Namdaemun Market, the flight home...

Friday/Saturday - This morning after some last minute packing, we checked out, stored our bags at the hotel, and headed off to Namdaemun Market on the subway. Namdaemun is one of Seoul's oldest, traditional markets, covering a huge area.  located in the very center of Seoul, it is the biggest traditional market in Korea selling children's clothing, men & women's clothing, daily miscellaneous goods, kitchenware and local and imported products. Most shops have their own factories and make the products themselves offering both wholesale and retail prices which enable visitors to purchase various shopping items.

It is open around the clock (it never closes), so there is always something to look at.  So for the last few hours we battled the crowds and picked up a few last minute bargains. Who could resist a handbok apron (oh yes, made of the same material, with colored stripes), or tshirts, shoes, hairclips, trinkets, and even some tiny chilli peppers for the Christmas tree. After roaming up and down many aisles, and multi-level buildings packed with stalls, we decided to catch the subway back to the hotel, and with minutes to spare (like most of our group we were making the most of every last minute in Seoul), boarded the bus to the airport. Liz - we have been waiting the whole trip to see you in a pink tiara...

An hour later we were at Incheon International Airport, strolling around, stretching our legs before boarding our Korean Air A330 Airbus bound for Melbourne. Incheon Airport has lots of shopping, and a couple of Korean Cultural centres where you can do a quick craft class or try on a handbok for a photo. They also stage traditional weddings for the tourists...

We left Seoul at around 6.00pm and after a rather tiring night flight home (the kids all slept, but most of the adults didn't), we arrived home at around 6.00am Melb Time - flight time around 11 hours. The direct flight is great though, no changing planes. Customs was great - less than an hour to get through despite the long queues, and we were met by our very helpful neighbour Pete - who drove us home. Home sweet home.  Oh to go to bed....
But, no bed for us...  Our Real Estate agent had arranged for an open house inspection this morning, so we ended up down the park until around 10.30am until we could gratefully slump inside the house.

A most wonderful holiday, full of so many terrific moments and memories.  We were priveledged to share our journey with a great group of friends, and our children are the richer for the experience.
Look out Korea - we plan on coming back again soon!

I hope you enjoyed my travel blog - I'd love to hear your comments, so feel free to email me!

signing off for the last time, love from Michelle

Coex Mall, Aquarium, Celebration party and Norebang

Thursday - Our pace has increased (if that is possible), as we fit in all the last minute things we all want to do before we leave this city. Bill, Liz, Amelie and our family decided to catch the subway to the Coex complex this morning. Coex is a huge arrangement of both commercial buildings, and a collection of nice shops, a famous aquarium, kimchi musuem and various other things.We all headed to the aquarium first. It is a beautifully laid out complex of lots of different areas - very child friendly (hence lots of school kids visiting!). A lot of the 'aquariums' are built into a range of household appliances - such as microwaves, fridges, vending machines (that still work), telephone boxes and other funny things. The kids love it. There are also big shark pools, a curved glass tunnel, and lots of other things to see and do. They even have a pool of Doctor Fish (tiny piranhua like fish), so you are encouraged to put your hand inside the tank while they eat away all the dead skin...  We all tried it - just like getting a gentle manicure - very ticklish.

Next, we visited a nice restaurant in the complex for lunch, and then Bill & Brendan headed off by themselves for an afternoon of exploring the Yongsan electronics market (five floors of it), and Techno Mart at Sindorim (computers, cameras, hobby shops, etc) - no model trains though (despite a phone call to the owner who told him he stocked heaps of them).
Liz and I took the three kids, and spent a couple of hours browsing the shops - lots of very nice shops here - then it we caught the subway home to the Casaville Hotel, and met the boys. Then we all piled into a taxi and headed to Bulgogi Brothers restaurant in Seokyo (near Hongik Uni).
What a night!  We had been invited to the party by INKAS (the organisation that had conducted our tour), and we also celebrated Barb's 50th birthday (with a huge cake and presents). We had a fantastic, fun filled night - great food, and Linda, Stephen & Eliel also came along.

Mrs Lee's (our Korean friend from Melbourne) sister came too, and handed out lovely presents to all our children (Lily received a large Hello Kitty stationary set in a zipped folder, and Sam a Pokeman type spinning toy. Very generous of her. INKAS also gave us all presents - the parents a silk embroidered placemat and chopstick set, the kids magnets and a few other things. Also, our ceramic plates (that we had made a couple of days ago) were returned to us. Oh my goodness, how are we going to fit it all in the suitcases?

We also said sad goobyes to our well loved Korean friends and guides. They have carried our children around, entertained us all, looked after us so well, it was hard to say goodbye. Sunny was our main group organiser, so we presented her with a few presents from home.

