Hmmm...Art...

While in Seoul, South Korea last July for pregnancy-related medical things, we took some photos of some sculptures and buildings near our hotel:

One building across the street from our hotel had this huge circle-thing.

In front of the coex mall there were a few installations...

Like this one.

And this one.

What kind of character thinks up these things anyway?


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For...your viewing pleasure, I suppose?...two photos of the family:

Crazy-blurred two-year-old.

The family, all full of hope and promise after a good doctor visit.

All to be destroyed forever sixteen weeks later.

Soldier Interpretation

So, what do you think?

Is she in character, or what?

Hello, Blondie!

I thought I'd shift gears for a bit and let you all see some of the character of another country. When I was twenty weeks pregnant, the three (plus one) of us took a trip to Seoul, South Korea in order for me to have some blood work done (and they went ahead and did the ultrasound there as well). We spent about three days there, one of which was completely taken by visiting the medical center.

One thing we noticed is that everyone (Korean) there loved Miss Thing. It did not matter if we were on the sidewalk, in the hotel, riding the subway, visiting a temple or aquarium: everyone loved her. Even at the hospital everyone was enamored. Children would stare at her and all of the adults would play with her. I imagine that if we ever lived there it would be quite the ego booster.

It appeared as if one reason they loved her so much was her hair. It was quite blond at the time, and had still not been cut, so it was wispy and a bit curly in the back. A few Koreans even came up to her and wanted to touch her hair.

If they saw her from afar, they would poke their neighbors and point, gushing about her in some way or another. It was a good distraction for her when we were in transit, though overall she really didn't notice the attention as she was busy herself, and it became a bit disconcerting for us as it could take some time to maneuver through the crowds of...admirers.

Coming from the U.S. and having visited in Japan and living in Russia, I can say that other cultures, if they feel this way (which I highly doubt), do not show their...pleasure at seeing her in this manner.

It was interesting and unique, thus far, to Korea.

A Country's Character

I was at a loss today on character...and then: AHA!  A large part of Australia's character comes from all of the immigration that has taken place over the years and hellooooo, we went to the Immigration Museum on Saturday.

The museum itself was very interesting, from what I gathered.  You see, I am the Mama and therefore I don't really get to read a whole lot of the information for each exhibit.  I read enough to keep Miss Thing interested and then we must move alone.  I am sure Matt can tell you much more about it than I.

You know, if work things haven't pushed that info out of his head yet...which I am not going to guarantee since he spent all Saturday afternoon working.

Yes, folks, we are not really visiting Melbourne with Matt, but at the same time as he.  He left every day before we woke and came back late, late, late after having diner out with work peeps.

Miss Thing and I were left to our own devices, which is absolutely, completely fine with us - we knew it was that kind of trip.  Just wanted to be sure everyone knew why exactly I wasn't writing about him at all.  Still love him and all that jazz; he was just working!

One fun-for-kids section of the Immigration Museum was a huge boat-like installment where you could see the traveling conditions over the years.  The first photo was a state room of some sort and this latest one is of the more modern, yet less comfortable in some regards, mode of ship-travel.  Miss Thing liked them both, but since this one has tiny ceramic animals at each bunk, it kinda won out.

Please excuse the hair; we are immediately post-nap here.  Avec lolli.  Which the lady at the Opal Museum/Shop gave her for being patient.  I would not so much call it patient as not ear-splittingly loud, but to each their own.

The opal is the state stone and there were a billion to choose from, from dark opals to boulder opals to the above light opals.  Australia produce some massive amount of the world's opals - something along ninety percent or so.  It was interesting to see the opalized dino fossils, etc.

I am pretty sure that was the only part Miss Thing liked about that store.

Crazy Character

I live with a crazy one.

Yes, indeed.

Don't look at me like that.  You get to spend your time meandering around your tank, oblivious to my plight.

Okay, okay, so not oblivious, since we did visit you.  But you only have to spend a very limited about of time with the crazy one.

Peek-A-Boo with fish is a very interesting game to play, don't you think?

No?

But it is so much fun and she can spend hours doing it.

How about staring up into the tanks via child-centered caves below?  Can I tell you how much fun these caves are when she refuses to come out?  I mean, visiting the aquarium is fun in itself, but having to drag her away, literally, just "'cause" does so much to enhance your visit.

Forget about taking normal pictures.  Nope.  For this one, she insisted that her hands be up and that she be saying "Whoooooo" the whole time.

What, you've never seen her insist?

Have you ever met a two-year-old?

Oh, THAT explains it.

Here she is, mid-movement, on her way to lie down and "swim" next to the fish.  This is only after she informed me that the sharks would come up to see her and give her kisses.

Oh, they'll kiss you all right.

And then the required walking along the bench while we howl move.

Yes, howl.

In a public place.

Thanks.

She sure did enjoy the aquarium.  And she's mighty happy with her souvenir: 20 tiny sea animals.

