Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

A few weeks ago was Cheusok. Cheusok is very similar to Thanksgiving, but no turkey or pie. And as you know, we don't participate in holidays if there's no pie.

We traveled to Malaysia! After talking with Jeff about Cheusok during the first month of school, we decided we'd all go somewhere together. Jim and I wanted to go to Bali, Jeff and Anna wanted to go someplace they hadn't been before. The problems we have! Jeff found cheap flights, and that was enough to persuade us.

As we were leaving for the airport, Jeff casually said, "nothing could possibly go wrong on this trip". Jim and I scolded him for jinxing/ruining everything. (Spoiler alert-the trip was great anyway). To get to our resort we needed to take a 6 hour flight from Seoul to Kualal Lumpur, Malaysia, then a short 45 minute flight to a coastal town, then take the ferry to the island the following morning. I hate trips like this, but this one was surprisingly painless.

As we ate dinner in the airport (at Wendy's!), Jeff was walking around with his baby and said he ran into the Jenkins, a family who worked at KIS last year who now live in China and that they were on their way to the same island. We all told Jeff he was full of it (he is almost always full of it).

We spent our first night in Kota Bharu. It's a small coastal town. We got food at a market in the morning. Breakfast was chicken and rice with coffee and then we found the good stuff: donuts. I can't remember the name but $1 worth was a huge bag with fried dough with a peach jam in it. The vacation eating had begun!

We took a taxi to the pier and got on our boat-and among the 10 people on the boat other than us, there were the Jenkins. It was crazy and so perfect. They have 3 kids and our kids already all know each other and played together the whole week. It couldn't have been better.

When we got to the resort, we took off our shoes and didn't put them on again until we left. We stayed at the Tuna Bay resort and the coral in front of the resort was amazing. We got snorkel masks and spent the rest of the week exploring the ocean. We saw parrot fish, eels (yikes!), and octopus (it inked when Jim swam closer to it, how embarrassing), and we swam with turtles. We relaxed, we napped, we swam, we ate. Every day. It was actually the perfect vacation. Here's a video summary:

A video week in review

We've been working on a video project all week. Many people have asked me if it was inspired by Adam Hobbs; it was not. I wouldn't dream of pretending that this is a documentary, because it's not. It's a video mashup. I took the idea from a teacher at KIS who took the idea from this TED talk. All great things start with a TED talk, isn't that what they say? The TED talk was from a guy who put together a video made up of 1 second video clips of every day for a year. We can't make that kind of commitment to anything without a hefty signing bonus, so we did 2 second clips throughout each day for one week.

As I was doing this, I have to admit, it felt very narcissistic. So let me tell you this-it is a little narcissistic on the surface. And I am posting it to the blog which makes me feel even more narcissistic, but in a way, it's more for me than for you. Our blog serves a few purposes: it started out as a way for friends and family to keep up with us and see what we're doing while living far away (finally-the name of the blog has been revealed to you!) but it has really become a kind of modern day scrapbook for me.

With all this in mind, I have a few disclaimers about the video:
1. Your life looks AWESOME when you set it to music
2. These are not necessarily highlights, they are just things that happened during the week, but don't think everything is perfect-believe me the kids complain and cry as much (more than?) kids in any other family; but I don't need to watch that any more than I already do in real life.
3. I love this video. I want to do one for every week for the rest of my life.
4. You should do this in your own life.
5. Jim chose the music (the perfect music)

our first trip out: Emart

After a day of unpacking, we needed to go to Emart. Emart is described as a Wal-Mart-like store. But I found it a little pricier than WalMart. For example, we bought the cheapest fan they had for $40. That's not really important. Let me tell you about the store. It's about a 15-20 minute drive from Good Morning Hill, and our staff support from KIS came and picked us up this morning. We went with a group of families from KIS.

The carts are locked! Put in a coin (the korean dime, if you will) and the carts unlock. You get your money back when you return the cart 

The store is 4 stories and we started at the bottom and worked our way up.

Look what else Emart has

We started at the play area. For $7 you can leave your child at the playland for 2 hours. We decided it was worth it, so all the kids with us who were over 4 (Gruby, Connor & Sean) stayed at playland.




