happy chuseok and start of school

happy chuseok! and school has started and i must say the beginning of the school year has been glorious. i'm already in total love with my kiddos. they keep me smiling and laughing. i'm sure there will be many funny stories to come!

we miss you all and hope to chat soon!

fall is in the air

i love fall. it's my favorite season and it has officially arrived in korea. we have finally found some relief from these sweltering summer days. i'm not sure why fall makes me so happy...maybe because i find it a homey and romantic season. pumpkin patches, apple pie, hoodies, cuddling up in a blanket at home, rosy cheeks from the brisk air, football games, thanksgiving, pot roast, ahhh...the list goes on and on.

the shift in seasons also reminds me of how things are always changing and evolving around us. it's a comfort to see the trees follow their natural cycles of being green, turning to orange, and becoming bare, only to start all over again. it's a time of refreshment to build us up, relieve us from the summer sun, but to encourage us as we enter the winter season. i'm very thankful for it.

the fall air is phenomenal. i drive with the windows down and soak in the glorious smells of leaves and mountain breezes. each breath revives me and lifts my spirit. i hope our fall season lasts a long time! : )

scratch

quick funny story: pete woke up with a scratch on his nose...had no idea how it got there and asked me if i remembered. i said, "no". then he replied, "i have a faint memory of going, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" in the middle of the night and then you saying, "oh. sorry."

we laughed for about 10 minutes after that.

tv

i was watching tv earlier this evening. a korean movie about a young adolescent girl was on. i watched for a little while and was soon sucked into the story line. this young girl was drifting away from her parents as she dealt with some typical teenage angst. her parents tried to reach out to her but seemed to keep bumping into walls. when picking her up, the mother notices her daughter's sullen face and says, "hey, why don't we go to a dukbokki shop for a snack?" in an effort to cheer her up (translation: hey, how about mcdonald's?) the girl shakes her mom off. when they are home the girl's mother encourages her husband to cheer her up. the dad goes into her room, knocks and asks if she'd like to go out for dinner. the daughter replies, "i have to study" and dad nods and leaves only to find mom in the hallway pushing him back into his daughter's room. then, he leans down and whispers something in her ear and she smiles and nods yes. the movie cuts to the next scene and father and daughter are standing looking at each other smiling. music is cued and they grab hands and begin ballroom dancing. they danced and danced, giggling as they looked at each other.

this whole scene really resonated within me because it made me think of my own dad and how i miss him. it made me think of how hard it must have been for him to try to relate to me as i was a growing girl becoming a young woman. not only did we have the gender barrier, but we had to cross this ocean of cultural difference. what if i had lived in korea my whole life? what if my parents never stepped foot on american soil? how would we be different? would i be loud and crazy, a soccer player with a thirst for learning chinese and japanese? instead of being an introverted, analytical person with a love of song, studying spanish and korean?

growing up i wished my mom baked chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes for dessert. i wished my dad didn't own a delivery truck, but a cool, sporty car. i wished my parents only spoke english because having this strange, foreign language around me all the time made me feel more alien than i wanted. now looking back on these wishes i feel sorry for my parents. they had a moody adolescent to deal with with hormones they didn't understand plus this feeling of distance from our lack of understanding of where we were both coming from.

well, while my friends' moms were baking cookies and cupcakes, my mom was making some rockin' bibimbop and chopchae noodles. my dad drove a van to deliver his dry cleaning...that dry cleaning helped pay for my car, wedding, and my college education, and gave me the opportunity to be what I am now. the korean language my parents taught me has not only become lovely to hear but essential to know and i wish i knew more!

i guess all this is to say, as i get older i recognize more and more how hard it must be to be a parent....to have been my parent. i had a lot of druthers growing up, but i can't be more proud and pleased with my heritage and my parents' sacrifices they made for me. our childhoods were vastly different, my parents grew up in a time of poverty and war. i grew up during the time of m.c. hammer, aqua net, and tight-rolled jeans. huge diff. but it's neat to see how God takes our very different stories and experiences and weaves them into one piece. He brought us all together to bring different colors, patterns, textures and design.

