Patty's first entry

Some people have been asking who the talented writer and photographer is for the blog. I must admit i'm neither! but lest any of you think i've fallen into Han River never to be heard from again i'll try to make regular contributions, which until we get a computer of our own will be from a 'PC room'. No, not a place where people are nice to eachother but an internet cafe, which are everywhere in Korea. Right now I'm typing away at a quarter to 2 a.m. Korea time.

We are all feeling a bit more setled now that we have an apartment. The first week in the hotel was the hardest because Jack had nowhere to play and the crib the hotel gave us had some strange features! It had a door on the bottom half, like a cat door in a house, and the top half had a horizontal bar that folded down so that Jack was either crawling out the 'cat door' or climbing up the 'ladder'. He slept in the playyard we brought along. Thank you Graco.

The second week in Oryudong was more fun for me as Jack and I got to live with 'Harmony' and my two uncles. Jack became quite spoiled as you can imagine! Every time he would cry out in his sleep the whole house would wake up and insist that he eat something or that I 'Abbuba' him-Korean tradition of baby carrying on the back. Jack was also quite an attraction at Oryudong Elementary school where Uncle Jin Moon took him to play in the play ground. About a dozen or more school girls would follow him around, doting upon him as he went up the slide steps and slid down the slide. I wish I had a picture-can't say I didn't enjoy watching that! B.T.W. my bother Steve attended that school for one year many moons ago. I wonder if all the school girls doted upon him?

Let's see, that brings us to week three, when we moved into our apartment with a few luggages and boxes. All the meals were eaten out-no complaint here-and Brian was already busy at Joong Ang Daily while I ran around with the aforementioned Amex buying an entire household. My big Auntie and uncle Jin Moon were extraordinary in their help to us, chauffering us around from one mega department store to another with many a Costco runs thrown in. By the way, everything at Costco costs almost double what it costs in the U.S., and you won't find better prices for U.S products anywhere else in Seoul, so that gives you some idea of the mark-up! We just paid $9 for a jar of Quaker Oatmeal at a western grocery store.

The following is a warning for any of you planning to leave the States without your official documents in order. All who don't apply need not read this lengthy cautionary tale:
For those of you know that I have perhaps 5 aliases to my credit will be interested to know it came back to bite me back when I applied for my F4 Visa at Seoul Immigration office (1st visit). My naturalization paper didn't have a name change certificate in the back (required after 1990. Mine was in 1991), so I was sent to the US Embassy to get an affidavit to prove that I was, in fact, Hye Kyung Kim at one time. Meanwhile, my Passport bears the name Hye Kyung Kim because at the time I got it my citizenship paper was invalid due to a date change on the document without a seal. Hence my passport has 4 amendments (2 additional aliases, 2 expiration voids). So since I was at the Embassy I applied for a new passport and submitted it. I came back to Immigraion office (2nd visit) with the affidavit but no family tree, no passport and no photo for Jack. I also forgot that Brian needed to show my passport for his visa (b/c of the Hye Kyung Kim discrepency on the passport). Back to the U.S. Embassy (2nd visit) to retrieve my old Passport and then waking Jack up from a nap to hoist him up at a passport photo booth, then back to Immigration (3rd visit) with all 3 things to finish up my and Jack's F4 application 15 minutes before it closed for the weekend. I should get my visa a week from now-2 days before I would have to leave the country otherwise!
Unless you think that's it, I have to return to Immigration to pick up the F4 and old passport, then to the Embassy to pick up the new passport and get my old passport voided out, then back to Immigration to notify them of my new passport! A spy never had it this hard!

The following is a warning for any of you planning to leave the States without your official documents in order. All who don't apply need not read this leagnthy cautionary tale:

For those of you know that I have perhaps 5 aliases to my credit will be interested to know it came back to bite me back when I applied for my F4 Visa at Seoul Immigration office (1st visit). My naturalization paper didn't have a name change certificate in the back (required after 1990. Mine was in 1991), so I was sent to the US Embassy to get an affidavit to prove that I was, in fact, Hye Kyung Kim at one time. Meanwhile, my Passport bears the name Hye Kyung Kim because at the time I got it my citizenship paper was invalid due to a date change on the document without a seal. Hence my passport has 4 amendments (2 additional aliases, 2 expiration voids).So since I was at the Embassy I applied for a new passport and submitted it. I came back to Immigraion office (2nd visit) with the affidavit but no family tree, no passport and no photo for Jack. I also forgot that Brian needed to show my passport for his visa (b/c of the Hye Kyung Kim discrepency on the passport). Back to the U.S. Embassy (2nd visit) to retrieve my old Passport and then waking Jack up from a nap to hoist him up at a passport photo booth, then back to Immigration (3rd visit) with all 3 things to finish up my and Jack's F4 application 15 minutes before it closed for the weekend. I should get my visa a week from now-2 days before I would have to leave the country otherwise!

4/17
For Brian's birthday we had cake (bad) from our neighborhood bakery, champagne from our grocer (worse) 10 cards from aunt Elizabeth and 3 homemade ones: one from Uncle Jin Moon, who came over just to make it with me and Jack. Then we went to the "Texas Western Ice Bar" which boasted the bigest selection of American and European beers we've seen so far-even Brian's favorite Newcastle Brown ($10 a bottle), then to a typical Korean watering hole which serves a variety of 'hof' (beer) and 'beer food' like fried chicken. Then Jack told us it was time to go home.