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Introducing Aram Caroline

Aram Caroline 

Here she finally is, Aram/아람/雅藍 Caroline!
She was born July 7th, at 19:09, 3.660 kg big and 54 cm tall. We're all doing fine!

Waiting...

After a hot week here in Ulsan with temperatures of 33-35 degrees, the rainy season (Jangma) started. Less hot, but a lot more humid...

Moonchan was away on a business trip last week, and some friends came to 'babysit' me during that time so I wouldn't be alone in case I went into labour. Thanks Florence, May & Choi!!! My in-laws were also calling me daily to make sure I was ok :-)

For the rest not much happening here except waiting for our baby (due July 6th) to be born... hoping it will be sooner rather than later, because this heat & humidity is getting to me!

Geoje island

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Fishing 

Last Sunday we drove down to Geoje island, very nice area with lots of small islands. Of course Moonchan wanted to fish for a little while... he's one of the crazy Korean guys in the picture, fishing in the full sun when it's 30 degrees! Despite the sun cream he got sunburned of course. I stayed in the shade till my feet and hands got a bit swollen (ah, the joys of being pregnant...) and then we went back home. Definitely worth another visit, preferably when it's a bit less hot and without a huge belly!

Fishing

Saturday we went fishing... well, Moonchan was doing all the fishing, I was lying on the beach. It was quite cloudy, so I didn't have to worry about getting a sun burn at least...
I started out studying some Korean, but fell asleep after a few minutes :-)

Moonchan insisted I bring the camera, so I could take a picture of the big fish he was going to catch... He didn't catch anything, so I took a picture of my biggest catch:


My biggest catch 

Seoul visit

"Patbingsoo" 

Last week I went to Seoul to visit some friends. I took the KTX, the Korean high speed train. Not different to the French TGV... except that all seats were non-smoking and there was nobody smoking marihuana. And it was safe to take a nap or use the restroom, nobody trying to steal my stuff :-)

In Seoul I stayed with my friend May & her husband Choi in Ansan. May accompanied me on my search for the right 'doopsuiker' ('baptism candy') containers, we spent hours trying to find the right colours. The 'baptism candy' is a Belgian tradition, when people go to visit a newborn baby they get some baptism candy. The containers are on their way to Belgium now, the godparents will take care of the candy as it's obviously not available in Korea.

Last Friday was the graduation ceremony of the language course I was attending before we moved to Ulsan. I met many of my old classmates and Korean teachers. It was really nice to see them again... and all the girls couldn't keep their hands off my belly :-) You can find some more pictures here.
I got a result paper with big fat zero's for level 4 (I only attended 2 out of 10 weeks), nice souvenir :-|

After the visit to Seoul, I'm happy I don't need to take public transportation here. I took the subway several times, and only once a middle-aged Korean guy offered me his seat... usually people pretended to be asleep so they wouldn't have to give up their seat to a big pregnant woman. I did run into a very nice taxi driver though, he had made a mistake and made a detour and refunded me part of the fare :-)
Didn't take any buses, it's hard enough to stay standing when you are not pregnant on Korean buses.

Invasion!

By my in-laws :-)

Thursday May 5th was a national holiday in Korea, Children's Day. Moonchan's family took advantage of the day off to come visit us for the first time in our new apartment. As they all live a 4-5 hrs drive away, they came here Wednesday evening after they finished work, stayed the night and after some sight-seeing near Gyeongju they all went back. They all had to work or go to school on Friday... Koreans still have to learn how to 'make bridges' like Belgians do (if a Thursday is a holiday, Friday will often be a holiday too, to make the bridge to the weekend... same when a holiday falls on a Tuesday).

First time to have that many people staying over at once... Two parents-in-law, three sisters-in-law plus two husbands, and two nieces. Luckily in Korea you don't need a bed for every person staying over, as they are used to sleep on the floor on thin matresses... so we could fit everyone in. And the smallest niece (10 weeks old) could try out the baby crib and it has been approved (her parents also want to buy the same one now).

The picture below is another niece, Min-Young, the rocks you can see in the background mark the underwater grave of King Munmu, who was buried there because he wanted to protect his kingdom against Japanese invaders.