Christmas Quimages

Here is Q opening some presents:




A pic from Christmas Eve:


Here is Q playing with his trains:




Here is Q visiting the horses who live up the street from Grandma.


Here are some pics from a hike in Pima Canyon we took with our buddy BP:

Beer School Santa

Today we went to a nice Christmas party for kids. Our friends hosted a gift exchange at their house. I have never been with so many kids in such a small space before. Overall it was a big success. Santa even made an appearance to hand out gifts.

The party started at the same time Q's nap was supposed to start. He was falling asleep as we pulled up. We gathered our stuff and headed in at which time Q immediately lost it. I think he was still a bit groggy from his 5 minute nap or something. It took him a bit but he got it together and ended up having a good time. Most of the kids took turns losing their shit and then coming back around to enjoying themselves.



Of course when Santa arrived a couple kids freaked out. Q was ok with Santa until he sat on his lap. Then he was not ok with Santa. Here is a pic for you amusement.




Here are some pics of the kids in present mode:


You can see Q in the back enjoying his present on the couch. He got some sort of drawing device that is back lit and requires batteries. We have yet to use it to its fullest potential as we still need to put batteries in it. I figure if we don' use batteries for awhile when we do put them in it will be like getting a whole new gift again.

Tonight we are heading to our staff Christmas party for grown ups. On The Boarder Mexican restaurant is catering so it should be tasty.

Last night a couple friends and I hopped on the subway and ventured back to the homebrewig shop called Beer School. Luckily this time it was open.(This time I called ahead to make sure) In Seoul it is OK to drink in public so we got a couple Heinekens for the trip. The owner of Beer School loves beer so he teaches anyone who is interested how to make home brew. He has a descent selection of supplies and ingredients. For 20 bucks he'll walk you through the process, feed you some tasty grub, and give you a liter of home brew he's made. We each chose a different style of brew to try and all shared with each other. Tasty!!

Here are some pics from our session:


Here Ben is crying tears of joy.


Notice the intense concentration and focus.


Here we are awaiting our tasting session.


Notice the smiles.


Mmmmmm.

Picture Parade

Some of the folks we work with like to play practical jokes. A fourth grade teacher who works a couple doors down from me likes to photoshop people into pictures for a humorous effect. Here is an example:


I retaliated with this one:


Then he came out with this one which was funny because it includes our principal and some other staff members who share a good sense of humor.



Then I pulled out the clincher. He new he was up against a superior and promptly retired after this one. The other person in this is another 5th grade teacher. The original picture was actually some friends of ours in Cambodia.


I think the text on the picture makes this one super sweet. It was already there, I couldn't write anything that beautiful.

Adios,

A Relaxing Week

This week has generally been a relaxing one. We had three days of work, only two with students. We had to report to school on Wed for staff development. The purpose of the day was to get a jump on the upcoming WASC accreditation process. The staff was put into teams and given a schedule. The "work" was split up with fun activities. Some of these included navigating huge inflatable obstacle courses as well as scooter racing. Each team rotated and competed against other teams throughout the day. It broke up the monotony of revisiting the WASC process. To give you an idea of how involved the process is we don't have to be done until the spring of 2010.

On Thursday we hopped in the car and ventured to an area called Iteawon where we stumbled on a great Mexican food restaurant. While we ate Q ran around the restaurant entertaining the wait staff. They were letting Q take ornaments off the Christmas tree which he was setting down on the floor and booting across the room. They thought it was hilarious. After a tasty meal we decided to get in a little shopping. Iteawon is a very touristy area so we thought we may get some stuff for the house or possibly find some western sized clothes. As we exited "Amigos" we were bummed to find that the weather had turned sour and it was now snowing enough to need an umbrella or waterproof gear; neither of which we had. We deliberated a bit and decided to pack it in and call it a day.

We backtracked to the car, which by the way was parked in the worlds smallest underground parking garage. It had precisely 7 parking spaces. We aimed for home and were on our way. Of course within three minutes it cleared up and stopped snowing.

Friday we took Q in for his 18 month check up complete with a couple immunizations. After driving up and down the street and then walking around the building that contained the doctors office a couple times we found it. We were basically holding the doctor's business card up and trying to find a sign that matched. Although I am slowly learning the Korean alphabet I am still basically illiterate. It makes it difficult to find things when you can't read.

