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Thursday our schedule was to go to the Korean Folk Village. Our friend SC picked us up, and we drove through the normal heavy traffic to arrive at the KFV just before noon. Upon entering the parking lot, SC said "uh oh, many buses". The normal bus parking had overflowed into the car parking lot. On any day, you will find school children touring the KFV, and on this day there were MANY of these group - mostly kindergarteners.

School Kids Taking a Lunch Break 

These kids looked pretty cute in their colorful uniforms and matching backpacks. But I felt sorry for their teachers, many of them looked so exhausted and stressed out.

Here are some scenes from our visit

Tradional Paper Making and Writing 

The Stumbling Family - Good Thing We Didn't on This Bridge 

Early Korean Tennis Shoe Making 

YS#4 Tries to Make a Mask 

It is REALLY Good That The Stumblers Didn't on THIS Bridge 

Acrobats 

It's probably hard to tell with the resolution of the my blog photos, but at this acrobat show there were two kids on the front row who kept falling asleep they were so tired.

We ate lunch at the Korean market place, and to everyone's surprise YS#4 started to share my Samgaetang. She ate a lot of it, and really enjoyed it. When the day was winding down, around 4:30pm, all the adults were really tired and slow. But YS#4 seemed to have MORE energy than when we arrived! We think it was the Samgaetang.

Monday the Young Stumbler #4 was feeling sick, so we took the day off. Tuesday we had an easy day. Went down to the area near the Carrefour and Hyundai department store. One the way, stopped at a park and let the girls play some.

See Sawing Stumblers 

We arrived at Hyundai just at the opening time, and were treated to the sight of all the clerks doing their morning exercises. We had some cheesecake and tea as a mid-morning snack, then headed to the Carrefour for some grocery shopping. Got lots of groceries, and decided to walk home instead of taking the cab.

Wednesday we went out to the market at Namdaemun, and afterwards sat in the grassy park by the Namdaemun Gate and let YS#4 run around for awhile. I really enjoyed the market, since it was my first time to see it.

Enjoying the Sights and Smells of the Namdaemun Market 

Guarding the Gate 

The only other excitement was a delivery to our apartment. Our apartment building management has finally installed the automatic security system panels in all the apartments a couple months ago. It is a wonderful system - a delivery man or guest can ring your apartment from the front entrance, and you can see and talk to this person, and by pressing a button, let them into the building. All of this assumes you can read the Korean labels for the buttons on the security panel. In my attempt to let the delivery man in, I apparently pushed the CALAMITY button, and some pre-recorded Korean lady's voice began repeating some phrase over and over again. I called my friend CH, and he was trying to help me silence her, when he got a call from the apartment management wanting to know about my "emergency". We finally got it all cleared up, but now I am afraid to touch the panel.

On Friday morning, the Stumbling family (well, everyone but Young Stumbler's 1 and 2) left for Korea. I think the flight from Atlanta to Seoul gets longer each time I take it - just over 14 hours this time. Fortunately, we have the Leapster for YS#4, as you can see here.

Are We There Yet? 

We arrived Saturday evening, we were full of energy and ready for a long night (at least, that was my plan). My friends WJ and his finacee HJ met us, and shortly were joined by CH and his fiancee HS. The four of them, with one car and a minivan, were needed to take us to our apartment.

After dropping off the bags, we proceeded to one of our favorite pork barbeque restaurants. There we were joined by our friends JI, and SY and her boyfriend YT. It was a big party. The Stumblers are gradually being introduced to the Korea style of food and eating. We had a great dinner, and when it was over my family, unlike me, were suggesting that they were tired and sleepy. Since they are new to overseas travelling, I decided we should call it an evening and go home. I am glad I did, because on the drive home, I suddenly changed from wide awake to very sleepy myself.

Sunday began early, as Mrs. Stumbler and I woke up at 3am ready for the new day. The kids appeared unaffected by jetlag, slept until 7am or so. I prepared a combination breakfast - eggs, sausage and toast for eveyone else, sundubu jjigae (순두부찌개) for me - well, actually, SY had prepared that Saturday, and I just boiled it and added the eggs. After that we took it ease for a few hours. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Mrs. Stumbler interested in the X-Man TV game show. But I think I can have YS#3 hooked on it after one more episode.

We hooked up with SY around lunch time and took the train up to Insadong (인사동) for some easy sight seeing. We walked and shopped about the first 1/2 of the area before turning back for lunch. I insisted we locate a western restaurant, and we found a pasta place that after sitting down, we realized catered mainly to women. The style and decor were very feminine, and I was only one of about 4 men in the whole place. We enjoyed various pizzas and pasta dishes, and were a little full after we were done - the waitress told us that one pizza only served 1 person, but in fact it was a two-person pizza. Then we returned back for more strolling and shopping. By about 4pm we were well worn out, and headed back to the apartment.

Traditional Korean Bride's Wedding Car 

YS#4 and her new friend SY 

Can't Keep Those Shoes Tied 

Mrs. Stumbler and YS#3 Resting Their Feet for a Moment 

Korean Flute Maker and Player 

So, after our first fun-filled day, we all crashed and slept soundly. At some point the rest of the family woke up and had a light dinner, while The Stumbler, being a seasoned international traveller, who never has problems with the time zone changes, slept through the night.

Young Stumbler #4 is coming along great on her soccer team. A couple of shots from her game last night, from the very proud stumbler.

YS#4 FIGHTING !!!!! 

Leading the Pack 

Young Stumbler #2 had his birthday this week, and we went to a special carpet golf place called "Blacklight Golf". Everything was glowing from the special lights and paint. That was unusual enough, but one hole of the golf course was with a strobe light. I thought I was going to be sick, and I felt really dizzy in that room. It was difficult to make the shot with that flashing strobe light. Anyway, here are a couple photos.

"Blacklight" Golf 

Special Golf Night with YS#2 

This weekend YS#4 had first soccer game. Her team is very young age, 5 year olds. At this age, the game is so funny. All the kids follow the ball around the field. Here are some exciting photos.

The Team 

First Game for YS#4 

Waiting for the Kickoff... 

Here is the lovely Mrs. Stumbler. She has put up with me for 20 years, and all I gave her are these roses.

Amazing - She is Still Pretty After 20 Years Marriage to The Stumbler 

Close Up