Snow!

The view from my office window, above, and some shots around campus and of the boys playing with the snow around our home.  The snow here has been following a familiar pattern: drop buckets of snow and then stop, sun comes out, melts all the snow, repeat throughout day.  It happened today as well.  In the morning we woke to a heavy snow fall and at least 3 cm on the ground, but, despite two additional short but heavy snowfalls, by mid-afternoon most had gone away and left a slippery, icy surface that was lots of fun to walk on this evening.

Christmas Elves

Here are two videos of the boys decorating the tree.  Now, the tree has been up for a while (as you can see if you notice that Tashi is still wearing the 'cone of shame'); we put it up around Thanksgiving US time since the boys were so anxious to decorate it.  They played, over and over, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on our  electric keyboard as they went about their Merry work.  They were singing along, until I pulled out the camera.  But, in the second video below, you can hear both Oliver and Ronan singing/humming along a little.

Weekend

While I know it is almost the weekend again, thought I'd post some shots from last weekend.  Dahin and friends coordinated and presented another talent show.  The boys stayed inside and were creatively bored.

Dahin and her friend Eunseong prepared for and hosted the talent show.  They also served as judges, which I am pretty sure should not included giggling at the participants (although if one views American Idol, this appears to be okay by today's standards).  To be fair, I think the giggling was because Shinee was just too darned cute singing her peanut song. Dahin and her buddy coordinated their outfits and Eunsong's mom made the "Winter Talent Show" sign.

 Kids jumped rope, sang the three bears song, and played games for a choco pie prize.

Above, Dahin coordinates with their stage manager (aka Eunseong's older sister), and below Dahin and Eunseong serve as the backup dancers to one of the little girls performing a dance she learned from watching a pop group dance to her favorite song.  This judge/organizer thing is no joke.  The girls did it all!

The boys were on the original talent show roster, but despite two cute little girl messengers coming by our home to get the boys to the show, they remained inside.  As you can see above, they spent their time well.

Tashi Gets Clean, Imprinted, Learns to Share, and Snuggles

Tashi has been settling into the family.  Having a dog at home is really like welcoming in a new baby.  I don't think most people realize how much work is involved.  We certainly didn't.  One of the things Tashi has discovered is that he loves taking baths with Jack.  Jack has his routine down and Tashi loves the warm water and dry off after the bath is done.  I like that he doesn't smell like pee for one day.  (Seriously, when is he going to lift his leg and pee?  Do we have to teach him that, or will it just come with age?) 

He's also realized that we are totally not okay with little Mr. Sneaky hiding under beds and eating crayons.  Daddy suggested imprinting, so we're doing it.  Most of the time, that means keeping him leashed and tied to the couch since we spend most of our time in the living room. He always manages to tangle himself up.  I've decided to leave him tangled for a while so maybe he will learn not to wrap himself around kitchen chairs.  He comes to my room and gets leashed to the chair by the computer desk when I'm working.  This imprinting is necessary until he learns he needs to chill and be around us when we are inside.  We don't keep him leashed the whole day, but really at times when we are so busy we can't constantly watch him.   Like I said, he likes to go grab things from the kids' rooms or yarn from my room and run around the house in a wild game of chase.  While I realize this means he wants to play--which we do plenty of--I'm not into the 'I'm gonna eat a pencil under the kids bed where you can't reach me just 'cause I can'  thing he was doing for a while.  Not good for him or our future relationship. We do the best we can to make sure things are off the floor, but the biggest issue is the sneakiness (well, that and biting, which we are still working on; ouch).  He no longer likes being in his crate while the house is busy, and seems rather content leashed to the couch.  We've put a pillow down for him with toys so he can hang out comfortably while we get things done.

Tashi's also learning about sharing.  Above, Oliver shares his beloved blankie with Tashi as they snuggle on Saturday afternoon (yes, my kids were still in their pjs in the pm---it was Saturday after all).  Below, Tashi returns the favor and shares his space with Oliver.

And, perhaps the thing Tashi has discovered he loves almost as much as eating and trying to grab the shoes from the shoe rack so he can chew on them: snuggling with Apa and taking naps. 

First Snow

We're gearing up for the holidays here and the temperatures have been slowly but surely dropping.  Yes, that icy freeze that has overcome the College of Music is here to stay until June (brrrrr--what's up with not heating the whole building people?).  I feel like Bob Cratchet at times--at least my office is toasty warm.    With the cold comes snow, and with snow comes kids who get excited about getting dressed in the morning just to go outside and throw balls of snow at each other.  I'm into that.  The snow has not continued, but I'm looking forward to some more snow fun this winter.

Los Angeles

I traveled to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago in order to participate in the Society for Ethnomusicology meeting there.  The location changes every year, and this year I was lucky to be able to travel to LA.  There, I spent a great day with Rebecca and Mary--got to see their new home and take a little tour of their new neighborhood in Culver City.  Rebecca picked up Fernando and me at the airport, and we headed to pick Mary up from preschool before walking to lunch at a pseudo Japanese cos-play restaurant/art gallery/store. 

