Old and New

We went to exchange some more money today, so we had to wait for the bank to open to leave.  Our hotel has a free breakfast and it was REALLY good!  There's so much food to pick from that none of us had a problem finding enough to eat.  We hailed our first taxi and went to Seoul Station to see Lotte Mart....not what I thought it was.  It's more of a Walmart, but the girls found a couple of things anyways.  Then there's the Galleria.  Really nice stuff...but pretty much American.  We at lunch at Seoul Station too...yep, I let the girls eat ice cream at Baskin Robbins for lunch.  We then took a taxi to Namdaemun Market.  It's so big...overwhelmingly big.  There are people in open air selling things as well as some stores in buildings.  We were there for at least 2 hours and didn't even scratch the surface of that place.  I hope to go back because I never did get the picture of South Gate like I'd wanted, but I finally found it on the map this morning.  It's fairly difficult to tell drivers where you want to go, so for the most part I brought sticky notes and we've written each place down on a sticky note and the hotel wrote it in Korean for us.  But, yesterday I lost the one returning us to the hotel.  :)  Luckily, I found a couple of things in my backpack that helped the driver find our way back.  Lois had to tell him we were there though.  I think he was a little frazzled.

The roads in Seoul are crazy!  They drive extremely close to one another.  As in so close, sometimes they have to take turns moving or they'll take a side view mirror off.  They don't mind just whipping over into a parking spot on the street to let you out either.  Even if it means majorly cutting someone off.  I've also never seen so many buses in my life.  There is no lack of public transportation here.  Lois and I noticed that people REALLY dress nice for work here.  Beautiful silk suits on men and very few men have dress clothes on without it being a suit.  Women wear heals with everything...even jean shorts.  And you cannot get Korean food until 5 or later and walking in at 5 kind of seems to disturb them.  Door are open to places, but you can't come in and they definitely make sure you know it.  But, we ate Korean, regardless last night and it was very good!  The bulgogi was the same as at our local restaurant except we found out we had to cook it ourselves.  The side dishes were a WHOLE lot hotter than in the US at restaurants.  Kaelin thoroughly enjoyed everything though and I even got Chelsi to taste the bulgogi for a twizzler.  :)

At the market we did manage to find Chase the pair of socks he wanted...Cole now has some too.  The girls got their new hanboks and they're very gorgeous!  I did have to bargain for those.  They were way out of my price range since I was buying two.  I got her to come down 20,000 won though and was happy.  Kaelin got a fan she'd been looking for and a Korean rag for each girl.  They each got little purses too.  We got Jaemin a Reds rag and shirt.  The man put it on Chelsi right away though.  I don't think he understood when I kept telling him we were looking for one for a boy.  Let me tell you, looking for the Reds (soccer team) rag and shirt was difficult.  I finally found a shirt and showed them the girls' rags and finally found someone who understood what I was trying to say.  I was happy!  We got a set of Wedding Ducks for each of the kids too.

If I get to go South Gate I'll go back to the market and look around that side as well.  It's 10 acres (consisting of different levels).  I don't think you could ever see it all.  And the people?  Oh my gosh it's crowded and they do feel free to run you over.  :)

After the market we went to the Korean Folk Village.  There wasn't really anyone there, but it was still cook to check out.  No reenactments which would have been awesome!  It was neat to see the games from earlier in time as well as the old house and quarters where royalty stayed.

Here are pictures from yesterday and today we are taking the subway (wish us luck) for the first time and going to Holt to visit Chelsi's foster mother.  Then we go to SWS to get a ride to Jaemin's foster mother's home and see my baby for about an hour.  I'm still vigorously working out details to see Kaelin's foster mother at ESWS.  I pray that works out.  That would be the topping for Kaelin on this trip!

Lunch!



Folk Village

































View of Seoul Tower from Folk Village





Heat for the ondol floors of the house.



Getting ready to find a taxi to go back for the day.



And, we're back from our trip.  Since Chelsi was sleeping on Lois while Kaelin and I bought the hanboks I had them try them on at the hotel.  Aren't they gorgeous!?

Don't forget

My posts are still on US time, so while it says the first post was 5/24, that was in the US.  It's 5/25 here.

Lisa

We're in Korea!

I know, I never said we'd even left yet.  It's been crazy.  We had a vague idea Thursday afternoon and by the time I left the kids' awards assembly Friday I had a voicemail from the agency saying we had travel clearance and could leave Saturday.  So at 3:30 am we left home and by 4:00 am the next day we were in Korea....of course in Korea it was that afternoon...late.  That really throws you off when you miss a day like that.

Anyways, I'll try to post here and there about our travel so far, but not exactly sure how that will turn out.  I just happen to be up at 2:00 am Korea time and couldn't sleep so I got my pictures off the camera and thought I might post a little.

