Another Day in Seoul and a Doctor appointment!

I had a great appointment with Dr. Chung yesterday. I had to do the Glucose test and a couple other blood tests. We did another sonogram as well. If I can figure out the cd they gave me, I can show everyone the movie. The program doesn't like mac computers though.

The little Blueberry is SO big!! I mean, he's normal sized, but so big considering the last time we saw him. And he was moving and kicking during the entire sonogram. He is still head up right now. Hope he turns soon, not only for the correct birth position, but he likes to kick my butt too. It can get uncomfortable. He's doing it right now. It is strange that I'm able to feel his head. I figured that's what it was, but the sonogram confirmed it. It is just to the left and slightly higher than my belly button (well, just under my ribs). He is a very healthy baby with a strong heart. And still totally a boy!

Apparently Dr. Chung is also a skin doctor. I had made an appt. with the skin clinic there, not realizing that it is the same doctor! I have had a spot on my leg that has bugged me for years. I finally was able to have it checked out. It is just hyperpigmentation. Dr. Chung lasered it right off for me! Yay! It should be 95-100% gone. Such a relief.

I also had a great lunch with a friend from the Expat Moms Blog. We ended up talking for several hours in a deserted Indian Restaurant.* Very nice. She has two amazing children, and a lot of the same ideas about birth and parenting that Justin and I do. It was great to talk to someone like that.

So I'm doing the waiting game again now. 5 more days til I get on that plane home. At the moment Justin and I are hanging around the house, relaxing but bored. We are thinking about making a little trip somewhere, maybe Suwon. I'm just so tired of all the walking it takes to do anything here. We'll see. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

*for those who might want to know, the Indian Restaurant was in Itaewon above the Smoky Saloon. I had seen their sign for a lunch special and wanted to try them. The food was very good, but not at all spicy. The 7,000won set comes with a soup, salad, samosa, 1pc tandoori chicken, chicken curry, rice, all the naan you can eat (or I could eat), and a chai tea or coffee to finish with. Very yummy and a great price. I was surprised there was NO ONE there. It is off the main strip though. The service was amazing. The waiter was SO nice. Again, only ones there though. Hehe.

Kicking away...

We can feel our little boy just kickin' away these days. It's awesome. Developmental websites say this is the best time to feel little one's kicking since they are big enough to feel it and small enough not to be overly cramped. Night before last I think Caroline counted about 65 kicks. He reacts really well to my voice, going so far as to kick when I ask him to. He definitely knows his Daddy's voice. We are going to make a few recordings of my voice for Caroline's trip back to the states. I'm gonna miss my girl and my little boy.

Orientation

Orientation was a couple weeks ago. I haven't posted on it cause I've been trying to forget about it for the most part. It was dreadfully boring. At least all the official stuff was. Lots of boring lectures. A few of which led by people who should not be speaking to hundreds of native English speakers. Fortunately I was roomed with Aaron, a teacher friend of mine. We managed to make the best of it. Mostly that meant reading books under desks and doing our best to do as little "productive" stuff as possible. We have a skit we had to do based on conflict resolution. Very little effort was involved. Then there was a co-teaching skit we were supposed to do. Unfortunately the teams that went before us took too long and we never got to go. Darn! We had decided to teach about zombies for our skit. It would have been pretty cool. The food was ok, though breakfast was very scant.

After the required stuff was over, then things got going. Man, people drink here! I wasn't drinking myself but everyone else more than made up for that. Aaron and I met a lot of cool people in no small part as a result of two large bottles of soju he brought and shared with everyone. So it wasn't a total loss. However...I was pretty resentful of being on "lock down." We weren't allowed to leave without giving them a good reason. I was unhappy, to put it mildly, that I was away for four days and three nights. Balls to that I say.

I know, I know...

I know! Long time no posting! Well, we've had a lot going on. We've just been hanging out with friends mainly. The weekend of the 13/14th was pretty laid back. We went to see the 99 band again in Songtan on Saturday night. And Sunday was a BBQ for the Expat Moms Club Korea. There were quite a few moms and kiddos there. Got to meet several new people. The BBQ was held on the roof of an apt. building, and it was very nice. After the BBQ, my friend Debra hosted a Naked Lady Party. It is kinda like a clothing swap. You bring any clothing, books, electronics, accessories, etc. that you no longer want. It gets sorted and organized, then everyone "shops." It was also a great turnout. I got a couple great nursing tanks and some tea!

