kindergarten graduation

It's hard to believe it's June and the school year is already over. It seemed as if Maeve had just started kindergarten and now she's ready to move on to first grade. She's learned so much since September, including how to read. Mom is a little afraid that she's going to be bored at home this summer after all the activity in school.

Maeve says, "I had my kindergarten graduation. I am so happy that I'm going to first grade!"Maeve receives her certificate from her teacher Ms. Wilkerson. Maeve with Mrs. Kennedy and Ms. Wilkerson

Mother's Day: Hiking Namsan

This picture of Seoul Tower (or Namsan Tower) wasn't taken the same day. But that was our destination the afternoon of Mother's Day. We took a cab to the backside of Namsan to hike up to the tower. Then we came back down the other side and ended up hiking home, somewhat accidently. We meant to catch a cab home but kept walking while looking for one and finally decided we were close enough not to bother.

Claire catches a ride going up Namsan. She also hiked a good portion of the way.
This was at the top by the Tower. Claire was asleep by this point. I thought the little "soccer balls" with tufts of grass that are behind me were pretty funny.

Views of Seoul. I had to get a picture of the kimchi pots on the roof. And you've got to love the air quality! You can see the smog in the last two pictures, especially.

Claire turns 2!

Claire turned 2 on May 3rd but we celebrated a few days early while Grandma Mun and Papa David were still visiting us. (They flew back to the States on May 2.) Big sister Maeve was more than happy to help with everything from blowing out candles to opening gifts. She was the one who kept explaining everything to Claire. "Blow! Blow out the candles! Time for your presents! Open your presents! Maybe I should help her open them?"

While the concept of opening presents was a new one for Claire, she quickly caught onto the idea and enjoyed opening her gifts. She also enjoyed playing with her new toys. Well, she would have if she could've gotten them away from her sister. Just kidding.

National Museum

These are pictures from the Children's Museum portion of the National museum. Children are free but the adults had to pay something like 5oo won (a little over 50 cents). It was meant to be about an hour or so of hands-on exploring for the kids.

Grandma tries to show Maeve how to use this drum.

Claire discovered the kitchen. One side was modern and the other was a traditional kitchen from the "olden days." I didn't think I would ever get Claire out of there. She would have played there all day if she could! Eventually, I convinced her there were others things she might enjoy as well. While she ran back and forth in the kitchen, emptying plastic food from one container to another, someone asked if she was 3. This was about a week before her 2nd birthday! It was an American asking so, no, they weren't referring to her Korean age.

Maeve tries her hands at another drum.

As much as Claire enjoyed the kitchen, Maeve really liked trying to grind grain. I don't know why she liked it so much, but we had a hard time dragging her away!

Claire made an attempt at playing a traditional musical instrument.

Jeju-do #4: Hallim Park

Hallim Park was a bonzai garden, mini-zoo, cave complex, miniature folk village, and botanical gardens -- all rolled into one. There was something for everyone to enjoy.

I'm carrying Maeve here because she'd been injured while trying her hand at the standing seesaw with her father. I guess Sam forget how very little she weighs and tried to launch her into space. At any rate, she fell off the plank and managed to scrape herself in the process. She was miraculously better when she saw these games to play. She was trying to throw the sticks into the pot. Claire decided the best way to accomplish this was to simply walk over to the pot and place the stick in it.

This was too funny. There were a pair of these stone elephants on either side of a bench. Claire kept running back and forth between them, kissing them. Check out those lips!

Sonya, Maeve and Claire in the greenhouse

As soon as she learned of our trip, Maeve kept asking when were we going to the island with the oranges. (Jeju-do is famous for its oranges and tangerines.) So I knew we'd never hear the end of it if she didn't see her oranges. Fortunately, they were everywhere. There were orange trees outside the airport. Groves and fruit stands were everywhere.

Jeju-do #3: Miniature Theme Park

We spent the next morning at the Miniature Theme Park. The park was built around miniatures of famous buildings and sites around the world. Everything from Buckingham Palace to the Great Wall of China to the Opera House in Syndey was represented. Claire seems to be indicating that this is more her size...

Claire spent a lot of time dancing at this park. She would stand under speakers and dance and dance. I wish I knew how to upload a short video of it to share! It was hard to pull her away to move on to the next exhibit (although there were speakers everywhere). Then when she saw the 7 Dwarfs displayed... well, weren't they the perfect size for dancing with!

These are pictures of the girls and their "fan clubs." It was difficult for them to go far without schoolgirls (usually, but as you can see, boys got in the act, too) asking to take their pictures or wanting to pose with them. Claire took this in stride. After all, everyone is supposed to be in her fan club. Maeve, on the other hand, wasn't too thrilled with the attention.

