They Do What??

September 27, 2017September 28, 2017 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

The longer we live in Seoul, the more things that used to make us stop and scratch our heads, we now pass off as common place. Here are just a few.

Random Trash Lady

Picture this…you are walking to take your trash out and a tiny old hunched-over Korean lady walks directly up to you and saying nothing takes your trash out of your hands and walks away. To this day I have no idea what she is actually doing, but it is a common occurrence.

Coffee

Had a long night? Want to grab a cup of coffee before work? Wellll…coffee shops are way more likely to be open at 11pm than 7am.

Of the three Starbucks and countless other coffee shops between our apartment and work, only one opens early enough to grab coffee before school and that still only leaves 20 minutes to get your cup o’ life and haul your bootay to work, so you better hope there isn’t a line, and don’t even get me started about Tuesdays when we have to be at work before ANY coffee shops are open.

Actual footage of us at work without coffee

Public Transportation

This has way more to do with living in the city, than living in Korea but it is still new for us suburbanites. It has become the norm to plan our family outings around on our transit. This dictates necessary baby gear, clothing, departure times, cash/bus card/credit cards. We have a bus stop and subway stop near us, so the options are endless. Factors to consider: parking, traffic, and how long before we have to be somewhere. Gone are the days were going somewhere just meant getting in the car.

Also great is the fact that public transportation is basically silent, like you could hear a pin drop quiet. So you can imagine how our kids just blend right in…

Bowing

It has become second nature to bow in place of waving. This looks like a little head nod/upper body lean in casual situations (i.e. greeting our security guards at school), and a deeper bow for more formal situations.

No Public Trash Cans

This one may be normal now, but it’s still annoying. There are basically no public trash cans. This sounds like a small thing, but as you end up with pockets, purses, backpacks full of trash, it gets old fast. I’m still not sure why this is, but maybe it has something to do with the extensive recycling they do here.

So as you can imagine, although there are many things that seem normal now there are still plenty of things that are anything but, like this for example…

Please note that that man in the wheelchair and the scooter were going the same speed.

Screen Shot 2017-09-26 at 3.57.33 PM.png

They see me rollin’.

That’s all for now. Sending love from the future.

Our {Un} Reliably Miraculous Car

September 6, 2017 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

An emotional story of our recent car whoas with .gifs of my actual face for emphasis.

(creative liberties taken with the use of the word actual)

Remember that happy, happy day a while back where we felt free to frolic all over Seoul, wind blowing in our hair, just reveling in the new found freedom found in our new-to-us car?

Let’s just you say you are in a bad way when you are praying for your car to not start. This spring we were plagued with a barrage of car problems. We got to the point where all we wanted was for the car to be consistent. Start, don’t start, but for the LOVE, pick one. We would take it to the shop and they would say nothing was wrong. Suppppperrrr helpful.

It quickly became clear that the only guaranteed way to get our car to start was to call a tow truck. Twice, after trying and failing to start our car for upwards of 30 mins, meanwhile messing with all the buttons in the car which usually helps (does this tell you what kind of fine machinery we are working with?), I surrendered and called a tow truck, only for the tow trucks to show up and the car to miraculously start. The tow truck guys are all pleased and smiling like, yay, no car problem, while I was more like:

Anytime we would leave the house we would have to leave early to try and account for having take public transportation if the car didn’t start, and then just when it would seem our car was healed, we would leave with no time to spare and boom. Car. No. Workey. This is just as annoying as it sounds. Also, being late for work is awesome.

So…while we loved (/hated) our ever un-faithful car, we began the hunt for a new car. Actually, during summer break in America we had been given a lead on a van in Korea that some people were trying to sell before moving back stateside. Our friends that passed along the info, a family with 4 kids that don’t want a car because they ~~have vowed to never leave the house again~~ are super heroes, said they weren’t really interested but thought maybe we were.

