Life in the Burbs

Today has been deliciously self indulgent with our family.

For some reason we weren't looking at a clock when we arrived home. Still it's pretty safe to say we have had Yoo Rim home for a day and it is like we have always had her here. Sure the puppies are not back yet. They are still at Grumpmas for a few days to allow Yoo Rim to settle in. We miss them despite distraction. There is plenty of love to share and we look forward to the introduction to a new Sister. Cousin Riley has done a great jobs showing the benefit of a baby in the house, particularly in the vicinity of the high chair.

We are still not sure when to begin calling her Amelie. Yes we have slipped in a few already, but she settles to taps on the tummy or back with calls of her name "Yoo Rim Ah". Much of what she has done so far is sleep. This is similar to other children from Korea. They too slept a great deal for the first few days.

Life has been pretty tough for the little girl of late and there have been some tears. For one thing, she is having to learn to cry in two languages. For another, she is having a task to break in two new parents so they feed, bathe, dress and change nappies just right.

Still on the plus Dad has a great shoulder to fall asleep on and that Mummy creature comes back into the room when I cry. Omma keeps making me delicious food like rice porridge with vegies and chicken that I gobble up with gusto. If I keep this up, they may make good parents after all. Gotta love that!

For those that need to know, Dad won the first poopy nappy lottery! And he had been avoiding this sort of thing for so long. The smiles when we do the bouncy jumps make up for any unpleasantness along the way.

We remain so grateful to everyone who met us at the Airport on Sunday and to those who have provided advice, support and love during the whole process. It is now we truly feel exceptionally lucky to be entrusted with a beautiful daughter.

A special thanks to Aunty Amanda for making labels for Cousins, Aunts, and Grandparents in Korean Hangul. Yoo Rim knew exactly what kind of mad people her new families are.

Cheers

Bill, Liz and Amelie Yoo Rim

It's life Jim... But no longer as we know it!

The most enjoyable part of the day was in the morning when we visited the Babies home at Eatern. The ladies care for the children so well, but that does not prevent them from thrusting a little tyke into your arms as you enter. They're so cute as they stay here till about 2 months when they are allocated to Foster Mothers. Now Yoo Rim is 8.5 months old, it is easy to understand how Mrs Lim and family have grown so attached.

We received the preflight report for Yoo Rim and all seems well. She is eating some solids as well as formula, so we have stocked a few bananas for the flight. That being said, we are expecting tomorrow to be a highly emotional affair when we depart as a family.

The rest of the day has been spent fitting in final sighseeing, catching the train to Yeouido Park followed by a river cruise to Jamsil past the 1988 Olympic Stadium. It seemed like a thousand school kids boarded the boat with us and , yes, school ids are the same wherever you go.

From here we headed back to the National Folk Museum to purchase two kids books about "When you visited Korea/Seoul". The book at Eastern is out of print and they could not say when it is available again, so we wanted these as replacements. They have both Korean and English texts for the story on the page and include all the tourist locations one is likely to visit. A good pair of books for returning to Korea.

Memory fails for what the area between Gyeonbokung and Chandeokung Palaces is called, but this is a great place to wander. The streets meander all about, but the houses are what is there to see. These were residences for the "ruling" elite and government officials, kinda like the Toorak of the middle ages. The Korean government has offered incentives for people to refurbish and restore these buildings. If it wasnt for the cars and bikes, one could easily imagine life back when.....

A short visit to Deoksnkung Palace completed our Palace hoping so we headed to Sinchon for a final look. Wow what a change. We walked around there Tuesday morning to see a pretty but sleepy shopping precinct. Move forwrd to Friday night and what a difference. People everywhere, lights, music and the place was jumping. We had dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant, our last supper in Seoul so we splashed out. All we could eat for two people with Soju (rice wine) for around $45.00. We have really enjoyed food in Korea and with meals for two around $10 -15 have not bothered to cater at home... better that way, no dishes.

