People, Places, and Things of Summer 2009

Sorak San National Park, Korea

Stewart Falls, Utah

Mr. Preyer, Outside of our window, Seoul, Korea

Lovely Butterfly, Stewart Falls, Utah












James at the TaeKwonDo belt test, Seoul, Korea

Cruella Devil and Friends, Main Street, U.S.A.

Queen of Hearts, Fantasyland

Red Toed Frog, Sorak San, National Park

First Day of School, 2009

Seoul Foreign School begins another year. Gracie enters middle school and James enters the elementary school (Mr Sanderson and Mrs Jung). How exciting! Anna will be in 3rd grade (Mrs. Baradi) and Miriam will be in the 5th (Mrs. Walker).

The Little Things

This summer, one of my greatest challenges has been to spend "quality time" with my children. We have been able to spend plenty of time together but most of my attempts at quality time end up to be frustrating chunks of interupted chaos. I feel exceptionally exhausted and hopelessly grouchy much of the time. But, one day this summer I stood on a large rock on the seashore with James. The waves crashed around us. As we stood on this rock we noticed that it was covered with tiny little living shells. These shells were "stuck" tightly to the rock with little fibers. We pulled a few off. We watched them as the waves rolled in and out over the rock. There were thousands of them. We both thought they were cool and we sat out there watching them and touching them and wondering at them for a while, honestly, I lost track of time. When it was time to go, James grabbed my hand and said, "That was fun, Mom." "It was", I thought to myself. It seems like those words, "that was fun, Mom" and those moments are harder to come by than I would have ever imagined. Thank goodness for those little shells on the rocks at the beach and that moment with James.

A National Treasure

Last spring I read the Newberry Award winning book, A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park. The book is a tender story of an orphaned boy in 12th Century Korea who dreams of learning the art of pottery. The book refers to "The Thousand Crane Vase" a real 12th century piece of pottery that is housed in a museum here in Seoul. After reading the book, I determined to take my children to see the famous work of art that is now considered by the country to be a "national treasure" (#68, I think). The trick to seeing this piece is that the museum is only open for four weeks of the year (two weeks in the spring and two weeks during the fall). In spite of the time constraint, I was set on seeing this lovely work of art, especially after reading about it, so I put forth the effort and loaded us all into a cab and headed across town. When we finally found the museum I asked the attendant if we could see the vase. She said "No, not part of exhibit". I was confused. "Do you have this vase?" I asked. "Yes. Not available", she responded putting her index fingers together to make an X. "Why?" I asked, almost desperate. "It is National treasure. In storage." "Oh", I replied completely dumbfounded. I left the museum very disappointed and even more determined to some day see the famous celedon vase.

I still hope to see the piece while I am here in Korea. As for the book, I highly recommend it. It is a sweet tale of how we are all good enough if we do our best and never give up.

Curtain Call

Every year the fourth graders put on a play. This year the play was broken into four shows and titled, "Tricksters, Fables and Fairytales". Miriam was chosen to have a main part in the final show: "Stone Soup". In the beginning I felt intimidated by this, especially when she brought home the 25 page script that she had to memorize. But, with very little help from me she memorized all of her lines and dances. She made new friends and worked hard. On the day before the performance I went over to the school and spent some time back stage during the dress rehearsal. Miri just beamed. It was fun to see her as a bright shining star of the show! It turned out that Miri was the very best part of the play:) Just ask me.
Miri as Sophia in Stone Soup

Miri and her 4th Grade teacher Mrs. Falgout

Miri and her best friend, Tabea.

Miri and the Director of the play, Mrs. Moon

Miri also played a Japanese dancer in the show, "Crane Wife, A Japanese Fable".

After the show with her flowers. Way to go Miri!

Tweenager

Miriam turned 10 and notified me that she is now a tweenager. What? They didn't have those when I was growing up. They didn't have IPOD shuffles either.