SLEEP NEEDED

Needs Appa

How he has been sleeping!

He's sleeping, I am not..arggg

Nuff said!

Okay... The 13 hour difference is kicking in. His sleep is so erratic. The little cutie is slowly becoming acclimated but not fast enough. He FINALLY went to mommy. He has been attached at my hip every second after running full speed after Nuna (sister) Maggie. I go to work Monday and would like to rest before then. Who knows... I know this is not permanent but being sleep deprived is not quite so fun...

He has been eating well.. 3 oranges at one sitting... Eats a banana a day, loves eggs and Momma went to the Asian store and bought a traditional sticky rice steamer. We all eat sticky rice now 3 times a day!

He loves to climb the stairs but is not mastered coming down, a bit scary! He loves to laugh and RUN, RUN, RUN. We had a Dr. appointment yesterday and all is well. He gets very dry lips so if you have any advice on this issue, please post comment.

Plane Ride!

He wimpered some at night. But wow.. what a co-pilot!... He only cried on the plane when I tried to get up as we sat next to an elderly man with a cane. We were warned that he fears old men. The poor gentleman did not know and kept trying to help. Bok-hyeon just wimpered. He slept 6 hours on the plane and then on the leg to TC from Detroit. He can be my wingman anytime!

Hi Appa (Daddy!)

First time meeting big sis!

Let's Go home...

Gotcha Day

Brother, Eun, Bok, Konrad

Holt Building

Sorry I am so far behind... Here are some pics of me getting Bok-hyeon. He was the one not crying if you are confused. His foster mom and I gave each other a big hug and then off to the cab we went. He waved bye-bye (anyong) to all and hopped in the cab. He eventually fell asleep. Never cried, freaky! We went to our hotel and played for a while and then went to the aquarium to see some sights. The mall was attached to our hotel!

DJ and Me

Foster Mother - Eun (great lady!)

Last pics together

Smile

Momma and Son!


Packing the suitcase. She had tons to share!


Aquarium!... He was enthralled!
WEEEEEE!

Bongeunsa Temple

Temple Pics
Rocks Piled

Temple and Buildings

Meditating

Breakfast

Today I get my son forever. It could not be any more perfect than to have a relaxing breakfast and then walk across the street to the Bongeunsa Buddhist Temple. It is a working temple in the heart of the COEX area. We heard the people chanting inside. We stayed outside and looked around. It was beautiful.

Link for more info: http://www.bongeun.org/

I am going to rest and then leave at 12:30 PM to get Bok-Hyeon! We will then come back to our room and then head out to the aquarium here in the Mall.

Noryangjin Marine Products Market - WOW

Noryangjin Fish Market Aisle (at 11 PM)

Displays- tons of these to keep the fish fresh

Sushimi (raw octopus)

Kevin Ready to devour!

Seaweed is Yummy!

Foods in Korea Link http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Food/menu.cfm

From http://www.gourmet.com/travel/2008/10/jonathan-gold-noryangjin-fish-market --The Noryangjin Marine Products Market is one of the greatest food spectacles on earth. A yawning structure in central Seoul, as large as several football stadiums laid end to end, it’s crammed snout-to-elbow with exotic sea creatures from every conceivable aquatic locale: acres of stingrays aligned precisely as roof tiles; gilt lengths of ribbonfish; regiments of pike; oceans of halibut; endless trays of pickled clams; and more kinds of jacks and mackerels and anchovies than could be identified with a libraryful of reference books. As you weave through the 700-odd stalls, dodging the blasts of frigid water that the merchants occasionally sluice through the aisles, and the very small men charging through bearing very large bags of ice, you may notice the absence of anything resembling a fishy reek, replaced instead by the fresh smell of the sea.
Koreans favor species toward the bottom rungs of the food chain, so while you will see the occasional bluefin or salmon at Noryangjin, they are far outnumbered by croaker and corvina, bubbling clams and giant octopus whose arms extend farther than Shaquille O’Neal’s. You will also pass miles of live-seafood tanks, many of them filled with the usual lobsters, prawns, and crabs, but also finfish of every description, and a disconcerting array of bottom-of-the-sea stuff whose uses are difficult to contemplate. (It’s hard to know which sea squirts are more alarming—the ones that look a little like warty, pulsing pineapples, or the pink ones resembling throbbing uncircumcised phalluses, right down to the undulating slit at the business end.)
There is a big auction area on the second floor of the 24-hour market, but almost all of the downstairs stalls are prepared to slice any one of their fish into sashimi for you on the spot—or better yet, to put your purchases into plastic bags and point you toward one of the cavelike seafood restaurants that line the north end of the complex, where they will serve up your sashimi in the traditional Korean style with sesame leaves, bean paste, sliced chiles, and raw garlic, and transform the rest of the creature into a seething cauldron of spicy, bright-red fish soup. Throw in some steamed Korean blue crabs, a few grilled prawns, some kimchi, and a bottle or two of soju, and you’ve got the greatest Korean breakfast in the world.

