First Trip to Seoul

Yesterday was my first trip into Seoul. Marc has already been there twice for work and even Toby went there once with Marc for a basketball game. I've really been looking forward to making the trip  and getting out of podunk Pyeongtaek. If not for the traffic it would have taken just about an hour to get there. Not too bad to get to Korea's biggest city! It was great to be there because it felt more familiar to me - like a Western/European city with a really huge Little Korea neighborhood. It was modern with a mix of old-timeyness. We only saw a very small section of the city (Dongdaemun) on this trip because it was too cold to do much walking outside. I'm sure we'll go back dozens of times to see the rest of it. For now, I'll let the picture captions do the rest of the talking.

Seoul Toll

Entering the city

Han River

One of hundreds of street food vendors.

One of hundreds of English-named stores that doesn't quite work ;)

Rice porridge

All the sides automatically come with lunch (sauteed spinach, kimchi, tiny dried fish, bean sprouts, mushrooms)

Our lunch place. The metal things are chimneys that pull down to suck up smoke from the BBQ grills at each table.

Not sure what this is, but some historic site preserved in the city.

Holograms!

Toys, toys, toys.

They like their food-shaped pillows.

The toy part of the Dongdaemun Market.

An old man warm in his workshop with the TV blaring.

Even the stuffed dogs wear muzzles. Honestly?!

Street vendors have lunches delivered to them on these reusable trays. Ladies carry them on their heads!

When we couldn't take the cold any longer we went to a huge mall and found this cool Swedish coffee shop. I'm not going to say that I pretended for 20 minutes that we were actually IN Sweden. Nope, I would never even think that.

Hot chocolate for the man-child.

Very cute and very expensive kid clothes.

Ok, seriously? I had to. This floor of the mall is for young Venture Designers to sell their clothes, which were all really cool and expensive. But they named it Dooche. No one told them this probably isn't the best name??

Kid accessories galore.

Trying on an adorable hat.

Like every mall, another fun play area for kids, with or without parents. They had a blast!

Leaving Seoul

Guy selling bread in the middle of the freeway.

A rest stop on the way home.

No trashy rest stops here! Its all cafeteria style.

The chefs

Spicy ramen noodle soup

Using a metal cup from the sterilized cabinet for water

This couple really thought the boys were cute.

Somebody likes the attention!

Hopefully the weather will warm up soon so we can see more of Seoul!

Korean Preschool

Anyone who has read this blog from the beginning knows I was heart-broken to withdraw Tobin from his adorable preschool in Alexandria, Virginia after attending for only 3 months. One of my biggest concerns about moving here was finding a nice preschool for him where he could meet other kids his age and do fun things to supplement whatever he does at home with me. He's a social butterfly and really needs and craves friendship. I didn't know what to expect in Korea so I tried to do some research while we were still in the US. The trouble is, when you type "preschool Pyeongtaek" in Google it doesn't come up with anything really helpful in English and the rest is in Korean. I joined a few Facebook pages for Pyeongtaek and Camp Humphreys and started asking questions. This being a small community, there aren't many options. From what I can tell, the options are the Child Development Center (CDC) on post, Korean elementary schools that have a Pre-K class, or Kids Land, a Korean/English preschool in town. A lot of people love the CDC but others say its basically daycare until they start Kindergarten. I like the fact that he would be with English-speaking peers, but I also feel like he'd be missing out on a great opportunity to learn some Korean at the prime time in his life to pick up another language.
I also wanted to check out the Korean Pre-K option at the local elementary school so I showed up last Monday to find unlocked doors but dark, empty hallways. I didn't see anyone but figured we could take the opportunity to walk through quickly and check it out. It was really cold but looked like a normal (for Korea) school with classrooms on either side of the hallway. I heard voices and found an office. Even though school was apparently not in session that day, there were a few ladies in the office, none of whom spoke any English. They called a young man to come down and help interpret but his English was really limited - far better than my Korean which is ZERO -but still limited. I know another American woman whose son goes there and she likes it, but I didn't like the fact that I can't get any information about the place. It's straight up KOREAN. My sweet boy has just been through a move to a foreign country, losing his friends and school, adjusting to a new home and a different town, so I don't know if I also want to throw him into a place where he won't understand anything, at least for several weeks/months. This option would definitely be the fastest way for him to learn Korean, and heaven knows I could use an interpreter, but I think it would be hard on him. He'd probably be ok and adjust, but I'm more concerned with him being happy and having fun than making him learn the language. 
So, the third option is Kids Land. Lame name, but its a Korean school that a lot of American kids attend because its just down the street from the Army base. Several parents had only good things to say about it on the Facebook pages. It's where Korean kids go to learn English, but as far as I know only two of the teachers there can speak it fluently, so I'm not sure how well that works out. 

I know. It looks weird. Kind of like half carnival-fun-house/half asylum.

This is it.

I made an appointment for a tour last week and met with an English speaking teacher. It turns out he was actually born and raised in Arizona with Korean parents and decided to move to Korea with his family and help run this school. He would be one of Toby's teachers, speaking fluent English and Korean. His 4-year old son goes there, too. It's really nice that I can talk to him about it with no language barrier. We chatted in his office, then he gave us this tour...

