Bodily Family Fun: April 2012

Week 8 = VERY VERY BUSY

My first thought for this week is that I am so glad we are homeschooling! Homeschooling gives us the flexibility to go and do things during week. Case in point.... On Monday, Dave was off and we decided to go with him to Seoul to pick up his tourist passport. Although the kids missed our homeschool lessons for the day, they got something much better..... CULTURE!

waiting on the train

here comes the train

beautiful

Every time we walk out the door here, we are greeted with something new about Korea. Monday was no different. After taking the train into the city, Dave left the kids and I to go pick up his passport. We got to eat a quick snack at Paris Baguette (one of Korea's favorite places) and we got to go to a 5-story dollar store! FIVE STORIES! I could have stayed at the Daiso store the ENTIRE day.

Paris Baguette

can you say YUMMY?

Daiso 1st floor

2nd Floor

Don't fall down the stairs!

3rd floor

4th floor

5th floor

We then went to the Jogyesa Temple. It is the central temple and symbol of Korean Buddhism. While there, we were able to observe a morning chanting ritual and then a morning prayer service. It was amazing to experience. After spending about an hour at the temple site, we went and got some lunch at an ITALIAN restaurant and headed over to the National Folk Museum. It is located next to the palace that we visited a couple of weeks ago. Although we did not stay very long at the Folk Museum, we did see an exhibit about Arirang, which a Korean Folk Song that is very important to Korean culture. We also saw an exhibit that showed the life cycle of Koreans from birth to death.

the entrance into temple area

group shot

Lacebark Pine Tree (Baeksong) over 500 years old

Pagoda Tree presumed to be 450 years old

colorful lanterns for the living; white for the deceased

prayer candles used to light incense

Ten-storied Buddha Relic Stupa

offerings

inside the main temple

gold plaques lining the walls

singing in the temple

a girl making pottery

they asked Darci to sign it... we don't know why

at the restaurant

Arirang Exhibit

Wedding Ceremony display

Bridal Conveyance

chess board

60th birthday celebration display

those are piles of food

small pox exorcism display

the Bier or Sang-yeo - used as a hearse in the funeral

12 to 24 pallbearers

it was beautiful outside

Cherry Blossoms

Korean children on a field trip.... some took pics of us

So from this point you would think we had had enough sightseeing and walking, but......NO! We then took a taxi to Dongdaemun, the shopping district of Seoul. And when I say shopping I mean SHOPPING! There are 30 shopping malls in this area of the city, alone! We only saw a very small portion of the area. We did walk the entire length of the shoe market. We are talking millions and millions of shoes, just SHOES piled on top of each other and in buildings 3and 4 stories high where you can walk from one end to the other and only see SHOES (no shoe boxes, just shoes). Only wish I had thought to take video and not just pictures. We also saw a small portion of the bedding market and a few clothes. One thing that I have found odd in Korea is that I have yet to find a set of sheets. I could be wrong, but from what I can tell, they don't use sheets, only blankets and quilts. Anyway, after this LONG day and all of the WALKING, I had to call it quits for the day because WE WERE DONE!

shopping as far as the eye can see

all of the buildings on both sides are markets

clothing

need a wig?

shoes

and more shoes!

no shoe boxes, though

who would wear these?

or these?

need a zipper?

how about an umbrella?

yes, dogs in a stroller

bedding

a traditional Hanbok

Tuesday consisted of a few errands, school, and Dave starting the Manchu Mile road march. His group started at around 5pm and walked 25 miles with 40lb ruck sacks on. They finished at about 5:30 am on Wednesday. As you can imagine, Dave was EXHAUSTED (and that is understatement). And because Dave is such a hard-worker, he went to work! I drove him and picked him up, but he went. He eventually came home and passed out and slept the rest of the day.

before they started

marching

resting

middle of night

just finished!

On Thursday, I discovered that air raid siren drills (or at least I think that's what they were) are a HUGE reminder, at least to me, that North Korea is less than 20 miles from here. I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried, but I am also so happy to be here with my family. We belong with Dave and its important for us to enjoy everyday, no matter where we are; regardless of the gas masks in our closet and the sirens in the air! Life's an adventure right?!?!?!?!

Friday was a great school day! Darci finished reading Charlotte's Web. Mitchell is reading Robinson Crusoe. We also had some fun times singing and dancing throughout the house. I have included some random pics from my week because, as you probably know already, there is always something ODD to find out there.

windows make great white boards

my book worm

Cherry Blossom Trees on post

on post

the fire station... call 119 for emergencies

one of the many churches in Dongducheon

emergency vehicles ALWAYS have their lights flashing

the warning on the cab door

hair doctor, anyone?

Not use sure if this is an advertisement for spinach or not!

I didn't know raindrops could be so dangerous!

the texture of cheese puffs, but bland with chocolate covering.... WEIRD!

The weekend was busy even though we didn't leave town. We spent a while at the park on Saturday morning playing with friends and then we met other friends for lunch. For this meal, we ate at a traditional Korean buffet, where we sat on the floor and cooked our own food. It took me a while to finish eating since I am not proficient at chopsticks and they don't use knives to cut their food here. They use scissors. It was delicious. I can't wait to go back.

messing around

always posing

the biggest kid of all

not so sure about that hair-do

choose your meats

add some sides

cook the food

make some soup

Enjoy

and .... don't forget to use your scissors!

Sunday was probably the craziest of our week. Dave decided he wanted to take us on the route he took the other night on his road march. Sounds easy enough right? Well maybe if you didn't have our vehicle. Old Betsy isn't exactly in the best shape to drive up the rickety, one-lane, mountain road that we ended up having to back down part of the way because it was closed at the top. We definitely saw the mountain-side! Dave said we will go back when the road opens back up. Not so sure how I feel about that.