Everland Lunar New Year Celebration

PACKERS CAME!!!

Yippee! Our "stuff" got packed and sent yesterday!!! 21 Days and counting....

This is our standard room of "things not to be packed". We normally pick a room and CRAM everything in it and continue to throw stuff into it as the packing is going on. ALWAYS so unorganized and chaotic!! Until I fix it! :)

Ana's room packed up! She knows her things are going to Texas and she is fine. We show her pictures of her "Texas house" regularly and she knows her room is "upstairs" there and that she will see her things again very soon.

She was "helping" this packer and that is when I took her to school and left Marc to deal with the boxes and supervise. :) We have a partly furnished apt. here so we still have two beds, three dressers, one couch, a dining room table and 4 chairs! :) We also have our pots and pans because they were the cheepys we bought at the BX when we got here and aren't shipping them home. So we are well covered for the next couple of weeks...no worries! :)

Everland Celebrates Lunar New Year!!

Even though it is chilly outside...we ventured out to Everland with our good friends the McKee's! Still one of our favorite things to do and I don't know if we will get another chance to go before we leave. This week is a big week for the Koreans...well Asian's everywhere really...Friday begins the Year of the Rat! Happy Lunar New Year!

Again, it cracks me up that Ana will have NOTHING to do with Santa or any Disney character...but will VOLUNTEERLY go up to the Korean characters! This character is dressed in the traditional Korean "hanbok" to celebrate Lunar New Year. Beautiful and SO colorful!!!

I just thought this was cute...everyone all bundled up!

Doing the "swing ride"...Ana REALLY wanted to do it!

Right now there is a man made snow hill for the kiddos to sled on! Ana's FIRST sledding experience! She loved it. There were three different hills but this was the "baby hill" and Ana could do it by herself and that is very important now a days..."I do it by myself!"

I have to say though, I don't get mom of the year for this one. After about an hour of sledding Ana bursted out in tears. I was worried because Ana doesn't cry unless something is REALLY wrong! Well, her feet where ice. I felt HORRIBLE!! I took her to the bathroom and ran lukewarm water on her feet and she thawed out. Poor baby. BUT all is good and forgotten and she was ready for more...but we headed home! This was our first "incident" that really scared me. She has yet to be sick and we haven't had an emergency room issue either (knock on wood) so I was a bit tramatized and it was time to leave!

There is a parade at Everland everyday and their parade today was centered around their Lunar New Year celebration! It was WONDERFUL!

Everland Lunar New Year Celebration

Some of our favorite Korean faces....

We have done a lot of shopping "downtown" and these faces are all very special to us. These sweet people are what the Korean hospitality is all about. Friendly, helpful, and so caring. It means a lot to us that in less than one year we have formed a special relationship with these people that we won't forget.

Ana has a STRONG bond with "Gladyis". (The lady holding her.) Everytime we go downtown she always wants to stop in and say hi to her. Gladyis works at Royal Bag and the owners are always so sweet to us too. They always have a banana or an apple for Ana and BIG HUGS!

This is Mr. Pang. He is the "middle man" for us that pays all our Korean bills. We take him our bills and money and he "takes care of it" for us. He's primary job is a car sales man. I have NO idea why he does our bill paying on the side...but their are many of us who live off base that go through him. I joke that he is a sort of "Korean mafia boss". This man can get you anything at ANY TIME of the day. He works very hard to make us feel safe and cared for in Korea.

This is one of my favorite purse stores. This lady (I am HORRIBLE with the Korean names!!!) owns this store and just adores Ana. She GAVE her this purse this past summer and Ana still carries it around and takes care of it! Again, just the sweetest lady with the biggest heart.

Not Quite Right concluded....I think!

SO it has been awhile since I've posted a "not quite right". I have to be honest....I don't know if it is because the "not quite rights" are not as many now since I have found them all OR I have just lived here too long and they are "normal" to me....either way...this might be my last being it took me some time to find these.... :)

Now this is something I have been living with the ENTIRE time here. THIS is MY shower water that comes out of this drain EVERYDAY. SO, I can not have a nice fluffy rug on my floor to step onto because it would get wet with my shower water. The floor NO KIDDING floods EVERYDAY. I step out into a POOL of my "funk water" (as I call it) and it is the way I start my day. We have tried everything...there is a certian type of Draino (in the RED container) that helps for about a week...we needed to take stock in it...however it has become "normal" and believe it or not, I am not as grossed out by it anymore...I have come down a couple of levels in my "snottiness" that I once was. Have I mentioned I only have 21 days left?

THIS in interesting! See that little pillow in the lower right hand corner of this car? That pillow has a phone number crossed stitched on it. MOST Korean cars have a pillow with the number on it. WHY you ask? Because they will park back to back to back so that NO ONE can get out UNLESS you call that number and the owner of this car will come and move it.

Look closely...yep...3 hanging penis's...I have NO IDEA what that is about but I could make up a GREAT story for you if you want me to! :)

E-Mart!

E-Mart is a sort of department store and grocery store. It is a Korean Kohl's with a Korean HEB attached in the basement...if this visual helps. :) Besides the BX (Base Exchange) THIS is where I shop. It's about 15 minutes away from our apt. and has a great playland for Ana so we go there every week normally. (This is one of the places I get my "Korenglish" finds!)

E-Mart is a chain of stores so you can be driving down the highway and see that yellow sign with the black "E" and KNOW what it is! :) Which is nice because majority of the time I have NO idea what anything is! :)

This is different from the states...it is the dressing room. One SMALL "booth" that you walk out of to see the mirror off to the side there. I've never tried any of the clothes on being that the Koreans are ALL so ity bity...and their sizes are all different too.

I REALLY think the states should jump on this band wagon!!! These are like the moving walkways in an airport, but they slant up or down...it's their escalator...sort of! And the really neat part is the cart's wheels fit into the groves and hold it still BY ITSELF...look NO HANDS! :) Another neat thing with these carts is you pay about 10 cents to use it and when you put it back...you get your money back so NO random loose carts out in parking lots! Which is a huge pet peav of mine....

Ana loves to go to the top ahead of me and act like she is pulling it up for me...so helpful! This is her and Olivia working hard at getting me to the top! :)

However, the neatest part is the playland! When we first moved here this made me SOOO nervous but what you do is drop your kid off for up to two hours for about $3.00 and they have a blast. You give the caregiver your cell number and $1 for juice if you want and just leave them. Again, this made me a mess at first...but now it is just "normal" and she loves it! The Korean culture adores kids and is so safe that now it's just a win win for both of us. I get great shopping time in with adults and she gets good playing time in! GOTTA LOVE E-MART!