Oh Golly Ogallala

Have you ever been curious about those small towns with crazy names in between cow pastures and corn fields you pass as you drive across this great nation? Ya, me either. Unfortunately we've been afforded a few days to see one intimately. I am currently sitting in a Holiday Inn Express (the nicest motel in town) in a rustic Nebraskan town called Ogallala. Our car broke down as we pulled off to find out if Wendy's Jr. bacon cheese burgers and frosty's taste the same as they did 1 year ago before we left this great land.

We had to find a motel after our car broke down and was being worked on. The weathered old tow truck driver, barely audible through is blacked vocal cords, gave us some friendly advice on where not to stay. "There are some motels in this part of town, but even I wouldn't stay there and I'm not driving a Cadillac." Hm... Things weren't looking so good but he continued "My cousin drives a Cadillac too. He lives in California. When he comes into town he stays at the Best Western so that might be a good place for you." It made me feel proud to realize I have reached Best Western/Caddy status while still in my 30's. Is going to grad school really necessary?

The guys at the shop were great. They stayed 3 hours after closing to try and get our car running. I know that wouldn't have happened on the east and west extremities of this country. I guess there is a reason they call this the heart land. They've got lots of heart (and lots of land too). Need further evidence? The guy working at the front desk of Holiday Inn felt bad about our situation and decided to give us a room with TWO large beds at the $40 discounted government rate! I'd tell yo more of our adventure but AFV is back on and they are doing a segment on cats fighting with birds. Keep those cameras running (but not your cars) America!

The sadest part of this whole situation is that we are missing Lacey's best friend from HI's wedding. We planned our drive home perfectly so that we would rendezvous the wedding party in Nauvoo, IL and spend a night there and go to the reception the next day. We are still 9 hours away from the temple so that's not going to happen. If we can make it to the reception we'll count that as a blessing! I hope these guys have good mechanic skills. If we are here for another day I'll take the camera to document these parts. Sorry Jessica, we really want to be there tomorrow.

Chas

Gluten Goodness

After visiting with family in California Chas and I made our way to Flagstaff, AZ to visit family including Grammy, Zula Belle Walton. This is Chas' maternal grandmother and she is a ripe 88 years old. She is still sharp as a tack, up and moving all over the place making us meals and pies, Grammy definitely makes 88 look good. We got to visit with her and interview her for some family history. She was full of advice and stories inviting us into her wonderful past and amazing life. We loved getting to know her more and staying with Scott and Carrie.

About 3-4 months ago in Korea I started getting major cravings for my moms homemade bread. She grinds the wheat in a wheat grinder and makes the flour fresh. About an hour or so later we have warm soft deliciousness. I informed her of this craving at the time and mentioned that it might not be a bad idea to have a hot one right out of the oven when we arrive. She agreed and I have been looking forward to it ever since. She was good to her word and when we walked in the door the aroma felt like home. With butter and honey it was the best treat I could have asked for. I think Olive liked it too!

Behold the belly and the iphone

A belly shot has been requested 2 times on the blog. I have been reluctant to share because so far I don't have much to show for being 5 months pregnant. Baby Olive is only about 8 or so inches from head to rump as they call it on my baby updates. She weighs around 3/4 of a lb. So what I'm saying is that she is little...hence my little belly. They also say that with the first pregnancy it takes a little longer to show than subsequent babies. Without further introduction here is a shot that Chas just took. Not too exciting but I promise when I am a big mama (and I no doubt will be) I will update the pic again.

My Apple loving husband has been chomping at the bit to get his hands on the iphone. Ever since we left for Korea it has been a regular topic of conversation and highly sought after purchase upon our return. Needless to say the day after we arrived on American soil we purchased the much anticipated hand-held device. And what a little device it is. Today I did online banking, requested a copy of our insurance policy to my email, and checked the email minutes later to make sure it was sent all in the CAR. Not to mention google maps the weather report and just using it as a regular old phone. It is a time saver, the most convenient electronic and I love it. So far we only have one but we will get another for Chas when we get back to VA. (He heard there was a rumor they were coming out with a 32 gig phone and he thought it was worth the wait just in case :) For those of you who would like to contact us with the peace of mind that its no longer 2 am and a day ahead for us, here is our new number,
# 703-789-fifty fifteen.

home sweet home/babies/China madness!

