Tag: travel

The ‘Wall’

Mexico-U.S. border wall prototypes/photo by CBP Photography/Flickr

I understand immigration is a big issue, particularly illegal immigration. I went through hell to get into this country legally, all because I just happened to fall in love with a US citizen!

This isn’t the solution though; a wall that is. The proverbial ladders are already being funded and built. The real costs will be incredible! You’re talking about taking land from farmers, stopping their seasonal workers from doing the laborious jobs no one else will do because the pay isn’t worthy of the labor-intensive nature involved. Fresh produce will increase in price – for all of us, as will law suits because the government is taking private land and there are very few private land owners willingly ready to give up their hard-worked land. Not to mention the incredible environmental impact – the actual production of cement/concrete, creates immensely harmful greenhouse gasses. The Rio Grande is often a scarce water region so locals, neighbours, on both sides of the river, have for years worked together to come up with solutions to share the water resources. They have built dams together, they have, for the most part, been extremely amicable, my daughter literally read a passage out of her fifth grade social studies/geography text book about just this thing last night.

Then there’s the devastating impact on wildlife. The National Butterfly Center located in Mission, TX has had a portion of its property sectioned off to build a part of the wall that was already funded under Congress last year (2018) when it approved the funding of approximately 33 acres of ‘barrier’ costing an estimated $600 million. The Butterfly Center is going to try to fight it, but “Under laws passed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has said it can override federal environmental regulations to build barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border.” (Texas butterfly center fighting border wall construction).

But, here’s the thing & it’s big! The hatred for fellow Americans has to cease, as does the great big line that has been invisibly drawn between us. You are representatives of a great country, a great multi-cultural country. A country that has developed in diversity because of all the immigrants that have contributed to it. You have the opportunity to show what great people you are! And just how great the UNITED States of America is! We have to work together to find a solution for illegal immigration. We have to stop the hatred between fellow man. We have to be reasonable when looking for solutions to problems such as illegal immigration. We cannot join in with the BS currently circulating throughout this great country. The division, the name calling, the hatred, it has to cease. I don’t have the answers, but I’m certainly willing to keep an open mind if reasonable ideas are put forward for how to eliminate illegal immigration at the US/Mexico border and take care of both our fellow human beings and the animals who populate the world with us. Just not a wall.

References

Retrieved from: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2019/02/04/texas-butterfly-center-fighting-border-wall-construction

Jeju Island Part 1

We had been told by many people that Memorial Day weekend (the last Saturday, Sunday, Monday in May) was a great time to visit Jeju Island, also known as the ‘Hawaii of Korea’. So we booked our package mini holiday and off we went.

So let me first start with the entire month of May being both chaotic and not necessarily the best time for me (please read my other blogs if you’re interested in knowing more). The week leading up had been very busy for all the family with Hunter’s birthday, field days for both girls, exams for Ally, excursion for Hunter, busy days for the husband, dental appointments for three of us, you name it! We were ready for our little holiday! Unfortunately expectations and reality didn’t quite meet.

Thursday night we had Ally’s choir concert, followed by multiple things when we got home. Friday the kids all went to school but hubby (who had the day off – sort of) and I had to go and pay a deposit for a birthday party, do a couple of errands, then he had to call into work and take care of some business whilst I did some grocery shopping. From there we bought Maddy’s birthday present, and that was it, day over, the kids came home from school, we got them showered and dropped our dog off then headed to the dentist. Friday night was a late night, with our dental appointment taking longer than expected, then it was home to pack. I fell into bed about 1am only to awaken at 0545. Yay.