Last week was VERY boring. Just hung around the house. But Thursday started my "vacation". I know, what am I vacationing from, right? How bout this: KOREA. Hehe. So I went up to Incheon on Thursday evening and spent the night with Debra. We had some sushi buffet for dinner, got absolutely no sleep, then got up early to head to the BEACH! Yay! We caught a cab to the ferry terminal, then got on a "sea plane" (whatever that means. looks like a regular ferry.). It took about an hour and 15 min on the ferry to Deok Jeok Do. Awesome island that is technically still in Incheon. Very rural. No neon. We took a little bus to Seopori beach. We were dropped off at the minbok (kinda motel). We dropped off our stuff, took a 20 min. lay down, then walked to the beach. We had an escort too. We named him Gizmo. Scruffy little beach dog. It was beautiful. They have the most awesome little shells in all sorts of colors. We weren't able to stay out very long because it was noon, and the sun was directly overhead. So after walking in the water for a little bit, and hanging out on the mat with Gizmo, we went back to the minbok for a nice long nap. I slept SO hard. It was wonderful. We woke up hungry, so we walked back to the beach for a bit and then looked for food. The tide was out, which is so completely different. The restaurant the Debra had been to before was closed, but we just kept walking to see if we could find something else. There was a Beach Love Motel/restaurant/corner store. Debra was able to ask the guy sitting outside if he knew where to get food. He had food!! Our choices were pork and rice or beef and rice. We ordered one of each. As our food was being prepared, the guy showed us his garden. There was a trellis with grapevines, bell peppers, and lots of lettuce. He offered to pick some lettuce to go with our meal, so of course we agreed! The meal was actually very good. My pork and rice was very spicy, but I still liked it. When we were done, his dog cleaned up our leftovers.

We were SO full, so we went back to the minbok for more relaxing. Around 10 pm we started to get antsy though. We went for another walk. We found several more restaurants and corner stores. There were a few people out on the beach, but nothing really major going on. A few fireworks to watch.

The next morning, we woke up to pouring rain. By 10:30, we decided that it was NOT going to stop. So we called Justin, who was making his way to the ferry to meet us out there. He changed course, and went to Kkachisan (In Seoul, about 30 min away from Itaewon). He found a motel for us there. As he chilled in the motel, Debra and I made our way back to Incheon. It was very sad having to leave early. I really wanted more time on the beach, and we had planned to stay until Sunday afternoon. Luckily, it all worked out to get back to Seoul though. Debra went home, and Justin and I got to spend a night in a different tiny room than the one we live in! It did have a widescreen tv, cable, and a computer though. The next morning (Father's Day!) we went to Itaewon. It was mostly a good trip. The only thing that brought it down was halfway to Itaewon, my hip stopped working. I have had troubles with it in the past. Between sleeping on the floor for 3 nights, plus having gained weight with the baby, it was bad. I was not able to walk for a while. I did get it loosed up a bit though, and we made it to Itaewon. We got some amazing burgers at Smokey Saloon (of course). We met up with Debra again, did a little shopping (got some books for the trip home), and then went to get massages. They do such a great job at Healing Hands. Sadly, I didn't have the best time due to my hip. I had asked for extra time on my feet, because that is and add-on. Justin had also asked for a hot stone massage, which was extra time. They did the regular massage on me. First one side, then the other (preggo massage), then put me on my back to do my neck/head/arms. Then she left the room. I figured she was going to get the hot towels for my feet. But when she didn't come back for 10/15 min., I got worried. I asked the woman doing Justin's massage if she was coming back. She brought her back in, and she had no idea that she was supposed to do extra time for me. She said that another client was waiting. I was SO UPSET. I needed my feet done. I got so upset, she went ahead and did my feet! She did a wonderful job, but I was still laying on my back. Even I didn't realize how bad that would be. When she was done, I couldn't move. She told me to sit up, and I freaked out because it was so painful. I tried to explain where the pain was, but she couldn't even get to it because I couldn't move. I almost agreed to go to the hospital. I was stuck!! She did help me get on my side, and she rubbed everywhere she could to loosen it up. I moved my leg around to stretch it out. Finally I was able to sit up and then get dressed. As I was sitting there, the next client had come into the room. I can only imagine what she was thinking with me sitting there in tears. She said, "so how was it?"