The first flight was exactly on time and then we had about 3 ½ hours to get back through security before the next flight, which was way plenty time.  Then, Lois went on MANY walks through that area with the girls.  By then, it was 8 hours after we’d left home and they had done really well.  But, on the first flight Kae ended up with a window seat and she REALLY enjoyed getting to see the ground beneath us and slowly going away.  She was pretty amazed by that.  It was actually pretty funny on the way to the airport too.  The girls both fell asleep and had been asleep for quite sometime when we arrived.  They both woke up right as we were pulling in to park and Kaelin got so excited (she was woohooin' the whole time to park) to find out we were already there and Chelsi promptly told us she almost fell asleep.  ;)

The first little flight was just an hour long.  It was American and Kaelin thought it was great just because it was a new experience.  But, when we got on the Korean Air flight she really thought it was awesome.  They love eating on the airplane, picking out movies to watch and listening to their pick of Korean kids songs.  Chelsi ate a hamburger and some other kids stuff for lunch, but Kaelin and I had bibimbop.  Lois had the pasta.  She was too hungry to try something new at that time.  All the girls did was talk about how much they loved the airplane.  They obviously don't remember their crabbiness after they had been awake for almost 24 hours and FINALLY fell asleep the last few of the trip.  We barely woke Chelsi up enough to get off the plane and get through the airport.

Incheon International was very easy to navigate.  We were out of there in about 1/2 hour even with collecting our luggage, going through immigration and customs and exchanging our money.  I guess people felt sorry for us and people were asking us as we got close to the doors where we were going so they could help.  We knew which bus line, so that helped and Korean Air got us on their limo bus and we took the 85 minute ride to NEAR the hotel and walked another 2-3 blocks to the hotel.  with two kids, two large suitcases and 4 backpacks, we decided we were taking a taxi back to the airport.  I don't care....I'm not dragging poor Jaemin through that.  Chelsi unfortunately thought we were seeing him right away.  It was nice to be able to tell her this morning it's tomorrow now.

We're staying at the Fraser Place Central serviced residences.  It's very nice.  Our reservations didn't go through from the agent, so we were worried for a bit.  But, it was on my eticket so the guy at the front desk gave us a little bigger room for the same price (160,000 won)...about $127/night including two adult breakfasts.  Really cheap for Seoul.  The room is very large.  We have a separate bedroom with a queen and single.  Chelsi and I slept in the queen, Kaelin slept on the couch and Lois slept on the single.  We have tons of shelves and closets everywhere!  Tons of places to keep everything.  We even got two bathrooms.  The floors are hardwood and we really like that.  We have a kitchen, so we're grocery shopping for some things today...just some basics to avoid some meals if we don't have time to stop and eat somewhere.  We'll probably still eat out a lot because we all like Korean (except Chelsi) and I heard it's very inexpensive here in comparison to eating American here.

It's getting closer to breakfast time and then we'll pack what we need to venture out.  Today is just shopping, so we're hitting the markets.

Some pictures of our trip so far are below.  Please continue to pray for our safety while here and the safety of our loved ones still at home.  I'm SO glad we decided to have a friend come with instead of Brian and I bringing all 4 kids.  We were exhausted with the 4 of us.

The trip from Chicago to Korea.  We flew Korean air from Chicago to Incheon (outside of Seoul).  It was a great flight.  I mean as great as a 13 hour flight can be.  The food was good.  There were tvs in the seats, so the girls could watch whatever they want or listen to music or track the flight.  I, sort of, watched 3 movies on the way.  I don't think the girls really watched any, but they watched some Korean kid shows like Pororo.  They listened to some kids music and Chelsi got really loud when she heard the Three Bears song start.  She started singing along.  It was great!



















In Korea!!!









View from the room.

Now she's chanting

Chelsi has begun chanting/singing for her brother.  She was walking around tonight singing "bring home Jaemin, I want my brother home".  Oh, baby, me too!

Lisa

Memorial Day Weekend=Staycation

for us anyways.

Since I'm about 95% sure we're not getting our call this week to leave this weekend, we're going to enjoy ourselves.  Hopefully, the weather holds up and the kids will be able to swim.  Praying for 80s and no rain!  Then we can watch movies in the evening, eat out and other such luxuries.  While we're still prayin' for that 5% call (especially the boys so we're gone for a 3 day weekend while they fish the whole time), it's not likely and we're going to make the best out of this long weekend.  Shouldn't complain, it's one less day to work, but generally, if I'm at work a travel call is possible.  Double edged sword there, huh?  :)

Lisa

Another one of THOSE posts....

I'm ready.  I'm still ready.  I'm more ready.

Fingernails and toenails cut on two little girls.  ALL clothes packed.  Medicine packed.  Camera charged and packed.  Leapsters and batteries packed.  The only thing left to pack is one thing of my allergy meds that I can't pack until that day and this laptop...if it comes for sure.

As a back up plan the boys and I cleaned the pool up.  We rigged the pump to work as a vacuum on the floor of the pool and it's slowly warming up.  It's supposed to be pretty warm this week, so if we have a nice weekend, we'll be able to swim all weekend.  We're having a vacation weekend.  We're having a vacation at home.  If I'm not in Korea, I'm taking it easy and all of us are going to enjoy ourselves thoroughly, 'cause God knows if that call doesn't come I'm going to be upset.  So we'll have to make the weekend as fun as we can.

Lord, please, please send us that call early this week so we can leave this weekend.

Lisa

Dear God,

I know our son will come home in your perfect time and only you know exactly when that is, but please let that time be soon.  We're so ready for our son and we are praying hard that we get our call next week and can leave next weekend to hold him.

Please hear our prayer.

(Lois, thanks for lighting the candle.)

Lisa