Saturday

Everyone was tired when we set off for Gimpo airport at 7am. Thank god for the Waze app. If you live in South Korea, you will soon find this a necessity. We took a couple of wrong turns even still, but I had allowed us plenty of time for error and/or traffic (something one must always allow for in South Korea). We eventually made it to domestic departures and the domestic car park, only to be told the wait to get into the car park was itself about 1 hour, what! Yes, if you plan to park at the domestic terminal at Gimpo airport, allow yourself at least 1 hour. Panic mode did set in a little then but I had seen a lot of cars waiting for something at the actual departure area and hubby suggested maybe we could leave the car there. We took the loop back around and pulled up behind all the cars and I jumped out and found someone who spoke English to ask. This was valet parking. For an extra ₩15,000 we could leave our car here and have it delivered to us upon our return and we wouldn’t have to wait in the other line. “Yes! This will work!” we said in our haste, not quite realizing at the time that parking itself was also going to be more expensive than we had originally planned. All in all, it cost us ₩55,000 (about US$50) and we parked at 0900 Saturday morning until 1900 Monday night, but we made our flight, so it was worth it for us.

They took a video of our entire car, handed us a piece of paper and we went and found our checkin counter. Our travel agent told us we wouldn’t need ID’s for the kids to check in but we thought it best to be prepared, so we bought their passports with us (thank god we did that too as we’d still be standing at the counter 3 days later had we not)! Bring your little one’s passports. After checking in we were told to wait for 15 minutes so they could notify us of any issues with our bag, we did, then we left. Unfortunately something was taken from our bag, we were not notified until we reached our hotel in Jeju and found the notice in the bag but we couldn’t read what was taken either and couldn’t find anything missing, so who knows! The lock never went back on to our suitcase (we only took one check-in for all of us), the zipper was closed over our son’s walkie talkie, so the antenna was sticking out through the zipper as well). Oh well.


We get to the Jeju International airport and have been given a piece of paper (more like a booklet) directing us to the car rental location. it is raining. We hum and ha about whether we should all walk there and eventually decide yes, we should. We nearly get hit by a taxi as we are crossing at a pedestrian crossing with a green light, so, with Hunter in my arms, I karate kick the side of the taxi, I am a little pissed off by now and that just really made me mad. The taxi speeds off and the whole family are a little in shock and awe at Mummy’s kicking skills! 😜

Eventually, the rental place is located and the exchange is actually very easy. Yay! It’s the little wins! Everyone is starving, so the plan is to make our way to our hotel (we are staying at the M Stay – Taepyeong-ro 353beon-gil 14, Seogwipo) and look for somewhere to eat along the way, here is where we hit some trouble.

Let me give you some background information; I have picky eaters and a reasonably picky husband. I too am not fond of many foods on offer in South Korea. I worry about meat being something other than beef, pork or chicken, I’m also concerned about which part of the animal they are using. We all like very lean meat and that too, is something not found in too many places. None of us eat ‘fishy’ fish and I’m about the only one who will eat anything else that comes out of the sea. Jeju Island was challenging to say the least and given that horse meat is consumed regularly on Jeju, I was very skeptical about what meat was actually what. 

We found no restaurants of appeal on the hour long drive to the hotel. We finally pulled into the hotel and the rain has gotten heavier but it was still somewhat warm so the plan was to find some food then get in the pool and take it easy for the rest of the day.

Ms Lee (our travel agent at the CTO on Camp Humphreys) had told me there was a pool but it was outdoors, I said that I didn’t mind, as long as there was a pool. Well we arrive in the hotel, which is very nice mind you, I check in and ask where the pool is. At first they didn’t seem to understand me, but that wasn’t the problem at all, the problem was the pool didn’t open until June 1st! Not good! Not good at all. No one is happy.

Ok, let’s tackle this from a different angle, let’s just unpack, we’ll wander around and get some food then we can tackle the pool issue. So, we head to our very modern, very small room. I pull out the snack bag, thankful I brought something with us and everyone eats a little bit of something to tide them over so we can wander the streets near the M Stay Hotel to find something that all will eat. And I laughed and laughed.

