Back to reality

Winter came early to the pen. Or, it did for me at least. The Pilot traveled to Orlando in early December, during the same week that we received our first snowfall, a very heavy one that made the roads temporarily impassable.

About halfway through December, the Pilot came home announcing that we would be traveling to Thailand in January. After driving his scooter back and forth to work in subzero temperatures, he felt this necessary. I did, too, after being cooped up with two small children who kept trading colds and stomach bugs.

So to Thailand we went. For five glorious days. Normally, when I go on vacation, I enjoy myself well enough, but by the last day, I am ready to return home.

Not this time. We came back to our apartment home on Monday morning, after flying all night, walking in frigid temperatures to our car in long-term parking, and driving bleary-eyed all the way to base. Yesterday the Pilot and I sat on the couch, immovable, getting up for long enough to feed our children and change our daughter's diaper, only saying back and forth to one another, "You go to the commissary" and "No, you go to the commissary."

We wondered if we were both sick, but in the end, we concluded that we were just a little down, in the post-beach vacation doldrums.

I went to the commissary. The spell was broken.

Today, the Pilot works on his master's thesis. I took the kids out for a playdate at a new-to-us play cafe. Both kids sleep (and at the same time!) thanks to some hard playing.

But last week, for five glorious days (again, "glorious"--the only word for it), we were in Phuket, where we stayed at the Katathani Resort on Kata Noi. The beaches are clean and uncrowded and the water is clear as you can see in the above picture behind the two bottles of Chang. We wanted a vacation where we could just sit on the beach, where we did not have to do much work or exploring or thinking, even. Overall, this worked out very nicely, but at times, we both missed actually traveling a place instead of merely consuming it as a tourist.

But honestly, who can complain?

Gus relaxing at the hotel bar.

It was a tough winter and what a strange time to be returning to Korea, to "home," but at least we came back to warmer temperatures. The snow melted while we were gone, and it actually looks and almost feels like the beginning of spring outside.

More pictures and stories to come....

And already we are planning our next travels: Vietnam.

Travels in Korea: Seoul

Seoul is just up the road from us. We've traveled there by car and by bus. The easiest travel is by bus, leaving Songtan Station and arriving at Nambu Station where you can hop on the subway and go just about anywhere. Seoul's subway system is fairly easy to navigate once you get the hang of it. Even better, there's an app, "Jihachul," that makes traveling by subway in Seoul even simpler.

Seoul is very fashionable, so Cora dresses up.

The only thing I need is an app that lets me know which stations are stroller friendly. Even when the subway app indicates that there is handicap access, it does not always mean that there's an elevator, or a working elevator, at that. Sometimes it is just a gnarly wheelchair lift that runs alongside the stairs. The escalator can be too narrow even for our fairly small stroller. If I had the time and the money for staff, I would develop an app, Seoul by Stroller. It is not easy traveling. The Pilot has carried our stroller up three or more flights of stairs more times than he cares to count.

Gus outside of the National Museum, ice cream and gift bag in hand and pinned proudly to his shirt a Korea button, a reward for peeing in a public restroom. Keep in mind this was back in September.

I have traveled to Seoul only once by myself with the kids and that was by bus to Yongsan Army Garrison where we took a cab to the National Museum of Korea just around the corner. We walked back to the bus station on post after our trip there. I hope to go there more with the kids throughout the week once the weather clears up and I get Cora's nap schedule worked out.

We enjoyed the National Museum, a very large complex of national treasures with a pretty darn cool children's museum, too. I hope to visit the museum again soon and see the collection beyond the Children's wing.

One thing that never fails to impress me about Korea is the abundance of food offerings wherever you go whether it be a rest stop or a department store or a bus station. The museum had many places to eat, and we stopped at one where an entire room of school children dined. I thought this a good place to eat before exploring the children's wing, and it was until my children were mobbed by about fifty seven- year-old students. It was disconcerting.

