Our Last Autumn in Daegu

 



Autumn in Korea is the very best time of the year.  The summer is sweltering hot and the the food waste rots and fills the air with a pungent stench.  Winter is brutally cold with winds that seem to penetrate through your clothing.  Spring is lovely but is punctuated by the yellow dust from China that seems to cover and fill just about everything, including your eyes and nose.  Autumn, on the other hand, is just about perfect with mild weather, clear skies, and beautiful multi-colored leaves.  Not to mention, it is filled with fun activities to make our lives busy and exciting.  That was especially true this fall.  In fact, our lives were so filled that the months seemed to slip through our fingers.


Birthday Season

Four of the seven children have birthdays within a two week time span.  This fall Gwynyth turned 13 years old.  She also reached a height of 5'7" and is still growing quickly and steadily.  She didn't get a big birthday party this year, but Chloe woke up early before she left for early morning seminary and made Gwynyth breakfast.  She had made Gwynyth a special birthday girl crown and had bought her some special treats.  I found this especially sweet since Chloe can often be very cruel to Gwynyth (I think Gwyn is Chloe's favorite punching bag). Gwynyth is very patient with Chloe and always generous.  I love that even though she is taller than I am she still comes and tries to kiss and cuddle with me, even though it means she has to bend down now.  I don't know what all the complaining about teenagers is, I swear, I like my kids better the older they get!

 

 

My little Jelly Belly turned 7 years old.  I can't believe my baby is that old.  Where does time go?  She is still my snuggly little munchkin who loves to play with my hair and fall asleep next to me at night.  I used a medical height prediction calculator for Giselle and it estimated that she will end up being 5'11" tall.  I wouldn't doubt it!  Giselle told me that it is really hard to be the youngest because all the other kids steal her stuff and boss her around.  I told her that it's true, being the youngest is very hard.  But, on the other hand, youngest children are always their parents' favorites :)!!  While I cannot say that I have a favorite child, I do admit that I have a special bond to my "littlest" elf.

 

 

Florence turned 11 years old.  She is growing up quickly.  She is so beautiful and kind and after a year of wearing humilating head gear, she is starting to have a stunning smile that I'm sure will charm people for years to come.  Florence is a joy to have in our family and very much a special gift from God.  She works so hard at things, even when they do not come easily to her, she will not give up.  And she is always generous and loving to people around her.

 

 

 

This was a big birthday for Oakley--big number 16!!!!  Seriously.  I can't believe it.  This means I am officially old.  He didn't get his driver's license yet because that's not allowed in Korea.  However, he did get to go on his first date. . . with me!  Oakley has a girlfriend, and I knew he really wanted to ask her out, but I thought that a boy's first date at 16 should be with his mother.  I checked him out of school on his birthday and took him out for Indian food and to look at laptops.  So it may not ever rank in his list of "hot dates", but we had a nice time.  I sure am proud of this boy.

Chloe planned a surprise party for Oakley (which we ended up having to tell him about in the end so he would make plans) with his friends.  They all went to Herb Hillz and did the zipline course up in the tops of the forest trees.  They came back to our house for a waffle fest since waffles are Oakley's favorite food.  I think he had a fantastic time and it was decidedly a perfect way to start his big year of socializing, driving and dating.

Festivals.

Andong holds an annual mask festival.  Andong is about an hour north of Daegu and is famous for its traditional masks and traditional mask dances.  Every year they perform all of the traditional Korean folk dances as well as hosting other traditional folk dancing from around the world.  This year we got to see Russian folk dancing in addition to the Korean mask dance with a giant lion (sorry, don't know the official names of the dances).

