Tiny Nomads

Miss C's Camera

Before we came to Korea, one of our friends recommended getting C a kid camera so we could see our trip from her point of view and my goodness- it is awesome! Most of the pictures are of her feet, or super unflattering shots of her daddy and me, but some are so great and hilarious. I thought I'd share a few with you:

Breakfast in Omaha

Unflattering picture of Mom.

Omaha zoo.

The goats at the Omaha zoo.

Unflattering picture of Mom.

Packing up our Omaha house...

Self-Portrait. Age 2.

Monkey at the Omaha zoo.

Temporary Lodging (TLF) at Osan AB.

Feet.

Feet on a tour bus. Korea.

Tour bus, Korea.
 o

Cheerios. (She also likes taking pictures of her breakfast.)

Laundry Mom hasn't done.

Dolly.

 

The bike rack in our complex.

Yes, it has taken me all year to download these pictures. I had to empty her camera so she could take it on our trip tomorrow to... China! That's right! The tiny nomads are going to the Great Wall! Woot!

Christmas Wrap-Up

Remember that time when I was all "I have so much to tell you about Christmas! I'll update you soon!" and then I didn't come back for two months? yeah.... sorry about that. I think I'll let my kid demonstrate the look I know y'all gave me when I said that:

 


But I really do have so much to tell you so here we go! First, we had to have a Christmas tree. Which we bought from the boy scout troop on base. And it was awesome. Until we remembered that we did not have lights, ornaments, or a tree base. Whatever! We are crafty! So I decided we would make salt ornaments and put a call out to all my friends. Here's what went down:

Me: Anyone got any Christmas cookie cutters we can borrow?

Awesome friend: I do!

Me: Great!!

Awesome friend: Well, they are not so much Christmas as they are dinosaurs.

Me: That'll work!

And so it begins... our dino-tree. The 2 year old thought it was awesome and we had a few friends over to help paint. Totally fun. Unfortunately, all of the pics I have of dino tree are super blurry and despite having the tree well into January (remember the weird trash laws here? Well... it took us awhile to figure out how to get rid of it.)

And of course we got spoiled by Santa! Apparently, he knew we moved to Korea. And also the grandparents and parents send a honkin' load of gifts.

And we threw a party! yes! Our first party and I think it went well. There was a ton of food and we played rock band and crumpled paper.

So that's about it for the Korean Christmas. Now off to the Super Bowl party tomorrow. At 6am. Sometimes I love it here.

 

Happy Holidays from the Tiny Nomads!

Our first holiday abroad (that sounds so fancy!) And we totally survived and had a great time! Although we miss our friends and family back home, I have to say that we really enjoyed this year's Christmas. We stayed in our pj's until noon, had lovely visits with friends where we ate nothing but mashed sweet potatoes, and played with all of our new toys! I'll have more updates on our holiday fun later in the week but for right now: Merry Christmas all!

In lieu of sending cards out this year, we are donating to Homeward Bound, which is Osan's Animal Shelter and where Miss C and I volunteer for a few shifts a month. (It's also where we are "renting" Ralph Bunny from.) They are an awesome organization that finds homes for abandoned and reliquished animals in the area. We love them and our donation will go to making those animals happy. Yay!

So instead we are doing the super-classy thing and sending out our annual holiday update via e-mail. (Is there a classy way to do this?? Not sure....) And we did a super fun photo shoot with our friend Jaz of Photos by Jaz. (Well... it was fun for us... probably not so much for Jaz.) We are 3 seriously unphotogenic people. I'm so surprised that she got any kind of shot at all.

 So Merry Christmas all! And your gift: you get to see all of our outtakes from our photo shoot. Wheee! Presents!!

Oh god we are the worst! We thought we were being so funny! Poor Jaz. 

Happy Holidays from the Tiny Nomads!

 

Fieldtrip Friday: Everland

Yes! Fieldtrips have not stopped. We are still having super fun times with toddlers. This trip we went to Everland park which is: Amazing! It's like knock-off Disneyland! And they have a ton of fun stuff for the toddlers to do. Here we go!

That's Miss C and her BFF G. They are seriously BFFs. It's quite adorable. They take toddler tumbling class together and everything. Also, it's Winter Wonderland right now at Everland and everything is gorgeous and decorated. And remember when I said it's like generic Disney? Those are the Everland characters there. I think they are some kind of fox but whatever... they are everywhere. Just like Mickey.

But the best part about Everland is that it has a zoo. Those are baby chicks. How cute is that?

And of course, those gals NEEDED binoculars to explore the zoo with. Of course.

