Pecans, Presents, and Prehistoric Man!

Wow!  Has it really been three weeks, already?  Time has flown by.  It seems like just yesterday the kids and I got off the plane.  This past week has been pretty calm.  We have been doing a lot of school, as you can imagine, since the kiddos are a little behind with all of the transitions we have made in the past few months.  I have to say that they are doing extremely well, though.  They are making great grades and really seem to be enjoying "most" of the stuff they are studying. So on to our week...

On Monday, I am happy to report that Darci made not one, but two new friends in our apartment complex.  Their names are Abby and Ava and they are 8 and 6, perfect for Darci!  I also found out that one of my good friends and her husband got their approval to come here, so I am so excited about seeing them again and actually knowing someone in Korea. Happy Dance, Happy Dance!  We also received our first piece of mail today.  It was an Easter package from my mom, which included lots of Easter Candy..... GO PEEPS!  She sent the most adorable Easter card that plays the "Bunny Hop", which my children decided to dance to.  It is absolutely hilarious.  Check it out below.  Tonight was the first night that we all ate a full Korean meal.  Let's just say that the kids were not super thrilled about not having any other options.   The food was actually very delicious and Mitchell did find that he enjoyed it.  Darci ate everything begrudgingly!  The dishes I can remember the names of are Jap Chae Bop, Mandu Guk, and Yaki Mandu.  There are a couple of pics of them.  After we got home, the kids decided they wanted to play a quick round of hide-and-seek before bed.  And yes, the apartment actually has tons of hiding places.  So off we go, and low and behold on my first time to hide, I  manage to slam my foot into the foot of the couch.  I pretty sure I broke at least one toe and possibly a bone in my foot and I was officially out of the game.  Wait a minute, didn't I say that this week was pretty calm?  I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that!

Tuesday was actually fairly uneventful except that we needed groceries badly.  Dave was at work and I can't drive here yet, so the kids and I took our first taxi ride.  It really wasn't quite as scary as I imagined it would be.  The worst part was that we were in a taxi that couldn't get on post, so he had to drop us off outside and we walked in.  Well, I hobbled in, what with my limp foot and all.  Anyway, after limping all the way to the commissary from the front gate, we went shopping.  I took one picture that was absurd to me.   It was a pound of pecans for $10.28.  I don't know what the going rate for pecans in the states is, but this is ridiculous!  Maybe I am spoiled, because I can get them from my dad and just pay shipping, which I will be doing very shortly.  The evening was very relaxing.  After the kids went to sleep, Dave and I downloaded some old episodes of Castle and we got to watch our favorite show.

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of a few outings.  Dave took us to LotteMart so I could get some seeds for a science experiment that we needed to do.  For dinner, Dave decided that he would cook burgers.  We cannot grill here at our apartment, so Dave tried cooking frozen burgers on the gas stove.  Let's just say that we are lucky the smoke alarm did not go off in the entire building.  All I can say is, we are looking for a good deal on a George Foreman.  One very important event in Mitchell's life did take place.  He got his first military dependent ID.  He is so proud!  He really thinks he is hot potatoes now that he has an official id.  That evening we spent some time watching old episodes of Hogan's Heroes, thanks to my mom!  It is really fun to show the kids old tv shows.  They have found that they actually enjoy them.

Our field trip day was Friday.  Dave had the day off, so after the kids took their assessments for the week, we decided to go visit the Jeongok Prehistoric Museum.  Its only about 10km from here, so it did not take us very long to get there.  It is a very odd museum to look at from the outside.  It looks like a big metal tube stuck into the hillside.  The premise, from what I can gather, is that you are supposed to be traveling back in time to the days of prehistoric man.  This museum was ultra modern on the inside.  The curator came out and spoke with us and invited us back in the future for some hands on activities when the weather was better.  He also showed us this computer they have that will take the kids' pictures and morph them into different stages of prehistoric man....very cool!  The curator allowed the kids to see and touch an actual mammoth tusk that dates back about 20,000 years!  There was also a display on the local ecosystem, which was perfect because Mitchell has been studying ecosystems.  They had some displays of the local wildlife.  I took a picture of one of weirdest squirrels I have ever seen.  The exhibit displaying the timeline of human progression was done really well.  It was set up, so that you followed them through their migration from Africa to the Korean Peninsula.  We had snack in their cafeteria, which was probably the most "modern" place I ever been.  Check out the seats!  Later that afternoon, we headed down to New City  and took the kids to eat supper at the Lotteria (it's like McDonald's, sort of).  The kids got chicken fingers, Dave got a burger, but I tried the shrimp burger.  It was odd.  When we got home, we spent the evening watching Bedtime Stories and hanging out.

