Seoul, Seoul, Seoul.  What can I say?  I really really loved our week here.  We are all topped up and overflowing… which is pretty incredible considering we came here pretty exhausted and run down from the last month of medical yuck + China winter blues.

I’ve got way too many photos to share, so I hope you’re in a lookylooky mood!

I love their slogan!

The girls and I had fun “flippin’ signs” in front of Gangsta.  I’m pretty sure our “I love you” sign wasn’t super gangsta, but that’s ok!

Our morning destination was a place we’d heard about and needed to experience for ourselves.  Can you read the sign at the top of the building?

Doctor Fish Cafe.  This is one of those super cool Korean cafes where they offer a choice of drinks and dishes and you sit with your feet in a pool of baby piranhas who come up and nibble the dead skin off your feet while you chat with friends and eat/drink.  When you’ve had your fill, you go soak your feet in an aromatherapy tub and then lotion up and head home.

As a bonus for the kids, they had tons of wigs and accessories for them to play with while mom and dad played with the fish.

The fish pond area was nice and inviting…

And apparently Keith has tasty feet.

Up close and personal with my foot…

There were two kinds of fish in two separate tubs, so we enjoyed Turkish fish and Chinese fish.  The Chinese fish were larger… the Turkish fish felt like a vibrating or pulsating massage.  It was actually a really pleasant feeling and we felt really relaxed with them.  The Chinese fish were a bit stronger and felt more like a jabbing or poking sensation and fluctuated between tickling like mad and like a more intense massage feel.  I actually liked the Chinese ones more but Keith wasn’t into them.

We stayed for an hour and a half and left with super soft feet.   In the US they charge ridiculous prices for this, but it was cheap here- $1.50 for your time in the tub and you have to buy a drink.  So we all got fruit smoothies and Keith and I did the fish for a total of less than $20.

A little photo booth fun!

An avocado burrito for lunch:

And a series of photos showing why we love this area of town- the Hongdae area.  It is such a fun place to walk around and see things.

Sidewalk cafes galore…

A cute little furniture and wood-stuff store…

A yarn store with some other little crafty stuff…

A teddy bear making studio!!!  The girl in the grey actually made the brown bear on the table. SO cute!

Hilarious…

We also ran into a tv show being shot in the neighborhood.  Apparently this girl is famous.  I had someone write down her name in Korean so I can ask my students about her.  We watched them shoot a scene for a few takes.  Not to give away the plot or anything, but this girl is pretty forlorn and she looks sadly around as people walk by her.  Yeah, not the most exciting scene to watch, but that’s ok.

For the first time in ages, I sat and did a doodle-drawing… I think this is the first time I’ve felt remotely inspired in a LONG time!

And that’s Seoul.  Or at least, our time in Seoul.  Not the whole soul of Seoul as it is a pretty giant city and we just saw a few tiny corners of the place.

I highly recommend a visit!

Here’s the play-by-play of Keith’s date with Katie.

Best part of the day:  We slept in until 8:00, at which point Katie pets me on the head and says “Daddy, it’s time for our date!”

1. Shared a donut at Mister Donut.  Katie said she wants our last name to be “Donut.”

2. Explored a street known for its many pet shops. We went in 5 pet stores full of baby puppies and kittens.  Katie loved putting her arm close enough to the kittens so they could paw at her coat. Guess she thought she was their toy??

3. Pigged out on queso, chilli fries, and a burrito at Dos Tacos for lunch.  Keith was able to get a free refill of his fountain Coke for the first time in 18 months!

4. Played at a wonderful playground at Children’s Grand Park.  Katie enjoyed the swings, which parks in Tianjin don’t have.

5. Watched the most unique animal show ever, also at Seoul Park.  It was AWESOME, but it’s very difficult to put into words exactly what we saw, so please bear with me. 

