Friday, August 04, 2006

A good day/ lost and found

Today wasn't exactly a special day but it was the first one I was comfortable and caring for Kwandongalex wasn't a chore.
That sounds terrible. On previous days, the little guy was pretty uncomfortable in the heat and we felt trapped in the apartment, avoiding the sun. The apartment doesn't take long to close in.

I took him to Hae-su Pia, a health club and sauna with "yu-a" pools on the roof. I don't know what Yu-a means, but one pool was perfect. It was chest deep for my son and just deep enough that I could lay out and maneuver easily to stay near the little guy.

Here, I got a staff member to take a picture. I don't know why he chose to tilt the camera.


There were many awnings and we relaxed under them. Kwandongalex enjoyed running around on the no-slip decking but the exposed areas were HOT and he didn't know what to do. He would stand in place and cry until I ran over to rescue him and cool his feet in the pool.

Skindleshanks, if you and a little one want to hang out on the roof, call or email me - I've misplaced your contact info. My much-belated congratulations on the birth of you second child. I am ' brianetcetera (at) hotmail (dot) com '.


From the roof, I could dimly see Ulsan-bowi. Earlier in the week, it stood out clearly. This is the view I am used to during summers in Korea.
After swimming and relaxing by the pool, we went to E-mart. E-mart is air-conditioned and has a children's play area. There's not much for a toddler to do but I did mention and air-conditioning, right? Other parents had the same idea; there must have been twenty kids in the play area. Most were watching TV but the toddlers wandered amongst them, patting heads and staring curiously at books and older children.

Upon returning home, Kwandongalex played and slowly got tired. He went to sleep around 5:00pm. I predict that we will be visiting Expo Park around midnight.

Lost and Found

I forget things.
A lot.
Recently, I couldn't find my housekey. It turned out that my wife had picked it up and put it in her purse (we have matching keyrings). I was just grateful that it wasn't my failing memory this time.
Before we went to Canada, I left my hat in an in-law's car. It is a good Tilley hat (it's a Canadian thing- I love my Tilleys). It arrived by taek-bae today. It's good to have it back.

Even better, Air Canada found a checked bag they had misplaced and I will be getting it back, ah, sometime.
I had, in fact, prepared to rant about Air Canada losing the bag, even though part of the trouble was I did not properly check the ticket to see if there were two checked-bag tags. At the check-in counter, the attendant forgot to tag my second bag and I had a little trouble convincing AC that I did have, really, two bags. Anyway, they found it.

AC did me right on the flight home, as well. Kwandongwife returned to Korea before I did for work and I flew with the little guy. I had dreaded the flight but the flight attendants took good care of the two of us and were very helpful.

4 comments:

Sean said...

유아 as far as I've been able to figure out (I rarely use dictionaries) means infant or toddler. That's not exact, but basically 유아 is used when talking about stuff for really young children

Anonymous said...

Brian, if you mosey on over to my blog, and scroll down, you'll see I've blogged the Smarties you so kindly sent me. I just finished the last ones a few minutes ago!

pissed off patricia said...

I forget how I found your blog but I surely am glad that I did. Here I sit in Florida reading the daily routine of someone in S Korea. Sometimes this wonderful machine still amazes me because of what it enables us to do.

Hi, it's nice to meet you. Thank you for telling me about where you live and sharing the photos. I have enjoyed it all.

gordsellar said...

Ohh! I was just in Sokcho and saw that tower, only yesterday! Wow!