We arrived in San Francisco yesterday and have been enjoying the beautiful Napa wine country and my many family members that live in this area. After the airport my Dad took us immediately to the Cheesecake Factory. Not only was it delicious we were a little shocked at not being a minority anymore, or having to repeat everything 2-3 times. We went to Safeway later on that evening and basked in the spacious supermarket while admiring the availability of food items we struggled so much to find in Korea. We only needed Garlic Powder for my families famous tacos on Sunday, but again I was surprised when I asked where the restroom was and the clerk answered me without a confused and lost expression. This I experienced one too many times in that Asian country. It was a beautiful day and we almost shed a tear when the immigration clerk gave us a warm, "Welcome home!"

BABY NEWS!
On Friday the day before we all flew home I had one more Doctors appointment. In Korea this means nothing about the Dr. because I only see him for all of 2 minutes. These visits really mean I get another ultrasound which I always look forward to. This time it was extra special for two reasons, first the baby is definitely big enough to tell the sex and second Gma and Gpa Clawson could come with us and see the munchkin on screen too. I had to ask a lot of times for the Korean nurse to tell me the sex but she seemed confident that it is a BABY GIRL. We are so excited and unless something got lost in translation we will look forward to a plethora of pinks and purples. By the way were naming her Olive Clawson after Chas' 83 year old grandma. Hopefully our Olive will be as spunky as the original.

Endless China
I knew that Clawsons travel a little differently than Nobmanns and Chas had also warned me but I have more clearly defined the difference after this almost 3 week extravaganza. Clawsons travel/marathon tour and Nobmanns travel/tan/roll in the sand/room service. Needless to say I am tired but by the end I was comforted to know that even though Clawsons go all out they were just as tired as I was by the end. I did survive and barely held my own with these world class touring experts. There was hardly a dull moment and because of the spectacular planning we experienced and saw so many wonderful things.
Before China we all (actually only the women) did a lot of reading of memoirs and biographies of foreigners living in China or Chinese who have immigrated to the States. They were pretty incredible and if anyone is interested, two books I would recommend are River Town by Peter Hessler and Wild Swans by Jung Chang. One thing that impressed me is that China accounts for almost 20% of the worlds population and I know so little about the culture and history. These books and seeing so much from the trip has been so educational and memorable. Instead of rattling off all of our tours and adventures I want to share one. (picture at right: Chas and Judy on the Great Wall)

(Temple of Heaven old Chinese Checker Game)
Our second day in Beijing and China in general we went to the Temple of Heaven. This is where the Emperor would visit at certain times of the year to remember his ancestors and pay tribute/worship etc. The architecture and ancient feel of the buildings were beautiful but not my favorite part. There is a courtyard leading up to the buildings and the people who fill the courtyard are who made the trip incredible. Elders and their families come in the morning everyday before 10 am and dance, sing, exercise, play cards, chess and talk story. This is amazing because up until about 10 years ago leisure activities and some fine arts and traditional music were strictly prohibited or frowned upon. Seeing the people happy and spending time together sharing their abilities and learning together was emotional because all of this age group could remember the time when they lost this freedom for so many years. This was my favorite and most memorable part of China.

Near Future Plans:
We will be in California for another 5 days or so then off to Flagstaff to see Grammie (Chas' mom's mom) and then to Utah to me my mom and other family. We are driving from their to Nauvoo for a wedding and then finally to Virginia. We should be in Virginia around the 13th of October. It is going to be a crazy ride and I think by time we finish I will never want to see my blue suitcases again. However we are so excited to visit family and friends who we have missed this past year along the way.
(below is a video of the activities outside the Temple of Heaven)

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.