It was the story of Snow White, with Korean actors and actresses (Katie asked “Is that girl on stage Snow White??”), told with the help of about 50 animals.  Imagine a dolphin show at Sea World, only with a play going on simultaneously, and lots of other animals.  There was room for a stage – with a full blown castle background – and the water was in front of the stage.  At various points of the show:

** Monkeys arrived on the stage via a zip line

** A seal delivered the apple to Snow White

** 20 ducks jumped from the stage into the water

** Birds flew from the rafters onto Snow White’s arm (multiple times)

** A group of 5 pigs walked across the stage

** A bird pooped right next to Snow White

** Seals jumped through rings and played water basketball, right after delivering the dreaded apple.  For the basketball game, audience members reached over a glass partition and put basketballs on the seals’ noses, then the seals swam about 10 feet and put the ball in a water-basketball goal.  Two seals made 3 baskets each.  They could probably play for IU this year.

It was so awesomely random!! And the whole thing was in Korean.  We had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next, but Katie and I loved it.  Best $6 ever spent!

Ok, back to the date recap…sorry there’s no pictures. 

6.  Rode a ride at an amusement park, also located inside the Children’s Park.

7.  Shared a donut at Dunkin Donuts.

I wish I would have had a camera for all of this!!  Also, I echo all of Kimberly’s thoughts about Seoul being a wonderful city.  I’m loving the organization and cleanliness I see in stores and public places that I don’t see in TJ…people actually wait in line to get on the subway. 

I hope everyone in Dallas and Indiana are surviving the snow or ice that you all have been getting.  

Today was date day.  I took Eliza & Keith took Katie for the whole day.  E & I are early risers, so we were out the door at 6:30, headed for adventure.

At the subway stop, bright and early…

Sadly, the university district we were going to wasn’t quite awake when we arrived.  We wandered up and down a few streets, finally stopping for awhile in a Lotteria (like McDonald’s only Korea’s own brand and soooo much tastier than McD’s… it is everywhere and it is YUMMY!  and bonus, the one we stopped at had pink velvet chairs to sit in!)  We also counted delicious restaurants- on the same street as the Lotteria there was also: Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Dunkin Donuts, Mister Donut, Mister Pizza, Dos Tacos, Starbucks, Subway, Tasty D*Lite Ice Cream, Haagen Dazs.  Bestill my heart.

We settled on sharing a yummy breakfast at Dunkin Donuts- ham/egg/cheese on a bagel.

Even though it wasn’t lunch time, we stopped and ogled the Dos Tacos menu.

Our purpose for heading to the university was a large art supply store located there.  We wandered up and down side alleys trying to find the place- and eventually stumbled upon it hidden in the bowels of alleyland.  I know you can’t really tell what this is, but the 2nd sign with the red logo on a blue background was the sign for the art supply store.  We were so happy to finally find it…

It was worth searching for… Eliza loved digging through these 70 cent ribbon rolls.

And I loved the stacks of Fabriano papers!  They also had every marker brand imaginable (Copic, Tombow, Prismacolor, etc…) and colored pencils, watercolor pencils, pastels, paints, etc… of every style and type.  I had to use every ounce of self-restraint to not pick the whole store up and carry it back to Tianjin.   And it was soooo organized and neat compared to everything else in my world!

After shopping, Eliza was pleading with me to stop somewhere and have “art time”.  So I found a 5-story coffee shop and we made a home on one of their tables, spreading out watercolor pencils and watercolor brushes and making “art” together.  We didn’t make anything terribly inspired or inspiring, but we had a great time together, sharing our milkshake and being “artsy”.

This whole university district is amazing, it is the sort of place I could wander around for hours just to see all of the cafes, coffee shops, and tiny stores.   Oh, I spot a Baskin Robbins and a Dunkin Donuts in my photo of the area… that could also contribute to my liking the area so much ;).

After art time, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Dos Tacos.  Yum, yum, yum.   See Eliza’s cheese dripping there?

