Happy Children's Day!!!

I am not sure if this is just a Korean thing but on Saturday May 5th it was Children's Day. Basically the concept is you do nice things for you kids. So most Korean children get presents and restaurants are really busy with families eating out. Another key thing is that all over Korea the international community gets to together and hosts International Fairs. Suwon was no different. They held a International Day that attracted over 5000 kids and their families. Our church was asked to have some stalls and I am not how, but I ended up running the Australian stall. So we painted boomerangs and painted faces. I stopped counting at the 400th face! I was amazed at how popular face painting was here - all day the queue was 10 kids deep.

Paul brought the girls down for a couple of hours and it was a good (but hot!) day.

I am constantly amazed at how much Korean society values children and truly panders to them. My kids can go nowhere without getting hugs, kisses or toys from complete strangers. On the whole this society truly fusses over their kids and gives them freedoms beyond their years;

• Children are allowed to stay up as late as they like, because it is their choice.
• It is not unusual to see kids at the shops or at the park at 11pm at night.
• You will always see mother's feeding their kids their food right up to the age of 10.
• If you child is the first born son - he is the most precious possesion and he calls the shots.
• If you get on public transport and it is crowded the older Koreans will put your child on their lap.
• I laugh at the 50 layers the kids are dressed in to go - singlets, thermals, tracksuit, jumper, jacket, beanie and scarf - and my kids are in a jumper and jeans!

I find it so amusing that on one hand Korean children are allowed to go to the shops on the bus by themselves from the age of 6 years, yet on the other hand Korean Mother's still expect the children to drink a minimum of 600mls of mik each day. Children can stay up all night and play video games all weekend, but if they go outside they must have 50 layers on. I am not critisizing as there are some wonderful aspects of the Korean society, I just find it amusing.

One way to keep your baby warm!

She Did It

My little Taekwondo legend made Yellow Belt this week. She is so proud of herself and so are we! Here she is with her teacher.

Maybe I'm Biased?

Maybe I am biased but I think this is the sweetest photo of Claudia.

I just wanted to share it with you.

Not sure what is wrong with me but you are getting two posts from me in one week. Well, it is the weekend and I am so happy about that. It has been a big week. Paul has had vomiting and diarrhoea - such a pleasant thing. There seems to be a bug going around at school, we had 9 children go home with it in the elementary school, that is a lot considering we only have 67 all up in elementary. Four teachers are out with it and fingers crossed Paul is the only Ciempka to get it. Why is it that men make so much noise when they throw up?

On a much more pleasanter note! When mum was here at Christmas she bought us a hall cabinet as our pressie. I have taken a photo of it to show it off to you. Sad, but as none of you are going to stop by for a coffee and see it in my hall, I need to put it in my blog..... See what lengths I will go to , to not talk about vomit!

I have to say I am in love with my cabinet - not because of how it looks but it is somewhere to put my scrapbooking and great place to hide our wine!

Ok, I never promised a highly informative post, but a post nevertheless.

She Broke Wood.

Emily had her first test in Taekwondo this week. She was being tested for her yellow belt. We will find out next week if she gets it. The most exciting news however, is the fact she was able to break a piece of wood with one hit. I sat there with my eyes closed scared she would hurt herself, but she didn't and she was so proud of herself. Lets hope the judge was a pleased as we were.

Spring is Here

Spring is well and truly here, and we are so happy to see it. I never really appreciated the four seasons living in the Gold Coast, but here in Korea I know understand all the fuss. After the bleak grey of winter it is so refreshing for the spirit to feel sunshine on your skin, to see flowers and green and to actually hear birds again. One thing that has truly amazed me is the cherry blossoms - everywhere you look there are trees bursting with beautiful pale pink flowers.

On Saturday we took the girls to a Cherry Blossom Festival run by our local council. It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning, out in the sunshine enjoying the spring weather. We wandered through the trees, ate lunch and Claudia made a little friend. Together they picked up the tiny petals that fell from the trees and showered each other with cherry blossom snow. It always amazes me how easily the girls can communicate with the Korean children.

I haven't really dedicated much time in this blog to Korean food because I have to admit I am not the biggest fan, but there is one food I absolutely detest. Actually, that is not true, I have no idea what it tastes like as the smell of it alone makes me dry retch. I am not sure of the Korean name but it is silk worm larvae stir fried. It is a shame the picture below doesn't come with smell. Throughout the winter months you will often see street vendors selling hot food, and trust me you need it to keep warm, but Korean's favourite food are these silk worms. You buy them in a hot chip container and eat them with a toothpick. I can spot a silk worm vendor from about 50m - well you smell them before you see them. Needless to say these are not a delicacy I will be bringing home for you all to sample.

I bet your mouth is watering looking at this delicious snack! Can I tempt anyone?

One of the few English shows we get here is America's Top Model and sadly the girls and I are big fans so before church this week the girls wanted to be models for me and here are the shots.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all. Our Easter was a very quiet day. After scouring the shops to try and find something that slightly resembled an Easter Egg, I located a bag of tiny lollies that looked like eggs. So the girls awoke to Easter baskets loaded with these 'eggs.' They looked like eggs, they looked pretty, but boy did they taste bad. Underneath the flavourless candy was flavourless chocolate and under the flavourless chocolate was crunchy flavourless malt. Needless to say the baskets are fairly full of eggs still and Claudia is most unhappy with the Easter Bunny!

It was a lovley warm day and it is so nice to feel sun on our skin. Spring is here and the flowers are popping up all over the place. We went to church in the morning and we spent most of the afternoon at school playing outside, riding bikes and just enjoying being outdoors. The best part of life this week, is that the school's gymnasium, pool and soccer field are complete - Hooray! Somewhere to ride our bikes and expel some energy.

Corky and her friend Laura having a chat and enjoying being outside.

Our Ballet Baby

Claudia has started taking ballet lessons and here a a few shots from her lesson on Tuesday.

Trying very hard to be a flower coming out of the bud.

Love the green undies under the ballet dress.

Happy Birthday Bronny!