The doctor said Q is doing well and according to the Asian growth charts he is quite average. According to the US charts he's in the 20% region.

After the Q's check up we went off in search of the "Aquarium". We eventually found it and went in to check it out. Here are some pics from our visit.





If you look at the people on the right you can see that Q was almost as much of an attraction as the marine life. People are fascinated by light haired fair skinned wee ones.




It is actually a really nice aquarium. We will definitely be returning.

Quinn is used to people getting in his face and wanting to touch him and hold him. If he doesn't want someone to touch or hold him he just tells them no at which time most people are courteous and don't push it. At times I have been pushing him down the street in his stroller and he's waiving and saying hello to complete strangers as we pass. He thinks it's hilarious as do they.

After the aquarium we b-lined it to a B-day party for the daughter of some fellow teachers. Q had a great time and enjoyed playing with their cat.

Yesterday I got out for a ride with a buddy on a trail he dubbed "Happy Hour". Here is a Google image it the ride:


This week it's back to work. We have three weeks until winter break and our visit back to AZ. We are very excited and looking forward to the seeing everyone.

Adios,

Beer School

J had a successful week at her volleyball tournament. Despite having the minimum number of players (meaning she had no subs) her team placed 5 among 12 teams. On top of that she didn't have her star player and many of her starters. The girls really stepped up to the plate and did a great job. Many of the other coaches commented on how tough her team was. Each girl had to play every second of every game. Sometimes three games in a single day. Most games were comprised of 5 individual sets, each to 25 points. The team won the best sportsmanship award. Nicely done!!

This Saturday I met up with a couple friends to seek out the beer school to see what lessons it could teach us. We hopped on the subway and a couple of interchanges later we got off. We decided to check out a huge vegetable market in route since we were passing so close. It was huge, awesome and cheap! It is a wholesale market where restaurants by there veggies that is also open to the public. My buddy Ron who was with us said he had come a couple day earlier by subway. He had to take a cab home because the 20 dollars he spent bought him so many vegetables he couldn't carry them all.

After that we consulted the rudimentary map I had cobbled together and headed off with visions of airlocks, brewers yeast and carboys in our minds. After a couple trips around the block we stumbled upon the Beer School only to realize that it was in fact closed. Of course there where no hours posted or day of operation. We decided to grab a bite and then head back.

We found what appeared to be a suitable place for lunch. It turned out to be an incredibly tasty endeavor. After lunch we returned to Beer School only to find that school was still not in session. Not to be deterred we decided that we at least could do a little research on the subject so we flagged a cab, squeezed 5 in and headed to an area that has a huge market. It was the first what I call "Asian"style market that I have been to since coming to Korea. A huge open air market where you can get anything under the sun. I say motorcycle jackets, used shoes, silk worm pupae, new and used clothing, sunglasses, snow boarding helmets, trinkets as well as anything and everything else you could imagine. After wandering around for a while we went in search of a place to find a libation. We came upon an establishment called the USA bar. We thought that we'd check it out and found it to be a little on the expensive side. We decided that we should do a tequila shot in honor of North America (only Canadians and Americans present) and move on. After we ceremoniously saluted our homeland we moved on. We all five hopped in a cab and headed to an area called Sinchon. Therein lie the famous request bars. These are the bars that are stacked with actual records that you could make requests from. We hung out for abit before some of the party headed for home.

Those of us who were left went in search of sushi. We found what appeared to be a suitable restaurant and proceed to stuff our face with fish. After we felt good and fat we headed out for more request bars. I won't go into details to protect the guilty. I'll just say that there was plenty of loud singing and rough and tumble behavior; some of which resulted in random bruising and socks exiting via the cab window.

Sunday I went on a bike ride with a buddy. It was nice to get out and exercise. I felt much better afterward.

Next week we have autumn break. YEAH! Nothing planned yet but there is still time.

I'll leave you with some Quimages. One is him in his weightlifter pants and the other is him in a jacket he just had to put on. He is holding a cool truck Molly sent him in one of the photos. He loves the truck because it makes noise and is a wind up. You can probably tell he was he was a bit cranky in the jacket photo. I still think it is a hilarious photo nonetheless.





