What we've been up to...

Hi! I feel it's been so long... hummm, maybe cause it has!.... sorry : / 

We've been out & about...

Since we moved we've done so many things, nothing crazy or too adventurous. We've just been getting to know the area. 

The first time I did a post in this blog, was 6 months after we moved to Seoul. I explored and got to know a little bit about the City. I wanted to have things to tell. Now I felt the same way. It has been a while since I posted something, because I wanted to get to know our new neighborhood before I started fully blogging again.  

It's been great! 

In this time I've been able to find a School for Marky & one for myself (to learn Korean). We also, have a Korean friend that's gonna stop by once a week to tutor me. 

I found a Church with an English and a Spanish Mass. 

mixed kids, american-korean mixed kids, asian-american mixed kids, boricuas en Korea, latin-asian mixed kids 

We've enjoyed the last bits of the Summer...

namsan park, boricuas en korea, boricuas en corea, latinos en corea, expats in Korea

& our new house... & it's patio... : )

haddon supermarket, foreign food in korea, foreign supermarket in korea, boricuas en corea, puertoriqueños en Seoul

& finding a Supermarket that has AMERICAN food!!! 

I almost heard singing angels as I was walking in... : ) 

Boricuas en Korea, Latinos en Corea, expats in Korea, Seoul public transportation, seoul bus

We've learned to use the Bus... Marky's dream of riding Tayo, came true! 

Han River, Itaewon, Seoul City View, Boricuas en Korea

We've walked all over the surrounding areas, like Itaewon and the Han River...

Namsan Park, Namsan walk, Korean nature, Boricuas en Korea, living in Seoul, 

& the Namsan park...

Galbi, kalbi, Hannam-dong, Boricuas en Korea

& we've located our favorite places to eat... for now... : P

Seoul at night, Seoul City view, Namsan park

& seen some amazing sunsets and views of the City...

Boricuas en Korea, mixed couple, american-korean couple, mixed family 

& celebrated 9 years of very, very, very happily ever afters... ❤

We went through a very big, but weak, Typhoon... and another one two days after... 

We took the kids to Children's Grand Park... will do a post on it later! 

mixed kids, asian-american, latin-korean, 

And we took our son to his very first day to School... Today... 

I'm still emotional about it. Marky has been with me, all through out his 3 years. He went to Montessori for a bit, in PR and he loved it... until we moved here. When we first got here, we put him in a Korean speaking "pre-school". We thought it would be good for him, so he wouldn't get bored at home... It wasn't. 

He was there for like 2 months and he came home crying every single day. He refused to go and as soon as he came home he would tell me, he did not want to go back. One day on a School trip he ran off and the teachers couldn't call him. They didn't speak English, he didn't speak Korean... I viewed my baby lost in this gigantic city, not knowing anything about anything...

 That was it... No thank you... 

& so we moved to the English hood... hehehe... 

 I'm happy that we found a School he REALLY likes, no crying! Montessori'esh type of educational system, and with Teachers and kids that speak English! 

He came home beaming! 

 Him having a good day, makes my day...any day! 

Till' very soon... promise... : )

xoxo

T. 

Bye, bye Seorae Maeul...

I'M BACK!... hehehe.... well... Let's just say, I'll be "part timing" here... I'm still super busy. I'll tell you more about it on another post... : )

For now I can say, we are all moved & getting used to the new hood...

We have been here for a week and a half now & I must admit, I miss my old hood...
Don't get me wrong, I really like it here, but, there's always things a melancholic, dramatic & hopelessly romantic person like myself will miss about things left behind...

I never posted anything of where I was living at the time, just because I thought it was weird... Truth is, my life is all out there & I don't know who reads these posts... But now that I moved, I will tell you all about it. : )

We were, until recently, living in Seorae Maeul, Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu. (easy-peasy huuu...lol) You don't want to know how long it took me to memorize all this and get the accent and pronunciation to be understandable!!!
The first couple of weeks (if not months) I didn't even know how to tell the cab drivers to take me home. I only said "Seorae Maeul". Yes, they would take me to the Village, but, how do I explain to him where my house was...
I did not know "up, down, straight ahead, down the hill, left or right". I know you will think; "why not have a phrase book with you"... I did! In theory, it should have helped, but truth is, it did not, at least me.
If you don't know how to say words the right way, they won't understand. I also had another situation... The phase book I have tells me how say the words in English, so it would be like (If you are from PR you will know) "Hablando Inglés, leyendo en Español", But this would be, Speaking Korean, Reading in English...
In my head, I read everything in Spanish. My mind & myself are complicated like this... I think in English, I read in Spanish, I write in English, I speak Spanglish, I live in Konglish... you might have noticed. ; )

Some cab drivers would be like; "huuuu... sorry-so sorry".. But most... would be like... AISHHHHHH... aahhhghh... Aigoooo... and yelled what for sure sounded like cursing. I was wasting my time flipping through the book in a hurry (while my 3 year old son's demanding to know what's going on in the background). I'm pregnant, about to throw up on the guy's face, (cabs smell, pre-tty bad) sweating, anxious, about the desperate driver and my loud son... at this point, I'll never find the right thing to say. Even when I did, he did not understand me. I dropped the phrase book first week!

