devolin adventures

Springtime exploring

4/4/2016

The weather has really warmed here, and as you can see from the photo, it's finally nice enough to enjoy the amusement park near our home. The kids tried the water ride (they didn't get too wet) and the bumper cars. Smiles all around!

Another fun ride we had this week was on the new bikes. Barry has taken a lot of time to get us two bikes to cruise around the city on. He bought one for George and I (we are now the same height) then decided if Barry was to ride with George, George should have a more efficient bike to make it easier to keep up. So, below, you can see The Red Fox - aptly named for George. Barry is still on the lookout for a bigger and better bike for himself.

I know he doesn't look happy, but he does seem to enjoy himself while riding. I think he especially liked touring me around yesterday to a place I hadn't been. He was in charge and kindly reminded me many times to stay back and just follow him.

On Saturday morning we impulsively decided to hop a train to a city north east of Seoul. The ride took about an hour and a half, and thanks to the good infrastructure and cheap pricing here, the ride cost all of $2.50 per person. So cheap! Anyway, we had a pleasant ride through the countryside. It's the first time our kids have seen anything but urban life here. They were finally able to gaze out the windows and see the mountains, smaller cities, medium size town, and the odd old village that made you feel like you were going through a time warp. This area was mostly destroyed in the Korean War, so there aren't many old buildings to admire.

Speaking of the war, I was proud to walk by a memorial and see the Canadian flag flying amongst many other nations' flags. Canada fought hard and lost many here.

Because we didn't plan ahead much for the day trip, it turned out we should have gotten off the train about 10k south of town where the sites we read about were, instead of the main part of the city. We knew something was up when most of the hikers and tourists got off the train earlier than we expected. So we missed some the main attractions, but we still enjoyed seeing another city and getting out for a walk along the river that seems flooded with spring mountain runoff.

We stopped at a restaurant to have the region's specialty - Dukgalbi - chicken, rice cakes, turnip, cabbage, lettuce, sesame seeds, etc, all fried up in a large pan right on the table. The lady who served us was lovely, which always make an experience more pleasant. The kids were brave and tried the strange looking concoction, and discovered they actually like it! Whew, we were starting to wonder if Molly would like any food here. She's usually our adventurous eater, but like me, she hates fatty meat and she really hates the look of the eels and fish in the tanks outside the restaurants trying to lure customers in for something fresh. Finding her favourite Korean food may take a while.

Notice that some of the chicken still has skin...not my favourite.

You can pick your food right out of the pan or wrap it in a fresh lettuce leaf for a bite-sized tasty treat.

Now, I have tried hard not to shove my camera in people's faces, but I had to sneak a photo on the train of these hikers on Saturday morning. This is the standard hiking uniform: sun hat, plaid shirt, fleece sweater, jacket, multi-pocketed stretchy hiking pants, hiking shoes and a backpack full of food and essentials. Hiking poles seem optional. At the train station, there were hundreds, if not thousands of people dressed just like this for their weekend outing. Despite my gentle mocking of the colourful uniform everyone seems to wear, I love how Koreans get out and explore. Exercise is very important to them. Even these exercise machines are everywhere in the city, including many sets in our park. I use them all the time.

I'd tell you more about he week, but Barry is waiting for me to go for a bike ride...

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Positive Momentum

28/3/2016

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Hopefully from the title of this post you'll not be running scared thinking I'm posting another blog riddled with all the troubles of settling into our new lives in Seoul. Rather, this post takes a more positive look at things. Keep in mind it's a lot easier to write about positive things when there actually are many positive things happening around you.

For starters, we're all healthy. The kids seem plagued with little complaints about this and that, but I honestly wonder if they really just don't know what else to say sometimes. Now, in all fairness, they do have the right to complain about some sore muscles these days. They've been attending Taekwondo classes and have had muscles stretched, strained and worked in ways they aren't used to. I just dropped them off at their 4th class, and it's the first time that Barry or I haven't stayed. Therefore, tonight, for the first time in a long time, our kids will have a story or two tell that didn't include us. This may not sound like much, but when you spend ALL your time with your nuclear family, you start running out of things to talk about. I look forward to our dinner chat tonight. Barry's teaching till 9, so the kids will get to tell their tales twice, which I'm sure they'll enjoy.