The people at healing hands handled the whole thing very well. They were not able to understand why I was in so much pain, and what I was explaining about it being like that before the pregnancy. They figured it was just because I was pregnant. They didn't even charge us for the extra time though. Not even Justin's! I would still highly recommend them to anyone looking for massage in Korea.

Justin and I were SO ready to go home after that weekend. We grabbed some Sultan Kebabs, and got on the subway. Thankfully, an uneventful ride home. It was a good weekend, in all.

Go to my flickr account for more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweet-caroline/page2/

Wednesday...That's all I can say

Wednesday was an amazing day. We got some stuff done, and we got some news. But Wednesday was also a really bad day. It's never good when a whole country turns against you.

Ok, good stuff first. So if you don't want to read the bad stuff, you don't have to. We started out the day by making a trip to the Embassy. We had all the paperwork finally, and were able to get our marriage license. We walked over to the Ward Office and got "officially" married. All that entails is having the license stamped. Then we went back over to the Embassy to have it notarized, and the Consular Officer said "Congratulations, you are married." Yay!! It's official! It is so much easier to get legally married here than it is in the States. We still plan on having a ceremony and reception at some point when we get home.

Other good bit, we had a dr. appt. in the afternoon. It was the "body check." A much longer sonogram with a special sonographer. She took measurements of the brain and head, checked the heart, stomach, bladder, kidneys, and counted fingers and toes. We got to see lots of movement from the baby. We got to see something else too. An unmistakable something in between his legs. Yes, his. IT'S A BOY. Crazy. We were so sure it was a girl. Now we need to think of some names!! Any suggestions? We have a couple that we like, but are still very unsure. We are open to hear anyone's ideas. Thanks!

Ok, the bad stuff. I don't think I need to revisit that, actually. I think I'll just try to put all the bad from that day out of my memory. I'll just say that there was lots of going the wrong way on the subway, a preggo not getting the food she wants, and some yelling at a Korean man. We made it home safely, and that's all that matters. Really, what counts more than getting married and finding out the sex of your baby, all in one day?

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Belly Pic! 20 weeks 3 days

Last Weekend

Last weekend was actually a little "cultural". Not Saturday, really though. We spent Saturday night in Songtan hanging out with some friends. We happened across a bar that had some live music pouring out of it. Justin and I aren't really into bars and nightlife, but we decided to check it out (we do like live music). They were playing a song we knew. Turns out, the bar was not bad at all. Not too crowded, and not smoky. We stayed until the band quit for the night. They were awesome! We knew every song they played. The bassist had a really nice 6 string and a beautiful 7 string fretless. The singer could do so much with his voice too. The band is the 99 band, and they were playing in the 99 bar just outside the main gate of the base. We plan on going next time the play, June 13th.

Next day the plan was to go with a few people bungee jumping. Not me, of course. I would be the photographer. By the time we were out of bed and able to get others on the phone, it was too late in the day. Apparently the tickets sell out early. It also takes 2 hours at least to get there. So we decided to go to Suwon instead. It is about 6 stops away on the subway. We went to see the Hwaseong Fortress and Palace. It was very cool. The steps going up to the fortress wall were so scary!! They were huge! There was an awesome tree that is over 600 years old. It was badly damaged in a fire in the 80's(?) and rehabilitated.

So after a long day of looking at Korean history, we went back to Osan to play some Rock Band. We have also found a decent pizza place. They had hawaiian, so I was happy. It was a good weekend with good friends. I have spent a lot of time at home lately, but prefer it that way. The baby is growing so much! All my energy is used up. It has been great spending so much time with our Osan friends. I found out about the river here in town too!! It is very nice. Has a good path alongside and stepping stones to cross.