After all of that, we took the subway to the hotel, dropped off our shopping stuff and headed *back* out.  We visited two more districts of the city- one full of art galleries and little shops and a quick trip back to the craft megashop featured yesterday.    We topped off the night with Outback Steakhouse.  Thank you to the Korean Won’s declined value for that meal!  It was delicious and surprisingly affordable!

This has been such a needed and wonderful time of rejuvenation for all of us.   We are so thankful that He provided this time for our family.   And I, personally, am really excited to have some fun art stuff to take back with me to help ease the transition back to Tianjin life!

Have a great week!  Oh yes, and of course Happy Lunar New Year to all of you- sorry for failing to say that earlier in the week.  It is the year of the ox now.   So is that Happy Moo Year?

P.S. I am aware of the other half of my family.  But since I wasn’t with Keith and Katie, I can’t share their day!  Someday, he can pop on here and share about their Snow White animal show they saw in the park involving seals, monkeys, birds, pigs, and ducks.  Um, yeah.  Interesting, right?

Today, we set out on a “light-on-the-walking” day.  We were pretty wiped from several adventure-packed days.  So we planned to take a city bus tour- it stops at 26 stops around the city and you can either get off or not and if you get off another bus comes every 30 minutes.

We decided to get off at Namdaemun Market.  It is known for being a huge huge market selling, well, everything.  We’re pretty unphaseable in the market territory, as China is full of markets.  But Korea does markets quite awesomely.  They’re clean, clean, clean.  Western toilets, toilet paper, stall doors, the whole bit in their bathrooms!  (Ask my sister Emily about the bathrooms at our local market!)

And with the Korean Won completely tanking this year (from 1USD=@800 Won to the current rate of 1USD=@1380 Won just in the last 8 months or so!!) it is like everything is half price from a year ago.  Things we would have scoffed at a year ago are now completely affordable!

So, we decided to visit Namdaemun.  I had no idea what kind of stuff we’d wander into.  We got off the bus and saw nothing but camera shop signs.  And since I love my camera and can’t afford any lenses for it, I was like “Oh blah, blah, blah what are we going to do for 30 minutes??  Let’s just walk around this corner and see if we can find something to look at for a few minutes…”

If there’s one thing that I *love*, it is crafty stuff.  And it is hard to get COOL crafty stuff in China.  I’ve made do with what I can get, but it has never been the same as what I’d get in the US.

The first thing I saw was just some paper.  Rows and rows of it, but all paper…. big giant sheets.  I was thinking what I could do with this stuff…

And then I decided to peek my head inside and what did I find?  5 amazing floors that would make Hobby Lobby turn green with envy.   Markers (yes, Emily, they had Copic markers too!), Prismacolors, stamps, inks (versacolor, versamagic, stazon, and other varieties), beading supplies, sewing supplies, drawing and painting supplies, candle-making supplies… you name it, they had it.  5 amazing, packed floors…

And it isn’t like this was the end of it either… store after store next door had stuff… love ribbon? Check out one of the many ribbon stores…

Poster board?  Um, they’ve got a few sheets here!

Rows and rows of little jars filled with various beads and findings for jewelry-making…

Honestly, I was sooooo overwhelmed by all of these things, I didn’t know where to begin.  I ended up buying a little craft carrier and filling it with some stamps, ink pads, and card blanks/envelopes so the girls and I can stamp together.    And I got some odds and ends here and there, but it was just SO much stuff to look through.

Our local options for markers are cheap markers with bunnies on them that last for about 2 hours before running out of ink.  So our girls were about to CRY with excitement when we found this… at reasonable prices too- I think a pack of washable markers was about $2.50.  Not bad at all!

Given more time (and less children to shop with) I would loooooove to go back to that place and explore some more.

