Lindy's Visit

So, this year we had this genius idea to stick around Korea a bit longer after school got out. We knew there would be things to do to prepare for my transition into stay-at-home mom next year, and we knew that we didn't want to do the rush that we did last year--leaving for the airport just moments after we were allowed to leave the country. But, the past 10 days have drug on and on. Sure, I did have a lot to do, and no, I wasn't getting anything accomplished quickly, but 10 days was too long. Even if I have read an entire book (that in no way related to school) for the first time in a year. 

Oh well. We've now experimented with leaving about four days after we got out of school (felt too late at the time), leaving on the last day of school (felt way too rushed), and leaving 10 days after school got out (felt like about a month!). Who knows what we'll do next year?

We are staying an extra 10 days later in the summer, since I don't have to go back to school in the fall. It has always been important to me to back in time to recoup from jet lag and spend some time working to prepare for the year before we're actually required to be back. Eric isn't as concerned about it, and since we still arrive about 10 days before the kids start school, we should be able to adjust by the time we need to.

To say we're excited is a bit of an understatement. Even today, the last day before we leave, has taken for-e-ver! We ended up eating dinner at 5:00 and then watching a movie before bed just because the afternoon went on and on. We're packed with suitcases loaded in the car and can't wait until 11:00 tomorrow morning to finally get the dreaded travel underway!

Eric's mom came to visit us at the beginning of May. The timing worked out well for her to visit Evan and our new nephew (who we finally get to meet in a week!) in Hawaii and then spend a few days with us before heading back to Seattle. We had a holiday weekend with Thursday off, then worked Friday, but had Monday off, as well. Cade had both Friday and Tuesday off from school, too, so we really needed the help!

On her first day, we had a mini swim lesson for Cade. One of the swim teachers at our school offered a class for pre-swimmers to introduce them to some of the concepts in preparation for swim lessons, and Cade needed it! He loves the bath, but isn't a huge fan of the pool. He's perfectly content to sit on the edge and watch the others play, so we wanted to take advantage of this for him. Kennedy got to show her grandma that she can now swim the entire length of the pool--pretty impressive!

After his swim lesson, we had our staff picnic at school. We had BBQ from the base, followed by the annual softball game. The weather was perfect for it, though I wasn't feeling great.

The next day Eric, Kennedy, and I had to go to school, but Cade's school was closed, so Lindy and Cade walked to school and had lunch with Eric in the afternoon.

There were a couple of tourist-y things that we had in mind to do, but it was a holiday weekend in Korea. A big one, obviously, with all of the days off we had. So, we knew that no matter what we did or when, it was going to busy!

Nonetheless, we decided to head out of town on Saturday to visit the Garden of Morning Calm again. Remember our last trip there? The one that we took in December, but I didn't post about until after this trip in May? Whoops!

Lindy had been to Korea twice before, but it was during our spring break both times--not a particularly nice time to visit. It's still chilly and brown at the end of March. Since she was coming so much later in the year this time, we really wanted to show her how nice Korea can be! So, we headed out of town to see the flowers.

It was strange seeing what the garden looked like in the daylight without all of the lights; I think most people would do it the other way around, but we tend to do things backwards. And I'll admit that I am tempted to see it in every season, though I don't think it will happen.

The first time we drove there it took us about two hours because we had the wrong address. This time it took us about eight hours because of the traffic! It was stop and go from about the time we left our house until we reached the garden. Insanity! We passed the time by listening to old Raffi songs from YouTube.

We had packed some sandwiches and snacks in case we couldn't find anything the kids wanted to eat when we arrived, but we made it through those and were still starving by the time we reached the garden. So, we stopped at the first stand we saw and picked up french fry-covered hot dogs on a stick (picture a corn dog, but replace the corn breading with french fries).

The garden was beautiful, and I think we all decided it was worth it (it had to be at that point, though!). Thankfully, our drive home only took about an hour.

Monday was Children's Day, and it's one of those days when any place remotely child-friendly is packed, so Eric and the kids took Lindy on an adventure to find a Japanese prison while I stayed home and worked. He didn't take any pictures, but it sounded as if it was an interesting trip.

Tuesday, Eric and I were back to work, but Cade had the day off again, and we let Kennedy stay home, too. They got to spend some quality time with grandma before she left that afternoon.

