Vision Quest for COEX Mall

So, here's the part where we are just dumb Americans trying to get to the mall. COEX mall is a GIANT mall that has an aquarium in it. I figured it would be fun to ride the train into Seoul, hook up with the subway and go to the aquarium in the mall. The kids can't wait to ride a high speed train and the aquarium would give us a destination.

Well, depending on your personality, you will view this trip as fun and spontaneous or horribly planned out. And let's just say, we had both in our group. Those of you with small children will probably wonder what were thinking.

We start off probably a bit later than we should, but let's face it, getting 5 adults and three kids out of the house for a day trip is a major production. We left the house a little after noon, hoping to catch a 12:30ish train.

We drive to what we *think* is the train station. We vaguely know where it is because we drove past it a few times during the summer. Stop number 1 is not the actual train station, but some sort of office building that is just really close to the tracks. Stop number two is indeed a train station where we purchase tickets and head down to the platform.

The first thing we realize is that the station is not the exact one we were looking for. The second indication that something might go wrong is that the tickets were cheaper than we thought. So, while we stand there watching the trains whizz by (the boys loving every minute of it), we decide that instead of hopping on what we have determined is a local train (and thus will make more stops) we should just hurry and drive to the next, bigger station and catch the direct train into Seoul.

Well, that sounds easy doesn't it? Well, the big main station that we make it to looks like it's in the poorest part of town possible. The parking lot is the size of a postage stamp and we have 2 cars to park in a lot that is already full. Now we are fully regretting leaving the smaller, nicer local station for this place that looks like Tijuana, Mexico.

Somehow we manage two parking spots and make it into the station to buy another round of tickets. We now have 6 minutes to get everyone to the train before it leaves. Turns out there are MANY MANY flights of stairs and we are all running through the station. We make it to the platform just as the train arrives and hop aboard. Whew!

The train stinks. But it's warm and pretty comfortable and only an hour to Seoul! Madeline manages to eat 2/3 of the food I brought for her for the entire day.

We arrive in Seoul where there are more people in one place than can be humanly possible. It is INSANE. We TREK through the main station and then all the way to the subway station which is not close. We then have to decipher the ticket machine. while we are counting out change an old Korean man is literally petting Andrew's hands. Huh? Turns out he's a beggar! Good thing we brought a new bottle of hand wipes.

Are you tired yet? We ARE! And we're not even to the mall yet and it's 2:30pm. We ponder just turning around and going home, but what fun would that be?? We've come this far and I will not be denied! It takes nearly an HOUR on the subway to get to the stupid mall. We only had to take two subways but we had to wait awhile for one and let's talk about crowded. Standing room only. I got a seat because people would give one up for Madeline. We were packed so tightly that I thought for sure we would never make it out!

Now, I know it's nothing new to shut your eyes and rest while riding the subway, but for some reason, on this train, EVERYONE was sleeping! Clearly, I am missing something, but Maddie is Korean now and so here she is, sleeping like everyone else. Josh couldn't hang either.

FINALLY, we drag ourselves into the mall and head for the food court since none of us had lunch yet. And to what did our wandering eyes then appear? Sbarro!!!! It was like a beam of light was shining down on the place. We love greasy Sbarro pizza and here it is in the middle of Korea. In that moment, I knew we had made the right decision.

We eat some pizza (not bad at all) and head over to the aquarium. It was nice and had a few weird exhibits. But we are forever spoiled by the coolness factor of the aquariums in Atlantis in the Bahamas. Still, the boys love the sharks and it's a hit. We whizz through there and then it's time to head for home.

Here we are on the way home, look who is the experienced world traveler!

We get home at like 9pm at night, tired, smelly and broken. But at least we can say we did it. But, Ainsley and I both agree that we won't be making that trip again. Even with five adults, three kids was a lot of work!

Korean Folk Village

Today we all went to the Korean Folk Village. I like to call it the Korean Mud Village. There are examples of ancient Korean homes, a small amusement park and plenty of exhibits depicting traditional Korean life. We made it there in time to see a couple of demonstrations.

The first show we saw was a couple of girls jumping around on this giant see-saw looking thing.

Then was a man who spent about 20 minutes doing tricks on a tight rope.