Our first stop along the way to the restaurant was the Culver Hotel, famous for being the residence of the munchkins during the shooting of the Wizard of Oz.  There was a great display of Wizard of Oz memorabilia in front of the hotel behind a glass case.

 Next stop and just before the restaurant, was part of the Culver City studio system.  This house was actually Tara (sp?), the plantation house in Gone with the Wind.

We scootered/walked back to Rebecca's house, said hi to friends along the way, and then dropped Fernando off at his hotel before we headed to the Grove (where Christmas was in full swing and some girls doing ballet were promoting a film version of The Nutcracker), KMart, and Children's Place where Rebecca, Mary, and I shopped until we dropped.

The day with Rebecca and Mary was bittersweet.  It was great seeing them, and time flew way too fast.  The rest of the time in LA was spent at the conference site with some sporadic excursions out and about, including a karaoke session in Korea town (no photos--sorry) and late night ramen.

Some of my favorite scholars and I headed to Little Tokyo where we enjoyed some late night beer and Ramen at a very tasty 24-hour Japanese ramen joint.

 Bonnie Wade and I got to catch up over a chicken salad sandwich and rootbeer lunch (I miss rootbeer).

I had dinner at a tapas place with some members of my Indiana cohort.  It was great seeing these guys after so many years, most with children and holding academic jobs in different parts of the country.  Two of the cohort have already published books and are tenured.  Very surreal to see how much they've changed, but a glimmer of the students I once knew still existed.

Fernando, Stephanie (aka The Shonekan) and I enjoyed a quick coffee before heading to the panels on Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, Stephanie left on Saturday, so I was not able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked.  She's originally from Nigeria and has three beautiful kids I knew as babies.  She's now a professor in Chicago and her husband, a doctor, is working at a great job there as well.  One of the nicest and most beautiful people I've ever met.

Fernando and I participated in the banquet on Saturday night.  The UCLA planning committee arranged for the university's mariachi to perform.  They were the best thing about the evening, which was overpriced with crappy food.  After the banquet, Fernando and I walked to Staples Center for drinks (Fernando: iced tea; Me: virgin mai tai) and edamame at Trader Vics.  It was a pleasant close to the evening and a last chance for us to have a conversation and spend some time together.  It was great seeing Fernando.  Hoping to see him again very, very soon.

The morning of my departure I walked to Starbucks to get the obligatory LA mug, a travel mug, and coffee (which I swear tastes better and is 1/4 of the cost of a bag of Starbucks in Korea) and I snapped some photos of the early morning sun shining on nearby buildings.  This part of downtown LA, with its many art deco-style designs and nice architecture, is quite a lovely place.

Fall Highlight: Autumn Bazaar and Halloween

This is the final post of the fall highlights--whew!  I am finally caught up!  On October 30, our community had the annual autumn bazaar, which included lots of good food and great deals on a variety of merchandise.  I got an Ann Taylor dress and a mock turtleneck sweater dress for about $1 each (1,000 won a piece).   Jack helped with the food since, let's face it, he's way better than doing Korean food than I.  He was the only man helping with the food out there and I think the women working the food booth and other booths really appreciated his help.  The kids, below, set up their usual used goods market.  Kids sell everything from Pokeman cards to picture frames at bargain basement prices.

 Ronan, above, conducts his obligatory annual 'sit on pumpkin' ritual.  Once the pumpkin was christened properly, Oliver posed with it before we took it inside to carve it.  Finding a pumpkin this year was just as challenging as last year.  We literally combed the market several times over a period of days before finding a store that had some pumpkins.  Like last year, it was some little store selling dried beans, etc. (although not the same store as last year) tucked away in some dark corner of the market.

Oliver designed the pumpkin, specifically requesting a vampire scary face.  He drew it on paper for me before I started carving.  I am so glad I decided to bring that pumpkin carving kit from the States.  Trying to carve a pumpkin with a basic kitchen knife is not easy at all.  The kids pose below with drac-o-lantern.

After carving the pumpkin, we ran to the community center to help set up for the night's festivities.  I had worked with some other community moms to both plan the night's trick-or-treating and a magic show. I bought some decorations at the open-air market near Cheonggyecheon and a couple of the other moms also brought decorations and balloons.  We were expecting over 70 kids, so we layed down a mat for the kids to sit on.

 The kids pose with their friends who are all dolled up in their Halloween gear.  Below, the boys and their good friend Januk play around with a pumpkin someone carved and set outside.

After trick or treating, the kids all met by the community library and walked to the community center according to age groups, with the youngest seated first and so on.  The magician was great.  I think it was a fabulous idea to hire the wizard and his assistants and hoping we can pull off something as great next year!

Below, I've included a couple of videos of the trick-or-treating festivities.  Enjoy!