Tiny Collision, Taking Car, Tossing Cookies - March 26
The words 'peaceful' and 'weekend' never seem to come into conjunction in our personal experience, and the last two days ran true to form.
Saturday was payday; flush with cash, energy and optimism, we went into Seoul with Katherine and had a fabulous time running round Gosok Bus Terminal. Katherine added another English-language kid's video to her scanty collection (she's currently attempting to memorize 'The Aristocats') and enjoyed picking out a couple of children's books. Along with sundry snacks, chocolate milks, getting to pet the rabbit in the pet section, and lots of Mom-n-Dad time, it made for a great day for her, though a busy one. She and Bryan both fell soundly asleep in the bus on the way home - until we came to an unscheduled and abrupt stop just a few hundred meters before the Yongin exit.
Some little Hyundai had either changed lanes at the last moment or decided to brake sharply - in any event, our bus wasn't quite able to stop fast enough and tapped the car's back end. It wasn't much of a jolt for us, but it must have shaken up the Hyundai's passengers. We weren't able to see much, but it appeared that no one was hurt; there was plenty of handwaving, name cards being exchanged, and cellphone transactions. At one point about halfway through the discussion the passenger just ahead of us, a well-groomed man in an immaculate business suit, pricked up his ears and jogged off the bus to join the exchange - apparently welcomed! Bry and I speculated that he was an accident lawyer... but in any case it was eventually resolved and we were able to proceed. For once the rigid schedule of the highway buses was disrupted (we've seen a driver close his doors almost in an adjumma's face as she came panting up, and pull away from the loading platform because she would have made him thirty seconds behind the hour...) so our schedule was also off by about half-an-hour.
We got our bread for the week at Paris Baguette and then headed up to E-Mart for a big grocery load - so wonderful not to have to skimp and skim but to have some things on hand! As I don't yet have a pantry - we need to buy a shelving system, probably just a bookcase or two, for the kitchen closet - I'm not 'stocking up', but it's nice to have a can of tuna, some mayo and ketchup, some snacks, and so on actually in the house. Katherine wasn't left out here either; she got to watch the fish with Mommy and then pick out a mini toilet seat! (I'm not kidding - she's anxious about sitting on the big toilet because her little bum tends to fall through. This cute padded seat is designed to sit over the adult one and comes on and off easily.) We found a throw blanket in a quiet beige plaid for the amazing price of 5000 won and picked it up to cover the strange assortment of cushions and upholstery on the scavenged armchair.
Sunday... well, Kath woke up with a croupy cough, a grouchy expression, and purple circles under her eyes. "I think she needs a rest, Bry," I pointed out, "some unscheduled time." Bry wanted to go to church, naturally, so I volunteered to stay home with her - fortunately, because my mother phoned and we were able to have a lovely long chat. Not to mention that we got the video system on Skype (though not the sound) running and Mom was able to see me, Katherine, and our apartment via our little laptop's built-in webcam - fun for all of us. Alas, I couldn't hear her due to technical difficulties, but we just stayed on the phone to remedy that. Hopefully she'll be able to get her microphone settings corrected and we'll be able to avoid the long-distance charges between Canada and Korea from now on! Katherine sang the little song she's been learning at daycare: "Sarang-e, sarang-e...." (which means "I love you") and mugged happily for the camera, while I got to show off my decor and my new lamp (see last blogpost).
We had a lovely long leisurely day together until Bryan got home - with a bad case of stomach upset and a new car.
Oh, did I mention that he phoned to warn me that he'd gone to Bennigan's for lunch with our good friend Chung-Soo and that they were going to a used car lot afterwards? So he got home around six, parked our new (ok, old, but you know what I mean - new to us) Daewoo Leganza behind the apartment, staggered into our place and spent the next four hours in close communion with the bathroom. I only got to see it - the car, that is - this morning.
It's white with grey upholstery, a four-door sedan with a nice big trunk, automatic, 69 thou k, 1998 Leganza by the Korean auto manufacturer Daewoo. We paid 4 million but insurance and transfer fees brought that up to about 5.5 - less than six thousand Canadian. More details later, as I have to go to lunch.
Bry, by the way, spent most of the night purging his system and wasn't well enough to go into classes this morning. However, we expect that he'll sleep off most of the weakness and nausea today and be fine tomorrow (which is our day off anyhow). Spare a prayer on behalf of what we suspect is simple but nasty food poisoning (drat that club sandwich at Bennigans!) and I'll keep you updated!