Our kids could also complain about their sore bums from our little bike ride on Saturday. We went to the river and rented bikes. Seoul, and a good part of of the Korean countryside, has paved bike paths that run for hundreds of kilometres. We only did about 10k, but it was good to get out and have a new experience here. The weather was perfectly spring-like with the sun shining and warming us. We got to see parts of the city we've only driven past before and gain more perspective on this metropolis. The kids seem to enjoy themselves even though Molly swears she still hates cycling. After our ride, Barry and George went and purchased a bike for George and me. We're the same height now (yes, I admit it), so we'll share for now. If we want to go as a family again, we can easily rent. Barry's mission this week is to get himself a bike too. It'll be a good way to see the city and get some personal time.

Tonight I had an interesting experience. For the first time in another long time, someone who knew me stopped to say hi on the street. Again, it may not sound like much, but it was monumental to me. A ten year old girl, with very limited English skills waved at me as she approached on her bike and mumbled something about Taekwondo, English and Molly. She was on her way to class with George and Molly and wanted to say hi. The last time someone in my neighbourhood said hi to me was in August in Haliburton...then something miraculous happened...another girl said hi to me. I almost hugged her.

Sunday was a good day here. One might suggest it was the power of the rebirth of Easter day - perhaps they are right. Sunday was the day Barry and I felt we turned a bit of a corner here. In the morning we had a fun egg hunt with yummy Belgian treats that I had to search hard for a week earlier. Keeping traditions up for our kids is a big deal. Huge in fact. The kids had fun and appreciated all the goodies. Next we went to church. It was a good service - the preacher is talented, and Molly had fun painting eggs, faces and frolicking with other kids her age. I would have liked to have watched her, but I was busy enjoying myself in an adult environment. At the end of each service, the preacher asks anyone who is new to identify themselves. Only 4 Sundays ago, our family stood. Yesterday a young woman stood behind us. After the service, it was me, a long time attendee of the church, who chatted with her to make her feel welcome. It turns out she's from Ontario. How quickly the tables can turn from being the outsider to being the one showing someone else where the coffee is. It was a nice feeling.

I've been to Yeomyung High School three Fridays in a row now. I'm happy to report my small class is rather fun. The students are aged 18-25. They're bright, ambitious, curious and fairly enthusiastic. One young man could use a little fire under his seat, but other than that, they're enjoyable people to spend time with. Hopefully the Conversation Club will provide them with an opportunity to work on the language they already know and learn a little more. Confidence is a big issue, and many of them lack it. The small group setting helps to motivate them, I think. Some of these kids have only been in South Korea a few months, whereas some have been here for years. One of my biggest challenges in teaching is avoiding topics that could present challenges in the classroom. For instance, I can't ask them much about their past. Some of these students have seen horrific things, they've lived rather abnormal lives, lost family members, been persecuted and suffered in ways I can't comprehend and they don't wish to share with their peers. My goal is to discuss the future with them, not the past.

Homeschooling continues rather well these days. The kids are more used to the routine, though they still dislike the isolation - Molly more so than George. Everyday they have English and Korean, and other days they have math, art, history, geography, zoology and critical reading. They are making progress. Online I've found a small network of homeschoolers in Korea, but the only ones who have kids of similar age so far, live in another city. Hopefully the FaceBook page will turn up some other families in the near future.

We continue to take some art classes around the city. Last Friday the kids and I learned about Dan-Chun, the brilliantly coloured painting that is used on Buddhist temples and palaces in Korea. After a short lecture that bored the kids to tears, we each painted a small wooden piece using authentic temple paint made of crushed stones to create various pigments. The kids ended up making two pieces each, while I slowly worked on one. In the end they all looked rather nice. The instructor turned them into key chains, necklaces and hair pins for us before we hit Subway near the US army base for lunch. I can't imagine we'll become professional temple painters, but it was nice to learn something new and have a pleasant experience with other foreigners.

So, all in all, we're making progress on our work lives, social lives and education. Hopefully the positive momentum continues in the week ahead.

Happy belated Easter to all.

Here are some photos from our last week.

Dan-Chun painting

Apparently this is the carousel in The Gangman Style video.

Molly in her new spring coat

A break along the bike path beside the Han River

Barry and his new little buddy - Ambassador Yim's oldest grandson. George is patiently waiting for his southern BBQ dinner on Sunday.

