Monday, March 30, 2009

Another trip to Suwon, Girls' Night Out

On Tuesday, I take David up to the hospital in Suwon so this weekend, we did a dry run up there. Actually, to back things up a bit, I needed a Korean driver's license to legally drive. After a cancelled appointment a couple of weeks ago (since we didn't have a car) and numerous failed tries to set up an appointment to take the test, I aced my driving test last Friday. So, one milestone down. We took the equivalent of the interstate (Big One) this time and it was much faster than driving through the towns on the highway (Little One). We found the hospital after a few turns here and there and the International Health clinic where I need to check in. Ajou University Hospital is a very nice facility so I'm not too concerned about his check up.
Next, we stopped by the giant mall at the Suwon train station. There was a high end department store there and other shops. We ate at the food court just above the station. We have great pictures of David playing peek-a-boo with Daddy. There weren't really any "good deals" to be found there. A pair of jeans at the GAP cost 129,000 W which is about $99. I think I'm done with store shopping and I'm ready to just check out the different sights. I didn't get too many arguments from A.
Saturday night was Girls' night out. I proposed this to our playgroup and all the Moms were ready to go out. We dined at the Chaakra, an Indian restaurant and enjoyed each other's company and very good food. We never get a chance to really talk when we bring the kids to play together since our conversations always get interupted. Hope lives in our apartment complex and she has the twins who are a little older than David. Marta has a 2 1/2 yearold boy and husband is a DoDDs teacher. Karly has an 18 month old daughter and is studying to be a nurse. Her husband is a contracter. We all had a good time and very grateful to our husbands who watched the babies.

Sleep Blogging

I'm having a fit of insomnia now. I woke up at 2:32 AM and the clock on the computer tells me it is 3:34 AM. Don't ask me why I'm blogging. Maybe I feel guilty that I haven't made a post in a week. I'm not sure why since I really should be tired.

Perhaps, it is because our things will finally arrive tomorrow afternoon. We haven't seen them since late January. It will be interesting to see how our furniture will fit in here. Still, I know I will be happy to have more than 4 forks and knives, 1 pot, 1 pan, and no mixing bowl to cook with. But somehow, I survived the last 5 weeks.

My inability to sleep could also be due to the fact that a girl I asked to babysit David while he's asleep wants $10/hour. I was quite indignant when I read her email this afternoon. First of all, she's taken a little while to respond - what if I wanted her for this weekend? I explained to her that he would be asleep by the time she came over and he would be asleep the entire time we were gone. $10/hour? Seriously? I would be paying her to read a book. I wonder if she's taken child/infant CPR classes or a first aid class. I guess we've been spoiled by the babysitting rates in G'boro. I actually do have a HS senior that I will try to call tmw that I know charges $5/hour. We'll see. It'll be nice to go out with A one evening.

I was also surprised by the fact that it will be Palm Sunday next weekend and Easter is right around the corner. The expected commercial cues of Easter baskets and candy haven't been there either since the Koreans don't typically celebrate Easter and I haven't been to the BX or commissary on base very much lately. Even at church there's been no mention of Easter. There have been a few days when I've felt like a Stranger in a Strange Land.

OK, one more post about this weekend and then I will try again to sleep.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Put on those walking shoes

Not sure if this video will work but D was showing off his new skills today. Sorry about the shaky picture - I was playing coach, camera man, and safety monitor all at the same time.

Spring is coming!

The weather has definitely turned a corner. Even the plants have noticed the warming trend in the past week. These pictures were taken just outside of our apartments. We've heard that Spring is an unbelievable season here and almost everything flowers. While, I'd like to go to Japan to see the cherry blossoms bloom, we might just have to see the ones here in Korea. Too bad we only have 30 vacation days total this year! We do plan to do some hiking in the local National Parks as well and purchased an external frame child backpack carrier in anticipation of these trips.
We've also enjoyed some fresh fruits and vegetables from the market. I picked up a giant basket of strawberries and unlike some of the berries in the grocery store in the states, these are smaller yet every single one of them was sweet and flavorful. We made strawberry pie, some strawberry sauce for pancakes, and David has certainly enjoyed eating strawberries with every meal.

Still no stuff or car. Although this weekend, we purchased a coffee maker (although I was almost resolved to give coffee up for Lent) and a vacuum cleaner. We bought US versions from the BX and just use a transformer. We are currently borrowing a car for the long term so we now have a vehicle. I will take my Korean driver license test on Friday so I can legally drive in this county. The biggest difference I've notice so far is that while people here will run red lights or treat them as yield signs, turning left on a green light w/o a green arrow is not legal and not attempted. I will also take David for his 1 year old well baby appointment to Ajou University Hospital in Suwon next week since I can't get him in on base. I will certainly blog about that!
One of David's many faces and strawberry remnants on his tray.





Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step

After crawling for almost 6 months and being inspired by his cousin, Justin, David decided to walk today. Not just one or two steps but, three steps at a time on three separate occasions. This past week he's enjoyed "walking" holding on to our fingers going up and down the hall and all around the apartment. He's been hesitant to let go and try a step on his own though. The first steps happened in the morning. He stood at the coffee table and I held out my arms and said "Come, David." To my surprise, he bravely took his steps with a big smile. It was such an awesome feeling to be there for his first steps. Of course, I went to get the video camera and tried to get him to repeat himself but he just wanted to play with the camera. The camera also choose that opportune moment to run out of batteries. So, we didn't try to walk again until later in the afternoon and he did it again for Daddy in the kitchen after dinner. Good job, little guy! We'll have to get the pictures later.

David has discovered several new foods since we've been here - some very tasty strawberries (he had three for dessert), cheese, Korean cookies/crackers, spaghetti, and hard boiled egg whites. He's learned to sign book, brush teeth, hair, TV, and egg. So, learning and growing continues in Korea. BTW, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A foray to Suwon - by A

Again, we are grateful to friends letting us borrow a car to take our first afternoon road trip in Korea. Leaving the house and seeing something different was a great escape for J, but D didn’t quite see it that way. Freshly awake from an afternoon nap, he really wanted to crawl around, not ride for an hour in the car, and he let us know! A 30 minute train ride apparently takes over an hour in the car. There is an incredible amount of traffic, even in a “small” city of only 1 million people. The excursion ended up being worth it, however. We explored the walls of the ancient fortress in Suwon. D became extremely animated and excited once we listened to his pleas and extricated him from his stroller. He was much happier being carried, once again relegating the stroller to the status approximately that of a trendy and expensive shopping cart. Our walk wasn’t too long as the weather is still fairly cold, and was terminated quickly upon the discovery of an inviting Korean restaurant. J had to confirm some of the hangul characters to make sure they were indeed serving galbi. Suwon is famous for its galbi beef ribs which were cooked over a pot of coals in the middle of our table. Various side dishes included everything from lettuce leaves to spinach noodles to calamari. D thoroughly enjoyed eating the noodles, and only a few ended up on the floor. The ribs themselves were absolutely deliciously marinated with a sweet garlic flavor. They were by far the highlight of the entire afternoon. Sitting by the warm stove at our private table with excellent food was a great way to warm up! The trip home was a little quicker, but would have been much quieter had we not kept D up for an hour after his bedtime and remembered to bring a second bottle for the trip home.



D with a full tummy.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Recycling













To accommodate over 48 million people living in an area slightly larger than Indiana, the South Koreans have mandated recycling in their country and they take it very seriously. When we moved into our apartment, we have an entire page detailing the procedures and we were cautioned that if we did not follow the rules, our actions would reflect poorly on the apartment complex.
Practically everything can be recycled here - all plastics, styrofoam, metal, glass, and paper. Food waste goes into a separate container and may be collected in a special bag. We just use leftover ziplock bags and freeze the bags each night until they are full. Ziplock bags probably aren’t the best solution but at least we are reusing them. The remaining garbage goes into yet another special bag that can be purchased at the grocery store. By the time everything is sorted, there isn’t much garbage. For us, it’s mainly diapers and without a dryer I’m not even going to consider cloth diapers here.
Every Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, the recycling for the entire complex is brought out and sorted. The pictures above are the before and after piles – I don’t know why the “after” picture continues to get rotated when I updated it - sorry. It’s truly amazing. I have a greater consciousness of what gets thrown out and I try to reduce waste by using less paper towels, etc.





Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Just outside

It got into the 50s yesterday so David and I took a walk and took some pictures right around our apartment. Now, we are just waiting for our car and our things to show up but we are very thankful to be in our apartment.


Our apartment complex and one of the playgrounds.