Full of Character

Yesterday we spent our morning at the Melbourne Aquarium.  The main attraction is the penguin visit, and everyone gets to see them right off the bat.  As we were a little later starting our day, we were lucky enough to be there just as they were finishing up with feeding time.

"Penguins!"

Miss Thing has a penguin, given to her by her Guga, that was her very first "I must have it to sleep!" item.  It looks exactly like these penguins:

Full of food...and ourselves.

I must say that for an animal, penguins sure do have a lot of character.  As in I believe they are quite full of themselves.  Or at least they appear to be.  I can see why full-feature films have been made about / casting them.

Not so sure about you two...

The exhibit shows them in their cold habitat, complete with swim area.  There was one that was attached to a man standing at the viewing window.  It kept swimming up to him and playing with his hair...or trying to at least.  It just wouldn't leave him alone.  Then there was the above penguin, who kept swimming back at us, casting a suspicious eye.

"Swim, swim!"

Of course, since I was the human with the little human who just had to pretend to be swimming right there in the aquarium, I can hardly blame him.

Showing Some Character

We had another busy day today in Melbourne.  For those of you who do not know me personally, or somewhat personally, we are visiting the city for a few days while Matt has business here.  We'll be returning to Sakhalin soon, no worries!

Our day began with breakfast and a visit to Saint Paul's Cathedral.  Miss Thing really enjoyed hearing the organ and seeing paintings of The Man.  We then hopped onto the Circle Tram and rode up to visit the Melbourne Museum.

The tram stop is in front of Carlton Garden, so we walked right on through there to get to our destination.  Miss Thing chose to show some, err, character along the way today.

Posing

At one end of the garden is a huge fountain...well liked by dogs, apparently, as one was quite wet from playing in it...that Miss Thing loved.  We had to take a closer look and have a photograph.

Cheesing

Our main goal at Melbourne Museum:  see dinosaurs.  While she was a tad bit confused as to why we couldn't see them or where they live and instead had to look at their bones, she seemed okay with the state of things.  Something she was not sure of was the small glass-top display in the floor.  It took her about three minutes to get across that thing - apparently ones feet must touch the whole way.  She shouted a triumphant "I did it!" when she completed her journey.

Are you sure about this, Mama?

There were many excellent exhibits at the museum, but her favorite section was the Children's Museum. She could be measured and weighed - in wombats, of course.  She worked puzzles, climbed on animals, built with blocks and placed Australian animals on a magnetic wall.  She was sad to leave.

How Many Wombats Tall are You?

Wheeeee!

When I told her that we had to ride the tram back to our, as she has named it, hotel-house, she informed me that she was to have pizza and a lolli-pop for lunch.  Who am I to disagree?  Off we went to ride the tram once more, pick up food, and eat in our room.  We then took a nap.

Afterwards we headed back out.  Today was a very Houston-like day in Melbourne.  The humidity was through the roof and the temps were up as well.  Icky does not really begin to describe it.  At least we're used to it.  We had quite a walk to the Royal Botanic Gardens, where we hunted out the Children's Garden.  It was full of child-sized plants and those named for their shapes, etc.

Let's Move It!

One section was a bamboo forest.  She is exhibiting some Mama-like tendencies lately.  This is not surprising since she spends most of her time with me, but I am talking about those I exhibited as a child - ones that she knows nothing about.  For example, every time we have to walk into a slightly darkened area, she hesitates and considers not going.  Then she wants to hold my hand or, better yet, to send me first.  You know, so I can take one for the team if need be.  The bamboo forest was one such locale.

Bamboooooooo

We exited the Children's Garden and found this huge ball near the visitor center for the main gardens.  Miss Thing was very interested in it; she really wanted it to roll.  Perhaps she thought Clifford could play with it?  She just had to get out and see if she could push it.  Then when she failed, I had to take a turn, which she thought was very funny indeed.

Puuuuuuuuush!

On our way home we walked over to the Shrine of Remembrance.  Miss Thing liked the eternal flame quite a bit.  From there it was a sticky but not so long walk back to the hotel where we cooled off and de-stickified ourselves before heading back into the wall of humid to get some dinner:  hot dogs and cupcakes.  Mmmmm.

Choices

I've heard that choices can define your character. In some instances, I agree. In others, I believe it can be as simple as how you react that defines your character.

It all depends, really.

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Today we chose to go to the Melbourne Zoo.

Therefore we chose to wear sunscreen.

We are not burned and that, my friends is a wonderful thing.

We chose to eat breakfast at McDonalds. Miss Thing enjoyed a cheese muffin, banana and some potato. The cashier chose to look at me like I'm crazy when I asked for cheese only...and like I'd just turned my hair purple right on the spot when I asked for milk. I chose to ignore her and drink water instead.

We chose to take the tram to the zoo instead of the train. We saw a bit of the city and Miss Thing really enjoyed the view.

There were all sorts of interesting things at the zoo, both living and not. I chose to let Miss Thing look at whatever interested her. This "Fountain, Mama!" was a hit.