Love from Judy,
see you tomorrow
xxxooo
Saturday was payday; flush with cash, energy and optimism, we went into Seoul with Katherine and had a fabulous time running round Gosok Bus Terminal. Katherine added another English-language kid's video to her scanty collection (she's currently attempting to memorize 'The Aristocats') and enjoyed picking out a couple of children's books. Along with sundry snacks, chocolate milks, getting to pet the rabbit in the pet section, and lots of Mom-n-Dad time, it made for a great day for her, though a busy one. She and Bryan both fell soundly asleep in the bus on the way home - until we came to an unscheduled and abrupt stop just a few hundred meters before the Yongin exit.
Some little Hyundai had either changed lanes at the last moment or decided to brake sharply - in any event, our bus wasn't quite able to stop fast enough and tapped the car's back end. It wasn't much of a jolt for us, but it must have shaken up the Hyundai's passengers. We weren't able to see much, but it appeared that no one was hurt; there was plenty of handwaving, name cards being exchanged, and cellphone transactions. At one point about halfway through the discussion the passenger just ahead of us, a well-groomed man in an immaculate business suit, pricked up his ears and jogged off the bus to join the exchange - apparently welcomed! Bry and I speculated that he was an accident lawyer... but in any case it was eventually resolved and we were able to proceed. For once the rigid schedule of the highway buses was disrupted (we've seen a driver close his doors almost in an adjumma's face as she came panting up, and pull away from the loading platform because she would have made him thirty seconds behind the hour...) so our schedule was also off by about half-an-hour.
We got our bread for the week at Paris Baguette and then headed up to E-Mart for a big grocery load - so wonderful not to have to skimp and skim but to have some things on hand! As I don't yet have a pantry - we need to buy a shelving system, probably just a bookcase or two, for the kitchen closet - I'm not 'stocking up', but it's nice to have a can of tuna, some mayo and ketchup, some snacks, and so on actually in the house. Katherine wasn't left out here either; she got to watch the fish with Mommy and then pick out a mini toilet seat! (I'm not kidding - she's anxious about sitting on the big toilet because her little bum tends to fall through. This cute padded seat is designed to sit over the adult one and comes on and off easily.) We found a throw blanket in a quiet beige plaid for the amazing price of 5000 won and picked it up to cover the strange assortment of cushions and upholstery on the scavenged armchair.
Sunday... well, Kath woke up with a croupy cough, a grouchy expression, and purple circles under her eyes. "I think she needs a rest, Bry," I pointed out, "some unscheduled time." Bry wanted to go to church, naturally, so I volunteered to stay home with her - fortunately, because my mother phoned and we were able to have a lovely long chat. Not to mention that we got the video system on Skype (though not the sound) running and Mom was able to see me, Katherine, and our apartment via our little laptop's built-in webcam - fun for all of us. Alas, I couldn't hear her due to technical difficulties, but we just stayed on the phone to remedy that. Hopefully she'll be able to get her microphone settings corrected and we'll be able to avoid the long-distance charges between Canada and Korea from now on! Katherine sang the little song she's been learning at daycare: "Sarang-e, sarang-e...." (which means "I love you") and mugged happily for the camera, while I got to show off my decor and my new lamp (see last blogpost).
We had a lovely long leisurely day together until Bryan got home - with a bad case of stomach upset and a new car.
Oh, did I mention that he phoned to warn me that he'd gone to Bennigan's for lunch with our good friend Chung-Soo and that they were going to a used car lot afterwards? So he got home around six, parked our new (ok, old, but you know what I mean - new to us) Daewoo Leganza behind the apartment, staggered into our place and spent the next four hours in close communion with the bathroom. I only got to see it - the car, that is - this morning.
It's white with grey upholstery, a four-door sedan with a nice big trunk, automatic, 69 thou k, 1998 Leganza by the Korean auto manufacturer Daewoo. We paid 4 million but insurance and transfer fees brought that up to about 5.5 - less than six thousand Canadian. More details later, as I have to go to lunch.
Bry, by the way, spent most of the night purging his system and wasn't well enough to go into classes this morning. However, we expect that he'll sleep off most of the weakness and nausea today and be fine tomorrow (which is our day off anyhow). Spare a prayer on behalf of what we suspect is simple but nasty food poisoning (drat that club sandwich at Bennigans!) and I'll keep you updated!
Love from Judy,
see you tomorrow
xxxooo
posted by Alembyc at
7:36 p.m.
1 Comments:
Wow, a car already! I'm glad for you, I'm sure it will make life a lot easier. (BTW, we are enjoying the van!)
I hope and pray Bryan feels better quickly.
I thought of you yesterday, Bryan, when I played a game of RatRace with the kids. To shorten the game we made a new rule - no divorce! It sure speeds up the game!
Love to all,
Audrey
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