Hawaii Pics

Chas just posted some of our favorite photos from Hawaii. We miss the rust, the insects, cooking outside and we miss SWIMMING. Why did we leave you Hawaii for the somewhat scenic deprived Korea? I don't know but in the mornings when we drag out our Cheerios before heading to school Chas says in his most pimp street voice, "Anotha day anotha dalla."

Link: Hawaii

If you_______you will DIE!!

Superstitions are a funny thing. But its even more hilarious when they cease to be deemed superstitions and become absolute truth. Through our travels we have found that certain countries are a little more prone to the transition from superstitions taken with a grain of salt, down a very slippery slope to absolute truth. It may sound like I'm making the following account up and, I wish I were...but...no such luck.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a conversation class with Korean teachers. We usually talk about current events, and any topic that I choose to help with their vocabulary and the like. Chas had sent me an article all about superstitions and I used it one day in class. We talked about all the superstitions in Korea and America and like I said, with a grain of salt and a smile we agreed they were fun traditions, interesting to talk about but definitely not true. About five minutes before class was over I remembered the funniest one I had heard in Korea but had forgot to mention. Excited to see their reaction to it I said, "What about that one...If you go to sleep with the fan on you can die." They gasped as if they were worried for my life at not knowing the danger of this truth. "No no Lacey Teacher that is true!' "Every summer we see in the paper and on the news that people die that way, it is so dangerous." Thus were their exclamations and I could tell they were glad to set me straight before I was the next victim. I told them that I sleep with the fan on every night. Oh that's bad they replied. I asked what actually happens then, what does the autopsy say? what are the signs that it is because of the fan and not another factor? To this they had no answer but still did not budge. I asked where they heard about this being the cause and they all said TV. Chas had the similar response from his teachers class and he asked, is everything on TV true? This question was only met with confusion.

This is by far the silliest thing we have heard of in this country. All over the Internet there are Korean doctors who discredit this Superstition; I guess they are just not on TV. A friend of ours told us that in Paraguay if you eat watermelon with other food your stomach WILL EXPLODE. They found this out the hard way when they brought watermelon to a potluck in said country. If anyone has any other experiences with foreign countries and their common If you...you will die...superstitions feel free to contribute to the madness.

For more info on fan death go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

PICTIONARY and cold showers

We play pictionary a lot. That and charades have come in handy this past year. Chas and I gave up on the language after trying to learn how to say a few key sentences and having no one understand a word. We have found that anything can be expressed in a picture so this is precisely what I turned to Saturday night when once again we had no hot water. We weren't sure if it was going to last the rest of the summer as the same situation occurred last summer when we got here. Those of you who live pampered lifestyles and have never gone a day in your life without a hot shower let me break it down for you. Apartment complex turns off hot water heaters...due to freezing cold water showers become fewer and significantly shorter... husband and wife maintain a personal bubble and don't feel like cuddling.

Determined to find out when the hot water would return I raced down to the security guard picture in hand, and my kindergarten characters which I hope said "NO HOT WATER VERY SAD FACE!" Luckily for us the security guard must also play a lot of pictionary. He got it in no time and directed me toward the apartment bulletin board wherein a document indicated in all Korean that hot water would return on August 5th. How silly of us, why didn't we just read the Korean sign. I was satisfied with this information and figured I could grin and bear it three more days. One more to go and although I still don't feel that clean I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One more note on this security guard. He is quite a dear old man. He has learned from his grandchildren probably how to say three English phrases since we have been here. In his bag of tricks are "Good Morning" "Hello" and "It's hot." This makes me so happy and I am really impressed with his efforts to welcome us just a little. One time we made rice pudding and thought...hey, Koreans like rice I'm sure they would like rice pudding. Lets take some to the nice old man downstairs. Yeah not so much he was really confused and I'm sure he thought we just didn't know how to cook regular rice.

Oh Baby Baby

In Korea they do an ultrasound at every checkup. It is so fun and exciting every time. However last Friday Chas got to come for the first time. We heard the heartbeat and as you can see it actually looks like a human. Of the two pictures I have here one is upside down, that shows you how much I can read what's going on. We can't tell the gender yet that will hopefully be at the end of August. I think its a good thing because there is this amazing baby boutique in the front of my hospital. They are having a major sale on baby clothes but...I can't take advantage unless I go for the neutral colors. Chas is happy about our ignorance for this reason. We will have to make a quick exit after the next ultrasound.

Rebirth

We are back! Not from Korea but from the death of our previous blog ziplocsfortrash. That blog was fun while it lasted but we soon realized that there wasn't much we wanted to blog about regarding our Korean day to day. This is why most if not all posts revolved around the amazing trips abroad and pictures of OTHER beautiful countries. Unfortunately we only had a couple of those adventures outside Korea, hence only a couple of blog posts. We have been reminded of this failure to deliver by many a disappointed readers. We may have lost you all so we went to extreme measures to ensure your blog loyalty once again. What are those extreme measures you ask? If you haven't guessed already by the title of the blog, what was once a mere party of two will soon become the best party of three ever! Chas questioned the blog title worrying what will become of this blog when we are someday four. Whoa slow down silly husband, party of 3 will do for a good two years, we will cross that morning sickness bridge when we come to it. Thus was my response and since he had nothing better we are now Clawson party of three formerly known as ziplocs for trash.

If your worried you may lose interest in post after post of my rapidly expanding belly pictures, ultrasound pictures, constant updates about what color we will paint the babies room and all of my difficulties sleeping each night do not dismay. I guess I can throw in a little recap of the past year which I did not document... and all of the awesome adventures that await us in Virginia which we are so excited to reunite with.

For the next few weeks we are wrapping things up with teaching in Korea. Off to Thailand for the second time to relax, explore, float in the ocean and eat. Then to China post Olympics with Mom and Dad Clawson AND Grandma Clawson. We are so excited to see them and it will be the first time for all of us in China. It's destined to be an amazing trip and photo opp.