>Cheonggyecheon

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Yesterday we walked down to the Dongdaemun Market area, which is marked by the Seoul Heunginjimun gate. Heunginjimun, which means “Gate of Rising Benevolence” was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. It was first built in the 14th century by King Taejo.


Running through the market area is the Cheonggyecheon ( 청계천). the stream runs from downtown Seoul into the eastern neighborhoods, and until recent urban renewal work in 2005 was covered with roadway. Along the stone wall that runs along the river are five artists’ works dealing with the subject of nature and environment. Lots of local children play in the stream. there is stone bridge across that we walked along, and also we we let the girls take their shoes off and dip their feet in the water to cool down.



>First day in Seoul

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Angie has her last talk today, so the girls and I spent some time at the Seoul Science Park (map)

This was the leaning room. Reminded me of some places my family visited when I was a kid.


They had an awesome playground with climbing ropes and water displays. Above, Frankie is pushing the water screw that pumps water.

Here are the girls about an hour before they fell asleep in the taxi to the new hotel, and stayed asleep until 9 pm, when Angie arrived back from her talk. We were both exhausted, but the girls were wide awake, and stayed that way until the morning!

>The road to Korea

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Angie’s already there, and Bee, Frankie and I started our journey to Seoul today.
First there was the bus

Then we got bagels at the airport. The cinnamon bagel poppers were a big hit!

Here we are on the plane, I told the girls they were angels the whole way…

Not too much Korea just yet, but FYI, Swallows beat the Tigers today in ipad baseball FYI. Yeah, it was a 8-1 walk in the park for the Swallows, whose team captain, Barbara, really needs to find some better competition.

In celebration, barbara wrote the Swallows theme song. Here it is:


Swallows are going to win
They tickle everyone
They eat mosquitoes
Swallows win! Swallows win!

Some actual Korea pictures tomorrow…

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Looks like Frankie won the vote! Run Frankie Run!

OK, here are a few pics from our garden. Its sort of pathetic looking this year. Its a combo of Cho Cho digging up alot of the greens, and me experimenting with new things to see what will grow and what wont. The Swiss Chard did really well this year, but we ate it all. The kale. Not so good. Not sure why. We love kale, too. Oh well. the tomatoes looks good and the cucumber looks good too. The broccoli grew but the heads so small and then they turn to flower. Any idea on how to make those things grow a bit bigger? The eggplant wilted a bit. the onions, lettuce, basil and pumpkin were either eaten by visitors or dug up by cho cho. We are enjoying the cucumbers now. I think you can grow those in your sleep so i wont take any credit for that!

>swimming

>Bee and Frankie are wrapping up Level 1 swimming this week. They both can swim now! Its more like an underwater doggy paddle, but they can go a few meters, and have much more confidence in the water. Actually you have to keep your eye on Frankie because she will just paddle out to the deep end before she realizes what she has done! Their swimming teacher gave the kids a choice of going down the slide into the deep end without life jackets and both girls ran straight up to the slide. Here they are sliding down. Bee swims back to the side by herself with her teacher next to her. Frankie gets a little help. Its on to level 2!

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the girls were playing with chalk in the driveway, and i saw that this picture. it looks like a segment in the periodic table of the elements, but it also spelled “I hope”. Anyhow, I thought that was kind of cool. When I asked them about it Bee said it said it was part of her hopscotch maze and it really said “I hop.” Still i like it.

>Capitol

>We visited the Capitol Building today. Here you can see the future Speakers of the House, and of course the expert testifying at the Supreme Court! I dont think you can see this, but we saw a full rainbow over the capitol building this morning, which is what led to our impromptu visit. As soon as we walked into the rotunda Bee says, “wow, this place is so clean! Does the governor clean it herself or does she get some help?” ha ha.