At this point we still had our broken down car sitting in our parking garage in Seoul, fulling expecting it not to start after upon our return to Korea, so we decided to check on getting the van. In a moment of brainstorming, our superhero friends decided we should both buy the car and share it: GENIUS. So it was settled, we sell our car to the junkyard and get a community van. Naturally this meant that when we returned to Korea our car started just fine and ran like it had no problems…for about 2 weeks and then died again. Please message me for our address if you wish to send your chocolate and sympathies (or a new car).

In moving ahead on the van we made all the arrangements, pulled off getting a new insurance policy on it in about 8 hours (impressive for life overseas), wired the large amount of money for one year of insurance, and ran out of work like our hair was on fire to make it to the office to have the titled transferred before it closed.

ha. ha. ha

I will save you the details that don’t even make sense, but after literally jogging to the office to make it in time, we get there and as the people selling it started talking to the car people, it became clear it wasn’t going to work. Basically, it would cost more than than the car AND the insurance to even TRY to transfer it from U.S. citizens (military system) to us (Korean system).

Whelp. That’s not going to work. Back to square one. So actually, one of our best friends who ABANDONED us to move back to the states after last school year hadn’t been able to find a home for her car before leaving. So great right??? We needed a carrr, she had a carrrr…only one problem…

This isn’t exactly the perfect car for a large family. But now, in light of all our car whoas, it seemed like a great option. That day, we picked it up at school and drove it home. We pulled up next to our broken down car in the parking garage, and began to transfer carseats. There is nothing worse than hauling all the kids to the car and then trying to install 3 carseats. I was happy to find that it did have 3 seat belts, so the whole family would fit!

We hefted them out of the old car and I started on one carseat while Isaac grabbed another. We threaded the belt through them one at a time, buckled it, and then went to tightened it. That’s when something very curious happened. The seatbelt went totally loose…

Ya, pretty sure that buckle part is supposed to be firmly attached to the car. Alrighty then. We tried the second carseat with the exact same result. We stood in shock and dismay and decided, “ok, well, this is now the adults only car” (and any passengers that like to live on the wild side).

I figured at least we still had a car to get to and from school and to get to home quickly from tennis practice. That was until 3 days later it refused to start. Well, then. Now we have 2 non-working cars sitting in the parking garage, and I just don’t even have the energy to deal with it.

Thankfully we have a wonderful Korean friend that heard of our plight and now is traversing the World Wide Web for us, trying to find us a new community van with a couple promising options. I will keep you posted on our car adventure, and until then, we’ll be waiting at the bus stop like…

Settling Back In

August 22, 2017August 22, 2017 / Ali Craft / 1 Comment

Well well well. School is in full swing, and the calendar is jam packed. We had last Tuesday off for Liberation Day, and let me tell you I have never been so glad to be liberated. How do we make Tuesday’s off a thing?

Judah just started preschool last Wednesday and he couldn’t be more excited. I snuck out of work for a minute to drop him off for his first day. I’m not taking it personally that he didn’t seem to care, told me to stop messing with his hair, and when I said “I love you, Judah.”, he responded with “BYE”. Guess that means he’s ready?? (or ungrateful that I GAVE HIM LIFE.)

Asher and Zoey are still home with our nanny. I think Asher will like having a little more time to himself (and Zoey) but will be thrilled when Judah gets home in the afternoons; they are best buds. Asher is getting a little more stubborn everyday, and it’s a wonder why seeing as how there isn’t even one stubborn person in our home.

He talks up a storm but always misuses my and I. “My jump” “my get an owie”, butttt you already knew he was adorable. He just turned two in July and is growing in spades. He has a signature big-grin-squinty-eyed smile that will leave you in a puddle. He has also developed a not so charming middle kid defense system of squealing and hitting when not getting his way…but we are working on that.

{FIRST} birthday

{SECOND} birthday

Isaac is back into his normal rhythm of teaching 6th grade math and Bible and playing basketball in the mornings twice a week with staff. Oh ya, so there I was in my office a couple weeks ago when I see my principal go to retrieve the first aid kit. I proceeded to ask him what happened and he told me he messed up his finger in basketball that morning. He then quickly said, “but that’s nothing”, pointing to his busted lip. My response was something to the effect of, “oh my goodness, what happened?!”. Apparently my boss’ face + husband’s elbow happened. Luckily, my boss is a good sport.