Sometimes S. would rescue me, but at times he was busy and could not pick up my calls. I also wanted to try and figure it out by myself. The only thing I could do is get as close enough as I could and tell them; here is fine... From there I had to walk... Up hill.... Preggers... In the Summer... with like 40 extra pounds... and a boy in a stroller.... & groceries... I will tell you something... I'll start with a picture of THE one thing I won't miss... those ***** Hills....

Pregnant expat in Korea, having a baby in Seoul, expat life, Boricuas en Seúl, boricuas en Corea de Sur

Once I figured it out, it was all good from there.... 

well...... that until I had to cross the street. 

If they left me in the wrong side, I ran the risk of getting run over. Koreans are NOT polite drivers. At times I've even already been in the middle of the road crossing, with the stroller & a huuuge belly and they would still go around me (almost hitting me) to keep going... even if they had to go over the sidewalk, to no let me go by. To this date, I don't even know how many cars I've kicked and halmony's I've cursed, in some proper Spanish... They are reckless and if YOU don't back up, you WILL get run over!  

*This is not a Seorae thing, this is in all of Seoul... bad drivers, all over... : /

Now the cute stuff... : )

I will miss the amount of playgrounds I had around me. I had 5 playgrounds near by. All super clean and nice. Some had better things than others, but they were all great & the kids always had a good time! 

Seorae Maeul is also known as "The French Village". Most of the French expat community live here. There's also a French School and a bakery, with an actual French Baker. I will miss those baguettes! 

There's also a really, really nice park at the top of the hill, and right next to our house, called The Montmartre Park. They did a lot of public events and concerts for foreigners.

We could also go hiking, and I went for a couple of runs on the mountain trails. It was nice having it right there... : )

I will miss the fact that I JUST found there a hairstylist that I liked & speaks English. She left my hair beauuuuutiful!!!... ; ) I forgot to take a pic. of the actual hair stylist, but next time I go, I'll get it... : )

& just walking around the pretty hood & not getting a whiff of the sweet sewer smells... uhuuummmm.... Fancy hood = clean hood.... 

& the memories we collected while living there... : )

& the bugs we didn't... : P

& the family we became...

Add caption

Seorae Maeul...

I'll tell you all about the new area in a future post, perhaps when we leave it behind too... 

Now seeing these moving pictures, gives me a nostalgic feeling, as if our adventures in "Kimchiland" are close to end... 

*I'm telling you, "drama" should've been my middle name... hahaha...

Let's see what happens next... : ) 

xoxo

T. 

Jeongok Prehistory Museum

For the past couple of weeks, I've been really trying to get all caught up to date in my postings, and it seems impossible!!! We keep busy! hehehe... We went to the Prehistory Museum, then we finally made it to Namsan Seoul Tower, then we went to Shanghai, then I went with Hyeah to a kids role playing park and we took S.' cousins to Everland....

We've also been looking for an apt. This was one of the hardest, but I'm happy to announce we finally found one and will be moving at the end of the month! So exited to move to a new neighborhood!!! AND.... the very bestest part.... wait for it....... it has a patio!!!!!! You don't even know how happy this makes me!!!! A patio, in an apt. in the City... #unheardof!!!!  Ahhh.... to finally be able to hang my "hamaca"! : )

Back to this post...

The Jeongok Prehistory Museum, is in Jeongok-ri, Jeongok-eup, Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province.... To remember these names... Impossible!

It's located on the oldest and largest Paleolithic site in Korea.  

The modern building rested on top of two mountains forming a connection between them. To me it looked like a giant metal snake... pretty cool...

The Misty path... ; )

On the left side, the entrance...on the right, the exit...

Inside, we felt as if we boarded some sort of spaceship. 

I've never been a big fan of museums myself, but my little guy seems to love them. Any time we go to one, he seem to be super into it and wants to know everything about everything.

It showcased the evolution of man along the Hantan River. 

Yo con guille de fotografa...  : P 

Flowers & farms always look pretty to me... 

& we did some bug hunting...

& stone hopping...

& the fire... hummmm.... we need to work on this one... : )

& we did some excavating... 

