Regarding my mom: She is still in the hospital. They had an expected discharge date late last week, but she has had trouble with an infection and modification to medicine dosage - a couple of things like that. I think it's been fairly disheartening compared to expecting it would be a big step in the "improving" direction once the colon was removed.
There was a 2 day national holiday for the lunar new year, and Michael had M-W off from school. People tend to join their families like a major holiday in September, and the news reports lots of traffic jams. I'd been sick over the weekend (I think something I ate), so Monday we still took it kind of easy. Nearly everything was closed, but not Lotte Mart and the restaurants under the same roof ... so we ate at TGIFs. There was only one other table. I felt bad for the people working. A friend had brought a DVD player for us recently. We've asked a couple times that someone from facilities maintenance look at our tv, and it turns out someone did. I just told Michael to see if he could get the DVD to play. He could, so after dinner we had hot chocolate and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We have not made a very big dent in the box of hot choc. from Costco. A few more movies will make some of the cold winter days and nights go by faster, but I have to figure out where to rent.
Tuesday we went to Busan for a 2:00 performance of Cats. It was marvelous. I had never seen it. We read online to find out the basic plot, which I would do even for a show in English. That it was in Korean made us focus more on dancing, just enjoying the music, etc. Michael liked it a lot too. Because of the holiday, we didn't try to find any interesting restaurants. We ate at the train station next to our hotel twice - both us ordering the same thing for lunch and dinner (BK Whopper Junior; Korean mild soup with dried fish; guess who ate which?!).
Tuesday we took the subway to the world's biggest department store. It was quite a site. My favorite part was the basement level food, but I did enjoy the glamour of the middle of the building being open. It's like other department stores in Korea: the brands all rent some space and hire their own employees. Michael got a new pair of sport shoes. We were happy to find 290 cm/US size 11. Usually 280 is the largest. He also bought the 6th Harry Potter book. He's going to end up reading all of them over about a 6 week time period. Miss Jolynn got him started! I told him when I read the books, I had to wait for the next one to be published. I must have been feeling strange because in the basement level for lunch because I was the one who suggested the hot dog to go with the tuna sandwich Michael ordered. It was the mustard on top that looked so good. We shared - Korean style and our style too. We got home about 4:00. The taxi ride from the KTX station to our apartment takes longer and costs more than the KTX from Busan. It's just a 20 minute ride on the KTX. Back to school and work tomorrow. It's double day at school: the kids have 2 periods each of math and IPC.
"IPC" reminds me. Their current topic is Governments and Rulers. The kids had to write a speech and then deliver it. Michael was elected the president in his class. His speech started, "My name is Michael Key, and I am the key to your future." His teacher told me when I was at school for lunch duty a couple days later. Michael did tell me he got star of the week last week. His (new) math teacher wrote that it was for "being a good role model, his positive attitude, and working well in every lesson." Michael actually told me, and I think it's partly because he is so pleased with the new math teacher, Mr. MacFarlane. Michael liked the teacher in the fall, but she left. For 6-8 weeks they were without a dedicated teacher, and nothing worthwhile really seemed to be going on. I am glad things are much better in math.
Take care and God bless. Kim
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Surgery ok
I talked to my dad. My mom's colon-removal surgery went well, and she will recover in a regular room. They had thought she might have to be in ICU. Thanks to so many of you for your prayers. I will keep you updated on her progress and recovery.
I posted a few pictures from our tour ... see end of blog page.
Grace and peace to you and your loved ones. Kim
I posted a few pictures from our tour ... see end of blog page.
Grace and peace to you and your loved ones. Kim
Monday, January 9, 2012
Korea Tourists
Update on my mom: She got the "all clear" after chest x-ray last week, and surgery is scheduled Jan. 12. It's been since Dec. 31 that I have talked to my parents, so I don't know much else.
We had a great time on our trip around Korea. (See a few pictures at bottom of page.) We drove about 2,300 kilometers over the 7 days with the longest drives out of and then back into Seoul. We were in a van with driver, guide, and 2 other tourists - a mom and son from Canada. I would guess their ages as 50 and 25. Her husband is working here, and they live in Seoul. The son is an MBA student at Univ. of Toronto. Spring and fall are high season for this tour, but it was kind of nice to see places in winter and not to have to deal with crowds and more people on the tour. Winter has its own beauty. I had hot packs for my feet, and used 2 per boot on most days, so I was ok. Michael wore a short sleeve shirt under his coat, baseball hat, and gloves. I cannot figure out where he got a "keeps warm" gene. We have adopted our tour guides (it's) "up to you," which he said a lot re: how to eat some of the food and how long to stay in some places. He was very kind-hearted though not great English speaking and listening skills.
We saw a few Buddhist temples (they seem to have secured many lovely mountain locations; many hiking locations bring one close to a temple; if you have seen one temple, you have seen them all!) and a few traditional/folk home areas (they start to look the same too and have rice stalk roofs or tile ... depending on whether the home was originally worker-class or nobility). We were outside a lot with the theme of culture and nature. During the driving in the country side, we could see many grave sites/small cemeteries. They are located on hills and have some markers and mounded graves. These mounds need care every year and sort of get built up to maintain their form and height. There was a lot of country side to see, and mountains make up a high percentage of the land. The population is very concentrated in 5 to 7 or so cities.