Dave got up on Saturday morning and made breakfast.  Big SMILE!  He made delicious cinnamon french toast.  The kids even helped him clean the kitchen afterward.  While they did that Dave and I played our own version of "name that tune".  I played old tv show theme songs on the computer and he would try to guess what show it was from.  It was so much fun and such a jog down memory lane.  You should try it sometime.  After a trip to the laundromat and a week's worth of laundry, we headed out for our first train ride.  We took the train down to Uijeongbu to go look around the underground mall.  I have never seen anything like the "mall."  It was like maze down there.  There were shopping stalls everywhere that sold mostly clothes, shoes, and cell phones.  When I say cell phones, I am talking about at least a HUNDRED cell phone shops in this one shopping area!  It is a RIDICULOUS amount! And I thought, Americans were obsessed with cell phones.  Another thing that I found odd, was that there were shops and shops of clothes for adults, small children, and babies, but there were not many places to buy clothes for kids Mitchell and Darci's age.  After walking around in what seemed like circles, we ended up going up to the street and went to Dunkin Donuts to get a drink and snack.  It was like 3:30 in the afternoon, and the place was full of people!  Donuts are NOT for breakfast here!  The train ride back to Dongducheon was much more crowded.  Dave took a picture for me because he was like the tallest person in our car so he could get a shot.  I took a nap when we got home.  I was exhausted!  That night we decided to a family game night and play Beat the Parents.  Its a trivia game that puts the kids vs the parents.  When Dave and I got our first questions wrong, Darci said, "I knew your brains were fried from all of that bad 80s music."  After that comment, we were determined to WIN, and we did!  Our night ended with the four of us snuggled on the couch watching Hogan's Heroes.

Sunday was a LAZY day!  We skype with Nana and Papa.  I talked to my "sis", Sarah Kauble.  Mitchell played video games, of course.  Dave and Darci played with her legos.  He also helped her make a potholder on her loom.  I even snuck up and video taped them singing together, well Darci singing and Dave trying.  You'll see what I mean.

So that was week 3.  We really had a great time.  I am starting to really enjoy being here.  I can't wait to see what we can do next.  Until next time.....annyonghi geyseyo.

From School to Spaghetti!

Annyong Haseyo Everyone, 

As you probably have guessed, that means hello everyone.  Well, we have been here for 2 weeks now.  It definitely has been two of the strangest weeks of my life, but we are starting to really adjust.  So here goes...

The kids and I spent the week getting back into the homeschool schedule.  It is working fairly well with only a few kinks to work out.  In some ways, I am very happy that we are homeschooling because I feel like they are learning things that they would not learn at regular school.  For instance, Darci is learning about the Italian Renaissance, and loves it by the way.  Mitchell finished a unit on the Scientific Revolution and now has moved onto democratic revolutions.  I do worry that I am missing some stuff, but that are definitely brilliant and will be fine.... I'm sure of it.  Check out the pictures of them hard at work.

We made a couple of trips onto post this week.  I went shopping at the commissary for the first time.  Boy, was that a reality check.  The commissary here has only about 5 aisles of groceries.  There is not very much to choose from.  In the states, if you want to buy spaghetti sauce, for instance, you have half an aisle of selection.  Here, if you are lucky if you have 2 brands.  I am grateful, though, that we have the ability to buy stuff that we are used to.  Going to the Korean grocery store is kind of scary.  Unless you are in produce and can see what you are buying or can recognize the packaging, you really do not have any idea what it is.  Yes, they do have some brands that we use, but are labeled in Korean.  I will have to take some pictures of that next time I go to the market.  It is weird! 

