International Week!

So last week at school was "International Week" at the Hyundai Foreign School. Monday was Korea day (no pictures) and Tuesday they had off from school for a Hyundai Holiday (?). On Wednesday, parents came in and set up tables with activities, crafts, or displays from their home countries. The kids got to go around to all the tables and learn about the different countries. Sasha is in the picture above with Akie (Ryota and Mizuki's mom) doing origami at the Japan table with some of her classmates.

The Denmark table was just all LEGOs. I thought that was cheating. The kids of course loved it!

Teddy's Kindy class came over from their little building and spent the morning at the big school taking part in all the fun. Here they are having their snack.

The New Zealanders taught the older kids a really cool Maori game where you chant something and then bump your sticks on the ground and then have to try to toss one of yours to your partner while they toss you one of theirs and you both have to catch them. It was fun to watch.

I was supposed to run the US table in the morning but I ended up being there all day. Zoe took this picture of me explaining the same thing for the millionth time that day. We had an American Girl timeline activity and a map of the US with famous landmarks (Disney world, Golden Gate Bridge, ect) and you had to try to put all 10 in the right places on the map.

Teddy and Ryota scored big time because Akie and I both had to run our tables in the afternoon, and Japan and the US were right next to each other so the boys just got to hang out.

Thursday (no pictures), some of the moms went into school to help make flag banners. The kids had colored in tons of flags and we strung them all together. Then the kids put together tables from items they had been making or collecting at school. We came in and helped our kids make their table since we had no one older than 2nd grade on team USA.

Friday was the big day. Everyone had to wear their national dress. This is where it's tough to be from the US. We don't have "traditional food" "traditional clothing" or "traditional crafts" ect. We can't even channel our personal heritage. I mean Sasha and Teddy are English, Scottish, Swedish, French, Polish, and Italian - what a pair of Mutts! So we decided to rock the Red, White and Blue!

Now I didn't bring any USA paraphernalia to Korea, not even flag T-Shirts because I figured no one over here wants to see a bunch of Americans sporting their flag all around so international day kind of caught me unawares. This ended up being our table. PS: I did NOT contribute the Magic Johnson poster OR the Hannah Montana sheet. It was a group effort and my policy is to try not to make young kids cry whenever possible so I just went with it:

There was no way I was going to make chocolate chip cookies for 300 people with no cookie sheets and no vanilla either so we ended up having Oreo's, Jello, Goldfish, Hershey's Kisses, pasta salad, dried cranberries and Brownies for our "American" foods to try. I know, I know, next year I will do SO much better. It's ON baby! (Anyone know where I can get a "Statue of Liberty" or an "Uncle Sam" costume?)

The French people had like 2 huge tables and all the Mom's baked. Their food was scrumptious!

So we all set up our tables on Thursday, put the food and the final touches together Friday morning. I got to do a walk-thru of the whole upstairs before all the kids hit which was great because there was 300 people at the main event - much too crowded for filming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6GbMThrikg

We then went out to muster for the International Day Parade. This was the coolest thing ever! The kids had to gather at the cone with their flag on it and then when everyone was ready each country in turn got to parade around and then over a little stage while everyone cheered. So glad there are other Americans here now! My friend Aurora is a Korean American that ended up back in Korea as an expat! Her daughter Maddie is in year 2 at HFS. Here's Sasha and Maddie all ready to march:

 A few other families that could claim multiple nationalities decided to throw in their lot with us (who wouldn't?) Here's our whole USA gang:

Ingrid and Øyvind were the lone representatives from Norway. They looked adorable!

Same thing with Mizuki and Ryota representing Japan!

Crew from India - again I am jealous that we don't dress like them. Comfortable clothes all covered in Bling, FANTASTIC!

The crew from Croatia:

Here is the Aussies. Is it me or do they always look like they're having more fun than anyone else? Funniest thing, on the parade video clip listen closely as the parade begins. You'll hear the principal of the school, Mr. Dyson say "The Australians are going to go first so they're gonna set the standard. All's you have to do is watch them and copy what they do. This is for TODAY ONLY - not for general life things...." Hysterical! And no, it was NOT warm out. They're just hard-core....

Here is the group representing South Korea. The deal with the school is you can go there if you are a foreigner or if you are Korean but speak English. There are many Koreans in the area who traveled and worked in the US and who have children who were either born in the US or who have attended US schools. Some of them have elected to continue to educate their kids in English so that's why there are many Korean families at the school.