Church has been getting busy as we have been taking on more leadership roles, which means we have to get there early. *gasp* I feel like on-time would have been ambitious enough. As we are now leading up the welcoming committee, we are meeting a whole new crowd of people who can actually get places on time.

We have been so fortunate to have found ourselves forming life long friends here, lately espeically. One of those things with life overseas, is that in some ways you form relationships quickly because “we are all in the same boat”, but everyone is so busy doing their own thing and people tend to be a bit reserved as no one knows how long you will be here. Each year we watch friends leave that have become like family (and you can still talk bad about them on your blog because they say they don’t read ittttt), but new people come. You always just have to secretly hope that you don’t become great friends with people on their way out, so naturally we have a list of people we will hold hostage should they ever try and leave us.

Also, in my spare time *ha* I am coaching Varsity Girl’s tennis again this year. I will say though that it could be a pretty small time commitment if it keeps raining. Every. Blasted. Day. Apparently monsoon season is a little late just like the Craft family at church. Go figure. Anyone got some indoor courts we can borrow??? Between that and court maintenance, we are well on our way to becoming a Conditioning Team. And please don’t even ask why there are desk chairs etc. in that pile of junk on our courts, my only explanation is: Korea.

Everything else here is life as normal. Zoey is back to her pre-summer habit of sleeping through the night BECAUSE SHE LOVES US. The boys are still all about her and no one makes her laugh like quite like Judah. She has started eating baby food but isn’t interested in any finger foods yet. I guess Princess Z just likes being fed. She is sitting up like a champ and working on scooting. She will be terrorizing our house in no time.

We have some longer breaks this year with the way holidays fall, so with any luck and $$$ we hope travel some. I feel a bit like this after doing our summer stock up for our ever growing family of five, but we should be fine as long as everyone pinky promises not to grow out of their shoes.

That’s all for now. As always, sending love from Seoul.

Oh. Also. In my foolishness, in my last post about traveling with kiddos I forgot to give a massive shoutout to all the mamas who have gone before me and shared all their traveling wisdom. My list is certainly a work of collaboration; us mamas are stronger in numbers!!! ❤

Kid’s Cafe: A Parents Escape

September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 / Ali Craft / 6 Comments

Folks…America needs to get on this ASAP. This is basically like ten steps above a Chick-fil-A with a play place. The price might also be ten steps above Chick-fil-A, but there are days I would literally throw my wallet at anything promising to entertain my children while I sat down (note: my wallet is probably empty anyways).

Kids cafes are a big deal here in Korea, and admittedly, we have not been taking full advantage. We’ve only been to two, but with baby three on the way, something tells me kids cafes could soon be playing a large part in keeping our sanity.

These cafes are all over, often with different themes. Last week we explored our second, and now favorite kid’s cafe, Lilliput. This one was about $13/kid for 2 hours and you had to buy food or a drink. So while my kids play I have to enjoy a delicious snack, or drink?? … Twist my arm. They even have staff that are there to monitor and play with your kids while you sit. I’m thinking we might move in permanently.

When you come in you leave your shoes in a locker, and take a pair of snazzy Lilliput sandals to wear, helping to ensure the place stays nice and clean…a very Korean custom. You pay for your time at the counter and are given a menu and shown to your table.

We went with another couple (hey, Mandy!) and their two kids, so we got lucky and were given this private sitting area all to ourselves! I am working on the assumption that they may have wanted to hide the rowdy foreigners, compared to the usually calm, quiet, and composed locals, but then again maybe they were just being nice.

*Imagine here a picture of our super swank private area that I forgot to take a picture of.*

If you squint and look past the mom and son playing, our hang out area was just next to the ball pit, with a low table and pillows for lounging.

Not pictured is a sweet lego area/craft area that the boys will love when they are older.