I've since had a couple of English-speaking Korean women, usually ones raised in Canada or in the states, come up to me and apologize whenever our children get undue attention. They make sure that we know it is an honor and not meant to be intrusive.

Mostly it doesn't bother me, but this time it did. They swarmed our table and started pushing to get at Cora and she started to panic and cry, so I stood up and waved a teacher over. He dispersed them, but it wasn't long before they started coming back over. Sometimes people will ask to take pictures of our children, which isn't normally a big deal save once when we were eating at a McDonald's in Songtan and a very rude high school boy starting harassing Gus. It was very uncomfortable--one of those times when your parent radar starts going off no matter what the country, and an employee had to intervene. But for the most part, people are nice and usually love to talk to our children. One time the Pilot took Cora to E-mart where Cora was given half a dozen pieces of candy and a pair of socks by other customers.

Once while visiting the food stalls in Seoul at one of the markets (Dongdaemun, I believe), a man gave Cora a 5,000 won note (a little less than $5). This is not unusual. Both she and Gus get free food all of the time, but usually Cora gets more attention than Gus because she is younger and because of her bright blue eyes and blonde hair (that's what we've been told).

Over a weekend in November, the weekend of the infamous crime scene photo (see below), we attended the Seoul Lantern Festival on Cheonggyecheon Stream.

The afternoon preceding the Lantern Festival we spent wandering around Toy Alley buying presents for the nephews and for our own little ones.

Before 2005 Cheonggyecheon Stream was just a neglected stream hidden by an overpass, but it is now a refreshing place to walk in the midst of a very busy city. We entered the stream from the exact opposite end as everyone else, and this had its advantages. Cora slept the entire time, and by the end of the stream, Gus was ready to go to sleep.

And there would be pictures, but I do not have the equipment or the know-how to shoot on a stream, underneath a series of overpasses, with tons of bright and shiny lights at night. I stopped trying to take pictures and just enjoyed the incredibly detailed lanterns and their stories along the stream.

We did get this one though:

(I have a couple on Instagram, but I cannot figure out how to use them. This is why I stopped using Instagram.)

I look forward to attending the Lotus Lantern Festival celebrating Buddha's birthday in the spring.

Next up: Itaewon, Christmas, and The Pilot's birthday! Maybe I will get around to Mount Seroksan and all the food we've eaten.

Where in the world? Travels in Korea (2012), Part One

This year our family racked up a record number of travel miles.

The Pilot went TDY to the states so many times in the last eight months that it became somewhat of a joke, with varying levels of levity and bitterness depending on my mood, to tell everyone that we moved all the way out here so that the Pilot could spend half his time in the states.

On a positive note, his trips kept me stocked in cookie butter, my favorite coffee, and dry vermouth.

I'm not going to write that the TDYs to the states are over. I never make statements like that. But I'm out of cookie butter, dry vermouth cannot be conveniently purchased, and the Pilot has kept me stocked in my favorite coffee by asking coworkers who visit Tucson a very special favor.

Because it is hard enough to travel with children as the lone adult/parent, I did not venture outside the country with the children save that one harrowing trip to the states in September and back in October. On the one hand, I'm feeling a little like a failure because traveling with two fairly small children sometimes seems more trouble than it's worth, and I thought I was more adventurous than that.  On the other hand, we are saving money and my sanity.

Traveling with children can look a lot like a crime scene:

And that was an easy trip back in November to Seoul where we stayed on post at Dragon Hill Lodge. I returned from the salon downstairs to find this. I took a picture and walked out the door, book in hand, and grabbed a coffee. Our darling daughter does not like to sleep in hotels. This is what happens. In about a week, we leave for Thailand, and we're hoping a relaxing beach vacation will be just the thing.

Do I look like I would ever cause my parents a minute of trouble?

Last year, we set our sights on seeing as much of Korea as possible, and for such a small country, I feel that there is still so much to see. 

