Our First "Hash" (no drugs involved...)

This Sunday we had our first "Hash". A Hash is when you have a group of hiking enthusiasts who all get together like a club. Everyone gets a hash name after their third hash that's like their nickname. Someone is in charge of "setting" the hash, or laying out the route, and someone else is in charge of cooking for the group - usually a big pot of soup. Sasha and Teddy were quite thrilled to go on their first hash as their current BFF "crushes" also went on the hash. Øyvind is the most adorable, inquisitive, funny, and competitive 6 year old ever, and Teddy thinks he is the bomb. Ingrid is almost 9 and Sasha worships the ground she walks on. Literally. On this hash, I barely had to listen to any complaining from "the bean" as she was hiking to keep up with Ingrid and chatting the whole way. Did I mention that Ingrid also plays the fiddle? SWEET!

We climbed up a HUGE hill and got to this amazing fire look-out station on top, which Teddy thought was awesome:
4 Kids on the top of the tower:
The Boys!
The trail was a nice mix of open wide trail, much wider that single-track, but not as wide as a road. It's really nice because you can walk two or three across and have a conversation.
A view back toward the look-out tower. What a beautiful day we had!
We got to another viewpoint and got to look down on Ulsan (part of it anyway) which in our area means looking down at Hyundai. You can see how massive the shipyard here really is. Our apt would be just out of the shot to the right.
One of the best things for me about Korean hiking trails is that they are meticulously engineered and there are stairs almost anywhere there is a steep slope. This keeps you from that horrible sliding out sensation that causes you to look like an idiot at best and fall on your ass at worst.
There was a little temple up the hill:
Had to explain to the kids that these things are not part of OUR religion, but are part of someone elses' religion and we have to not touch them and be respectful.
Another amazing, long stairway:
Our hike wound up one side of a mountain and down another and finished up down at the beach. There were some memorial sites but I was unable to tell if they were WWII or Korean War memorials...
The coast here is really beautiful where it hasn't been taken over by Hyundai. Incredibly rugged headlands interspersed with little pocket beaches. I will NOT go into a Geologic ramble here, but I want to.....
Jeff and the girls head up the beach and back to the cars:
At the end of the hash, any 1st timers had to introduce themselves, sing a song from their own country, and chug a beer out of these pottery bowls. We sang "The Texas Song" that Sasha taught us from school. One of the Maori dudes from New Zealand did an Awesome Maori song/chant/intimidation dance that was totally sweet and I wish I got it on tape but I wasn't fast enough.
When we went back to the clubhouse we had a FEAST! It was an Australian national day so they put on a full Aussie BBQ for all the hashers. Sausages, chicken, steaks, shrimp, you name it plus all the sides and dessert! It will be quite a let-down when we get soup after our next hash!
Here is Ted and I with (clockwise) Kari and Terje (Øyvind and Indrid's parents - they are as awesome as their kids) and Zoe, one of the first people I met on the compound who has made me feel incredible welcome and linked me up with numerous activities. She's like the cruise director....

So we had a really fun Sunday and are looking forward to the next hike. Actually the next 2 so we can get our official "Hasher" names!

Home Sweet Home!

Ok, so maybe I will only get to update the Blog once a week. We are BUSY!! Whew! School, homework, playdates, Korean Tea Ceremonies, Bingo, Hiking, I tell you, it's like living on a cruise ship. For those of you not on FB, the latest news is that the Koreans that Jeff works with told us this week that they are all coming over for a dinner party at our place this Thursday to welcome us (!) 7+ of them and their spouses. Ok, I have like 6 plates and we did have 4 wine glasses but we already broke one so now we have 3. Are you kidding me?!? So I know what I will be doing this week - buying plates, glasses, and figuring out what I am going to cook. They are all bringing a dish thank goodness. I expect this means we will be left with a fridge full of very marginal leftovers. The kind where you want to eat it so you don't waste food, but dear Lord, what IS THIS? Yeah, that kind of leftovers. PSYCHED!

I told the kids that they should each pick their fav American thing and we will have it out and Teddy promptly told me that his pick is a dish of M&M's. Sasha hasn't gotten back to me yet. I would serve them pretzels but the only ones I have found are the mega bag at Costco. You know the ones they serve at huge gatherings that are little, too crunchy and always slightly stale. I am going to inport Rold Golds and change everyones lives. (BTW, any care packages sent our way needs to include some Rold Golds - even if it's the little 99 cent gas station size. Use a bunch of 'em for packing material you guys, I'm serious...)

Ok, so I promised you a tour of the place now that we are all settled in. This is home sweet home:

Our complex is high on a hill and you can see it from all over town so it's always easy to navigate home. Our building has peek-a-boo views of the ocean and the Hyundai cranes, but it faces in a fantastic direction, so we get amazing sunlight all day long which is great.
Many of you will see this and wonder how I (hates cities, loves green space, hates crowds, loves wilderness) am dealing mentally with living in a high rise and many of you have already asked. I am just fine with it folks, because I know it's temporary. It's kind of like trying on someone else's life and it's kind of fun. Also there is no yard work and no fire ants! Seriously though, I told Jeff that for the kids' sake I hope that each experience we have of living in a too big house with a swimming pool is balanced out by some time in a small apartment. They need to get that most of the world does not live like that.
Our building is very cold and stark all the way up to the door of the apartment. So I hate it on the outside but love it on the inside.

