A More "American" Adventure

First, did you see the new blog title?  I'm sure you figured it translates to Pound Family Adventures in Korean.  I had my good Korean friend even check it out for me and she said it was correct.

Second, I'm going to start a few posts that I will do in parts when I get some good pictures.  One post will be "Funny Signs in Korea", another will be "Things You Would Only Find In Korea", another will be "Korean Things We Love" and maybe there will be some more.

Today I will do "Funny Signs In Korea Part 1":
I was recently in an amusement park bathroom and when I looked up I saw this sign:

Now, we can all tell without being able to read a word of it what the sign's meaning is.  It is telling you the proper way to use the toilet.   I can understand the first x...they want you to sit down.  Being that it was in an amusement park I can also understand the second x...no barfing in the toilet (of course, I have no idea where they would rather you barf).  Korean bathrooms will often have a squat potty instead of a sit down toilet in their bathrooms, and so knowing this I can somewhat understand the third x...no squatting over the toilet.  But it was the fourth and fifth x's that really threw me for a loop.  Who in the world would ever fish in a toilet?  And what in the world is that person in the fifth x doing?  I'm sure it freaked people out that I was taking pictures in the bathroom, but I didn't care that sign was way to funny to pass up.
Oh, and just in case you see anyone fishing in the toilet there is a phone number to call at the bottom.
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Ok, now on to my real post.  After my Bau House post I got a lot of comments along the lines of "That place looks crazy and I don't want to go there when I visit".  So I thought that for my adventure this week I would post about something a little more "American".  What is more American than baseball and roller coasters?  We did both of those things this past weekend.  I will save the roller coaster adventure for another post and tell you about the baseball today.

Right after we first got here a bunch of people told us how fun the baseball games in Korea were.  Koreans and Americans both told us to be sure and not miss the chance to go see a game.  Russ and I were a bit skeptical.  We aren't baseball fans at all and both of us tend to get bored when we have attended games in the past.  But after being told by numerous different people we decided to give in to the peer pressure and go see a game.

While it is possible to buy tickets ahead of time, most people just buy their tickets at the window before the game.  Not being able to speak very much Korean often lends to some difficult situations where we use "pointy talky" to help us get by.  Russ used a lot of "pointy talky" when he was buying the tickets.

The tickets are really cheap to games.  We bought the second best level of seats and the tickets were only about 11.00 each.  There are two different teams that based out of Seoul and they happened to be playing each other that night.  We decided to cheer for the LG Twins instead of the Doosan Bears.

There were a lot of restaurants to eat dinner at but we decided to stick to the old faithful Burger King.

EVERYONE in the stadium buys these inflatable thunder sticks to use to cheer on their team during the game.  Not wanting to be left out of the fun we bought some for the girls.  (Russ and I decided to pass on the thunder sticks)

We quickly realized why baseball games are so much fun in Korea.  They put on a mini show the entire game.  They have mascots, cheerleaders, music and a man that wears a microphone and leads everyone in Korean songs and dances.

The cheerleaders are in the pink skirts. 

They had at least 4 of these mascots running around the stadium the entire game getting people excited and cheering.

Here the cheerleaders changed outfits for the second half of the game.

They would blow this up at different times during the game.

 The game was almost secondary to the entertainment.

This was during the SIXTH inning stretch.

Just like at American games they had vendors that walked around selling food and drinks.  Instead of carrying a whole tray of beer cups on their head they carry a keg on their back, like a backpack, and fill the cups. 

 The food isn't outrageously expensive like it is in America, but it is just as unhealthy (and delicious).

We decided that next time we go to a baseball game we will sit in cheaper seats in order to be closer to the entertainment.  Who needs good seats when the entertainment is so much fun?

Taylor wanted to photo bomb me in a picture.

We all had a great time.  We left at the end of the 7th inning because it was getting so late, but when we left our Twins were beating the Bears 9-2.
We will definitely take any visitors we have during baseball season to see a game.
 (Dad, since I know you read this, make sure you come during baseball season.  You would love this.)

