Monday June 22, Hyundai Motors and Jeju Island

Good Morning Everyone.

Just thought I would post again quickly before we head off to a new location and internet access may not be available. It is pouring rain as it is rainy season and now I know why they call it that. I mean raining. Same as the last time we are to visit a beach today but not likely to happen.

We are off to Hyundai Motors for a tour. I think this is going to be interesting. Then fly off to Jeju Island. Leevi is still sleeping and it will be his first morning since we have been here that he can stay sleeping. He has to be up by 8:30. He can eat breakfast on the bus. He is a DS monster. He has met a new friend Luka and the two of them are head to head playing games. Usually there is only on DS functioning at a time due to charging issues. The kids have been incredible at sharing. Truly wonderful well behaved children.

The trip has been so great for the children as they play and hang out all the time. Leevi is rarely sitting with me or walking with me on tours he wants to be with his friends. He is blossoming here, appearing very confident and happy. No interest in living here though as a school day is far too long and homework a must.

Better run breakfast is being served at 7:30 and it is 7:25

I will attach a few random pics.

Love Ya

Janet and a sleeping Leevi



I am adding to this post today August 20th as I have finally had the time to spend on this blog. I wanted to add somethings about Hyundai Motors. It was a very very rainy day but we were able to carry on with our visit anyway. After curb side drop off in the pouring rain we were escorted into a room to watch a brief into to the company. It employs 33,000.00 people. On grounds they have 22 restaurants and a hospital. Unbelievable place. They have street names, stop lights and a huge port for shipping cars. After the into we wandered through the show room checking out their newest models. Leevi was very keen to sit in them along with his buds. We then loaded the bus to drive over to the assembly line. It was truly fascinating to see the cars come together. I must say I enjoyed this just as much as Leevi did. The precision of the machines, people and computers was shocking. We were not allowed to take pictures but they did give us a small version of a SUV to take home.

Next we drove over to the port to see the cars being loaded onto the ships for overseas. Again the rain was a factor and the view and pictures do not do it justice.

Trying to post pics

Here they are ?????

Friday June 19/20th Hello Canada. Happy Father's Day

Hello Canada

We are alive and doing very well. We have been seeing so many amazing sights. We said goodbye to our homestay today and headed off to the Korean Folk village. It was truly a cultural experience. We saw a traditional wedding ceremony, traditional dancers and an acrobat. The dancers were truly graceful yet extremely athletic. We were then off on a 4 hour bus ride to Naksan.

Naksan is on the north eastern shore of Korea along the North Sea. The kids were so excited when we pulled up to the shore of the East Sea and let the kids run on the beach. After being in Seoul and having a tight reign on them due to the business. The population of Korea is approximately 48 million and Seoul has 12 million of that. The wide open space just invited a carefree, burst of running and of course putting their toes in the water. Toes is all we really wanted as we just putting in time until we ate a very very traditional seafood dinner. Dinner was scooped out of an aquarium placed on a cutting board a few cuts and presented to an eager bunch of foreigners. But as perdicted Leevi kept stretching the limit and ended up soaking wet. Initally I was upset as we did not have a change of clothes. But hey, how often will you be 8 years old and on a beach in Korea. It was so fun to watch then stretch their wings.

We found the bus driver thank goodness and did a quick change and were ready for our fare. It's a tough one when you can't recognize many items on the table and the smell of fish is overwhelming. Low appetite for the first time. I tried caviar, can live without , tried a form of sashimi (raw fish) and many many other interesting fishy items. Leevi is truly amazing me. He is willing to try ALMOST anything. He is taking a few more risks than I am. I cannot imagine the cost of the dinner. The spread was shocking! We are being spoiled.