Once you get inside the main door, we have a little vestibule with a coat rack and a ton of cabinets and some Japanese-style sliding doors. It's like a little transition area from the industrial feel of the elevator and hallway to the cozy interior of the place. We all keep all of our shoes here since we have much less closet space in the bedrooms and no one wears shoes in their house so it's great that this little room is literally lined with cabinets from floor to ceiling.

When you go thru the sliders, the kid's bathroom is to your left:

And their bedroom is straight ahead:
We brought these loft beds from IKEA anticipating much smaller spaces. They barely fit in the room, but they were SUCH a good call. The kids have the entire floor space of the bedroom to play. As you can see, under Teddy's bed is Dinoland USA:
And under Sasha's bed is Kit and Emily's house. She goes in there and I just hear her chatting away with the "girls" and their dogs. Max likes it under there too..
Next door to their bedroom is their playroom. It is really, really sunny. The camera kept making the picture dark so the sunroom wouldn't be overexposed, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Ted loves coming in here to spread out his train set or Playmobil. It's a fun space.
Then we go down the hall (it's not dark like this) to the living room on the left, Kitchen on the right, and at the end of the hall, our bedroom (left) and study (right).
This is our living room and again it seems very bright and open with sun streaming in all day. Looking forward to sitting out on the "veranda" when the weather gets warmer.

This is our Kitchen. Very functional, but NO workspace. Especially after the counter space I got used to in TX. Very spoiled....

Our Bedroom. Note the awesome mirror I got from mousesurplus.com that originally hung at Disney World. Oh yeah baby!

We have this little dressing area/closet area on the way to our bathroom which is nice when Jeff gets up in the morning. He can go in here and close the slider and get dressed and not wake me up.
The think-tank. Always a disaster, but what haven of productivity isn't my friends - am I right?

This is our little dining area attached to the kitchen. Love the sliding doors. We had friends over for dinner Friday night and when the adults were having conversation and the kids got too loud we just shut the doors.

This little speaker is on the wall in the hallway. Several times a week a little chime will go off and someone makes an announcement in Korean for anywhere from 1 - 5 minutes. All I can do is stand and listen and hope that the message is not "the building is on fire, please exit via the stairs in an orderly fashion" or "North Korea has invaded. Grab your children and get out while you still can!".
Usually after one of these messages I run to the window to make sure that people are not fleeing the building like rats leaving a sinking ship. After a few minutes, if nothing has happened, I go back to what I was doing. I have GOT to start learning Korean....
The rice cooker. Waaaay too many options.
The washing machine. I have after 3 weeks I have sucessfully found a washer setting AND a dryer setting that results in clean, dry clothes. Jeff used the Ipod translator to try to figure out the drier settings and is pretty sure that one of the options is "fire lip". He is lobbying heavily for this to be his new Korean name.
So there you have it. You can picture us in our little abode, all snug, comfortable and happy and hopefully (grandparents) worry less. We are all settled in and it's hard to believe we have only been here 3 weeks. We are off to go on a "Hash" this morning, it's something organized by the Aussies, Kiwi's and Brits: everyone goes on a hike and then shares a community feast. My kind of outing. I will take lots of pictures. So have a great weekend yourselves, and please, if North Korea DOES invade, somebody send me a text; You'll probably know about it before I do....

Korean Observations....

What a week! I do intend to update the blog more than once a week folks, but this week has been a whirl of unpacking. First I would like to report that even the condensed contents of a 4,000 square foot home with 3 garage bays does not fit well into a 1700 sq foot apartment. We did an OK job of packing I GUESS, but we did bring too much crap and we had moments as we were unpacking of "seriously, no wonder our kid needs remediation, we must be seriously challeged to have brought such items". Like we brought the sky chair ??!? And 2 bikes WITH tag along trailers, PLUS kid bikes and 2 inflatable kayaks, 4 pfd's, and an extra thermostat? I have no idea how that last item made the cut and my salad spinner did not by the way. Did I mention we have no garage space? I mean where in the Sam Hill are we going to put the Kayaks?
We are now mostly done however, and the place is really starting to feel like home. My next update will be about the apartment, but for now we have more pressing matters to discuss. Like this incredibly bizarre culture and how I might begin to navigate it's pitfalls.....

