There's a Daisy in our House!

Holly had a big week last week. Not only was it Christmas, but she officially became a Daisy Scout! They had their Investiture Ceremony where Holly received her Daisy pin and a few badges to boot. She had to recite the Girl Scout law by memory to her leader, Kristie, so we worked really hard on reciting it loud and clear. Guess it's a good thing I never forgot it in the first place.

Christmas in Korea

It's been a few weeks since I've posted, but for good reason. Ronnie has been in the states for two weeks, and I have been busy lying on the couch eating bon-bons and watching Scrubs.

We kicked off our Christmas celebrations with a very special visit, Santa flew in to visit the kiddos. He even flew an A-10! The kids were so excited to see him, and chased him into the squadron, where he had books for all of them!

Santa spent the night and came out to breakfast the next morning. The girls were so excited to put on their "fancy" dresses and go to brunch at the "Club" with Santa!

The next weekend, we continued our tradition of seeing "The Nutcracker." Sarah went over to Gracie and Kayleigh's house to play, while Holly and I went to Seoul for the performance. I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe the ballet, except to say that it was breathtakingly beautiful. After the ballet, we adventured a bit with a friend and her daughter to find something to eat. You know us, always up for an adventure! We found a wonderful Italian bistro, followed by coffee at "Holly's Coffee." I don't know when Holly had time to start a coffee empire, but I'm still asking her why I don't have a discount card!

Ronnie finally came home and right in time for Christmas. Holly woke us up a little after 6 am with a bellowing "Santa came and he brought us presents!" We couldn't contain her, so we woke Sarah up and the madness of Christmas morning ensued! The girls were so excited to see the things they had asked for and some things they hadn't thought of to ask for.

Merry Christmas from Korea!

Go Daddy Go!

This week has brought a lot of laughs and tears. First, the tears, because I can't finish anything on a sad note. Ronnie's brother, Robbie, was diagnosed with bladder cancer back in March. He has fought the good fight, but the cancer has spread to his bone (specifically his spine). The tumor they cut out of his back/spine in September has regrown and decided to grow a friend. Ronnie will be flying back home to Florida next week to be with his family as they go through this critical phase of Robbie's treatment. He'll be back home in time for Christmas.

Ok, time for some laughs..... We are currently introducing Redneck culture to the Koreans. With all of our furniture in the house, we don't have anywhere for the Christmas tree, except for the porch. Yes, that's right, we have put our tree on the porch. In true redneck fashion, we have way too many lights, including ones that blink, chase and fade but not all together! I can only imagine what the folks in the building behind us are thinking.

You know you're getting comfortable in a place when you just decide to go to Seoul without a map and barely remember the basic Korean phrasebook. Such was our adventure on Saturday. We got up and decided to head to USAG Yongsan and Itaewon. As soon as we got to the subway station it started to snow. Watching the big flakes come down and zoom past the train was really fun for the girls.

The girls watching the snow rush by

It was lunchtime when we arrived at Itaewon, so we headed to the Outback. Way different than the ones we have stateside, but it was really good. The thing we got a kick out of the most was our lunch came with a fruit juice of our choice. We told the server that we really only wanted a Diet Coke, but he said, no you can have both, but I bring you the juice first, then you can have soda. We said ok, because it sounded like what we would tell the kids.

After lunch, we headed to Yongsan so we could check out their BX and the Chosun Gift shop. Unfortunately by the time we found the BX, the Chosun was closed. But we made the most of it. The USO had hot chocolate and pictures with Santa. The girls were really excited to see Santa but they didn't sit on his lap for pictures together. Maybe this year will be the year for a good Santa picture (crossing fingers).

While walking around the BX, an announcement was made that there was a chocolate covered cherry eating contest. After a little pushing, Ronnie decided to enter the contest. The girls were so excited that daddy was playing and were cheering non-stop for him. Holly even started heckling him a little bit, telling him to just eat them all (see the video at the very bottom of the post). It was the funniest 2 minutes of our trip, and probably the most entertainment the BX staff had had in a while since they insisted the girls get in the official picture.

Look, he's smiling... Of course it's because the girls were cheering for him

The final group picture - the BX staff insisted the girls get in the shot

Weekend Excursions

Well, it's the last day of the four day weekend. Besides our big turkey day with the squadron, we didn't plan anything big for the weekend. They don't do Black Friday like we do in the States; besides, all my Christmas shopping is done anyhow.