Adios

Election Night

I thought before I head to bed I'll go and check out interactive electoral vote maps on the internet...again. After running through possible scenarios it seems to me that there is almost no way that John McCain can win. But you never know, depending on which poll you listen to it could be a landslide or a close race. The problem with polls are, who are they calling? Most polls only call people who have voted in recent elections. If you have been reading the news you know that record numbers of people have registered and will be voting for the first time.(or at least the first time in a long time) It should be interesting nonetheless.

In other news I am heading to a home brew shop this weekend with some buddies to see about getting a home brew kit up and running. I have a feeling some olfactory/taste bud exercise will ensue.

Adios,

Kung Fu Donught

This week as you know was Halloween. Halloween is always a good time it seems. Quinn dressed up as Steven Seagal. The ladies in the nursery took them trick or treating around the school. He and the other little ones came by my room in the morning for some treats. The trick was left up to the ladies as they had to pull something out to get him out of the room without a freak out. He wanted to stay pretty bad. Halloween is a write off anyways so I was very close to telling them to just let him stay and have him spend the day with the class. Good judgment got the better of me and he was off. Anyway here is a picture of my class in full costume.

I have provided a picture of Steven Seagal for you here:


And here is a picture of Quinn as Steven Seagal:
Ahh... Now you see the resemblance.

On Saturday the social committee at school hosted a Halloween extravaganza. The kids really had a blast. Lucky for us it was at our apartment building. On the fifth floor of our building there is a common area that is shared by all 4 buildings. It is quite a nice area because you can go outside and not have to deal with street traffic. There are rooms in each of the four buildings on the 5th floor that residents can use. The school rented one out and that is where the "party" was located. All the kids hung out together and did kid stuff. At one point they all went trick or treating at each teacher apartment. They had a blast of course. After trick or treating there were some games for the kids. One game was the "doughnut on a string" game where you have to eat the doughnut off the string without using your hands. The older kids went first; Q was watching intently as he thought he might be next. Smart chap because he was next. He was an observant cat because not once did he try to use his hands. It was classic. Here are some Quimages of the event:

Here is Q's best friend Emma giving it a go. Q was offering moral support.


After the festivities wound down it was time for a little adult party time. The school partnered with SIS, another international school, to have a big blowout Halloween bash. Earlier in the week I went to a costume store with a fellow teacher who just so happens to be named Ben. The only thing I found that would fit was a Bruce Lee outfit. It was sweet so I purchased it. (I found it a bit difficult to get a cab while wearing it. Not sure why?) The party was fun; even complete with live music. Here is a pic of Bruce.. err me and another teacher Derrick.



I thought I would throw in a pic of the band looking a bit ghostly on Halloween.
J is away for a weeklong V-ball tournament. I know it is hard for her to be away for Quinn for so long so send her good vibes.

Adios

Fixie Love

Well I have been riding to work about three days a week for since my dad brought my fixie to Seoul. I have been enjoying it more than I thought. My Tucson commute was about the same mileage as my commute here in Seoul. My main commuter bike in Tucson was a fixie as well but I wasn't able to ride to work along a beautiful river.(complete with ducks)

Sometimes when I was feeling lazy or my legs needed a break I would ride my road bike which provided the luxury of gears. My roadbike was light, stiff, comfortable and fast. It was practically effortless compared to the fixie. Why then you may ask do I ride a fixie? Well riding a fixie is a totally different experience. Different bikes provide different riding experiences. Just imagine the disparity between a Ford F-150 pickup truck and a Lexus sedan and you may begin to understand the difference in the ride characteristics of different bikes.

There are many variables that go into the "ride" of a bike. Geometry is of course a big determining factor as is material. If you want a super stiff unforgiving ride you would get a bike made from aluminum. Having said that, you have many options in what type or mixture of aluminum make up the tubes of your bike; ultimately depending on what your "ride" goal is. Different compounds can be mixed in with the aluminum to make the metal more or less flexible or forgiving. Another material used to build bikes is carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is stiff yet absorbs and dampens vibrations while being extremely light. Steel is forgiving and springy, yet a bit heavier. Titanium is tough, light and flexy which can be used to its advantage when a bike is designed correctly.

When it comes down to it I have preferences for each type of bike that I ride. For a full suspension MTB I want the stiffest material I can get. There are many pivots on a full suspension MTB and that is going to provide opportunity for the frame to flex. I want the frame to be as stiff as possible on a full suspension bike because the suspension can soak up all the bumps for me.