Paris Baguette, a very short walk away.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Out and about

One of A's co-workers generously allowed us to borrow his car this weekend. Taking advantage of the transportation, we went to Osan, a neighboring city (and not to be confused with Osan AB) to checkout the magical E-mart. Our plan was to pick up a few small appliances (coffee maker, alarm clock, and toaster) so we wouldn't have to use a transformer. Apparently, in response to Walmart, Korea create their own version and bought out all the Walmarts in Korea. We weren't disappointed. On Little 1 (the smaller highway to Seoul) we found a huge, 3-level store with a built in parking garage. The place was immense and a little overwhelming since 99% of the people there were Korean and it was packed. There were greeters at almost every turn in the parking garage as well as a the front of the store. The 1st level was the grocery store and food court. I think I could have spent 1/2 day here alone. But we had a limited time since we forgot to bring David's sippy cup with us and he asked for his milk enroute. Of course, there was a Baskin Robins and the food court looked delicious. Everything was in Korean but we already made plans to return another day equiped with a phrase book. The 2nd level and the 3rd level had clothes, electronics, housewares and baby items. So much to see and check out. We limited our purchases and bought an alarm clock for A since he needs to get up at 1230 AM all week for his exercise and a few items for the kitchen. We will most certainly return in the future.

I was also brave enough earlier this week to order mandu - a korean dumpling, from a local store. The steamers were outside and the dumplings were handmade. I just walked in and asked for mandu. Apparently I could have the galbi(?) or the kimchi one. I asked for the galbi and got it to go. There were interesting, filled with bits of meat, vegetables, and noodles inside. David ate one himself. We also celebrated A's birthday with a strawberry chiffon cake from Paris Baguette. Yum!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Home Sweet Home Part II - Meeting the neighbors

All of the appliances are in Korea which may not seem like a challenge but when trying to use the dishwasher or even the fancy rice cooker and not knowing whether you've select a rinse cycle or steam setting the results could be disastrous. Well, on our bathroom wall there's a panel with a clock with the wrong time. I started pressing buttons to set it and all of a sudden alarms go off and there's a female voice speaking Korean. Mind you, this is a Sunday morning. The main panel in the living room is looking for a code and David thinks it's funny. We tried a bunch of combinations nothing seem to satisfy the Matrix. We had to call the owners in Seoul. Meanwhile, security of the apartment calls us to see if we are OK. All we can say to him is hello. The owners called a neighbor who spoke English to come and help us. In the end, Kyong the neighbor and the security guard fixed it and all was peaceful again. A little later, Kyong, brought by a plate of delicious galbi beef and some other welcome gifts. The Koreans are such hospitable people! Her mother lives in the building while she works in Seoul during the week. I've learned my lesson not to press too many random buttons ... for now.

I did meet some other mothers here in Switzen. One has twins who are 15 months old. Another has a little 2 year old boy. We went to a play group at the Korean Library on Thursday and had a wonderful time. It was funny to see The Hungry Little Caterpiller in Korean. So we are slowly getting connected.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Home sweet home - part I

There's so much to tell about our new place. First of all, the apartment complex itself is new, modern, and there are some security measures. There are several playgrounds throughout the grounds and you can monitor them via the CCTVs in the units. When someone comes to the door and rings the doorbell, there's a security camera so you can tell who is there.

Our apartment is on the 13th floor, the Asians don't have any superstitions about the number 13. All Koreans take their shoes off before coming inside so there's a little foyer areas specifically for taking off shoes. The floors are light wood and they are heated. Of course, there's a control panel for that too. The owners left a lot of their furniture, in fact everything you see in these pictures belongs to them including a giant flat screen TV. We are grateful since our furniture hasn't arrived yet. They are also paying for satellite TV for us, and there are quite a few English channels. I have a gas stove for cooking - yay! Plus there are additional burners on the enclosed balcony where the refrigerator, and washer are. Unfortunately we don't have a dryer and just hang things on a drying rack to dry. We didn't have a dryer when we were younger so it's not the end of the world. All the appliances are in Hangul (Korean written language). Our realtors did show us how to use the main ones, but I accidentally set off an alarm on Sunday. I'll save that story for another time. This unit also has many built in shelves and cabinets which is great for storage.

So far, we love this place and we've met a few of the neighbors. Stay tuned for part II














Monday, March 2, 2009

Sprint is TERRIBLE!

Yes, we've moved in and our internet got set up today but I have to vent. I have been on the phone last hour with Sprint who has the worst customer service. SO FRUSTRATING!

We cancelled our cell phones back in January since there is no Sprint in Korea. I even went to the Sprint store and they were supposed to fax it in and I confirmed it was taken care of. This weekend, we get a bill for over $400 with a $200 cancellation fee for both of our cell phones. This is so ridiculous! A spent a good 40 minutes with them and then I took over since he has to get ready for work tmw. After calling back three times, I finally spoke to a competent person and got an email address to send in a copy of our orders. Hopefully, this will be taken care of.

I have better things to do than skype with Sprint for an hour. Argh!

I will hopefully post some pics of our new digs tmw.