Our first outing in Seoul

Today went pretty well considering we have a sick kid. After I went out to get donuts around 8:30am we all just hung around. The kids took a pretty long nap as did Damien. Orin hasn't thrown up since last night so we're praying it's over. Now that he's holding down the Motrin he's feeling much better - although not totally himself.

Since we were all still tired we didn't want to venture too far. The map we were given had directions to the E-Mart highlighted so we decided to go. We figured we needed to get some groceries anyway. There are these little "Family Marts" and "G25" things on every corner but they are really small and don't have produce. They are sort of like a tiny 7-11. The E-Mart was about 3/4 mile away. This time the map made more sense and we got there just fine. I just loved walking down the streets of Seoul. We're South East of downtown but this is a major area of the city. Tons of traffic and people walking all throughout the day. Tall office and apartment buildings everywhere. And restaurants and stores everywhere too. We've only seen maybe 4 or 5 other people that look like Westerners. Our kids get most of the attention that comes our way which they aren't too thrilled about. We had to talk about saying "hi" back to someone when they wave to them. I think they are just sort of confused by it. Once we talked about it they started waving back and Micaiah just walked around saying hi to everyone. :-)

The E-Mart was pretty fun. It was sort of underground. It had groceries and home goods. I got a few cute barrettes for Sora and the kids wanted to get a mini Lego set. They were only $2 so we got them each one. We had to go down another level to get to the produce. It was fun trying to figure out what things were when everything is in Korean. We were able to identify Frosted Flakes by Tony the Tiger on the box, but other than that we didn't recognize anything. Even buying eggs and milk was confusing. Like the sprite, the frosted flakes are less sweet than in the US. I don't think the kids mind though. They've only had them once or twice before. We were worried about Orin's Motrin wearing off, so we only stayed about 45 minutes. I could have looked around forever...just for fun. One of the scariest things about walking around is the cars everywhere. It seems like it would be so easy for pedestrians to get hit. I carried Micaiah in the sling both ways because he loves it so much. And it was a good way to keep him close.

I've been surprised that the weather hasn't felt as cold as I thought it would. It's in the 30s but really not too bad. It was a beautiful day. It was hard to tell from inside our apartment though because we have two tall buildings literally about 3 feet away. So it blocks a lot of sunlight from the windows.

We got back from E-mart and rested for a while. The kids ate snacks and watched Care Bears. (that's all they want to watch these days) We figured if we wanted food we should go early since we were getting tired. Around 5:30 we went to a little restaurant we had seen on the corner that had Take Out. It ended up being sort of like a Korean fast food restaurant. Except there were about 25 different options. There were pictures of each dish which made it much easier not only decide what we wanted but we could also just point to what we wanted to order. :-) Although it was fast food some things were actually cooked right there in a pan. We walked back home and ate. It was actually pretty good - especially for being only $2 each. We got a kids meal for the kids which had these awesome fried mashed potato type things. Orin also loved a little dumpling in it. Our food was pretty good too.

On the way to get dinner we ran into the couple next door who had just picked up their little girl! It's their first child. :-) She was adorable. I'm sure we scared them off because Micaiah started crying in the elevator. Oh, well. While we're out I can't help but sort of look around at all of the people and hope to run into Sora. :-) Can you imagine the chances? Pretty slim.

Our TV has cable and there are actually over 10 channels that are in English which really surprised me. Well, the shows are US or British shows but the commercials are Korean. We've been watching mostly the Olympics though. It's fun to hear the Korean commentators.

We're putting the kids to bed around 8:30pm local time. I'm really curious when they will wake up. Before sunrise, no doubt. I'm praying that Micaiah doesn't get what Orin has and that Orin feels much better in the morning. We may venture out a little farther tomorrow...maybe even the Subway. It will be an adventure no doubt.

I'm exhausted so I'll post pictures our our outing tomorrow. Sorry if there are tons of errors. I can barely keep my eyes open. As soon as the kids are in bed we're going too.