Most days there were 3 things/sites to see. A green tea farm on a snowy day was lovely. A fish market is a Korea must-see, and we visited one in an area where a lot of octopus are caught. We dressed up in traditional clothes (I could hardly believe Michael did; pictures are cute) and made taffy (rice-based). The cool thing about the taffy was that were in a very small village in someone's house/restaurant, so we could see their regular surroundings. Michael was very forgiving when it turned out that at the end of the day I put my hot packs in our backpack right next to the taffy ... we ended up with one big chunk because the pieces melted together.
The hotels were very nice - either seaside resorts or big city hotels. Every night seemed to be our new favorite. The hotel floors skip 4 and also skip 4 in room numbers - eastern culture bad luck number. We ate very well. Breakfast buffets had the full range from soup to salad to dim sum to western eggs and meat... and rice and kimchi, of course. Lunch varied from dried fish to bibimbap - in one case made with mountain vegetables (my favorite). Michael's favorite was gingseng chicken, so we are going to look for a restaurant around here that serves it. It's a pretty mild soup with a whole rice-stuffed chicken.
The guide and the Canadians more than once said how well-behaved Michael was (apparently in great contrast to the guide's 10 year old nephew). Michael had one rough day. He must have eaten or drunk something that disagreed with him. He had diarrhea and so just juice for breakfast. About 5 minutes are our first stop of the day, he vomited. He had stayed in the van to rest and got out in time. Later in the day, the guide dropped us off at the hotel upon arrival in town and then took the other 2 people on last day activity and to dinner. By the next morning (our last day), Michael felt fine though he didn't eat much but did want a Big Mac at the train station. I booked first class on KTX because he has wanted to see the difference (wider seats and more leg room). We got into bed at 10:00 p.m. Sunday, and he was up and on his way to school Monday. The tour really was a great, easy, comfortable way to see a lot of Korea.
I am trying to gear up to work on some research ... I had a big push before the holiday, but so far I seem to be a little slow getting back into it! I hope you and your loved ones are off to a good start in the new year. Please keep my parents in your prayers.
We had a great time on our trip around Korea. (See a few pictures at bottom of page.) We drove about 2,300 kilometers over the 7 days with the longest drives out of and then back into Seoul. We were in a van with driver, guide, and 2 other tourists - a mom and son from Canada. I would guess their ages as 50 and 25. Her husband is working here, and they live in Seoul. The son is an MBA student at Univ. of Toronto. Spring and fall are high season for this tour, but it was kind of nice to see places in winter and not to have to deal with crowds and more people on the tour. Winter has its own beauty. I had hot packs for my feet, and used 2 per boot on most days, so I was ok. Michael wore a short sleeve shirt under his coat, baseball hat, and gloves. I cannot figure out where he got a "keeps warm" gene. We have adopted our tour guides (it's) "up to you," which he said a lot re: how to eat some of the food and how long to stay in some places. He was very kind-hearted though not great English speaking and listening skills.
We saw a few Buddhist temples (they seem to have secured many lovely mountain locations; many hiking locations bring one close to a temple; if you have seen one temple, you have seen them all!) and a few traditional/folk home areas (they start to look the same too and have rice stalk roofs or tile ... depending on whether the home was originally worker-class or nobility). We were outside a lot with the theme of culture and nature. During the driving in the country side, we could see many grave sites/small cemeteries. They are located on hills and have some markers and mounded graves. These mounds need care every year and sort of get built up to maintain their form and height. There was a lot of country side to see, and mountains make up a high percentage of the land. The population is very concentrated in 5 to 7 or so cities.
Most days there were 3 things/sites to see. A green tea farm on a snowy day was lovely. A fish market is a Korea must-see, and we visited one in an area where a lot of octopus are caught. We dressed up in traditional clothes (I could hardly believe Michael did; pictures are cute) and made taffy (rice-based). The cool thing about the taffy was that were in a very small village in someone's house/restaurant, so we could see their regular surroundings. Michael was very forgiving when it turned out that at the end of the day I put my hot packs in our backpack right next to the taffy ... we ended up with one big chunk because the pieces melted together.
The hotels were very nice - either seaside resorts or big city hotels. Every night seemed to be our new favorite. The hotel floors skip 4 and also skip 4 in room numbers - eastern culture bad luck number. We ate very well. Breakfast buffets had the full range from soup to salad to dim sum to western eggs and meat... and rice and kimchi, of course. Lunch varied from dried fish to bibimbap - in one case made with mountain vegetables (my favorite). Michael's favorite was gingseng chicken, so we are going to look for a restaurant around here that serves it. It's a pretty mild soup with a whole rice-stuffed chicken.
The guide and the Canadians more than once said how well-behaved Michael was (apparently in great contrast to the guide's 10 year old nephew). Michael had one rough day. He must have eaten or drunk something that disagreed with him. He had diarrhea and so just juice for breakfast. About 5 minutes are our first stop of the day, he vomited. He had stayed in the van to rest and got out in time. Later in the day, the guide dropped us off at the hotel upon arrival in town and then took the other 2 people on last day activity and to dinner. By the next morning (our last day), Michael felt fine though he didn't eat much but did want a Big Mac at the train station. I booked first class on KTX because he has wanted to see the difference (wider seats and more leg room). We got into bed at 10:00 p.m. Sunday, and he was up and on his way to school Monday. The tour really was a great, easy, comfortable way to see a lot of Korea.
I am trying to gear up to work on some research ... I had a big push before the holiday, but so far I seem to be a little slow getting back into it! I hope you and your loved ones are off to a good start in the new year. Please keep my parents in your prayers.
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