But the girls were all “Mommy, it is 1:00 and we normally eat at 11:00 and we’re starving, blah blah blah…”  So we finally left and ate some delicious ddukbokki ramyeon (one of my fave Korean dishes- noodles, rice logs, minced fish squares, all in a spicy red sauce- much more yummy than it sounds by my description!):

We did not however, get this…

We continued our tour but didn’t quite get to finish the whole thing, given the several-hour-detour at Namdaemun.  But that’s okay, we are all happy with the fun crafty purchases!

Tomorrow is date-day.  I’m taking Eliza for the day and Keith is taking Katie out for the day.  We’ll meet up at a Mexican restaurant for a shared dinner at the end of the day. 

Have a great day!  We’re just trying to figure out how to make our last 2 days here stretch as far as they can!!!

We are completely head over heels in love with the city of Seoul.  We have had two and a half amazing days.

Foods you can get in Seoul: guacamole, Mexican food, Dunkin Donuts, Dippin’ Dots, Krispy Kreme, mozzarella cheese sticks, prepackaged salads, salad dressing, Jelly Belly jelly beans, garlic bread, bagels, flavored cream cheese.  I could go on and on and on.   The availability of stuff here is just amazing though.

This might sound odd, but it is a bit hard for us to leave Tianjin because when we leave, we remember the “things” we love.  If you don’t see those things for a long time, you adapt and move on.  But when you’re reimmersed in the “stuff” it makes you realize how good that “stuff” can be.  We hadn’t left mainland China for 17 months this fall, and coming back from Hong Kong was a bit of a painful reentry for us after seeing goodies in HK.  There’s even more stuff here in Seoul and we’re going to feel that when we go back on Saturday!   Of course, we’d rather have those brief flirtations with the stuff than nothing at all, so it is all good!

But, more than anything, we have been blessed beyond words this week.  We can’t believe how blessed we are to have a life that allows us to take amazing, refreshing vacations to awesome international cities where we can learn about other cultures.

We spent today at an amusement park, Seoul Land.  Note the odd assortment of holiday gear above- pumpkins and reindeer!  It isn’t the newest amusement park by any means, but it has a great sledding hill and the girls really loved that.  The rides are a bit old but we had a great time- definitely assisted by the in-park Dunkin Donuts, Dippin’ Dots, and other fun foods.    The girls are completely in awe of Seoul’s coolness.

It has been snowing off and on throughout each day here.  It hasn’t “stuck” much as it has been really sunny.  We had a fun snowy phone call to my mom and stepdad- they had free phones set up outside at the amusement park where you could make 5 minute international phone calls.   It was a bit surreal to chat outside as it snowed!  Here’s Katie talking to Grandma Jean.

By the end of our phone call, the snow was coming down a bit thicker… this is right after we hung up…

We all tried a traditional Korean type of “sledding”.  I would say it is a cross between ice skating and sledding.  You sit on a board with metal slats that go on the ice and you use sticks with a nail on the end to “push” on the ice.  You can get going pretty fast and slide around.

This photo was taken at the top of the sledding hill…  sledding in Korea is very organized.  Everyone lines up and gets on their sled in a nice neat row.  They signal that you can go and the whole crew slides down together.  Assistants are at the top and bottom to keep things safe and orderly.  Then the next group gets in place and so forth.  It is sooooo cool to see organization, lines, and orderliness again!!!    The mountains here are soooo pretty!!  (Disney fans, note the “not-Epcot-ball-but-sure-looks-a-lot-like-an-Epcot-ball” in the center there– they also have Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, etc… hehe!)

At the end of the day, ready to head back home.  Do you see the smiley face in the clouds?

Perhaps the best part of the day though, was singing a la James Brown’s Soul Man “I’m in Seoul Land…”

Here’s to another great 5 1/2 days!

This week has been one of thankfulness.  I can’t tell you how GOOD it feels to wake up every morning with energy and NO pain.  I’ve gotten things done that have been sitting in my “to do” pile for ages.

I think the first few days, I didn’t want to get my hopes up that this was IT, that I was really better.  But I am finally believing it, and LOVING it!

