Driving in Korea

While I have some beautiful views driving to and from post, driving is quite interesting here.  This picture was taken on the road to our apartment - we have beautiful views of rice paddies on either side of the road in some places, but we also have some of these views...

This road may not look too bad in these photos, but notice the width of the road...  it is only one car wide with only an occasional widening (as seen above) where cars have to pull over to let another oncoming car pass.  Because in a number of places (above), the road just drops off (don't let those trees fool you).  And you'll notice the blind curve thrown in just for fun.  People like to drive down these roads like NASCAR drivers (well, all roads really). 

And traffic signals and laws - oh they have them, but it seems that expatriates are the only ones who follow them (for fear of being hauled to jail for braking one of them or causing an accident).  In Korea, despite what the drivers manual says (and I know what it says, I've been studying for my test), a red light does not mean stop - it merely means pause, but only if you feel like it.  I've seen cars go around cars who are stopped in front of them and speed on through the intersection.  Today, I saw a bus nearly take the back bumper off of a car who wouldn't get out of it's way so the bus could turn right (legal, but the car in front of him wanted to go straight and was in an appropriate lane to do so).  Here are some other examples of laws that are in no way enforced.  I had intended to say that I had never seen any Korean police other than at the entrance to post, but I saw a Korean police vehicle on the road for the first time today.

Again, the road looks pretty benign here, but less than a half mile down the road this is what you'll find:

While pedestrians do have the right of way, it is in crosswalks, not in the middle of the road with cars speeding by...

And you can clearly see that there are parking spots marked as parallel parking spots on the side of the road.  But here, on heavily travelled roads it is perfectly acceptable to park however you wish, even if that means taking out an entire lane of traffic flow, and you should do so especially under a sign that specifically indicates no parking or standing (that's what that blue sign with the red X marked in it means).

And double parking is strictly prohibited - but they're known to even do it on the freeway taking up not only the emergency lane, but also at least one lane of traffic (all because there's a park there and not enough parking off the freeway).

I am poking fun a bit at the driving habits of Koreans, I remember my mom said that things were crazy here 30 years ago, but I surely thought they would've improved.  After all, they've had 30 years to figure it out.  But, now they just have more cars on the same roads.  So, driving is a bit of a challenge, but I'm just learning to grit my teeth and deal with it, and pray that I don't get hit as other drivers are zooming around me or coming at me at the speed of light, essentially playing chicken with me (I loose every time even though I am bigger than most of them).  Who knows, by the time we leave here I might get just as gutsy... but I highly doubt it.

Art Group

Tristan and I are finding quite a few things to keep him busy since he's not able to go to school like Grace is.  Wednesday we went to story time at the library and today we went to art group. 

Making dough

 

Flattening it out and making his handprint.

 

Time for the decorating.

 

Proud of his work, but he wouldn't look at the camera...

 

The finished product.

We go back next week to pick it up...  He said that he had a lot of fun and wants to go back next time!  Yay!  (He wasn't so sure he wanted to go back for story time though...)

Water and Bubble Day

Grace no doubt thinks that her new school is great - she arrived just in time for all the partying...

This particular day was water and bubble day.  They were supposed to have swimming pools and sprinklers, but they didn't find out until it was too late that there were no water faucets in the area where they had planned to have this activity.  So, the kids had a grand time with the bubbles.

Grace does seem to be making some new friends, and the little girl on the right of this picture is Grace's teacher's daughter, and we plan on getting together with her over the summer.

 

Even Tristan joined in on the action.

In the next few days they are planning on celebrating all the summer birthdays and having a picnic lunch.  She's gonna be spoiled by all of this and think that first grade stinks because she's got to do work!

Missed Me By a Hair

While driving around USAG Humphreys it is not at all uncommon to see an adashi (Korean male) running a weedwacker keeping the grounds constantly trimmed.  Normally they are walking around with a couple of ajimas (Korean female) who are holding a tarp in front of the area that is being trimmed.  Well, David is having a Class A uniform inspection on Friday, and hadn't had his new unit patch sewn on, so he asked me to take it over to the alterations shop to have it done.  So, off I went.  As I arrived, I noticed that they were trimming the lawn in front of the alterations shop - no big deal, the ajima saw Tristan and I coming and told the adashi he needed to stop until we got inside.  The sewing job took all of about 3 minutes and we were on our way... or so I thought.

I was buckling Tristan in (normally he does this himself, but he had just woken up from a nap and I didn't really feel like fighting with him to get it done), and messing around with him a little bit when I hear this BANG! CRASH! and a chilling shattering sound.  When I stepped back and looked, this is what I found...