Jim and I started on the bottom floor-the grocery. We found dishwashing soap (I LOVE having a dishwasher again!), and these Ramen noodle type things. We had some samples and headed upstairs to home things and appliances. This is where we found our $40 fan, a coffee maker, trash can and cleaned them out of hangers (unfortunately, still not enough hangers).

exercise while killing flies? Sign me up!

We only had 2 hours in the store and you know how quickly 2 hours can go in a store like that. We all started to get hungry so we headed back to the first floor to the food court.
 We picked up the kids and they were all a totally sweaty mess. Play land appears to be un-air conditioned. 

get that kid a gatorade and a shower. Now.

Ruby explaining that play land had a sweatin' to the oldies VHS with Richard Simmons

We ordered food, ate (spaghetti for the kids and me, bipimbop for Jim), got ice cream at the Baskin Robins in the food court and headed home.

Good Morning Hill Fun Facts

TRASH
Let me tell you about the trash situation here. It's advanced. Bridget Farley, you would love the trash situation. At our apartment complex there is a covered area with different colored bins. Everyone separates their trash. There are containers for plastic, cardboard & paper, Styrofoam, food, and trash trash (i.e. diapers). On Tuesday there were some men working in the trash area and they showed me where everything went. After the trip to Emart I went with boxes and such and was told (I think) that I couldn't take the cardboard trash out at that time. All of it was gone and a woman told me "Wednesday 9:00". I'm guessing that means they collect it at 9 on Wednesdays, but it leaves me wondering when I'm allowed to leave it out. I brought the boxes back up with me and put them back in our storage area.

PLAYGROUNDS
At Good Morning Hill there are 4 playgrounds and the kids are in love!

 

First day in Korea

Every time we have moved Irish has been great about getting us unpacked and settled in quickly. If it was up to me I would only unpack things as I needed them and take months before I was out of boxes. So while she is continuing to get us settled in here in Korea I thought I would jump in with my first effort on this blog.

The trip here was incredibly long as expected..  There was one hang up with our luggage, we got overcharged for the extra bags, and then Asiana wouldn't give us our boarding passes in Los Angeles until I got them a "luggage coupon" from Frontier.  There was a stressful hour of me running to the Frontier desk two terminals away while Irish waited with the kids as time to boarding ticked down. Frontier did not know what Asiana meant, but gave me a number they could call. Eventually it was sorted out, at least they gave us our boarding passes- I don't think they ever got the coupon they were asking for. 

Aside from that travel went better than we could have hoped for.  People were repeatedly friendly and helpful. At the start Sunday morning the people at Frontier let us bring all our luggage straight to to a desk rather than shuffle through the line with more than 20 bags. On the first leg I was sitting next to a woman who was a therapist for Autistic children, which meant she had a bag full of coloring books and was happy to read to Ruby for half the flight. After the mess at LAX the person at the start of the security line could see we were struggling a little and waved us over to use the first class line. And then on the flight from LA to Seoul August slept for almost the entire flight, the girls slept for a good portion of the flight as well.  So Irish and I just watched movies.  The meals were better than I was expecting.  When I had the Korean option for dinner I got bibimpap, which is basically rice with meat and vegetables. I asked the flight attendant if I was supposed to pour the rice over the other stuff or the other way around, and she handed me a pamphlet titled "How to enjoy bibimbap" which I thought was helpful.  And the answer was rice into the bowl that had the other stuff, not vice versa.

Landing in Seoul we had lost one of Irish's shoes, one of Grace's shoes and my hat.  We never found Grace's missing shoe so she walked through the airport half barefoot.  Immigration went smoothly, then at the baggage carousel two people from the airline helped us with our bags,and as soon as we passed though customs two people from KIS were waiting for us and they had a bus to take us to our new home.

We are actually in a city called Yongin, a few stops from the end of the Seoul subway line. We are living in a neighborhood called "Good Morning Hill"  It is a huge collection of buildings, each over 20 stories.  We are on  the 15th floor of our building.  Getting off the elevator the first impression is underwhelming, this is what you see, it looks a little like the door to a safe.

Opening the door though, it turns out we have a really nice place to live.  Below are a few pictures:

This is the entryway, with a closet for us to keep our shoes.

Past the entry is the living room. 

