Settling back in...

You know you're back in Korea when your "Tex-Mex" rice has squid in it. Hmmm.... Welcome back!

We arrived back in Korea in early September and we had to hit the ground running as school was already in full swing! This year Sasha is in Year 3 and Teddy is in Year 1 so they are finally together on the same campus. They love seeing each other at recess and at lunch. First day!

Of course we only got to go to school for 2 days because then it was Cheusok. This is like Korean thanksgiving and we got Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off from school. Jeff got to choose his Cheusok gift from work and he chose:

Yep. Another Cheusok, another giant gift box of SPAM. The Koreans love it. Check out what it says on the box. Really.

The stores are INSANE right before Cheusok as you have to buy gifts for everyone. All the stores set up massive aisles of Cheusok gift boxes. You can buy gift boxes of alcohol, nuts, shampoos, rice cakes, mushrooms, SPAM... pretty much anything you could think of. Of course if you're shopping for that super-special someone you can get them the $130.00 box of apples. Am I crazy or does that work out to over $13 an apple?? Now maybe I'm overlooking something. Like maybe these apples have a solid gold core that I am unaware of. But I don't think so. I love the fact that they're on sale though. 10% off - what a screamin' deal!!

We thought about going somewhere for Cheusok but we were so burnt out on travel that we opted for a staycation instead. We had some nice pool days, did a little bike riding and spent a day at Jinha beach.

 We had a really nice Korean meal there with lots of bulgogi and kimchee. We all loved it!

And we've moved! We're now on the compound in Y block. Here's our new place:

It has a view of our old apartment block where we lived at the mercy of ONE ELEVATOR for all 25 floors for nearly 2 years. Yikes!

In our new place we are on the 2nd floor instead of the 17th. I can't tell you how awesome this is. I wake up every morning to actual sounds outside my window other than wind and I can actually see leaves and trees wherever I look.

But best of all is no elevator! When you open the door to the apartment you run down the stairs and right out the front into the fresh air. It's so much nicer to come home with a load of groceries or whatever and just be able to go into the house without waiting or multiple trips. And if someone forgets something we just run right back in and get it! In our old place if we forgot something it was like a 10 minute round trip!

We actually got the very last spot in Y block, all thanks to Zoe who realized that the elevator was killing me and put all the gears in motion for us to move before I even got back, snagging us this awesome score! So we're all settled in now and enjoying this new chapter. We even had time to experiment with some new Tie-Dye effects. Mickey Shirts!