Our New Home

Welcome, to our New home in Korea!!!

Our apt is in an 11 floor High Rise. We have two elevators that access our house. This is what you see when you open the front door. To the left is a little closet and to the right a huge closet that I love.

Our Half Bath.

Dinning/Living Room

Living Room.

The other side of living room.

Our huge amazing Kitchen.  Love all the Cupboards.

Pantry/Laundry room.  Love the floor to celling shelves.

Other side of the Laundry room.

Our High Rise. I am standing on our little patio.  This is our view. 

So this was suppose to be the pantry.  But, it's my Craft Room.  We have to get creative with our space.  Nice work.

Master Room.

Master Bathroom.

We wanted the kids to have a play room, So we ended up having the boys share a room.  So far it's been working out well. 

Brooklyn, requested the Big Bed. She said, "Kayden got it in Washington, Can I have it in  Korea?" Yes, indeed Baby Girl.  This is the bed set Miss Brooklyn Chose. Pretty!

The kids Bathroom.  It's so silly the two pedestal sinks but whatever.  They have a huge closet behind and that is what we use to store everything.  Oh I should note the silly cupboard above the toilet with no toilet seat.  yeah 24 hours in our house and Someone's tooth brush fell into the toilet.  We do not use that cupboard anymore. :-)

Here is the kids room.  All for them!!  It's nice we have the wii set up in there and they have a desk and the closet is full of games and crafts for the kids.  Sweet!!  Now we all have our own space in our High Rise Apt.  It's pretty nice hu? 

Teaching English

My Friend Heather Lane saw this advertisement  from the USO asking for Volunteers to teach some Korean's Conversational English.  She has taught this class before and really wanted to teach again.  She asked me if I would join her.  Tonight was our first night.  This sign says Learn  English March 14th at 1700 (5:00) This is by far the coolest thing I have done in Korea  so  far.  I am so in love with these Koreans.  We had a blast tonight!!!!  They are so very nice and are all trying so hard to learn English.  We will be teaching Every Thursday for 1 1/2 hours.

This is our group.  Heather is front and center.  You can see me in back and here are our 14 students.   They are just amazing!!! 

Waiting for Class to start.

This Smile Pretty much stayed on my face the entire 1 1/2. hours.  Talk about an amazing experience.  I really wish I could pronounce their names.  But Alas I can't they are really hard. I also need to find out a couple people said their name in Korean but then said their English name was something else?  So I wonder how that comes about???  I can remember their English names.  The boy I am helping is Tony. I can't pronounce or spell his Korean name. 

Working in groups filling out our getting to know you paper. 

Another Group Picture!!!!  I think Thursdays are going to be awesome.  I came  home from teaching my class and Kayden said,"Wow mom, you are really dedicated."  I love that my kids get to see me do other things then be the Best Mom!!!!  Thanks Heather and the USO for giving me this awesome experience.  Truly a once in a lifetime adventure.  

Korean Market

Right outside the Gate of Camp Humphreys is an awesome little "Market". The Market is held on days ending in 3 or  8 . Look how fun this is.

There are all kinds of vendors at the Market.  They all come and set up their little space with tables and canopies. 

Just another view of the Market.

This sign is "True"  They do indeed sell DOG, no we have not tried  it.  

You can buy some things in Bulk...

I love all the Korean signs behind this vendor too.  Lots of new things to try.

Korean baked items are not the same as in the states.  They are not really sweet.  I'm not sure if that is a good thing or bad???

Lots of Korean Candy.  The only thing we have tired is the Taffy.  The kids seemed to like it.  I need to start buying this a little at a time and see what we think.

More pastries/Korean goods

Lots and Lots of food from the Ocean.  It smells really "FISHY"

Baby Sting Rays.  SAD!!!  People must eat these.  I like to watch them swim.  I don't want to even try to eat these.

This little Korean Lady knows how to use that knife.  She takes the whole chicken and just cuts it up right there for you to bag and take home.  She has baskets full of these Chickens and she really flings that knife around it's crazy to watch.  

Remember that story I told you when I visited E-mart?  NO, well let me tell you again.  I was walking in E-mart it's kind of like a super wal-mart.  They had a couple vendors selling things I was looking at this very picture just trying to figure out what it was and if they were whole fish etc? when this  Korean lady came up and took my hand put a couple of these fish in my hand and put it up to my mouth.  At this point I'm thinking crap I've touched this and second I didn't want to be rude.  So of course I put these in my mouth and started to chew.  YUCK!!!  It was a salty fishy taste.  I looked into my purse for some kind of mint or gum.  Alas, I didn't have any so I had to live with the Fishy taste for a while.  Come to find out these are dried Anchovies.  AWESOME!

