It has been raining, and raining, and raining. Not just drizzle and overcast skies; I'm talking about buckets of rain, relentlessly falling and getting everything soaked. I've been keeping fans on to circulate air inside and turning on the air conditioner to kill the humidity indoors a bit (although, due to the rain, the weather is not hot and there is no need for cooling the air). On weekends with the kids, this gets challenging. The staying inside, I mean.
So, to get out of the house and do something, we took a trip to the National Museum. Actually, our initial goal was to go to the National Children's Museum (which is located inside the National Museum), but it seems everyone else had the same idea and we couldn't get entry because it was full. No wonder they recommend online reservations--despite the fact that it's free--before attempting visit on the weekends; especially rainy weekends.
Above, Dahin and Oliver pose with defenders of the Dharma, four of the eight Buddhist guardians. Despite my hopes for a culture-filled afternoon, I faced those-who-think-everything-that-is-not-tv-is-boring, coffee-seekers, and the "I'm tired-s". Oliver was the only one into being there, besides me. So, after finding Jack's much needed coffee shop (shots below) where the kids ate some gelatto and Jack got his latte, Oliver and I separated ourselves from the grumpy bunch and did some touring of our own. We almost made it through an entire documentary on Buddhist pilgrims, walking and bowing their way from Yunan to Lahssa, before the whiners found us and won the battle of boredom.
On our way to find another cultural giant, McDonald's (the first time we'd gone there for a meal since coming to Korea; good that McDonald's is rather inconvenient here as it can be a special occasion 'fun' meal instead of something we have often), we discovered that the Han River had flooded into the Han River Park. Below, you can see that it has swallowed the trees on its banks (no, we don't live in the cypress swamps, people) and is close to covering a set of basketball goals. News crews were out filming the flooding.
Ah...we made our way to McDonald's at last where I was reminded why I was glad we don't eat there. First of all, it was dirty. Second of all, pleather lounge-type chairs and small tables were set up for eating. I found this a little icky. Don't know why; just did. And, true to form, it tasted just like home (greasy) and provided little pink plastic toys made in China that the kids fought over despite having the exact same toy. Speaking of China, the two Chinese people sitting by the window behind the kids and a whole group of Chinese people were just hanging out and not eating on the second floor (where we were eating) --ok, a couple of them had obviously eaten at one point, but others in the central part of floor 2 had no food containers, drinks; nothing. It was a bit creepy only because they were just hanging out there and not talking to each other; it would have been different if there were just eating or having conversations. But, they acted as if they were waiting for something and just sat there, and sat there, and sat there. We were sure they were Chinese after a while because occasionally you'd hear one them speak. But we pegged them initially because of the way they were dressed: worse than an ajuma who'd dressed in the dark and worked at Namdaemun at the break of dawn (I'm talking polyester, checks with stripes and other loud patterns, ill-fitting and baggy pants, eighties hair, and farmer-style baseball caps on a couple of the men). A couple of the women strolled around and stared at people (including our kids--I shot nasty looks back--ok, I'm really mean, but they were creeping me out). Something was up and it seemed unsavory. What was weirder was that it was in the McDonald's in Gangnam--a well-to-do-area where you don't see a lot of Chinese or Japanese 'tourists' (they tend to stick around Myeongdong and other parts of central Seoul). Anyway, we ate and left. I'm getting tired of the rain.
Some of you may have noticed the previous picture of Oliver wearing a pink princess dress and tiara. Well, in her quest to fulfill the desire for a little sister, Dahin began putting bows in Oliver's hair and dressing him up in her clothes. He's taken this and is running with it: now, he puts bows in his hair and dons earrings (he hooks them around the inside cartilage of his ear) and refers to himself as Olivia. The other day at the swimming pool he asked me to put a little pony tail on the top of his head (a la cupie doll) and kept it in much of the time. I am not too worried about my little Ed Wood however. He refused to keep some pink erasers that he got from a classmate for a birthday gift, claiming they were too 'girlie' and gave them to Dahin. I said, "What was that, OLIVIA?!?" He just smiled. Ah, touche.
Despite the fact that it was raining, water guns were employed in a battle extra-ordinaire. Like getting sprayed with water would matter....A group of boys engaged in a soccer match pretty much the whole time. When the thunder arrived and some lightening appeared, we had to encourage the boys to get out of the rain.
Oliver decided, why watch when I can get soaked, too? So, Dahin went out to retrieve him.
Breakfast at the Sung's--I can't stomach kimchi and rice for breakfast on a regular basis, and Jack doesn't go for oatmeal. Everybody sort of eats their own thing.
We met Jack, his mom, his sister, and her daughter (our niece) at Insa-dong for lunch. We spent a fun afternoon eye-shopping and eating some pretty good food (although Insa-dong is now infamous in my mind for jacking up prices for 'traditional' wares and food). 
