Thanksgiving in Korea

Lily on "that guy's" shoulders.


All of us together at the airport.

We were so glad to be able to travel to Korea for Thanksgiving and spend time with my brother, Doug and his wife, Molly. The morning of our flight Lily declared that she had a bb in her ear and was quite adamant. When I looked, sure enough there was a orange air soft bullet lodged in her ear canal. Some of you might not know that Lily is deaf in one ear because she lacks an ear canal so when the working ear is blocked....she can barely hear. What a way to start a day traveling! I decided I didn't want to try to get it out and damage her one hearing ear so I wrote Doug a quick email to let him know what was going on. When we landed we headed straight for their apartment, had lunch and then Doug, Lily and I headed off to the Korean doctor for her problem. He looked in there, took a little tool that got behind the bb and popped it out. Ting, ting, ting----into the stainless steel container it went and we went out to the foyer to see how expensive it would be as insurance was not going to cover it......only $7. Whew!

We had a great time visiting, eating, sightseeing, shopping and playing. Seoul is much more western than where we live so we ate at Outback, On the Border, and Burger King. We did some sightseeing to the Korean War Memorial, Gyeongbokgung palace, a university and just had a good time. Matthew was able to find his Christmas present--a bass guitar. He has been borrowing one since last year and taught himself how to play. Kelly was happy to shop a little at Forever 21. John loved playing ping pong in Doug and Molly's apartment building rec room and Lily just loved all the attention that "that boy" and "uncle Molly" gave her. We enjoyed their company and their amazing hospitality!

Lily was amazed that every bathroom had "regular" toilets and not squatties. She would go into the bathroom and look into each stall to see how many were "regular" and exclaim, "No Squatties mommy!" She was also so happy that the bathrooms have toilet paper in the stall. Here we have to carry our own at all times because most places do not have it. I saw a toilet paper dispenser that had a red button on it. If you push it, it makes a "white noise" so people cannot hear you use the bathroom. Amazing! Even the park bathrooms were nicer and cleaner than most of the bathrooms here. If you have lived outside of the US you may understand our fascination with restrooms!

The air was much cleaner also and when we came back to Tianjin, David and I both noticed that our nose and throats burned. It took a couple of days not to notice anymore. There is also much more English, written and spoken, so it was much easier to get around. Seoul is beautiful with mountains close by so it's not totally flat like in TJ. But, it is also much more expensive and not where we are supposed to be so it was nice to visit but China is still where our heart is.

We are so thankful that we have some family on this side of the world and that we were able to spend a holiday with them. By the way, we had Thai food in Korea for American Thanksgiving....a truly multi-cultural experience. :0)


Can you tell John is excited about Burger King? He hasn't been there in almost a year and a half.

At the Korean War Memorial...my dad served in the navy during this war.

Silk worms anyone? We saw these a lot and the smell is actually worse than what they look like. They are about $5.

These cans of coffee come of the vending machine piping hot. So nice!