'Shinjong" Flu Takes Its Toll

Actor Lee Gwangki's son died of the H1N1 virus this past weekend. Lee had taken his 7 year-old to the hospital because the child suddenly became very sick. The doctor did a test for the H1N1 virus, but it came out negative. Instead, the diagnosis was walking pneumonia (or some mild form of pneumonia). I didn't read this, but, according to Jack, the hospital provided them with the flu medication, just in case, but the parents chose to not administer the medication because they had been told the H1N1 test was negative. I'm supposing they had also been given antibiotics and, as a paranoid parent, I would have been worried about too much medication myself. The thing that bothers me the most is the misdiagnosis. We're monitoring our kids like crazy--can't use enough sanitizer and drink enough orange juice. This is just really heartbreaking. Above, Lee clutches his son's toy robot as he follows the casket out of the hospital and, below, the child's older sister holds his framed photo.

Happy Birthday Dahin!

Dahin's got the week off of school because of the swine virus (that's what the masks are for--we wear them in crowded public spaces). Many kids in her class have come down with it, so they cancelled classes for a little while. The teachers have posted homework online at the school's website and Dahin's mentor--a sweet college student--came over today for two hours to work with Dahin on the school work. So, because Dahin was a free agent for her b-day, we had the day to play. I went ahead and just took the day off work and, after a brief interview at EBS, we had lots of time to run around.

Our first stop before Dahin's requested lunch of Mexican food was this market specializing in household wares. There, I got a muffin tin for cupcakes, a heart-shaped pan, candles, sprinkles, decorator icing, vanilla, etc--basically stocked up on baking supplies while also getting what we needed for Miss Dahin's 9th extravaganza.

We headed to this cute little taco place for lunch. Dahin got a steak burrito, I got a chicken one, and Jack got a taco. We all shared nachos. The food was really good. We had originally planned on going to a restaurant that charged 15,000 won for a burrito, but when we got there we found it was closed for lunch. I had remembered seeing another little Mexican place close by across the street from the War Memorial Museum, so we drove that way and found "Taco Enchelada." It was so affordable (whew! we were relieved to not have had to pay tons of money for her special lunch) and the people were really friendly. With reasonable prices, good tasting food, and good service, it was perfect.

Dahin enjoyed her first burrito in 10 months. This was the first time we'd had Mexican food in Seoul. Dahin had burritos last year on her birthday--seems like it is her regular birthday request. Much like chili was mine when I was a kid.

Dahin's next request was to go to Namsan. So, we drove to the National Theatre, parked, got some coffee and hot cocoa, and rode a bus to the top of Namsan.

Once there, we climbed up the hill to Namsan Tower where we looked at the love locks and Dahin convinced Jack that we HAD to ride the elevator to the top (Jack's afraid of heights). Because it was her birthday, we did it.

Above, Jack holds on for dear life away from the windows, and, below, we found the spot from which it would take us 9, 040.09 kilometers to make it to San Francisco.

Below, you can see the point to which the buses will take you. The climb up the hill really isn't that far. But, looking down from the tower it seems really, really far.

Dahin got a smoothie and Apa enjoyed some coffee as we took in the view of the autumn colors. Seoul is really beautiful this time of year.

When we got home, I made the cupcakes and we ordered pizza. Dahin had invited a couple of her friends to come over and celebrate. Despite not announcing this was a birthday party (we really didn't want people to think they should bring gifts; just wanted a gathering), one of Dahin's friends came armed with presents and a sweet homemade card thanking Dahin for being her friend. Looks like, ahem, the word got around on the playground....It was a lot of fun.

If you notice, below, the boys are staring at the little girl in blue, with whom they both happen to be madly in love. It is so cute. She (happens to be our next door neighbor) favors Oliver, but Ronan is convinced they will be married one day. Ah, preschool love triangles.

The next day, Dahin got a surprise in the mail from Grandfather and Bubbie. Bubbie made Dahin this amazingly soft, beautiful hat for the cold weather fast approaching (perfect for Dahin since anything wool is 'scratchy'). They also sent her a pretty little necklace (that I am almost positive they had blessed at church), the book The Little Princess (which she is now reading), a Christmas decoration kit, brownie mix (yes!--can't get that ANYWHERE here; can't wait to make them together), and a sweet card. Thank you Bubbie and Grandfather!

