Our Pad and our Peeps

Well, we had a very successful week-end. First of all, we found out that our shipment arrives at the apartment on Wed AM. Hooray! It will be soooooo nice to get our stuff! Can't wait for my own linens (more on that below) MY COMPUTER, the wireless router, our kitchen stuff, the kids beds, toys, and furniture, our bikes - the list goes on and on. Can't wait to see what I packed too. I am sure I will be excited about a bunch of stuff that I forgot was coming. Also the kids have Christmas presents that were shipped in the container (most of their big ones!) so that will make the up coming week really fun. They already decided that they only want to open one present a day so they will last longer. They have had such a small amount of playthings for the last week that they are really ready for the playroom to be up and running.

In the meantime we have been quite comfortable in our apartment. We started sleeping here Wednesday night, and really have most of the things we need to get by. The people at Stop Korea (remember Neal and silent Neal?) have set up the apartment for us and they have done a really good job with only a few exceptions. These exceptions are failures on such a massive level that you still have to give them props for the entertainment they have provided. Our apartment is on the 17th floor of the building. The kids are so NOT over who gets to press the elevator buttons and I am wondering if it will ever get old. There are 3 bedrooms, an office, and a kitchen/dining area so I think it's quite large for Korean standards. Here are the kids in the living room:
One of the great things about Korean apts is the fully enclosed sunroom spaces that run the entire length of the apartment on both sides. They are not heated, but provide a buffer between you and the cold and make the apartment really, really sunny and warm. Every single room has one of these sunroom areas off it. I love them. Here's another shot across the living room toward the kitchen.

I will take more pictures after we get our stuff and really make it our home. The Stop Korea folks made sure we had eating for 6 so we are ready to take on visitors! (well, after Wednesday anyway) Start booking those tickets folks! As you can see, I am still not cooking yet....

Sasha and Teddy made the decision to share one of the bedrooms and turn the other into a playroom. That should be really fun, and they are having a blast sleeping in the same room. They ARE actually sleeping believe it or not and we have not yet had to go in and tell them to cut it out and stop playing/giggling/talking which amazes me. As you can see, the playroom is quite empty. The sunroom spaces outside the rooms are really cold if you go out there, but in the summer it will give us a whole lot more room to stretch out. I may even try to grow something out there.

The cats, by the way are in heaven. I am soooo glad we brought them. Their trip was hard, but suck it up cats, I mean our trip was hard too, and now we are all together so it really is all worth it. The cats love the fact that they are in the sunniest place imaginable and spend all morning soaking up rays. Mitzi even lays on her back with all 4 paws in the air to get sun on her tummy. They are hysterical. Here's Max takin' in a sunbeam. You can see where he bashed his nose during the trip. It's almost totally healed up now though.

Sunbeams + a Comfy Bed? PLEASE! Can I bust you guys open a can of tuna just to round out your day or What?!?
Ok, so now let's talk about the folks at Stop Korea. This is the company that is easing our transition here, getting us phones (I finally got an iPhone!!!) helping us fetch cats, find furniture, get a car, whatever. Neal and Silent Neal have been our main men in charge of Team Stolasz but occasionally there are minor players like Mr. Iron who helped me get the cats. Actually it turns out that he drew the short straw because it was a holiday weekend when we arrived. Sucker. Koreans first of all do not have names like "Iron, Neal, or Robert". Those who work with Wegugin all share the practice of choosing western style names to make it easier for us to remember them. This is an extremely common practice throughout Asia. They get to pick their own names too. For example we found out this week that Mr. Robert chose his name because of a Robert Frost poem that he studied in school and loved. We are working on choosing our Korean names by the way. Problem is we don't know any since all the Koreans we work with are "Bob, Christie, Robert, Neal," ect. They need to cut it out so we can get inspired.

So anyway Neal and Silent Neal took Jeff aside and told him last Saturday that we have misunderstood this whole time. Neal is Neal and Silent Neal's name is actually NEO. He picked his name from.....wait for it....

The Matrix.

I think that's fabulous. especially since NEAL is kind of adorable and bespectacled and kind of looks like someone you would want to cheat off of in Algebra. NEO wears really fabulous long coats and has a wicked sweet hairstyle and looks like someone from...well, the Matrix.

So I was like "OK, great, Neal and Neo - got it." Then Jeff came back from some logistical discussion with them Saturday afternoon and said forget it, Neo changed his name. The Neal/Neo thing was too confusing so he changed his name to Edan which means "greek fire" or something. And he hands me the new card that he already had made up since that morning!!!Folks, you can't make this stuff up.

So I am lobbying heavily for a name change back to NEO and have already informed him that NEO is super cool and Edan is lame and I'm calling him Neo so there. He said that's fine. I haven't gotten a card this week though so I'm not sure what the official name is right now. I'm sticking with "Neo".

The Stop Korea people did a pretty good job in the apt. We have a nice leather couch and ottoman and a coffee table and some neutral bedroom furniture. They didn't go crazy mixing their styles and when our stuff comes it should all integrate nicely.

Every room has these very tassled drapes, different colors depending on what room. Not sure they go so well with a leather couch, but they're kind of Bollywood and I can rock that. If I get some sequined throw pillows (heavy on the tassels of course) it should all tie together. These are the ones for the playroom:

The ones in the kids bedroom are pink (they thought it would be Sasha's room) and there are tan ones in the study and the living room and super hot gold ones in the Master bedroom "Rraow"!

However THIS is the bedding they put on the bed in the master. Now I want you to really appreciate the appaling nature of this set, so PLEASE click on the picture and look at the large version and don't miss the fact that the crowns on the bedding are actually bedazzled. I just KNOW that there was an argument at the lobotomy patient bedding factory over the crowns on the pillows (to bedazzle or not to bedazzle...) and cooler heads prevailed. Thank God, or we'd have crown impressions on our faces.

I literally stop dead each and every time I enter the bedroom wondering if a situation exists that would EVER make bedding like this OK. I haven't thought of one yet....