The door just in front of this completely shattered window is where I was standing.

We never did find out what the weedwacker kicked up and pitched my way - but I'm pretty sure it was a boulder by the sound it made when it hit my window.

I immediately picked up my phone and called my knight in shining armor to come rescue me.  He thankfully had ridden his bike to work that morning and was able to ride over to see what had happened (and ended up having to go get Grace off the bus since neither of us were going to be there to pick her up at the bus stop when she got close to home).  I had to notify the MPs which in itself was nerve wracking - you see, I don't have my Korean driver's license yet, but we've been told by a "master driver" that I am able to drive for up to 30 days after my arrival with my current license.  And if that's incorrect information, well, I can play dumb really well when I need to, so no biggie - except my wallet was at home... Oh, boy - I could see this thing going down hill really quickly.  But we got it all straightened out without either David or I getting in trouble for me not having a license.  The contracting company is going to pay to have my window replaced and they were extremely apologetic.  Now I just have to figure out where I can get parts for my American made vehicle in this foreign land I now live in.  But not to worry - we've got it fixed for now...

My "fixed" window - can't tell there's a redneck in my family can you?

Believe it or not, the only tape the closest shop had was black duct tape, and if we could have just curved it around the edges up front you would hardly notice it was there (silver would've been so much cooler)!

It became quite the interesting afternoon, but I am just so very, very thankful that it was that window.  I keep thinking - what if I hadn't been playing around with Tristan for that extra minute?  It could have been his window that got hit as I was backing out... or what if that object had hit me in the back of the head?  All I can say is Lord, thank you for protecting me and my little boy!!

Riding the Bus

Today Grace finally got to ride the school bus.  She got her bus pass on Wednesday and figured that we should let her ride the bus on her first day of school.  David and I didn't quite see it that way... Especially since the bus stop is a mile from the house and we hadn't yet figured out all the details of getting her to the bus stop.  So, this morning David dropped us off near the bus stop on his way to work.

Waiting at the bus stop

Waiting her turn

Letting my baby go all by herself to school...

My happy, independent little girl.

Splish 'n Splash

Today we took some much needed time for the kids. Camp Humphreys has a really cool water park, so we ventured there after church.

Tristan has been chompin' at the bit to use this snorkel in a swimming pool

They have several kiddie pools and water play areas, including one pool that doesn't get any deeper than 3 feet. The kids had a great time and felt very comfortable in all the different areas.


We even talked Tristan into going down one of the water slides:

He thought it was great, but didn't want to go again right at that moment, but he did go again before we left.

There was no need to talk Grace into it - she loves water slides!

And this one was no exception.

This little boy showed no fear today - he was a "jumping board" champion!

He was really hesitant at first, but thanks to the patient people behind him cheering him on, he jumped in, getting a huge round of applause, and found out that it was a lot of fun.

David showing off for his kids.

Grace went up on the board twice before we convinced (or should I say bribed) her to jump.

I even tried reminding her that she's tried some things before that were scary to her and then found out they were fun, but there was no way she was going to jump... until her daddy said that he'd give her 10 more minutes in the pool if she'd jump to him. And guess what? She jumped, and she loved it and wanted to do it over and over again - and she even swam to the edge of the pool when she was done. Man I hate it when I'm right! I'm still waiting for that day that she'll just take my word for it though!

There's my happy kids!

I think we'll be spending a lot of time here this summer, especially since I have no reason to be home until after our next shipment gets here in July.

Working on "Normal"

Today they delivered the furniture we will be using during our time here, so we are beginning to feel like we're on the road to "normal". The apartment was partially furnished with a bed in the master bedroom, a couch, dining room table and chairs, and a desk, so up until now, the kids were sleeping on the couch (thankfully it is quite large). Today each of the kids got their own beds, and we all got dressers and nightstands. So, slowly but surely it's beginning to feel like a home, though our personal items won't be here until the middle of July...


Because everything in Korea is built up, they have lifts to deliver large items. The furniture truck arrived a good half an hour early and just sat down in the parking lot, and David said that they dumped a bucket of bolts onto the parking lot and started sorting through them. We couldn't understand what they were doing - and then the lift arrived. Aha! They were just passing their time until their assistance arrived - they weren't crazy after all!

David and Tristan on the balcony watching the lift extend

The view from the balcony

Tristan was pretty enthralled with this thing

Testing out the new bed at nap time.

Turns out its a good sleeper.

Grace was pretty excited to come home to find furniture in her room. I think both of the kids are glad to have their own spaces again. Now we just have to be happy with what we currently have and wait for the rest of our "toys" get here.