The Baby Looks Good

We went to a different doctor today for a Level II ultrasound. I was not permitted into the exam room, but according to Rie, everything looks good. The doctor counted toes and fingers and organs and other parts that Rie did not know the names of. The doctor also said that to the limits of the test, the heart looks fine.

Our next appointment is in two weeks with our regular doctor to test Rie's blood sugar.

Other than that, Rie is gaining weight and eating more than me. :)

Japanese poop

Rie seems to make a big deal about bodily functions, but as you can see from the video below, the Japanese seem very comfortable with such discussion.

Our baby is as long as his... ?!

We take a walk every evening. It's a good time to talk about many things together.

Yesterday I was telling Avram that our baby's height is 30cm this week. Then he said, "Oh, it's as long as my poop in the morning!" I asked him who compares your baby with your poop. He said he just wanted to show his sympathy with me. According to him, he thought he could show it because both of them come out from your belly. Sigh.

After the walk, I was reading a magazine. I told him the baby is 600g. Then I saw his smile, so I said "Don't compare our baby with yours." He looked sad because he couldn't try to say... .

When we were going to bed, he asked me if we need a baby bed. I said our American futon is probably soft for the baby. Then he said he has a good idea for it. He said we can buy a plastic case to store for our baby. He thinks it's the best size and easy to carry. Avram, Avram:(

We are thinking we will give our baby a Japanese name with Chinese characters. Avram said it should be easy for his family such as geisha, ninja, sushi, fuji, and so on. No way! She might be able to be popular in the U.S., but she couldn't have any friends in Japan.

We are happy if the baby was a boy or a girl, but we asked the doctor which the baby is because we have to think of his/her name. The doctor said we should buy pink stuff. It means it's probably a girl. I'm happy to hear that, but according to Avram's smart brother's comment in our blog, we should think about having a boy baby. Brothers!

I wonder how long people can try not to pass a gas to other people. Unfortunately I did it when we were having a nice walk in a private beach in Jeju.(It was my first and last one in official.) Avram heard something and made a big smile. I could tell he was happy to hear that. Then he said it was his first time to see a bird put his wing to his nose holes and fell down from the sky. I said don't say silly to him, but after a while we walked, we saw a dead bird crushed to the beach. A lot of feathers were around there.
Of course, Avram was happy he could prove his word. Then I wonder how many birds he hit in his life.

Now we have many things to think about our baby, but I guess I have to consider about my husband first better.

Our Muddy 3rd Anniversary

For Anniversary numbers 1 and 2, we dressed up nice and went to a fancy restaurant. Usually, Rie wears a beautiful Kimono and all the old men in the restaurant tell me how lucky I am. But, it seems that wearing a very tight belt for a few hours would not be comfortable for Rie's pregnant belly. So this year, we had to find something to do that did not involve dressing-up.

We took a bus 2 and 1/2 hours southwest from Seoul to the small town of Boryeong for their famous Mud Festival. I had a great time playing in the mud. After checking out all the sites, we rented a beach umbrella so that Rie could nap while I swam and ran on the beach.

Before I played in the mud, I had my arms and head painted with red mud. Then I slid down the mud slide to the beach.


A group of Koreans played traditional music with drums. Someone shoved a little cymbal in my hand and and I somehow became part of the show.

Playing the music was fun, but the wall of camera men with zoom lenses in my face was a bit disconcerting.


I enjoyed the mud bath/shower as well.

My re-re-re-re dedication to Running for 2009

I have been running off and on all year, but finally found a race to enter to help keep me motivated for my training. On October 18, I will be participating in the Gyeongju Marathon. It should be a bit more challenging than my last two because the course is hillier and the time limit is shorter. I will not be trying to run the race fast. In fact, I will be trying to go slow enough to enjoy the whole thing. I am putting lots of time and effort into the training, I don't want the race to be over too quickly.

My normal running route at home takes me by morning fish markets, a beach, and lots of retired people out for their morning walk. On weekends, I see beach aerobics and street-side eateries. Last weekend, I ran with a man from my neighborhood for a little while. He is an avid marathoner and told me about the hilly terrain in Gyeongju.

Up here in Seoul, it has been pretty rainy, so my river-side runs have been a bit muddy, but still lots of fun.

I am finally getting fit enough to run for 60+ minutes at a time. I know from past experience, that I don't really start to enjoy my runs until after the first 50 minutes. Today's run was 70 minutes, so I am finally getting some good, enjoyable running time in.

Two Weeks in Seoul

I have another two-week class in Seoul, so we are up here for a few weeks of hotel TV and great food. Rie has been enjoying the quiet days while I am in class. In the evenings we take the 20 minute stroll to Itaewon and eat way too much. We have had Moroccan, Greek, Japanese, American, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese food so far.

Jeju Island - Day 4

After a bit more bus confusion on Monday morning, we ended up about a mile from the Chocolate Museum. We walked up through the countryside to the museum and learned all about the history and manufacture of chocolate. Amazingly, the gift shop applied the entire price of entry to the purchase of a box of chocolates. Seemed like a good deal to me.