And they have a puppy pit! Yes! Just a place to look at all those puppies. Adorable.

Look at G and her mommy riding a camel! (C was taking her nap during this, hence no camel rides for us.)

And a parade! (C is still asleep)

And toddler rides! (Still sleeping...)

And she's awake! Just in time to throw these weird balls at me. There's a whole room like this where the kids (and adults) can throw these soft balls at eachother. They even have these launchers on the second floor where you can shoot the people down below.  Although we never made it upstairs because all C wanted to do was collect those weird balls.

 

That's G's dad and the first dad we've had join us on fieldtrip Friday. Poor him. He drove us there and C got sick in his car. Yeah. I don't think he'll be joining us again.

So there you have it. Everland. Zoo. Weird balls. Car sickness.

Welcome Back and Ron Swanson

My husband told me the other day that the longer we stay in Korea, the more Ron Swanson-like I become. For those of you who do not watch Parks and Recreation (why aren't you watching Parks and Rec!!) Ron is a libertarian carnivore who thinks income tax is illegal. So... basically awesome.

So why have I morphed into Ron? A lot of it has to do with this:

 
This is our living room speaker where the apartment complex can make announcements. In our living room. Whenever they want. In our living room. At any time. In our living room.

See!? It’s totally un-American! (Not to mention that all of the announcements are in Korean.)

We also went on a few tours Thanksgiving weekend in Seoul. They were great, but at the beginning the tour guide made us line up against the wall. Like criminals (or kindergartners.) I, often forgetting that there are a lot of English speakers here (english language tour, duh), flatly refused telling him it was un-American and bad things happen to people who line up against walls. No way. Not. Lining. Up. Against. A. Wall. I’m a grown-up! (who is having a tantrum.) But, after my little Norma Rae moment, I got a few whoops from the crowd (Ok, only one. Still counts.)

Point is: the longer I’m here, the more my natural American inclination for rebellion surfaces. (Like it should.) If an authority type tells me to do something my first reaction is “why?” And also “No.” I love America. So Much.

My husband also says that Ron and my dad are like the same person.

 

Ron Swanson

 

My dad. (aka. Grandpa Mustache)

 

Yeah... I don’t see it. (Also, I have issues.)

So there it is. Sorry I was away for awhile. I have a lot to update y’all on. I’ll leave you today with a Ron Swanson quote: “The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can. You are free to do so. To me, that is beautiful.” It is beautiful Ron.

So, Korea is starting to feel like home, also audio books

Weird right?

I mean we've kind of carved out our little space here. We are making friends, joining groups (I am an unabashed "joiner"), and my shower doesn't feel weird anymore!

But the biggest clue to how comfortable we've gotten here is this:

 
Oh man is that a messy house! I hate cleaning. And unfortunately for my husband, I kind of did a bait and switch on him when we got here. I was just super bored for awhile (or really, I was finding reasons to stay in the house with the air conditioning) and would spend time cleaning. Also, I love www.audible.com and would like to tell you that I listen to classic literature and thought-provoking political biographies but the truth is I am all about paranormal romance novels and the trashier the better. (That is called embarrassing truth.) Give me a Sookie Stackhouse or some other vampire/werewolf/witch/doomed romance audio book and I will spend all day doing dishes and folding laundry. (I can't believe I just put that on the internet.)

So here is where my problem lies. I am out of new audio books. So our house is a wreck. It's not my fault y'all! It's Sookie's. Her new book doesn't come out until May (yes, I know the date of Ms. Harris' new release.) Help me internet! Any super trashy recommendations? Don't be embarrassed! Let's let our freak flags fly.... together.

Fieldtrip Friday: The Mulhyanggi Arboretum

Some days I wish they gave out mommy awards.

Because I would seriously get one.

Ha! Just kidding (I have no idea what I'm doing.) but four mommies were super brave on Friday and took these four toddlers to an Arboretum in Korea. Chaos ensued.

Alright, I'm making it much more dramatic than it was danggit! Truth is, the kids had a great time and it was a beautiful day here in Osan and perfect outside weather. We got to gossip and brag and complain so we had fun too. Here are some pics:

 
 
 
 
 
*How badly do you want to steal this baby? Just me? OK.... moving on..... 

 The Mulhyanggi Arboretum is right across the street from the Osan College train station (about 3 stops away from here.) It was a really chill trip, although next time I will be bringing the monga-stroller as the paths were gravelly. The best part was that the admission was 1,000 won and the entire train trip was 1,800 won. We brought our lunches so the whole thing cost less than 3 bucks (but I did buy a coffee.... which cost more than the entire trip!) Also, the Fieldtrip Friday club has been officially formed with the Executive Committee as follows:

Burcu, Director of Weather: Please direct all weather related complaints to her.