We were in our little restaurant and did this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m6cTaE8YWg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX6bydmVTnQ

DMZ

Monument in honor
Mines are still around

Kevin at freedom bridge



Ribbons of hope

Look closer to the billboard... It houses ammo to blow the bridges into Seoul in case of an invasion!!

MJ - Our DMZ tour Guide

Tunnel to DMZ

Pic of Me outside the DMZ... Behind me is a sculpture of Korea being reunited.

South Korean Flag (notice barb wire)

Sculpture

Went to the DMZ on Sat. Morning. Very Cool and sobering. Thinking of all those people who died and seeing only a dividing line to keep each other apart is tough. They compared the DMZ to the great wall of china. They said like the berlin wall, great wall, we have the green wall. It is a sanctuary for animals and birds. The nice thing now is the transportation link between North and South. Trains and cars can go to and from with certain permission.

Another few links about the DMZ are:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/12/19/korea.dmz/index.html

http://www.dmzforum.org/aboutus/our_mission.php

Namdaemun Market

Pork

Shopping

Market Street

ABOUT- Namdaemun Market
Named for its nearby namesake of Namdaemun (Great South Gate) and located near the downtown area, one of Korea's largest wholesale markets covers over 10 acres. It is filled with over 1,000 shops, stalls, retailers, street vendors, and has several department stores nearby. Here you can find clothes, shoes, fabrics, tableware, flowers, vegetables, ginseng products, toys, and watches. Under Namdaemun-no (the main street to the north of the market) is an extensive underground arcade. Although many of Namdaemun's shops are within the buildings that make up the area, the most colorful aspect of the market is the group of street vendors that setup in the alleys and walkways between the buildings. Wholesalers operate from midnight to 6:00 a.m., and retailers are open from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Although most retailers close their stores on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, many street vendors operate stalls in the alleys. Due to its location near downtown and the convenient bus service to and from Itaewon, many foreigners visit here. Most of the vendors can speak a few words of English or Japanese, but you will generally need an interpreter for any intense bargaining. Because many shops are willing to take non-Korean currency, there is also a thriving black market for money exchanging, with rates generally a little better than those of banks. Should you decide to exchange money this way, take great care not to get ripped off.

I bought presents today... What a cool market... There is everything you could imagine!

Tour Day in Seoul

Started off this morning and had breakfast at the hotel. Wow.. I ate a very traditional Korean breakfast and used my chopsticks!... I am getting better every time I used them. Below are pics but our tour guides were great. They were volunteers from Holt. Wait... Mi an was but she brought her boyfriend with her. They were fun to hang with for the next 6 plus hours. We started off from our subway at the Coex Mall/World Trade Center to go to the Main Palace. That was neat as we watched the changing of the guard and toured the grounds. After that we went for some real nice Korean food. I had the octopus (spicy dish) while the kids ordered the Spicy Bulgogi (beef dish). My brother ordered the vegetable pancake (Very tasty). Well, the way the meal works is that it is a social meal. You eat your soup, fix the rice in your bowl and then you share the entire table until you cannot eat anymore! The spice kept you eating your rice. The neat thing is that they poured hot water in the sticky rice bowl to get the crusty rice from the bottom. Mi An said it had a different flavor. I compared that to brownie edges (a treat?). We ate, laughed, and got to know each other.

We shopped around that area but then I asked to go to the big outddor market to get gifts. OMG was that market large. You cannot see the entire market in a day. Saw an outdoor food vendor selling something that looked interesting. Mi An asked me if I wanted to eat it as she laughed. Then she told me it was pupa.. uggh... pre-caterpillars??? Grubbs??? nada.. was not going to happen! Anyway, were were thoroughly entertained by the characters there. The kids got us some decent bargains and then we needed to let them go. We were so tired.
These guides were unbelievable. They were going to stay with us as long as we wanted them. Actually, we just ended up giving them money for a date night out like the movies and popcorn. That got them to go as they were giving up their whole day volunteering. Felt kind of bad keeping them that long. But before they left us, they made sure we got on the right subway train! The Koreans here are such beautiful people!!!!!