I did manage to document trips to Mallipo Beach and Insadong, but I have neglected a squadron weekend in Busan, a nice jaunt out to the east coast and Mount Seorak, and numerous excursions to Seoul, to name a few.

Icheon (not Incheon which is where the airport is), but Icheon where the pottery is made. 

We started out not knowing where to go because that is how we do it. We just set off and find our way. It's a small country, we figure, let's just get on the road. It was rainy that day, and we had little idea where to go once we got there. The main road contained numerous large pottery stores, but we wanted to go to an actual studio. After driving around a bit, we found the ceramics museum, located a map of the village entirely in Hangul (incomprehensible and not to scale), and wandered around some more. 

But we found a studio that looked unpromising, abandoned even, but I insisted. There was something there. I knew it. Then, we saw a group of Westerners and heard some Midwest accents. I practically pointed and yelled, "Look! I think they're from Kansas or something!"

We wandered around and looked appropriately lost until we were asked to join the group, about half a dozen members of a Methodist Church in Kansas visiting another minister and his wife near Seoul. The couple very generously offered to take their friends to the studio of a famous artist, Lim Hang Taek, designated master artist of pottery by the Korean government.

Even more generously, they asked us to join them, kids and all. We walked into a studio where we took off our shoes and were offered watermelon and tea. We watched a documentary about the artist while he decorated a plate.

It was fascinating. And we bought some tea cups and plates of our own. This is what happens when you wander, when you just follow your instinct and let things happen. I'm often a victim of over planning, but I don't ignore my instincts and this time they led me right where we needed to be.

I plan to write a couple of posts devoted entirely to food, but I have to report that the day trip ended with a satisfying palace meal that could accommodate our children. Don't be alarmed by the amount of dishes (though, I admit, I still am)--so much of it is kimchi and vegetables. We love Korean food.

Busan 

We took the KTX to Busan where we spent some time on the beach, ate and drank, visited an aquarium, ate and drank... It was a squadron trip which presents its own challenges when traveling with children. You want to seem "game" to do things but within the limits of having very small children. It helps when your hotel offers a babysitting service.

While on the beach a hornet stung the hell out of Cora. I had her under a very large umbrella and while telling a very well meaning ajumma that I had smothered my baby in sunscreen (She burn! She burn!), I heard a friend yell, "Lee Anne, bee! Up Cora's leg!"

There was nothing I could do. She was screaming before I or anyone could reach her. A very resourceful airman handed me a cup of ice and instructed me to cool my hand down with a handful of ice and then cup her leg. She ran to get the flight doc who happened to be on the beach at that time, and we determined that she did not have the stinger embedded in her leg. We watched for a reaction (there was none), and I fed her three apple crushers. (Or, I plied her with sugar in the form of fruit mush until she stopped crying.)

In general, the brief vacation went very well, but travel from the train station to the hotel was a bit of a challenge as Busan is quite a bit larger and harder to get to the beach front resorts than one would think. On the way back to the bus station, Gus endured a violent, hour-long cab drive in rush hour traffic only to throw up in his hat about two minutes from the train station. Once his hat was filled, my lap sufficed. Awesome. 

Going back home on the KTX.

On that note, I'll post more later about what we ate in Busan. I look forward to going back later, just the Pilot, the kids, and I, and visiting the fish market.

Up next, I hope: Seoul excursions, East to Mount Seorak, Back to Texas, Christmas photos.... There is so much to tell and so little time to tell it.

2012 Year in Review: An introductory disclaimer

In a year that begged to be documented and was but very little, it must at least be summarized.

Here it is: Our family in Arizona, Texas, Washington, Korea, Texas, and Korea.... (Or the Pilot in Arizona, Texas, Washington, Korea, Japan, Alaska, Korea, Arizona, Korea, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Korea, Georgia, Florida, Korea)

I kept up with the old blog pretty well through May, but then the Pilot went TDY to Alaska and again to the states (and again and again), my dad got sick (he is now better), and, well, everything just went all to hell as far as my writing life is concerned. Sometimes, life requires that you put the damn pen down (or keyboard away) and just survive the day to day (or on some days, the hour-to-hour bit).

