which he slept a total of one hour. I was so miserably delirious flying over here that I could have fallen asleep hanging backwards and upside down out of the overhead bin and that flight was with Marc! I can't let that happen again. Just let me get some ding-dang-dong sleep, kid! I'm definitely not a proponent of medicating children for convenience but this time I will do what I have to do so that I can be alert enough to take care of said children! And then there's the jet lag to deal with once we get there. Oyyyoyoy. It seems like as soon as I get Jonah on a good schedule, he gets sick or we go somewhere new and he gets all messed up. And we're going to be moving around a lot on this trip visiting friends and family and sleeping in different beds. And how are naps going to work with all the visiting?? Somehow I need to maintain as much of a routine as possible for these poor kids whose mother is dragging them all over the place.

But I think the trip is going to be a blast. Tobin and Jonah will get to see their cousins, a bunch of my friend's kids, visit the fire station, play on the beach, go on adventure walks, the Wild Animal Park, and get spoiled by their grandparents. And besides the wedding in Indiana, we're also going up to LA and Santa Barbara and when Marc comes out later we're heading to Oregon and Washington to see more family and friends up there. We haven't been back to the Northwest since we moved away in 2010. I have a feeling that I'll feel very nostalgic and just wish we could stay. At this moment I like our life here, but the danger of taking a trip like this is that it could lead to sadness about returning to Korea and leaving all the familiarity and comfort of our former cities. I anticipate not being thrilled about returning to this mysterious land. But I also know that once we are back in our house, in our beds and back in our routine, that everything will hopefully return to the way it feels now.

Unfortunately, we will be returning just in time for monsoon rain and off-the-charts humidity. It has been confirmed by several reliable sources (Army folk who have lived all over) that the humidity anywhere in America has nothing on Korea. It's going to be a HIDEOUS spectacle of 8-inch pit stains, glued-on underwear, and balls of sweat dangling, but never falling, from glistening chins. Not me, of course, but pretty much everyone else. Coming from the west coast where the weather is just about perfect all year-round, its not humid and there are really no insects besides the occasional fly and lady bug, makes it that much harder to adapt to more extreme weather conditions. Knowing this, plus saying goodbye to friends and family is going to make the return trip that much more distressing. This is what I do. I'm worried about the end, but we haven't even started yet. Soooo, I am just going to look forward to all the fun and love and laughing I know is in store...assuming I survive the plane trip with Jonah.

Arrivederci! 안녕히 가세요! Farewell!

Children's Grand Park

This past weekend we went up to Seoul again, but this time we took the train. Cheap, clean, easy and it only takes an hour! Here's what we did...

Early morning in Seoul. Walking through narrow village streets in the middle of the city. Heading to...

Children's Grand Park! The name says it all!

These lovely ladies and tons of other volunteers were passing out name tags for the kiddies.

Writing Toby's name and my phone number.

And each kid wears one in case they get lost because its so crowded. Hello?? BRILLIANT!

Skipping along. La dee da.

And balloons!

Mushroom Village is the restrooms.

Some cool building and what looks like cheerleaders.

All the families come out with their tents and padded mats. They were EVERYWHERE.

Fountain show with the Three Tenors playing. Ooooh!

No sandwiches or hot dogs here. Ramen is the fast food of choice.

Bags of hard-boiled eggs. Just sitting out.

Marc can't get enough of this stuff.

Fortunately, there is no shortage. Boxes and boxes of RAMEN.

I chose kimbap. Sushi rolls without the sushi. After a lot of walking around and seeing hundreds of families having picnics, what I saw was fruit, ramen, hard-boiled eggs and this stuff. Everyone was eating the same exact thing!

Wading pool/stream and everyone hangs their wet clothes out to dry. It looks like laundry day down at the river.

Crooowded.

Entering the freaky recycled-parts sculpture garden.

Scary

Heh?

Nightmare-inducing

Why not get some exercising in?

No

This was the best part according to Toby.

Snack break

Spring is so pretty here!

Ok, there's a normal toilet in here and this little Jonah-size one. I do have enormous feet, but this thing is tiny! My foot is all the way up against it. And, no, I'm not sitting on the bathroom floor! I'm kneeling next to Toby while he does his bizniz.

The playgrounds! This is one of maybe 8 different playgrounds for kids.