We decided to head to Everland yesterday. The weather was really nice albeit a little chilly and the park wasn't all that crowded for a weekend. The girls had a great time feeding the parakeets, seeing the monkeys (who were just as curious about the people looking at them), riding the festival train, and then playing in the ball pit. We also got to go on a few different rides than before, our favorite being Flash Pang Pang. It's a tulip seat that bounces you up in the air, but you can push on this lever and start spinning too. The girls started fighting over who would ride with daddy, since mommy can't spin too fast.

The day was topped off with a ride on the "Teacups," which at this park is a flower. Both Holly and Sarah rode with daddy who spun them so fast they both had slid over to his side by the end.

Today brought a slow drizzly rain, so we went to the bowling alley. The lanes on base are really nice and they have 4 shorter lanes dedicated to little kids. Holly narrowly edged out Sarah, who was leading until the 8th frame. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, else we would have some great video of the two of them cheering on the ball to knock down the pins.

Thanksgiving in Korea

Happy Turkey Day everyone! The sweet potato casserole is made, the pies are baked, and the turkey is sitting in the brine getting ready to roast. Sounds like an all-American day huh? Well, this year is rather interesting. You see, the Koreans have already celebrated their Thanksgiving, or more specifically, Chusok. Chusok is the major harvest festival and is celebrated on the Autumn equinox. So we're the only ones eating and celebrating. The stores are even open.... which makes it really convenient if you need something last minute.

To start our Thanksgiving celebrations, Holly's class had a Thanksgiving feast. The kids sang songs for all of us - It was really cute! Videos to uploaded soon!

Holly's class

Today, we are headed to the base to take part in the Thunderbolt Feast, our squadron's annual dinner with the AMU (read maintenance squadron). We prepare a full Thanksgiving dinner and serve the guys and gals who make sure that our A-10s are "ready to fight tonight" and bring our pilots home safe everyday. It's a wonderful tradition, and we are so proud to be a part of it. We fixed Ronnie's momma's macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, and Grandma Iris' pecan pies. The girls were such big helpers in the kitchen. They helped chop the pecans, wisk the eggs, mash the potatoes and stir the macaroni. It was a lot of fun telling them about who gave us the recipe.

Sarah and her sweet potato hands. What you don't see is the Group Commander and his wife sitting across from us cracking up at Sarah.

The dessert table - as someone put it, think of the millions of calories sitting on this table.

Finally, tomorrow we will have our family dinner while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that we DVRed. Yeah for watching on delay - we can fast forward through commercials. Still have more cooking to do but I have two wonderful helpers to assist me.

As I head off to the land of elastic pants, just one final thought.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Love, the Olivers

It's an old... family tradition

Thankfully, I put my prized cookbook in our quick ship things. Prized meaning it's the one with all the family recipes that my mom put together for my sister and I for Christmas back a few years ago. Truth be told, she was probably sick of us asking her how to make cornbread dressing, or banana pudding, or how to cook a turkey (that's another post). These aren't recipes that one can find in one of the family bibles, they are only the ones that you learn by the side of a great cook cause they sure aren't written down anywhere. Luckily and thanks to my mom, they are now in a cookbook and in electronic form on my harddrive (that's somewhere in this mess). I broke into the family recipes today and started my holiday cooking with one of my favorite memories - Grandma Carter's banana bread.

Grandma Carter is my great-grandmother on my mom's side of the family. When I was growing up, we would go and visit that side of the family almost every summer. As soon as my sister and I got off the plane, my grandparents would head straight over to my great-grandparents house, as they had the good fortune of living 15 minutes from the airport in Seattle. When we would get there, my grandma was in the kitchen whipping up a snack for us while my Grandpa Homer would give us all sorts of grief and really bad Homer jokes.

Once the bread went in the oven, we sat down for a game of Cribbage and my sister and I did our level best to beat my Grandpa Homer. He cheated, bad - even worse than I do, cause at least my "cheating" is merely loopholes in the rules. Then the bread would be done, and we would have to convince my grandma to cut it early. The aroma was too much to bear to wait for it to cool properly! We would get a slice, then take a loaf over to my grandparents' house for later.

