All and all this has been a good week as far as settling in goes. on ethan's second day of school i had the good fortune to meet a group of moms who get together regularly to socialize. all of them have school aged children at okpo international school and a couple have babies. one of the girls has twin boys that are a month younger than addison. after meeting them, they invited me to their weekly coffee get together that they were having at one of the girls apts. i had already planned to go to a weekly coffee group at the foreigner's club and had told another woman, who i havent met yet but have emailed with, that i would attend. so, i passed but hoped there would be another invite. as it turned out, the next day we had a monsoon. not rain, a monsoon. to back up alittle, we have one car (a kia minivan) which we share. rick has been biking to work so usually i have the car. sometimes i walk ethan to school, sometimes i drive. its such a short walk but due to the traffic and ethan being a 4 year old boy who is easily distracted by everything, it can be a job just getting him and the stroller safely down the street. i dont know how long rick will want to bike to work so i try to at least walk one way with ethan to get him used to it. the morning of the monsoon, rick's bike got a flat tire. so rick had the car. when i walked out of the apt bldg, i had no idea what to do. i had known it was raining but i thought, we have umbrellas, addison's stroller has a sun shade, this should work. standing there, i knew this would not work. in the meantime, all of the Indian woman who live in the apt complex were standing by the door saying"no take baby in rain" over and over. as if i would. so the indian woman kept saying "bus, bus". i folded up the stroller, strapped addison to me with the baby bjorn and basically got pushed onto a bus with my kids. i had no idea where the bus was going, or what it even looked like. all i know is the driver was korean and wearing a mask (like so many people in korea due to the swine flu). helpful, huh, that should surely get me home. i kept thinking, this probably was not a very safe move on my part. for all i knew, i would end up in Seoul cleaning someones house. oh well, ethan is a good cleaner.
so, of course, we ended up at school and this became known as "how we found out about the bus stop for school' day. we now ride it daily to school, both kids love it, and i avoid the worry about ethan's dawdling getting him hit by a car on the way there. usually addison and i walk back afterward and start our day.
on the day of the monsoon, i accepted a ride back with one of the mom's (lynn)i had met before and she offered to take me to the coffee group at her friends house. i had already decided i was not going to the foreigner's club because of the rain and decided to take her up on the offer. ( i ended up getting the car back from rick and just drove there myself.) her apt was down the rode across from the shipyard that rick works at. nothing to look at from the outside but beautiful on the inside. stacy lives on the top floor, has raised ceilings with a chandelier and a modern decor. my apt immediately looked not so good but the difference is these families live here for a couple of years. rick and i being here for a year is by far the shortest of anyone i have me. she has twins, a 10 year old and a live in nanny to help her. her husband is korean but grew up in america. she is from new jersey and the other women are from north carolina, maine and one from new zealand. each woman is very cool in her own way, very friendly and willing to answer any questions. they remind me of the women in my neighborhood at home, which makes me miss them.
there are babies everywhere and they just enjoyed playing with the bouncy seats, swings and baby toys. we just drank coffee and i was able to ask all the questions i wanted about everything. it was perfect for me. i felt reconnected with people and it was exactly what i needed. what a nice day. they have all been in south korea for a couple of years and seem to be enjoying it. seeing stacy with her twins makes me realize its not so hard having a little one and being here. even though she has a nanny, she still seems to do most things herself. later in the week i met with this group again for indian food for lunch, despite the numerous times i drove the wrong way down a one way street trying to find the place. its nice to have people to talk to and they drive the wrong way all the time.

ethan is doing well his first week of school and talks about it alot at night. he gets pretty tired out going daily but seems to like it. when touring the school i noticed that they have a corner called "the corner of virtue" which essentially is a time out corner where the children can sit and write an apology note or draw an "i'm sorry"picture if they've done something wrong. so of course, i mentally have been counting the days until ethan has his first visit with the corner of virtue. the answer is 4. on thursday, ethan took his first, and i'm sure not last, visit to "the corner". according to ethan, he wasnt "recognizing that my foot was kicking the kid in front of me". like his foot is possessed and has a mind of its own. ethan has no control over it right? well, he visited the corner, stated he was unable to write an "i'm sorry" letter because he cant write and opted to sit and enjoy himself. did he learn his lesson, probably not but all and all, nothing life shattering. according to the other moms, its impressive that he has adjusted so well. i agree and am very proud of him and still amazed by his enthusiasm for everything. even if his foot is suddenly possessed.
korea is a funny place as far as woman go and in many ways is very backward from what i am used to. one thing i have found, which is probably pretty universal throughout the world, is the helpfulness and bond with the women regarding my children. i am no longer so bothered by the women looking at my children and they always just love to smile at them. addison's eyes always amaze the women and sometimes even the men. most koreans i have encountered can speak some very basic american, like really basic with just a word or two, but most can say the word baby and blue, like addison's eyes.

ethan, addison and i had our first encounter with some different ladies in our elevator this week. our apt is on the 8th floor, which is one of two apts on that floor. we were about to get into the elevator when two women came to ride with us. they were attractive, wearing make-up(which you dont see very often), wearing dressy clothes and longer coats in the 80 degree weather. the bond that normally holds true with the women in korea was missing with these two which is actually why i noticed them. there is never a time that a korean woman does not smile or look at my children when were out. these women were totally avoiding eye contact with all three of us. so of course, ethan is trying very hard to talk to them in the elevator. ethan's small talk is always amusing" so we live on the 8th floor, too, where are you going". "i'm ethan, this is addison, here's my mommy".... one glance at me was all they got and i made sure it was clear that they were not to look at my children. they did not, they disappeared into the apt across from us and i did not explain to ethan, although he did ask where they were going, why they werent smiling, ect... i have seen the man who lives in the apt. he has a family but they are not here with him now. according to rick, he has heard stories about how many of the men get out here by themselves away from there families and just go wild. it would be easy to do, i think prostitutes are pretty easy to come by. they stick cards on your windshield with half naked pictures and phone numbers like you get pizza flyers. i found one on the ground on my way home from school, saved it and gave it to rick for our anniversary. isnt korean prostitution the proper 6th anniversary gift? anyway, we have tried to attach some pictures of our adventure so far, no korean prostitution pics though, this is a family blog... check out the remainder of the squid ethan was eating, he looks freaked when he saw it...