Entrance from the shoe room

First floor

Some of his future classmates having their morning yogurt.

Up to the second floor

Cute little portraits in their typical very-decorated way

Second floor

One of the classrooms

They celebrate each month's birthdays once a month on the third floor with a party for everyone.

I think its cute how they set it up so neatly. Notice the sushi rolls for preschoolers! As if!

This is the kitchen where they make healthy Korean food for lunch each day. One of the things on the menu that day was seaweed soup because it was the birthday party day. Seaweed soup is given to kids because its so healthy. Good thing Toby likes weeds from the sea!

I liked the school and the fact that we can pay month to month in case it doesn't work out and Marc was up for it, so we filled out the papers. I think we'll have him start with 3 days a week to see how he likes it. We were told to bring slippers, crayons, 3 boxes of tissue, 3 packs of baby wipes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a bathroom cup. The school gave us a back pack, a lunch tray and a uniform for field trips and special event days. 

He'll bring the lunch tray home for me to wash each day

My little schoolboy

He LOVES dressing up

Of course Jonah had to try it on in his own way.

We showed up on Tuesday for his first day. We toured around again to let him see the whole place. We met a little American boy in his class. He clung to me like a baby koala! He was not having any of it. Hmm. I don't want him to have a bad school experience so I wasn't go to make him stay. Even the yogurt, his favorite food, wasn't enough to convince him. He said he would want to come back tomorrow. So we went home.
That night we got several inches of snow. There is a slight incline to get out of the neighborhood, but I figured Linda, being an SUV, would have no problem. But as soon as I hit the incline her wheels were spinning. I've driven in snow maybe once so I was a little freaked out. An American neighbor saw me and gave me a few suggestions, but none of them worked. Finally, he got in the car and tried himself and couldn't get any traction. This wasn't looking good and then I thought about how I would get back home with another incline on the way back. It wasn't worth getting stuck or sliding around so we backed up and parked in front of the house. When I told Toby we weren't going to school he sobbed for about 10 minutes. This was unexpected considering his death-grip on my leg the day before. Anyway, he had a snow-day before he even started school.
Thankfully, we didn't get anymore snow last night, but it is TWELVE degrees outside with wind, so we set off for his real first day today and he seemed very excited.

Shoes come off, slippers go on before entering the school.

Snoopy slippers from Lotte Mart

He walked right in, took his coat off, kissed me goodbye and sat down with his cup of yogurt. Happy as can be! And his teacher was so sweet and welcoming to him.

Here he is not even noticing me.

I felt really happy that he was happy and comfortable so I took off to run errands with Jonah. Our first load of household goods showed up. Yippee! So I started unloading that which will probably take three days, but I'm so glad its here. A few hours later we went back to get Toby and found him smiling and happy and wearing a crown.

A successful first day!

I asked him what he did today and he said he listened to his teacher.
Me: Was she speaking English or Korean?
T: Korean.
Me: Did you understand her?
T: No. 
Well, at least he was listening. I have no doubt he'll learn a lot of Korean from his teacher and classmates which is pretty exciting. Hopefully he'll make some new friends, too!

Verbal Diakorrhea

This post doesn't have a particular theme. Its just a smorgasbord of things I've taken in, processed and am now going to hurl at anyone who comes near this blog. We've been in SoKo a little over three weeks and in that time I've absorbed a lot of information. It's stimuli overload around here with everything so different and new. I'm sure there will be tons more stuff to discover during the next, oh...152ish weeks we'll be here.

One of the very first things I noticed is how tall Koreans are. I assumed that Marc and I would be like two behemoths arching over a tiny population, but they are actually quite tall. The younger generation anyway. We've seen a handful of people several inches taller than us. Our flight attendants on the way over were all at least as tall as me. This makes me happy. I'm glad I won't be head and shoulders over everyone else like I assumed I would be.

Bean Pole clothing - for Koreans too!

Getting here and seeing the Army base for the first time was quite a blow. I thought I had sufficiently low expectations of what it would be like but I quickly realized they weren't nearly low enough. The buildings are old, really ugly and all basically identical except for size, with no distinctive markings to show what's inside. For those of us (me) who are extremely directionally impaired, trying to navigate around the base is very frustrating, but getting better. Marc has a GPS built into his brain, so he has no trouble with it! The town around the base was also pretty disappointing due to the amount of trash lying around and weird, random shops. It doesn't help that we arrived in winter because it just makes this unattractive place even more bleak and depressing. And here I thought that Korea was super clean! Is it going to be prettier in spring or is the trash just going to be strewn against a green landscape instead of a brown one? To get to our house, for example, turn left at the mountains of cardboard and scrap metal. 

The entrance to our neighborhood. Home sweet home!