Can't believe she is nine years old. Time flies so fast. This is her last year of single digits, so I need to remind myself to savor every moment.

Halloween

I tell you what, we had to put some EFFORT into this Halloween. First of all, I brought up the idea that we could potentially do something special for the kids here for Halloween with the apartment association head which jump-started a trick-or-treating plan. Then, we drove all over Seoul looking for pumpkins and finally, after a few days of casual searching, found a tiny store that sold them. It was NOT easy--no pumpkin patches here, people. Last year, when I was in Pusan for a few days in November, I remember seeing trucks piled with pumpkins for sale, but nothing this year. Good thing we were determined. Carving this sucker was not easy, either. It had a lot more 'hills and valleys' than your average American pumpkin and was not as tall. But, after Oliver and Ronan told the pumpkin they loved it, we carved it into a 'scary, happy face.'

Below, the pumpkin looks out on the cold, rainy day. The organizer of the trick-or-treating called to say that, due to the heavy rain, we might move trick-or-treating to Sunday. I was like, you can't MOVE Halloween to ANOTHER day. But, I lost the good fight and other moms decided to try again on Sunday. The kids were a bit bummed. Plus, we had invited a friend to come over and join the festivities. We still had some things planned at home, though, so it was not all lost.

We made candy apples. This was some hard-core DIY-ing. I had to go the underground markets in Namdaemun, buy peanuts and caramels, and, luckily, found someone on the street selling a little manual veggie/nut crushing thingie. Snapped that one up as I had envisioned myself with a mortar and pestle.

Below, the nut-crushing thingie that saved me hours of 'fun.'

The kids helped unwrap each caramel and we melted them with a little milk in the microwave for two minutes. Stirred the melted hot caramel quickly and then rolled the apples into which we had stuck chopsticks (couldn't find popsicle sticks) in the caramel quickly (we learned real soon this had to be done fast or the caramel would semi-solidify and make coating in caramel near impossible) and then rolled the caramelled apples in the nuts.

The results weren't pretty, but, man, they tasted awesome.

After decorating with some "Happy Halloween" Balloons we found at Emart, the kids watched Goosebumps episodes on YouTube while waiting for their friend to arrive. They were actually really good sports about the trick-or-treating cancellation, although I know they were bummed.

After dinner, the kids dressed in costume and we did a little mock trick-or-treating inside. Each adult hid in a room and jumped out to surprise the kids when the kids knocked on the door. It was a descent substitute for the real thing.

The kids sat down to sort their stashes before diving into some popcorn and candied applies while watching our scary movie selection, "Monster House." The kids' friend discovered that popcorn would stick on the outside of the candied apple and that the taste was not bad as well.

Halloween 2

Trick-or-treating took place on Sunday evening--a cool day without rain. The kids at first were a little shy about their costumes: Ronan as Spiderman, Oliver as Thomas, and Dahin as Sandra Park from the girl group 2NE1. People signed up to participate in trick-or-treating and we only went to the participating homes for treats. The mom who was in charge of organizing it all felt bad for the postponement of the event (like she could control the weather or the other moms' insistence that we move Halloween to Sunday), and bought some snacks and a cake for a little party to take place after the trick-or-treating in the library. I helped decorate by putting up our window decorations, adding some balloons, putting our cd in the little boom box, and putting our pumpkin by the library door. The kids and parents really liked the jack-o-lantern. They said it made it feel like a 'real' Halloween.

Then, we were off!

We even trick-or-treated at our own home.

Some of the parents really had fun with it. This mom dressed as a freaky witch. It was really a lot of fun.

The party, as you can see from the photos above, was a smash. The costumes were great and, surprisingly, there were only a few appearances of the Korean default costume: the hanbok (when you have nothing else, you always have the hanbok). There were horses, princesses, vampires, a PETA kid with a 'meat is murder' sign, bunny-ballerinas, cowboys, and parrots, among others. All the kids had a great time and I think the parents had fun, too.

Then, it was back home for some candy sorting and a re-run of 'Monster House.' Until next year...