I enjoyed the sunset along the Cheonggyecheon stream after teaching on Friday afternoon.

Korea is full of outdoor gyms where locals do their daily exercises. We all use the ones in our local park. Molly is getting into the swing of it.

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A New Rhythm

15/3/2016

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Sorry for the downer blog posts of late. It's hard to be chipper when you're sick so far from normal and all you really want is someone to drop by with soup and something interesting to say.

We're all recovered or still recovering. It's the worst cold/flu that has hit us in a long time, but lots of expats will tell you it's like an initiation to a new place- sickness is almost inevitable. So now that we've had our right of passage into Seoul life, we're all ready to move on to more pleasant days.

The weather warmed a little yesterday which also brought some cheery feelings. I know Canada is so much colder than here, but it's bitter here and the city wind chills the bones. I don't like it. I'll have to dig out my parka when I'm home in the summer to bring it back for next winter.

I'm trying to be a more diligent homeschool parent...you've heard this before. It really is a challenge. The kids don't like it, and feel that all comments are personal criticism, plus there are tears and often nastiness. Such fun! They wanted March Break off, and are annoyed we said no. It's hard not to throw it back and them and say, "what else are you doing," but that would just be cruel because they really are doing nothing else.

We continue to plod along in our pretty unsociable way here. The only place we have met any kids is at church. It's nice to hear other kids call out, "Hi Molly" or "Hey George" but they still haven't really connected with anyone yet as Sundays only come once per week. George said when he finally went to the first youth group and when kids were asked to pull out their Bible to read, everyone pulled out an iPhone 6 or equivalent and used their Bible AP! Yikes - high tech kids. George was feeling a little left out.

I had my first afternoon at Yeomyung School on Friday. My cold was still nasty, so it wasn't pretty, but I did get through it. What they've asked me to do is run an "English Conversation Club" for 2 hours on Fridays. All 100 students must participate in one club and last week they listened in on 3 options each and by Friday I'll know how many chose the English club. Suzie, the grammar teacher, suspected 5-8 students would be suitable. So, I was originally worried Yeomyung would ask for too much of time, and as it turns out, they are asking for very little. I guess that's ok.

We're still finding it hard to find extracurriculars for the kids. The reality is that all foreign kids go to foreign school and their activities take place at school - then they go home and study. Now that the colds have passed, we're going to stop by the taekwondo studio in the neighbourhood again and see about classes. It could be good, or it could be torture from a language perspective, but we'll try.

Korean lessons are also harder to organize than I thought. In fact, it's not even organizing, it's just finding some group lessons for kids/families that's tricky. Most business people would have them offered at work, and most kids could take them at school, so once again, we're finding ourselves on the periphery. I could get private lessons, but that's kinda lonesome.

So not much else to report. Just plodding along. If the weather stays nice this week, we get out and explore the city like tourists - we have only scratched the surface of this huge place.

The kids played a game at the amusement park nearby - the odds and prices are similar to home; crappy! At least they had fun. There's a candy game that dispenses Tootsie Rolls, so that's a hit.

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Sick week

10/3/2016

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I wish I could say it's been a sick week in the way my nephews and nieces might use the word "sick" instead of "cool," but I just mean the good old-fashioned version of sick.

This illness starts with a subtle cough which quickly turns dirty and painful enough that you wish you didn't have muscles around your rib cage. Stage 2 brings on nasty chills and aching eye balls that hate the light. Stage 3 is full of sweats that cause you to change your clothes and sheets pretty often. In stage 4 the cough persists and the throat gets raw but temperature normalizes. Stage 5 you start to think you're on the mend then your stomach joins the party. I'm hoping stage 6 is a good night's sleep accompanied by miraculous healing.

I'm at stage 5, George is at stage 4, Molly has entered stage 3 and Barry is spending his birthday wishing he had more fun people to hang out with and wondering if stage 1 is around the corner.....what a nasty week.

Because of this we've had a pretty quiet time except two things.