So, after a huge cake to celebrate Barb's big day, and a short powerpoint presentation on the work of INKAS in Korea and round the world, and food, food, and more food, we decided we were having too much fun to end night.

So, Rachael (our much loved korean guide and friend), organised a nearby Norebang (Karoke) session for us. Nobody does karoke like the koreans. She led us through the Hongik Uni area, along streets buzzing with street markets and activity to an amazing Norebang venue called "Prince Edwards". We were lead up marble steps, under chandeleirs, past pink padded and jewelled rooms, across a rooftop karoke area, to another huge room, booked just for us. My goodness, this one even had our own stage, and musical instruments including a full drum kit, keyboard, tamborines and shakers. We were off! The kids had a ball dancing and singing along to Abba hits, and their other favorites...  What a blast.

Oh my goodness, at 11.00pm the kids were all starting to flag, so we walked down to the subway together and caught a train home.
Sleep time do you think? Well, maybe for the kids. We spent the next couple of hours packing all our stuff, and getting ready for tomorrow.  Don't want to waste a minute of our last day in Korea!

Kia car factory, Taekwondo, pro Baseball

Thursday – A couple of hours on the bus again this morning, heading to the Kia car factory in Pyeongtaek which is by the sea. Wow – what an amazing place. Our bus was escorted onsite by a security guard and then we were given a short talk about the Kia plant. It has 150,000 employees at this plant (only 1% of them women and they all work in admin). It produces 600,000 cars per year – five models at this plant. We were all given an English electronic guide device that automatically played a sound file about the particular section of the plant we were in at the time. We were all guided (or should I say shepherded) through an amazing factory floor. We were taken through the stamping plant (which stamps the panels and body out of metal). Then we watched the robotic welding and assembly lines, through to high pressure water testing, through to the end product. It was fascinating watching all the huge robots picked up whole car frames and zip them around the plant to the next job. There are 6000 components in any one car. At the end of the tour the kids were all given a toy Kia transformer robot/car. They were all wrapped!

Off to a Chinese restaurant for lunch still in  Pyeongtaek (home city of many of our adopted children as ESWS has a large unwed mother’s home here.

Next we drove to Yongin University for a student Taekwondo demo. Yongin Uni is like our Canberra Institute of Sport. Several national level uni students put on an impressive demo of Taekwondo, high kicks, breaking four pieces of wood held at different levels with one kick, flips, twists and acrobats were the order of the day. Then they spent quite some time teaching our kids (and adults) some moves. The kids all had a great time (as did the adults).

Lastly our bus driver dropped us at Jamsil Stadium to watch the pro baseball series - the Doosan Bears (Seoul) vs the Samsung Lions (Daegu). Oh my goodness, what a spectacle. Cheerleeders (dressed up like American girls in short skirts, high heels) and a Lion mascot (for the Samsung Lions), were all up on a stage that was embedded in the audience. Everytime someone on their team hit the ball, or did something good, they would break out in a song and dance routine, often holding up placards (of Korean writing) of special songs or chants – often about the player concerned. Each side of the stadium had their own stage, mascot and cheerleaders leading the chants (so you need to be careful where you sit!).

Actually it was like one big norebang (Korean karoke) session. The crowd and what was happening on the stage was so entertaining, most of the time we kept forgetting to watch what was happening on the field. It was one noisy, chanting, but singing all together, song and dance. We were all blown away by the amazing atmosphere – it was great fun, and the kids all loved it. We all left on a high.

Our last stop of the day (at about 9pm) was the Lotte World complex for a little more shopping (well, it was on the way home). With Paul, Andrea and Jin, we browed through Toys r Us finding Sam some  Korean lego (of a palace fortress), Lily a Mickey Mouse (which she has wanted the whole trip) and a few little things.

Home at 11.00pm, and a chat catching up on each other’s days (read Bill’s blog) with Bill and Liz. Bill & Liz were able to arrange our traditional jangu drums to be shipped to Australia today. An adult drum is hour-glassed shape and is about 40cms in diameter and 50cms high. A bit tricky to pack in our luggage.  His website is all in Korean, but is www.urikukaksa.com. He is about 5 minutes walk from Chandeokgung palace for those interested. We tried in vain to find one in Insadong, but none of them would ship to Australia, so this was a bonus. 

Ceramics Village, Insadong, Jump, night shopping....

Tuesday – Yes, Bill, I admit, maybe for the first time on our holiday, you beat me to the blog entry last night. But only because your dear wife (was she a clever decoy?), and a few other lovely mums (Sue, Deb, Barb, Liz) joined Linda (who is over here picking up her baby), and Lisa (Deb’s Korean girlfriend) and decided to hit the shops last night after tea...  A very late return – was it after 11.30pm? I was too exhausted to lift a finger to the keyboard last night....  But Bill, where are your pictures???? More of that later...