I must resolve to use parenthetical statements more sparingly.

Anyway, I'm picking up where we left off in May, touching on some of things I blogged, and expanding on others. Still, it will be a mere skeleton outline of our time here so far.

Perhaps I will be finished with the 2012 year in review by the time we leave for Thailand on the 22nd of this month. Then, I will be all caught up and ready to document the day to day instead of merely surviving it. And just maybe this blog will read like a blog instead of a retrospective.

Did mention that we are going to Thailand for vacation?

Did I mention that the cold here challenges any previous beliefs I held about the word "cold"?

On a good day, it is 22 degrees out with no wind. These are the days I bundle the kids up and go for a walk. Most days it's about 20 degrees with a windchill of 9 degrees. I'm talking in Fahrenheit, people, so imagine how bad it looks in Celsius. The other day the windchill was negative 15. Fahrenheit.

Did I mention that we are going to stay on the BEACH in Thailand?

So, yes, the kids and I are going stir crazy. No one here naps at the same time anymore. Gus is in school during the mornings, but Cora dropped her morning nap. The child development center has no room in their one-year-old class, and I think the front desk is starting to recognize my voice as I call a couple of times a week for space available care.

Did I mention that Cora now climbs the furniture? That her climbing goal, her idea of a summit, is whatever electronics she can reach?

I got a new macbook for Christmas. Cora tried to feed it milk yesterday. It works fine, but I'm starting to think that it's running a little slower than normal.

I am running a little slower than normal. The Pilot and I started watching season 2 of Homeland this week. Two episodes a night. I go to sleep too late and dream of terrorists, but the dreams are bizarre, not even remotely terrifying. Last night, I dreamt that Brody and Abu Nazir went into business together selling cars and that they hired me to do PR? I had to develop an ad that appealed to both Muslims and Christians? I was running around on base trying to cast the commercial? All of these sentences deserve question marks?

So, yes, catching up on the year that was. Instead of trying to maintain any chronological order, I will break it down by theme:

Part the first: Places
Part two: Food
Thirdly: Gus and Cora

If I finish only one of these by month's end it will be a minor miracle.

Wait. A picture.

Actually our Christmas card, a kind of pictorial year in review:

Flourish Of Frames Christmas Card

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View the entire collection of cards.

2013: Anticipating another year on the books

A photo that contains both my two beautiful babies and my two beautiful bookcases.

I have contemplated adding more structure to what I read as a way to strategize reaching that magical number of 52 books in one year or one book per week. I think it has more to do with structuring my time than with building a syllabus. I considered making each month's reading follow a particular theme, but that would be limiting and would exclude the two books a month that I read for my book clubs (yes, that's book clubs plural).

Still, managing my reading AND tailoring it to meet my professional and personal needs while staying at home to raise my children are necessary. To answer that goal, I've devised five different categories that should work in a rotation of sorts along with book club assignments and those books I decide that I just have to read at that moment.

1. Life Writing (auto/biography, memoir, letters): Because this was (is?) my scholarly interest, I should return to these works and read them critically.

2. Works from my field: Last year, while trying to read How to do Things with Books in Victorian Britain by Leah Price, I found that I could not get my brain to work. Like my aching knees, my brain needs to work out and not only walk its ass around the block a time or two but do some hardcore spin class or sadistic cross training. Just what is the ass of the brain, by the way?

3. Poetry and Drama: Sure, they shouldn't be lumped together, but I need to return to them, take them like vitamins, if I am to teach them again one day. "WHEN" I teach again, I should say.

4. A long abandoned project: I should research and read to be inspired to take it up again. Sorry to be so vague. Sometimes it's just better to hold some things close.

