picture perfect

We are about 12 hours away from leaving on vacation, and instead of packing (no, haven't done it yet), I have decided to share some photos of the last few weeks.

Why look - here is the family - with a visitor to Seoul.

And Jamie and I also made the Korean media - here are the photos from a variety of Korean ent-news-media sources. We showed up to a children's dumpling-making experience after school one day, and Jamie and his friend Luke (almost the only children there) were greeted by at least a dozen film and video cameras and several very assertive women insisting that we SIT THERE; MORE SMILE and TRY MAKE DUMPLINGS. The boys held up very well, but were both trembling in their mother's arms before the dumplings finished steaming. Aren't foreigners funny? Apparently it is customary to eat mandu for solal (Lunar New Year) which is this coming Monday - and photos of cute foreign kids (namu keyowah) preparing this cuisine were popular enough to make it into at least 6 news magazines.

The big news of the last few weeks was Iris' first birthday. We hired a photographer for the occasion, so there will be a well-illustrated entry about it in due time, but here is a preview for anyone who like photos of cute foreign kids wearing traditional dress.

Occasionally, to broaden my horizons, Iris and I meet others for lunch - but look - here I am out for dinner with friends and there is not a baby to be seen! This may only be remarkable to me, since I think that this might be only the second time I have been out baby-free in a year. For the tourists in the audience, the restaurant was A Table, and the 7(.5)-course prix fix was well worth it. The lovely ladies are the moms of some of Jamie's classmates. We generally spend Wednesday afternoons together with a house full of kids - but this was nice too.

Family outings are still the order of the day, however, so last weekend we went to the Natural History Museum. Although a new museum, we were not spell-bound. Jamie enjoyed the dino-slide; Iris was happy with the round chairs; We ate hot dogs. I tried to photograph my daughter being eaten by a dinosaur, but my camera was pretty broken. The next day we bought a new camera; future pictures might indeed be perfect.

So parties, play dates, Prime Ministers, press junkets, and pachycephalosaurs predominate, but I still take weekly Korean culture classes - so here we are making Hanji Paper, and I also present my newly completed tea table and flower lamp. Iris has claimed the former, and Jamie the later, so my efforts are not unappreciated. My teacher, of course, remains unimpressed. Particularly after today when I tried to CHECK PLEASE that my lamp was working and managed not only to smash my light bulb but also short-circuit the socket, causing a partial power failure at the GVC. Perfect as always.

So now, off to pack. In two weeks we will return to Seoul with a whole new set of perfect pictures with which to enrich, entertain, and edify.