Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Well it's about time!!!

Okay, Okay....I am at fault for not keeping up with my blog. But can you blame me? When I finally find time to sit down and type, it is far too late in the night to be doing that. Many of you would say, so what!, but I add that our computer happens to be in the kids room so after they go to bed it is pretty much lights out for me too. That's okay though because I find that my days start pretty early here in Korea.

Well, on to our adventures!!!

We have had such an amazing time here that I will be sad to leave our new home and friends when the time comes. I will give you a current up-to-date, and then I will be retro-posting some of our fun times we have had.

Currently, to ease anyone's worry, we are all safe and feel relatively so. I know that a few family members and concerned friends have e-mailed me hoping that we are out of harms way with the current North Korean/South Korean tensions. I can assure you, we are. I feel personally, that if there were cause for us to worry, we would be warned ahead of time. And I can also say that our Korean friends are not over reacting, so I will take their lead and do the same.

With that said...the kids are excited for Christmas. Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, the Christmas/Holiday sales and decorations have been out for awhile. That does nothing to curb the kids excitement as you can imagine. They are still asking me to buy a little 1 foot tree for our apartment. I don't know that I will give in though, seeing that they cost around $33 US dollars and I'm not sure I would be able to sell it when we have to leave. I told them it might be fun to make our own. Still trying to figure out how to do that though.

I will post some pictures that I am really excited to share first, and then I will retro-post.

The following pictures were taken during the annual Seoul Lantern Festival along the Cheonggyecheon stream that runs through downtown Seoul. It is a beautiful place to visit even without the lanterns, but the lanterns made it even more special.



Here are the kids at the very end of the processsion. We kind of started on the wrong end.


These are some beautiful cranes. I don't have a picture of the one they had suspended over the walkway.













This was one of Ruthie's favorites.






This was a replica of an historical Korean village.





This is based off of an old traditional Korean folktale involving a hare, a dragon, and a sea turtle. Ruthie knows the story. Unfortunately,  I don't.
 Hard to believe that they were all constructed of paper. The sad thing is, we only got to see half of the lanterns because it was so crowded and Joseph was tired of getting bumped around. It was quite the sight to see!!!

Afterwards, we walked over to the Insadong market area where there are several street vendors, shops, and bars and cafes. The kids enjoyed some Baskin Robins (yes they are here!) and I enjoyed the sights. We have been to Insadong once before, but it is always a sight to see.



I couldn't resist getting a shot with the Max beer can. I can safely say sadly, that this is NOT my favorite beer. But at least he posed with me. When Joseph saw me,  he wanted to jump in too.




We have no idea what this guy was selling. I think it's Mickey's Korean brother Michi.



This is just one of the streets in the Insadong area. They are all pretty much like this. It is unbelievable.


On the subway ride home, Joseph fell asleep. It was a busy exciting night. Can't blame him.
 I will try to get back on the track here an update as much as I can and I apologize to those of my friends who have been wanting to know what we have been up to. I can't wait to tell you all about what we have done and what we have seen. I promise more neat things to come!!! Just please be patient with my horrible blogging. You won't be disappointed.

                                                                       ANNYONG!!!!





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