This is it... Our last sleep alone as a couple. Tomorrow it all changes. We are looking forward to our departure with both fear and excited anticipation. We take on a child nearly 9 months well attached to her foster mother. The final meetiing will be sorrowful for her and our excitement is tempered by this knowledge.

We expect the first few weeks, if not months will involve many tears from Yo Rim as she adjusts to new parents, language, relations and friends. We so look forward to meeting friends and family at the airport, but Yoo Rim may need quiet time afterwards to settle in. So please allow us a while to settle back in. Please phine before coming around and don;t be offended should we ask you to leave it another day.

For thise at the airport Sunday, we will exit the arrivals gates and head to the right (your left). Those who saw the triumphant return of the Dennis's will know what I mean. Please herd all our families in that direction. For the Record, Bill's Folks are Dorothy and Barry. You can't miss him, he looks like a garden gnome. Liz's Folks are Ray and Shirley. Both sets of parents will welcome your introductions.

Look forward to returning and saying hell to you all.

Thank you for all your great comments although I'm not impressed with Glen reminding Liz of the boat..... I thought I got away with that one.

This little Piggy went to markets......

Not much to report today except we....... Liz went shopping. I'm not saying she bought much, but when we left Namdaemun Market, people were throwing ticker tape and confetti, whilst singing songs in our praise. I'm sure we have single handedly saved the Korean economy by purchasing at least one of everything in the country.

Our collection of Hanbok has been completed by a four year old size in PINK. Yep the man who said he would ban the colour in his house has allowed the purchase of a completely PINK Hanbok for a four year old. I can only hope this cures her. Actually it was a sucessful catch by the store holder. We weren't that interested but as we walked away the price fell from 55,000 to 45 to 38,000 and those sad puppy eyes probably helped.

A short trip to Itaewon followed to collect pendants for Omma (mum) and Yoo Rim ordered last week. Of course the store holder was at lunch so we had ours too at a nearby restaurant to pass time until her return. Ribs were on the menu and even Liz did the stuff the whole thing in your mouth trick according to Korean custom.

Our last visit was to Kyobo Book Shop to finalise books and DVD's. Whilst there we were yet again accosted by Uni students practising English for homework and a Korean man who had spent time in the US. His wife is teaching English for work and his children are learning both Korean and English in their childhood. We discussed learning the language and his tip is that the Korean Embassy will provide materials to people such as adoptive families to help learn Korean.

Highlight of the day ..... Jane, the book about the Mole with a huge loggie on is head is available in Korean too if you want it.

I think we have done all the shopping planned, so Friday....... the final day of life as we know it will probably be a much more casual affair.

Tourist Mode..... but not for long!

Today was relatively quiet for us as it was election day and as such a public holiday. Most businesses and institutions had a day off but the markets were in full swing.

We visited Gyeonbokung Palace and were very surprised by what was on offer. Our arrival coincided with one of the changing of the guard ceremonies for the day. If you think the English go OTT, the korean equivalent is every bit as interesting and ceremonial. There was commentary provided in four languages and a big noisy barrel drum which sounded unexpectedly as I filmed the events. The resulting chorus penetrated the body as the low level shock wave emanated from the percussion of the hammer.

The admission included both the Gyeobukung Museum and the National Folk Museum. The folk museum far exceeded expectations and was most enjoyable. It traced cultural life back to the stone age and included themes of cultural dress (hanbok) through the ages as well as food, music and art. The other museum concentrated on life of the royal court with perhaps the royal vintage cars, a Limosne and a Daimler being most impressive (much better than Grumpas Model-T).

Bill would have been interviewed by at least 10 student groups, both high school and university. Their homework was obviously to meet tourists and interview them in order to practice their English. Most were quite fun and I am so pleased to have Echidna Walkabout (My Bosses Art work) postcards. Often gifts were exchanged and all the students were thrilled to learn that my job involves taking tourists to see Koalas and Kangaroos in the wild. They were keen to learn that the site had video of Janine (one of my Bosses) and it was somewhere the children could go to learn about Australian wildlife. Who knows Janine...... I could be drumming up future work!