I worked hard to get to these before we leave tomorrow. I think you're caught up on the picture-worthy events of our spring, especially since I don't find as many events picture-worthy at this point. When I get around to it, I'll be able to focus just on pictures from this summer. June and July will be pretty quiet as we spend time with our family in Washington, but after this spring, that shouldn't be too out-of-the-ordinary!

Heading up Haleakala

Well, our Chuseok break has not started out with much excitement. I decided that since I have a few days off, I should finally get these last two wisdom teeth pulled. I had planned on doing it before school started, but my cold was so bad that I couldn't breathe through my nose. Nor could I last long without coughing. I almost let this little cold I have be a good excuse, too, but I can breathe just fine and my cough is pretty sporadic.

At least it's done now. Eric has done a great job of making me smoothies and mashed potatoes. Yesterday, I spent the entire day laying in bed, trying to sleep. He had made plans to visit a friend of our who is in the hospital going through chemotherapy, so the kids were on their own. They played Legos all day long and Kennedy prepared a healthy lunch of toast and cereal for the two of them.

Today, I'm determined to stay out of bed. Maybe even get out of the house. I have a feeling that I may have managed to glorify how I was feeling after the dental work I had done last spring. We have big plans to go to one of the water parks tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be feeling up for it by then!

I also have high hopes for all of the work that I am going to accomplish on this little break. Of course, I was hoping to get much of that work done yesterday when I wasn't getting out of bed, but that didn't happen since I could barely keep my eyes open.

These pictures are of our trip to the lavender farm on our way up to Haleakala. After lunch, we packed a little picnic and jumped into the car to drive up and see the sunset.

We stopped at this cute little lavender farm on the way up. It was a photographer's paradise, of course, but it is set up pretty well for kids, too. They immediately started on a scavenger hunt through the gardens to find various items and get their stamps. That is exactly the kind of activity that Eric needs when he visits places like this, too, so he led them around and made sure they got every single stamp.

I wandered around finding flowers to take pictures of and Evan and Jen enjoyed their lavender coffee and tea. After the kids finished, they went into get their prize--a box of lavender shortbread cookies. Yum.

We decided to save the cookies for our picnic, so that we could get warm lavender scones with marmalade. They were delicious!

We left the farm, heading further up the mountain. The roads are pretty windy up the mountain, so Jen didn't want to drive any more. She and Evan took the kids in a vehicle that they'd borrowed from friends, and Eric and I took their car. It wasn't long before I realized that I wasn't going to be able to the passenger any more. I'm not sure why I even tried, to be honest.

We eventually made it up into the park and stopped to have our picnic: a lovely assortment of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grapes, and 7 layer dip, all followed by lavender shortbread cookies.

Then, we were off again, headed further up the mountain. As we drove, the clouds got thicker and the rain began. By the time we reached the parking lot just below the summit, we couldn't see anything. It was cold, rainy, and so cloudy that we could barely see any other cars. We were not going to be able to see a sunset from there.

The boys jumped out to see what they could see. A whole lotta nothin'. The women and children waited in the car. They returned shortly and we headed back down to the visitor's center where we had eaten dinner.

We had just dropped out of the clouds and as we pulled into the parking lot, the sky was turning orange. Clearly, we were back down around buildings as there are power lines going through the above picture.

 

Nonetheless, it was beautiful and I was glad we got to see it, even if it wasn't the original plan. Unfortunately, we hadn't made it much further down the road when Kennedy threw up because she was carsick. Clearly, we weren't going to be able to try this again, nor were we going to be able to attempt the road to Hana. Maybe next year!

Adventures in Mold & Maui

This weekend feels like the first time that we've been able to relax at home since school started. Soccer practice was cancelled Friday afternoon because of the thunderstorms. Baseball was cancelled Saturday morning as a result of the ongoing thunderstorms all night long. We. had. nothing. going. on. for one day and it was awesome! Eric is playing with his Sunday team since his game on Saturday was cancelled, and Cade has been throwing up for the past twelve hours, but other than that things are good around here. We're looking forward to a very short week and hoping that we can all be healthy when we return from Chuseok Break.

Sure, we have plenty to do here at home. But catching up on laundry (that's taking two or three days to dry because of the moist air!), cleaning the house, and catching up on grading are things I can handle when we actually have a day to do it!

