Two Days before Chuseok

It was two days before Chuseok, and all through the land, the kids wore hanbok and prepared to make ddeok by hand--well, all except my kids, that is. All the kids made rice cakes (actually, songpyeon--a special ricecake made at Chuseok; stuffed with sesame and brown sugar and boiled with pine needles) at their respective schools, but the boys' hanboks were too small being that the only hanbok we have for them are from their first birthdays (parent guilt trip; note to self: get hanbok for New Year's Day) and Dahin just flat refused to wear hers. Once she got to school, I suppose she regretted it since she came home and reported that EVERYONE had on hanbok. Still, I snapped some photos of the little girls who wait for their buses with us every morning and got some shots of the boys 'on the run.'

Meanwhile, since classes were cancelled, I decided to have some 'me' time and went antique shopping with my friends Roald and Katherine (and one of Katherine's fellow Fulbrighters).

There was so much fabulous stuff to see in the shops. The weather was perfect, as well. Sunny, and only a little bit cool.

The shop below contains old movie posters and memorabilia. The owner is an avid collector and not eager to sell to just anyone. His shop was a pleasant break from the 'buy our stuff rich foreigner--it's Korean, I swear' attitude of most of the shop owners. One woman actually drug us, by arm, into her store. I hated to tell her, but that does not make us want to buy anything. Anyway, Roald was in heaven looking over a rare collection of movie memorabilia from the 1920s and 1930s--kept as a scrap book by an actor of the era--in mint condition.

After the shopping day, we relaxed in Insadong in a favorite tea house. I ended up buying two hairpins and a Chinese stringed instrument with a cool design at the antiques market. It was fun to splurge and hang out with my friends before they returned to their respective homes (Australia and the US) as their research periods were ending.

On the way home, I ran into a group of Mexicans performing in the subway. What else would you expect? ;- ) There are more and more diverse types of performances in Seoul's subway system, held at designated 'culture stage' spots. On any given day, you can see Andean music or bellydancing, Tex-Mex ensembles or African drumming.

Of course, the best part of the day was meeting up with the kids on the way home and having Burger King for dinner. Our neighbors went with us and the kids, with their friend Da-eun, enjoyed some icecream at Baskin Robbins.

Lunch with the Tzou Family

Chieh-han and Sang-Yeon invited us to have lunch with Sang-Yeon's sister's family at a local dimsum restaurant. The good was so, so good. The restaurant was a bit noisy, but after the two birthday parties left, we had the room all to ourselves. I'm craving that wonton soup....

Because I'm playing catch-up and posting information on the past two weeks, I'm keeping the commentary at a minimum. It has been so great to see Sang-Yeon and her family. Hoping that we can see them on a regular basis now. Spending time together makes me realize how much I miss her! Just thinking of her staying up late into the night before Dahin's first birthday and making food with us....Such a great friend! So, now I have to devise a scheme to head to Austria; preferably at Christmas time.

Indiana reunion

My friend Sang Yeon and her family (living in Autstria) are visiting for a few weeks. Because another Indiana classmate is here on a research leave, we had a wonderful opportunity for a reunion. Sang Yeon's beautiful--and well-dressed--family came over for dinner and Kyo-im was here as the 'surprise.' It was so nice to just hang out, eat, and talk for a while.

'Creepy' Uncle Jack threatened to kidnap little Ellie--only joking, of course. But, seriously; how cute is she? After a little while of being shy, she warmed up and played with the kids. She and Oliver played really well together. Her baby sister, Nora, was very, very good the whole evening.

Chieh-han and Sang Yeon paid me a visit on campus. We had some lunch together and spent a little more grown up time chatting. Above, Chieh-han and Sang-Yeon are in my office and, below, Chieh-han made us pose by more office door. Glad no students walked by. ; )

Visitors from Oakland

Our neighbors in our old apartments have come to Korea for a couple of months to visit. We never hung out, at all, in Oakland; just really greeted each other in the halls. Before Jack and Dahin left, they hosted a farewell dinner in their apt. We bought them galbi and went out for some ice cream (well, gelato) afterwards. It was really a lot of fun, and their daughter is such a cutie. Very polite, listens well, and got along really well with the kids.

The gelato place was so relaxing. Initially, we went to a cafe where, once we entered, it was clear they did not want a bunch of kids there. Walking through Apgujongdong's fashion street with jeans with kids, it was clear I did not belong (at least in mother mode). Man, I've never felt older and so unfashionable. Everyone was walking around in the latest designs and hairstyles, and most were stick thin and wrinkle-free. Well, still, it was fun to look at all the boutiques, and eventually we found another dessert spot. At the gelato store, the people were very nice and there was enough space to move around if we needed to. I tried the 'white wine gelato' (no kidding) with mango and yogurt flavors--it was so nice. Our friends from Oakland were saying, "Yeah, but it's not Fenton's." Well, of course there is no other place like Fenton's (craving the hot fudge Sunday right about now), but this is not bad at all.