Let’s get back to the rest of the day. We all boarded the bus at 8.30am from Casaville, and headed off an hour or so out of Seoul to the Le Chen Pottery Village – a traditional pottery making area of Seoul, probably most famous for its green Celadon glaze. We wound our way around back streets, to a studio of a famous Korean potter, who helped us all paint a design (cherry blossoms were a popular theme) on a plate reading for firing. After he has glazed and fired them all, he will deliver them back to us to take home.

OK, who in their right mind would decide that giving delicate porcelain plates, a paint brush and black ink/paint to 3 three year olds would be a good thing? No, actually they all behaved themselves pretty well, despite them all wanting to ‘help’ mummy, daddy and sibling (or anyone else that got too close) make the final touches on their masterpieces.

It was a fun morning, topped off by watching Liz and Bill reinact the scene from Ghost on the potter’s wheel (read Bill’s blog – link from this website on the sidebar) to read more.... most hilarious!!!!

A quick stop at the potter’s beautiful pottery shop and a chance to purchase some of his equisite pieces, before being bussed off nearby to lunch buffet.

Then we were dropped off in Insadong (one of our favourite art/teahouse/shopping strips) for an hour or so. A few of searched again madly trying to find a traditional drum shop that would ship to Australia, but to no avail. Never mind – Bill and Liz are on the case tomorrow. We all couldn’t pass by the hottock stand again (think big fried donuts dripping with a roasted peanut and honey centre) without buying a couple. It was quite cold today, so a hot, calorie inducing treat was just what we needed.

Then it was off to see a performance (at the end of the Insadong strip) called “Jump”. This comical, martial arts production has played around the world (even reaching Adelaide) and was absolutely hysterical. It was a show made for audiences of all ages, and was a brilliant piece of comic timing. The actors literally threw themselves all over the stage doing back flips, front flips and all manner of high rolling acts, while acting out a funny script. We had front row seats, and I don’t know which I enjoyed more – watching the brilliant show, or watching all of our kids almost wet themselves with laughter. Well worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

Off to a restaurant specialising in Samgateung (which I make at home sometimes). We all enjoyed our hot stone bowls filled with a whole chicken (yes, each!) that had been stuffed with glutinous rice, chestnuts, jujube (like Korean dates), ginseng and a few other spices. It was delicious, and just what we need to refresh us before our next adventure.

Yes, we are setting a cracking pace on this trip, and last night was no exception. After tea, we farewelled the dads and kids (and poor Andrea who had a cold coming on), and met Linda and Lisa and hit the shops. Oh my goodness, we hit them hard. Firstly there was some browsing (and dare I say buying) along Insadong, and then we all caught a couple of taxi’s to Gwangjang – a market specialising in handbooks. Then it was off to Dongdaemun market, but our mission was to get to a big department store (filled with market type stalls) next to Doota (which of course we also had to have another look in). Our target was Milloria (not sure of the correct English spelling), but it is easy to see from Doota. Well, imagine about 8 or 9 floors (that we visited – there are probably more) absolutely jam packed with stalls selling everything at great prices.  The jewellery stores here (hundreds of them) are amazing, selling good quality sterling silver and 14kt gold, as well as great costume jewellery. We all succumbed to the pressure, and all bought some jewellery, and most of us also bought some kids clothes, and some beautiful leather handbags too.

Can you believe the big stores like this are open until 4.30am! We didn’t quite stay that late, but we did stay until we could almost no longer stand from weariness!  Off to catch a taxi home (very, very cheap and safe here) and to fall exhausted into bed. Thanks dads for the night out!

Foster Mother Visits, ESWS tour, Lotte World

Monday – An action packed, emotional day today. Today was the day we had all been looking forward to – meeting our children’s foster mothers again, after a few years. We duly arrived (by ourselves) at Eastern Social Welfare Society in Seoul (just one short subway stop from Sinchon) at 10.00am and presented ourselves to the post-adoption social worker – Mrs Cho. We have met Mrs Cho a couple of times, as she was actually Sam’s social worker when we collected him. She was pleased to see us again, and always remembers Sam – he stands out so well because of his unusual curly hair. It was great to see her again.
We were then ushered into a small room, and there was Lily’s foster mother waiting for us – Mrs Oh. We weren’t sure how Lily would react, but as predicted she buried herself in my arms, and clung on for dear life. It was all a bit overwhelming for her. But as we had hoped, when she presented Mrs Oh with a photo book that I had made for her of Lily (or Ye-Jin as Mrs Oh knew her as),  as a baby in Korea with her, up to present day, Lily warmed up and showed her the book, gradually gaining confidence. She has been very excited to meet Mrs Oh again, and bit by bit she started to relax, and by the end of the visit was drawing pictures for her, and everyone else in the room.