So thank you to all of you who were pr’ing for me.  Thank you for lifting me up.   Thank you to Keith for keeping the house running the last month.  Thank you to my kids for being eternally patient with the lack of homecooked meals.  And thank you most of all to our Heavenly Father who is the source of our hope!

I got to visit my kiddos at the orphanage, and they are all doing great.  They’ve had a flood of new babies of all ages- there are quite a few new babies with Down Syndrome, cleft lip or palate, and it is hard to really comprehend the number of children that pass through the doors of the orphanage in a given year.

The older children will have a Chinese New Year performance tomorrow and we plan to attend with our whole family.   I’ll try to get some photos and maybe video to share.

A friend of ours’ kindergarten daughter came home from school recently and said “Mommy, have you ever heard of Europe?”  Her mom said yes, of course.  Her daughter was confused, because you know, mommy wasn’t at school that day, “But how did you hear about Europe, mommy?”  These little kindergarten minds forget that the world of their classroom isn’t the extent of all knowledge in the universe.

The reason that I bring that up is that there is no school tomorrow- our Chinese New Year break begins.  Somehow I had gotten it in my head that they had a half day tomorrow.  Last night, I was on facebook and I commented to Keith that everyone in our community was posting things like “___ is so excited there is only one more day before break”.  I was like “Wow, none of them can count!  We have 1 1/2 days left!”  He gave me the sorry-to-burst-your-pride-bubble shrug, “Um, honey, there’s no school Thursday”.  Eliza pipes up “No, that’s not what Miss Hull said!  We have a half day Thursday!”  Suddenly it clicked with me that Eliza was the source of my confusion.  She’s generally the smartest one in the family and keeps track of all of the important details for us.  But this time, she was wrong.   I tried to convince her that there’s no school tomorrow.  But she said she “needed to ask Miss Hull”.    It was one of those moments that made me giggle.  Of course, mommy knows nothing.  Of course, teacher’s word is the gold standard and mommy is just talking out of her ears again!

Two days till Korea!  The girls are so excited to escape the fireworks!

We’re home again, just for a few days, as we leave for Korea on Friday.  But it has been good to feel better and see the kids again.   My pain levels are miniscule and I’m just SO happy to finally feel better.    Looking back on our time in Hong Kong, it doesn’t make a lick of medical sense, so we are just taking the clean bill of health and pain reduction as a gift from Above.  It doesn’t make any other sense, so we just are thankful for His intervention.

Katie had only been home for a few hours when she took a spill on the tile floors.  Tile Floors: 1  Katie: 0.  Actually, I’m sure it is more like Tile Floors: 100 Katie: 0, as she falls on them often.  Last year she had chipped one of her front teeth- yesterday, the tooth got wedged up in her gums and was wiggly and cracked.  So, I pulled it out.  I’m sure the good-mom method would have been to take her to the dentist for the pulling, but I figured she’d be fine.  And she is.  The root of the tooth was bent at a 90 degree angle (yikes!) perhaps from the previous injury, perhaps from yesterday’s injury.     She was just fine after we cleaned up the blood and gave her some ice cream.

Her new smile (note the Chinese New Year shirt we picked up in Hong Kong from Bossini- love that store!):

She’s such a funny kid, we love her faces:

Tomorrow, I will hopefully finally make it up to the orphanage- haven’t been at all since Christmas day!  I miss my kiddos!

The last 24+ hours have been a trial to say the least, involving countless medical tests, much pain, and few answers.  Kidney stones that were once visible suddenly disappeared.  Blood tests that once revealed kidney failure now reveal perfectly healthy kidneys.  I had an overnight stay in a local “public hospital” (there are private and public hospitals here- the difference in care is that of a doctor’s office vs. the local health clinic in the US).  There were 6 patients to a room, shared bathrooms for all 6 of us, and lots of special moments.  I really enjoyed when my “neighbors” had many visitors all hawking up stuff and yammering on cell phones all at the same time.  (Do I sound whiny? I’m not really, it was just unique, that’s all).

