cherry blossoms

Ahh the famous cherry blossoms. I was very excited to be in Asia during this special time of year so I decided that we should join the gazillion people that go to Youido every year to see the cherry blossoms in bloom on trees that are hundreds of years old.

Our acupuncturist told us that there was another famous place to see old beautiful trees in Seoul but the trees were chopped down during the Japanese occupation.


It was really incredible to look up in the tunnel and see the sunlight through all the blossoms. I think if the sky had been bright blue it would have been amazing - but it was a bit overcast and still amazing really.
John posing with a lovely old tree. You can see the crowds moving through - so many people - not exactly a poetic, serene scene but hopefully we will get some quiet moments in the trees this weekend near our house. We are planning to hike up Gwanak-san and I think there will be lots of cherry trees as well as other flowers.


So graceful.....
The white petals falling is like snow....
This shot really shows the tunnel effect. It was breathtaking - wish we had a better camera - these photos are kind of flat.

There was a huge street festival there in celebration of the trees blooming. Lots of street performers and food - many street artists too. It was fun.
This is a group that Netta, John and Olive watched for awhile while I went scouting for the row of trees.



At the end of the day we found a park and the girls played bubbles and ran around. Then we took the bus back home and had dinner. It was a nice day - nice to spend time together as a family and get out in the city again.

So 'ping (spring) is here as Olive calls it. Not very hot and kind of windy but lovely enough to get out of the house every day. The next couple of months promise to be busy as we plan our last few trips for while we are here and try to get the most out of our last 69 days in Korea. Not that we are counting!!!

Olive's birthday post

Well it has taken a few days to post here about Olive's birthday festivities. And the pictures are in a wacky order that I can't seem to change but, oh well. I will try to piece it together in this crazy order. For Olive's birthday we decided to check out a kid's cafe in Seoul. They are restaurants with huge play structures and book rooms and block rooms for kids to play in while their parents eat or rest. They are no Chuckie Cheese let me tell you. They are really nice and they have staff on hand to help with the kids and cameras all around that show you the play areas while you are eating. I had a hard time getting good pictures but this link has some really nice ones of the same place we went to. This first photo is Netta playing on the little toy cars. Olive loved these and could make them go, but the steering was a bit beyond her. She really loved the bump when she hit the wall though.
Here is Olive in the eating area - she was quite tired by this time.


Olive working the car with Netta helping with steering.
Olive climbing up the marshmallow thing that was for bouncing. She has a name tag with the time she is done written on it.
Here she is getting to the top. It was kind of crazy and busy there as we went on Sunday and there were a lot of kids there. She had a hard time staying upright and was not sure that she liked feeling unstable up there.
Here Olive is in the ball pit. She loved this - wanted to keep going back there and hanging out in the ball area.
Here is one of the weird things in the cafe.........
Before the cafe we met John's research advisor (here in this photo) and his family to play in Olympic Park. They are really great and we had a nice time - Netta and their son played soccer and baseball for awhile.

Now we switch to pictures of the zoo. Olive, John and Netta went to the zoo on Saturday while I worked and John took these photos. I don't have much to say about them but I liked them and thought others might like to see them too.















So that was Olive's birthday weekend. The zoo on Sat and then Olympic Park and the kid cafe on Sunday. On Monday (her actual birthday) we had to work and we had pho for dinner - delivered as we couldn't face going out again and we are thinking Olive might be getting a bit of a cold. The weather is improving and it is exciting but it is quite windy all of the time and can be really chilly when the wind comes up.

We are hoping to check out the cherry blossoms this weekend and take lots of photos. Things are starting to bloom and it is beautiful already. I have been promised a wow of a spring as the pay off for putting up with the long..... winter.

Netta's new hanbok

Here are some photos of Netta and her doll in their new hanbok.

Netta's party

Special guest blogger - Netta Seales aka the birthday girl.
This is my birthday party - it is not quite starting at the beginning though. These are my friends eagerly awaiting me to cut the second cake. I think there is a picture of the first cake earlier on.
Here are my friends still awaiting their slices from the second cake. These two pictures were taken almost at the same time.
This is John shielding the match as I was about to light the candles on the first cake. Just so you know guys you are going to hear a lot of me's and my's in this blog post.
This one is really really cute - this is a picture of my mom's student Scott holding my friend Kendra and Tera's baby sister Aila. She had just fallen asleep in his lap- see I told you it was cute.
This is Olive climbing a ladder in the park where my party was held.
These are my two friends and Elana's students Scarlett and Angela rollerblading. They brought an extra pair for me to use.
This is Scarlett again. I like her clothes a lot - aren't they cute?
This is me opening up my arms so I can crash into my mom and hug her on rollerblades.
This is the first cake - yay I told you it would show up later. These are my friends again - this is when I was still wearing my helmet. The first cake got a little smooshed but it still tasted good.
This is me - I climbed the statue.
This is me again I climbed the statue without my shoes on.
This is me eating a Korean snack. I don't know what it is called but it is pretty good.
There is me eating again - I look like a baby birdie.
This is my friends Kendra and Tera's mom and dad Mei Ling and Jonathan with their baby Aila.
This is me and my friends' hole that we dug when we started to destroy it.
This is my friend Kendra and Irene on the swing together at the park where we held my birthday party.
This is them again - same story as before.
This is me scratching my head and smiling.
And there is them on the swing again.
These are my friends watching me open my presents, there will be a picture of said present later on.
That is Scarlett watching something or other I don't know what.
That is me smiling very sheepishly.
This is me eating cake. Cheese cake yummy - Korean cheese cake is different than American cheese cake - it is more cakey and less dense. And I believe more delicious.
This is the present that you saw me opening earlier. It is a barbie wearing hanbok (traditional Korean dress). I will post more pictures of her later.
Here I am cutting the cake.
This is my friend Irene eating cake and holding out her hand for a piece of chocolate from the top of the cake.
This is the cheese cake - yum, yum.
This is my friends Kendra and Tera's mom Mei Ling sitting on the grass.
This is Kendra and me - I don't know what we are doing.

It was a fun party it was great. I got some hanbok for my birthday and I will post pictures of me in it with my doll later on.