Back on the bus and heading to Sokcho for the night. After a little side trip in the very dark we found our condo's. It was quite cool on the coast so we decided to turn on the heated floor as we were cold. We chared the condo with another couple and he turned on the heat. About 2:00 in the morning I felt like I was being cooked. The heat had been turned up to 30 degrees. Things finally cooled down when we turned off the heat. Needing a shower after the "warm" night I hopped in hoping to wake myself up after my first night on the floor after 4 nights on a soft bed. The bathroom is all bath and have a shower that is not confined to the tub. The entire bathroom is the shower. I held onto the hose praying the water would warm up, no such luck. I tried so hard to keep the gasping under control as I hardly knew my new roommates. It was cold. Leevi was funny to watch as I tried to shower him. He kept backing up and was practically climbing out of the tub. He did gasp without reserve.

The condo was tucked at the bottom of the Seorak Mountain range. With the rain lightly falling down we took a short walk to Young Lang Ho (Lake). The fish were jumping really high as a large white bird skimmed the water hopping to have breakfast with the misty climbing up the mountains. Beautiful! Then back on the bus and off to climb a mountain.

It was raining too hard so we took a cable car up the Seorak Mountain. Again stunning views.
We climbed for about 10 minutes past the drop off zone. Words are inadequate. Lots of concession carts on our way back to the bus. Take your pick tiny corkscrew shells with snails in the boiling in salt water or silk worm boiling and filling the air with a wicked stench filling the air. We all passed. Not sure if that smell will ever leave the memory bank.

Back on the bus for a 5 hour journey to Kyungju City with one stop on the way. Oh yea had to hit one on the trip. A terribly grungy bathroom with yes "squatter potters" This bathroom was worse than all I visited in China. We had a chnace to stop at EMart their version of KMart. The first shopping time we have had. It was fun but a per usual only 1 hour to eat and shop. Still managed to scoop up another suitcase in anticipation of more shopping. We reached our Kyungju around suppertime and stopped to eat. Jessica and Anne showed up with a huge fruit basket for the gang. It was like we had never missed a beat. They came to the condo and stayed for the night. We received permission to visit Leevi's birth city. Jessica and Anne did some negotiating for me. We left at 7:30 along with Lisa and Liam as it was Liam's 8th birthday and he was going to spend it in the city he was born in.

Jessica and ANne took us to many stores to look for a DSI for Leevi and Liam but in this apparently high tech country no DSI's to be found. Leevi was very disappointed but managed to bring himself out of it reasonably quick by a refreshing Vitamin C drink given to us while shopping in a jewelry store. I may make a unique purchase for myself but have to think about it and Jessica and Anne will bring it with them to Canada when they come in July.

The highlight of the day MacDonald's to check their burgers. I had a bulgogi burger and Leevi had a Big Mac. Yes the Big Mac and Fries taste the same.

We were escorted back to Kyungju to the most important Buddist Temple Bulguksa in South Korea. This is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The solid gold budda is one of the most sacred in Buddism. It is comparable to the buddist as the Vatican is to the Catholics. and the It was then off to the grotto Seokgruam. We saw the stone budda that was unearthed 100 years ago. It is guessed to be 1500 years old. Absolutely revered by the buddists. Really quite amazing it is huge and made of white granite. Considered by some to the most perfect example of buudist art or imagine. No pictures allowed. Sorry.

Back to the condo for mandu dumplings. After dinner some blogging and here we are.

It is 11:55 pm and I need to go to bed . I will try to post some pictures.

Love Janet and Leevi

Dancing/Paper Craft and yes eating out

Good eveing from Seoul for the last night for a week. We are heading South tomorrow. I just have to say I am not being ungrateful when I say we are busy. The Korean people are incredibly hard working and diligent Every event or move from one activity to another is orchestrated with impecable perfection. I admire that. But heads up is there is a glitch in the system. They truly like things done right on time and obediently. For those of you who know me this may sound like a big stretch for me but hey " I believe in miracles. I am being so submissive.....No really I am!

But this is about a young boy who is amazing. He has weathered so many late night and some not so exciting tours for a child and been respectful and controlled. I sure do love this boy.