These pelicans chose to ignore Miss Thing when she demanded that they say "Caw, caw!" I chose to inform her that I am fairly certain they do not say such a thing.

So she chose to demand that they say "Tweet! Tweet!"

There were live seals at the zoo, but Miss Thing chose to play in the sand with these sculpture versions instead.

This meant that we had to clean her shoes out later on, but she really enjoyed petting and hugging them...something she certainly could not do with the live ones.

The Elephant area was fabulous indeed, especially all of the village type buildings. Miss Thing chose to ride on the grand-daughter of the elephant trek exhibit. No, really, they were labeled and this one is the grand-daughter.

We chose to eat lunch after the elephants so that Miss Thing would not have to act like a looney tune. Then we headed to the Australian animals and saw the kangaroos. Unfortunately for her, there were no joeys.

One of the last animals we visited before we left were the Koalas. Miss Thing was fascinated.

I chose to get Miss Thing an animal from the gift shop. I tried very hard to convince her that a Koala would be best. She looked at it and chose no. She then looked around and set her sights on a Meerkat. This was all well and good until she saw some tiny animals in a bin. "Mama, I want that one!" "This one?" "No, THAT one." "Which one?" "The one with the TAIL!"

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Miss E? She chose a camel.

No, there weren't any camels at the zoo today.

I chose to go with the flow and get her the camel. As you can see, it was a very good $3.00 investment.

Hello from Tokyo!

This is a game called "Dee Dah, Dee Dah, DAH!" that Miss Thing has been playing with her Daddy and her Tokyo Souvenir, which she named Patches.

Enjoy and I'll hopefully post soon from the states!

These Are a Few...

...of My New Favorite Things.

We've been in Sapporo, Japan (Hokkaido) this past week/weekend for a 2.5-day mini-vacation.  I have photos and more regarding the time we spent there.  For now I would like to show you some of the fabulous (to us, anyway) things we were able to purchase on our trip.

Let's begin with Day One's purchases, all made in Otaru, a coastal town northwest-ish of Sapporo.  They are very well known for their glass work and a little less well known for their music boxes.  Of course we had to check them both out.

Here is my new music box (jewelry box):

They had boxes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and intricacies.  Anyone could find something they like.  There were tiny little boxes, some that only played music, some that looked bedazzled, gold, silver, and every color under the sun.  They also had lacquer-ware ones like mine of all shapes and sizes.

 The inside of all of them is quite nice, usually featuring a mirror and the red velvet-like material.  It was very difficult to choose one as there were literally hundreds (thousands?) of boxes in one shop and everywhere you looked you would see something that caught your eye.  I chose this type because I kept coming back to them.  I figured that was a good a sign as any that I liked it more than the others.

The inlaid floral patterns (and pagoda scenes, etc.) are really beautiful.  There were many with the cherry-blossoms as one might expect.  I chose this one because the flowers are small and there are even a few petals being blown away on the front edge of the box (you can see them in the second photo).

Once the music box purchasing had been finished, we meandered back towards the center of town and checked out a few glass shops along the way.  Otaru is known for the glass artisans; they once made the gas lamps in town and glass buoys for the fishing boats.  Since neither of those items are much in use any more (well, buoys are, but they are made of different material these days methinks), the artists took to creating all sorts of glassware.

As with the music boxes, anyone could find something they like in the way of glassware in Otaru.  The color range encompassed all hues and the styles ranged from very simple to more modern and then the more typical Japanese (at least to us) looking items.

We purchased a drinking set that includes the pitcher and five of these little cups.  The photos do not do the colors justice.  The pitcher is made so that your pour the liquid into the top for serving and to keep it cold, you place ice in the side pocket which is sectioned off completely from the interior.  It would not be Japanese if not functional.

On Day Two, we managed to take a taxi out to a tiny hole-in-the-wall (under the house/in the carpark) kimono shop.  Here they work on kimonos and all of their accessories.  There were obi, kimono, shoes, bags, pins, and even stripped down kimono fabrics for sale.

We were looking for an Obi, and this is the first that caught my eye.  It is difficult to choose which one you like because once again, they come in every color imaginable.  Your house from the 60s or 70s that you've never upgraded and therefore has the original color palette?  You could absolutely find multiple options for an obi to match your decor.

The second obi we chose is covered with fans and scenes from the countryside.  I really like that it has some larger light-colored sections to really stand out.  It is a different color-scheme, but has some of the same tones as the first and we hope they can be in the same house if nothing else without clashing terribly.  Surely this is possible.

 I think we'll find places for them both regardless.  Now to find out where everyone purchased the nifty obi-hangers I've seen here in their homes...

I am very happy with these new items.  When living in Spain, I usually took tons of photos as our reminder of our travels.  It wasn't until just before we left that we finally made some decisions about what we'd like to take home.  Now that there are kids involved, I only manage to take a few photos of any quality, so having other items is very nice.  Plus, we'll have these things forever...if we can prevent the aforementioned children from ruining them all.

Only time will tell!