Stay Tuned

Next chapter in Sasebo, Japan. Beginning summer of 2012.

At a new blog site.  www.shiinsasebo.blogspot.com  
Stay tuned. 

The Beginning of Goodbyes

Tonight we said goodbye to our very best Korean friends, the Lees. They live below us on the 9th floor in our apartment building and from the moment we moved in, showed us the utmost gracious hospitality. Both Hwa Jung and Mr. Lee are teachers and because they were able to spend a few years in America, learned English very well. They have 2 daughters. Their youngest went to school with Sadie.

We joined them in their apartment tonight for farewell wishes and yummy Korean treats. Hwa Jung knows I LOVE those Korean rice cakes called dak and she had all of our favorite fruits like those yummy Korean yellow melons.

We hope we get to see them again in the States. They have future plans to travel to the U.S. possibly next summer.

Kindergarten Graduation

A very special moment for all of us. Benjamin's Kindergarten
Promotion Ceremony from Daegu American School in South Korea.

Proud mama

Mr. Casciani's Kindergarten Class 2008-2009

Mr. Casciani's favorite student!

Benjamin's Birthday Blowout Bash

3 Parties in the U.S., 1 School Party, 1 celebration at home in Korea, and a blowout Bash = 6 Birthday Parties for our very special boy. Benjamin certainly deserved this belated birthday/farewell party for him and his friends in Korea.

It was a royal gala indeed. All of the children entered the royal kingdom and decorated crowns and then were entertained by a magician/balloon magician. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to Benjamin's friends.

27 Days and Counting

Picture note: A common sight to see friends holding hands or in this situation mostly likely mother and daughter.

We are in the home stretch, although still pending some important paperwork, our estimated departure date is June 27th. Our flights home will hopefully include a three-day layover in Hawaii.

We will have lived in Korea just a little over one year. And as fate would have it, of course, during these last few months we have discovered many things that would have been quite helpful twelve months ago. Like, I just discovered the pediatrician in our home town who speaks English and is very friendly. We’ve been schlepping 40 minutes to Daegu city every time the kids came down with something. These wonderful children’s academies that line the streets with art, music and taekwondo lessons are fairly easy to enroll in, are very cheap and provide great after school extra curricular activities for Benjamin. I even have myself taking piano lessons four days a week for the last month that we will be here so I am prepared to greet my piano back home.

It’s really amazing just how much time it takes just to get situated in a foreign place and get a bearing of your surroundings if you are not living in an area populated by many expats, and – especially when young children are involved.

One thing Steve and I have had several conversations about is the way we will act toward foreigners or immigrants in the U.S. in the future. Not to feel indifferent. We will always try to lend a helping hand when we can or provide assistance. We have come to know first hand the struggles of living in a strange land where you can’t speak the language and aren’t familiar with the customs. We have been extremely fortunate to have English speaking Korean neighbors who have made many situations easier for us, communicating with Sadie’s school or providing directions when we were lost.

I think our family should make it a mitzvah project and practice gemilut hasadim (in Hebrew “an act of loving-kindness”) to help out local immigrants in some way when we return so we can give back the same kindness we received so often., make a better effort to befriend the parents of our kids’ classmates who are from different countries and are too shy to introduce themselves. I want to spare someone the tears of frustration that I encountered on occasions, the feeling of being lost, and an outsider. It may be as simple as saying, “hey, I can tell you where you can get a great discount on shoes, or we know a really nice park you can take your kids to.” The list is endless.

So it may have taken just as long as our stay to figure some things out, but we gained some additional skills in being resourceful and creative along the way that we can apply in other areas of our lives. We may have never completely gotten ourselves into a groove, but powerful lessons were learned and some big accomplishments were made.

The Ajuma Dance

I'm not really sure what it's all about. Maybe it's just plain fun, but it seems that whatever park we're at there are a bunch of seniors dancing to music. Kudos to them for being so active, but it's a little funny to watch, hence the video.

Bugok Hawaii

We went on a new adventure today to Bugok Hawaii spa and amusement park. First, let me tell you that the Korean version of a spa is not the American version of a spa. It typically means they have saunas or hot springs. But in this case the park also had an indoor and outdoor water park. Only the indoor water park is open right now.

They also had a botanical gardens walk and of course amusement park rides, because EVERY park in Korea is equipped with amusement park rides. It's a little abnoxious after a while. Oh- and I forgot the taxidermy museum. The kids thought the stuffed animals were pretty cool.

Anyhow, the kids had a really fun time swimming, going down slides and floating around the lazy river. They even had a pretty decent acrobatics show. All in all in was a pretty decent day and a successful adventure out. We're all pooped out!