Standing Out

We definitely stand out in a variety of ways here in South Korea.

#1- We're colorful!  I'll never forget the first time we walked outside of our complex and onto the streets of Seoul.  As we walked across the street I remember feeling like we were adding a rainbow to the city.  The vast majority of people here seem to fear color and dress in all neutral colors.  During the winter (I'm guessing), the overwhelmingly predominant color is black.  More than half of the people you see are only wearing black (at least that is all you can see with their coats on).  Of course, the fact that many of the people on the streets of downtown Seoul are business professionals, also plays into this as their attire is more formal.  But it was fun to watch our family in a rainbow striped scarf, purple coat, cowboy boots, and pink poodle hat bounding across the street amist the sea of black.  It made me smile.

#2- We have a lot of kids!  We actually have more than twice as many kids as the average Korean family.  When we go out, people regularly count to four on their fingers and then point to Danny and me as if to say, "are all four of these kids yours?"  We smile and say "yes" and everyone acts very impressed and often give us the "thumbs up" sign.  One couple we met on the street were so impressed (or maybe concerned for us), that the woman whipped out her wallet and started handing each of the children the equivelant of a dollar.  Upon seeing this, the man took out his wallet and began doing the same.  Our children were amazed and very grateful for the gift, which they promptly planned to spend at the street vendors.

#3- We just look and do things a little differently.  For instance, we get a lot of attention when Joy rides on Danny's shoulders--not an uncommon thing for a father to do in the US, but aparently it's not "everyday" around here.  And just as we look at little Korean children and find them so darling, the Koreans truly adore our children.  For a country without many children (relatively speaking), this is a country that truly has a great love for children.  People are constanly telling us how beautiful our children are or how they look just like "little dolls".  They smile at them and touch their cheeks and stroke their hair and give them high-fives and lift them up to sit next to them on the subway.  One day a man on the subway, who could not stop smiling and squinting his eyes and wrinkling up his nose and waving at Hyrum (like Hyrum was a baby), finally dug through his groceries for a gift to give to Hyrum and presented him with a container of apple juice just as we were coming to our stop.  The man was very delighted when Hyrum shook his hand and thanked him.  It was really precious.

#4- We're not conformists.  In Korea, everyone is very into the latest fad.  Even the older people dress very similarly to the younger people.  Therefore, most people looks about the same.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only woman in the city not wearing either skinny jeans or a mini-skirt.  Hyrum is the only kid that I've seen with holes in his jeans.  And although I used to tease my husband for his lack of fashion-sense, I'm so proud that he is not following current trends in men's clothing.  Scary!  The funny thing is, we've actually heard that we're not looked down upon for our "lack of fashion sense".  For foreigners, looking different is totally acceptable, but not for the Koreans.  For instance, they all dress in full-on hiking gear everytime they hike.  Everyone of them looks like they just stepped out of a North Face catalogue.  There is never a doubt in your mind when you see them on the metro that they are on their way to go hiking.  And if they didn't, it would be looked down upon.  But it's perfectly acceptable for us to go hiking in jeans and a t-shirt with a water bottle in hand.  Aren't we lucky!?

#5-We're foreigners, so I guess that makes us some kind of a novelty or something.  When we gather the kids together to take a photo, we're usually not the only ones who are snapping our camera in the direction of our kids.  Other times, people motion to encourage our kids to join in their photo shoots.  We try not to pay much attention to it for the kid's sake.  We don't want our kids to think they're rock stars or something, but it's pretty interesting.  Sometimes I'll just see people turn their phone towards the kids and take their picture.  It's a little crazy--we've never experienced any paparazzi before!

Church

We wondered if we'd find an English-speaking church or if we'd need to attend a Korean-speaking church.  We found (online) what we thought was just going to be a small gathering of English speakers from our church, but when we arrived last Sunday, we were amazed to find a group bigger than our congregation in Texas.  The congregation includes the military base in Seoul, so about 2/3 of the families are in the military-- including some friends of mine from college!  Small world! 

It is going to be so nice to have a great group of Americans of our faith to socialize with and lean on during our stay here.  There are a lot of families with children and our kids just fit right in.  We are excited to grow here and serve however we can.

Our Apartment

These are a few of my favorite things . . . about our apartment in Seoul.

 #1- I have a housekeeper.   Actually, although I do appreciate not having to do things like change the sheets and clean the toilets, I really do value work and desire that my children learn to value it as well.  So although the help is greatly appreciated, I don't want our family to become a bunch of slackers.  I still insist that we do all our dishes and kitchen clean-up, make our own beds each day, and do all of our own laundry.  And although the housekeeper does vacuum everyday, I'm planning to buy a broom today because we can easily sweep a dustpan full of food and dirt off the floor at the end of the day.