We still haven't quite caught up on everything. We have yet to go out for our anniversary and our celebration for Eric's birthday consisted of our typical Wednesday night dinner with friends, except that Cade and I trekked into Itaewon in the rain to pick up a cake from Baskin Robbins, too. So, last night we went out to On the Border, our favorite Mexican restaurant, to celebrate Eric's birthday. The rain had finally stopped and it is a fairly easy trek via subway to the newest one at IFC Mall. Only one transfer and a straight shot from the station to the mall sounds easier than figuring out how to drive and park, so we went with public transportation. It felt strange for me simply because I haven't been on the subway since we arrived back this year.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons that we don't have much going on this weekend is because I skipped out on the high school retreat. So, there aren't any high school students around to babysit for us. We'll just have to put off a date for a bit longer, I guess. We're a month late as it is, what's a few more days?!

A few weeks ago, Eric looked at me and said, "You know what topic you should cover on the blog? Mold." Of course, I just kind of laughed and asked why on Earth I would want to write about mold. But, he seemed to think it would be a topic of interest and since he hasn't suggested a topic for the blog in about 18 months, I figured I had better oblige him.

First of all, mold just seems to be a part of life in Korea. And again, having never lived outside of western Washington, it isn't something we're accustomed to. Sure, the Pacific Northwest is wet, but it's very rarely hot and wet at the same time. Summertime in Seoul means that it is hot and wet. All. the. time.

Before we leave for the summer, we put any food that has even the slightest chance of growing mold into the refrigerator or freezer. Of course, we try to just eat everything before we leave. We don't go to Costco for about the last six to eight weeks. We stop buying groceries (except milk) for about the last two weeks, unless it's something very specific. Honestly, I kind of enjoy the challenge of figuring out ways to eat everything.

Then we load the freezer with the flour, sugar, and spices. Chocolate chips, brownie mixes, other baking supplies, and anything jarred goes into the refrigerator. Items like dried pasta and canned foods I bring in from our pantry and put into the kitchen cabinets. Anything to avoid foreign growth. It's become quite the routine.

When we arrive back here in mid-July, humidity levels are high. In spite of my preparations, we usually arrive to some sort of mold. This year, we were irritated that many of our appliances had grown mold on the outside of them--our rice cooker, coffee grinder, and waffle maker. Thankfully, nothing was on the inside and they were fairly easy (for Eric) to clean up. The food was still in good condition.

Others were not so lucky. Our neighbors, arrived home late and were ready for bed. When they pulled back the sheets, they discovered that their bed and pillows were covered in mold. Is there anything worse? I can't imagine being jet-lagged, tired, ready for bed and discovering mold. Horrific!

To make matters worse, when they arrived at school--to their brand new, purpose-built band classrooms, they discovered that there had been no air circulation in the room over the summer and the entire room, including the students' instruments were covered in mold. Can you imagine?

The food is a constant. We have to keep all of our bread products in the fridge or they will grow mold overnight (this is year-round). Vegetables grow mold in record time. I didn't even know that carrots could grow mold, but after a few days in our fridge, they do. Every fruit we buy grows mold in a couple of days. Even the apples grow it from the inside out. It's really quite frustrating. We can only buy enough food for two or three days before it goes bad.

Other, little things continue. The bathroom (even the floors) can grow mold overnight if it's too warm and someone takes a shower in the evening. The clothes can grow mold because sometimes it seems that they just won't dry. One of Kennedy's white polos was ruined early this school year because it was put away before it dried all the way. Irritating. When I pulled out our suitcases for the staff retreat a couple of weeks ago, they were all covered in mold. That was a new one. Thankfully, I was working ahead, so I had an extra day to clean them with a vinegar solution and let them dry before I had to start packing.

I'm not sure why he wanted me to share our adventures in mold with the rest of the world. Maybe so that you can appreciate life without mold? Maybe he didn't want us to forget that this is one of the many joys of living in Korea. Maybe so that you know that we all have our little challenges. At any rate, now you know. Mold sucks, but we're learning to battle it.

These pictures were from our little trek through the jungle in Maui. Evan and Jen hadn't tried any kid-friendly hikes, so we weren't exactly sure where we were headed. But, after a little trouble finding the trailhead, we had a nice walk through the trees. There were mountains, a bridge, a stream and large rocks, and a beautiful clearing. All of the makings of a good hike through the jungle!