besides, i'd take chopchae over chocolate chip cookies any day now.

more hawaii and the food we ate : )

we went to a luau. it was pretty fun. the food made me sick later, but it was worth going!
steamed local fish at duke's. yum!

our anniversary dinner. love him.
opakapaka with risotto
our bike down the mountain!

chocolate mousse cake. more like a lava cake. decadent and so good.

hawaii photos

view outside our cabin at bellows air station. gorgeous, eh?
after our snorkel at shark's cove.
the view from the golf course!
cute kid at the mexican restaurant.
matsumoto's shave ice. seriously amazing stuff. i'm not often a fan of desserts that resemble the colors of clown costumes, but this was a revelation.
buddy, the sailing dog who's afraid of water, annoying the fellow sailors...mates(?) with his chasing of water splashes.
waiting for our amazing mexican grub at a small taco stand. it was delicious!
the beach where "from here to eternity" scene was filmed and "pirates" too. we swam here. this is where i took my spill and got 5 lbs of sand in my suit.
and we golfed! (forgot to mention that in my last post...sorry, pete!) it was beautiful. the views were among some of the best we saw during our trip.
right after snorkeling at hanuma bay. excuse the wet cover-up.... : )

hawaii continued

my apologies for the delay, but i thought i needed to record the events of our hawaiian vacation before i forgot. we ended up staying at the hale koa hotel (in waikiki) for 10 nights and loved every night of it. we were right by the beach and were within walking distance of a lot of cool restaurants and shopping. we spent a few nights just being lazy beach bums. we woke up, walked to the beach, swam, took naps in the sand, ate lunch at the local beach hut snack shop, walked back to the hotel, swam at a pool, showered and went to dinner. it was great.

other days we weren't so lazy we...

went hiking, biking, snorkeling, and sailing. on the hike we were able to see rainforest that is off-limits unless you have a permit. our guide, christian, was great and let us explore, pick fruits, and answered lots of our questions. our feet were covered in mud by the end of the hike!

we followed our hike by a bike down the mountain, which was awesome! we circled down the mountain for a few miles and enjoyed spectacular views of the island. lastly we took a sail out near waikiki to do a snorkel as well. the captain's dog was on board the boat and he, ironically, was afraid of the water. he would bark and bite at any splashes that landed on board to show his disapproval. it was pretty cute. once we got out pretty far, the captain let us jump out for a snorkel and swim. we saw many types of fish and several sea turtles....huge ones that swam right underneath us!

on other days we drove around the island to find good places to snorkel. we ended up purchasing our own snorkels and fins so we wouldn't have to rent them everywhere we went. we snorkeled at waikiki, shark's cove, the famous hanauma bay, and on the north shore. we saw so many kinds of fish...it's really remarkable to see so many colors and varieties of one animal. we maybe want to get scuba certified so we can have even better views for our next vacation! the snorkel at shark's cove was perhaps our favorite. the rock is lava-like and very sharp, so it's a bit dangerous, especially since the tides change and can be quite strong. peter, the daredevil he is like to go swimming inside the little caves to compete with the speed of the tides.