Here is Judah cruising on his Land Rover.

Asher playing a rousing game of hand the shoes to the kind employee. They both loved it.

This “sandbox” is actually filled with little wooden cubes! Way better than bringing home sand.

Introducing the cleanest ball pit ever, with clear balls so you feel less like there is something terrifying underneath. Also, that wall is interactive so you throw the balls at it in different games. Fancy.

Here is a not so appetizing picture of half finished delicious food, I was too hungry to take a picture before eating. We had margarita pizza, carbonara, and french fries. This is what happens when a pregnant lady misses lunch…

And if you had any questions about our spectacular parenting…mid-bite of pizza I looked over to see this. Naturally I took a photo while Isaac rescued him. I won’t admit how hilarious I find this photo, so don’t even ask.

Side note: since you obviously wouldn’t wear your nice Lilliput sandals in the fancy bathroom (I would, but I am basically an untrained monkey) that comes complete with baby-sized toilet, they have bathroom sandals for your selection. Kids sizes too, so cute.

It was so lovely to visit and enjoy a meal with our friends as our kiddos played. I feel like at this stage of life for us the only way to have an adult conversation is to get a sitter, or have people over after the kids are in bed (lol at that because that’s when I go to bed,too).

So if you need me, you can likely find me at Lilliput.

Tow Trucks in Korea: Another Adventure

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

One day about a month ago, Isaac and I gathered our resolve, and our children, loaded our car and headed out to conquer Costco. Usually, we go with a bus of people from our school that takes us there and brings us back, so we don’t have to get there on our own. Since our schedule has been so hectic, we decided to take a “quick” weekend trip.

Despite not really knowing where it was and the fact that our GPS couldn’t find a route, we were off. We were about 20 minutes into our grand adventure when we heard a thud followed by the noise of something dragging under our car. I’m no mechanic, but it didn’t sound good. I made it over about 3 lanes of traffic to the side of the road and stopped. We did the obligatory car inspection that looked at little something like this…

Yep. Looks like it’s all here.

We then had a look under the car to discover something important looking hanging down. For the stories’ sake, let’s call it a piece of our muffler. We did the obvious thing and began to google our car’s apparent aliment while I placed a long-distance call to my father to try and figure out just how necessary this thing was (turns out, you really do need it).

After realizing that driving it was out of the question, (of course not without me trying to talk my way into driving it by myself to our local body shop about 20 minutes away with all the windows down to combat the possible carbon monoxide inhalation (I seriously thought something along the lines of, “I’ll just hold my breath”)), we began the task of figuring out how to call a tow truck in Korea. We got the number to one, just leaving us with the slight hang up that: A) we don’t speak Korean (especially the vocab to describe our/any car issues) and B) we can’t even tell them where we are. So off Isaac went in search of a kind stranger that could translate for us, while I sat in the car with the children as we slowly melted in the heat. He came back after having no luck, so off I went to take a stab at it.

I walked into a hair salon just next to where we broke down, and luckily found some girls that I could just barely communicate with between my google translate and their limited english. They were so precious and pulled out all the stops telling the tow truck where to go, welcoming us in to wait in the cool A/C, bringing the boys fresh squeezed juice and snacks, and doting on them non-stop.

I am guessing they probably didn’t have kids of their own as they were mortified when just after opening his cracker, Judah dropped it on the floor, so I picked it up and handed it back to him. First child of laid-back mama problems?

When the tow truck arrived, there was a small game of “guess our car problem charades” before the issue was diagnosed. We decided Isaac would ride with the tow truck to take care of things and I would catch a taxi and take home our rapidly expiring children for their nap. We were initially told that it would take 3 days and about the equivalent of $130 to get fixed. Upon further inspections they came back and said it would take only an hour and $65 to fix. Has that ever happened to anyone in America, ever?? Typically your experiences look at little more like something along these lines:

So Isaac decided to wait for the car and grab some lunch to kill time. He ended up ordering some mystery dish that he described as “interesting”…better him than me, the pregnant lady that has gagged lately at the thought of things as simple as bagels.