A hardtail on the other hand must be made of steel or titanium. These metals would provide enough forgiveness. I would actually go so far as to say that there are specific steel tubes that I would prefer over others. Different grades of steel provide a varying range of ride qualities, some of which I prefer over others.

Road bikes for me have to be a mixture of aluminum and carbon. That way you get the best of both worlds. Stiff and compliant all at the same time and in the right ways.

For a fixie I would definitely have to say steel. I have had some fixies that have been too flexy but I would still stick with steel. Specialized has released an aluminum fixie recently and which looks like no fun to ride. My current fixie is fairly stiff but at the expense of being a bit of a dead fish. The tubes are beefier which is nice because it cuts down on flex (when a bike flexes it sucks the power away from your pedal stroke) but the steel is low grade so the ride quality is nothing to write home about. (even though I am right now) Having said that I enjoy riding it immensely.

The only time I feel it flex is when I'm pulling Q's trailer and I'm climbing the hill up to school. The hill is very steep. It is not easy to climb even on days when I am feeling good. It is a nice way to start the day though. Riding it on a fixie you have to push as hard as you can because if you go too slow you will loose your momentum and when that happens your up a creek without a paddle.

The other reason I like riding a fixie is that you can't stop peddling while your moving. It demands total concentration. I normally don't ride with breaks but since I have Q in the trailer and I would be coming down the hill from school(in traffic) I installed a front break. It helps to control speed.While riding a fixie if you want to slow down you have to push back on the pedals as they come up and pull up on them as they go down. It not only takes work to start but also to slow down and stop.

The ride to work is along a really nice river where other biker are out as well as runners, Rollerblades, walkers etc. I have been meaning to bring the camera and snap a couple pics on my way in but I always forget. I'll try and remember in the next couple weeks.

This morning when I left it was 39* F. Just a taste of what's to come I'm sure.

Enough about bikes I need to go to bed.

Random

I got the most random email tonight on my school account. Here it is:

Dear Mr. Sheridan

Hello, I changed your chair due to original your chair was fixed by our vendor so, if you have any questions let me know. Did you lost your name tag next to front door? Let me know about this and thank you.

I have no idea what the heck he is talking about. I can't wait until tomorrow to see 1) what he was talking about and 2) who he thought he was talking to.

Here is a pic of the Q-man.

I'm tired so I'm off to bed. More later.

Leap of Faith

Of course another busy week. Our new/used car was delivered to the school at the end of last week. It arrived without incident and was more or less in the exact shape as when we bought it. I was half expecting to have the car arrive with a different motor, a seat missing, four bald tires or something of the sort. But it arrived, it started when I turned the ignition, and Q and I drove it home without even getting lost. Overall it was a success.

J had an overnight V-ball trip on Friday/Saturday. It was the first time she has been away from Q overnight since he was born. The team did really well. J will tell you all about it I'm sure. She has a couple games this week and next before leaving for a week long tournament. So in essence this past weekend was just preparing her for the week-long hiatus from Q.

On Sunday we decided to load the family in the car and head out for some excitement. We went to our neighborhood Mexican restaurant and had treated ourselves to some Korean style TexMex. It was actually better than it sounds. The chef went a little overboard with the cinnamon but I still enjoyed it.

After lunch we scooted (that is what you do in our car because it's so small) over to Yuldong Park to meet up with friends for some bungee jumping. For some reason or another it was a very busy day for the bungee jumping operation. We ended up waiting to jump for quite some time. (By quite some time I mean like over 2 hours) This was tempered by company and the fact that people were making occasional beer runs. It was blast as those of you who have bungee'd know. The jumpers ran the gamut of age and gender. It was fun watching everyone get really nervous but still take the plunge when it came time to leap off the edge. Here is a comic I made of a couple of the jumpers. I left the "thought" balloons blank and posted a hard copy of this in the staff lounge and asked people to fill in the balloons with what they think was going through the minds of the jumpers at the moment represented in the photo.
Here is what we look like standing on the ground.


We got our tickets home this past week as well. We will be arriving on the 13th of December and staying through the 1st of January. Drop us a line and let us know if you'll be around.

I got a great email from Bryan about some motorcycle riding he's been doing which planted the seed of a short moto trip in my mind during our time back home. Now I just need to figure out where to go. Somewhere warm I'm thinking.