So this update is going to be about things I have observed in my 2 weeks here. First of all I would like to report that American culture as a whole has gone incredibly soft folks. I say this because I am in a foreigners community and so far we are the only Americans. We have met New Zealanders, Norwegians, Nigerians, lots of folks from India, Brits, Australians, French, Croatians, the list goes on and on and so far they all seem to be on the same page. In the rest of the world ladies and gentlemen there are WINNERS and LOSERS and it's not about everyone feeling good about themselves all the time. Example: the mom's at the clubhouse organized some games with about 20+ kids and said the winner would get ice cream. And the winner got ice cream. And the other 19 kids had to stand there and watch him eat it. And they were OK with that because they didn't win. Wow.
While we are being all touchy-feely all the time the rest of the world is preparing kids for real life and it occurred to me several times this week that we have gotten so soft/lazy/entitled, that any one of these countries might actually be able to kick our ass if they got it into their heads to do so, and I'm not sure we could rise to the challenge anymore. Thankfully, none of these other countries seem to realize how soft we have all gotten...
Example 2. They have tests in school. In Kindergarten. Man, what a blindside THAT was! So while we have been doing "intuitive spelling" (just spell it the way you FEEL it should be spelled sweetie...) the rest of the world is actually spelling things correctly and testing kids on it and when I mention that we have never done that before because our school taught intuitive spelling they look at me like I have lost my mind. "Why would you want them to learn it wrong and then have to re-learn it later?" one Mom asked me. I had no good answer. Makes you think eh? I'm just sayin'....

It's incredibly safe here and there is almost no crime. The gals that I hike with said you could leave a wallet full of money lying on the ground and it would be returned to you if it had your name on it and if not it would probably still be sitting where you left it a day later.
They have these really involved outdoor exercise areas. There are machines that are attached to the ground like these:
They are all in good repair and work flawlessly. The thing that floors me is the unattached items like free weights, hula hoops, and other accessories that are lying around on platforms all around the perimeter of these exercising areas:
Keep in mind that these areas are not staffed or guarded. I have walked through some with only one or 2 people exercising and there is no one in charge of the area or in charge of putting everything away at night. It just all stays out and no one takes it or vandalizes it. Imagine this scenario in ANY town in the U.S. and ask yourself how long that equipment would still be there. In some places, mere hours and I would be willing to bet that in almost any town in the US anything not bolted down would be gone in a week.

Koreans love their food, and I guess they also like doing dishes (!?) because every meal is served on about a gajillion plates and bowls:
Again, non of this food is especially delicious by American standards, but it is interesting I'll give it that. They seem to like 1. gelatinous textures 2. Spicy things (to the point where you are left wondering if what you've just eaten might actually kill you) 3. Fermented foods (if it's good, bury it in the ground for like 5 years and it'll be even better right?) 4. Rolls with surprises inside! Not tasty surprises either, just surprises. I bought hamburgers at Costco but every time I try to buy hamburger bun-like rolls I am defeated by various unknown centers. I have taken to buying what I think is a roll one at a time and taking a bite right then and there because I just want BREAD DAMMIT with nothing in it. The best thing I've gotten was (I think) ham and cheese and the worst was some kind of fermented bean paste. Why anyone would pay money for the latter and eat it voluntarily is beyond me. I finally just broke down and bought some plain bagels for the hamburgers, I am hoping that since there is a hole in the middle that the bagels are indeed plain and not stuffed ring-style in any way.

Korean Parking:
I don't know what to say. You see this everywhere. How do you get out if you're one of the cars parked in the inner layer? I will take more pictures of this so you can see just how insane it gets. We try to park very strategically so it won't happen to us.

Finally, the one of the National Mottos seems to be "If you like something do it so much that you beat all the joy and fun out of it and then keep doing it." I don't speak Korean so I'm not exactly sure but I'll keep working on that one and get back to you. They don't put their kid in Tae-Kwon-Do on like Thursdays. If they have a hobby they go EVERY DAY. Now I was aware that older kids (10 and up) go to school, go home for dinner and then go to the Hagwan (extracurricular subject school) from 7 to 11+ pm for things like English, art, music, oration, you name it and THEN go home to do homework (when do they sleep??) But I had no idea how early this insanity began. One of Teddy's classmates (Teddy is THREE) does ballet. Her Mom asked if Sasha was interested. I said what day does she go? The mom proudly told me that her kid goes to ballet every day Monday - Friday from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. I said are you completely Bizeck in the head?!? Actually I didn't say that, but I wanted to. (I have witnessed this kid several times at about 3:15 in the afternoon yelling that she does NOT want to head out to Ballet.)
The result of all this education seems to be a society of extremely educated folks who can't come up with an original, creative thought to save their lives. Jeff said he tried to run a brainstorming session with the Koreans he works with and got crickets. He sat there flinging out ideas and they just sat there in silence. I go "you want to know why? Because their parents put them in Ballet at age 3 from 3:30 to 6:30 5 days a week!" I mean part of childhood is falling off your bike and building a crappy tree fort that falls down and then building a better one and catching frogs and getting lost and getting in trouble for some nonsense that you and your friends thought up and being DIRTY and begging quarters from the old lady down the street so you can sneak to the candy store without your parents knowing and being an unstructured dopey kid right?! Can I get an AMEN?
So there you go. If I pissed you off at the start of this ramble by knocking Americans, at least I finished it off by defending 'em.

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....