I'm not even sure what this is?

Or this, but they sure smell fishy.

Lots of fresh nuts.  YUMMY!!!

They have clothes, socks, and hair bows  at the market as well.

I went with Sara and little Audrey.  Here we are having  a yummy sausage.     

I almost got these for my boys.  Ha Ha Ha. 

And here is the "Special Nut".  Remember this Story?  No, let me tell it again .  I was walking down the ville with Sara when we came upon a lady that had a bucket of what looked like a "Special" Nut? We love nuts. I handed the lady 10,000 Won which is about $10.00. The Korean Lady said, "No". I guess it was too much.  I ended up going to an exchange store to get smaller Won.  So now I'm excited to go back to the lady and give her 1,000 Won About $1.00 this Korean lady started yelling at me in Korean.  I'm not sure what she was saying but she was not happy with me.  She pulls out 5,000 Won I was like okay no problem, I give her the 5,000 Won.  I get a huge bag of these nuts.  I was like I don't want a big bag I just wanted to try them.  So I put one in my mouth it was kind of cold and not alot of taste to it.  I ran into some other friends and told them my story and how I got yelled at because I didn't pay the correct Won.  I showed them what I bought and guess what??  it wasn't a nut... It was BUGS!!!!!! I just spent $5.00 on a big bag of BUGS!!!!!  Yes I did. Oh Brother.  See Foreign countries and I do not mix.  So what do I do?  I got home and make Jeremy, Kayden, Brooklyn and Chandler eat the bugs too!!!  Now we have all eaten Bugs in Korea.  AWESOME!!!! PS it only look like Bugs because I told you!!!

All of our goodies from the Market.  I think I am going to love market day.

The next little bit of heaven is Paris Bakery.  YUMMY!!!  I love this place.  They have the best garlic Baguette bread. Soo Good. I think I could eat the whole warm baguette myself.  Good thing I always bring one home. 

Coex Mall and Aquarium

Here in Korea they have some fun Family Field Trips.  The Outdoor Rec had a trip planned to the Coex Mall and Aquarium, we just love Aquariums.  We paid for our tickets and they provide the Transportation and tickets to the Aquarium.  What  a deal.  We did not have to drive or try to  buy tickets.  We paid Outdoor Rec and they took care of the rest.  What a deal!!!!  it was fun just HANGING out on the bus.  NO STRESS!!!!

After our 1 1/2 hour Bus ride we are here.  The Coex Mall is Asia's largest underground shopping mall with two food courts.  It seriously had 50 different places to eat.  Lots of shopping and while we were there they were having a Samsung convention.  This place is HUGE!!!! 

I love these pics.  The kids were just making faces as I was taking their picture.  Love them!!!

Bastianclan at one of our very favorite places.  WE LOVE the AQUARIUM!!!

Happy kids.

I love that all the signs are in  Korean and English.  AWESOME!!!

This picture is hilarious.  Chandler had no idea I was taking pictures.  He was trying to get the Alligator to move and apparently if you stick your tongue out at them they move.  LOL!!!  This picture makes me laugh.

Even I know how to read Korean... The Fish will Bite if you put your hand in the water!!!! See i'm catching on.  Ha ha ha

Daddy and the kids with the big fish.  This aquarium was so fun.  Not only did they have fish but they had a lot of animals.  Monkeys, Groundhogs, Bats, Squirrels, etc

One of our favorite were of course the Sharks, and the underwater tunnel.  Very cool.

My family hanging out with the Sharks.  

Brooklyn captured this picture.  Cute!

The kids got Ice cream and cotton candy.  Samsung was having a convention the kids got to play a couple games.  It was interesting trying to communicate with the sales people.  Oh the adventures.

This is the kids first taste of "Real Korean food" It was really hard to choose which place we  could eat.  There were way too many choices.  

Look they even have english menus awesome!

Kayden, was super shocked this was his napkin.  It's not very big and it's not very sturdy.  It's like a piece of toilet paper.  

Cheers we are happy to be in Korea.

Daddy, cooking our meal.

Score the kids loved it!!!