Driving in Korea

I remember seeing pictures of bikes and trucks in Mexico and Africa and thinking,"hmmm....I guess I'll never see crazy things like this in real life." Boy was I wrong. Not only do they load up their motorcycles, but also their bikes, trucks, pull wagons, and who knows what else. I have even seen them carry boxes in one hand while driving down the road.

These little vans are everywhere. Jared and I want to buy one and bring it back to the states, but I think they are illegeal there. If we two were to sit in the fron seat together, we would be shoulder to shoulder. They are so cute though.

Here is the Shounguk Expressway. We have to drive this way to get to Daegu.

Off the road you can see the tops of some green houses. These are all along the major roads here in Waegwan. It seems like every piece of land is utilized.

Package from Granny and Grandpa

Patiently waiting to open the packages.

Ariana got another Ariel!!!

Emma got Sleeping Beauty

They both had so much fun opening these boxes!!

Banana's

Okay, so I know this is a little weird to write a post on banana's, but we went shopping at some markets today, and these banana's were so cute, I couldn't help but buy them. These are a lot smaller than in the states, but they taste just the same. I beleive they are grown on minature banana trees.

The bigger ones measure about 5 inches long, while the smaller ones are only about 3 inches long.

Ariana was my demonstrator to show how small the smallest bunch of banana's are.

Hanbit Apartments

These are the apartments we live in. They are called the Hanbit Apartments, and everyone knows where they are. What I mean by that is, when we get into a taxi we don't give them our address, we just say the Hanbit apartments and they know exactly where that is. There are 6 or so different buildings and most of them have 18 stories. This picture is not our building but the one across from us. I wanted to show how they got our furniture, including our piano, up to the 13th floor.
They load it on a flat piece of plywood board, which has no sides or railings or anything!!Then they elevator it up to the top. When they delivered our furniture, our mattress was a little stuck coming through the window. Without hesitation, the man jumped out of our window, on to the board, and pushed it through, with NO saftey devices connected to him in case he fell off!!! And to top it all off, we are on the 13th floor!!!

This is the view from our back window balcony. When we step out our apartment building, there are mountain hiking trails within 5 feet. Any outdoor enthuisists dream. There are stone memorials along the trails. I'll be sure to take pictures when I can.

Here is the playground, also visible from our back balcony window. Since taking this picture, they have torn out the playground (I think they are replacing it).

Famous in Korea

Today Jared and I ventured off to Woobyland (a child's amusement park) with Ariana and Emma in the stroller. We had to walk off base, and take the subway, getting off on one station and switch to the other. On the subways they have a special seating area for elderly people, pregnant people, or people with wheelchairs. The oldest person gets to sit down, and if a man and a woman are about the same age, then the man gets to sit down. Pregnant women get first priority. No one sits in these seats unless they fit one of these categories. It's very nice to see the respect.
So, now back to my title. Korean people are fascinated with blonde hair and blue eyes. Everywhere we went we had eyes on us, and the girls were constantly greeted with hand shakes and smiles. We even had a couple of people ask if they could take their picture. What they do with the picture?? Who knows.

By Plane, or Train, or Bus

Okay, so I thought since I updated our blog with pictures (and brief explanations) I thought I would write about some of our experiences here so far. First of all, jet lag is crazy. We are in bed every night by 8:00 and up around 3:00 (5:00 if we are lucky). The girls are having so much fun, but I have to wonder what they are really thinking (like, okay I want to go home now). They are endearing, which is nice. On our way from the airport to the hotel, we took a bus. Now if I can tell you one thing about bus drivers in Korea is that there are no bus drivers. They are more like roller coaster death traps. They are one of the biggest vehicles on the road, and yet drive like they are motorcycles. They weave in and out of traffic, cut of cars left and right, and slam on the brakes just to floor the gas again. So we made it to the hotel alive, and fell asleep almost as soon as we entered our room. The first week in Seoul we played alot!! The hotel is a four star hotel with all the yummy desserts that come with it. There are alot of briefs that they give us here to aclimate us to the culture here. We even had a crash course in the Korean language.
Today we took another bus (this one was way less scary) to the train station. Jared and I have 12 bags altogether that we had to get on and off the bus. Then, when we arrived at the train station, the bus stopped at the bottom of the hill (there are lots of hills here). It took us 2 trips to get all our bags into the train station. As we waited for our train, so many strangers kept touching the girls' face or holding their hand, and kept saying how cute they were. Koreans love blonde hair and blue eyes. Everyone is so nice (and skinny!!). Most of the women here wear high heels and rush around as if they are always in a hurry. We had a KATUSA to help us get to Daegu. A Katusa is a Korean soldier that trains with US soldiers. It is mandatory in Korea that all men serve in the military at least two years. Our escort is one of the few who said that he was going to stay in.
Today we found out that our housing will be available to us on Monday, which is very soon (most people wait at least 30 days). What makes it even more perfect is that our household goods got here yesterday, which means that we will have our stuff in our house by the end of next week, hopefully. I feel so blessed by Heavenly Father.

Train Ride to Daegu from Seoul

Here are some pictures of our train ride from Seoul to Daegu. This morning we had to take a bus to the train station and then the train down here to Daegu. It took us an hour and half while the train was going almost 200 miles per hour. I though it was interesting how fast it went from a busy city will tall buildings to country with dirt roads and rice farms.