Laura, Director of Photography: She took a lot of the pictures above so.... hopefully she gets better at it.

Ruth, Director of Transportation: This gal will get us where we need to go, and knows how many moms/kids/strollers you can fit into a Korean elevator. Very helpful.

Me, Megan, Director of Promotion and Marketing: I really just wanted to be "eye candy" but they weren't going for it so my job is basically to post whatever our plans are. That's a lot of responsibility (and all Burcu has to control is the weather.....pfffttt!)

So yay!!! for our inagural, drama-free outing. Although, Ruth did get eaten by a dinosaur.

 Jokes! But really, a shoe did fall into the water. So if you'd like to join us next week for the fieldtrip to Korean Folk Village- be prepared!!! Someone's shoe will fall into the water.... somewhere.... sometime! Mwuhhahahahaha!!

 

Weekly Weird Korean Thing: TV and Driving, who knew?

My friend T-Gro requested that I write about more "weird Korean things" so here is my weekly submission wherein I make a sweeping generalization about an entire country of people based on my limited experiences and observations. Wheeeee!

Yep. That's our taxi driver. And yep. He's watching TV. While driving. Not much more to say.

Ok, I'll say a little more. He's watching a soccer game and only actually looked at the screen during stop lights but the first week we were here we had another cabbie (both were off-base cabbie drivers) who had his TV perched on his steering wheel and he was totally watching soaps during the drive!! Only then I wasn't brave enough to snap a picture. And now I am. I'm growing people. Growing. 
 
 
 

Suwon Fortress

Last Saturday we took the trip to Suwon (a little north of here) to see the fortress in Suwon officially titled:

Warning! This post is basically going to be filled with silly pictures of the Tiny Nomads and our friend Aaron because apparently climbing a bunch of steps makes us all lose our minds!  

And lord- were there a bunch of steps! Good thing I've been working out or else I don't think I would have made it. (Shhhh.... don't tell Kristen.) In fact, I beat the guys on the first leg:

Boom! (Yeah, husband was carrying Miss C but whatever, they suck.)  The fortress itself is a huge wall that weaves in and out of the city. It's pretty cool and walking around it gives you some insane views!

But first you gotta make it up all of these steps:

 

But reaching the top is worth it especially since you get to pay a dollar to dong this bell 3 times for good luck. It. Was. Epic.

 After you climb down from the wall, you can explore the palace below. I don't know if palace is the right word, but a king lived there and I was tired by the time we got down so let's just say I didn't read every placquard (Sidenote: I'm sure hubby and Aaron are going to correct me on all of this "information" I'm passing on. On this trip I found out that we enjoy stuff like this a little differently: while I was pretending to be in a rap video, hubby and Aaron were discussing the pitfalls of supply lines during an extended seige in ancient warfare..... Yeah..... They are a little out of my league.) Whatever! It's a palace and it was pretty!

 
 And Aaron got to play this game that is kind of like horseshoes but even more hardcore because you throw arrows. Yes!

We had a really great day and it was a cool way to see the entire city (also, it cost about $0.70 for the ticket- win!)

 
 Uber-cool right? Well, that's about it for today. Ta-ta for now!

 

 

I hate this chick

 
Ok, I don't really hate her. In fact, when Kristen's not kicking my butt up and down the gym- I really like her! But I have yelled and grunted some really evil things at her that I'm not proud of. (Alright, some I am proud of... don't look at me like that! Some of those insults were pretty clever!)

The worst (is worst a word? looks weird.) thing about Kristen is that she keeps trying to talk me into swearing of the sauce. Now you know I love my cocktails. And to be honest, I don't think anyone should be subjected to a sober me. (Not even me.) So... I'm going to have to fight her on this one. (How many calories does getting beat up by your trainer burn?)

Why am I subjecting myself to this abuse? (And paying for it?) Well, truth time: I'm totally fat. I mean not like Gilbert Grape fat, but bigger than I was before baby. Also I keep referring to my extra fluff as "baby fat" and I think after 2 years it just turns back to "fat". Also- the group of friends that I've kind of fallen into here are all fitness trainers, instructors, or enthusiasts. Yeah, I'm screwed. Everywhere I go people are talking about healthy this and healthy that. Frankly, health is overrated. (Plus, preservatives help you live longer. It's science.)

So here I am, hanging out with all these skinny, fit chicks learning about pyrometrics (not a thing) and triatholon times. And that Kristen...she's the worst. In my next life, I will only be friends with bartenders and bakers.