Ed's Post of all Posts!

Okay. Hi, everyone! We have been in Korea for 1 full week now.  The picture is Kale and Charlie (Kale's godfather).  We haven't sold the child or anything...if you want to know.  We were at a open cafe near Seoul Tower. I have not been able to arrange the pictures so that the more recent goes to the bottom. So, please go down to the bottom and come along on our journey through pictures.

Off to see Charlie, the god father!

Yulie waiting at a small cafe for a subway train. Being under the age, Kale and Yulie ride for free.

This is a series of pics of Kale, watching Disney Jr channel broadcasting in Korean, instead of English. He said, rather appropriately, "I don't understand a thing they say." His Korean, however, has shown much improvement in the last week. Most importantly, he wants to learn Korean now.

Can't live without her milk bottle. On our trip to Jae's parents' place, we forgot to pack this bottle.  Yulie was often cranky to say the least. She is now happily rejoined with her comfort zone.

We are returning from Jae's parents' place to my parents' place. This is in a subway train. The series of pictures portrays all of her moods about life and travel in general :)

Yep. They are sleeping again at another restaurant.

The traditional Korean house in the pictures so far is the residence of Jae's paternal uncle. On one side of the house, I found this green bicycle with cut bamboo behind it. I thought they went well together.

Yulie and Kale wanting to get off the porch to play with house dogs.

More of traditional Korean architecture.

Traditional Korean houses. This is the view from the raised wooden porch / corridor, seen on the picture above.

Some authentic Korean food.

When Kale woke up, Yulie went out like a candle. Kale was  nice enough to lend his leg for her sister for almost an hour. We insisted on taking turns, but Kale was proud to be of service. We were proud of him, too.

Yep. Sleeping. The Jet-lag is a difficult thing to shake off.

Jae posing for the picture. Kale is off to the dream land.

Kale in the same train. He remembered, though faintly, his last train rides 2 years ago.

We are moving by train, off to Jae's parents' place in Gwangju.  This was Yulie's first train ride. The whole ride took about 4 hours.

Jae and I ate well and soon fell into food coma, while the kids are in sleep coma. As we ate, they slept through the whole meal. As in traditional Korean restaurant, the place had semi-private rooms where everyone sits on the floor. This suit us fine because our kids could sleep safely on the flat floor instead of slumping on chairs.

The tofu, pork and kimchi combination go well with rice-based alcoholic beverage.

Some of the local foods we had. The square ones are tofu in different colors. To the right is steamed pork. Behind is slightly stir-fried Kimchi. 

Here's my father, Yulie and Kale. They should not be standing on the offering stone, not especially with their shoes on. Still, my dad wasn't bothered by it. He was just too excited to have them over in Korea, at his house and reporting at the ancestral graves.

Hi, Yulie. The black stone next to her is a tombstone. We came here because we need to "report" to deceased ancesters that we are visiting Korea.

Kale at my family ancestor graves. Kale has the pose of Kim Jung Eun of North Korea. :)

Flying past Japan now. One hour and 40 minutes to go.

The meal in front of Jae is actually for Kale.

Sleeping, Kale missed his meal before arrival. The last two hours of flight a series of turbulences.  Kale had no idea.

Here, she is catching up on what in-flight movies she missed in her slumber.

We are flying over Japan. Two more hours to go. Running a bit short on patience and sleep.  Kale is fast asleep at this point, while Yulie is slowly waking up--rested, but hungry.

Here's Yulie, watching an in-flight movie. She soon fell asleep and remained sleeping for 9 hours straight. Jae and I were more than thankful.

Kale is bored senseless. We told him not to use Mom's Kindle or his Samsung Tablet because we didn't want the battery to drain before the airplane ride. Being a good boy as he is, he followed his instruction well, but the boredom was just too much. You can see Jae in the center.

Yulie is seated in her seat in the airplane. This was the first time she rode one. I wasn't sure how she would react when the plane takes off. Despite my uncertainty, however, she was great. She even said things like, "Are you ready to blast off?" I guess watching Netflix movies could be educational :)

Here we are, ready to leave. This is SF International Airport. I would like to thank Jae's colleague who let us use her stroller. This light collapsible stroller has served us quite well throughout the journey so far. 

UnSprung Forward

A lovely walk to work... Had to won the wild  right side of the road, because I'm allergic to some yellow flower that blankets the wall on the right side. Still, gave me a chance to walk past some rather pretty flowers and stop to take a picture of them with the trusty Iphone.

At the top of the hill is this impenetrable collection of signs - perhaps it says "Danger, The Catholic Snowman..." well, that's where it kind of breaks apart for me, so suggest whatever you might

Then it's a quick path up to the Sanchaek-ro, the walking/biking path that circles Namsan. LOL, this isn't even the part that has the stream.

Starting to get hit by students who need help with next year's applications, or letters of recommendation. I'm happy to report that they aren't waiting for 'the day before the due date' as much as they used to.

Other than that, had a dinner with an agent who is interested in me writing a book along the lines of the "Looking for Hong-Gildong" project that I'm working on the KTLIT site.

Should be fun, and got Yvonne and I to head over the river and get library cards at the National Library and National Digital Library. I produce this high-velocity tripe-spatter at a coffee shop before the walk begins... I figure, maybe an hour to get there und moderate sun and immoderate headphones, then... well, I'll snap some shots their, because the digital library has something quite cool about it..

Other than that, living on the financial downlow to be able to finance my upcoming trip with the Eds and then the summer trip to Australia, Malaysia, and either Vietnam or Thailand.

Semi-lazy days interspersed with brief bursts of crazy productivity (often when I wake up in the early morning and everything is quiet). Yvonne is off learning German, which she is certain will prove invaluable in communicating with the savage nationals of this unusual country. I am not one to chivvy her beliefs, as it means she has Saturday mornings at the Summer "Concentrate on German Camp."

I might have chosen a different name.^^