Days 1- 10, a summary

I was just working on setting my schedule for the house, and baking, and such, and put "blog" down for 2 days a week. Which reminded me that, "Hey!" I should blog. Now, I can't promise that there will be 2 blog posts up every week. There may be more, there may be less. You just never know!

But let me back up. To last week.

Day 1: we arrived in Korea! Yay! We made it safely, all our stuff made it safely, and we lived to tell the tale. We flew Korean Air and I HIGHLY recommend them. Everyone was amazing, from the check-in at O'Hare all the way through us going through customs and immigration in Seoul. Everyone was very helpful, very efficient, and very nice. I can't speak highly enough of them.
The maintenance man from our school, Mr. Song, picked us up at the airport, as our director and his wife were very busy. We got home without major mishaps, having survived what must be the world's hottest parking garage, and a few other minor things.
After we got to our apartment, we unloaded our stuff, got some toys out for the babies, and started figuring things out. Poor Max kept walking around the apartment saying "apple juice, peeze." Pause. "Apple juice, peeze." I finally walked across the hall to our new neighbors, who are also going to be at the school, and she walked me and Max down to the nearest supermarket and we bought some apple juice.

Day 2: Tad and Teal, our director and his wife, came and picked us to go change money, get some lunch and do a bit of shopping. We picked up a fan, as our apartment has no A/C, and was rather warm. It did come with a few fans, but another one was much appreciated.

Day 3: honestly? I don't remember what we did on Friday. I know it involved moving furniture, I think I may have visited the AFB down the road to pick up some baby stuff, but beyond that, I'm lost.

Day 4: Saturday, we drove into Seoul to visit Costco and pick up things that either can't be found locally, or can, but are insanely expensive.

I.E., cheese, apple juice, peanut butter.
That's approx. $6 for the "normal" size peanut butter.

Day 5: Sunday, we attended a relatively local English speaking church. There are several English speaking churches in our area, so we're going to visit various ones until we can find a good fit. The director is thinking that we'll be a better fit at a church called Mission Baptist, as they have many families with young children. We shall see!
Later that day, after the kids' naps, we walked up (yes, up) to the train station and rode the trail down to Pyongtaek to visit a mall that is attached to the train station, and take Tad up on his rain-check for Starbucks. (Long story.) We had a great time, and it was nice to learn how to use the train, and see some sights.

We are actually in a town called Songtan, which I suppose you could call a suburb of Pyongtaek. Just to clear up any confusion you might have had upon reading the above paragraph.

Days 6-8: consisted mainly of walks, parks, cleaning, re-arranging, laundry, more cleaning, more walks, etc.

Day 9: Teal took me to what is referred to as the "5 day market" in that it occurs every 5 days. It is pretty much a farmer's market... yep, that describes it well. She showed me what there was available, who she usually goes to, and what some things were. There were several "unusual" sights for me, but I don't think you really want to hear about them. Ahem. Suffice to say that what you may have heard about Korean food choices is true.

Day 10: Today, Friday. (I think. I can't keep track of the days, seriously.) Ryan is sick- probably the flu, Elisha is teething up a storm, and I do mean a storm. We feel badly for him, but are doing everything we can. Other than that, things were fairly calm and "normal" for us today. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, etc.

Some highlights thus far have been: finding parks to play at. One of them has a fountain that you can play in when they feel like turning it on. It's been on the last two days, and Max has thoroughly enjoyed. I am enjoying learning my way around town, esp. when it means finding ways to get where I need/want to go while avoiding hills. This place is full of them!

So, to boil it all down, here are some praises followed by, you guessed it! Prayer requests.

Praises:
- we're all here and in one piece, relatively speaking
- we have a dryer! (And a washer, but the dryer is a nice perk.)
- the kids are adjusting VERY well, and Ryan and I seem to be as well.
- our neighbors are nice, and their 10-year old daughter enjoys playing with Max
- our oven has a pilot light!

Pray:
- for Ryan to get better quickly! The teachers are supposed to visit the Health Department on Monday for some sort of check-up.
- for Elisha to get through this teething as quickly and painlessly as possible. It really takes a toll on all of us when he just screams for hours on end.
- that Max and I would remain as healthy as possible.

Thank you so much!