Despite afternoon showers we ventured through Insadon for a second time. Perhaps it is because we are in Korea mode for today this was much fun and relaxing. Some scroll art was purchased, followed by dinner at a traditional Korean Restaurant in one of the side Alleys. Fish was ordered after the waiter used the dictionary on his mobile phone to translate the Hangul menu. He was most helpful and entertaining.

We finished the day contemplating or return with Yoo Rim. It is so hard to believe that in three days we will be making our way home with a beautiful daughter and, probably, enjoying a wakeful night flight home..... It will be worth everymoment.

Emotional Meeting Number 3

What an emotional third meeting today. I am most glad that today we were in the conference room instead of the business room as the privacy offered by this room was much appreciated by all.

The meeting started early when we met Mrs Lim in the corridors prior to the meeting. Through broken English, Korean and sign language, she told us that Yoo Rim had been aunwell since Saturday and was still suffering a little temperature. This makes her a tire easily and inclined to become upset more quickly than normal. It was nice to have this information prior to the meeting proper as we could prepare ourselves.

Yoo Rim started well but was quite clearly tired. However she did give both of us great big smiles seperately which thrilled us no end. After Mrs Lim left us alone, Yoo Rim coped very well playing happily for about 15 mins. Then she started to become restless which Liz settled for a while carrying Yoo Rim in her Podaeggi on her back. When Mrs Lim finally returned Yoo Rim was teary and struggled through a bottle and some water. Mrs Lim too struggled with emotion, wiping a tear or two from her eyes. This was only natural as she has done so well as foster mother providing Yoo Rim with such a fine start that it is only natural that she will feel a great loss too. It was difficult to console her and I could clearly see that this affected Liz as it did me. As the adoptive parents how could we offer the condolence she needed from a close friend. It has strengthened our resolve to write to her via Eastern and keep her informed of Yoo Rim's development. This girl is truly a child of three mothers.

After the meeting we went shopping and this time the brakes are off! Boy have we made up for lost time. In the morning prior to te meeting we walked around Sinchon, visiting Hyundai Dept Store. There we bought a few wall posters with Korean and English numbers etc. During the evening we went to Dandaemun Market. This time it was open, unfortunately for the bank balance. Perhaps the Hanbok are not quite as cheep as Namdaemun, but there seemed to be a greater range of colours, styles and qualities available. True though we are probably not as ruthless bargaining either as Yoo Rim's birth mother is listed as a seamstress. We picture her somewhere like a market struggling to earn a living and this may temper our bargaining a little. Generally we are happy dragging prices down 10-15%.

Suffice it to say that most of our Hanbok requisites are pretty satisfied for a decade or so and one shop owner was so happy with us purchasing three hanboks that she gave us hair pieces, purses (child) and handbag (adult) to match the hanboks as presents after the sale.

Perhaps we needed a little retail therapy to relieve the days meeting.

Finally a Quiet day????

Apologies for cutting off the last post before pics could be added. ESWS is quite busy and the business centre was required to allow baby introductions. They didn't ask us to leave but we thought it only polite to allow the parents to meet their little one in private.

After the weekend, we thought to have a relatively quiet day. AM had us heading to the Yongsan Market. This is the technology market. On the whole pretty disappointing. Prices not much different to Australia in general and much of the technology was a little behind too. If you didn't want the latest items such as old model digital slr's were pretty cheap but who wants the old stuff? Instead of buying toys we visited the bookshop in the same building as the main technology market and department store. Possibly not quite as big as Kyobo book store but there was some stuff different to Kyobo so it complimented kids books. We bought some books and toys before heading back to ESWS for a quick sopping drop off.