Meanwhile, I used every tool in my mama tool belt to keep my over-tired children from opening the doors in the moving taxi. Each time that would grab at the handle the taxi driver would freak out and say in Korean what I would imagine to mean “No, they can’t open the door while we are moving!!”…must be another cultural difference…

After pulling up Kung Fu Panda on my phone and rationing and eating every last piece of candy stashed in the diaper bag for emergencies such as this, we arrived home safe and sound.

Isaac arrived shortly afterward with our car in full working order. It was an eventful day that sadly did not produce any groceries. To prove that we hate ourselves, the next day we decided to take our newly repaired car and children on an adventure an hour out of town to IKEA AND Costco in holiday traffic…and we have lived to tell about it, barely.

On to fight another day.

{Part THREE} The final chapter of our (NOT) quick trip to Jeju.

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

The never-ending blog post of the never-ending “quick” trip is coming to a close. And all God’s people said, amen!

(If you missed part 1 or part 2, here ya go)

The next morning, after a restless night of sleep, we headed down for breakfast and to see if any headway had been made in flights. We were told that we had new flights scheduled for 7pm, and that we would check out the hotel by 12 and kill time until heading to the airport. We thought we would try and get the boys to take an early nap since we would be on the go for the rest of the day, which resulted in 2 hours of telling Judah to lay down while we sat in a pitch black hotel room. We stored our bags at the hotel and headed off to lunch.

Then it was off to find some formula for Asher just in case of emergency, of all the things we can make do without, soy formula is NOT one of them. We flagged a taxi outside of the restaurant, carefully jumped in with Judah still in the hiking pack, and just as we started to move I remembered: THE PACI! I vividly remembered it falling under the table at the restaurant and thinking, oh I’ll get it later. In that chaotic moment, my minimal Korean came to mind and I hollered, “Ki-dah-ryo-ju-se-yo!” (WAIT, PLEASE!). I threw open the taxi door, ran back inside, ducked under the table, grabbed the paci, and was back in the taxi in seconds. Considering that was the only paci we brought, and they don’t sell the kind Asher likes in Korea, that could have been very very bad.

We got to the grocery store with no problem, and found the formula we needed. Victory! We were a little bummed out that we had forgone site-seeing to get formula, so we figured we would wander around for a little bit before catching a taxi back to the hotel and then heading to the airport. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ocean directly behind the store. Which brings me to another favorite memory from the trip. In the last month Judah has taken to calling any liquid, milk. Cup of juice? Milk. Water fountain? Milk. Judah had been asleep in the hiking pack after finally giving up the fight while shopping. We were walking along the ocean front when he wakes up and seeing the ocean, yells “MILK!!!”. Not quite, buddy.

We made it back to hotel to meet the group, grabbed our bags, and hopped in a taxis to the airport; we were so close to being home. {cries quietly}

Ok. I can’t even keep this up anymore. We get to the airport and get all checked in. This was the scene. People as far as the eye could see. Us and 40,000 of our closest friends trying to get off of this island. (At one time, the flight from Jeju to Seoul was the most heavily trafficked air route in the world.)

We made our way through security to realize that we hadn’t even seen the half of it.

The next six hours looked a bit like this:

Lines so long at the bathroom you just resolve yourself to be dehydrated. No line for the men’s bathroom because, duh.
Getting stepped on/over and almost going all mama bear crazy because people are about to step on your sleeping baby.

A toddler that refused to nap/sleep because there was obviously a party to partake in.

Koreans finding cardboard boxes to break down to sit on to avoid sitting directly on the ground. You should know that as shoes are taken off when entering the home, they are apparently also taken off before stepping on your cardboard box… that you got from the trash.

No real nutrition, as airport restaurants ran out of food, leaving us to share snacks from duty free. Macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and dried mango do not a dinner make.
Leaning back to back with Isaac to find some reprieve.