We literally walked those streets for about two hours. There was an abundant amount of fish. The streets were dirty and filled with filthy garbage. The rain had started to subside but the puddles everywhere made one cautious to walk, in case a hidden danger lurked within. I carried my son, well the husband I took turns, because he only had open toed shoes to walk in. The minute the sun came out, everything started to smell too. We walked by restaurant after restaurant hoping to find something, anything. We stopped at a pizza place but the salad bar looked awful and the pizzas had fish on them. There were some barbecue pork places (Jeju is well known for its ‘black pig’) but the places either smelled too fishy or weren’t as clean as anywhere I would have liked to dine. We found a bakery that also sold pasta but not like any pasta any of us would have eaten, though we did buy a yummy cheese focaccia for the kids to share until we found somewhere suitable. During our adventures of hangry whining, we did stumble upon a very pretty street that was closed off and filled with artisans and their wares. The street is named after the artist who’s place of residence for a period of time (more of a small room within a hut) is along it; Lee Joong Seop (Lee Jung Seob). You can find more information about this famous oil painter here: http://m.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=352


Eventually, when the hunger overtook us and the whining would shortly lead to someone getting hurt, we had to stop. Angel In Us cafe seemed the place to do that. We had been into at least 15 cafes – all of them offering coffee, cake and beer. Yes, I kid you not, if you want to eat/drink those things, you will be just fine!
So the hubby checked the menu at Angel In Us and there was a grilled cheese & ham sandwich. There was also a ham, egg and cheese ciabatta that I opted for. It was a small fortune, but anything to stop the rocky road we were on. The entire family was at the point well beyond walking on any egg shells. Hangry could no longer define anyone!

The sandwiches and ciabatta arrived, we all dug in. Mine was actually pretty good but the cheese and ham toasted sandwich was smeared in some sort of awful sweet mayonnaise type sauce. They all spat it out almost in synchrony. It would have been funny at any other time, but not now. Dear son decided he too loved my ciabatta and proceeded to eat most of it. I couldn’t bring myself to order another one given the whopping price and the small size. Hubby forced himself to swallow his sandwich given how hungry he was and the small fortune we’d spent on his sandwich too! I was sure that he wanted to behave like a three year old at that point in time, laying on the floor, kicking and screaming and partaking in a tantrum of tantamount proportions, but he didn’t. Somehow he kept his cool. If you know my husband then you know it takes a lot for him to get upset but when he’s hungry, it is a completely different ballgame. We are all done by now, just done. It is time to head back to the hotel and eat some snacks then come up with a new game plan for where to eat dinner. Off we go.

By now, I am sorting through a list of international restaurants in Jeju. Unfortunately, the family were a tad tainted by the idea of eating somewhere local given the quality of restaurant we had seen so far. I had posted something on Facebook about the frustration we were all feeling but I hadn’t really given the entire story about the cleanliness of the numerous restaurants we had already observed, so I think some of my FB friends were fairly quick to judge even the fussiness of my family, but to be fair, it had thus far been a pretty horrid ordeal. I had read some rave reviews about a place called Gheckos, so we headed to the car to try once again eating somewhere. We drove the 14km to get to the restaurant and though I had read that some thought it difficult to find, we actually found it fairly easily, it is literally just off on a side road, rather than the main road. Unfortunately though, Gheckos was closed for renovation! Can you believe it? Here we were, 2 adults, 3 kids, Having had nothing decent to eat for the entire day, and the one place we were relying on being open, the one international restaurant that was at least sort of on our side of the island, was closed for construction! Some expletives were said.


Hubby is looking at me for some answers and I am looking at him saying I have none. None whatsoever. We sat there, somewhat in shock and awe for about 10 minutes, neither of us knowing what the best move was. It was now after 8pm Saturday night. Eventually, I suggested we meander down the road for at least another few kms and see if any of the resorts (there were some on our map) were open and if they had restaurants serving international cuisine in them. There weren’t any. Resorts or restaurants. Well there was one place that looked pretty dodgy and had some fishy looking pictures and everyone said no in unison. So we turned around. We had passed a McDonalds about 8km back near the stadium so that was where we headed. Bloody awful McDonalds! What else could we do by now? Some basic food was bought (the McDonalds was dirty also) and to the hotel we returned, hoping Sunday would be a better day, thank god it was, in some ways.

m.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=352

May the fourteenth be with you! Ok, we’ll take the force! 

