Driving in Korea

I got my Korean drivers license a couple of weeks ago but have yet to drive anywhere except to post and back which is just a few blocks away. If we go anywhere off post, Peter drives. I'm fine driving around on post. It's just like driving in the States, maybe even better since there are M.P's all over the place, most people actually seem to drive very safely and don't go over the speed limit. Oh, the speed limit... I'll tell you about that later....
So, the written test I had to take to get my license is not that much different from the one in the U.S. Most of the rules of the road are the same, though there are a few different signs and things you need to know. There's a problem though....NONE of the Korean drivers know the rules of the road...or they just don't care! I wonder if some of the people on the road really have their licenses or if they just decided one day to jump behind the wheel! It...is...TERRIFYING!! And I got pictures to prove it.... :) While I was buckled up safely in the passenger seat of course, I didn't try and take these while I was driving, LOL!

In Korea, the red lights are just a 'suggestion'...or so they seem to be. The test I took on the rules of the said no such thing, but you wouldn't know it from watching the drivers all around you. Here we sit at a red light and watch not one, but two different vehicles run the red light. Here is the first one....

And here is the second one, who almost wasn't as lucky!...

There was almost an accident right in front of our eyes! This is just a couple of blocks from our house, we were not even in a busy part of the city. See?! It truly is terrifying to drive here!

After our car arrived in country, we promptly went out and bought a new GPS so we could figure out our way around this new city of ours. Unfortunately it seemed impossible to find Korean maps for the GPS we already had in the U.S. and there was only one to choose from over here that was in English. It's pretty fancy and has come in quite handy. It has cool features that our U.S. GPS doesn't have...but guess what? This one won't work in the U.S., only over here. This is kind of ridiculous. I wonder what our collection of GPS's will look like after 20 years moving around in the Army! LOL!
So anyway, here's our new toy....

She (the voice of the GPS), sounds quite friendly and introduced us to many new things on the road. The first day we used the GPS we were in Seoul picking up our car. On our way through the city, we'd been driving only about 5 minutes and she shouts..."WARNING! You are about to enter....THE DANGER ZONE!" We quickly realized that she meant...the dreaded BUS LANE. You see, once you cross the blue lines, (which you sometimes have to do to turn right), you are then in their territory...Remember I told you about the '20 Bus'? They OWN the road, move out of the way or they WILL run you over! So the GPS was right in calling it, "The Danger Zone".  :)

The speed limits here have taken some getting use to. And did you notice our traffic lights are sideways...

The "80" doesn't mean 80 miles per hour, it's 80 kilometers. It's kind of frustrating because that's only about 50 miles per hour and to those of us coming from the States, that is REALLY slow for the freeway. But I guess that is a good thing since everyone here drives rather crazy!
All this to say, that I do have my license now, but I won't be willingly driving out and about exploring Korea by myself anytime soon. That's okay though, because it's much more fun when all of us go anyway!

The Party!

Joy's birthday started on Wednesday and ended on Saturday this year! She didn't mind one bit having it drag on for four days! :)
On her actual birthday we went swimming at a friend's house in their pool on their roof! The kids had a blast.

Then we went out to dinner....

When we got home, we gave her one present and told her the rest she had to wait until her birthday party on Saturday.

She was THRILLED with it!

She got her first American Girl doll, something she's wanted for a very long time!

She got lots of birthday love from her brother and sister...

The next two days she had fun getting mail from family and Skyping with grandparents while she opened her gifts from them.

THEN....Friday, little more than 24 hours before her party, our household goods showed up! We were so excited to get it all, but we had our work cut out for us to get unpacked, organized and cleaned up before the party....oh, and I still had a cake to make!

This is just a tiny bit of the pile. Once they brought it all in, this pile was 3 and 4 boxes high all the way across the room!....I think we forgot how much stuff we brought with us. :) It was very nice to be able to just unpack and not have to worry about carrying it in from the truck, the moving company did that for us!

We didn't sleep much that night, but we managed to get most of it done and the house ready enough for the party. I finished the cake in time too! This year she requested "A Frog Princess" on her cake that resembles the frog from the movie "Princess and the Frog". After many, many attempts sketching frogs on paper, I finally got it (and ran out of time) and drew this one on the cake. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Joy was happy, so that's all that mattered!

We had her party after dinner so here they all are waiting for the party guests to arrive...

Our house was full of new friends and we all had a fun time!

She was spoiled with more presents and play time with the kids. We had our 4 kids, plus 4 more girls and 5 more boys and all of their parents.... it was packed in our little living room....just how I like it.  :)

After it was all done she put on her new matching jammies with her doll and told me "This was the BEST birthday EVER!!" (Yay! That's what a Mommy likes to hear!)

Our big 6 year old now...

P.S....After having several people keep telling me they didn't know how to post comments on my blog I finally figured out that I had some setting checked that didn't allow it unless you had a blog of your own....I changed it! So now anyone should be able comment. Thanks for reading about our adventures! It's so fun to get to share with all our family and friends this way no matter how far apart we all live. Isn't technology wonderful? :)

Joy is 6 Years Old Today!!!

Our Joy Christine is 6 years old today....WOW! I can't believe how fast time flew. Everyone always tells you that it's going to, but you don't ever believe till one day you realize...it's happened! Sadly, the majority of Joy's baby pictures weren't digital, though we did get some that other people took that were, but those are on our other computer that isn't here yet. So I don't have any to show when she was real, real little, but here is a look at Joy through the years.

Look at those rolls!!

First Birthday!

Mommy's Girl

2 years old...

The pout...she's still so cute.  :)

3rd Birthday...

Silly Girl!

4th Birthday...

I love my Joy!

Sometimes she's a glamorous girl....

And sometimes she's a tough cookie!

But always a Princess...

Daddy's Girl...

She is the best big sister...

And so much fun to be around!

I have so much fun with her!  :)

She's growing up so fast!  :(

Six years ago today my world was changed forever and I fell in love instantly with this precious girl! My beautiful daughter who makes me smile and laugh everyday. She has such an amazing spirit and lives up to her name...she truly is a joy! I have loved every minute of the girl she has been, I am so proud of the young lady that she is now and I am so looking forward to seeing the wonderful woman she will become. I know God has great plans for this girl and I am SO BLESSED that she is mine!