 The festival also has countless booths of handicrafts for the children to create.  My kids thrive on this kind of thing.  I gave each of them 12,000 won (about ten bucks) and let them pick a few different things to make.  We also filled up on Korean festival food which includes corndogs with the french fries fried into the batter surrounding the hotdog (I know, weird. . . but totally efficient!), teriyaki chicken on skewers, Turkish kabobs and hoduc--a pancake type thing with cinnamon, sugar and sesame seeds baked in the middle.  And, of course, the whole night was spent listening to Psy's "Gangnam Style" being blasted across the loud speakers.  It's Korea's new claim to fame, I suppose.

 

 

Our very favorite thing to do in Korea is to visit the lantern festival in Jinju, which is located about an hour and a half southwest of Daegu, near the southern tip of the country.  Last year we were unaware that the festival also extends into the interior of an ancient fortress on the hill above the river.  I'm not sure I have appropriate descriptors for what we saw there (especially because it's midnight right now as I try to finish this post).  Wow! doesn't quite do it justice.  How cool is it to be in an ancient Korean fortress, let alone with fireworks and thousands of lanterns adorning the grounds?  Pretty damn cool, I tell ya!

 



 Chinese zodiac signs are ridiculously important here.  Which sign you are says a lot about your personality, your fate, your temperament and your future spouse and children.  While I'm obviously not one for such superstition, I must say that I am a dragon and, well, that's pretty spot on for me!

Yes, Florence is year of the Batman. . . One side of the river was covered in American themed, larger-than-life, glowing statues that delighted the kids.  We spent a lot of time taking pictures of the children posing with their favorite figures.

 They also had a lot of traditional activities for the kids (big kids and little kids) to try.  (In case Brian needs stilts to make him taller. . . )

 More greasy Korean festival food washed down by our favorite drink: Pocari sweat.

 This lantern had Brian and I rolling.  Seriously.  They're still not over that whole thing in the Olympics.  In fact, they're so peturbed about it that they have built a seven foot tall glowing lantern in protest.  That'll show the Olympics fencing officials for sure!

 

 

Soccer.  No autumn is complete without soccer season.  I am no soccer mom.  I wish I could love it more, but it stresses me out.  Brian LOVES soccer season and volunteers to coach every year, even though he hasn't played soccer since he was on the six-year-old team in 1980.  I mean, he only coaches six year olds, so really, how much skill do you need?  Just a lot of patience.  Brian coached Giselle's team, and then she decided soccer was boring and quit.  Giselle and Chloe weren't the least bit interested, but the other five loved it.

 

 Florence is a natural athlete, but doesn't like to hurt people's feelings or take things from them. . . like the ball.  She got better near the end of the season and quit worrying about offending the other player's honor.

 Sophia also got substantially more aggressive and confident near the end of the season.  Brian found this youtube video of a little girl Sophie's age playing tackle football--and the girl was kicking some serious male buttocks.  Sophia was downright inspired.  She said, "I'm gonna be just like her!"  And true to feminist liberation tactics, she went out and proved what G-I-R-L power really means!

Diamond is extraordinarily gifted.  He's not exceptionally skilled at this point because our soccer season engagements have been hit and miss due to moving so much. But the boy's got physical prowess skills--more like mad skillz--that's right, with a Z!  He was one of the very best on the team and scored most of the goals.  The problem is that he is a poor sport and treats others horribly when they fail.  It's embarrassing to me as his mother.  His coaches have to pull him out of games and bench him all the time.  I know I've taught him better than that, but that mean side really gets the best of him during anything competitive.  I'm not sure what to do?  Maybe I will ground him to artwork only. . . until that becomes a competition, too.  The goal here is to harness this energy and not squell it--the question is how.

Gwynyth and Oakley played and had a really great time on their teenage team.  They got to travel to several away trips, which were definitely more about the socializing than the soccer playing.  I loved walking up to the games and being able to spot my kids from great lengths by their unnaturally long legs.  I wonder who's their daddy?

All in all, a great few months to end our time here in Korea.  I have other stories to tell that maybe weren't the highlight of our time here--but still it's the combination of the good, bad and stressful that makes life interesting.  Those post will soon follow.