I made a video of the parade. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mk5h0FH7A4

After the parade we tried to get a group shot. Easier said than done with a million kids, flags, and parents all trying to get a picture too. I used my mad spidey skills and stood on the school fence to get this one:

Once the parade was finished everyone went to their tables and then we took turns being at the table or walking around to see/taste what everyone else brought in. Here's the US kids in front of their table:

Sasha is getting ready to dish out some goldfish to a friend from Nigeria:

All in all it was truly an amazing day. So many cultures coming together to celebrate the school and the kids and each other! I almost wish my kids were a little older so they could begin to appreciate what an amazing experience days like this are! I know they're absorbing it all though...

Loose Ends Part 2

The rest of the loose ends. Teddy also has a great buddy named Thomas. Thomas is one year ahead of him in school so they don't get to hang out together as much as Teddy and Ryota but Thomas and his family always go on the hash which is great because Ted and Sasha have epic motivation to keep up with Thomas and Lorena. For some reason, it seems that Asians don't hash. Sounds like something you would see on a T-Shirt....

Here's Teddy hashing like a champ and trying to keep up with his buddy:

The tooth saga: Sasha had a wiggly tooth when we were at the O'Flaherty Irish fiddle retreat. That was in OCTOBER!! So the bottom two have been loose forever. Then the new teeth started to grow in and the little ones still didn't come out. She had ROWS of teeth! Here's a picture of Sharky (her new nickname) in action.

So I FINALLY got one out with dental floss. She was radiant. Back home everyone had lost a tooth and she just couldn't wait to lose one too and it finally happened! It was like Disney World, a B-Day party, and Christmas all rolled together!

 As you can see, we brought the tooth pillow that I made in MOPS years ago (She knew right where it was) and the tooth fairy came through with Korean Won. How many kids can say they got 5,000 for their first tooth?

The tooth fairy also left a trail of pixie dust between the pillow and the front door. She was totally psyched about this:

So the tooth was really the topic of discussion for what seemed like weeks. My fav part of the whole thing was that the first night we had to pray to the tooth fairy so Sasha could put in a special request: she wanted to get paid but still keep the tooth. The tooth fairy honored this request. Then the next night Sasha goes: "Haaaay, what would happen if I put this tooth BACK UNDER MY PILLOW!?!" Don't mess with the tooth fairy kid - you got a lot more teeth to lose and at this rate you'll have a working relationship for many years. Best keep it honest....

Cat news: Max is now as fat as Mitzi. He no longer gets his daily 4pm-10pm "go out, run around and kill things" session and it's showing. Poor Max, cut off in his prime, he's only 7....

It snowed here 2 weeks ago!! It hasn't snowed in Ulsan for a few years I hear, so we got lucky. Lasted for about a day, but boy was it fun! Here's Sasha on our way to school:

One of the guards built a snowman at the entrance to the foreigners compound:

All the kids were excited! And at the HFS they don't have any "throw a snowball and get suspended" rules like we had in Bend. So fun!

I even had burly hiking buddies that day! Kari and Selma came for the morning hike.

The snow was so thick and stuck to all the trees. It was beautiful!

This is my little buddy Tapas. His people are from some northern European Teutonic country - I forget which one. He lives in an apt like ours and his mom has a baby and a 3 yr old. Tapas is 80% awesome-hyper and 20% stinker-hyper (sound like a black dog in our family?) and I know how that is so I try to go pick him up and take him hiking with me when I can to give his mom a break and get his energy out. He loooved the snow, and was totally doing doggie donuts. So much fun to hike with. Makes me really miss Geek and Monty, but boy am I glad that I don't have either one of those 2 in a little apartment!

There is a Costco in Busan. We have been there 3 times. You never know what you'll find:

Sasha made sushi at school. Korean sushi is really different from Japanese sushi. It has egg and cooked things and squishy things in it. I think it's totally nasty actually, but of course we all tried it and declared it to be delicious (that's 'mach-is-eye-o' in Korean).

Teddy no longer wears pull-ups to bed - and he did it before his 4th B-day! I thought he'd be wearing those suckers to college so I am proud to say that Team Stolasz is, after 6 years, DIAPER FREE!!! That saves a bunch of $$$. I take him potty at like 10:30 before I go to bed and it always cracks me up because he is flat on his back, perfectly straight, but at some weird angle in the bed.

Yeah, that's his pillow at the bottom of the picture:

Sasha came with me on the day we set the hash. We finished early and went to a coffee shop for some coffee and cocoa. She's hysterical to talk to right now. You just never know what her mind is thinking up or what's gonna come out of that mouth.

