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. 

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

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

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& finding a Supermarket that has AMERICAN food!!! 

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

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

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

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& the Namsan park...

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

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

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& 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! 

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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....

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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. 

Anseong Farmland : )

Good Friday to all! : )

As you may already know, we do not own a car in Korea. Besides the fact that they are really expensive, they are also unnecessary here, as Seoul has THE most efficient and easy to use transportation system I've ever used... and really clean! 

Whenever we want to go somewhere outside Seoul, we rent one. It's quite nice getting into a brand new car, each time! : ) 

This time we had no clue as where to go, we just started driving. Usually these types of "adventures" are the ones that turn out the best! And so it was... we had, yet another super fun day! 

I had remembered I saw on a website on things to do with kids in Seoul, something about a "Dutch Village". I thought it would be similar to the "English Village", so that's where we went!

Anseong Farmland is basically a very beautifully landscaped and really big petting zoo. It's built with a "Theme Park" feel, but it really worked as a relaxing escape from the hectic city. 

(What I could tell you is based on our experience only. You can see the official website here, but, it's only in Korean).

He looked like a tourist asking for directions. 

Marky was so exited to see horses, he couldn't wait to go in. 

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You can pet and feed the animals. The coolest part was, some of them where walking freely and I guess because they are used to having people around, they where really friendly. I found out too late, you can get horseback rides too... Marky would've looooved it! 

To our surprise, he was not afraid of any of the animals. As for Olivia, hummm... after getting startled by a Cow, wanted nothing to do with animals. : ]

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& he finally got a chance to pet a real horse! He was very cautious and gentle. His happiness level was through the roof!!! ♥

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Livy wanted nothing to do with Cows, but we found a beautiful field, filled with Poppy.... she loooooved it! 

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Well, she kinda' liked Mr. Moo too... : )

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This moment absolutely made our day! As soon as I put him on top of the cow & out of nowhere, he yelled; "YEEEEEEHAAAAA".... took his hat off and waved it in the air... SERIOUSLY hilarious!

The kid is a clown, just like his parents! 

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We picked up a pinwheel.... 

I think you where supposed to write a message or a wish (not sure... there was no English translations anywhere). 

I just wrote a very "Boricua" thing...

"We were here! Much ♥ from Puerto Rico"

The M.O.S.T crew... 

Markus, Olivia, Sean & Tania

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& you plant it into the ground...

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It really wasn't as easy as we thought. The ground was as hard as concrete. I gave it a couple of shots, then tried in another spot... nada... gave up. 

S. took over... nada... hahaha..

Tried yet another spot... Impossible, gave up too.... 

In the end we just took an empty stick out and replaced it with ours. : /

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& we went on the Tractor ride around the field. 

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& saw the most beautiful views...

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& the most green I've seen since I moved to Seoul. My camera had just died, so I had to take these with my phone. I wish I could have captured the tons and tons of butterflies everywhere!

There was also a "Dutch Village" (a village with buildings that resembled European style cottages). There was a German restaurant, a couple of shops and some fountains where kids were swimming as if it was a pool. (I absolutely forgot to take pictures of this) : P

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The friendly and well cared for animals, the fresh air, the beautiful views, the butterflies and my Markus' level of happiness, turned this day into another great adventure! 

 We all came back super relaxed and SUPER TIRED... straight to bed... at 7pm... all of us! ; )

xoxo

T.