5. Novels!! My first love and research interest. I divided these into three categories, mostly driven by neglect.

1. Contemporary novels, or works I sorely neglected when I spent an entire decade in the nineteenth century.
2. Classic novels that I neglected to read, or any novel written before 1950 that begs me to be read.
3. Novels from the stack of "To Read" books I have sitting under my nightstand (last year that book was Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart). I could also include novels on my Kindle that need to be read.
4. Okay, four categories. I should really add the category of Children's Books since I am starting to read chapter books to Gus.)

And if I include one from each category in addition to my book club reads, that would equal seven books per month. Of course, that is not going to happen. I need to average five or six per month, making up for those months that are too busy for books or that get bogged down in lengthy works (Moment in the Sun, for example).

What books would you recommend to help me meet my goals for next year?

2012: A year in books

Guess what?

Somewhere in my calculations I skipped an entire month. 

That means I read 47.5 books!

It's not 52, but it's damn close and it beats the high of 42.5 books since I started keeping count three years ago.

Also, I had forgotten about Elisabeth Badinter's The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women of which I read about half because it made me grumpy. I give myself that half credit.

This year I tried to break it down by genre/category, but sometimes these genres are too broad or too specific. Therefore, I tried to keep it very simple.

Fiction: 27

Nonfiction: 19.5

Poetry: 1 (Clearly, I need to read more poetry....)

In the broader category of age, I break down "Fiction" as follows, while admitting that these categories are pretty fluid, too:

Adult: 17

Young Adult: 7

Children's: 3 (All collections of three to four chapter books each)

I wanted to give a Top Five or Top Ten, but I'm not sure I can. Maybe later.... I did notice that I had forgotten to label any of my posts from last year. I will remedy that shortly (this month?) and include a "2013 Reads" link in the sidebar.

Next up: What I plan to read next year and how I am going to do it! 

By the way, I do realize that 2012 is a year that demands some summary since I neglected to document it as it was happening. It is in the works.

In the meantime, Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

December Reads

In a mad, limping dash to finish out my reading for the year--not in hopes of reaching my goal of 52 but of at least surpassing the year-before-last's total of 42.5.

I will post another overview of what I read in the past year later, but in the meantime, here is what I read in December with one-sentence reviews because time is a-ticking.

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith: In this very satisfying "Christmas" novel, Grahame-Smith imagines the three wise men as mercenaries on the run from King Herod, and in so doing, he highlights the very real violence of the time, something that is often forgotten when we think of the story of Christ's birth.
Freeing Your Child From Negative Thinking by Tamar E. Chansky: Chansky gives useful advice and strategies--visualization techniques and things to say, in particular--for walking your child through those difficult patches where nothing seems to go right.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: A classic gathering dust under my nightstand (otherwise known as my To-Read Pile), Achebe's novel took me to Nigeria in the nineteenth century where British colonialism and Christianity wear down the traditional ways of life.
Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn: Another novel addressing imperialism, Dogeaters, written in a multiplicity of voices and with great verve and wit, takes the reader to Manilla in the 1950s where no one safe and everyone is suspect.
Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle: Purchased for a song on my Kindle, this Young Adult collection of three interconnected Christmas stories is easy and light fun, nothing serious or memorable.
Paper Towns by John Green: Green, an acclaimed author in the Young Adult genre, offers a funny and oftentimes sadly profound novel about what it means to grow up and realize that most people do not fit the convenient labels placed upon them.
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: Noticing more and more that half the novels I read this month address themes of colonial and imperial power as well as diaspora, I enjoyed the hell out of Diaz's novel set in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic and I do hope that more people I know read this book so I can discuss it with them.

This year's total, I think: 42.

Another post forthcoming in which I give an overview of the books I read this year. I'm hoping I forgot to include a book or two in my final count. I would hate to come up one book short although I would almost count John Sayle's epic novel A Moment in the Sun twice.