We need to name our car and are open to suggestions. I know it is hard to name a car without ever seeing it but just imagine a small silver hatchback. I'll try and get some pics up soon.

Adios,

Auto-update

Julia had a very buys week. She had a weekday game and didn't get home until late. Of course she had to go to work the next day which included practice of course. She had a game Friday and Saturday as well. The team won the game on Saturday which was cool. She was also able to visit with our friends Stu and Sheree for a short bit on Friday while at their school.

While she was at her game I went car shopping again. Our friends Lauren and Sarah were kind enough to babysit for us. Car used shopping here is very different than what I've experienced in the states. As you pull up to the lot (more on this in a minute) you are immediately surrounded by men trying to get your attention and your approval to let them show you around. We already had someone lined up; someone at the school had a cousin or something of the sort. We drove around back and found a spot. A person from the business office at our school was assigned to take us and help us out. He told us to hop out so we could find the office meet our cousin salesman.

We exited the car and stood staring at what was sort of a stripped down parking garage. It was constructed almost entirely metal. The main girders were sprayed with what looked like fire retardant. We climbed the stairs (which looked temporary) to the fourth floor. There in a corner of the structure were about 25 tiny offices crammed with about 6 or 7 desks. We negotiated our way to the very back corner and entered an office. We were greeted and our "guide" spoke with what appeared to be the head boss and a salesman. After a couple minutes we were off and hunting for cars.

There were three separate parties looking for cars. None of the cars have prices posted on them. They all have the year make and model posted along with the number of kilometers they have. The salesman has to call someone to find out the price for each car.

In many places the cars were stacked 4 or 5 deep. If you wanted to look at one of the cars in the back you had to shimmy in between the cars and try and get the door open without smacking the car beside. As you can imagine it was quite an ordeal if you wanted to test drive one of the cars in the last row. All of the cars in front had to be moved in order to allow the back car to exit. At one point we even went across the street to an identical "lot". There literally hundreds if not thousands of cars packed into every nook and cranny of these structures.

I'll spare you the details and just tell you after two weekends, many phone call and a couple trips back and forth across the street everyone found cars. The other two parties found their cars last weekend and went back to pick up their new used cars as I tagged along with hopes of finding one for myself. As luck would have it I found a car the exact car I was looking for this weekend. They even offered to deliver it to the school so I wouldn't have to go all the way back to the lot.

I'll get some pics up as soon as I get the car home.

Underpants Dance

Whilst

I have a few friends who use the word whilst. I have never used the word whilst before because if I did I thought I might have to beat myself up. I thought it was time to "face my Vader" and have used this word three times in the past three minutes and I can say that I have not yet kicked my own ass. I feel as though I'm pushing my luck so I better move on.

Tomorrow I'm doing something that I'm not all that happy about. I'm going to look at used cars. It's not that I'm unhappy about the process, I'm just not happy about owning another car. Although we have been doing quite well without one we have felt the limitations every now and then. Now that the temperature is on the downturn it might make it a bit more inconvenient to sit and wait for a bus. From what I hear it can get pretty darn cold and I just think it would be easier for all of us to hop in a car and head directly to our destination in heated comfort.

Even if we do buy a car we actually don't plan on using it daily or even on a weekly basis. But there will be times when we want to visit friends who live an hour or so away and we would rather jump in a car and head on our way.

From what I hear you can get a good used car for under $2 grand US. I know someone who actually drives a car they bought for $400 US. Your options are basically Hyundai, Kia, and Daewoo.

J is at another V-ball game tonight. Her team won!! She has to wait for the boys team to play before they can all get on the bus and take the 2 hour trip home. That should put her back around 10ish. Brutal.

I'm working on some video of Q, or some Quideo if you will. (now you understand why we chose the name) Or more truthfully I'm thinking of working on some video of Q. I have some raw footage I just need to edit it down. Anyone who has ever edited video knows what a labor intensive and time consuming process it is. Add a little man constantly trying to get at and poke the computer your working on and it gets clost to impossible to make much progress. But sometime soon I hope to get some video up.

Adios,

Pros and Cons

Lately I have been thinking about what I like and dislike about Korea. So I decided to write it down and share it with everyone who reads the blog. (All two of you)

Always break the bad news first so here are the things that I don' like in no particular order:

Generally Korea is expensive. (of course this is relative) There are certain things that are even more expensive than the States. A watermelon for example is 20 US dollars. Beer is another commodity that is really expensive. A decent beer at a restaurant or bar will run you at least 7 bucks, over two a piece in the supermarket. Western food is at minimum 15 dollars a plate.

