Back to the Future
Hello from the future π not really but kinda haha if you're in Mountain time, we are 15 hours ahead of you. For those of you who know how competitive I am, being ahead of you all is very important. Kidding! It is weird though, trying to adjust to how to call home and such. Right now we are enjoying afternoon coffee while Lucy naps at 1:30 PM Saturday and I just said goodnight to my mom about an hour ago at 9:30 PM Friday!
I'm excited to update you on our first few days here but first a couple quick observations from the past few days. So far, everything seems relatively the same as it did the last time: similar fashions, prices haven't changed a ton, public transportation is still awesome, and the food is still λ§μμ΄μ (ma-shi-so-yeo, delicious)!
Thursday August 9
We were instructed to fast from midnight on before our health check-up which we knew was going to be awful. No food? No water? No COFFEE?! AHHH Yeah, we were a fun group to take around town in the morning. Ha! The kids did get to eat as the check-up was for us but holy smokes, Brett and I were zombies. Zombies with caffeine headaches. SO FUN.
Lucy was up around 4:30 (Brett got up with her), I slept til about 6, and Finn slept til 7. What do people even do in the morning without coffee and breakfast, I will never understand... Since we had time on our hands with not much to do at the apartment, we decided to find the park that was supposed to be close by. It was nice walking around, taking it all in and getting familiar with the area, but we were definitely all struggling. We found a trail but I thought we were looking for more of a playground and having no food or water, going for a hike didn't sound like the best idea. We went back to the house and found the playground which is literally 4 minutes away from us. The kids got to play a whole 5 minutes before we had to be back home to get picked up for our appointment.. sorry kids!
The cicadas are nuts, by the way! So loud! But look how green everything is!
Our driver, who works at our school, is very nice but had this weird 20 second song clip on repeat the ENTIRE car ride. It was just one more silly thing to add to our discomfort and I had to laugh otherwise I would go insane. I did also notice and point out that a tire on our car was flat, so, that was very nice of me π
The doctor's office was super interesting. For starters, I had to change into this super cute outfit for the exams...
I also had to go up and down the elevator to various doctor's offices in this super cute outfit which was definitely not weird at all... π It was a pretty thorough exam though that took place in a little over an hour: urine, blood, height, weight, chest exam, eye and hearing tests, quick dental exam, chat with a doctor, and that was it! Two people from school graciously watched the kids while we did all this which was so nice. Poor Lucy was completely losing it by the time we were done but we were like sorry friend, we need food and coffee... So we stopped at Paris Baguette for sandwiches and as much coffee as we could manage. And look how cute the to go cups are!
On the way home, we were able to listen to our favorite 20 second tune on repeat once again. Our driver was going to be coming back later to help with WiFi but said this would be a good time to rest. We literally lay down for 10 minutes but Lucy was so overtired that we decided to go for another walk to try and put her to sleep in the stroller. It worked and she fell asleep pretty quickly so we decided to do some errands while were out and then it POURED rain! We brilliantly left our raincoats at home (actually, only I knew where mine was at this point...) so while Brett went to find refuge in a coffee shop with Lucy, Finn and I headed to Daiso-Korean dollar store-for a few things for the house and an umbrella! We were literally drenched by the time we got inside!
After errands we headed out to find some lunch and got some bibimbap and bulgogi to go. After lunch, we organized a bit, had our WiFi set up and decided to go to Costco for dinner and a few more things for the house. (Have you noticed we are doing WAY too much for only our first day?!)
Waiting for takeout
The backside of our building- clotheslines and kimchi pots
Waiting for the bus (it took FOREVER). Lucy was so excited about every bus she saw
Has already perfected the Asian squat
On the bus!
Costco was interesting, kids were still struggling from jetlag, but we made it through dinner with only a handful of screams because Lucy couldn't drink all my soda π.
We took a cab home which was only like $5... Amazing and I was not about to deal with the bus anymore!
At this point we were understandably all exhausted and all went to bed. Today literally felt like a week π©
Friday August 10
Today we wanted to take it a little easier than yesterday but we still had a few things we wanted to do. We had purchased a coffee maker at Costco but did have a coffee grinder so we needed to head back to E-Mart. We got to E-Mart around 9:30 only to find they didn't open til 10 π. Fortunately there was a playground right around the corner. Unfortunately Finn needed to use the bathroom almost immediately upon arrival. Lucy and I just hung out and waited and when they returned we learned they had to go a ways for a restroom and also needed to buy toilet paper in order to use it (not uncommon but definitely something we forgot about...)
E-Mart was yet again stressful as now we were all hungry and tired so we got what we needed and headed home. On our way back we decided to just get some Korean takeout and there's a good place not far from our house. We stopped and I ordered everything in Korean (ππme) and took Lucy home while Brett and Finn waited. We had a delightful meal of kimchi jiggae (kimchi stew), ddukmanduguk (rice cake soup with mandu, Korean dumpling) and dongasu (fried pork cutlet). So yummy. Then naps and rest time.
I ended up taking the kids to the playground for about an hour and that was fun. Finn's shirt was drenched by the time we went home from running around and the humidity!
We decided to explore around for dinner but just couldn't find somewhere that was quite what we wanted: somewhere tasty, fun, not quiet, and has beer. We ended up taking a subway to Gangnam station area. The subway was jam packed which was an experience for the kids for sure! Finn still claims to be loving Korea, by the way. He says he likes the melon popsicles, the buildings, our apartment, and that there are lots of people. So that's all good! Just have to work on the food for both of them...
We ended up at a BBQ restaurant up on the hill in Gangnam and while the kids weren't too excited about the food, the grilling experience was fun and we definitely enjoyed it. They had eel and galbi (beef rib meat). So amazing!