The doctor concluded that I’m perfectly healthy and (in his opinion) I have never had a kidney stone.  The evidence of prior stones being caught was not relevant, in his mind.  The prior blood tests didn’t matter either. 

We had some fun tests today (cystoscopy, retrograde pyelogram) to confirm that.  And yes, apparently all is well.  My gall bladder, appendix, and kidneys are all fine.

My only concern with all of those findings was that I was still in atrocious amounts of pain.  I was thrilled to know I’m healthy.  Really thrilled.  But the pain was a deterrent to rejoicing.

After today’s tests though, things seem to have opened up in my “system” if you will.  I can pee without pain again.  And my pain levels have dropped dramatically.

So, we’re going to rest and recuperate for a day and then head back on Sunday- we really miss our girls!!!

I was thankful to be here, because the quality of care was unequivocably nicer and better than I would have received locally.  And I know many have walked in my footsteps before with the “unidentified” and “unexplainable” pain. 

I do hope that the following days will continue to bring less and less pain and more and more recovery!!

Thank you for your prayers!

I’m currently waiting on details from our medical evacuation group on my impending trip to Hong Kong for more kidney tests and eventual surgery or lithotripsy or something.

So if you don’t hear from me… that’s why!

I got to spend this morning enjoying royal <ahem, cough, cough, wink, wink> treatment at the local hospital.  Our international medical clinic will send you with a translator to a local hospital if you need services they can’t provide.  That’s always fun.

My favorite moments were when I was asked to remove ALL of my clothing in front of a window on a busy pedestrian street (for an x-ray which didn’t medically require ALL of my clothing to be removed), and most definitely having my abdominal fat poked and jiggled and commented about during my kidney sonogram.  I mean, who doesn’t love that kind of stuff.  It makes you feel all cuddly inside.

During all of these tests they discovered more bad news like my kidneys are swollen and have lots of fluid backed up, and i have a lovely new (big!) stone in my right kidney working its way out… and that combined with not-so-good bloodwork earned me a trip down south for help.

I wrote a little “note” to my stone earlier today.

Dearest kidney stone,

It’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t think we can carry on with this relationship anymore. You’ve been with me through the holidays, reminding me of your friendly presence night and day since I met you December 20th.

I just don’t think I’m ready for a serious relationship.

You play so many practical jokes, like tickling my ureters and blocking my urine up into my kidneys. Sadly, my sense of humor just isn’t as refined as yours.

I thought when you saw me flirting with medication, you might feel threatened and break up with me. But you were too faithful, not letting any silly pharmaceutical drugs get in the way of our time together.

And while I really do admire your faithfulness, I am starting to feel a bit claustrophobic in our relationship. I’m sure the problem is entirely mine. Really, it’s not you, it’s me.

Love,
Kimberly

ETA: Leaving Wednesday for Hong Kong (well, flying to Shenzhen and taking a bus over the border).  Will arrive Wednesday evening and see doctor on Thursday.

I usually just share my “life” on the blog, but well, crafty stuff has consumed my life lately.  I actually was having some serious guilt like “Dude, we didn’t move to China so I could sew and knit!” but at the same time “Dude, we didn’t move to China so I could have kidney stones!” so whatever!  I’m thankful that I can at least funnel this into some productivity of some form while I’m dreaming of sticking ice picks in my eyes to make the pain stop.

The weekend’s creations:

Pigtail hats for two:

Eliza’s twirly skirt (wow, she looks old lately!):

Katie’s reversible jumper:

the other side of the jumper…

Eliza’s requested “soft long sleeved dress” out of corduroy:

I think that’s about all from our house for the weekend!

I’ve had some “better” pain days and I’m hoping to try to go to the orphanage this week on Tuesday.  Have a great week!