At last but not least, this is what happens when Dads play with playmobil. I went into the playroom after Jeff had been in there playing with the kids the night before and just doubled over laughing. Obviously a disgruntled vet worker. Don't do it Dude!!

Loose Ends Part 1

So here's how it's gonna go down: You're going to get a lot of Blog this week. I need to get my information back load out there because when we get back from Tokyo I will have a massive trip report for you. So you'll get this episode and then at least 2 more this week, and then nothing for a week and then lots of Japan stuff.
This issue is going to be a place for me to stick all my loose ends: little snippets that I want to share but that have not fit into a larger theme up to this point.
  One things that is really fun about living in the foreigners community is the constant stream of activities. It seems like every weekend is a holiday or a celebration for someone's home country and they throw and big shindig. If there's nothing planned, someone comes up with SOMETHING. So a few weeks ago the PTA planned a disco night at the clubhouse for the school kids. The way they did it was great. Preschoolers got their hour from 5-6, Years 1 and 2 came in from 6-7 and then the big kids had their dance from 7-8:30. Worked out great because the little ones got to dance to appropriate music for their age group. Both my kids had a blast. Sasha with the dancing and Teddy with the snack bar. Sasha's group took apart some tinsel pom poms and had a great time throwing them all around while they danced.

In this picture you can see a chunk she just threw. Pretty cool!

Since the kids and I have no car, we do a TON of walking. This is a blessing and a curse. When the weather is nice and there is not a lot to carry, we get good exercise and have a great time exploring. There is a man near our apartment that sells lots of puffed things off the back of his truck. He even has a little machine that makes things as he sells. Most of his stuff is quite good. Very mild and crunchy and not overly sweet or covered with goo like American kettle corn or Cheetos.

Of course then there are the times I HATE walking. Like when I have 4 enormously heavy grocery bags to carry or a tray with 2 dozen cookies and I have to walk the mile round trip to the 2 schools carrying it and Teddy is running ahead and Sasha is way behind picking up every leaf and pine cone and cute rock she can find and then Teddy falls and bleeds but I can't carry him because I already have my arms full and "C'MON already, can we just GET THERE cuz I need to put all this crap down!", yeah, that's when I hate not having a car.....

A few weeks ago we went to Busan to explore the shopping area. There is an organization called FLIK (Foreign Life In Korea) and they run a monthly trip to different areas all around the southern peninsula. This is the first one we went on. It worked out well because Jeff had to work that Saturday. My friend Soon came with us. Here's Sasha and Soon checking out every little thing in these narrow, winding, back alleys.

There are cooking streets where people are preparing all kinds of street food. They have little stools set up in front of them so if you want what they are cooking you just pull up a stool. They line a bowl with a plastic bag and then serve you out of the bag. When you're done, they throw out the bag and then re-use the bowl for the next person. We actually ate at the porridge street. We got pumpkin porridge, and mung bean porridge. They were both pretty good!

We found the seafood alley. Anything you would ever want to buy and lots of things you never thought to buy. And oh, can you just imagine the smells? Lots of it is still alive like the squid Sasha is pointing to. Teddy was in the baby trekker BTW because he got tired of walking. That's why he's not showing up in these pics.

Here's the boy! They had a Cold Stone Creamery on the high end shopping street. WOW were we psyched!!!

Teddy is trying "green tea" ice cream. He says he loves it.

So happy to be in a familiar place with such a yummy treat!

Sasha bought this little change purse with her own money and found out that she can clip it inside her coat pocket. She was quite proud...

Here we are in front of some monument with one o' them traditional Korean buildings in front of it.

Another shot of the monuments:

Teddy LOVED this dragon statue and begged me to take a picture. Jeff has observed that Asian dragons are much more snake-like than the dragons that we usually imagine (like the dragons in Harry Potter for example) and this is a perfect example. This dragon does still seem to be guarding an egg however.

In February Jeff took Sasha skiing to a local resort only one hour away. She did such a great job in Pyong Yang that he wanted to get her on skis one more time before the season ended. Turns out they were there on the final Sunday of the year.  Jeff said they were literally taking the mountain down around them.

Of course she did a great job and we rented her a helmet this time now that we know what a little speed-demon she is!

Teddy and I got to spend an awesome afternoon together that day as well. We hiked over the mountain to Nammok, a near-by eating and shopping area, got some ice cream and then hiked home. It was a beautiful day and he hiked almost the whole way by himself! Here he is with some sticks he collected.

And a shot of our favorite at-home activity, painting on the sun porch. Teddy proudly displays his art. He says it is a rollercoaster. Hmm.... obviously a neo-modern expression piece. I think it looks like a fire ant actually.