Ajummas (Korean grandmas) that kept giving Judah food. While the rest of us may have gone without dinner, Judah certainly did not. There was fried chicken, kimbap (let’s just say it’s like sushi), cookies, rice cakes, candy, more cookies. Because if there is one thing that a sleep deprived child needs it is sugar. Isaac would try and take a bite and then give Judah only half, but the adjummas weren’t having it, so they would give him two the next time. Also fun, is when they offer him something he doesn’t like, so I try to keep him from spitting it or at least don’t let them see it, so what happens? They offered him more, while I sat there discreetly holding the last half chewed bite they gave him…

…so we showed up to the airport at 4:30pm for our 7pm flight. That became a 9pm flight. That became a “please come check later for info on your flight” flight. At 10:45pm, among shouts of joy and possibly actual tears, we boarded our plane home. Now, THIS was the happiest we have ever been to see a plane.

We made it home just after 2 am. We are alive, and have since recovered from the illnesses we somehow ended up with after our ~~relaxing~~ getaway. It was one of those events that is so traumatizing, that the group was bonded together for life, so to my Jeju trip family and the ones of you that have stuck through this whole story and are now equally scarred:

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 / Ali Craft / 4 Comments

Let me guess, you stumbled upon this post and all your dreams came true. Yes, yes we did blog about grocery shopping. We just give the people what they want…ok? Let’s begin.

We have a few options for getting groceries. There is a street nearby that we did most of our shopping at when we first moved here; it just has a bunch of fruit stands, a couple small grocery stores, and a bakery. There is also a small store about a half a mile from our house, two that we pass if we walk home, and one that we pass if we drive home. We obviously have no shortage of choices.

All that being said, we try to make a trip once a week to the Korean version of Walmart, Emart (we have mastered the art of saying Emart in Korean: *clears throat* “Emart-uh” *takes bow*), where they have the largest selection, free parking, and lots of international staples (read: tortilla chips and sour cream). Actually, I realized in writing this post that where we shop is also determined by if we need bread or not. Most small grocery stores will not carry bread, or will only have a small (one shelf with maybe 6 small loaves when fully stocked) and unpredictable offering. I imagine that this is because Koreans don’t eat as many peanut butter sandwiches as we do, go figure.

Moving right along…most of the Emarts here are located in shopping malls. This is ours.

Just like most major stores here, it is multilevel with the moving sidewalks connecting the floors. Hang on tight, Judah.

Each section and sometimes even specific products have employees there to sell their item. If you are shopping for shampoo, odds are there will be someone in the section to help you make your selection. Need toilet paper? They are there to help. The employee’s outfits are also worthy of mention. Depending on what section they work in, they have different and…interesting uniforms. You would think the kiwi lady would look more excited…

They always offer free samples throughout the store. This has proven to be a great way to try different Korean specialties like vinegar juice, spam fried rice, and squid.

Oh ya, and right around the corner from the toothbrushes and electronics, you can pick out a new family pet!

Oh and another useless “fun” fact. If there is a promotion here like buy one get one free, it is referred to as 1+1 (buy one, get one). This is why we sometimes end up with three cans of off brand Pringles when we really didn’t even need one (Off brand items at Emart, er.. excuse me, Emart-uh are called “No Brand”.) Don’t even get me started about “No Brand” being dumb because inherently “No Brand”‘s brand is “No Brand”. Just ignore me.

And let me just say, we are going to be in big trouble if our $10 Haagen Dazs pints go 2+1 (I know you think you wouldn’t, but you move to a foreign country with a limited selection of ice cream and then talk to me about what you’d pay for it.) Desperate times…

As for asking for help, you better be up for a short game of charades and a scavenger hunt if you don’t speak Korean. When we had to start Asher on formula I needed to try and find some that was soy-based. On the first visit, I looked on my own but couldn’t find it and was too tired to try and traverse the language barrier. After a few days of screaming baby, I was chock full of new resolve to find something to ~~silence~~ soothe my child. I went back to Emart and decided to use the ever faithful, Google Translate. I typed up “soy” on my phone and translated it to Korean, found a lady to help me, and then said baby in my {not} flawless Korean while pointing at my phone. After a moment the lady nodded in recognition I thought, “Well look at that; it worked!”. Off we went down an aisle, but I realized she was leading my away from the baby formula section, so I said again in my obviously effective Korean, “BABY”. She seemed to understand, nodded again, and then took me back in the direction I had come in. I thought we had finally communicated clearly. Straight she took me to…wait for it…baby soy sauce. Yep, it’s a thing.