On Thursday, Dave and I went to the furniture store this week because I needed a desk to work on during the day.  We also ended up having to buy a new computer because his laptop has almost seen its last days.  Two deployments has been hard on it.  So I am typing to you from our new family pc, which was quite a nightmare to set up.  The kids and I spent a little time at the playground on post while Dave was in a meeting and we actually got to meet another family.  She was very nice and I found out that her husband will be working with Dave in the coming months.  I was also able to get Darci set up with the girl scouts here.  She will attend her first meeting March 29th.  I am super excited about that.  The troop is brand new this year, and they are so excited about having Darci join.

Friday was spent waiting for the furniture delivery guys and rearranging the school area and the kids rooms.  The kids also spent a lot of time playing outside with some of the other children in the complex.  It is so nice to have someone come ring the doorbell again to ask if they come out to play.

Saturday was our day out for fun.  Well, it did start with laundry, but then we had fun.  Dave took us to a restaurant called Ono Bar & Grill.  It is located under the Bosan train station.  They serve a wide variety of food from burgers to Mexican to Korean.  The first thing, I noticed when we sat down was that there is a call button on your table so that if you need anything you can call your waitress over.  I think some restaurants in America could benefit from this particular thing.  I have not been to many restaurants, yet, but I have noticed that they bring you individually wrapped wet towels to clean your hands with prior to your meal. There were also a couple of pretty funny signs on the wall.  I took pictures of them.  Anyway, Dave and Mitchell ordered burgers, Darci ordered chicken fingers, but I decided to be a little adventurous and order Mushroom and Bacon Black Spaghetti with Cream Sauce.  They at least had English descriptions under the Korean words.  There was no silverware on the tables.  The waitress only brought us what we needed.  So she brought me a fork and mustard and ketchup for the Dave and the kids.  The picture with the Ono label is my fork in a paper wrapper and the towelette in the small plastic bag.  When our food came, my dish did look a little scary.  The kids said it looked like I was eating worms, but it tasted really good.  I even convinced both of the kids to try a bite.  After lunch, I went online to find out what makes the spaghetti black and only then realized that I ate noodles that had been colored with squid's ink!  So glad I did not know this before I ordered lunch.

After lunch, we decided to go walking around in New City (which is part of Dongducheon, but they call it New City because its the newest part).  We went to their version of a Dollar General, which is AWESOME!  It is in this large building pressed in between lots of other stores.  It is two stories, so we had a lot to look at.  Dave and Mitchell found a very unique and interesting pair of suction cups for sale at the dollar store.  Check it out below!  After that, I needed to buy a bottle of rubbing alcohol so that I could disinfect Darci's earrings, so we went to a Korean drugstore.  They did not carry rubbing alcohol.  They did, however, have ethanol and hydrochloric acid in a bottle for sale.  I have no idea what a person would be buying hydrochloric acid for and personally, I don't want to find out!

As we walked around the streets, we came to a street that was blocked off to traffic.  It was located next to a park.  There were families everywhere.  The street had been blocked off so that the Korean children could ride their hot wheels and bicycles up and down the streets.  Dave and I joked that they start teaching the kids bad driving habits at a very early age.

After all the walking, we decided that we wanted a snack so we stopped at the local french bakery (yes, I know, we are in Korea) called Paris Baguette.  These places are everywhere in town.  This is where Dave's friend bought the cake last week.  Everything looked amazingly delicious!  We had trouble deciding on what to get.  We each tried something different.  Dave even got a blueberry flavored water that we found out was a product of Australia.  We were not disappointed at all. Darci and I got water to drink.  We have found that bottled water comes in all shapes and sizes here.  There are a couple of pics below to show what I mean.  And yes, that does say DMZ water.  We drank water that comes from springs at the DMZ.

 

Sunday was pretty uneventful.  We spent a little time on post in the am doing some medical stuff.  Then we spent the rest of the day at home, relaxing.  Darci and I did walk to the market down the street to get the special garbage bags we need for food waste.  Recycling is very important here. We are required to save and dry our food waste and dispose of it special yellow bags.  I saved the receipt so you could see what one looks like here. 

Well, that was 2nd week here.  On to helping the kids with school work.  I hope you enjoyed the pics.  More to come next week.  We will see what adventures in Korea will be like then.  Until then.....annyonghi geyseyo.