we also drove around and stopped at interesting places. one of our favorite towns we visited was hale'iwa, which was this quaint town with little art boutiques, great restaurants, and a nice quiet little beach. we stopped a couple times for a shave ice....the BEST shave ice i've ever tasted! it has three layers of vanilla ice cream, azuki beans, then shave ice on top with the different syrup flavors on top. it doesn't sound too tasty, but it was so delicious! we went back twice to have it again (and it was quite the drive to get there!). we also enjoyed coffee shops, a great burger joint, and they had several food trucks that served very yummy foods. one truck we visited was called "opal's thai food" which was owned by a guy named opal. he was extremely personable and would ask you what kind of food you like and if you have any allergies. then he would proceed to say.."ok. i got it. i'll take care of you." and he would start cooking and bring out some homey, tasty, love filled dishes. he made us a fresh green papaya peanut salad with chicken curry and sticky rice. yum! we felt like we were invited into someone's home it was so hospitable. if we ever go back, we definitely want to see opal. opal also has a little boy, probably around 6 years old, who was at the truck. i overheard him ask one of the patrons if he had ever had an out of body experience before..."where your body is sleeping but the inside of you wakes up and goes outside?" pretty deep stuff for a six-year old to ask you about.. : ) shortly after he hopped over to my table and leaned toward me a little bored and asked, "do you have any kids?" Sympathetically, I responded, "sorry, bud. nope. i don't have kids. do you have any kids?" i teased. he responded with a great amount of seriousness and confusion, "no. i'm too young." then he hopped and skipped away.

another place we stopped was on the northern part of the island. it's a famous spot where pirates of the carribbean is being shot as well as a famous scene from the movie "from here to eternity". we climbed down on these giant rocks to get to this beach and took a swim. the current was crazy strong. the water was foamy and turbulent, crashing against the rocks. the current was so strong that when i was standing on the beach, only knee deep in the water, a strong tide came in and totally wiped me off my feet, drew me in to the water and spit me back out, putting about 5 lbs of sand in my bikini! : ) ha. anyway, it was a very romantic spot and just gorgeous.

after our 10 nights at hale koa, we spent our last few nights at bellows air station in a cabin right on the beach. it was gorgeous. we could hear the crashing of the waves when we slept...heavenly. we swam in the water or just enjoyed the view. we had a great evening where we bbq'ed some steaks and cooked our dinner on the grill. it was fun and nice to cook since we had been eating out for almost 2 weeks at that point! we also were able to see some good friends we hadn't seen in years....mara and quinn tate. they are stationed on base in hawaii and we got to see their super cute babies, eat dinner, and just catch up on life in general. it was a perfect way to end our trip since we hadn't had a chance to see any of our beloved family/friends the whole trip.

so...leaving hawaii was the hardest part. not only because we didn't want to leave, but because we couldn't seem to get out! we tried to get on a flight going straight from hawaii to osan, korea, but were warned the plane had some maintenance issues. the flight was delayed and we spent the night at the air terminal. the next day we were told the plane was good to go. we got on a bus that took us to the plane and were told we couldn't board the plane because the maintenance issue wasn't yet resolved. so we waited until the next day. again, we checked in, loaded our luggage and even boarded the plane. once we were on the plane, the crew told us shortly after that we needed to deplane because the maintenance issue was still a problem. we got off the plane and checked into the hotel on base. the third time we learned the plane was ready so we checked in and boarded the plane. the plane even took off and we felt home free. except 45 minutes into the flight the pilot said, "sorry folks. wish i was joking, but we need to turn around. the maintenance issue is still a problem. we are returning to hawaii." so we returned to hawaii and tried to wait patiently until the the plane was fixed. we had about 2 days until they thought the plane would leave....so we got a rental (that was a whole trial in and of itself! they were sold out of cars and with a little pleading and begging, we were able to get a car for a day!). getting a rental was a lifesaver because we were so tired of being stuck in a terminal for hours upon hours and enjoy hawaii. we drove all around the island...ate an amazing meal in chinatown, drove to the ocean, and just enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. then we got on the plane for the last time and it finally took off and we landed in korea! we made some very good friends along the way since we all had grown to know each other quite well through the entire process of trying to get to korea. we're even planning to visit a family that we met next weekend.

so....i know this may be a bit crazy, but here are some of the details of the trip. i hope it didn't cause too much of a headache for you to read it! wish i had the time or energy to make it a bit more poetic, but i had to get something going before it all was forgotten! love you all!