I had a little moment to myself of amusement and defeat, thanked the lady for her help, and took my sad little self back to the formula section to continue the search solo. Spoiler alert: Asher did not perish, it may have been touch and go there for a minute with Isaac and I; I eventually found soy formula on the next trip and life has been much quieter since.

Some days when we go to Emart, we try to knock out dinner in the food court. While they do have Burger King, the rest of the offerings may be less familiar. I believe they have a Korean, Chinese, and noodle restaurant.

Isaac’s is the top, which is a Korean dish call Bee-bim-bop, and mine is some Chinese something, descriptive, I know.

I would go on, but I have to save something for the next post, right? Just kidding…next on the docket is a little tale of a quiet weekend away ending in being stranded in the airport with two kids and 40,000 of our closest friends. Sending love from the future.

We’re not in America any more…

April 11, 2016April 11, 2016 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

*Out to dinner on date night*

Me: so, N. Korea seems pretty upset.

Isaac: ya, they were talking about warheads or something.

…it may seem obvious, but sometimes we forget the implications of not living in the United States anymore. It is strange to realize that we live in a country where there is an actual risk of being attacked/invaded. The tensions with N. Korea are very real, but we all live in sort of a detached fashion, where life just goes on despite the imminent threat or newest CNN headline and I suppose that this will be how it is for the foreseeable future. I am beginning to “get used to” (if you can) the fact that I hear more about whats going on in N. Korea from social media than from people living here in S. Korea.

All of that to say that there is a very strong American military presence here, and we have prepared in case of an emergency. We are just adjusting to this new normal. We have yet to visit the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) where N. and S. Korea meet, but hope to soon. We have heard a few heart wrenching stories of people here in Seoul that still have family stuck in N. Korea, with many more stories going untold because they are so personal and fresh. I know that the issue 0f oppression in N. Korea and Kim Jong-un’s rule is often made light of, but it is extremely serious and heartbreaking to understand the reality of what is happening about 30 miles away.

Here are a couple of interesting links I’ve found that put a little perspective on the differences between North Korea and its neighbors.

11 Differences between North Korea and South Korea

Illegal Photos Taken in North Korea

When in Seoul…

March 14, 2016March 15, 2016 / Ali Craft / 3 Comments

You don’t even want to know when I first started writing this post. The struggle is so real. We are busy getting ready for our Spring Break trip to the Philippines. After school swim lessons are over for quarter three and middle school volleyball (I was helping coach) just ended, so we have just enough time to try and scrape together some warm weather attire and throw some bargaining chips in a backpack and head south for a week. We are going with two other teachers and taking nine high school students as well as our two kiddos.

We leave on Saturday at 4am and will be in transit for about 15 hours (1.5 hours to the airport, 4.5 hour flight to Manila, 8.5 hour bus ride to Baguio, Philippines), so if you think of us next week, first have a nice long laugh at our expense and then send up a prayer for us. I’m sure this won’t be us at all…

Anyways, here are a few more things about this place we call home.

Hailing a taxi

So luckily we learned this shortly after arriving, but hailing a taxi in Korea is apparently a bit different. You are supposed to hold your arm horizontal to the ground (palm down) and then pull your fingers back towards you.

We have been told that if you do it palm up, it is offensive, because that is the way you call a dog.

Good to know…

iPhones

I’m sure to most of us, a world without total iPhone domination sounds like it may be a sign of the apocalypse, but we live right in the heart of Samsung country. It was totally bizarre to walk into a cellphone store and not see any iPhones or Apple accessories.