So today as usual up at 6:00 at breakfast for 7 and out the door for the 1 hour drive by 8. Breakfast if consumed in a timely fashion may leave you 10 minutes of free time to brush your teeth and pack for the day. I have been missing a few important items for 3 days in a row. Day 2 forgot my memory card, day 3 forgot to put the battery in my camera, day 4 forgot my money. Tomorrow all has to be packed and divided for two different destinations. So Hopefully I have my act together or I will be without it for 5 days. Our homestay family are still treating us like royalty. Fish for breakfast almost every day. The feast each morning is really quite the sight. Leevi is praising the cook with the thumbs up sign often during a meal.. He is truly enjoying the food. Our homestay father works for the Christian prining company that sponsored the trip and he is an elder in the church. He has a permanent grin on his face all the time. This man is running around with us until 10 or 11pm and then heading out the dorr at 5 am for an hour of prayer at his church. He works all day and runs us around all night. I should not complain about a busy schedule. I am younger and having fun all day. That should give you insight into his being. A real treasure. Ditto for his wife.

So this morning we headed for the subway to tale ourselves to the building where we were to learn about traditional Korean dance. Our instructor was fun and had everyone up on stage doing the dance. Yes my boy who truly does not like stage let alone dancing gave it his best and di very well. I am proud of you Leevi stepping outside your comfort zone. It was really quite funny , the parents ability to retain the steps with our arms legs and words at the same time was a pitty compared to the children and young adults. Fun was had by all. (I sure wish i could post pictures I have some great ones) After that we were ushered onto the rooftop patio for a pre-ordered lunch. Each day lunch or dinner is ordered before we arrive , we walk into a resaurant, sit and are eating within 5 minutes. I told you they had all things well greased and humming. My brain is shrinking as there is no thinking I just follow and do as instructed. A true vacation that way. No decision even with regards to what we are eating. The meal selection always delicious and plenty of it. We had pizza today and some salad packages. There were tiny hard boiled quail eggs and a mix of many unknow side dishes. Yes we tried the quail eggs and there did not taste that different for our chicken eggs.

Then off to the pm activity of Korean paper craft. We made these pre cut boxes. The instructors we very keen on getting things done right. As an incentive they offered a painted Korean mask as a gift for the best made box. Challenge on. There were some definite contenders working hard to win the prize. In the end the prize was not given for the neatest made box but the one who did the most work on his own. Leevi won the prize...you should have seen his face, the shock was so evident. I had tears in my eyes. In true Leevi spirit he wanted to give it to his new friend Luka ( because Luka's mom really wanted it)but felt other children may be sad so with some counselling decided to keep it.

We were givin an hour of free time to shop in a mall. Some really great deals on knock offs. Di not shop much as I am holding out for the market. Leevi held out as well. Then it was back on the subway to meet our homestay family for dinner at a Korean Chinese restaurant. So this was our first dinner with questionable meat. I heard Leevi discussing a mystery meat with Lisa and I heard her say Leevi done focus on it let it go. So I just stayed out of it as I did not want to interfer. About a minute later there was a perfect tiny purple octopus on my fork. Don't focus on it. Nope could not do it.

After dinner we headed to our homestay for cake as Mrs Lim our homestay mom's birthday is on Saturday. Liam , Leevi's travel bud has his birthday is on Sunday. We finished up and headed to the Seoul Soccer Stadium to meet Todd. Todd became a friend after he escorted Simon to Canada and placed him in our arms. Simon I know you cannot remember Todd but he looks the same and is still very kind . He travelled 1.5 hours by subway to meet us. I visited with him for an hour while Leevi and Liam burnt off some steam in the first wide open space we have been in since we left home. We have had to keep hiom close by and contained due to the very lvery large city and number of people. Korea is the size of Lake Ontario and has a population of 12 million people. Check that against Canada's population. He is planning to take nest Friday off to meet up with us for the free day. There is a surprise he is married but his wedding is September 12th. Will have to explain that one later another Korean thing.

