Monday, April 27, 2009

14 months old

David turned 14 months old on the 24th of April which means we've been here for at least two months. He's changed so much in two months. These days, he walking like a champ, almost running at times and crawling by exception only. We've learned a ton of new signs (elephant, pear, cheese, open, close, ice cream, orange) in the last few months and he's made up some of his own. Key and pacifier are the two made up ones that come to mind. His sign for "key" is the motion you would make w/your thumb and pointer finger to unlock your car door with the clicker. He makes a sucking sound with his tongue for pacifier. It's too funny. He's also started to ask for things without us asking him first.
It's also amazing how much he understands. We are finding that we are already spelling words, especially, i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m. I'll tell him to put his cow in the basket and he'll do it. He also knows what a platypus is. Due in part to the book, My First 300 Words, David is starting to find construction vehicles fascinating and since they are doing a great deal of construction around us, there are plenty of excavators, forklifts, and dump trucks to point out.
David makes the best sounds. My favorites are the owl and the coyote. The owl says whoo whoo, and the coyote says arhoo. He also picking up words quickly. Aside from "crack-ah," he knows juices and go. Last night while cleaning the kitchen, we told him what the rice cooker was and he said "cook-ker" several times.
Can't wait to see what's next.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Happy Suwon - Hwaseong Fortress

We returned to Happy Suwon - all the city signs refer to the city as Happy Suwon. This trip to Suwon went really well, although you would certainly hope that we should get it right by the third try. The hour spent planning the night before helped a lot, too. Some intense study of the road atlas greatly expedited our arrival into the city. We've become quite the Suwon navigators. The streets hold few surprises, as long as we stay on one of two main roads at least! D managed to take a short nap in the car on the way up, which considerably strengthened his stamina and was quite a trooper throughout our 2.5 hour trek around the fortress wall. He was the star of the show as groups of school-girls, grand-parents, and generally everyone stopped to say hello and remark on his mode of travel. He thoroughly enjoyed the backpack which makes for a much happier walk for everyone.

About 30 minutes into the hike we had a great view of a building at the crest of a hill, rather far across the city. "We're definitely not walking around that hill" or something along those lines was the comment. It would be a different story in another hour or so. The fortress was built in 1794 and was pretty well mantained. There were different command posts, watch towers, and sentry posts to explore. Halfway around the fortress, we found ourselves climbing seemingly endless stairs to the top of the hill. No going around the hill for us when we could climb over!
Fortunately, once we got to the top it was all downhill from there with magnificent views of the city. We just missed the peak of the cherry blossom season, but the rest of the flowers were starting to bloom. Within a few weeks the walk will be even more colorful. Soon we arrived back near the car and right in front of Yeonpo galbi beef restaurant, all just in time for lunch. Almost like we planned it that way! Amazing how a little forethought makes a difference.
We had quite the spread of sidedishes and twice the beef ribs we needed (we enjoyed that stop at the Paris Baguette, but it impacted our lunch more than anticipated). The food was good, but not quite the spectacular ribs we were expecting after our previous galbi beef experience in Suwon. David did ok at lunch, but soon became rather cacophonous and it was time to leave. Unfortunately his spoon didn't get the message as we were in a hurry. The next guests who sit at our table can enjoy a purple rubber covered spoon for their kimchi. Overall, we had a great 2 and a half hour walk on a beautiful spring day. We finally had a day to ourselves without any interruptions.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Shabu shabu