Not mention, the nearest Apple store in Japan… (“No, customer service lady, I can’t take it in to my nearest Apple store.”)

Car colors

The Koreans share my affinity for neutrals.

Concrete walls

I am no engineer so don’t ask me why, but the walls in many buildings here are concrete. As you can imagine that makes hanging anything on the wall a real challenge.

Hellloooo command strips!

Non-automatic automatic doors

There may have been a couple instances when we first got here where we stood, waiting awkwardly, for automatic doors to open only for them not to. Many places here have automatic doors, but you have to push button, unlike the motion detector sensors in America.

Power Lines

In addition to not being a engineer, I am certainly no electrician, but…
I am just going to have to assume they don’t have the same safety codes as America.

At this rate it won’t be long before:

Eating

It seems as though everything here is meant to be shared. Almost everywhere you go you will see people order an entree or two, and then share everything that is ordered. They also eat many foods with knife and fork that you wouldn’t see happen in the states such as tacos, chicken wings, french fries, etc.. Isaac thinks that eating a burger with a knife and fork is a North Korean ploy.

Couple Style

This one still cracks me up. Couples will not just coordinate their outfits, but they will full on match, head to toe. I keep trying to get Isaac to do it but he just won’t go for it. And don’t you say I don’t have awesome photography skills.

This cute couple was heading to Dallas on their honeymoon. I suspect it is only this early in marriage that I may could have gotten Isaac to wear a boat neck shirt. Also, can you think or any better way to kick off a honeymoon than a 14 hours flight sitting next to us? I think not…

That’s it for now folks, time for you to get back to actual work. Have a great week!

P.S. In case you had missed this little gift from the internet; you can thank me later.

Just when you had lost all hope…

February 12, 2016February 12, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

Well, it is no coincidence that when I went back to work full time, blogging was the first thing to go. We have had so many people asking (demanding, begging, etc.) for an update. I will post this disclaimer again; I feel strongly that unless you birthed us, you may grow increasingly weary reading the updates from our mundane life. That being said, who are we to not give the people what they want, so here we are. I make no guarantee that the posts will be long, proof read, entertaining, or frequent, but I am back and will do my best. Please feel free to email me at alidaniel22 at gmail dot com or post in the comments if there is something specific about our life in Korea that you would like me to share more about. Your comments and words of affirmation are so encouraging. Anyways, thanks for sticking with us…here we go.

Some things haven’t changed:

Our kids are still awesome.

Being cute.

On the plane home from Christmas.

Yes, that is the stroller seat strapped to our son.

And we still live in Korea.

That building in the background is supposed to be the tallest building in Asia upon completion, or so we’ve been told.

And some things have changed:

Isaac voluntarily ate a tofu burger.

Just out of picture: gun to his head?

Asher is 6.5 months and is sitting up, scooting, has two teeth, and is eating baby food! It won’t be long before he is crawling. (Teeth not pictured because prying your babies mouth up for a picture is a surefire way to tick them off). Also of mention, his hair is growing back. No more bald baby grandpa.

Judah will turn two in the Philippines next month! We, and two other adults, are taking our circus on the road along with 9 high schoolers for a mission trip. If Judah asks, it’s all in honor of his birthday. Take that, Pinterest inspired parties. Each day he looks like less of a baby and more of a little boy.

Scaring the mess out grandad’s fish.

He gave us a good laugh the other day when we had a family outing to one of our favorite local bakeries. As I plowed the way through the crowd with Asher, Isaac followed behind holding Judah’s hand. Isaac was met with some resistance so he turned to see that Judah had stopped to help himself to some Tiramsu. I found a seat and wondered what the hold up had been…until I saw Judah’s face.

Anyways, that’s it for now. We have a weekend full of rest ahead of us as I seem to stay sick lately (could be that Korean doctors usually give about 4 days of medicine, just enough to make you think you are better…), Asher has a double ear infection, and Judah has a sinus infection and fever. We are truly the envy of the block. Have a restful weekend, you wonderful people.

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Making His name Famous in South Korea

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