Mrs Oh was just so generous with gifts for both Sam and Lily that we were astounded. She presented them both with a beautiful handbok (traditional Korean costume that Korean’s wear on special days of the year),  each – Lily’s complete with a separate petticoat, matching hat and purse and also gave them several coloring books, pencils, crayons, scrapbooks, teaching hangul books, and other things. Then as we were leaving she presented Brendan and I with an exquisitely made rice cake (complete with party poppers and candles) – a special celebration cake. We were quite overwhelmed by her generosity.

A few minutes after we started talking with Mrs Oh (who is currently fostering another two babies simultaneously!), Sam’s foster mother Mrs Choi came in to the room. Last time we saw her was three years ago when we picked up Lily, and she was quite reserved, but this time, she was very emotional and pulled Sam onto her knee and kept kissing him, and stroking his hair, and saying what a handsome boy he was. It was just heart warming, and Sam responded beautifully, sitting on her knee the whole time, and hugging her. She told us how she had often thought about him, and had missed him all the time he had been away from her. She told us many beautiful things about how she felt about him, and us, and that he was healthy and happy. We were very moved by how much it meant to her, to see him again. Mrs Choi is now 71, and has just given up fostering after 27 years.

We cannot describe what it meant to us to see these amazing women again. To see again the sacrifices they make to give our children the best possible start in life is just wonderful. Sam’s foster mum had been fostering these babies for 27 years straight, from 2 weeks of age, until they were collected by either American or Australian families at the age of either 5 months, or in later years 9 months. Sadly now, the wait has gone up to around 15 months (all due to Korean govt. red tape and their push to decrease overseas adoption and increase local/domestic adoption).

So after that emotional reunion (of about an hour), we joined the rest of our Victorian Group, and were excited to see Linda, Stephen & Eliel also with them (they had just met Eva for the first time a few minutes prior). Imagine meeting your 14 month old daughter to be, and how upsetting and emotional it would be for the bub (it was hard enough for Sam at 5 months, and Lily at 9 months).

We then all listened to Mrs Kim (Old Dr Kim’s daughter), the current president of ESWS, give a welcoming speech to us all, and a talk about how Korea has gone from being very poor after the Korean War, to a wealthy economy in a few short years. She explained about all the services ESWS provide, such as unwed mother’s homes, support services for aged care, and rehabilitation facilities for handicapped adults and children.

We were surprised when we walked into Eastern this time to find an upmarket coffee shop on the first floor called “Cafe Eastern”. Mrs Kim explained that thanks to Starbucks sponsorship, the unwed mothers that do decide to keep their bubs (a very difficult thing to do in Korea due to both financial and cultural stigma), are given training as baristas, and retail work, so they can support themselves and their child. A wonderful idea.

After our speech (and trying to keep all our children quiet), we were given a tour of ESWS, we visited the offices, the medical centre, and what all the mums were hanging out for – the baby nursery. This is where the bubs are taken for a few weeks after birth, before they go out to foster care.

To see all our children line up at the nursery window, and peer in at the cots that they would have once been in themselves, was a moving and quite lovely sight. Lily asked me which cot she would have slept in? Both Sam and Lily wanted to bring another baby home (if only we could!). As usual there was lots of lovely babies, just waiting for families to love them.

Yes, dear readers, I did have a few silent tears today as I met the foster mothers, saw how much our visit meant to them, and how much our children have been loved, right from the day they were placed in the care of Eastern, then with their foster families, and then finally with us. I cannot explain how much it moved me to watch our precious children laughing and smiling at the bubs in the nursery, and seeing an adult Korean adoptee return to ESWS to help out in the babies nursery.

Yes Christos, love was in the air today!

After our tour, we were all welcomed up to the fifth floor for lunch with Mrs Kim in the workers cafeteria. A lovely lunch of all sorts of both Korean and western food was on offer (buffet style), and we all enjoyed catching up again, and comparing foster mother visit stories.

So now for a complete change of pace. After lunch, we headed back to our room with all our gifts, a quick change, then off on the long subway ride (half an hour) to Lotte World. Lotte World is the world’s largest indoor theme park. This was another highlight of our children’s visit to Korea. We spent almost 5 hours going on lots of rides – flying in hot air balloons, taking the monorail, riding the carousel, and watching Amelie and Lily enjoy every minute going on every ride they possibly could. I caught the girls chatting over tea about their foster mother’s visits which was funny (“Did you know my foster mother had black hair”  “Well, so did mine”.)

Sam’s best bit of the day, was sitting behind Bill on the Flume boat ride, ducking behind him so he wouldn’t get wet, laughing all the way. Sorry Bill for making you sit in the front of the boat!

 

After finishing up a  great day by watching the laser light show (complete with fireworks – oh yes, inside – no occ  h&s here), we caught a late train home, and carried an exhausted but happy Lily straight to bed, and guided a sleepy Sam the same way.  All in all, another wonderful day in Korea.