For lunch, we wanted to go to a nearby beach. We took a taxi there, but it was a pretty depressing beach with no food, so we went back into town and then took a bus to the Jungmun Resort. Rie had been looking forward to the Teddy Bear Museum at the resort for quite a while. It was a good museum. They dressed up teddy bears like famous figures from history. They also had a tiny, little bear and others from over 100 years ago.

Near the resort beach, we saw some sad penguins and sea lions in very small cages.

On the way back to the airport, we took a taxi over the central mountain of Jeju - Halla Mountain. The taxi driver wanted to charge us much less money to go around the mountain. As we negotiated, he seemed upset about the windy roads and high altitude, but once we agreed on an exorbitant price of nearly $20, he transformed into an eager and conscientious tour guide.

Halla Mountain is the highest mountain in South Korea and nearly 2,000 meters high. The winding road topped out at 1,100 meters with a good view of the top. We stopped there and walked on a boardwalk over the mountain swamp before heading down the other side to the airport.

A short flight back to Busan and a rush-hour taxi ride got us home in time for a bit of relaxation before bed.

The Amazing Anniversary-Month Trip to Jeju Island - Day 3

Okay, so we are a bit busy and I have not finished telling all about our fun long weekend in Jeju. Also, the picture page will have to wait another week or so.

Anyway, on Day 3 (Sunday, July 5), I went for another great run from our beach-side hotel in far-eastern Jeju Island. After my shower, we took a very slow hike to the top of Seongsan Ilchubong (Sunrise Peak). We could see the hill from our room and from the top, not surprisingly, we could see our hotel. The hike had lots of steps, but we took lots of breaks. At the top, we could look down into the grass-covered crater. We also had good views of Udo Island, the coast of Jeju, and the hills in the center of the island.

After a bus ride, we arrived in the town of Seogwipo on the southern coast. One of the city's famous waterfalls falls almost directly into the ocean. We went down to the sea-side cliffs and hiked down to the bottom of Jeongbang waterfall. It was a nice, peaceful place for our picnic lunch. We took turns watching the water fall and the old women dive for seafood.

A short taxi ride and a little stroll brought us to the Cheonjiyeon waterfall. It was a nice place to relax and we spent a while there reading and people watching. After taking one wrong bus, we got on the bus heading west and looked for a place to spend the night. My well-developed budget travel skills proved themselves use useful yet again. As the bus detoured off the main road and through a tiny village, I spotted a beautiful beach. We quickly hopped off the bus and walked around Hwasun Beach. I only saw a few small hotels and lots of local people enjoying the nice weekend.

We found a three story building that was mostly restaurant, but had two big rooms on the top floor. We rented a very nice suite with a view of the ocean and coastline. For dinner, we went down to the beach and sat under one of the tents. A man who worked there asked what we want to eat and we pointed at the chicken and potatoes our neighbors were enjoying. As we waited for our food, we watched kids play in the beach-side pool while old men drank and gambled. We also had a great view of the sunset over the big crater mountain nearby. Eventually, the sunset and the people in the restaurant wondered if we were hungry. We ordered chicken and potatoes again and after a two hour wait, we ate some delicious food. The whole restaurant was under one tent and the kitchen was open, so we had a good view of the process. After an enjoyable twilight stroll through the surrounding village we headed back to our room with a view.

Mameko - July 11, 2009

We had our monthly visit to the doctor today. We had lots of fun looking at the ultrasound and counting fingers and toes and nose holes. As you can see from the video below, the doctor spent a long time looking at the baby's heart. He was not quite sure if there is a hole in the heart between two of the chambers. We will go to a specialist in two weeks and get a Level II ultrasound. This will let us see much more detail and determine if the baby has a ventricular septal defect. It sounds like most VSDs clear up on their own, so we are not too concerned right now.

At the end, we asked the doctor if we should buy pink clothes or blue clothes. The doctor laughed again, but we are pretty sure he said to buy pink. Just after the 7:00 mark of the video, he measures the femur length and it appears that there is nothing between the leg with the femur he is measuring and the other leg below.

In the evenings, I can feel the baby hitting the other side of Rie's belly. I am trying to teach her Morse Code, but not making much progress.

Fun Fun Fun: Day 2

This morning we woke up as the sun came up over the ocean. I put on my running shoes and headed out the door. The other end of the bay looked inviting. I ran along the shore road and passed a long beach. At the other end of the bay, I found some luxury houses with big windows overlooking the ocean. I also ran by a UN World Heritage Site. That place was special for the women divers. The women go dive down for a minute or two and come up with delicious sea urchins. A few hundred years ago, the women wore white shirts and the men were forbidden to look. About 60 years ago, more than 30,000 women were employed in the skin diving industry. Now, only a few thousand still practice the art, and the vast majority of them are over 50 and many are over 70 years old. After visiting all of the interesting places I could find, my run ended up being nearly an hour long. It was a good start to the day.

After a shower and some breakfast, Rie and I took the bus to Manjang-gul. Manjang-gul is a really long lava tube. Over 100,000 years ago, hot lava flowed along the ground. The outer edges cooled first and the molten interior continued to flow. Once the inside flowed out, a tunnel was left. It is about 10 miles long and is about the size of a subway tunnel. A half-mile long section is open to the public and we walked the end of the public section. At the end we saw the tallest known lava column in the world - over 20 feet tall. It was formed when lava flowed along a tunnel above ours and then broke through the floor and poured down. Pretty impressive.