Pics:

Police...They were shocked to get their pics taken!

I Drank Sweat!

Tour Guide at the Palace


Guard at Palace!

Tour guides... Mi An and Mon!!

Our Hotel Coex Intercontinental

First Meeting!

Well, we got up well before the wake up call. Skyped the family back home and proceeded to the subway. We got to the correct station in hapjeong but went out the wrong exit and then all went awry. After the previous night's tour, I thought we would just walk up the exit and oila there is the Holt office. Not so... If you are reading this and will be travelling soon, just know which number exit you need to depart from. It is #7 ... not any other.... And believe me... if you get off of any other, you will be lost. We got lost. Had to take a cab and get re-directed.

But what a visit!... I can only say in words how precious it was to meet Bok-hyeon. We connected right away. He absolutely LOVES cars. He could care a less about the stuffed Mickey. He had the fire engine we got at our local toy store. He keeps it with him everywhere.

I learned that his name is pronounced Poke he yanna. He will not even recognize Bok (american name). But he was AWESOME.

He held my hand. Kissed me, and played with me. I know he knows me as the pics sent ahead were so so so important. I am anxiously awaiting Monday to get him and I know he will be a bit startled as he will leave his foster mom for good. She was wonderful.!!!! Holt did such a nice job in the transition.

Pics above has his foster mother Eun Mi! She was so pleasant!!!!.. What a great mother to Bok-Hyeon!

Off We Go!

What a whirlwind trip! If you thougt flying to California was long, wait till you fly to Seoul. I started off the journey in Orlando. Said a tough goodbye to my wife and daughter and left for the airport via a shuttle from the villages at 7 AM. I was up at 5:30 AM with the sound of the greens mower on hole number one outside the house. My flight left at 11 AM and so I had visited the Delta Skyclub for about an hour. The flight was excellent to Detroit. I met Kevin at the gate and we switched seats to the bulkhead. It provided more leg room. More inportantly, it was next to the bathroom and kitchen. We met this teacher from Ohio named Rob and he was headed for Thailand to meet some friends for his Spring Break. We enjoyed one another's company and passed the time. I will post some pics of the flight as we flew from Detroit north over our home in Traverse City and then Northwest over Alaska and around Russia's coast to Narita-Tokyo Airport. What a long, long, long, flight. I only slept about a half hour. Was extremely exausted but had one more leg to go.

We landed in Japan and waited about an hour and a half as we had to go through security prior to getting in the gate area. Once again, we went with the bulkhead seating. The plane was an airbus 330 and it had leather seats and they gave us sushi for a meal! Delicious! I ate Kevin's. Maggie, I think it was all vegetables. Yummy!

We landed in Seoul and had to wait through Customs. This was about 11 PM Seoul time (13 hours ahead of EST). We thought, hey great, here is Mr. Lee from Holt to pick us up. Nope, after calling him Mr. Lee for about 15 minutes, I saw his name badge. It was Mr. Saika. He was nice but a very tired driver. He commented on the distance to our hotel. He said we have an hour drive from the airport. Uggh... So on the way from the airport, the toll roads were beautiful. Night time in Seoul was foggy and the roads were a bit damp. Anyway, we were talking about Seoul and then I pointed out that we may need to stop as Mr. Saika did not see the two car accident blocking the road. They were smashed up good. We think they were racing and rubbed the other out as these two cars were extremely expensive. The doors opened up like lamborghinis (sp?). We slowed down and Mr. Saika woke up. He had been driving since 7 AM.

We talked about the holt site and he drove us past the offices so we could find them via the subway. It worked to a small extent! See next post. We then talked about the famous fish markets and so he just stopped on the highway and backed up to park the van outside the market. Remind you that cars were going 45 mph past us. He got out and walked us to the market. Pics posting soon (Kevin's Camera).

After being amazed at the site of 100,000 sq. feet fish market, we went to the hotel Checked in and then went to finish the night with a drink on the top floor! Packed and got ready for the next day to go see Bok.