Author: peterjang73

A nerdy father of two, a husband of a beautiful and understanding wife, an engineer who loves anime and tinkering with PCs and games, but most of all, loves God.
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Update on Soojin’s Status

So once we got back from Namwon (my late grandfather’s home), we were hanging out and resting and planning… when all of a sudden, upon Soojin’s return from an interview, she complained of dizziness.  She went to bed early.

However, when she woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday morning, she wanted to be rushed to ER and she was debilitated and beyond capable of standing up.  After calling 119 (Korean version of 911), ambulance came in 5 minutes!  I was impressed!  What impressed me even more was the fact that ambulance ride was FREE!!

She spent the next 4 hours or so at Yesu (Jesus) Hospital and was diagnosed with what is known as “Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo“.  It basically immobilizes you by messing up your “ear stones” that help your balance.  When she returned, she was in major agonizing pain and suffering.  Imagine being stuck in a 50-mph merri-go-round for continous time!  🙁  She threw up pretty much everything.  And when she couldn’t even keep water down, we had to hospitalize her for IV to keep her hydrated.

Another impressive thing?  ER bill was $400!  Shoot… if our State-side of medical bills were of that caliber!  And she was hospitalized for day and half which, without insurance, only cost $150.  Perhaps social health care isn’t so bad.  When she returned home, she’s been bedridden since and slowly recovering.

She isn’t throwing up anymore.  She drinks water and porridge and is able to keep them down.  She can slowly walk herself.  But two things I learned is that:

  1. This condition can come back anytime once you have it
  2. Recovery can take as long as several months

So please pray for quicker recovery and that it wouldn’t come back.  Thanks everyone for your prayers and concerns.  While it wasn’t desirable to spend our long overdue vacation being sick and all, we believe it’s for a reason.  At least, the kids are handling it well…  watching loads of cartoons and loading up on awesome (but bad for you) snacks!!  😛

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Visiting My Belated Grandparents’ at Namwon

On Wednesday, we visited my late grandfather’s home in Namwon.

Now, my eldest uncle owns and runs the farm.  In fact, for a bit, we had to go gather some firewood!

They also own 8 cows along with some farm land…

After that, we headed out to the city to meet up with my cousin, Jung Hwan, and he treated us to “crab stew”.  After which, he took us to a place dedicated to Korean version of Romeo & Juliet, aka. “Choon Hyang Jun“.

And yes, you will notice that I have no grey hair!  😛  Dyeing hair in Korea is as cheap as $10!  Cha-ching!

You can find more pictures on my flickr account.  The next morning, we visited my great-grandparents’ and grandparents’ graves.

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Monday Recap: Children’s Day

Unlike Cinco de mayo, May 5th is “Children’s Day” in Korea.  🙂

So we took the kids out… and they bungy jumped again!  This time Suneun and Hisu came out to hang out with us.

I had forgotten how much Sungeun can eat!!  😛

Here we are waiting for the bungy jump yet again!

Chilling out with some gelato!  🙂

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Sunday Recap

So on Sunday, after attending my in-laws’ church (way too big… friggin’ 8 floors!!), we hung out at, of all places, Pizza Hut!!  In Korea!!  LOL…  Soojin wanted Korean flavor to pizza… basically less salty.  And actually, it was decent!

After that, we went out and the kids wanted to do this bungy jumping!  O_o

Anna just loooved it!!  And of course, so did JJ!!

After that, we hung out at the central park and rode motorcycle!  Cool part?  They were battery powered!  Awesome… ’cause there were about 50 to 100 of these roaming around the park!

And even Soojin got a chance to ride!  Even if it was only for a minute!

And then hung out with Jyoung Ah and Ji Youn chatting away and hanging out.

And to think that I knew them since their freshmen year in college!!

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Saturday Recap

In the morning, we met up with Soojin’s ?? (hoobae, meaning a fellow student that enrolled after you) Hisu at CoEx Mall.  While waiting for her, we just hung around the mall area…  one thing I noticed is a coffee place that had the same name as my ex co-worker, Joe Pascucci.

And I’ve heard that the pho had become popular in Korea, but this was ridiculous!  This place was part of a food court!!  I didn’t even bother checking out the taste!  Maybe I should’ve for Chrisitine’s sake!  😛  NOT!

The kids seemed to enjoy the new experience… but only for an hour or so, after which, both grew tired… physically.  My thighs are still sore from all the walking around!!

Soojin soaking it in…

And me looking tired and worn out from all the walking… and sooo many people!!!

That’s Hisu on the left.

Anna and JJ looking like pros but just waiting for daddy’s coffee to be done so that they could get their ice cream!  😀

Walking around the CoEx Mall looking for places…

This was a typical crowd given at anywhere in the mall!! After seeing her, we went to ?? ??? (Olympic Stadium) subway exit, at which was a junior/senior high school that my ?? ?? (youngest aunt mom’s side)
worked at.  We met up with her to drive together to my ?? ?? (second aunt)’s place.  They lived on way south of Seoul.  The apartment was really nice and brand new.  Both the 2nd aunt and uncle had retired and they had picked up some art as their hobbies.  Well, my aunt picked up clay pot making and uncle was into oil painting.  Here are some of their nice works.

After a very nice home cooked meal, we had some nice dessert that my cousins (from my youngest aunt) had brought.  It was called “redmango”.

Getting a similar vibes?  Fans of frozen yogurt stuff should recognize how similar it seems to our own Berripop and LA’s popular Pinkberry!  Why?  ‘Cause this is the one that supposedly started it all in from the motherland!

The taste wasn’t too bad… it was smoother tasting and not so tart or sweet.

And this is their motto… “?? ????” which translates to “Let’s love myself”.  Korea has picked up on self-focused customer-oriented aspect of American consumerism!  🙁  But it was tasting so good!!

The group picture.  On the back, from the left, is my cousin, Choong, Anna, youngest aunt, second aunt, second uncle, and in the front row holding JJ is my cousin Sun, also from youngest aunt.  Missing are two cousins: Yong from the same aunt who was working still despite being a Saturday evening, and Hye-bok, from my second aunt.  My youngest aunt gave us a ride back to my brother-in-law’s place and that was a two-hour ride!  Yikes.

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Friday Recap

On this day, we left for an “artist village” better known as “??? ??” (Hea-ri Village). Think of this as a collection of artsy people that focus on different things. Among them is a place that focuses on a popular children’s character (at least in Korea) known as “??” (Strawberry). They had a loads of places for the kids to play around in… just let the pictures speak for themselves…

This is outside of the place by the entrance…

With grandma and their cousin, Taeyun.

A cute looking dog character… no idea what it is called…

Giranimo!! 😀 JJ having a blast on the slide down.

Now it was Anna’s turn…

Grandma and aunt looking at the kids having fun…

A nearby place had large fake pencils as a fence.

And now the grand family picture!

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Thursday Recap

On Thursday, with the in-laws, we headed to CoEx Aquarium. It’s located in a very busy side of Seoul. On the way, we stopped by to pick up the never-changing food for trips: kim-bap (??). 🙂

The CoEx Aquarium wasn’t that special but it was a great time for the kids. Here are some pics from that.

The above was in the aquarium, believe it or not. This is a traditional setting for a house.

Above: All the grandkids together… that’s Taeyun and Taekyung (from left to right), and Anna and then JJ.

And then went to “Kimchi Msuem” right next door! LOL… 😀

More to come as time