Ronan, our little mack-daddy, was attempting to pick up on the two girls eating their gelato outside. He believed his cuteness would win them over. No doubt, he IS cute.

Glad we were able to spend sometime together. I remember her as a little baby. A lot of fun to see how kids grow.

This Morning

Because Dahin is such a big girl now, she has insisted that she wants to ride the bus to school with her friends. I suppose Apa dropping her off at school is totally not cool. ;- ) Now, in the mornings, she meets her friends by their building and the group of 2nd graders walks together to the bus stop. This morning, the girls were running a little later than usual. Ronan pulled a chair up to the window to wait for Dahini-nuna and her friends to pass. When he saw them walk down the hill he started yelling, "Hiiiii!" and I heard the girls laugh, "Oh my gosh, Dahin, there's your brother!" You can imagine the embarrassment. : ) Then, when I started shooting photos, the girls yelled, "Camera!" and shot down the hill. No better way to make the doddling kids hustle then pulling out a camera. Works like a charm. Poor Dahin--he, he; it's fun to be a mommy.

Around Town

We took a late afternoon trip to the National Theater right by Namsan (a small mountain--more like a tall hill--in the middle of Seoul. It used to mark the southern border of the city, but the city has grown so much it's now smack dab in the middle). After doing some sight-seeing and walking around, we headed to Myeongdong where driving through the streets is like trying to part the Red Sea. The reason for the 'street walking' is that there are no sidewalks so people have to walk in the street. If there were to try and build sidewalks, there would be not street. The streets of Myeondong are typical of all older neighborhoods north of the Han River (the older part of town)--narrow, winding, crowded. It gets extremely congested, so cars going through have to go through very slowly. Still, some idiots (you can imagine; mostly motorcyclists) make efforts at barreling through the crowd, which makes me very, very nervous when I'm walking with my kids through the streets. The evening sky was pretty stormy, which made a pretty nice picture. The weather is cooling day-by-day and the leaves on the trees are slowly turning. Pretty soon, we'll be deep into autumn. I'm pretty excited about this since the Bay Area has only very subtle season changes and I haven't experienced a real fall since leaving Indiana.

We parked the car by Myeongdong Cathedral and walked to this Seolleongtang restaurant. According to Wikipedia:

"Seolleongtang is a Korean soup made from the bones of the four legs of an ox, with the front legs giving better taste. Generally, only salt and green onions are used as seasoning. Usually, ground black pepper is served with the dish. It is typically cooked over a period of several hours to an entire day, to allow the flavor to be gradually extracted from the bones. It has a milky off-white, cloudy appearance and is normally eaten together with rice and several side dishes; the rice may be added directly to the soup."

Well, there you go. It's, perhaps, the one food the kids eat unfailingly well. While barbecue is usually a favorite, the kids will aways go for seolleontang when given the choice. It's similar to gomtang (literally 'bear soup' because it gives you the strength of a bear; i.e. it' healthy) and the kids, especially Dahin, LOVE both equally well. Gomtang is only different because it is made with different beef parts, but you boil it for a very long time just like seolleongtang and the taste and look are similar. This restaurant, apparently, was featured in a drama and next to our table hung a photo of the two stars of the drama dressed in the same clothes as the people working in the restaurant.

Jack cuts up the kaktugi (hot radish kimchi), a type of winter kimchi that now (thanks to kimchi fridges) is seen all year round. I think it is Ronan's favorite type of kimchi.

Below, Ronan enjoys some kaktugi with his seolleongtang.

Oliver demonstrates the delicate eating method for seollangtang--add some salt, dump some rice in your soup, and go for it. Poor baby--he's getting eaten up by mosquitos. All the kids are covered in mosquito bites, and the closer we get to cooler weather the more aggressive those suckers are being. Even with mosquito repellent, the kids, especially, are being attacked nightly. You can see that, on the boys, their faces seem to be a favorite snacking spot for those nasty buggars.

We strolled through Myeongdeong a bit after dinner. I took a shot of the crowd to show how jam-packed the streets get. People had also congregated outside the coffee shop on the right because a minor celebrity was on the second floor, seated by the window, with his girlfriend. It only added to the crowding a little; Myeondeong is just congested no matter what time of day you go and not matter what's happening.