Well that's today in a nut shell.

Must run it's 11:30 and I have to shower and repack our luggage.

Hope to post tomorrow from my laptop with pictures but hey it's me the non tech gal.

Good night Simon and Lolah, I miss you. You too D :) Talk to you tonight.

ㅓ묻ㅅ & ㅣㄷㄷ퍄
Janet & Leevi

June 17 That's what friends are for!

Hey there, It's Janet's trusty friend Karen here AGAIN!

Between computer woes and the sheer busy-ness of this trip, Janet is barely able to post a message home for Darryn, so I am posting her emails for her. Sorry that there are no photos, but at least you can get an idea of all the interesting things they are doing.

Hi again

9:30 and just got home. I am doing once again very well with no jet lag. Leevi is doing great also. He gets pretty tired right after supper but refuses to admit it and he keeps on going as long as we do. Once we get in the van he stuggles to stay awake.

Today traditional tea and bowing ceremonies. Imagine they are trying to teach us etiquette. Quite funny. Then it was off to a Chineese Korean rest. for lunch. Oh my goddness once again good food and ate way to much. Totally a sport. Then off to the a historic palace. Chang Deok Gung. Absolutely beautiful.

Then off to the Seoul Tower. The weather was hazy so not a great view but still incredible. Then out to dinner , then for a walk with homestay famly. It was then time to call it a day. Oh no...not yet we now are requested to go upstairs and spend time with the host family. So better run.

Take Care

Tech Woes have befallen me again

Good evening from Seoul

It is 11:00 pm and we have just returned home for the night. We left this morning at 7:40am. Yes those incrediblly prompt, orderly and near perfect people have us busy all the time. No free time as of yet. It has been very difficult to keep up on the blog. I took a Nytol 10 minutes ago so if I cut this off abruptly , it was just time. I have not slept straight through a night yet. So tonight that is my goal. I have Leevi on the floor and a double bed to myself. ( A sheer luxuary by Korean standards.

We had a traditional breakfast of fried fish with their heads still, pancakes with tuna and reen onions, pickled cucumbers, pickled cucumbers a little different form the others and pickled cucumbers a little differnt for the other two , this was served with rice and potatoe soup. After such a nutritious start to the day w e were given a gift by our host family. I told you they were amazing. We then headed off to the prining company where the opening ceremony was. This is now the meeting place each day. The owner of the printing company is a major sponsor of the Motherland tour. We then quickly hopped on a bus to a KOrean cooking class. We made two traditional courses which was our lunch. After lunch we headed to SWS (Social Welfare Society) to meet Leevi's foster parents.

Leevi was excited to meet them. The meeting was not a dissapointment. His foster mother has now retired as has her husband. The traveled for 2 hours on the subway. The arrived bearing a gift for him and he had some for them. As in Leevi style he was just buzzing to give the gift. He gave his foster mom an HBC fleece Olympic blanket and his foster dad an Olympic hat and t-shirt. They were thrilled with the hat for him as he is a real ball cap wearer. We toured the SWS building, visited all the babies . Some were able tohold them. We were in our visit for 1.5 hours. Leevi's gift was chips, cookies and books. About 5 minutes after opening his gift he wanted started to read his books we pretty much lost him. He was reading his Korean Folk Tales book so intently that it was difficult to engage him inconversation. It was so cute they really got to see his personality.

Foster mom asked questions about him and clearly rememberd him becoming ill just before he was to come to Canada. He woke up one moring very pale and his foster mom was very very concerned. Her husband was a taxi driver so he drove like a "crazy man" to get him to the hospital. She says this is etched in her mind as the most trying time of fostering Leevi. She remembered him as a very good boy. :)

We hopped back on the bus and headed backto the printing company. Once back there we were herded into a van ( Like a Nissan or something like that) that seated 11 people. The driving is not like China's but seatbelts were not mandatory. The van was so deceiving.