Kitchen and dining area.  Washing machine is through the sliding doors behind August.

Master Bedroom

We are going to try to have all three kids sleep in one room so the third room can be used as a playroom, try to isolate the mess a little. August is a little too excited about this change, bouncing around at bedtime instead of sleeping, so we will see how this arrangement works out.

The room that will be a playroom:

The view from the windows by the washer:

The view from the desk where I am sitting right now:

And now, everyone has fallen asleep here, and jet lag is catching up with me, I am falling asleep in my seat.  So more tomorrow.

Getting closer to the big move

Today is not the big move, it's the small move-to Parker, Colorado! 

Look up "Parker, Co" in google images, and this picture shows up a lot.

 

That's better.

After a brief birthday celebration (Grace and Ruby are FIVE!), we had several friends come by to relieve us of more stuff-furniture, kid toys, you know, stuff.

We've been packing and packing and packing. And we're out of here. Not to get nostalgic or anything, but this has been the home we've been in for almost 5 years-it's the only home our children have known. All of them learned to walk here, every Christmas has been here, this is home. However, as Sharolyn Wilkin pointed out, I know how to make a home where ever I am.

Hey, and for a quick tutorial on mismatch chairs around your dining room table, head over to my other blog www.greenhousereddoor.blogspot.com

How did this happen?

I realized recently, that not all of you know how we ended up going from our little HUD house off Federal to glamorous Seoul, South Korea.

Jim: "Hey, let's move to Asia" Irish:

"you're insane"

A very, very long time ago, Jim decided to teach in Taipei, Taiwan. He lived there for 2 years and met me when he got back. That was 12 long awesome years ago. This entire time he's told me how he would like to move back to East Asia. For 11 years I said, "No. Way. Jose."

Then, at the beginning of this school year, there were rumblings of change at my school. Our state assessment scores left something to be desired (something being, native English speakers from the middle or upper class) and there are a couple of ways the district "fixes" this problem. One of those ways is by letting all the teachers go. If you have tenure, like me, they'll place you for one year, then after that year, you're on your own. It's pretty bleak and I was sad to leave a staff of extremely talented, caring teachers, but what can you do? I know what you can do-you can leave the country!

We signed up for the Overseas Recruitment Fair at the University of Northern Iowa. That was an intense weekend. On the flight to Cedar Rapids we were sitting next to the middle school principal at Korea International School. Korea hadn't really been on the radar, but after a brief interview on Sunday, and then several Skype interviews, and a little bit of research into life in Korea we were on our way.

That's how it happened. 11 years of convincing and one quick weekend of deciding!

See you soon

This picture was taken 5 years ago. Grace on the left, Ruby on the right

Today was our going away party. Since Gruby's turning 5 (FIVE!) on Wednesday, we did a combination going away/birthday party. So many great, dear, loved friends came and we will miss seeing you often (in person).

I don't know if you've heard, but Colorado has been in a drought this summer. Just 2 days ago it was like 103 degrees. We need rain-but seriously, we didn't need a torrential downpour 20 minutes into the party. Our house is tiny, our yard is huge-you do the math. Cozy was fine though, we were shoulder to shoulder with people we love-and missed some of you who we love who couldn't make it (couldn't find a boat in time, probably).

The girls asked for a pinata for their party, of course. On a hot tip from Julia on where to get an affordable pinata, I went to Save-a-Lot.  Check out the selection:

which one of these needs to be beaten to shreds by children?

I chose the pony because, well, the girls love ponys. But it does seem weird to really beat something with a bat that is so adorable... but the kids were up for the challenge!

Pony, frozen with fear. Hiding on top of the washing machine

party-goers negotiating side bets. Most had money on Ruby-she's scrappy

August v. Pinata (August 0, Pinata 1)

Grace v. Pinata (Grace 0, Pinata 2)

 

Ruby v. Pinata (Ruby 0, Pinata 3)

Even Brayan couldn't bust this open.

Finally Uncle Mike stepped in with a baseball bat and candy spilled out onto the muddy ground. The kids loved it and ate candy all night.

Then we had cake. Dora Princess for Grace and Tinkerbell for Ruby.

Look at our 5 year olds.

There's not much more to say. We will miss you. We will see you on the internet.