Can you read this menu? We couldn't either when we got the restaurant. Before we went to the egg hunt we went to Pyongtaek City, about 7 miles south of where we live. We had originally planned to go to a local festival but didn't know exactly where to find it and didn't realize how large Pyongtaek actually was. After being in the car for about an hour and still no signs of the festival, we just found a place to park and walked into this restaurant for lunch. It was a traditional Korean restaurant were you removed your shoes before entering and you sat on the floor. David sat on the floor with us in his booster chair. In the center of the table was a gas burner. We were the only patrons during the entire meal.
Two women ran the restaurant. After a failed attempt to communicate in Korean, one woman pointed at the picture above and we just nodded yes vigorously. We had a choice between spicy or not spicy broth and we picked the later considering David had to eat as well. Soon, a metal wok shaped bowl appeared and was placed on the gas burner. The broth was poured into the burner and allowed to heat up. A plate of lettuce type vegetables, frozen thin slices of raw beef, and at least 4 different types of mushrooms were placed before us. We surmised that we were having some sort of Korean hot pot. Several side dishes of kim chee, spicy jellyfish, and other pickled vegetables were served as well. The food was wonderful. Toward the end of the meal, we had fresh noodles which we cooked in the broth. This is pretty normal since the noodles themselves don't have flavor and by this time we had cooked most of the meat which flavored the broth. But the meal wasn't over yet, when we finished the noodles, she brought a plate of bap (steamed rice) with green onions and seaweed which she fried in the wok with some sesame oil. That was delicious as well.
The restaurant seems to specialize in mushrooms. There was an entire cooler that stored different types of mushrooms and while were there, the restaurant received a delivery of mushrooms. Also, we've noticed that the Koreans love children and don't mind them in restaurants despite the potential noise and mess. It's nice considering David is normally with us when we go out to eat.
Our meal cost 20,000 won. Without knowing it, we ordered the first item on the menu for 2 people. If you look at the third line down in the first column, you can see the price for 20,000 won. The two lines above it are the cost for the same meal but for three or four people. Here's the kicker, the character just before the 35,000 and 28,000 aren't Korean - they are Chinese but don't mean three or four. It took us about 15 minutes and two books to decipher what we ate. Basically, the menu said mushroom shabu shabu and the items in parenthesis say kalguksu (thick handmade noodles in broth) and bokkeumbap (fried rice). Either way we enjoyed our meal.



Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Egg Hunt

This afternoon, we participated in the Easter Egg Hunt on base. There were hundreds of kids there and lawn where the eggs were "hidden" was divided by age group. David fell into the infant to 2 year old category. As we were waiting for the signal to begin, we had to keep him from collecting the eggs early. He had a great time finding eggs and checking out his loot. It was a beautiful, warm afternoon in Korea - Spring is here!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Easter playgroup


Happy Easter! This is mainly a bunch of pictures of us and our friends dyeing eggs and decorating cookies. These are the twins I've mentioned before and we decided to keep the group really small for this potentially messy afternoon. But everyone had a fun time. Thanks to Hope for hosting (and cleaning up the mess!) BTW, you can click on any of these pictures to view them larger.








A trip to the zoo!

Yesterday, David and I went to the Seoul Grand Park along with several other Moms. This was first time we've return to Seoul since arriving in February. Caravanning with 7 other vans was not the easiest feat on a highway and we lost 2 vehicles along the way with the traffic. As we exited the highway, we pulled off the side of the road to wait for the others. While we were waiting, I stalled the car and couldn't restart it. This actually happened the day prior but we were at the gas station on base. The mechanic cleaned and tightened the connections to the battery and the car seemed fine and trustworthy to drive again. Apparently this was not the case. (BTW, this is a borrowed vehicle.) One resourceful mom called the car center on base and they would come and pick up the car. Just leave the car unlocked and keys in the visor. There was nothing else I could do so we packed up our things in another van and continued to the zoo. Good thing David took a 50 minute nap on the way up so he was a pretty happy guy.

The Grand Park is pretty amazing and very well done. It's a large zoo and we didn't even see a quarter of it. Of course, when you are trying to coordinate with 7 other mom and lots of kids, it take a long time to get through potty breaks/diaper changes. And it seemed like the Korean children may have had the week off as well. There were quite a few exhibits and we caught a dolphin show as well. I also had a little helper who volunteered to push the stroller most of the day. Overall, it was a beautiful day, the cherry blossoms were blooming and we were out of the apartment. As an added bonus, admission was less than $3/person. We have plans to return!
Not sure how the car fared. At 3 PM, I received a call saying they couldn't find the car but by 4:30, the car was back at Osan. So we are back to walking today.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Dr's appointment

The visit to Ajou Hospital is something I hope never to repeat again. I was upset enough to write a letter and not sure who to sent it to. This has become a little pet project.

