Back to the Future, Part 1

4 Days before departure: Not so interesting. It was the day the movers came to pack up our Unaccompanied Baggage which should arrive in SoKo in a few weeks (hopefully). I thought that having movers doing all the work meant we could just sit back and relax but the days preceding were a frenzy of separating piles of luggage from the unaccompanied baggage and the rest of the household goods that will come in several weeks. We were so disorganized and confused remembering what was what. And it didn't help that Jonah would take things from one pile and put it somewhere else. We also made one last run to Trader Joe's to stock up on non-perishables. Of course, that required a photo.

3 Days before departure: The next set of movers came to pack up our household goods, like couch, tables, beds, which should arrive in 8-10 weeks. I got my haircut. Then we moved into a hotel.

2 Days before departure: This morning we drove to the Dulles Airport to pick up a rental car, then drove that and our car to Baltimore and dropped our car off at a port. There was a lot of driving that day.

Bye, Car. See you in March.

1 Day before departure: We took the boys to a brand new museum at National Harbor. We were super excited but it was rather underwhelming. Although it was nice and new, it was only one level and a lot of the stuff was trying to be a little too "educational" instead of "what kids are really interested in". But we did have fun with a lot of other stuff...

Then we drove to a different hotel closer to the airport.

After that we met our friends at the Air & Space museum which was *AWESOME*. Ugh, there are so many fabulous museums in DC!

Discovery

Tobin and Levi= BFF

 After an exhausting day, we were eager to hit the sack before...another exhausting day.

Day of departure: Our flight left at the very reasonable hour of 11:50, so we had plenty of time to get ready that morning. Since breakfast at the hotel was so ridiculously expensive, we ended up at a Bob Evan's for what we're going to call our "Last American Hurrah". We returned the rental car and checked in at the airport.

On the shuttle. Weee! No seat belts!

Nice man pushing our luggage

 

Here goes nuthin'!

Korean Air is known for being a really nice airline and they definitely lived up to their reputation. The flight attendants were so adorable in their lady-like matching uniforms and tight slicked-back buns. I wanted to get a picture of Toby with them but he was too shy. They were SO refined, sweet, kind and professional the whole time. None of that hokey-Southwest Airlines-gal-next-door-goofiness. They also lived up to what I've heard about Koreans loving children. They cooed, squeezed and doted over the boys dozens of times as well the other kids on the plane. They passed out these little bags for all the kids, who they call "babies" no matter how old they are.

Oh, the novelty of it all!

Lunch is a bibimbap rice bowl, some kind crunchy pickled root vegetable, & seaweed soup with a cute little tube of red chili paste.

Things were going swimmingly for the first-third of the 14 hour trip. Toby was happily engrossed in one of the many movies available at each seat. I even got Jonah to take his nap on time. This quiet bliss lasted one hour, max. 

I patted myself on the back for this.

The other two-thirds of the trip consisted of Jonah jumping up and down in his seat, trying to climb over his seat to flirt with (and annoy) the people behind us, pulling my hair, plugging in and unplugging my headphones over and over while I'm trying to watch a movie, shrieking, snacking, visiting with Daddy then back to me then back to Daddy, flirting with flight attendants and not sleeping even though it was way past his usual bedtime and well into the middle of the night.

Jonah, the Anti-Sleepite

Plugging and unplugging

A neighbor's doll which Jonah confiscated and immediately de-pantsed

Here's the back to the future part - We flew west, back in time, over the North Pole and then -WOOSH!- crossed the International Dateline into tomorrowland. I thought that was pretty cool. By now its around 1:00am east coast time and I'm exhausted but Jonah is ready to run a marathon. I would sleep if I could but this boy is all over me. After hours of vain attempts at getting him to sleep he FINALLY konks out an hour and a half before landing. I get to sleep a few minutes here and there in between Jonah shrieking, squirming and trying to change position on me. It was not enjoyable.
At 4:00pm Korea time we landed and met our "sponsor" who drove us a very bumpy two hours from the Incheon airport to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. Even though we were in a big van, we had so much luggage that at one point I almost hyperventilated from claustrophobia. The seats were completely vertical with no where to lay my deliriously tired head. I couldn't even look out the window because my eyeballs were crusted shut.

Can't think straight, can't speak a coherent sentence, can't move

We're there

By now, running on the faded shadow of a hint of a whisper of day-old, weak, putrid fumes, we finally arrive at the hotel on the base. The room is way smaller than I thought it would be. Oh joy. There's one bed in a room and the other bed is a couch in the living area. At least there's a kitchenette and a little table. It was only 7:30pm in Korea but we were stumbling around, both kids crying, trying to find pajamas and tooth brushes and setting up the portacrib. At long last we were all horizontal and sawing logs. Until...DING! It's 1:00 in the morning and boys are wide awake and ready to play. GUHHHHH. What else could we do but start unpacking all of our stuff!

At 3am I announced second bedtime, which worked, fortunately, and we slept until 6am. This concludes Part 1. More to follow of our first real day in SoKo...

Bye, Neighbs

Like most of my posts so far, this one has nothing to do with Korea, but earlier I said I needed to dedicate at least one post to my neighbors/neighborhood. Saturday night we had a gathering at our apartment to say goodbye to as many of our neighbor friends that could come. Once everyone had arrived, I realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Not because it was so crowded, not because of all the kids running crazy, not because of the toys, food, and, yes, paint, all over the place but precisely for all of those reasons. I am going to miss this SO much and it made me pretty sad. The sadness didn't stay long though because I was having such a great time. I love a full house, I love the kids running around and its the only time that I could care less about how messy it gets. We have the BEST neighbors and as long as everyone is gathered and having fun, I can deal with the stains and disarray later. I have met more down-to-earth, cool, generous, wonderful people in 4 blocks than I have met in the last 8 years combined. That's not to say I don't love my other friends around the country and world, but I never expected to meet such a high concentration of terrific people in one year and in such a small area.

