No title... just a little this and that.

You don't take a photograph.  You ask, quietly, to borrow it.

  -Author Unknown

---- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

----

Hwaseong Fortress and Chad home!

So Chad works a lot. I now realize just how spoiled we were in Germany. Working late meant eight o'clock at the latest and one Saturday a month. For reals. Working late here means he gets home and I've been asleep for hours. He also has either been in the field or working twenty-four hours shifts many weekends since we've been here. Booo! This use to cause me a lot of grief because I never knew if I should count on him for dinner... make him a plate.... leave it out... put it away...  or keep the kids up to say 'goodnight.'
Man, it was stupidly stressful.
 Once I axed that entire thought process and realized he has to work but he is a grown man who can successfully warm up a plate of leftovers in the microwave when he got home, life became a lot easier. I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything but after going weeks of what felt like being "stood up" by my husband, we both agreed it better for everyone to just go about our business... take care of the kids... get them on a good schedule, etc. 

So every day and night... dinner, bath time, bedtime... it's just the three of us.

Sometimes military spouse-hood aint all it's cracked up to be.

That is why we were super stoked when Chad got to spend nearly four entire days in our company thanks to the Columbus Day holiday. 

We took walks, went out to dinner, and visited the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.

We've been talking about going to this place for awhile now but as you can see, there hasn't been a lot of opportunities to do so. 

Suwon is about forty-five minutes from us so it made for a nice day trip. This fortress is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site if that means anything to you. 

Suwon itself is a pretty cool place too. They have a lot of interesting street art and it was fun just walking around.

Rhett practically gave me a heart attack every five minutes by running up to the edges of the wall but we survived!

We conveniently showed up at the same time as friends and after walking around in the scorching sun with five kids between us we decided to eat at a Lotteria (Korean McDonald's) out of desperation. Our energy was restored thanks to bulgogi burgers and soft serve ice cream. 

We checked out a few more sights (including the palace where they film a popular Korean soap opera) before heading home.

On the drive home, Chad took a wrong turn and we spent an extra hour on the road. That was annoying. It's kind of funny because as I sat there (really annoyed!) Chad says to me, "too bad, we had such a nice day too." Then I kind of got over it because... ultimately... it was a nice day.

----

Every few hours they do a little bow and arrow clinic for those interested. We went on a Monday so things were a little slow. If you visit on a weekend they have lots of activities for kids. We'll keep that in mind for next time.

I never mentioned the time when I bought a coconut drink from one of these vending machines. 

It had gelatinous chunks in it and didn't taste like coconut. I was sad.

 I guess this is recycled? Up-cycled? What I can't get over is how this person grows beautiful plants in old water bottles and I kill cacti. 

Just a 350 year old tree. No big deal.

The tour guide told me these are the two main characters in the popular television show that is filmed here or based on this place?  I don't know. I was sweating a lot and had twenty-four extra pounds on my back so I (regretfully) wasn't listening.

----

Just FYI: The fortress is not stroller friendly, baby-wearing all the way. There is no food on Food Street. You want to eat? Go one block over.

GPS address and more info here.

It's Fall at The Independence Hall of Korea

Oh yes. I'm pretty sure that people realize by now that I *suck* at keeping up with this blog. Somewhere between Germany and Korea I quit my job while gaining a child and I just can't get my crap together.  It really makes no sense to me. I worked more then but I have less time now? How is that possible?  I just can't wrap my head around it. So I won't. Moving on. 

It's my favorite time of year again and it's been the pits having to remind myself that I'm not in Germany anymore. Well, technically, it's easy to remember that I'm not in Germany but I often like to close my eyes and go to my happy place. That place is coincidentally in Germany. So there. Anyways, we are making the best of it.

Last month, Koreans celebrated their version of our Thanksgiving (Chuseok). We were told not to plan anything for that weekend because in addition to most things being closed... it's tradition for Koreans to visit their "ancestoral homelands" (thanks, wikipedia) and traffic heading South is a serious nightmare. So we kept close to home and took a couple walks around our neighborhood. 

A few weeks later we managed to get out and visit one of the places I wanted to scope out prior to my parent's visit. The Independence Hall of Korea is about 30 minutes away but it's *FREE* (except for parking) and great if you want to let your kid loose for a couple of hours. It's actually a really large park with about 8 museums on it, all featuring a variety of different exhibits.  One has relics that date back thousands of years while another focuses on the impact of Japanese imperialism. It's pretty much anything you ever wanted to learn about Korea all in one lovely place. Rhett ran for hours and walked up a gazillion steps. His favorite part was feeding the koi (my least favorite). We happened to go on a day that every Korean boy/girl scout troop on the peninsula had also decided to go but since this place is so huge... it didn't bother us at all. Independence Hall also has the largest tiled roof structure in all of Asia. In case you were wondering. We definitely plan on visiting again soon... with my parents... who arrive on Friday. So don't count on much blogging.

Like you did anyways. 

----

Nong-seong is a small memorial park built where a fortress use to exist. It's really peaceful and has pretty views of our little town. 

Chuseok dinner, maybe?

The Independence Hall of Korea

The size of these fish really freaked me out. They were practically leaping over each other to get some food. 

I had a request recently to name the foods I photograph so in keeping with that promise... here is Bibimbap with all it's accouterments. It's basically a bunch of vegetables, sprouts etc. over hot rice with an egg. This one had fern stems that I wasn't sure about at first but they tasted fine. Bibimbap is especially delicious when you mix in the chili paste. And of course we had pickled radish and kimchi. 

----

For more information regarding The Independence Hall of Korea

go here.