The kids enjoyed the freedom of this trail (because we never really knew where we were going) and the fact that there was relatively no danger, so they could run, jump, and pass everyone without any consequences (like falling off the side of a mountain).

Afterwards, we wandered through the bamboo path, checked out the koi pond, and the Japanese gardens (though this building looks more like a Korean hanok than a Japanese pagoda). Unfortunately, I've already forgotten a lot of details from our trip to Hawaii, so it's a good thing I have a comprehensive record in pictures!

August in Seoul & Sauk Mountain

It's Wednesday (I know. Someone confirmed it for me when I was pretty sure it was only Tuesday.) It's a busy week, and I'm not feeling very deep, so this will be full of random thoughts, no doubt.

Today, Cade came home from school and told me that he had to go to "the office." I tried asking more questions. He ended up telling me, "I did something bad." He wouldn't elaborate more than that. That's pretty much been his M.O. this year, though.

When I ask him a question, he will not give me the answer I want to hear. "Cade, did you have a good day?" (pouty face) "No," is his reply. Thankfully, every once in a while, he'll volunteer something. Yesterday I asked him which one of his teacher's washed his lunch box for him. He didn't answer that question, but he did tell me that "teacher Sumi" was gone and that he missed her. So, that's a good sign!

In the past week, the humidity has dropped considerably, which is such a relief. Eighty-eight degrees seems so much more pleasant when the humidity is not 100%. I was finally able to straighten my hair for the first time since we'd left Washington (though I'm so lazy on vacation that I rarely did it there!). Little things like this excite me right now.

Speaking of excitement, Eric is finally starting to feel better, and he is able to return to school this week. He saw the doctor on Monday and the pneumonia was 90% gone. He has another week of antibiotics and he still isn't feeling 100%, but it's very exciting for me to be able to get back to our routine. Taking Kennedy to school was far more traffic than I wanted to deal with on a daily basis.

The temperature has actually dropped just a bit, as well. Last night, we were able to sleep with the doors open and just the fan on, instead of using air conditioning all night. This is something to be excited about! Evening temperatures dropping into the low 70s and daytime temperatures dropping into the low 80s. Woot.

I am really looking forward to fall. It is beautiful here, even if we don't have the regular fall stuff--pumpkins, sweaters, and Halloween. The temperatures are always very mild; you can finally put on a light sweater without sweating. The leaves turn (though not until about November), and you can find squash (it's like a pumpkin, right?).

But with fall comes the fear of winter. And winter is soooo long here. So, while I'm excited that temperatures have dropped a bit, I keep wondering how my little routine (which seems so easy right now) will look in the wintertime. When the roads are covered in ice. The car is frozen. And I get to stand outside twice a day waiting for Cade's school bus in sub-freezing temperatures. Gotta focus on the present. 

In a lot of ways, I feel that our transitions this year have gone well. Yes, that first week of school was stressful. Yes, Cade has suffered more than any of the rest of us. But the hardest part for me has been what my students call a "first world problem." It's the fact that the laundry and cleaning is up to us again. I know. You feel really sorry for me, right? But I know what I'm missing and you don't!

This week we have Kennedy's open house and soccer practices began for me twice a week. We have our staff retreat this weekend. So, we actually have only a four day work week next week with the high school and middle school open houses and Kennedy will start swim lessons in the afternoon. Next week will be busy, too!

We're excited to get out of the city this weekend and spend a few days at the beach. The weather should be beautiful. We are going to the same place that we went last year, so it's nice to know what to expect. The kids are really excited to spend a few days with friends, just relaxing and playing in the sand.

These pictures are from our last hike before we left Washington. My dad had been wanting to head up to Sauk Mountain, which is just off Highway 20 past Concrete. He'd been watching for a clear afternoon, and the weather had been looking good. We really only had one night that worked for us, though, since it was our last week on the mainland.

So, in spite of the fact that there were clouds we headed up and the rain clouds did result in some pretty skies, although we missed the sunset from the summit. I had intended to dump all of the pictures in just this one post, but I couldn't narrow them, so I'm going to just leave you with these. There will be more to come when I find the time!