Less than half of the neighbors I invited were able to come :(

I can only imagine how fun/crazy it would have been if everyone came!

What's left of Toby's room (its not her fault)

It all started at the park. Oh that park! The park in my neighborhood is hidden in a corner and for the most part, the only people who go there also live here, so you end up seeing the same people all the time. I took Toby there every single day at least once, if not twice, so it didn't take long before we met lots of kids and parents. There must be something about the transitory nature of the D.C. area, and the fact that no one is actually from here, because everyone is so nice and eager to make friends. I went to the same park everyday in Pasadena and hardly anyone ever spoke to each other! But here, our visits to the park turned into hours, entire afternoons, parties, picnics, birthdays and wonderful friendships for Tobin and our family.

Easter Egg Hunt at the park

Just a few folks out for a summer picnic

Stalking Tobin's birthday cake

Chasing Tobin with a water balloon at another park picnic

In the "glory days" from spring through fall, we would get out to the park around 9:30 and then again around 4:00. Toby would always get there before me because he was on his bike. While I was still half a block away I could hear the heart-warming calls of parents and his (several) 2- and 3-year old friends and admirers who were excited to see him. I have to say, Toby was kind of the big man on campus at this park. Quite the popular one with girls and boys. "Toby!" "Tobeeeeeeee!" "TOBAYYY!" they would squeal. One little doll called him "Tony" for the longest time. Jonah and I would eventually get there and wave at all the other moms, dads and nannies. It was like the Cheers Bar. Everyone knew our name and as long as someone else was there we were guaranteed a good time and a long stay. At one point Toby's circle of friends grew to about 12 to 15 kids. At any given time, five or six of them would run in a pack and play HARD - loosely monitored and totally unstructured. There was only one way out and it was on the opposite end so they were free to climb the dirt hill and make "campfires" and "pizzas" and run around on the large grass area. Do you how freeing it is to know that your child is playing in a huge, but enclosed, area with friends while you've been chatting with other adults and then suddenly realize that 10 minutes have gone by and you haven't even noticed your child? I knew he was fine so I was able to let my guard down and just let him and myself have fun! We looked out for each other's kids. My circle of friends also grew and 4:00-6:00 at the park turned into Social Hour. It was fantastic! All we were missing were belly bar tables and a DJ. 

Brothers and sisters

Jonah hangin' with his best pal 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are too many names to name, but I think you know who you are. I appreciate you for your friendship, easiness, comedy, generosity and help raising my boys in our little village. I really love you all and I'll miss not being at the get-togethers in 2013. You're making it really hard to leave! XOXO

Some of my lovely ladies. I wish we had a picture with everyone!

12 Days

Happy New Year, everyone! 2013 is here which means we leave in TWELVE days to start our new life in SoKo. Twelve days, y'all. My brain is still rejecting the whole thing. I can't process the impending changes! It doesn't help that I'm coming down from a fun, week-long Christmas visit with my parents. Its so great seeing them with the boys, playing, hugging and laughing. I feel sorry for all of them that we can't get together on a more regular basis. I wish I could get more excited about this move for Marc's sake, for the boys' and for my own sake. I am very content with our life here and now we have to change it all up! I kind of feel like I did as a kid when my mom made me practice piano. Practicing piano is a good, worthwhile, life-enhancing endeavor...but I just wanted to play outside with my friends. I already feel lonely!

I know the majority of the way I feel is my own attitude problem. What I should do is focus on the positive things and appreciate this opportunity for what it is and where it will take us, but doing that goes against my true nature, which, as everyone knows, is a hard thing to fight against. I'm not a sparkly, bright-eyed, positive thinker. My "way" is to have low expectations and then hope to be proven wrong. Nice, huh? It usually works out, but I've also learned enough from life that it's not always going to, so its best not to assume everything is going to be peachy. Low expectations means less chance for disappointment, right? I can't imagine loving it there or making any really great friends or feeling at home there. With so many unknowns its hard to imagine anything at all, which is quite unsettling. But every single person I've talked to who has been to Korea or knows someone who lived there has only wonderful things to say about it. It's clean, the people are wonderful, the food is cheap and amazing, we won't want to leave, it's beautiful, etc, etc. But until I know that for myself and experience it, I will feel apprehensive about the whole thing. It's been that way for everyone else but how do I know it will be that way for me? All I can really do right now is wonder, hope, TRY to think positively and try to settle these butterflies in my stomach. I hope I don't have to try too hard to make myself like it if I really don't. Guhhhh...I'm such a downer! Boo, me.


For now I'll try to focus on the fun Christmas (except for the flu part) we had with my parents. 

Giggling with Nonny

A totally Spider-Man Christmas for Toby

He's so proud of himself

Happy for Christmas dinner!

Sad the rest of us are in bed or the bathroom with the Xmas Flu of 2012

Marc has three more days of work here and then the packing/moving debacle begins. Thankfully, we don't have to do any heavy-lifting this time. We just have to pack our luggage and separate the items we want to have sent to us in a few weeks from the 
household items/car that will be shipped on a boat in several weeks. We'll stay in a hotel for a few nights, soak up a few more hours in the homeland, then get ready for a loooooong flight with the boys. After my last solo five-hour flight with the boys I made a mental note never to travel with Jonah again. That's not working out so well, but at least this time Marc will be with me and he'll have his own seat! That boy!

You don't want to be on a plane with this kid. Trust me.