Just a Thought....

This is for all the wonderful and smart, strong and beautiful women I know......

Someone will always be smarter.
Their house will be bigger.
They will drive a better car.
Their children will do better in school.
Their partners will fix more things around the house.
So let it go and love you and your circumstances.
Think about it.
The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart.
The most highly favoured woman on your job may be unable to have children.
The richest woman you know - might be heartbreakingly lonely.
So, love you.
Love who you are right now.
Tell yourself, "I am too blessed to be stressed."

"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world."

Rats and more Rats

My darling had to do her first project this week. Well, I had to do Emily's first project this week. I have no idea what her teacher was thinking setting a project for Kindergarten kids. Anyway she was so proud of her work. She could choose any animal in the world and Emily chose Rats! Where did this child come from?

Happy Mother's Day

A big warm and juicy kiss to all of those mothers out there! The girls and I were waiting for Paul to get his act together and take us to Church - so we had a photo shoot. Some I took holding the camera out from us ( can you guess which ones?), some Emily and Claudia took. The photo above was Paul's contribution

I was well and truly spoiled on Mother's Day. Presents, balloons, breakfast made by the girls, cards and then a session of ballon popping, lunch out and then don't fall over - Paul cleaned the kitchen. I felt very special.

We had a huge weekend. It started with the opening of the school's new Sports Complex. All the offical people in Suwon came including the Mayor. This was a very stressful event for as I was responsible for taking all the official photos and it would have to be the week that my camera has been playing up! But that is all about to change as my darling hubby is buying me a brand new digital SLR as my Mother's Day pressie.

Anyway, all went well, but I have put some shots below - Koreans have some intersting practises for formal ceremonies. I find these quite interesting, sorry if I bore you witless.

Every ceremony in Korea is all about flowers. The important people get to wear corsages - the bigger the better as for as the Korean's are concerned! This is our Headmaster with a florist shop in his pocket.

Whether it is the opening of an envelope or a building these enourmous flower arrangements are delivered. They stand almost 2m high and anybody associated with the event sends them, we had over 6 at our opening. The crazy thing is, is that they are not in water and the flowers maybe last 2-4 days so most of the time all you see are these tall mounds of dying flowers.

If you don't get sent flowers, you get pot plants in very ugly pots.

Only in Korea would an invited guest bring their dog!

When it is time to cut the ribbon, or should I say ribbons ( there has to be a minimum of three colours), it is a family affair. Every Tom Dick and Harry need to be present and have a pair of scissors. Now you are not allowed to hold the scissors in your bare hands, you need to have white gloves as well!!!!

Claudia found a much better thing to do with the ribbons!

And a here is my hunky husband showing off his new suit with Uncle Don.

Anyway better leave this post is turning into a very long one.

Happy Birthday Babcia for Sunday

Konglish

I love the way Korean's directly translate Hangul into English. Never mind about the grammatical structures, or even bothering to check it makes sense. Below are a few of favourites.

Suwon is so proud of their toilets, you can tour them!

This one is too bizarre to talk about.

I am not sure if they are offering services or requesting customers. They will drink anything here!
Hmm.... Sounds delicous

Interesting thing to put on a child's shirt!

My Philosophy on House Cleaning

• I don't do windows because ... I love birds and don't want one to fly into a clean window and get hurt.
• I don't wax floors because ... I am terrified a visitor will slip and get hurt then I'll feel terrible( plus they may sue me.)
• I don't mind the dust bunnies because ... They are very good company, I have named most of them, and they agree with everything I say.
• I don't disturb cobwebs because ... I want every creature to have a home of their own.
• I don't Spring Clean because ... I love all the seasons and don't want the others to get jealous
• I don't pull weeds in the garden because .. I don't want to get in God's way, HE is an excellent designer!
• I don't put things away because ... My husband will never be able to find them again.
• I don't do gourmet meals when I entertain because ... I don't want my guests to stress out over what to make when they invite me over for dinner.
• I don't iron because . I choose to believe them when they say "Permanent Press".
• I don't stress much on anything because "A Type" personalities die young and I want to stick around and become a wrinkled up crusty ol' woman!!!!

Well it works for me!

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.