So, I broke into the family cookbook and this time, I even had helpers! Holly and Sarah donned their aprons and together we mashed the bananas, sifted flour, and mixed the batter until done, but not overly mixed. The girls decided that they wanted to add chocolate chips (for some reason, I think Bill was here egging them on......) Then had to wait the excruciating long bake time until the timer went ding. Guess I don't need to tell you what we had for dessert tonight.

The other family tradition - Daddy licks the bowl

Our banana bread!

Let it flurry!!!!

We woke up on Sunday morning to the first snow flurries of the season! The girls were so excited, so we ran downstairs as quick as we could get warm clothes on. It wasn't cold enough to stick around long, but there were some big beautiful flakes coming down.

Sarah showing me her gloves

The girls trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues

Not sticking much, but there are some flurries on the car

Everland!!!!

This week has just flown by! We have been unpacking boxes, sorting and organizing most of the week. But, Wednesday was Veteran's Day, and since we all had the day off we headed to Everland.

Everland is the largest theme park in South Korea and, conveniently for us, it's about an hour's drive from us. This place is amazing! They have a little bit of everything that you need/want in a theme park - zoo, roller coasters, kid rides, and the best caramel popcorn! They just started their Christmas Fantasy festival, so the park was decorated with Christmas trees, wreaths, and ornaments galore! We were greeted at the front by Santa who gave us Rudolph noses.

First, we headed to Aesop's Village. Holly and I went on the Tortoise and the Hare train ride, while Ronnie and Sarah went to scope out the "ball pit." Let me tell you, the ball pit is fun for ALL AGES and I challenge you to find anything like this in the States.... Loads of small soft foam balls with tons of compressed air shoots that either shoot the balls up in the air or at someone.
The rest of our day was spent riding rides, watching the parade, riding even more rides, then going into the zoo area and Safari ride.

We had a lot of fun! Good thing we bought season passes, the girls are already asking when we can go back!

Moving Day - Korean Style

It should come as no surprise that life in Korea is a little different than life in the US. We know this and accepted it long before our passports were stamped. However, the way they do moving day was a sight to see.

As any other household goods delivery goes, the truck rolls up with a couple of workers ready to go. There is also a point person who works with you on the paperwork, keeping numbers straight and noting any damages done to the crates, boxes, or furniture. So, how do they get everything up to the apartment. One would assume via elevator right..... If that's what you thought, you are dead WRONG!

So, for your viewing pleasure, here is move-in Korea style:

Now remember, we live on the 11th floor. They used a lift and taped the top of the lift to our rail. Then they zoomed boxes, furniture and everything else up and down the lift. Pretty amazing sight to see, especially when another worker magically appeared in our apartment. We figured out that he had "ridden" up with our boxes.

Meters, Grams, and Liters, OH MY!!!!

Remember back to when we were in school learning different things and thinking that you will "never" need to use this. Parents, if you have children in school, get them to read this....

Unfortunately, my mom and dad were right. There I said it.... They were right.

I am having to use some of the stuff I learned back in school that seemed so pointless to learn at the time..... Because ***surprise**** Korea uses the metric system. YIKES!

I'm on a crash course trying to remember everything I swore I would never need. It's just crazy the amount of math I'm doing and relearning. Such as how to convert degrees Fahrenheit into Centigrade for the temperature outside to what the appropriate setting is for the oven. Yes, our oven is in centigrade, as are the AC and heating units. They give distances on the highway in meters and go kilometers-per-hour. Gas is sold by the liter - which is equating to about $5/gallon by the way. Meat, seafood, or dry goods aren't sold by the pound, it's grams.

So kids, listen up... You may need this one day. So pay attention and remember those conversions. And I'll give you a quick tip: 1 mile equals 1.6 kilometers, and 0 Celsius is 32 Fahrenheit.

And if you see my mom and dad, tell them to stop gloating....

Train is a-Comin'

Going on the Metro once a week is starting to be our thing to do on the weekend. Like any major city (think DC, Chicago, NYC), Korea has developed a wonderful Metro system with lines coming in to Seoul from all directions.

Our first excursion was to Suwon just a few stops up. Great first experience for us and the girls! The ticket machines are also in English, so we bought our ticket quickly and away we went for 1300 Won one-way (read a little over $1). Most of the seats were taken, but two ladies made room for Holly and Sarah to sit down. They just loved all over the girls for the 20 minutes it took us, and the girls just ate it up!

