A walk in the neighborhood

Yes, when I'm doing a little planting, and the sun is beating down on my neck, I think "Gee, I could use some shade..." Fear not, the resourceful Korean farmer has a solution! Lash an umbrella to your shovel! Perfect! Portable garden shade! Why didn't I think of that...

The munchkins in the stroller- Evan's bringing his necklace with us while we go on our walk. Linnea just sits back there and looks around while she chews on her hands and occasionally coos. As you can tell from the picture, it's been just wonderful weather here- this was taken the weekend before Halloween and the temp was in the mid 70s during the day. Loverly.

Beautiful persimmons growing on a tree in a courtyard. Just at the base of our hill. Does anyone know of any persimmon recipes? What do you do with them, besides just eating them?

"Construction" in Korea. Rip it down, make a huge mess, and figure out what to do with it after the fact... This is right at the corner of a secondary intersection between our house and the shopping strip. Amazing to see a house just ripped apart. Evan was quite impressed and a little scared of the pile of rubble.

Everland, a.k.a. Korea Disneyland

Upon recommendation from other families, we decided to venture to Everland this weekend. The equivalent of Disneyland, created by Samsung. It's located about 25 miles from our apartment- equating to a 1.5 hour drive with minimal traffic. The layout of the park has a "zoo" with a Safari tour, AmericaLand with roller coasters, European Adventure with roller coasters, and a large central area with a season-appropriate theme. This being spring, the parade theme and decor was heavily floral... oh, my was it floral. We arrived around 10am, found a parking lot, took a bus to the main entrance and, after much pantomiming, figured out how to buy an annual pass- breaking even after only 4 regular-price visits... and children under 3 are free. Did I mention that Evan's not having another birthday until 2010? :)
We started our trip in the zoo quadrant of the park. Evan enjoyed the marmosets, gorillas, white tiger, and the swimming polar bears. They also had many vendors selling trinkets- Evan was particularly drawn to the bubble launcher. He ran back and forth through the cloud of bubbles a dozen times!

Matt and I posing with the posies :)

Lovely 70 degree day. Many shops lined the main entrance, filled with as many Anime and cutsie knickknacks as your heart could desire. We both commented on how they haven't quite capitalized on the character aspect of Disneyland. We only saw one costumed adult posing for pictures with kids. Even the trinkets were very generic, and not over commercialized... they have not learned to paste Mickey Mouse on EVERYTHING.

After touring the Animal Kingdom with 10,000 of our Korean friends... we found a somewhat American eatery (our other choices involved variations on rice, fish and kimchi). Evan is savoring his corn dog- made with a brown rice wrapper instead of corn. I ordered the teriyaki chicken which was served as 4 chicken wings, a pile of rice, a pork filled egg thing and... yes, pickled cucumbers, peppers and radishes. Matt tried the "Bulgogi baked spaghetti" which was spaghetti noodles in a tomato sauce with pieces of beef ribs on top. The whole meal only cost 16,000 Won. A deal by Disneyland standards.

Spinnning whirl-a-gig flowers behind us. Evan was pooped out by 1pm. Good enough for us... let's call it a day! We can always come back again... and again, and again.

Arboretum

Follow this link to see the Korean website:
Mulhyanggi Arboretum

We visited the Osan Arboretum this past weekend with another young family. The kids all enjoyed running around and the adults enjoyed letting them run around :) It's a beautiful park just north of Osan- about 15 minutes from our apartment. The grounds feature a manicured labyrinth, tropical greenhouse, "insectarium", picnic areas, paved walking/biking trails, an orchard, and many acres of forest to explore.


Evan ringing the bell at the center of the labyrinth- Yeah! We did it!

Flower Market

We traveled about an hour from Songtan, to a flower market near Seoul.
It's easy to find- just off the freeway. There are rows upon rows of greenhouses that are filled with vendors stalls. We walked into the nearest greenhouse and were just amazed at the orchids- everything was in bloom- manicured, arranged, and presented just beautifully. Our treasures for the day were a sculpted azalea, a hanging pothos, an aloe plant for the kitchen, a huge potted Amaryllis cousin, three South American tropical plants (not sure what they are), and a vase of lotus bamboo. All for the low price of about $90 US. Evan had lots of fun seeing everything from the backpack- and really enjoyed all the shopkeepers doting on him and suprising him with a lollipop. Yes, lollipop has certainly risen to the top on his list of vocab... "maybe we'll see a lollipop?" "Do I get a lollipop" "They might have a lollipop" And, my favorite... "Lollipop... OK. OK. OK." As if talking about it and giving yourself permission will conjure a lollipop out of thin air.

10,000 Leagues Under...

Above, Brynn and Evan posing in front of the entry to the Coex Aquarium- a feature of the Coex Mall. All of which is located underground in a shopping mall in downtown Seoul. The mall featured a labyrinth of parking garages, complete with bowing Korean attendants in fedora hats, which lead to a shoppers mecca. The mall features an eight story tall Hyundai department store which sells Fendi toss pillows, $500 rice cookers, and many other things you didn't know you needed.

Wow. Now those are some crab legs... yum, yum.

Matt and Evan discussing the finer points of the seahorse propulsion system. There were many exhibits- featuring native Korean fish and eels, the Amazon Rainforest, shallow tanks of stingrays and puffer fish, a HUGE shark tank, and a icy Arctic exhibit. And to think it was all part of a mall...

This is a Korean menu

We ventured out to Osan, a city just 10 minutes south of our apartment. Matt has adjusted well to driving in Korea- I think it will be a few more days before I try it! We went to E-mart, which is the Korean equivalent of a grocery store, clothing store and household goods in one building. It was near lunch time when we arrived, so we decided to eat at the food court. Luckily, or unluckily, for us the menu was entirely in Korean an depicted by plastic representations in display cases near the cashier. We eliminated any options with black sauce and green chunks... also brown slurry over rice... and any heaping piles of kimchee. Which left us with two choices: #45, and #46. Rice with breaded chicken? or pork? , cabbage salad and a side of clear brothed soup.
We paid at the cashier- exchange rate is about 970 Won to $1. Then wandered into the cafeteria area where they have three separate counters with cooks behind them. It became apparent that our receipt number would pop up on the LED screen at whichever counter was preparing our food. Ah, but something to drink... hmmm....