Here's our situation. We are a non-command sponsored family here at Osan AB and my son turned 1 year old on Feb 24th. I wanted to make sure his immunizations were up to date and had my husband check with the immunization clinic. He was told that my son needed to be seen by a pediatrician before getting his shots. We tried several times to get a Space-A appointment for him on base. We were told by a female Major in the pediatric department that our best opportunity for a well baby check up for my now 13 month old son was to see an off-base provider. Tricare gave us a list of places and we chose Ajou University Hospital because it was closest to Osan. We were able to get an appointment within a week of making a call. The International Health Clinic where I check-in was very helpful and we were seen right away. We saw the pediatrician for about 5 minutes. He listened to my son's chest, looked briefly at his eyes and ordered 4 tests - 2 blood tests to check for iron levels and his metabolism (?), a urine analysis and a chest x-ray. He also recommended an MMR and Varicella vaccination. They wait on Hep A until 18 months. My son was never weighted or measured. I am concerned at the lack of shielding used for the chest x-ray. My son had none and I was told to hold his arms over his head and I wasn't wearing anything either. No one asked me if I was pregnant - which I'm not but even so I would expect this to be a consideration. This seems strange since even when x-rays are taken at the dentist the patient wears a lead apron. When they tested his iron level at 9 months back in the US, they just pricked his finger. At Ajou, they took two vials of blood from his arm. The doctor will give us a call back on Friday with the results. The cost of this visit was 196,00 won. Overall, I wasn't too thrilled about this off-base experience. If off base providers are going to be considered, I would have liked a list of things for the pediatrician to examine. A simple checklist, I could give the Korean pedestrian would helpful so I know to expect. Right now, my best list is from the book What to expect - the Toddler years. An English speaking volunteer accompanied us for all the tests and I asked her if my son would be weighed and measured. She said yes, but obviously that never happened. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to drive up to Ajou so I'm not excited about the prospect about going up there for his next check-up. In fact, I don't even know when his next check up is due and I still have several questions:How much liquid should he be drinking?His teeth seems slow to come in - should I be concerned?What foods can he eat now? Honey? Peanut butter? What can I expect him to be doing at 15 months? 18 months?Any other safety concerns at age? Perhaps more pertainant to our situation here:How concerned do we need to be about Yellow Dust and the foods from the market, going for a walk, and being on the playground covered by the dust?I heard from another mom that there's no flouride in the water - what should I do for my child?Should my 13 month old take vitamins? Would it be possible to email the Pediatric clinic with our questions? Is there a standard form they send home with each parent after a well baby check? Could we have access to that as well? Obviously, there are several families in our situation - non-command sponsored with young children. I understand this was our choice and I understand that the pediatrician, children ratio is 1:500 however, I would like to hope that we could get a little more support from the Base Hospital when the health and safety of our children are concerned.

Very respectfully,Janette Thode

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Our stuff is here

After carefully selecting ( read hastily throwing together) which items to send to Korea back in January, our 1370 lbs of household goods (clothes, pot and pans, toys, furniture, everything we thought we needed) were delivered on Monday. My first question was how our furniture was going to be delivered to the 13th floor? It certainly would not fit into the elevator and service elevators don't exist here. I still don't know what they call it but, the SUPER LIFTER is pretty convenient. The SUPER LIFTER is essentially a truck that has a large platform that travels along expendable rails. Our 2 crates worth of possessions were placed on the platform and quickly raised to our apartment. The windows in the living room were opened and our items were passed through the window. The movers were very professional and even took their shoes off inside our apartment. The entire process, including putting the crib, futon, and kitchen table back together only took two hours. In retrospect, I would have packed different but, there was no way of knowing that we would have had a semi-furnished apartment. I also need to remind myself that we aren't living here forever, just a year. Besides, since we didn't bring that many "things" there isn't that much to unpack. David was overjoyed to have all his toys back especially his tunnel and the remaining complement of his stuffed animals. Who knew a 13 month old had such a good memory?