Dr. Fish

Since the military has given us this "all expenses paid, 3 year vacation" to a foreign country I want to be sure and make the most of our time here and experience as much as I can.  So when I heard about this place that Americans call Dr. Fish I was very intrigued.  I was told it was coffee shop that had these tubs with special fish that when you put your feet in the fish will eat the dead skin off of them.  Now, who could pass up an opportunity to check this out?  So, for one of the girls and my weekly adventures we set out to find Dr. Fish.  As with all of our other adventures, the directions were a bit sketchy, but we really didn't have to difficult of a time finding this place.

Once inside we were pleasantly surprised at the relaxed atmosphere.

In order to do the fish part you have to order coffee or other drinks.  We placed our order and the boy behind the counter told us we could do the fish before we had our drinks.  It only cost 2000 won (about $1.80) for 20 min in the fish pools and Lucy was free. (What a deal!)

There were 2 kinds of fish, smaller ones that were about 1 inch long and larger ones that were about 3 inches long.  The boy helping us told us there were only a few rules:
1. No food or drinks around the fish
2. No standing in the tubs
3. No screaming (??)
I wondered about that 3rd rule but figured it wouldn't be a problem for the 3 of us.   

We opted to do the smaller fish first.  The girls were pretty apprehensive about this adventure so I stuck my feet in first.  The smaller ones felt like little vibrations all over your legs and feet.  It took a few seconds to get used to, but after that it felt pretty good.  It freaked me out a little bit when they got between my toes, but overall I liked the sensation and soon the girls had their feet in the tub and were enjoying it as well.

It was hard to get a picture of the little fish because the water was moving and everything was blurry.   But here you can see how high up my leg they came.  They would just nibble for a split second then move onto another spot.  It felt good.

After about 10 min in the small fish tub we decided to move to the large fish tub.  Now, these fish were a little more intimidating to all of us because as soon as you got close to the tub the large fish all came to the top and were flapping around in the water.

The large fish all coming to the surface of the water.

The girls were scared to put their feet in this tank (and if we are being totally honest, so was I) which left me to do it first.  I immediately realized why rule number 3 was a rule.  It was all I could do to keep from screaming.  As it was, I started to laugh hysterically (and loudly).  I don't really have very ticklish feet, but this was extremely ticklish.  At first, I could only handle keeping my foot in the tub for about 15 seconds then I had to pull it out.  It was so ticklish.  Seeing my response didn't really put the girls at ease, so it took quite a bit of convincing from me to get them to dip their feet in.  Both girls immediately started to laugh deep belly laughs.  As if we don't draw enough attention to ourselves being American in a very foreign country, now all 3 of us are laughing our heads off as fish eat the dead skin off our feet in a coffee shop.  What a crazy experience.

At first I just put one foot in.  They all attacked my foot. 

Here I finally worked up the courage to put both feet in.  After I left them in for about a minute I got a little more comfortable with the sensation and while I never thought it felt awesome I didn't mind it.

Here they are attacking one of the girls legs.

It didn't hurt at all.  It wasn't like they were biting us, it was more like a nibble.
I started to laugh at the girls laughing.  

After the fish, we washed off our feet and had some lemonade and brownies.  (Since that seems like a normal thing to do after fish nibble on your feet.)

A picture on the way out the door.

As we were leaving we all commented how soft our feet felt.  Even that night as we were telling Russ about our adventure he told us our skin was very smooth.
It was a great adventure and one that we will definitely do again.

Our "on the way home" subway picture.

I know some of you are wondering what kind of fish they are...I don't really know.  I looked it up on the internet and did find some information about them, but it was all pretty vague.  As best I could tell they come from China and Turkey.

Let the real "fun" begin

With the arrival of this (moving truck)...

comes A LOT of these (boxes)...

and this (packing paper)...

and this (utter chaos)...

It takes a lot of time, hard work and patience to get the house unpacked and looking like a home again.  Thankfully we all chip in and do our part.  This was how I caught Lucy and Taylor "doing their parts" :) 

They were just so excited to see their things again.  After you have unpacked enough times you get good at it and it really doesn't take to long.  Thankfully we were only stuck at home for a few days before we were back out exploring Seoul again.

Olympic Park

Every two years my family knows that for two weeks I will be MIA.  I love to watch the Olympics.  I don't care if it is summer or winter or what event is on--I will watch it.  Being in Korea has made this a little bit more difficult because most of the popular events are shown in the middle of the night and we don't have any sort of DVR over here.  But, I still love to watch what and when I can.  (Last night I watched fencing, shooting, archery and table tennis.) When I'm not watching the Olympics I'm reading about them (and telling Russ all I have read).  So this past weekend we decided it would be a perfect time to visit Seoul Olympic Park.  (The Summer Olympics were held in Seoul in 1988)

Seoul is a massive city, but in order to allow people to get away from the hustle of city life they have these huge parks scattered throughout area.  I had read that they best way to see all of Olympic park was to do it by bike.  After we arrived, we quickly realized this was a valid statement, so this is what we rented:

Doesn't this contraption just scream tourist?