Bouncy house zone.

A bridge across a marsh land.

Sorry, son. You will not be getting into a hamster ball of death as long as I'm still living, which will be forever.

No

Entering Ferocious Animals Village, including elephants. There is a zoo in the park and then there's the Seoul Zoo which is yet another place.

So that was a glimpse of Children's Grand Park. Did I mention there's no admission fee? You only pay for whatever rides you go on, which was none as long as I'm still living. 
I feel like I'm always over-using over-used words like enormous, huge, amazing, and awesome when I talk about Korean places. Well, I can't stop now. This place is just incredible...and enormous and amazing. It goes on and on with one fun thing after another. And it turns out that it happened to be Children's Day in Korea. So that's why it was even more crowded than the usual crowdedness. Nice day to pick to go to a Children's Park! It surely was Grand.

Now its time for dinner so we hit up the inner allies of Insadong.

This is the real deal, folks.

We sit around metal barrels.

Gimme rice.

Hot coals in the center of the barrel.

Friendly neighbors.

Back to the Metro.

Find the yellow hat. We're googling over the most adorable chubby-cheeked baby girl.

Heading home! Dirty and worn out, but happy.

Itaewan, Insadong, and Samchung

This past weekend we did a mini stay-cay in Seoul. We went up Saturday morning and checked into the Army Lodge at the Yongsan base. Don't get me started on how much nicer this place is than the Lodge we stayed at for almost 3 weeks down here. Just outside the gates is a cute little area called Itaewan. It's an eclectic mix of all kinds of restaurants, including Meditteranean, which I haven't seen since DC. By us it seems like the options are Korean, pizza or Korean. There were lots of little shops covering the hilly area. A Korean guy stopped us and explained that he wants to propose to his girlfriend and could I write something in English on the little white board he was holding. Uhh, sure! So I wrote "I love you. Will you marry me?" He was thrilled! Anything I can do to help ;)

My favorite Korean car - a micro mini-van.

Itaewon

Later on Saturday we met our new friend, Yoonsuh, a native of South Korea, who happened to live in DC for the past six years. We met up with her in Insadong, a trendy, very crowded area for walking and shopping.

Its totally normally for scooters to weave through crowds of people.

She took us to a so-called Templestay. In this case, it was a building across the street from a Buddhist Temple. We walked into a very modern informational/museum area and went up stairs to the restaurant. The monks grow and prepare organic vegetables and the public is invited to eat it for a small fee. What a neat idea! It was simple and delicious.

Kimchi, veggie pancakes, some-kind-of-greens soup, rice, and the wormy things are sesame plants.

On Sunday, we rode the metro (which is super clean and wonderful, except for the lack of elevators with a stroller) to Gyeongbok Palace. The grounds seem to go on forever with large buildings scattered around, each for a different purpose. Supposedly one of the large structures was just for the King's bathroom-doings. The designs on the buildings looked very similar, if not exactly like the designs on the Gakwonsa Temple buildings from my last post. 

The guards don't move and stare straight ahead even with all the tourists taking pictures next to them. And they're all wearing fake beards.

The King's throne!

Part of the palace gardens.

What's this? Just a gaggle of Chinese tourists adoring Toby.

Eermehgeerd! He's blond! Quick get your camera!

Taking turns posing.

wow

Jonah having a pre-nap meltdown. As you can see I'm over it and walking away.

We continued walking through the gardens and finally got both boys to sleep in the stroller. Right outside the back end of the palace walls is an area called Samchung. Its my favorite area so far! I couldn't believe how cute, hip, funky and artsy it is. Every shop and building is adorable. Thank goodness the boys were sleeping so we could stroll along and enjoy the area.

These dogs are the size of baby elephants.

Is he adorable or what? Koreans like to take portraits of their 1-year old boys to show off their, ahem, boyness.

Super-cool Samchung

Lunch with pumpkin porridge, salad and the usual sides.

Stopping for a post-nap treat

Freedom!

Just before we were told to get off the grass. What is grass for if not for sitting, enjoying and running upon??? We took our time getting up.

It was such a nice weekend, mainly thanks to Yoonsuh, but also because everything we saw is such a contrast from where we live. It was a much needed dose of urban culture! Thank you, Yoonsuh! Thanks, Seoul!