We did manage to host our neighbours on Sunday afternoon for a coffee party before things turned really nasty in here. Our building mates are as follows: a Dutch American physics prof who has worked at Sejong for 8 years, a newly arrived and rather shy Pakistani couple who are expecting a baby in May, a Palestinian man named Mohammed who teaches computers, and an Indian man who has been in Korea for years speaks Korean fluently. They all seem very nice, and we look forward to getting to know them better. Apparently there's an Italian man who lives next door, but we've yet to see him. It's like being in a mini UN.

I also dragged myself out to a meeting at Yeomyung school on Monday afternoon...probably a bad idea in the cold weather, but it seemed necessary to get the ball rolling. I met Suzie, the English grammar teacher, and she explained they want me to run an English Conversation Club on Friday afternoons for an unknown number of students. I submitted a syllabus today, and tomorrow I have to give a presentation to all the 100 students at the school to convince them to take it as an elective...I can't believe I do this for free! I hope I feel up to it. Next week regular class begins. I'm sure I'll be excited about it next week when it doesn't feel like such a slog.

Barry just cancelled our dinner with the Canadian Ambassador and his wife for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure they don't want 3 or 4 sick people sharing germs in their house. We thought about betting on me being better and Barry not getting it yet and ditching the kids, but that sounds a bit too selfish. We're desperate for adult time, but we aren't cruel to our kids....Too bad we're not meaner, I was looking forward to an adult conversation with someone different. Maybe another time.

It's still rather cold here: a low of -5 last night and only +5 (although sunny) today. The Bruces FaceTimed us this morning and said it was +18 in Waterloo...crazy winter Ontario has had! I'm dreaming that next week we'll all be healthy, the weather will be above +5, the kids will join the Taekwondo class they were supposed to attend this week and they'll finally meet some neighbourhood kids...and while I'm being optimistic, I might as well wish for an English or French speaking family that homeschools to be found nearby...and a puppy!

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Getting in a groove

5/3/2016

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The thunder and Barry and George's return from math class has woken me up from an afternoon nap. It's Saturday. I went to bed with a little cough last night and woke with a full blown cold. The chills set in and I've spent the best part of the day under the covers. I worked with the kids on their grammar lessons while in bed - one of the flexibilities of homeschooling. You'd think lessons on pronouns and adjectives could wait, but we're really trying to be more discipled about completing a set number of lessons each week. Yesterday we didn't do them because we attended a seminar on living in Seoul. It's a program run by the city in hopes that newcomers can gather resources for living comfortably. The kids found it exceptionally dull, but Barry and I picked up a few good tips on things such as mobile phone packages, alien registration and garbage management - fun stuff!

We are trying to get in a groove of a weekly routine. We don't have much on our plates yet, so if we can't do it now, it'll just get harder. Barry is back on the math teaching track. He takes the kids to his office where it's quiet. I continue to work at home with them. English, Korean and math are the priorities with some zoology, art, geography and religion. They still say they don't like it, but they're moving along through the books and online programs. My goal is to have them at grade level in core subjects by the end of June.

We continue to shop around the city for things we need and want. The kitchen is getting equipped slowly, and we've needed things such as pants and shoes for the kids...I guess that never ends with growing tweens.

We've heard new professors moving into some of the other units in the building. We've met some, but others seem to pass without notice. We taped notes to all the apartment doors last night inviting everyone to come for coffee and cake tomorrow afternoon. We thought this would be a nice way for everyone to meet. Hopefully they'll be good building mates.

This big foreign city still seems bit overwhelming. I find it takes an hour to get anywhere even though getting places is easy on the subway. I managed to get to Costco this week. We went on Tuesday, but the lines were insane so we just got our membership then left. It was still busy on Thursday, but much more reasonable. We were able to get some familiar food and stock the cupboards nicely. The bad part of the trip was when I went to pay but discovered I could only use cash or a Samsung credit card. With the language barrier this was even more frustrating. Thankfully there was a bank machine nearby and I didn't hold the line up for too long. Not all the machines take our debit cards so the first time it was rejected then I tried my credit card; I admit I held back a few frustrated/relieved tears when the bills started pouring out. It's things like this that seem to be exhausting and annoying every time we try something new. I suspect by June, I'll have some things sorted out.

