Yongin Agricultural Theme Park 용인농촌테마파크

June 6th is Memorial Day here in Korea and Clark and I both had the day off, so we decided to spend it at Yongin Agricultural Theme Park. The park has a little bit of everything: wild flower garden (my favourite), small (very small) petting zoo, insect and farm tool/equipment exhibits, restaurant, walking/hiking paths, small pond, and a stream. There's also a children's play-gym area including an interactive fountain and "tu-ho" (투호), traditional Korean arrow throwing.

One of the highlights of the park is the "lookout sheds" or "weon-du-mak" (원두막). Arrive early enough and you can claim one for your very own; the perfect place to picnic, relax, and stay out of the heat. The park really is a haven for picnickers.

Undoubtedly though, the real draw to the park is the flowers.

If you have time, I highly recommend checking it out! Parking is free and admission is only 3000won (free for residents of Yongin - just show your ID). It opens at 9:30am and if you can, get there early. It starts to get crowded around noon.

Birthday Weekend

It took 20 years, but I finally felt bad the other day about teasing my mother on her 40th birthday when I was a teen. I don't remember exactly, but I seem to recall threatening to buy her a black rose and a dead rat that year and taunting her, along with my siblings, about her age. Unfortunately, having just celebrated my 36th birthday now has me fretting about my impending 40th birthday. Hopefully my mother is reading this and will be nicer to me than I was to her.

Despite feeling stressed about my age, I had quite a lovely birthday weekend. And just in case you don't believe me, check out this photo of Bubs passed out on Sunday at 4:45pm...poor kid didn't even make it to dinner time!

In prelude to the weekend, my lovely friend J visited for tea on Friday evening and brought me a piece of homemade birthday cake. Thanks J!

On Saturday morning, Clark and I took Bubs to the Seoul zoo. Bubs was super excited to ride the elephant train but horrified upon discovering that the ride doesn't last forever. Poor little guy, there was just no reasoning with him!

Fortunately, seeing the animals and monkeying around (pun intended^^) the zoo seemed to make up for his disappointment at not being able to ride the train for hours on end.

In the afternoon I picked up my awesome birthday cake courtesy of the lovely Leigh Heaney Lee of Ka Pai, then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hair salon while Clark took care of Bubs.

And the fun continued today when my friend C came over with her daughter for a pizza party and leftover birthday cake. Then later, we trotted off to the movies to see MIB3 while Clark babysat the kiddos. Good times.

Taco Rico

Long time no blog >.< I've been very busy keeping up with work, studying, and parenting, but the semester is winding to a close and I'm uber excited for summer vacation ~ on a plane in 31 days!

Yesterday, Clark and I were alerted to the existence of what is without a doubt the best taco restaurant in Seoul (possibly the whole of the Korean peninsula). I've been to my fair share of Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants in and around Seoul, but all pale in comparison to a teeny weeny place in the center of Gangnam called Taco Rico. Let it roll off you tongue - T.A.C.O.R.I.C.O.

There's not much I can say about it except you must go there! Go. Go now. You will thank me, trust me. The ambiance is nothing to brag about, the prices are beyond what you'd probably like to pay (in fairness, this is a country where a single avocado will run you 3000-4500won), but the tacos are to die for. Honestly, the only authentic tacos I have ever eaten outside of, well, Mexico.

We ordered a set menu : guacamole & chips, 2 tacos, 1 burrito, & 2 drinks for 29,000won. Everything was made to order - even the guacamole - by the cook (from Mexico; Chihuahua I believe he said) and to my near disbelief and sublime happiness, the tacos came on freshly made *real* soft corn tortillas. My only regret is that there weren't more tacos instead of the burrito. Burrito = meh, tacos = heaven.

Seriously, I must get my butt back to Gangnam ASAP. I think I know where someone's going for her birthday next weekend ... :)

To get to Taco Rico:
From Gangnam stn. exit 11 (formerly exit 7) - turn right at Paris Baguette. Go up the hill to the end of the street and make another right. It'll be directly in front of you next to Family Mart.

From Gangnam stn. exit 12 (formerly exit 8) - turn left at GS25 and walk straight, following the bend in the road. It's on the left tucked in the corner next to Family Mart across from Chicken 'n Chips

Mr. Clean

As a parent, when your child exhibits certain behaviour you start to wonder if maybe your *mild* case of OCD and anal retentive personality are a bit more pronounced than you ever led yourself to believe . At just 17mths old, Logan regularly:

- confidently proclaims "duh-ty" and runs to the trash can with his dirty (just changed) diaper in hand.
- wants nothing more than to help with the vacuuming and dusting
- closes the childproof locks on the kitchen cabinets should they be left open by his forgetful parents.
- announces that it's "col" (cold) and runs to close the sliding glass door leading to the veranda (in an effort to save on the heating bill?).
- puts all of his dishes and cups (and sometimes books, toys, and socks^^) into the kitchen sink when he's finished with them.
- (after an outing of any kind) dutifully sits down to take off his boots, hat, and coat, then marches to the bathroom to wash his hands.
- gets upset if shoes are not immediately put into the shoe cupboard (this one he picked up at daycare though, not from me)
- runs in a cloud of happy delirium to the bathroom to brush his teeth and, of course, returns his toothbrush to the sink when he's done.
- cleans up all of his milk/juice spills with the kitchen tea towel.
- recycles (in the correct container no less!) yogurt containers, juice boxes, straws, and cheese wrappers among other things.
- requests the food garbage bag so that he might throw away banana and orange peels.

Oh, how I love my Bubba :)

Ya! Pororo da!

Today we met up with some fellow expats for a play date at Pororo Park, an indoor children's theme park. In case you're wondering, Pororo is a little blue penguin and star of a Korean animated tv series. It's a really huge franchise (tv series, books, toys, and now a theme park); so popular, in fact, that Pororo has earned the nickname "Pororo the president".

To my surprise, I recently learned that Logan is a big Pororo fan (must've learned from the bigger kids at daycare). For the past week, he's been walking around the house randomly muttering "po-po". So today he played hooky from daycare and got the chance to meet Pororo.

We were some of the first to arrive and got the ball pit all to ourselves (briefly) ~ woohoo!

Don't know how he did it. This was gently rocking/spinning and gave me vertigo, but he seemed unphased.

Hanging out with Pororo and Crong.

Inside Pororo's house.

Reminded me of going to Chuck E. Cheese's as a kid :)

 Good times at Pororo Park. Hopefully Daddy can join us next time ^.^