Caught In Action

As foreigners in Korea, we get stared at . . . A LOT!  It's not just the occasional glance, but standing and full on staring.  It used to weird us out.  But, now we are pretty much used to it.  And then there is the touching.  Mostly it is done by the older Korean women known as the "Ahjuma".  They love to touch the kids.  They touch their hair and their faces mostly.  Ethan used to get so mad that he started hitting anyone that got near his face.  They really find it fascinating that the kids have different hair and eye color than they do.

Well, I finally caught more than the Ahjuma on camera.  One of the requirements of parents at the kids' school is that we serve lunch to the kids in their room.  I really enjoy going and sitting with them.  They are not used to a foreigner in the room since it is an all Korean private school.  So, here I am, sitting at the table with Ethan, eating lunch.  This little girl next to Ethan just couldn't stop bothering him.  She was snapping his cheek, tapping his shoulder, and patting his head.  I watched as he rolled his eyes at her, looked at me and said, "She does this to me all the time."  Everyone loves running their hands over Ethan's head, especially since he got his buzz cut.  And, here this little girl was doing it in front of me.  I whipped out my phone and caught this picture of her.  As I did, the little boy sitting on the other side of Ethan got his hand in on the action, too.  We finally got a picture of what poor little Ethan goes through on a daily basis.

What's weird about this picture?

The longer we are in South Korea, the more we take for granted just how safe it is here.  Although crime does exist, it doesn't exist, at least not like we are used to.  As we were sitting having a quick dinner at a local food court, we again were amazed at the people sitting next to us.  It was the perfect picture of what the normal is here.  Take a look . . .

 

This picture was taken about 5 minutes into the people being gone.  We are not sure where they went.  They certainly were not close by because we looked for them.  As you can see, there are 2 backpacks, a large shopping bag and 2 smart phones.  If this were to happen in the states, they could expect that none of these items would be there when they returned.  It's just amazing.  People in this culture are so trusting and know that when they return, all of their things will be just as they left them . . . still there.  I love South Korea!  By the way they came back about 5 minutes after we took this picture.  

Ethan starts Kindy

We have been leading up to this moment every day since Grace started school at CCA.  Ethan threw a tantrum in the hall of the school the first day we dropped Grace off to her new class.  He was so upset he couldn't stay and go to school, too.  Needless to say, I will remind him of that day when he says he's tired of going to school sometime in his teens.  Anyway . . . Every day he would ask where Grace was and if he could go to school.  Really. No exaggeration.  Finally, we are here.  He was so excited when he got up this morning and he couldn't wait to get his new school uniform on.  As he was putting his shirt on, he said, "Wow, this is just like Gracie's."  He loves his big sister.  We headed off to school and, as we were pulling in, he exclaimed, "This is my school, too, now!".  I dropped him at his classroom.  He didn't care he didn't say "Goodbye".  He was ready to get busy in his classroom.  I headed upstairs to await the ceremony.  As it started, lightbulbs flashing from all the proud parents' picture taking, each of the 4 new kindy classes marched in.  Ethan's was the last class.  He looked so cute filing in behind all the little Koreans, sticking out like a sore thumb with his blonde hair.  It was great.  Tomorrow is his first full day.  What will I do with my time?

View the video of his class marching in:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1299542146195

Ethan sitting with his class.  He is just above the lady's back that is kneeling next to the kids.

Ethan and his teacher.

Ethan super excited about his school uniform

Ethan . . . the Crafter?

Yes, I continue to post the silly things Ethan does and am actually thankful that Grace is not as much of a curious night owl mess maker.  I am beginning to see a pattern to the exploration of his crafty side.  It always happens around midnight.  Yep, midnight.  He definitely has his dad's love of the night hours.  Inevitably, you hear some strange noises, smell an odd odor, or actually see him walk by with his "I've haven't done anything you should be checking on" smile plastered all across his cute little face.

On this particular evening, Chris and I were up fielding phone calls, emails, and interviews about the Auburn video he made.  It was about 12:30 at night when I began to smell a very strong paint-like odor.  It didn't quite make sense because of the late hour and the fact that we weren't doing anything with paint or chemicals.  As I exited the office and followed the smell to outside the kids room, I thought, "This isn't going to be good."  I opened the door and switched on the light.  I found Ethan covered in glitter, lipsticked up with Grace's lip-gloss like a clown in a Ringling Bros performance, and surrounded by all the playdough in their collection.  I guess he was making a collage.  I don't know.  But, as we began to explore and clean up his creative mess, we discovered he also got into Grace's fingernail polish (the culprit of the initial odor that sent us to his room in the first place) and tried to paint his beadspread as well as spread lip gloss all over the underside of the top bunk bed.  Yep.  That's our boy.  Of course, we captured the mess on video.  Take a look . . .

If you can't view the video in the blog post, click the link below to view it on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/video/?encoding#!/video/video.php?v=1273633898505

I Love the Quiet Game

On a recent day, we had Grace's friend Katherine over to stay the night.  After a full night and day of rigorous play, we were going to meet her parents at a cafe to make the hand off.  As we were preparing to leave, Ethan was very cranky.  A sure sign he is tired and will definitely fall asleep in the car.  To make sure this happened, we told the girls that we were going to play the "Quiet" game in the car so Ethan could go to sleep.  As we started off, about a minute down the road, Ethan proclaimed he's not tired followed up closely by the sounds of a soft snore.  About 5 minutes further down the road, I thought to myself that the girls were doing a fantastic job of playing the "Quiet" game, seeing how these two girls are always talking, laughing, and singing.  I turned around and they all were asleep in the back seat.  Take a look . . .

Ethan and Evan

Ethan just celebrated his 4th birthday right before Christmas.  We decided to go light this year and just do pizza with some friends.  For Ethan, there is only one friend he cared about coming . . . Evan.  They are best of friends.  Besides their similar names, they are only a couple months apart, have blond hair, dress alike, and talk alike.  They are always so excited to see each other.  They hug and in their little boy voices, update each other on what they have been playing with since they last saw each other, all under about 1 minute.  Here they are, such cuties.

Funny Sights

As it seems, I have a series going here.  We see all kinds of sights that are funny to us.  This is just another one . . .

We decided to go on our first trip to one of Korea's popular them parks on a day when it snowed pretty consistently.  We were bundled up and had a great time not only with all the attractions, sights, and rides but with the snow as well.  As we were walking along, I looked over at a young mother and had to do a double take.  She was doing what any good parent would do on a cold, snowy day . . . roasting her child's wet sock under an outdoor heater to get it dry again.  She gets the "Parent of the Day" award!  Although I think the sock might be well-done by this point.