Monday morning I'm meeting with the English grammar teacher at Yeomyung to discuss the conversation classes I'll be teaching on Friday afternoons. Hopefully it'll all go well. I start this week. Fridays Barry doesn't have to teach, so the kids can either come with me or be with him...or alone. Friday we'll also be going to the ambassador's for dinner. It's a personal dinner, rather than the formal work one Barry attended for the embassy this week. Eric, the ambassador seems very nice based on previous meetings, and I'm anxious to meet his wife, Lucy. She attended Carleton to take the same CTESL program I did the year before I started. Last spring, Eric indicated he spoke to her about helping with the North Korean students through our mentorship program that we'd like to start. Hopefully it'll be a good match. As a spouse, she cannot work here, so she's happy to volunteer.

Tomorrow we'll go back to the same church with the hopes of getting settled in there. We met a few nice families last week.

I had planned to visit the neighbourhood Taekwondo studio again today to register the kids for a twice per week class, but this cold and the rain has kept me in. Molly and George don't really have any interest in martial arts, but they've agreed they need something to do, and this is just a 5 minute walk away. It'll be in Korean, but the instructor we met briefly speaks a little English. Hopefully the kids can start to meet kids in the neighbourhood. I suspect they won't make any bosom buddies the first week, but even if they have someone to say hi to it will be a start.

So life rolls along in the mega-city of Seoul. There's still so much we haven't seen or done, but we aren't tourists anymore - this is our home and everyday activities are taking over as priorities. There are many moments I wonder why we've intentionally made simple things like grocery shopping so complicated, but I hope those feelings will wear off as time goes by and it'll all be worth the daily effort. I also pray hard for a social life for our kids. Homeschooling in your own country is one thing, homeschooling here can be very isolating. Again, I hope time takes care of that. We will explore other options for the fall too.

As for today, we're laying low. City rain is unpleasant and I need rest if we're to attend church and host guests tomorrow. The sweats have taken over from the chills and I've gone from two layers of everything down to my undies....this too shall pass.

We visit the zoo in the park a few days each week. George kind of matches the nice fox.

Molly's primate buddy - good hands-on zoology lessons at the zoo.

We took another hangi craft class this week. We now have three nice pencil holders.

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After 10 days

28/2/2016

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We've had ten full days in the city. I'm waking up on Saturday morning, drinking pretty crappy coffee, but still feeling happy knowing we've accomplished an enormous amount since we arrived.

Our two primary goals have been to make the kids feel like they have a home, and the other goal has been to ensure Barry is ready to work. So far so good.

Barry can tell you about the university, but I'll sum it up incase it takes a day or two. He has an office, he's teaching two classes for sure and maybe a third (depending on registration). The school is a ten minute walk through the park away. He doesn't have to wear a tie at work, and he seems to be able to put together three syllabi fairly easily. He starts teaching on Thursday.

George's update would probably be very short. He got a PS4 yesterday, so nothing else really matters. We just need a new tv to hook it up to - that's Barry's job today. His room is nicely outfitted, though he still needs a shelf for books, etc.. He's been shopping a lot for clothes in Malaysia and in Seoul so he looks good too. He's been running several times a week with Barry in the park.

Molly has said at least ten times she likes her room now. The first day we arrived in the apartment she mistook our room for hers and went from thinking she was about to have a nice big room to knowing she was getting a rather small room. It wasn't a great start. She now has a bed with pretty bedding from IKEA, a new wardrobe, new desk and shelf. It's the nicest furniture she's ever had, I think. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but the room is too small to get a good photo in.
Her priority has been to set up a crafting space, and I think she feels that that is now accomplished. There's a store nearby that is kind of like a dollar store, but better quality that we've been able to get lots of little things for her to make her room pretty and organized.The one downside of the rooms here, is that the walls are all concrete covered with wallpaper so I don't see how we'll be able to hang pictures...I'm working on that.

Our room is nice too. We bought a pretty basic IKEA bed that we thought was queen size but turned out to be bigger than that (half way to a king). This isn't ideal given our room isn't huge, but it's fine. It has huge drawers underneath and and between those and our wardrobe we can store our clothes. We also have room for the laundry rack in our room, which is good because we don't have a dryer and we need a space to hang things up. We will use the roof for drying when I can figure out how to get the racks to stay up in the wind.