Around 5pm we headed out to have a look at Lotte World sans kids. This meant we did not have to go in, having the chance to look from the outside. Monday night is a good time to go. Not too many people about so the queues for rides were not great. Liz had fun watching the ice-skating. All the pretty girls in pretty costumes practicing their figureskating in the middle. Young boys practicing and being coached for their speed skating in the inner ring. All in their "team" colour outfits. They had the style too, just like the Olympic skaters. They were faster than the Australian dodgem skaters too. Then on the outside section all the "plebs". The members of the public not dressed in the appropriate skating attire or too old/big to be allowed into the special lanes. All good fun to watch.

We finally broke the code to find auto tellers that allow big withdrawls. Most only allow 300,000 but if you find the machines in the big hotels, these machines will allow up to 700,000 withdrawls on international savings acounts. This is valuable knowledge if you want to save the $8.00 fee per international transaction.

We're Back at Eastern

What a fun few days involving a lot of travel, sighseeing, food and fun. We finally returned Sunday night around 10pm to find Eastern in a little dissarray due to painting work inside.

Late Thursday after meeting Yoo Rim for the 2nd time (AHHH) we caught the train to Gyeonju (4.5hrs). We had booked accomodation through Koreat Tourism and were pleasantly surprised. It was a traditional guest house and if in Australia would surely be on the national trust register. Friday we caught a Tour Bus to see the sights of Geyonju. The tour guide only spoke Korean but they had a DVD in English to introduce each location. There are some things I realise we do so well at work (Echidna Walkabout). Guests are never left wondering where the bus is when we reach the exit for one. Koreans also give a time they expect to LEAVE, not to be back. We saw Bulsoka Temple, there were thousands of kids on excursion there. To save time I should have had a T-Shirt saying Hello I am from Australia , as the kids were keen to practice their English.

Next we went to the Science Hall showing Sila era history, particularly their astronomical observatories.Next was General Kim Yusin's tomb, a famous general who defended the Sila kingdom against various armies around the 600's AD. Lunh was a huge affair with a selection of foods, we went for Bibimbap, a perrenial favourite. Next was Daerengwon tombs. These are a collection of burial sites of former Royal members. They appear tp be small hillocks, but the last excavated in 1973 revealed great tresure and artifacts. The last stop was the Museum. It was interesting, but we have learned that the Koreans have huge impressive buildings with displays widely spaced.

Would you believe after this we then caught the bus to Jinju just so Bill could go fishing. The target species was the Cherry Trout/Salmon a native species to Korea. The stram we fished had plenty of small fish which were lightening fast to take the dry. They were difficult to hook. Liz stayed in Jinju visiting the Fortress and in my absence went shopping. She was able to give me the cut down version to her exploits when we went out to dinner down by the river to experience their local speciality, Eels.

Our trip back to Seoul on Sunday was via Haeinsa Temple. This is number 2 in the hierachy of Buddhist Temples within Korea. It is most famous for the Koreana Tripitaka, a collection of some 85,000 wood block book carvings containing most of the Buddhist academic teachings. It was amusing to see that despite efforts in the 70's to move these to modern storage facilities, the best preservation was in the centuries old storage sheds. They don;t build them like they did in the old Days!!!!!

Finally we caught the bus to Daegu to board the KTX fast train home. I reckon they should be sued for false advertising. It's not a 300 kmh train, the fastest we saw was 299kmh. Still it was a fun but tiring 3 days. We will put our pics on later as the room needs to be used

Cheers

Meeting No 2 with Yoo Rim

Another amazing experience.

We had nearly 3/4 hour with Yoo Rim alone after meeitng with the social worker and foster mother. It was nearly overwhelming for the little girl as we had to work hard to keep her amused. The afternoon was past her normal nap time. Mrs Lim explained that she was a little tired which did not help Yoo Rim's temperament but after Liz transferred her into a padaggi on her back Yoo Rim settled into a patient and familiar position. We will certainly get fitter if walking around with a baby on our back is a way to setle her.

We anticipate a long flight home but thanks to Mrs Lim we are gaining many little tips to help us during the early days with Yoo Rim.