Then we moved over to the horse arena where there were plenty of acrobatic feats. The boys loved it. They've never been to a circus and this was as close as we're going to get for awhile.

It was so cold there that this little river was mostly frozen over.

After walking up the small Buddhist temple, we called it a day. To see more pictures of us in the mud, click here: aaoreilly.shutterfly.com/action/?a=9QZt2jNo3e2 (password is Korea)

Christmas Pictures!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. We have been so blessed this year. We are lucky to be in a place that allows our family to be together.

December 24th: Market Day

All days ending in 4 or 9 are market days. All the vendors are out in the streets, selling their clothes, purses, shoes, "fresh" fish, fruit and vegetables and even bugs! You name it, they probably sell it!




Here are some bugs, fresh or cooked to order! The guy motioned to us that it would help you sleep...






Fresh fish (these were still wiggling):






Dried fish:

Half a pig anyone?

Don't forget the clothes:

Welcome, Grandma Carole and Uncle Jeremy!

Today we have two more special visitors! Grandma Carole and Uncle Jeremy made the long trip from the East Coast to spend the holiday with us and we are very excited!

Welcome, Uncle Justin!

Uncle Justin (Angela's brother) arrived Saturday. He has not had any jet lag! So unfair!

Since he was taking so well to Korea, Angela decided to take him for bulgogi, a traditional Korean beef dish. Here we have all the sides that come with bulgogi: mostly we can't remember what it is called, but there's rice, kimchi, some sort of bean curd, sesame spinach, slimy mushrooms, ginseng (we think) and oysters and other stuff we don't know the names of:

As the saying goes, "When in Rome," we decided we had to eat everything. Everything was good, even the kimchi was fine, although a tad spicy. BUT, the one thing that was not enjoyable was the clams/oysters:

Mmm, mmm, mmm, don't they look delicious? How about that dangling participle?

Down the hatch! Okay, chewing . . .

Um, that would be no . . .

He did eat the whole thing and no one got sick! Bonus!

O'Reilly Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Descendants

O'Reilly Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Roots

Okay, I just spent an hour uploading different pictures for this thing and for the most part, the kids apparantly look equally like both of us, depending on which picture I choose. I have gotten Madeline to look more like me once, and Andrew to look more like Ainsley once, so for the most part, this cool little tool hasn't solved anything!

O'Reilly Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

O'Reilly Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free family tree maker

Madeline - 9 Months Old

Madeline is 9 months old, where does the time go??? Her favorite games are patty cake and peek-a-boo. Here's some patty cake with Big Brother Andrew in her super cute jammies.

Here she is under the Christmas tree, Mommy's favorite present! She likes to grab the lights.

Here are some pictures of her when she cries. It is ridiculously cute. She'll sit there, put her hands on her legs, drop her head down and out comes the bottom lip. Her little eyes close up tight and all you can see are her pretty lashes peeking out. We tried to get a picture of it, I'm not sure they adequately capture her cuteness factor, but here ya go.

Uh oh, she's really mad now!!! Stop taking pictures and pick me up!

**NEWS FLASH**

This just in:
Madeline has her very first tooth! It is one of her lower front teeth (her right). Which explains the 3am wake up call we had the other night. Hooray!

Joshie's Gingerbread House

Today at the monthly MOPS meeting, Joshua's class made AWESOME gingerbread houses/churches! They are HUGE and smell soooo good!

When I went to his classroom to pick him up I was amazed to say the least. Usually, they do a few art projects which he loves, but this time, they really outdid themselves. Clearly, there was teacher help involved.

Doing gingerbread houses has inadvertently become a tradition for the boys. Their preschool back in Florida did them every year, and they've always loved doing them. This year I was a little nervous that the boys would be disappointed in not doing one. But as it turns out, Andrew will be making one also next week! Hooray!

MOPS, in case you don't know, stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. They meet once a month and each month is a different theme all pertaining to motherhood in some way shape or form. This month was all about keeping the Christmas/Christ in Christmas. It was very well done and as usual has given me lots of ideas on ways to celebrate the season with the kids. There is always food (yum) and childcare provided for the kids. It's a win-win situation and I'm glad to be doing it.