After dinner, we walked around a little bit more and then found ourselves back in our neighborhood relatively easily which was awesome. We are already recognizing familiar landmarks which is helpful. Lucy fell asleep on Brett's shoulder and Finn came home and went right to bed. Nice.
I'm excited to update you on our first few days here but first a couple quick observations from the past few days. So far, everything seems relatively the same as it did the last time: similar fashions, prices haven't changed a ton, public transportation is still awesome, and the food is still λ§μμ΄μ (ma-shi-so-yeo, delicious)!
Thursday August 9
We were instructed to fast from midnight on before our health check-up which we knew was going to be awful. No food? No water? No COFFEE?! AHHH Yeah, we were a fun group to take around town in the morning. Ha! The kids did get to eat as the check-up was for us but holy smokes, Brett and I were zombies. Zombies with caffeine headaches. SO FUN.
Lucy was up around 4:30 (Brett got up with her), I slept til about 6, and Finn slept til 7. What do people even do in the morning without coffee and breakfast, I will never understand... Since we had time on our hands with not much to do at the apartment, we decided to find the park that was supposed to be close by. It was nice walking around, taking it all in and getting familiar with the area, but we were definitely all struggling. We found a trail but I thought we were looking for more of a playground and having no food or water, going for a hike didn't sound like the best idea. We went back to the house and found the playground which is literally 4 minutes away from us. The kids got to play a whole 5 minutes before we had to be back home to get picked up for our appointment.. sorry kids!
The cicadas are nuts, by the way! So loud! But look how green everything is!
Our driver, who works at our school, is very nice but had this weird 20 second song clip on repeat the ENTIRE car ride. It was just one more silly thing to add to our discomfort and I had to laugh otherwise I would go insane. I did also notice and point out that a tire on our car was flat, so, that was very nice of me π
The doctor's office was super interesting. For starters, I had to change into this super cute outfit for the exams...
I also had to go up and down the elevator to various doctor's offices in this super cute outfit which was definitely not weird at all... π It was a pretty thorough exam though that took place in a little over an hour: urine, blood, height, weight, chest exam, eye and hearing tests, quick dental exam, chat with a doctor, and that was it! Two people from school graciously watched the kids while we did all this which was so nice. Poor Lucy was completely losing it by the time we were done but we were like sorry friend, we need food and coffee... So we stopped at Paris Baguette for sandwiches and as much coffee as we could manage. And look how cute the to go cups are!
On the way home, we were able to listen to our favorite 20 second tune on repeat once again. Our driver was going to be coming back later to help with WiFi but said this would be a good time to rest. We literally lay down for 10 minutes but Lucy was so overtired that we decided to go for another walk to try and put her to sleep in the stroller. It worked and she fell asleep pretty quickly so we decided to do some errands while were out and then it POURED rain! We brilliantly left our raincoats at home (actually, only I knew where mine was at this point...) so while Brett went to find refuge in a coffee shop with Lucy, Finn and I headed to Daiso-Korean dollar store-for a few things for the house and an umbrella! We were literally drenched by the time we got inside!
After errands we headed out to find some lunch and got some bibimbap and bulgogi to go. After lunch, we organized a bit, had our WiFi set up and decided to go to Costco for dinner and a few more things for the house. (Have you noticed we are doing WAY too much for only our first day?!)
Waiting for takeout
The backside of our building- clotheslines and kimchi pots
Waiting for the bus (it took FOREVER). Lucy was so excited about every bus she saw
Has already perfected the Asian squat
On the bus!
Costco was interesting, kids were still struggling from jetlag, but we made it through dinner with only a handful of screams because Lucy couldn't drink all my soda π.
We took a cab home which was only like $5... Amazing and I was not about to deal with the bus anymore!
At this point we were understandably all exhausted and all went to bed. Today literally felt like a week π©
Friday August 10
Today we wanted to take it a little easier than yesterday but we still had a few things we wanted to do. We had purchased a coffee maker at Costco but did have a coffee grinder so we needed to head back to E-Mart. We got to E-Mart around 9:30 only to find they didn't open til 10 π. Fortunately there was a playground right around the corner. Unfortunately Finn needed to use the bathroom almost immediately upon arrival. Lucy and I just hung out and waited and when they returned we learned they had to go a ways for a restroom and also needed to buy toilet paper in order to use it (not uncommon but definitely something we forgot about...)
E-Mart was yet again stressful as now we were all hungry and tired so we got what we needed and headed home. On our way back we decided to just get some Korean takeout and there's a good place not far from our house. We stopped and I ordered everything in Korean (ππme) and took Lucy home while Brett and Finn waited. We had a delightful meal of kimchi jiggae (kimchi stew), ddukmanduguk (rice cake soup with mandu, Korean dumpling) and dongasu (fried pork cutlet). So yummy. Then naps and rest time.
I ended up taking the kids to the playground for about an hour and that was fun. Finn's shirt was drenched by the time we went home from running around and the humidity!
We decided to explore around for dinner but just couldn't find somewhere that was quite what we wanted: somewhere tasty, fun, not quiet, and has beer. We ended up taking a subway to Gangnam station area. The subway was jam packed which was an experience for the kids for sure! Finn still claims to be loving Korea, by the way. He says he likes the melon popsicles, the buildings, our apartment, and that there are lots of people. So that's all good! Just have to work on the food for both of them...
We ended up at a BBQ restaurant up on the hill in Gangnam and while the kids weren't too excited about the food, the grilling experience was fun and we definitely enjoyed it. They had eel and galbi (beef rib meat). So amazing!
After dinner, we walked around a little bit more and then found ourselves back in our neighborhood relatively easily which was awesome. We are already recognizing familiar landmarks which is helpful. Lucy fell asleep on Brett's shoulder and Finn came home and went right to bed. Nice.
Comments
Post a Comment