We were now off to a home of another homestay for a b-bq . This family hosted us and Lisa and Liam along with Willam and Alex (there homestay family). It was a great time. I have pictures of the food and will hopefully post them soon.

My tech issue is chargers. I plugged my converter in and was moving it around a bit as the connections are so wiggly. I am not the only one with this issue. As I wiggled it it sparked and made a huge pop noise and a plume of smoke waffed upward. I looked down at my hand and it was black as soot. Our Canadian guide is at the same homestay as we are and she was so shocked that she took a great picture of it. She was so happy it did not happen to her because she has the same issue but removed her charger before anything happened. Lisa had a simlar esperience on the first night she was not even near the charger and we heard it arch. Yikes.

We are trying to find chargers for 4 families as all are having issues with their converters. Stopped at a 24 hour super store with 4 Korean adults in pursuit of the convert to connect us to those in the world whom we so desperately miss communicating with. Not to mention Leevi's DS and my camera. MISSION FAILED!

So here I am again typing on an old relic ( but not complaining) Just thrilled to have access.
Sorry no pictures and believe me I have pictures.

Good night

ㅓ묻ㅅ & ㅣㄷㄷ퍄
Janet & Leevi

Simon and Lolah we miss you, actually Leevi being Leevi says " I don't miss them" He is having too much fun.

Day one and what a dayJune 15,2009

Hello From Seoul

We managed our first night wonderfully. We shared a room with the ever accomodating Lisa and Liam. We stayed in a dorm type room at a Christian conference/school Building. The room was traditional in all ways. One room, many thin matresses and pillows and blankets. We were all so tired I do not think it would matter where we slept.

Our friend Angela contacted us and made the one hour trip to meet us. So after quickly dropping off our suitcases we walked to a traditional restaurant for dinner. I will post a picture eventually. Once again my computer is acting up. I spent probably 6 hours organizing my pictures on it during our flight that perhaps I messed things up. Can't seem to find the recycle bin to clean things out. Back to the restaurant. It was so cool, shoes off and sit on a mat at a low table. This can pose a bit of a problem if you are wearing a short skirt trying to sit cross legged. Angela joined us for dinner. Unlike China, the food here is going down way too quickly, often and in massive amounts.

After arriving at the room we quickly dropped off our suitcases and head out for dinner. Everything is being looked after, we do not have to worry about a thing. The Korean's are truly very consciencious, kind, accomodating and honest. Yes sometime a bit more honest/direct than I can be. I can just pass it off as cultural as well (Dutch? :)

Leevi is being a trooper. He did not not sleep on the flight to Vancouver. He was so tired at take off from Vancouver that he fell asleep and missed it. He slept for 1.5 hours and up and at the DS, and tv. He did that for 8 hours and then fell asleep 1.5 hours before we landed and missed the landing in Korea. I took a picture of the landscape so he could see it. It took a bit to wake him up because he is way past the size of pick him up and carry him. SO we diembarked last with a very sleep drunk boy staggering off the plane. He is eating lots and being very adventuresome.

Lots to tell you about the DMZ and other events of the day but I am tyoing on a computer at my home stay and it is in another gals room so I will sign off and get to it again tomorrow. There has to be someone here in Korea who can help me with my computer woes.

To sum things up we are having a FABULOUS time and have so many things I want to blog about. Off tomorrow to meet his foster mom. He does not seem concerned about the meeting. Perhaps because there are others doing the same thing.

Better run and blog ya tomorrow.

Janet and a very tired Leevi.

P.S. Just have to say he has always been a boy who will not admit he is tired and it has been no exception here. We were sitting at the opening ceremony today and he had his head down on the table during speeches and I saw his body do a twitch. Moments later we were all summonned up for a group shot. Kids in the fornt so he scored a chair even though he was not tired. I stood behind him for the shot and his head was bobbing away during the photo op but would snap himself out of it and say I'm not tired. It was so funny I can't wait to see the picture.

See Ya
J