This may sound a little obvious but not many people here speak even a little English. In Cambodia you could almost always find someone in whatever vicinity you found yourself in that spoke a little English. On top of that Khmer was not that difficult to pronounce and understand.

Conversely I have found Korean very difficult to pick up. (granted I haven't put that much effort into it) It's not a simple language to pronounce and understand. On top of that it is rude in Korea to get to the point directly so most people are very ambiguous when they talk which makes it more of a challenge.

We live far from the city center so it takes us about an hour to get into the city when we want to go. Granted this includes hailing a cab, waiting for the bus etc. but that is all part of getting where we want to go.

It is also expensive to fly in and out of Korea. I miss the days of 90 dollar round trip flights to Thailand.

Korea is pretty monoculture. It has been a closed society for quite a while and people are very aware of what their neighbors are doing and feel they have to do the same. This of course is a generalization but nonetheless an observation I have made in my limited experience.

I miss riding my motorcycle.

We miss our family and friends.

OK now for the things I like:

Korea is a very modern city and as such it is easy to get what you need. If you want something you can usually find it fairly easily.

We don't have to worry that much about getting sick. The restaurants are usually really clean and the water is not really bad. Some people we work with drink straight from the tap. I don't do that in the States so I'm not doing it here. We just run it through a Britta filter, just like the States. The real reason the water issue is nice is that when we give Q a bath we don't have to be hyper conscious about him getting a little tiny bit of water in his mouth when he is splashing around.

Health care is also top notch and inexpensive.

The public transportation is safe, reliable, and inexpensive. We are getting to know the bus and subway system. They have bus only lanes on the expressways so even when traffic is bad the buses cruise right along.

There is mountain biking 10 minutes from the apartment. I started to GPS the trails in my area and have a plan to do some more exploratory sessions this weekend.

There is a sauna/bath house in the basement of our apartment building. It is huge and sweet. This will be the topic of a separate post.

The school we work so far has been bueno. The admin has been super supportive and the people we work with are A++. We are treated with respect and our ideas and opinions are valued. They are only concerned about our well being but the well being of Q man. It nice to know that he is being looked out for even when we are not around.

We make more money than we did in the states.

The air is clean and we have access to open space very close to our apartment. There is a river path that we can follow to school, and if we wanted to, all the way into Seoul. There is also a skate park and rock climbing wall across the street. And of course the trail system a short ride away.

Korean food is cheap and plentiful. Some friends recommended a great restaurant across the street. We went the other night and dinner for four people with beers came to 23 US.

Overall the people have been really friendly. Especially when they see Q. He of course loves the attention and makes new friends all the time. Last week J needed to have something done at the bank but doesn't get home from practice until 6 every night. I tried to do it for her but the bank would not let me. I explained the situation and they told me to come back at a little after 6 the next night. They waited for an hour and a half after they closed so that J could get her stuff taken care of. Over the top customer service. I have had this type of service on a number of occasions. I think it comes down to people being solution oriented. People seem to take pride in getting things done.

Tomorrow is Thursday and one day closer to the weekend and maybe some bungee. I'm off to bed...

Today was our first day back at work after a really nice weeklong vacation. One thing cool about going back to work was realizing I was glad to see my coworkers. It made me realize again that I work with some really cool people. My students were well behaved to boot.

I ran into Julia on the 4th floor, which doesn’t usually happen since kinder is located on the 2nd, and everything she needs is either on her floor or below. She looked a bit concerned so I suspected something was not right. She told me that Quinn took a header face first on the ground. He has started running everywhere and scoots around at a good clip. I don’t think the rest of his reflexes have caught up with his new found foot speed. Anyway he was zipping along and next thing you know he was spread eagle on the floor and had used his face to break his fall. Like they say, like father like son; the only difference is that he wasn’t on a bike. He knocked a tooth loose, busted his lip, and scared the poop out of himself. He was bummed that he might loose a tooth that he actually just got in the last week.