It’s been a few days now since I last wrote a blog and things have been a little all over the place. The local police called me to ensure there were no injuries in my car as this guy is obviously still insisting that he is injured, even though it was such a minor accident for his truck anyway, having no damage whatsoever, not so minor for my car that hit the corner of his truck bed, that was literally made of steel, yet we have no injuries and he is saying he was injured. I don’t think so! I am just hoping he was caught on camera unloading somewhat heavy items from the back of his truck after the accident. If there is one thing I don’t like it is people who try to to take advantage of the system and of situations. I had three children all under the age of 5 in my car, all in the back where the impact was, and they are all just fine. Seriously, just fine and this dude wants to try to sue me? Again, I don’t think so. 
Ok, let’s not focus on the negative, there were some positives from this week, the dentist was amazing and has said that he will continue with Ally’s treatment free of charge! Yes, free! Would any dentist in Australia or USA do that? No is the definitive answer. Very happy with that. Also, I finished the first 4 weeks of Insanity. Here are my photos so far (now the first one in the blue actually goes back to the beginning of the whole thing when I started T25, the second one is from 4 weeks ago when I began Insanity and the third is from tonight):


I can see some results. Not as many as I would have liked given how hard and how long I’ve been working out but also given that I haven’t been on a diet as such, I think it definitely shows that working out is helping me get toned. Oh and I’ve lost somewhere between 6-7.5lbs depending upon the time of day I weigh myself and the day of the week of course 😜 (who knew scales could be so bloody temperamental??). 
It has been a somewhat subdued week, I guess. Hunter went back to school on Thursday and Friday, but Thursday I ran around and did errands, we did get a new (old) car finally. It’s something from 2002. It was cheap. It runs well & has AC and heated seats and a heater of course. All the basics and it means some independence for me, although given how shitty last Monday went, I’m not too keen on driving just yet. It’s weird, I have always been a reasonably confident driver yet this accident has thrown me for a six. 
Friday was spent doing odds and ends at home, Maddy had a half day for some reason, so I couldn’t go get the Lipolysis shots either as I didn’t want to traumatize her, but she helped me so much around the house and got to play and hang out with her friends so it was a really nice day for the most part. We did happen to go to the grocery store and witness a man collapse and gash his head quite severely on his way down. The whole thing was all a little overwhelming with the ambulance getting called and this man literally out cold. It was obviously quite traumatic for her as she didn’t want to go back to the commissary on Saturday (I forgot to get milk) until I reassured her he was ok and that it wasn’t going to happen again whilst we were there. How do I know he’s ok? Well, we had some friends come over for dinner and drinks on Friday night and one of them happened to work with this guy, so when I started telling the story, she chimed in with how she had been the first person they called from the hospital because she was the last to speak with him on his phone. It really is a small community over here and I’m finding this out more and more on a daily basis. 
Saturday morning, we decided to purchase the entire collection of Star Wars movies with copious amounts of junk food (ok, maybe not copious but certainly more than we would normally ever consume in a week, let alone a weekend) and stay in for the weekend and have a Star Wars marathon. I had already worked out Saturday morning so I wasn’t feeling guilty about not doing too much for the rest of the day and the kids seemed to be onboard (until their friends came door knocking wanting to play with them outside). It ended up being hubby and I who really watched the movies with children grazing on junk food and watching bits and pieces then wanting all the blanks filled in because they were somewhat lost. We did make the ‘best parents ever’ stigma for a short time, given there were no set meals over the weekend and food consisted of very few ‘healthy’ things! Honestly, you may think I’m the worst, but every now and again one just has to go with the flow and let your kids just eat crap. They stayed up late interspersing their time throughout Saturday and Sunday with playing outside on their bikes and watching the movies with us. On Sunday afternoon we all went for another family bike ride and it was so enjoyable. This time Hunter didn’t complain at all and his little legs kept pedaling the entire time. It was truly fun, even when it started to rain, there was no complaining from anyone. The rain gave us a good excuse to watch one more Star Wars movie (yes, we made it through the first 5 in order, throughout the weekend). It was just a nice, low-key weekend, with no need to be anywhere at a particular time and no one demanding our attention outside of our family. 