Date Night

How often when you go out on a date with your husband does he dress like this?

We recently had an event that we attended and Russ had to wear his uniform.  It has been 11 years since Russ has joined the Marine Corps and I still don't get tired of seeing him in uniform.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures before or during the event.  We just snapped these 2 after so we are a bit tired.  Next time I will do a better job taking pictures.

Bau House

There are so many specialty cafes in this country that we could go to one a week for the next 3 years and not even come close to scratching the surface.  I'm always reading other people's blogs and trying to find new places for us to try.  When I read about this cafe I immediately knew we had to check it out.  As a mother there are a lot of things I do for/with my girls that I would never do if I were by myself.  This adventure definitely falls into that category.

This cafe was called the Bau House, but when spoken sounds like Bow House.  Bow as in bow-wow, like a dog.  It was a cafe where there were tons of dogs running around in it for you to pet and give treats to.  If you know my girls at all you know they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dogs.  Any dog we ever come across they immediately run up and start to pet it and talk to it.  They love dogs.  And if you know me at all you know (how do I put this...) I'm not such a big fan of dogs.  In fact I'm pretty sure I have some sort of force field around me that as a dog is approaching me they hit the force field, bounce off it and walk the other way.  But I knew my girls would just love this place, so one Saturday we set out on this adventure.  (Since it was a Saturday Russ got to join in on the fun.)

My directions were pretty good, but as happens so often in Korea that once we found the place it had moved.  It took us a while to find it and we were all disappointed it wasn't where we thought it was going to be so we stopped for a little bit of a pit stop.

Drinking some Gatorade at a 7-11.

We passed this awesome looking old church that they had turned into a restaurant while we were out exploring.

Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do it justice, it was so big that this was all I could get to fit in my camera screen.

It took us a really long time to find the correct location.  But when we did the girls were very excited.  (Because things change so fast in this country, I never tell them where we are going until we actually arrive at the location.  This saves me lots of questions about it and it also lessens the disappointment if we can't find it or if it is not in business anymore.) 

There were dogs EVERYWHERE in this place.  You could bring your own dog to play with the other dogs, or the owner of the place has like 15 (or maybe more) dogs of his own that are there for you to play with.  Most of the owners dogs are rescue dogs.

The first section of the cafe was for little, "lap" dogs.  And the whole back of the place was for the bigger dogs.

Within 10 seconds of us entering this was how I found Lucy.

You don't have to pay to play with the dogs, but if you want to feed them treats you have to buy the treats from the place and you have to order one drink per person.  So we ordered 4 lemonades (it just didn't seem like a sit and sip coffee type of place).

It was so loud in there that not a lot of conversation was happening...unless you were talking to the dogs.

There were probably 15 dogs in the big dog section and they had completely free rein of the cafe and definitely took advantage of it.

Yes, this dog is drinking straight out of the water drain.  I did not drink any water after I saw this.

The girls (and Russ) had so much fun petting, feeding and playing with the dogs.  The girls picked their favorites and gave them extra treats and attention.

I just sat and watched.

My force field was at full strength that day.  Thankfully, most of the dogs were pretty smart and only tried to approach me one time then realized it wasn't worth it.  That lady behind me looks like she might have a force field too.

There was one dog that broke the barrier though.

This was the closest I got to a dog the whole time we were there...in my defense, I'm also allergic to dogs so I was trying not to rub my eyes most of the time we were there. 

This place would never, ever fly in America, but over here no one seemed to think anything was out of the ordinary.  I will say that the employees did an excellent job keeping the place clean.  Someone was walking around the entire time we were there using the swifter and cleaning up dog fur.  And every time there was a doggie accident, an employee was cleaning it up within seconds.  I was very surprised that while the place did smell like dog, it didn't stink. 

While it may be a while until we go back again, it was a fun adventure for all of us.

I'm not a huge germ freak, but we all pretty much bathed in hand sanitizer when we were done.  After we left we went out to a Mexican restaurant (which was delicious) and headed home.

