Good-bye Korea, Welcome Home

We definitely enjoyed our time in Korea and look forward to going back again in the future. The best part about our trip was being with family and letting the kids get a lot of attention from everyone. Nicolas and Kaya will also really miss their preschool, Toto Montessori Children's Center, and promised to keep in touch with the teachers and friends.

Altough it was sad to leave Saehee's parents and say good bye at the Incheon airport, we were also glad to come home. After a very long flight back and a shuttle trip from Chicago, we were happy to see a huge welcome home sign made by close friends in Whitefish Bay. Thanks for the great sign! (I guess the idea came from Valerie Morris, Saehee's good friend.)

We will cherish the fun times we had in Korea and enjoy the rest of the summer here in Wisconsin.

Korean Knights

Nicolas and Kaya wanted to visit their favorite place in Suwon, the Hwaseong fortress.

This time we not only watched the martial arts demonstration and dressed up as knights.
We wanted to climb all the way to the top of the fortress.

Family Get-Together

Saehee's relatives were quite excited to see us again and meet Nicolas and Kaya for the first time!!! Of course, Nicolas and Kaya were terribly spoiled and got a lot of attention from lots of family members.

The kids found out that they had lots of "Halmis" and "Halbis" (grandmas and grandpas) and enjoyed visiting everyone at their homes. We also had a farewell dinner the evening before our departure to the U.S.

Of course, when Korean relatives get together, the night is quite young for a long, long time....

Saehee's brother flew from Germany on that day to join the farewell dinner! What a long night for Keebum! We will miss everyone and hope to see them again soon!

Trip to Daegu

Marc and I got a chance to get out of Suwon and visit a city in the Southeast part of Korea. Daegu is the third largest city in Korea and located approximately 3 hours from Seoul by car. We took the regional train, Saemaeul Ho, from Suwon station to Daejun (about 1 hour) and then transferred to the KTX (Korea High Speed Train) to Daegu (45 minutes). The KTX was definitely fast, almost 300 Kilometers an hour.

Marc had to visit Keimyung University to explore exchange programs with UWM. So, of course, I went along too, and really enjoyed exploring the Keimyung U. campus. It was voted the prettiest campus in Korea.

We arrived one day before the campus visit, so we had some time to explore Daegu area. We used public transport, bus, subway, and taxi and we enjoyed the trip to Daegu very much. We decided to take an express bus (quite fast but you have to watch out for some unfriendly bus drivers!) to a provincial park outside of the city. Palgongsan means 8 peaks mountain and we were quite impressed with this park. We did not have too much time to do any major hiking but we did visit a famous temple area on top of one of the peaks. Donghwasa was gorgeous! See for yourself....

Hiking, Hiking, and Hiking!

Koreans love to hike which is an understatement. Boy do they love to hike up any old mountain! Or hills around your neighborhood....Saehee also realized that Germans love to hike up the hill as well, or rather, run up the hill, and go jogging! The kids had a great time hiking up our local mountain, Gwangyosan. The best part is that in certain areas, the moutains have nice exercise machines to keep everyone fit and healthy!

Around Halmi and Halbi's neighborhood

Nicolas and Kaya find lots of things to be quite interesting around their grandparents' neighborhood here in Suji, Korea. Nicolas always wants to go to the "Knight Castle" playground and enjoy going to the playground. Since Halmi and Halbi (Grandma and Grandpa) don't live in a house, there is no backyard to run and jump around. So, whenever we have a nice day here in Korea (which has been pretty much most of the time that we have been here) the kids go outside to the playground or the public school grounds to play football!

There are lots of highrise apartments in Korea, especially in and around Seoul. So, the kids love taking the elevator to the 11th floor to Halmi and Halbi's apartment.

So far, the kids enjoy walking around the neighborhood here and exploring what the place has to offer.

Day trip to Seoul

Marc and Saehee enjoyed Seoul recently and visited some interesting spots right in the city center. One of Saehee's favorite spots in Seoul is Insadong, a small neighborhood where you find traditional Korean houses, traditional tea houses, interesting souvenir shops and a number of very good Korean restaurants. We were quite lucky on our visit to Insadong. The city was hosting a beatiful outdoor wedding ceremony and two dance/drum performances.

We also visited the famous temple, Jogyesa, the foremost temple in the city, as well as Kyoungbok Palace, a major palace which housed the famous kings and queens of Chosun Dymasty (Yi Dynasty 1392-1910). We definitely felt like tourists at Kyoungbok Palace, with all the tourist groups from China, Japan, United States, and Korea.

Even better, it was nice to not tote the kids around for a change....We realized how easily we were able to navigate the congested streets of Seoul without Nicolas and Kaya.

Korean Folk Village

Marc, Saehee, Nicolas and Kaya visited the Korean Traditional Folk Village in Suwon yesterday. Although Kaya was a little tired from her cold, the kids found the old houses/villages interesting and quite different from our house in Whitefish Bay. We saw Korean drummers dancing, a Korean tight rope walker, See Saw jumpers and an exciting horse riding show.

It seemed like all the school kids from Korea came to the Folk Village as well. We were definitely not the only ones...we ran into lots of school kids, a large group of Japanese high school students visiting Korea, and a couple other nationalities. Saehee was happy to see some non-Koreans for a change!

For lunch, we went to the marketplace inside the Village and ate delicious home made mung bean and potato pancakes (Bin Dae Ttuk and Gamjajun).

Trip to Hwasung Fortress in Suwon

One of the first local trips we took with the kids was to the Hwasung Fortress in Suwon. Suwon is located about 40 km south of Seoul, and it is about 20 minutes by car from my parents' place.

The fortress wall is huge and it takes about 2 hours to walk around the whole fortress. The fortress goes around the city of Suwon so you have a great view of Suwon city. We went there twice now. Once with the grandparents, Nicolas, Kaya and Saehee, and the last time we walked around about an hour with Marc.

During our first visit, the kids really enjoyed the royal guard ceremonies at the Hwasung Palace. Lots of royal soldiers entertained us with sword and archery demonstrations. Nicolas even got to shake hands with the King of the Palace, King Jeongjo. I thought the king was pretty handsome!

Nicolas and Kaya go to School!

According to Nicolas and Kaya, school is a lot of fun! Especially in Korea! The kids enjoy going to the Toto Montesorri School every morning from 9 to 1:30. The teachers give them a lot of attention, and Nicolas and Kaya are also making good friends. Nicolas was not able to get into the local kindergarten but he is still learning a lot at at his preschool. He is one of the oldest, and likes the fact that he can go to school with Kaya!

So far, the kids have made a Parents Day Special Cake, learned English in English Class, made paper animals, learned to sing and dance, and know how to do the "belly button" bow. Nicolas even went on a school fieldtrip to the World Cup Soccer Stadium in Suwon.