Pyeongtaek isn't quite what I expected it to be either. There really isn't a "cute" area. The economy here revolves around the military and rice farming, so most locals are somewhere between low and middle income. It's quite a contrast in lifestyles. We have a beautiful, modern home and are surrounded by mostly low-income farmers living in tiny homes that look like they've been pieced together. They're not PO' poor, but I have a feeling our house would feel like a mansion compared to what they're used to. For what it's worth, what Pyeongtaek regretfully lacks in cleanliness and charm, it more than makes up for with outwardly friendly, kind people. Marc and I are continually amazed at how nice folks are.

The second weekend after our arrival we drove 25 minutes to the Osan Air Force Base. We heard it was nice. Wha-whaaat?? It was SO nice. Lovely buildings, nice sidewalks, a WAY better Commissary and Exchange and it has a Chilis restaurant (which I'll get to later). I was mad. I feel like our transition would have been much easier if the Army base was like this. How is this place so nice and the Army base is a crappy bunkerville? Well, friends, the answer is the whole reason we're here. The Korean government has just granted the Army millions of dollars to give the base a total face-lift. There's going to be all new housing, an entertainment complex, new roads, a "main street", a new Exchange, and a brand new hospital and dental clinic (which is what Marc is working on). So it's going to be really nice!!...just in time for us to leave. Awesome! We're pretty much here to make it great for the next group of people. So, you're welcome, families of the future. We're happy to endure the ugliness of today for your more lovely tomorrow :P
About the Chilis restaurant...in the US we pass over chains like this because we really prefer going to hole-in-the-wall ethnic places. But here, since everything is hole-in-the-wall ethnic it feels so nice going to Chilis! It's the funniest feeling being in there because we might as well be anywhere in America. Anyway, its comforting.

Dinner at Chilis

The local Farmer's Market goes on every day of the month that ends in either a 3 or an 8. I went for the first time this past weekend and it was fascinating. We might have stayed longer but it was so cold I couldn't feel my fingers. We saw stalls of vegetables, all oversized, as in pears the size of grapefruits and carrots the width of rolling pins. There were stalls of fish, various kimchi, nuts, meats and sweets. I knew the sweet stuff would be "safe" so I filled a bag to sample the different kinds. Rather than chocolate/candy-type treats, they were more like crunchy, sugary ice cream cone pieces. There was one thing that looked like a small bun. I thought there was chocolate oozing out but it was actually filled with mashed beans, as in red kidney beans. Very interesting, surprisingly good and healthier than chocolate.

Not sure what this is

Fish

Different types of kimchi

Stacks of seaweed

Ginormous apples

Teeny tiny fish

More fish

A hotdog wrapped in seaweed and then deep fried

Thank goo-niz there's a really good radio station. It's meant for the Military/American population here and honestly, every song is good. They play a great mix of 80s, 90s and today's popular songs and I listen to it every time I'm driving. It's a life saver. I had to sit in the driveway today to finish up Roxette's Dangerous. I haven't heard that in ages!

For whatever reason my go-to comfort food lately is Cream of Wheat with butter, honey and a splash of milk. I can't get enough. I make it for the boys to warm their tummies before we go out. And I've been drinking a lot of coffee. I love coffee but its even better when it's freezing and I need something cozy to sip on. Oh, and I just opened a large jar of Nutella, so that's not gonna do me any good.

The ASPCA would have a field-day around here, but this ain't Amurika, folks. Every medium-large breed dog I've seen is chained up or in a cage even over night when it snows. There are at least three dogs in this situation right behind our house. The whole "man's best friend" thing apparently hasn't caught on. And we've seen a few cattle farms with cows covered in mud and crowded together in an open barn. I don't get how such kind and friendly people who adore children could be so careless with animals. I don't want to be judgmental and I really hope I see some examples that will prove otherwise, but until then I will be baffled and sad hearing the poor dogs behind us barking and howling. Must. Accept. Cultural. Differences. Grrrrr.

Since before arriving in Korea I've been wondering how to call '911' if I ever need to. It turns out you dial 1-1-9 and supposedly/hopefully there are dispatchers who speak English. Our address is so long and I'm sure I wouldn't pronounce the words correctly or even know how to describe my location if we're not home. Our realtor said if we have an emergency to call her first so that she can call 119 and quickly be able to tell them what's wrong and where we are. So that makes me feel better. Whew!

I have to hand it to us. In less than three weeks we've figured a whole lot of stuff out. Way more in less time than anywhere we've lived. Marc likes to explore so we've driven around a lot of local places, and, thanks to his GPS-brain, he somehow knows exactly where he's going, even just a few days after we got here. Unbelievably, there is no "catalog" of activities to do at the base and Google is useless for the town because its all in Korean, so everything (information, times, locations) requires talking with real people, soooo I have researched, eaves-dropped, stalked and chatted it up every opportunity I get out of sheer desperation to be around other people and find stuff to do. It would be very easy to close up and get depressed here, but I can pretty much fill up a week with fun stuff for the boys, and hopefully a few fun things for me, too. And I'm really proud of myself for figuring out how to drive around on this huge base and in the town, get to Lotte Mart, the trampoline place, and the hospital considering I'm so directionally impaired and have never driven in a foreign country. Good job, me. Me's alright. Me tired now.

These outdoor "gyms" are all over the place.

Tobin of the Rice