The kitchen is coming along too. We have dishes, a few pots and the basics in the drawers. Our big purchase was a small oven. Traditionally Koreans haven't used ovens, and I'm sure most homes here still don't have them. But what you can buy is a small oven - kind of like a large toaster oven. I decided to buy one used from a New Zealander who's leaving soon. She gave me lessons on it and last night Molly baked a cake. We have yet to find flour, etc, so we'll have to rely on the few cake mixes we've seen for now. I'll be meeting the NZ lady in another two weeks to clean out the rest of the kitchen for her...good pots, pans, microwave, etc.

We still need a table and chairs, but it has to be the right size so we're taking our time.

In addition to setting up a home we've been trying to get used to simple things like how to manage our garbage. The system is complicated here but so far so good. Recycling is serious business. They separate plastic, plastic wrap, metal, glass, paper and styrofoam into containers not far from home. Additionally, we have to buy bags for food waste, which is collected in small pails outside our door, and then there's just regular garbage that we also buy bags for too. I spent a few minutes with a collector trying to learn through hand signals what to do with stuff on the street last night...I think I understand.

For fun, the kids and I have started attending art classes at the Global Cultural Centre. The programs are run by the city, usually free, and open to foreigners only. In our first class we made Hanji - a traditional paper craft. It was fun, simple and we'll be going back every Wednesday afternoon till we tire of it. We'll also take painting classes starting on Thursdays. Our hope is to learn some crafts, but also we hope to meet some other foreigners there.

Our big goal this weekend is to find a pool for Molly...and George too. She still resents us pulling her out of her synchro world, but she says she could make do with swim lessons. We could go to the pool in the more English neighbourhood for lessons, but it takes an hour on the subway to get there so we'll investigate closer options first. We're also investigating Taekwondo classes and other sports here. Most websites are only in Korean, so every place requires a visit which is time consuming. The school year starts here March 1, so I'm worried if we don't find things this weekend, we'll miss the start of sport seasons too.

We had hoped there would be more families in the 8 unit building we're in. So far three other people have moved in but they're all single men. There appears to be some little scooters on the roof patio, but we've yet to see signs of kids - perhaps families will return before classes start next week. In desperation to meet people, Molly and I knocked on a door yesterday. We'd heard two little kids speaking in English a few days ago, but we couldn't see a parent through the gate and door so we didn't approach them. Since we hadn't seen them again we decided to be bold. It turns out they're Pakistani and the husband is a graduate student at the university. They've lived here for 3 years and the kids are about 1 and 3. She suggested when the weather is warmer, Molly and the 3 year old girl could go to the park together....Molly was delighted!

The park still seems to be our big source of daily entertainment. The zoo is full of animals and this has inspired both kids to take a zoology class through homeschool website. As for the other classes....I've been trying to rework their programs, but I'm not happy with the math and English so I think we'll return to the textbooks we brought for those two subjects. We've started a Korean class to teach them the alphabet, but I'd like to get them registered for a real class with other kids too....so much to do!

I'm sure I have a lot more to say, but it's time to get on with the day, and I'll be surprised if many of you even make it to the end of all my ramblings.

We'll keep you posted.

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Day 5 in Seoul

21/2/2016

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It's amazing what you can accomplish if you put your mind and wallet to it.

In the past five days in Seoul, we have managed to see a good amount of the subways system, we've covered a fair number of kms around the city, we've moved in to a new apartment, we've got rooms at least half furnished, no one has yelled yet during IKEA furniture assembly, and the kids are still talking to us.

We have a new couch, a queen bed partly assembled at writing time, and more furniture for the kids' rooms to come. I still need lots for the kitchen, but I should be able to make a simple dinner tomorrow.

George and Molly are falling in love with the animals in the zoo which is open all hours of the day to explore. It's only 300m away so they can venture there on their own. They buy food from a vending machine for a $1 and feed it to the hungry deer, peacocks and such. At least they feel like they have some friends.

The apartment is fine. It's required a good amount of cleaning, but not thing windex, grease remover and soap won't fix. The washing machine works and the air is so dry hear that both my skin and the laundry are crackly dry by nightfall. The climb of four flights to the apartment may finally get my legs in shape, and it will remind the kids to remember their subway passes when they leave the apartment...just ask George who had to run back up this morning.

We haven't met a single person in our building yet. Some of the apartments are occupied but the tenants are away during the semester break, and others are expecting new tenants this week. Some of the 8 units will remain empty. Molly was excited to hear two little kids speaking English in the building next door, but we didn't have a chance to meet them...soon. She also say a slew of daycare kids that she'd like to meet. Maybe she could volunteer there.

