Sunday, June 1, 2008
This does not mean our life story has ended however. A new blog has started at kaussiefamily.blogspot.com
It wont be updated as regularly as this blog but we still aim for around once a week updates.
Thanks for your interest and support.
Cheers
Bill Liz & Amelie Yoo Rim
Monday, April 14, 2008
Life in the Burbs
Friday, April 11, 2008
It's life Jim... But no longer as we know it!
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.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
This little Piggy went to markets......
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.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tourist Mode..... but not for long!
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.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Emotional Meeting Number 3
Monday, April 7, 2008
Finally a Quiet day????
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.