Hula Hoopin' Lucy

This child does not get her hip shaking abilities from her mother, that is for sure!

I really hope this video works for you and you can view it, but if you can't I'm sorry I can't help you.  I'm technology inept.  It took me a few hours (and some very frustrated words) working off and on to get this thing to work and I never did get it.  I finally asked Russ and he helped me.  He is much better with this stuff then I am. 

Open House

This past week we had open house at the girls school.  For those of you that don't have children in elementary school or it has been a long time, let me give you a brief description about what open house is and is not.  It is not a time to discuss in-depth issues with the teacher about your child.  It is a time to look at your child's classroom and usually some work that they have done.

Lucy's teacher made a check list of all the things she wanted Lucy to show me.  Lucy had to carry around the clipboard and check list and check the items off after she had explained them to me.  She showed me various art projects they had done...

She showed me the flags, the calendar they go over every day, the computers, her seat and the work that she has to finish each morning before the day starts, the textbooks they use in class...

...and many other things.  This was a great idea her teacher had.  The teacher just stood there and welcomed the parents while the children took great pride in showing off the work and  classroom.  Lucy had a lot of fun walking me around her classroom showing me everything.  I quick snapped a picture of her and her teacher (Mrs. Ro, who has been teaching in this school for over 15 years) before we headed out to Taylor's classroom.

Now, by the time you get to 5th grade things are much different.  There was no cute little clipboard and classroom tour.  And by the time you are in 5th grade you are too cool to get your picture taken at your desk or with your teacher.  :)
Taylor's teacher is also an awesome teacher.  Her name is Ms. Anthony and she won teacher of the year last year.  She is already working very hard to prepare her students for jr. high.  One of Taylor's first projects was to write a paper about a civilization that she had made up.  The civilization had to have a plant that had a special power.  The plant's power had to fit within Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  (Is this confusing you all yet?...Yes, it was incredibly confusing to me as well at first.  Thankfully, the paper was based off of a book they had read in class and her teacher had given very detailed instructions of what she was looking for.)  Taylor decided her plant was going to have the ability to make people fly.  This was the first paper Taylor had ever written and while there was a very steep learning curve for her she did a great job on it. (It ended up being almost 4 pages single spaced!)
The second part of the project was she had to build a replica of the plant. She wasn't into getting her picture taken in her classroom, but she did want a picture of her plant.  She was very proud of it.

It was a great open house for both girls.  Before school starts each year, we begin to pray for each of their teachers.  God has blessed our prayers above and beyond what we could have imagined.  We are so very thankful for His provision to us each school year.

Flower Market

This past summer we had the opportunity to do a little bit of sightseeing in Seattle before we flew out to Korea.  We visited Pike's Market and walked past numerous stalls filled with flowers.  At the time, I didn't think I would ever see more flowers, in one place, that were so beautiful and CHEAP!!   Unfortunately, because we were flying out the next day, I couldn't buy any.
Well, I stand corrected...I now think the flower market in Korea is the most flowers I will ever see in one place.  They were just as beautiful and CHEAPER!!

A few of my new friends and I ventured out one morning to the flower market that is just over the river from the base.  The market is set up to sell wholesale flowers more then individual sales, and so it actually opens around 1 am and by about noon they are starting to shut things down.  We arrived a little before 11, so things were pretty slow while we were there.  But there were still plenty of flowers for us to look at and purchase.

All these flowers are real.

There were 2 sides of the flower market, the right side was all real flowers and greenery.

Check out all the greenery and for the most part, it is all real.

On the left side were fake flowers (not the dollar store kind, but ones that looked real), glass vases and decorations.

We took this picture next to some fake flowers.

To be honest, it was all a little overwhelming.  I ended up just purchasing each of the girls some pretty roses for their bedrooms and a vase to go with each.  There were very excited with my purchase.  (They each got 10 roses and a glass vase and it cost me less then $18.00 total)

Yellow for Taylor and pink for Lucy.

But don't feel bad for me, I am very sure I will go back again to buy some flowers for myself.  :)