Whoa, from South America to Asia!
After a wonderful two and half years, our time was up in Florianopolis, Brazil in December. We made a stop in the United States for the holidays, and are now living in Seoul, South Korea. We will be here for two years while Geoff works in the policy realm on behalf of the U.S. Air Force at the Yongsan Army Garrison. We cannot believe how lucky we are to continue our adventure in a new part of the world.
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| Our arrival. We're here after two planes, 12 hours of flight, 15 checked bags, and a 14-hour time difference.
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| Our other new ride. Though this one is likely made in China. |
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| About to be confused. Seoul has a massive subway system, which both locals and foreigners constantly describe as "easy" and "so easy," though we've gotten pretty turned around every time. That aside, it does seem to be very orderly, quiet, clean and surprisingly free of urine smells. |
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| New friends. We've made fast friends with our neighbors and Geoff's co-workers and their families. Here's our first pizza party / playdate with the Lauderdale family. Their son Jaxon and our son Leo bonded quickly. |
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| Shoppers' paradise. The shopping here is amazingly expansive. There is store after store filled with useless items, and they are all adorable. There are lots of specialty boutiques, like stationary stores, sock-only shops, hat stores, and on and on. There's everything Hello Kitty imaginable, including toilet paper. |
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| New food. Leo, 18 months, is doing his best to master chopsticks. We love the food here. We've had lots of traditional Korean noodle and rice dishes and also a large ethnic variety -- Thai, Indian, Korean-Mexican fusion, Bulgarian (still confused by what this was) and trendy stuff (french toast sandwiches and fries!). |
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| Korean BBQ. We went out for this famed traditional dinner with our neighbors. Beef and pork are cooked at the table and then wrapped burrito-style in lettuce. It comes with lots of sides, like cold-noodle salads, spicy tofu soup and kimchi. |
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| New school. Here, Eri is boarding the bus for her new preschool on her first day. She attends an international school in the Gangnam neighborhood (yep, "oppa gangnam style" -- the very same) with lots of other Americans from the base as well as local Korean children. She absolutely loves it and has already picked up a few Korean words. |
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| New language. Eri's curriculum is all in English, with the exception of a Korean language class, but the school definitely doesn't feel American. We like this. Here is the lunch box they provide, which reads: "Happy Virus. It's Delicious." |
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| Super Bowl Sunday party. Though here it was 8 a.m. on Monday.  But at least we can ski! We've been several times to a mountain with a name I can't pronounce that is only 45 minutes outside the city. Eri is pretty fast on the slopes, but always waits for me at the bottom. |
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| Our backyard. The snow doesn't bother Eri while Leo usually cries when we take him outside. |
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| Mmmm. It's never too cold for ice cream.  Indoor fun. Some days it's too cold to do much of anything outside. So we've gone bowling. ...  ... spent the afternoon at the kids' craft cafe, ... |
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| ... and lots of time swimming at the indoor pool on the base. |
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| Happy Valentine's Day! One of Eri's little gifts was a "Frozen" chopstick set, similar to the ones her Korean friends use during lunchtime at school. Eri was excited to try them out, but in the end wanted to know why people don't just use forks. Because we're in Asia! |