After the lava tunnel, we visited a maze built out of living cedar trees. We wandered through the maze and eventually made it to the end and rang the bell to tell the world of our accomplishment.

A short bus ride later, we were at the ferry port and took the 15 minute ride to Udo (Cow Island). The mongols brought horses to Jeju and Udo over 700 years ago, but the island is named after a cow because some people think its shape resembles a cow. We climbed part-way up the grassy caldera at one end of the island. We also stopped by a rock tunnel over the sea and then went and sat at the beach for a while. Most of the beaches we have seen have black lava sand, but this one was made up of big grains of white shell.

We got back to Jeju Island around 5 pm and relaxed before having a great fish dinner. I like eating in the more rural restaurants in Korea because the offer so many fresh vegetables as side dishes. We polished off a bunch of spinach, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and fish cakes. I had a bit of raw fish and Rie had a nicely grilled fish.

After our evening stroll, we bought a few things from the woman with the abacus and are now back in the room, looking forward to tomorrow's excitement.

Wedding Aniversary Month Weekend Get-Away: Day 1

Today is a US Federal holiday, so we slept in until 5:30 am. After a lazy morning, we started packing at about 7:45 and at 8 am we took a taxi to the airport. A quick one hour flight took us to Jeju Island in far southern Korea. Jeju is popular for Korean honeymoons and summer vacations. Jeju is an oval shaped island about 50 miles long and 30 miles wide. It has many nice beaches, a big mountain in the middle, and a laid back atmosphere. We landed at Jeju City Airport and ate a good fish lunch before getting on a bus and heading east.

The bus quickly left the city and Rie and I both began to relax as we watched the emerald waters slide by the bus. As we passed through the rural areas, we saw many small fields bordered by low walls constructed of black volcanic rock. Jeju was formed by powerful volcanoes and has many lava tubes and calderas. We also saw many university students riding bicycles around the island. I think the four day circuit of the island by bicycle is one of the most popular bike routes in Korea.

After about 90 minutes, we arrived at the eastern edge of the island. We got off the bus in the small village of Songsan and walked uphill to the base of Iichulbong "Sunrise Peak". From the base of the formidable looking lava hill, we saw a large bay. A few minutes of walking along the bay brought us to the perfect little weekend hide-away. We took a room on the second floor of a small hotel right on the black-sand beach. We have two balconies and a view of the bay, the ocean, the the Sunrise Peak. The room has a TV, a small kitchen, and a computer with Internet access. It even comes with a complementary can of bug spray. All this for only a bit over $40 per night. Pretty cool.

After an afternoon rest period, we struck out for a stroll. We crossed the main drag and discovered that we are in the middle of a long spit of land. The side opposite the ocean is full of calm, clear water and looks great for sea kayaking. We went over a small hill, passed by some horses and found the ferry terminal to Udo Island. Udo Island is only a few miles off shore. We may check it out another day.

On the walk back to the hotel, we found a small restaurant that looked promising. We took our shoes off and sat at the low table. Nobody at the restaurant could communicate in English, but they only had a few things on the menu. We ordered the first thing on the menu, which is also what the waitress appeared to be suggesting. The usual over-abundance of side dishes soon arrived and we started the evening's session of over-eating. The cabbage pancake was pretty spicy, but the noodles were soothing. We also had rice, potato salad, spinach, kim-chi, dried fish, and a bunch of other side dishes as well. The first main dish was a nice white fish with very salty skin. The other main dish was thick slices of pork. After the waiter placed the cutting board of cooked pork on the table, he slid on a pair of plastic gloves, pulled apart some pickled cabbage, wrapped the cabbage around a piece of pork and placed the whole thing in my mouth. He repeated the procedure for Rie and we both expressed our gratitude. Besides being hand-fed, the experience was unusual because the waiter communicated through grunts and hand signals. Usually, people just keep speaking Korean at us. He did not even try.

After placing the first bite into our mouths, he made another morsel for us with pork, sauce, and raw garlic wrapped in seaweed. This one he placed on the dish in front of us and encouraged us to eat it with the chopsticks. We were still chewing the first bite, but if we had finished, I wonder if he would have fed us again?

On the stroll back to the hotel, we had a choice of picking up a few things at K-Mart or King-Mart. We had already purchased water earlier at K-Mart, so we tried the similarly diminutive King-Mart. We picked out some more water and a few oranges and a popped-corn snack. Usually, when we go shopping, the clerk adds up our purchases and shows us the result on the calculator or register. We can understand typed numbers much quicker than spoken numbers. The old woman at the store added it all up and showed us the total on her adding machine. Unfortunately for me, her adding machine was an abacus. I never got very good reading those, but Rie has some abacus-reading skills and we were able to make our purchase.

Now, we are back in our hotel room and I am listening to the sound of the ocean right outside the window, but taking breaks from typing to feel Mamejiro protesting the big dinner with quick jabs to the inside of Rie's belly.