Danny's Daily Stretches

On Danny's first day at work, he was having a conversation with a coworker in an office when some music started playing over the intercom.  Danny thought, "man, what is this loud, annoying music that is playing?  What is going on?  How do people get any work done?"  As Danny and the man exited the office, Danny noticed that everyone in the surrounding offices were standing and doing some sort of exercise to the music.  The man that Danny was chatting with continued their conversation while he joined in the stretches that seemed to be in memorized sequence.  Danny just kind of stood there hoping he wasn't being culturally offensive by not following suit.  But now he knows that everyday at work at 8:55am he is going to hear that same music and stand and join his coworkers in their daily stretching exercises. 

Check out this video for a glimpse of the daily stretches.  Enjoy a good laugh as you imagine Danny and his coworkers doing this at work every morning.  Maybe you could start something new at your office!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2TqeCQ2Do

Spring is Here

This week we enjoyed temperatures in the 60's, and one day it got as high as 70 degrees!  The kids were begging to break out their shorts and flipflops.  The weather has actually been really mild from the beginning.  We've been told that last year's winter was brutal, but we've been out almost everyday that we've been here and it's never been too bad--even for a bunch of Texans.  But it's definitely been refreshing to shed the coats and scarves and break out the bikes and rollerblades. 

Blossoms are blooming in the trees and flowers are being planted all over the city.  The downtown ice skating rink on the plaza is now a field of fresh green grass and park benches. 

We went to Seoul Forest on Saturday.  It is a very large park near the Han River with lots of bike paths, a skate park, playgrounds, courts for tennis, basketball, badminton, and lots of open spaces and beautiful scenery with fountains and ponds (and, of course, outdoor exercise equipment!).  You can feed deer and rabbits, and enter a special "insect garden".  Let's just say the kids slept well that night.

 A unique playground to climb and slide inside.

  

Hyrum becomes the first victim of the "alligator".

Christmas in March

So because Danny "went to town" at Walmart and Sam's Club before he left Texas, we didn't receive our air shipment containers until we'd been here for almost a month.  The containers had to be examined more thoroughly once they reached South Korea because they contained food.  I didn't realize how "bumpy" the first month had been until those boxes started coming through our apartment door.
If you'd like a glimpse into what our lives were like, try ridding your house of all toys except for a coloring book or two, no books or movies (except in a foreign language), and no printer.  Try cooking with only very basic ingredients (and no beans!), and salt and pepper as your only spices.  No cookie sheets or 9x13 pans and no plastic dishes for your kids!  It's a small miracle that we only broke one glass--and amazingly it was Amelia while setting the table!

You've never seen kids so excited to see a toy and a jar of peanut butter.   It was definitely a lesson in gratitude!  And did I mention that we were only "deprived" for less than a month!  It seemed like much longer.  We were praying daily for those containers to arrive speedily.

Let's just say we're much more at home in South Korea now that we have our "stuff".

Chopsticks

So I totally thought that my kids would think that chopsticks were a really fun toy to play with at the table for a couple of weeks.  Then they'd get tired and frustrated with only getting bits and pieces in their mouths and gravitate back to forks and spoons.  But I've been shocked not only at how much they've loved eating with chopsticks, but how good they are getting at it.  No quitters here!  (Except for Joy.)

 

 They don't always love all the Korean food they taste, but they've been very open to trying new things (octopus!), and are even acquiring a taste for some foods they thought they didn't like (mushrooms!).

 The traditional food always includes lots of vegetable side dishes.  It actually makes me sad to see how much our western culture has influenced the way this country eats, because their traditional foods are so healthy and full of nutrition.  And then we introduce McDonalds, and Pizza Hut, and Starbucks, and Outback Steak House, and Dunkin Donuts.  Sorry South Korea!

My Cousin

We were so excited to meet up with my cousin from Idaho who is serving as a missionary on the south side of Seoul.  All the kids now think it would be so cool to come back to South Korea someday as a missionary.  But they are doing great work as missionaries now by letting their light shine to everyone around them.

This is us in our 12 passenger van giving my cousin and her companion and their friend a ride back to their apartment in Gangnam.  The driving here is a little crazy to put it mildly, but Danny seems to be getting pretty used to it.  In fact, he seems to actually enjoy the freedom to drive however he wants.  I just recently got my international drivers license but have yet to venture out behind the wheel.  The subway suits me just fine.  I'm not into video games, and I've heard people say that driving here is kind of like playing a video game.  If so, I'm sure to crash and burn. 

Parks

Within the first few days of our arrival we found a park near our apartment.  We thought it was so funny and unique to find outdoor exercise equipment at the park.  But as we've traveled around the city we've discovered that it is far from unusual.  There is outdoor exercise equipment at every park and walking trail in the city, and as well as in some random locations.  When there isn't any playground equipment at a park, our kids just have fun playing on the exercise equipment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living the High Life

 

Joy has become accustomed to the heated toilet seat.  Often it is a challenge for her to sit on a "normal" non-heated toilet seat.

 

This morning I (Danny) had to coax her to sit on her non-heated toilet seat by manually warming it by rubbing my hands over the seat creating enough friction (heat) for my daughter's sensitive bottom, because Jamie was in the shower in the other bathroom.

 

Joy relaxing on the heated toilet seat.