It was very hot the day we went and the humidity was through the roof.  Thankfully, for the most part the park was pretty flat, but there were a couple of hills.  The girls loved to ride down the hills, but weren't really strong enough to help peddle up them. 

Poor Russ pushing the cart up the hill.

The park is set all around water (it is actually a moat and there is a fortress in the park, but we didn't get to explore that part when we were there this time) with beautiful flowers and huge sculptures scattered through out it.

The busy city right outside of the peaceful park.

Each of the sculptures had the artist and the "interpretation" posted right by it, but even with the description some of them didn't make sense...perhaps something was lost in translation.

The country flags were fun to ride our cart through.

The "World Peace Gate" was massive and beautiful.

Not a great picture with the gate, but when you can't really communicate with the person taking the picture you take what you can get.  Next time we go back we will get a better picture.

They have a free museum that gives the history of the Olympics and has lots of Olympic memorabilia.

Taylor is bummed that she only got 3rd place:)

These were the mascots from many of the past Olympics.  It was fun to try to guess where each were from.

Seoul

Atlanta

They had a huge display for the London Olympics.  This was a countdown clock.

This was the massive drum that kicked off the Seoul games.

The park also had a couple of playgrounds and shaded resting areas.  These stone walking paths are popular in Korean parks.  You will often see people walking barefoot on these bumpy paths and they are supposed to be good for your circulation.  (Russ likes them, I think they kind of hurt)

Interesting fact: In the early Olympics the winners were awarded apples.  That would never fly now, huh?

Vacation Bible School

This past week they held VBS on base at the chapel.  I signed the girls up for 2 reasons:

1.  To hear and learn about Jesus
2.  To help them meet children their own ages

Both of my reasons were a great success.  They came home very excited every day about what they were learning and who they were meeting.  Starting all over making new friends every 3 years is hard.  It is hard on all of us, so if I can get them involved in things quickly it really helps them.
Because of VBS (and the stifling heat) we didn't take any major adventures this week other then to the pool. 

Showing off their VBS shirts

Swimming at the Pool

Not all of our days are filled with running (getting lost) around Seoul.  Some days we stay on base (or post now that we are in Army world) and just go to the pool.  My girls love to do both.  Summer is monsoon season in Korea and so we can go many days without seeing the sun.  The day I took these pictures was very overcast, but look what made a few brief appearances:

The girls love to jump off the diving board.

Here is a sequence of Lucy jumping off (I probably took 15 pictures to get these shots).

"Mom take a picture of us jumping in backwards."  (I hope Lucy closed her mouth before she hit the water)

The best part?...Going to the pool ensures a good nights sleep for everyone.

The Lucy Pie Kitchen

My girls LOVE the TV show "I Love Lucy".  It is hysterical to listen to them laugh as they watch the episodes.  I love "I Love Lucy" because I know that even if I haven't previewed the episode they are watching, it is good, clean entertainment.  So, imagine my surprise and excitement when I found an "I Love Lucy" themed cafe in Seoul.  Even better, it was within walking distance of the base.  Again, my directions were a bit sketchy (walk to the bank and go further, turn right at the 7-11).  And to make this adventure more exciting the only website I could find for this place was all in Japanese, which I was able to get a loose translation with Google Translate.  I actually had no idea how old the website was or if the place was still in business, but I knew the girls would love it if we found it.  Since it was close to home, we decided to go one evening after dinner so that Russ could experience the adventure with us.

We set off, and with today's awesome GPS technology it actually wasn't very difficult to find.   It was a very cute small little cafe that specialized in American style pie.  The girl that was working behind the counter spoke fluent English and told us that her aunt owned the place and she was just helping out for a while.  She gave us a bunch of free cookies and coffee because she it was our first time there.  The girls were thrilled with the "I Love Lucy" decor and the pies all looked delicious.  They had walnut, pecan, mint chocolate, mud, banana creme, cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake and sweet potato pie.   They also had a bunch of different cookies for sale.

We got a few different things and all of them were delicious.  We will definitely be going back again.

We bought these little snowball cookies.  They were awesome.

Snowball cookies, mud pie and a brownie.

We ate it all.

A look inside the cafe, it was really small, only about 6 tables.

"Mom, take a picture of me and the name Lucy."