The nursery ladies were beside themselves. They rushed him to the school nurse who immediately made an appointment at the dentist’s office. Julia took the afternoon off and went with him to the dentist’s office since Q didn’t bring his wallet and probably couldn’t pay for it himself. The dentist looked at it and said it was fine and would either fix it self or die and fall out. The appointment costs a whopping 10 bucks.

During our break the upstairs neighbors and we split a sitter and went into town to an area called Itaewon. Itaewon is an area near one of the military bases just north of the river. When it was built I’m sure it was outside of town but now has been swallowed by a booming metropolis. The area has a ton of great shopping (read cheap) and a good selection of western style restaurants and bars. We found some cool wall hangings for the apartment as well as neat toy for Q. It even has shops that specialize in “plus” sizes, which in addition to large girthed can also mean tall. We had a really good burger and fries and cruised about the shops for a couple hours. Here are our friends Brian and Gisella.





We hopped a bus back to our area and took it a couple more stops than where we got on to see where it went. It dropped us off and we waited for a cab. It seemed that all the cabs were avoiding this area for some reason so we jumped back on a bus and rode it a bit further. We got off up the road a bit and tried again but were unsuccessful in finding a cab. We could see our apartment off in the distance so we just decided to hoof it. It was actually not that bad of a walk. It probably took between 20-30 minutes.

This past Saturday Q went to his friend’s B-day party. The party was actually for his friend’s older sister but he didn’t mind. He got the B-day girl a sweet bubble gun that shot bubbles and flashed bright colors. It was a big hit.

Yesterday we bought Julia a bike at our neighborhood shop. It is a sweet Raleigh. Now we can ride to work if we want, get the groceries, ride up to visit friends, or just tool around and enjoy the nice weather. I’ll get some pics of J riding her new bike up soon.


I think some bungee jumping might be in the near future stay tuned.

Vacation Mode

Aahhhh it feels good to be on vacation. I was completely and totally ready to have a break. It has been go go go since we got here. Now we have a week to do all the things that we have been wanting to do. Or we can choose to do nothing at all and rest up.

So far the break seems to have gotten of to a good start. We have been engaging in good mixture of relaxing, fun, chill and non-stressful activities. I got a good ride in on Saturday before going out to meet with friends that evening. We also had a chance to walk around the neighborhood a bit more and take mental stock of the restaurants and shops. There are an abundance of coffee shops which is good. The earliest doesn't open until 8 AM, not so good. It was a great day to walk around the hood as 70% of the shops were closed and most of the residents were out of the city visiting relatives. We could meander along taking our time to notice all the things you miss when there are hordes of people, cyclists, rollerbladers, baby-strollers, motos and any number of other wheeled contraptions whizzing about as you navigate the sidewalks.

Saturday night I met some buddies for a night out on the town. We met up at Jeongja station and hopped a bus into the city. 40 minutes later we were there, almost where we wanted to be. A short taxi ride and we had arrived at our destination, which to be honest was not anywhere specifically. We were in an area called Sinchon which was more or less our generic destination. We took stock of the wants of the group and decided to for Mexican food.

A short walk ensued and, with bubbling enthusiasm we arrived at a Mexican food restaurant. Then someone threw us a curve ball. It was closed for the holiday. Ooohhhhh. Not to fret, we moved on to Korean food. Our trusty guide BH took us to a great little dive he knew of. It was cheap, tasty and the service was great. Here is a pic of our dinning local.



After filling our bellies we hopped from bar to bar for a couple hours. We mostly stuck to bars that had massive libraries of vinyl records behind the bar from which patrons could request songs. It was really cool to see and even cooler to here great songs being played off vinyl. Here are a couple of such establishments.

Notice the little slips of paper on which you scribble your request.

Check out the LP's lining the wall behind the bar.
We nicknamed this guy the Asian John Belushi, or AJB.
Ahhh, nothing like a Lowenbrau.

Classic.

Sunday J, Q and I hopped in a taxi, then in a bus and went into the city to visit with our friends Stu, Sheree and their two daughters. We walked around sightseeing and spent a couple hours just shooting the breeze. It was great to see them and catch up. They are great people and we are excited to have the opportunity to hang out with them again. Here are some pics from our outing.


Today has been a lazy day. We took a walk this morning down by the river near our apartment. I'll post some photos in a bit.

The only thing we have planned is to check out the Indian food restaurant in our neighborhood later with our upstairs neighbors the Longbothoms. I am crossing my fingers that it is open.

Adios,