Jeju-do #2: waterfalls

Day one in Jeju-do: Waterfalls and more waterfalls. We started the morning at Cheonjeyeon Falls. It was just down the road from our hotel. Actually, it was a series of falls, which meant a lot of hiking down and up stairs.

Our next stop was Cheonjiyeon Falls. For those of you paying attention, that's right, there is only one letter difference in the names. Imagine trying to hear the difference, especially when you have a hard time hearing the nuances in spoken Korean as it is!

Claire was asleep when we arrived at the 2nd set of waterfalls. But she woke up before we made it to the end of the trail. There, she and Sam entertained some schoolchildren on a field trip with their teacher (she's in the blue shirt, wearing a hat).

Claire and Maeve stop for a quick pose

Our final tourist stop for the day was at Jeongbang Falls. Just as we left the parking lot and started down the entrance steps, Maeve's reaction was, "ANOTHER waterfall?!" This one's claim to fame was that it emptied into the sea.

Jeju-do #1

We flew to Jeju-do for a short vacation while Grandma Mun and Papa David were visiting. "Do" means island in han-guk (Korean). We spent 2 full days seeing the island and enjoyed great weather. The only bad weather we had was the evening we arrived and then it started to rain a bit the morning we left. After getting off the plane, collecting luggage, and finally getting our rental van, we were off to see Jeju-do! Our first stop was the Dragon's Head Rock. Claire fell asleep so she and Sam missed it. Sam had already seen it so he stayed in the van with her. The rest of us trooped down to the shore to view it. The wind really started to gust and it started to sprinkle on us before we made it back to the van. Then, we drove to the south side of the island to find our hotel. It rained and then we found ourselves blanketed in fog as we drove over the mountain to get to the southern side. Fortunately, the weather cleared by the next morning.

While at the Dragon's Head Rock, we saw a woman by the water's edge, squatting down and obviously doing some sort of work. Mom climbed down the rocks to see what she was doing down by the water. Was she catching something from the water?

No, she was washing dishes.

Maeve's han-bok

I posted a picture of Claire in her han-bok some time ago. Maeve finally wore hers while Grandma was here. She liked putting her hands in her sleeves and walking around like that.

Korean Folk Village

We spent a Saturday at the Korean Folk Village in Suwon south of Seoul. While Papa David, Grandma Mun, Sonya and Claire saw the tradition side with the different houses and exhibits, Maeve and Sam experienced the amusement park side with all the rides. After leaving the Folk Village, Sonya managed to miss the entrance to the expressway so we spent a tense ride home hoping we were going in the right direction and would be able to find out our way home.

Claire

Sam and Maeve in the food court area getting lunch

Maeve riding a pony

Traditional farmers' dance

Traditional wedding ceremony

Claire strolls along with Sam in her wake

Roadtrip: homestretch

I'm not really sure why I took this picture of a service station on a two-lane road, but here it is for your viewing pleasure. On the expressways here, the rest areas are large, well-kept affairs with convenience stores, restaurants, cafeterias, and stall-type food vendors with the full-service gas station located some distance away from the main area on your way out of the parking lot back toward the expressway. This is not a picture of that.

Sam had to return to work so he took the train from Busan back to Seoul. That left me to do the rest of the driving! The next day we set off for Donghae, on the east coast of South Korea. It rained the short time we were there. One of Mom's brothers lives there which is why we were there. I took this picture of Donghae from our hotel window. It had stopped drizzling for a short time but was still gray and overcast.

As we left Donghae, it really started to rain. Then, because we had to drive over mountains to get back to Seoul, we encountered thick fog. I knew there was a truck in front of me because I'd seen it pass me in a tunnel. However, as soon as we emerged from the tunnel, the truck completely disappeared into the fog! I was just a little stressed by this driving experience. Eventually the weather began to clear and we descended into lower elevations. By the time, we stopped at this rest area where the girls could play on a small playground, it was warm and sunny and you'd never guess what I'd just driven through!
Of course, no drive back into Seoul would be complete without a traffic jam. Sure enough, there had been an accident and we were at a complete stop on the highway as we came close to the city and were trying to get on the main expressway leading into the city. So close and yet so far!

Roadtrip stop #3: Busan

It was dark, cold and rainy when we arrived in Busan. It continued to rain while we were there.

We met Mom's youngest brother and his wife. They took us to the Busan Exposition and Convention Center (BEXCO). Lucky for Maeve, there was a Barbie exposition at the time. I've never seen so many Barbies. I even recognized the one from my childhood that my sister had managed to remove its head.

After viewing Barbie in all her forms, Maeve and I joined the rest of our group for lunch. There was a very good buffet at BEXCO that my mom is still raving about.

After lunch, we went to Dongbaek (Camellia Island) and walked around in the drizzle. But we weren't the only fools walking in the rain! There was quite the line when we found our way to the APEC building and received a tour of the site where leaders around the Pacific (including our own Pres. Bush) had met for an economic conference.