Monday (today) has already been successful. I am now on the recovery week of Insanity, which means doing Core Cardio and Balance every day, starting today. And it felt good. I am still trying to kick this nasal, sinus, chest thingy I’ve got going on but I’m now guessing it’s from the yellow dust coming in from China. From what everyone has told me, it sticks with you for a while until you get used to it. Shit! If I wanted to deal with crap coming into my lungs killing me, I would have kept smoking. This is ridiculous. And poor Ally just cannot get rid of her cough! I’m thinking I will definitely have to take her to make sure she is not asthmatic or suffering from bronchitis or who knows what! This place is not agreeing with her lungs either. She is the worst of us all. One of her teachers actually made me so angry last week. Ally is always coughing, always blowing her nose, it is literally like she is allergic to this place, she gets into coughing fits and almost throws up at times. I have her doing a nasal rinse daily and we make sure she spits out all of the yucky stuff when she’s home, but the poor kid just doesn’t seem to be getting better. Back to this teacher. Ally came into her class and started coughing, the teacher stopped talking until Ally was done (as she apparently does when anyone makes any noise in her classroom that she hasn’t approved of). Then Ally’s nose started running and she had to use the roll of toilet paper this teacher had in her classroom for just such occasions. I can’t remember exactly what she said but she basically singled Ally out and ridiculed her then got mad at her for using too much of this roll of toilet paper. On top of that, Ally’s voice was a tad croaky last week because she has had this thing going on for so long, this teacher then made fun of her because she couldn’t reach the notes she had to reach in the class (it was choir class). Ally came home devastated. I was furious! I thought and thought about the best way to react to this. Ally didn’t want me to make a big scene and she didn’t want this teacher to pick on her further, and I completely understood where she was coming from. I know sometimes teachers will take it out further on the children if the parent intervenes, especially those teachers who don’t offer a nurturing environment to their pupils. That was the last thing our daughter needed in her life right now. So, I didn’t do anything until after I had calmed down immensely. When hubby got home, I asked Ally to tell him about it so I could gauge his reaction to the whole thing and was surprised at how angry it made him too. I told him my idea and as always he suggested I wait until I was calm to do it. Now a part of me would have liked to storm in there and grab this woman and shake her a bit until she came to her senses and stopped being such a bitch, but the more practical, sensible side of me knew that wasn’t anyway to show my child how to resolve conflict, instead I wrote her a letter and gave her a new roll of toilet paper. And yes, the toilet paper was my cheap shot, but at least this way, Ally can use it as much as she likes and this woman can never make her feel bad about it. 


She never gave Ally a reaction, but she hasn’t picked on her again, so I’ll take it as a win for my little (big) girl who needs all the wins she can get right now given her health and her friendship situation. More on that another day. 
Back to today, I went with my friend Rebecca back to see our favourite dermatologist spouse (again, hoping she’s actually a nurse) and to get our Lipolysis shots. This time, I actually took a photo of her sticking a shot into my belly. So weird. She and her husband only realized today that I’m actually Australian, even though I told them the first time I met them. Anyway, they were both excited today because their sons (yes, there are 2 of them) both live and study in Adelaide, Australia, and they have both been there. This was followed with, “it’s pretty, but it’s too hot and too dry.” I felt like saying in return that I could completely understand their distaste as this place is too cold and too wet, as well as too hot and too humid, (and yes, I do mean wet & humid independently of each other) for my liking. On top of that there’s the yellow dust and the monsoon season. Um, hello! Give me Australia’s weather any day! 


 Right, I think I’ve caught you up on all our exciting happenings. The days are definitely getting warmer here in South Korea, we are supposed to hit 33C on Saturday, That’s about my perfect temperature right there, although I think that’s hotter than it ever got whilst we were in Colorado Springs! A sprinkler may be in order though, just in case. 
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I hope you have a wonderful day or night, wherever you are in the world. This Aussie Mum plans on doing so! 😊