Pyongtaek & Jacobs Home

Wednesday was spent visiting ESWS's facility at Pyongtaek. We visited Jacob's Home, where most of the children were not too shy to insist on plenty of cuddles... not that we weren't looking for them either. We went into Esthers Home, for unwed mothers- they were busy quilting little booties. Then we were shown around the grounds- the sun came out, and we walked past the playground, and down past the pear orchard.
After we had spent an hour or 2 there, our driver offered to take us to the Korean Folk village on the way home. So we were lucky enough to spend a couple of hours exploring the recreated, and relocated housing from different eras. There were also an arrray of traditional craftspeople- blacksmith, woodworkers, papermaker/ calligrapher, potters, apothecary. It was much like a Sovereign Hill experience, also quite well done.
In the evening we hit the markets... or should I say we weren't quite sure what hit us at Dongdaemun market. We didn't quite find the entrance that looked like your map, Michelle, maybe it will all appear clearer in the daytime. We floated around and through & up & down for a while, and found ourselves a good warm late meal.
Today we had a couple of hours before getting ourselves back to Eastern. This time we hit Namdaemun market with confidence -and even did some shopping- found the 9 section dish without any difficulty.
we now have 15mins to go until we meet with Amelie again.
Then tonight we are heading south to Gyeonju, Jinja, sand Haeinsa, for 3-4 days- so we may not get to post anything for a few days. ? Monday.
Catch you all later.
PS Mary- if there is anything you would like us to buy, we will be sending a package home, so just send an email to our home address- with any description. Its always good to spend someone elses money!
PS can someone email Charles' home address to our home email also.
Thanks

Backin Tourist mode

We are beginning to believe that Seoul is Australian for Melbourne. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a balmy warmish day arount 20c. Today it's back to winter with 8c and rain. This is great for today we head to Pyeontek where Eastern Social Welfare have another facility with Rehab centre, orphanage, sheltered workshop and more. We are curious to see this side of the good work ESWS does.

The highlight of Monday, apart from meeting our daughter was meeting the two Dr Kims. It was a great honour to meet Dr Kim Sr. Anyone who has met him will know what we mean. At 94 in Korean age, he is still taking time to meet as many adoptive parents as possible. Young Dr Kim is a very elegant woman who was so personable and eloquent. She showed great interest in all adoptive families and friends/support that cam with them. Dr Kim Sr has certainly chosen succession well.

As for the REst of our time.

Monday after Meeting Yoo Rim :), we transferred to Hotel Prince asa we cannot have accomodation at Eastern until Sunday. Monday had us floating in a dream around Namdaemun market and after dinner we went to see the Nanta Theatre, talk about a silly, loud and fun cooking? show.
Tuesday we walked to City Station to visit Korea Torist Information to plan weekend travel to the South. Following this we went to the War Memorial, a most impressive building in grandeur and content. It was fascinating to learn something about the history of Korea and see how this country has grown since the Korean War. Following this we went to Itaaewon market. It was dissapointing to have it live up to reputaion of being the American market. Everywhere we went we were confronted by shop staff trying to drag us into their store. No I didn't buy a suit or a ring for the lady.
On our way home we returend via Myeong-Dong for a very late lunch. Our rule of eating only Korean is paying off. We look for a restaurant that is full of locals figuring that the food must be good there. So far this is true but it takes us half an hour to read the menu in Hangul (Korean writing). After a rest we went to the Seoul, Namsan, Tower. Taking Michelle's advice just before dusk we enjoyed the view in both day and night time. Whilst in the tower we had our sketch made by this naff computer artist. Cute and fun. A highlight was a laser light show at the base culminating in a flame projected up the body of the tower. It put the Olympic torch to shame. Children played amongst the dancing lights and I'm sure the parents were glad it wasn't the water as with the fountains outside Melbourne Casino. Still no shopping. We figure that can wait till we have a base back at Eastern. Can't help but plan as we look at markets and shops though!