Anyway, we're all fine. We're getting ready to go for dinner with Barry's old friend, Ambassador Yim. We'll be going to the US Army base! We'll have to tell you about that later.

Gotta get presentable now.

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First two days in Seoul

18/2/2016

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I'll start by saying how grateful I am to the people at Sejong University who have come through on promises in the last few days to make sure we had all we've needed to arrive comfortably. From the visa business in Malaysia, to the airport pickup, to the hotel with a nice breakfast included for 2 days has been very nice. And lastly, the apartment we saw last year is the apartment we have been given. It's ready for our use and there is a bit of furniture in it. It's tiny, as expected, but in good condition. The kids did enjoy wandering the big park next door and seeing the zoo and theme park. Molly says it's the only thing she likes in Seoul so far!

The last thing I hope Sejong can do for us tomorrow is get our shipment from Vietnam released from customs.

Some of the novelty of the move wore off today as we unsuccessfully tried to shop on Craigslist (like Kijiji) and wonder from store to store and we arrived at a huge market hoping to shop but it closed 10 minutes before we got there. All in all, the day was not fruitful.

We move to the apartment tomorrow, so the pressure is on. There were 2 single beds and mattresses in the apartment for the kids to use, but if we don't get a queen bed by tomorrow at 9pm, Barry and I will be sharing a skinny fold out mattress on the floor. Maybe I'll let Barry have it and share with Molly instead!

We're off to IKEA ( the world's largest) to get what we can tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how the delivery will work, but we'll find out in the morning. A mattress, a bed frame, bedding, towels and dishes are are priority!

The kids are hanging in there, but the last two days have been overwhelming for them. Molly's priority is buying crafting items so she can make art projects, but it'll have to wait...I really don't want to sleep on the floor. She's running out of patience...

Pray for good shopping tomorrow for us so I can hit the craft market before it closes at 6:00.

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Where I'll be volunteering in Seoul

17/2/2016

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Here's an article about the school I'll be spending 2-3 afternoons per week at starting in March.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/01/485_184277.html

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The last day summary

16/2/2016

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Over the past 6 months - 176 days - we have had an extraordinary tour of four continents, 16 countries - Belgium, France, The Netherlands, England, Italy, Switzerland, Morocco, Spain, Israel, Turkey, UAE, South Africa, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and 2 city states, - Monaco and the Vatican; we’ve had 16 flights, multiple train trips, and driven countless miles: we’ve been in or on 3 oceans, 7 seas, many mountain ranges, valleys, forests, cliffs, rivers, waterfalls, savannahs, deserts, a micro rain forest and the outback; in the wild we’ve seen lions, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, kangaroos, fishes, whales, dolphins, sharks, penguins, butterflies, gorgeous birds, lizards, rats and cockroaches; we’ve cuddled a caracal, leopard cubs and koalas; we’ve been chilled at -5 degrees on the mountain top in Switzerland and sweltered at over 35 degrees at the Dead Sea, Kruger park in South Africa, the outback in Australia, and KL in Malaysia: we have visited Christian churches, Muslim mosques, Jewish temples, Hindu shrines, and Buddhist temples; we have tried to say thank you in French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Berber, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Afrikaans, Vietnamese, Malay, Chinese; we have had only one minor medical issue requiring treatment; we have laughed, cried, been in awe, in disgust, in fear, in grief and in love; we have been excited and homesick; we have been welcomed and never shunned; we have met old friends and made new ones; and, finally, we have been continuously impressed by the general kindness of people in the world and, most impressively, by our children’s resilience and their courage to try new experiences; the final important fact is that even after it all - we still like each other.

Tomorrow morning, February 17, we will arrive in Seoul, our final stop on this journey. This is where we will set up a new home and stay for two years - visiting Canada each summer and travelling each winter.

This trip has been a once in a lifetime experience. One that will always be remembered with the greatest fondness.

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Springtime exploring

Positive Momentum

A New Rhythm

Sick week

Getting in a groove

After 10 days

Day 5 in Seoul

First two days in Seoul

Where I'll be volunteering in Seoul

The last day summary

Author - Ursula

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