& we headed back to the main building to get some refreshments... 

Pretty view... including the boy! : ) ♥

Olivia was there too... : )

On our way out, we stopped to take a look at the river...

& I saw a pile of rocks that reminded me of a picture I took, the first time we went to Switzerland.. 

An oldie, but a goodie! Aldelboden, Switzerland 2008... Good memories...

  We miss you Mimi!!! : (

I went down by myself, to see if it would be worth for all of us to get of the car and walk down to the river. It was a no-go... It was all rocks and when I looked down, while I was taking this picture, I saw something moving really fast by me... a snake... maybe... The monkey skills I developed while growing up in Guayabotas, came in handy... I've never walked over stones faster than this day! 

Since we didn't do any research on it, we had expected to see dinosaurs and made the mistake of telling Markus... there was none... We told him we would get him one at the museum shop, but there was no shop either... : (

Luckily, on our drive home, we found a roadside toy store that had one! 

We ❤ a happy kid! 

Even though I felt there was too little to see at the museum, the surroundings compensated for it. It's a great place to let your little ones run around, while us parents take in the pretty views and the fresh air. 

xoxo

T. 

It's Summer time!

The Summer is here and it is HOT! Similar to PR hot (in it's hottest day), but over there you get the nice ocean breeze... none of that here!!! HOT my ppls... 

When you peak your head out the door it's the same feeling as when you're baking something and you open the oven door to check... Woshhh... a heat wave right on your face! It must be 100% humidity or something... you spend the whole day soaked! Hot & sticky = stinky : P 

While living here I've realized 3 things when it comes to seasons and weather;

1. I love having seasons
2. I am absolutely a Winter person
3. I don't like being hot... at all!

Ohhhhh (sigh).... How I miss having the ocean 10 minutes away! 

I guess taking 5 showers a day will have to do for now...The beauty of city living! : P

So, last month S. had a day off from work and he prepared a little surprise adventure for us. He rented a car and took us for a drive to the West side of Korea, outside Seoul. We went there maybe hoping to go and eat some seafood by the ocean. We had just seen this episode of a Drama where the guy took the girl to a sashimi restaurant right on the water... it looked sooo beautiful in that scene!

Well... we didn't find that place (apparently it's on the East side, where beaches are nicer). We still had a great day... if I don't take into account the 3 hours we spent driving there... with 2 little ones... locked up in the car... you know what I mean!!! ; )

This beach was called Muchangpo in Boryeong-si, Chungcheongnam-do.

The drive itself was beautiful. I got to see some pretty scenes, cool bridges and really beautiful landscapes and rice farms, not the flat ones I've seen so far, but ones in mountains. They looked like stairs almost... really pretty! As much as I tried getting an image of this, from the car it was impossible. Also, it was a very gloomy/misty day... not the best visibility. We didn't stop because the kids were sleeping at that point, and we have one car rule;

If kids are asleep

• NO STOPPING

& we finally got there...

Supposedly, something really cool happens during the tides of the Summer season, similar to when Moses parted the Red Sea, the ocean opens up and a path emerges from it. You could walk through it for a couple of hours a day. They say you can come across snails and octopuses stranded on this path.

We did not get to see this. : (

& Marky was sooo exited...

& Olivia was happy to...

She looooves water! Came out a fishy, like her Daddy. ♥

Little girl playing... 

& we went shell hunting...

& I put her on the bare sand for the first time... ever...

Then Da-da picked her up... : )

& Marky tried to build a sand castle...

While the girls wondered around...

& found some interesting things...

Like some tiny villas. They must be vacation rentals. I peaked inside and it was empty. It's basically just so you could sleep indoors... most Koreans, as you may know, sleep on the floor. They each had a stack of chairs outside and a table with the BBQ setup in the middle. 

& instead of beach chairs, there are beach tables. Pretty smart if you ask me... your food won't get sand on it. : )

& there were clams waiting to be eaten...

& fishies too... 

& we rented a bicycle...

& we went for a ride...

Since it was pretty chilly that day and the water was cold, no one went in the water. We also did not eat there, cause there wasn't really anything for Marky or me to eat. The restaurants there were either sashimi, (which I'm not there yet) or clam and oyster based soups (which I happen to be allergic to shellfish)...  How "shellfish" of me... poor S. he refused to eat by himself. 

So we hit the road once more... 

& we stopped at a rest stop and the food there was pretty decent. No McD' ppls... We had dok ramen, kimbap & miso soup with a side of pickled radish, cabbage salad & kimchi. 

And after, a whole other 3 hours drive back home... 

Yes... I think 5 showers a day will have to do for the Summer...

xoxo

T. : )