#2- I have a heated toilet seat in my bathroom.  (Need I say more?)  We might as well only have one bathroom in the apartment as this one is of course the favorite.  Joy will pull her pants down in another bathroom and then announce, "oh, actually I want a warm seat", and shuffle across the apartment to my bathroom with her pants around her ankles.


#3- I don't have to cook breakfast anymore!  We get breakfast downstairs every morning.  And I'm not talking about a glass of juice and a donut.  It is a combination Korean/American breakfast and it is quite a spread.  We're talking scrambled, boiled, and fried eggs, bacon, sausage, fries, cereal, toast, bagels, croissants, yogurt, a couple different juices, cheese, deli meat, a couple of different fresh fruits, rice, salad, cooked veggies, cooked meats, kimchi, a couple of different soups, and more.  Just a few more options than I usually give my kids at breakfast ;).  And no dishes or clean-up!  We do miss things like pancakes and french toast and oatmeal, but now we just make those for dinner occasionally.

#4- We have an awesome view.  And I'm the type of person that really appreciates a great view.  This is the type of view that you often pay big bucks to have out the window of a tower restaurant in the city, and we get to have it from our kitchen table everyday for lunch and dinner.  We live on the 22nd floor of a 23-story apartment complex.  I think they heard that we had four wild American kids and decided to stick us up in a corner far away from the rest of the patrons, but it has suited us great.  The whole eastside wall of the apartment is windows, so we can enjoy the view from almost any room.


You'd think with all of these great things, I wouldn't have anything to complain about, but I'll be honest and say that although there is nothing "terrible" about our apartment, there are a few things that make me miss our house.

#1- No backyard.  I was thinking that our backyard in Texas was getting a little too small for us, but now that we don't have one it seems like we lost  2,000 square feet off our living space.  There is a park close by that we frequent, but it's not quite the same as just being able to send them outside for a while to let some energy out.

#2- We have to be quieter and slower.  I don't have the noisiest kids ever, but I definitely wouldn't describe them as quiet (especially not in their own home).  I feel like I do enough correcting without also having to constantly "shhh" them, but now I have to do that too.  They are starting to get the idea that our neighbors are only a "wall-away", but it has not been an easy transition.  They also can't just run out the front door or around the corners in the halls or they could knock into some one.  I don't think I realized how bouncey my kids were and how often they walk without looking where they are going until we moved here.

#3- We went from a no-TV-family to a three-TV-family.  This likely sounds like heaven to most of you.  And honestly, so far it has been okay.  In fact, the last time that I wished we had a TV in our house was during the Olympics.  And since we have been here we have all really enjoyed watching the Olympics.  Plus, our shipment containers have not arrived yet, so the kids have had very little to do inside the apartment.  But once our things arrive, and the Olympics are over, I hope I won't have to keep saying "no you can't turn on the TV".  Fortunately, a lot of the shows are in Korean so it's not as tempting as it could be.  Wish me luck!

#4- I have a tiny washing machine and dryer.  If you've ever lived oversees I'm sure you can relate.  I used to have two laundry days-- Monday and Thursday.  Now everyday is laundry day.  At least I don't have to do the bedding.  There is no way that I could fit a normal sized quilt in one of these machines.  Not only are they both small, but they both take forever to wash and dry one tiny load.  Does that make any sense?  I often just dry the clothes halfway and then hang them up just so I can get another load going.  My oven is also very small.  I don't have my cookie sheets yet, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit them in or not.  I hope so!  I'm just dying to make some cookies!

Jet Lag

So we survived the 12 hour plane ride from San Francisco to Seoul.  The kids actually did pretty well (the carseat that we brought for Joy was a lifesaver), but it was challenging enough that if we lived here long-term I definitely wouldn't be tempted to go home more than once a year.  Not to mention the difficulty that we would have with the time change each time we went home to visit.  I just kepting thinking about all of our friends who work shift-work at the plants and wondering "how do they do this switch from night to day all the time?"  It took us about a week to adjust our sleep schedule, and I think it will take us one more week to shake the tired feeling we still seem to have during the day.
After we got through customs at the airport in Seoul we found a man holding up a sign that said "Mr. Ripa, Daniel Scott".  The man's name was Alvin, and he has become our favorite driver at our complex.  As we were about to exit the airport I spotted a Jamba Juice-- that was a good first impression of Seoul.  And I took great comfort in the thought that I could tell my friend, Leanne, that we were going to be okay in Seoul.  I ordered 5 smoothies just so I could tell her in good conscience that we were eating well in Korea.