This weekend, we decided to venture a bit further. It was cold and overcast, so we went to the Aquarium in Seoul. Again, they have a wonderful system here and have a fully interactive map on their website. All you do is enter in your start point and your destination and the map will tell you the route, if you have to transfer, what your fare will be and the estimated time. Not only did the trains ran exactly the times that are posted, we were at our destination at the estimated time the Metro system said we would be there.

We also had in-train entertainment with live infomercials! We had the opportunity to buy dried crab (we think..), a multi-tool with a built in flashlight, and a love song/soft rock 6-CD set with lyrics.

After a full day of the Aquarium, walking around the COEX mall, and finding the yummiest cupcakes we headed back home on the subway trying to think of where our next subway adventure will take us.

That pagan American holiday

Happy Halloween ya'll!!!!!

Holly's school had a "Fall Festival" party yesterday. This is Holly and her friend Colesie.

Of course, Sarah came with me to help at Holly's party. She was the official taste tester.

Unfortunately, it doesn't feel like Halloween around here, as we are one of three non-local families in our apartment building. No jack-o'-lanterns are out, no really bad Halloween displays, and most of all, no trick-or-treating. Of course we carved our own and are keeping it on the porch for our viewing pleasure, and then off to the base we went for our Halloween fix tonight. One of the families opened up their home to us non-base dwellers (thank you again Hunt family!) The girls had TONS of fun, got way too much candy and didn't eat anything that would constitute as food for dinner. But it's Halloween and you only get to do this once a year.

Fall Foliage

So as the leaves are turning around our apartment, I see exactly what I've been missing all these years. As someone pointed out to me, we are real Southerners. Being from Florida, our leaves pretty much just turn yellow and fall off the trees over the course of a week. Not that I would trade sunbathing at Christmas while talking to my relatives in Seattle, but seeing the season change has been a real treat for us.

The farthest north we've ever lived was North Carolina. Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas don't really jump out at you for being fall foliage destinations. So here are some pics from around town.... I'll add more as the leaves get more and more vibrant.

Enjoy!

These were taken 10/16....

Same areas, taken 10/29:

Bon Appetit!

So many of you playing the home game have asked the same question: how is the food?

In general, we have enjoyed everything we have tried. But going out to eat is an adventure every time we go. From the massive food court in E-Mart and Home Plus to the chicken place by our house, we normally just point to what we think looks good and hope for the best. Take this for example:

This was my birthday dinner at the Korean restaurant by our apartment. Really neat place, you take off your shoes at the front (customary at most restaurants in town) and sit on pillows at low tables. You eat your meals family style and they have silverware type chopsticks. We chose what we thought was going to be a beef dish with vegetables and it was cooked on the grill in front of us. However, we were surprised when they delivered a seafood dish with octopus. It was really delicious, albeit a bit spicy for my taste and a bit chewy for Ronnie. The girls mostly ate the noodles and vegetables that came with it.

You'll also notice there are a lot of small dishes around the main dinner. These were kimchis of all sorts and the leaf in the lower right hand corner of the picture is sesame leaves - taste a lot like mint.



Our second attempt at dining at an unfamiliar Korean restaurant was more successful. The family center has a night where they take you to local places and explain to you what you're eating. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures until we were well into the third course. We had food of all types, from kimchi to grilled fish to jellyfish to their version of chicken noodle soup. It was really nice to have someone at the table who understood the food and could explain to you what it was you were trying.
And I mentioned jellyfish above. Yes, I tried the jellyfish - it was pretty good. They had tossed it with a black bean sauce of sorts and it tasted like a chewy noodle.


All in all, I don't think we have tried anything that we flat out didn't like. Mostly it's been that it was an unexpected taste, like soy beans rather than raisins or a sweet honey filling in a waffle.

Random Ramblings.....

Just some random thoughts I've had over the last few days.....

Funny that we've been here 2 weeks now and I am starting to really know the lay of the land. I know where stores are, what their hours might be, and how to get there by foot or car. Kinda cool.

We moved into our apartment last week. It's really nice. I've posted some pictures on our family album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cmoliver1019/OurApartment?feat=directlink

Holly started school last week too, but more importantly started riding the bus. She was so excited - me not so much. The other parents at the bus stop asked me if it was her first day of school because of me taking pictures and all.

From October 2009

Holly's school curriculum is similar to the states, but there is one big difference. She has Spanish class everyday and a humanities class like Art, Music, Library, or Korean Education. Yesterday she came home and taught us how to bow. I'll need to get a video of it, because it is just too cute when she teaches us stuff.

If you missed it, I had my first international birthday on Monday. It was weird with it being my birthday when I woke up, but yet it was still "yesterday" in the States. Thus, the two-day birthday celebration was born. Lots of fun... we'll have to do that with everyone's birthdays.

Annyong kaseyo!

Annyong haseyo!

Our first week in Korea has been nothing less than a blur. We had a great flight over - the girls did really well on both the flights, layover, and bus ride to Songtan. After getting started at 6 am on a Monday morning, we finally got settled into our hotel around 9:30 pm local Tuesday night. We are 13 hours ahead of EST, which put us on the road for 27+ hours.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning and walked around the marketplace. I think I'm going to like all that shopping in a small area of town: beautiful blankets, tailors, and handbag/purse shops galore! The girls are getting a lot of attention, as children are seen as a lucky charm of sorts. And Holly's blond hair is really stunning to them.

Little by little we are learning the Korean language. We are mastering one word at a time to proficiency, tackling the polite conversational words first. Kamsa hamnida is thank you; annyong haseyo is the informal Korean greeting and equivalent of hey, what's up, how's it going. The family center offers Korean language classes weekly that we'll start attending soon.

All in all we are getting settled in nicely - we've found an apartment, gotten cell phones, found the Starbucks on base, and Holly enrolled in school. Yes, Starbucks is a very important commodity with the jet lag we have.

Until the next edition.......

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, we have made it this far in our journey. In a little over 24 hours, we're getting on a plane to Seoul, Korea.

We've spent the last few weeks in Florida visiting friends and family. The girls have had a great time playing "Cousin Camp" at Grandma's house, meeting up with some of my friends from Catholic school, and visiting at Grammy and Papa's house. We were also blessed to have my new niece, Laurelei Dawn, grace us with her presence while here.

Next time we write, I'm sure I'll have some anecdotes from our travels.

Najun-ge poepkessumnida! (I'll see you later)

The Adventure thus far

The AF cycle begins again... we have orders and are headed to South Korea! We will be moving in October. A good friend told me that she was going to miss her dose of Chris when I leave: stories, Chris-isms, and all. Another good friend suggested I start a blog, especially since I'll have stories to share as we are getting set to go and while we're in Korea and traveling. In case you've missed any episodes, here are the Oliver Adventures to date (CliffsNotes style):


Book 1: Adventures in Oklahoma - we were newlyweds. Ronnie was in pilot training at Vance AFB. We got Cleo, the cat, our first "child." Quick adventure though....


Book 2: Adventures in Arizona - Again, in training, but this time he was with the 2nd love of his life, the A-10! Love, love, LOVE Tucson! We were only there for a short while, but it was enough to fall in love and want to go back.


Book 3: Adventures in North Carolina - oh this is where the plot thickens! We were given two deployments while at Pope, a first for me as a spouse and the first deployment coming within a month of us moving to North Carolina. I'll tell you this, deployments really make you really appreciate what you have when you have it.... I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up and followed my calling in Human Resources. And most importantly, we were blessed with Holly Grace in 2004.


Leading to our latest chapter: Adventures in Texas - hot damn it's hot here! Lord have mercy! Our story opens as the great state of Texas gave us a wonderful housewarming gift - Sarah Elizabeth was born in 2006. Ronnie was stationed at Sheppard AFB as an instructor, I continued in Human Resources, this time working for the world's GREATEST non-alcoholic beverage company, Coca-Cola. (insert dramatic music here) In March, while Ronnie was transitioning to be an instructor in another airplane, he receives "THE" call. The one where they told him that he no longer needed to extend a year at Sheppard, as we had committed to in December 2008 - they had a spot for him flying his beloved A-10 at Osan AB, S. Korea. Osan AB is about 45 miles SE of Seoul (in case you were wondering and hadn't Googled it just yet).


Not sure how many more posts I'll make before we're leaving, as it probably will mostly be about how much I hate moving and how much crap we have that we really don't need.

Take care my friends and we'll be talking to you soon!