Mountain Trout Festival

The temptation was quite strong when I saw fishing pictures at
Raphael's blog. Fishing on ice like Pingu. Actually it was my son's earnest wish for a couple of years, too.

So we decided to go Hwacheon for fishing, and to enjoy Mountain Trouts Festival.

We could arrive at the place at about 9:30 am after two and half hours drive, but there're already lots of people fishing on the river(surprisingly it looked artificially being iced and looked very safe). We found spots and waiting for fish on the crowded river.

(The hole for fishing)

But obviously there're more people than fish. From time to time, some of them yelled cafter catching beautiful trouts, but we gave up our efforts after two or three hours without any fish. Kids were dissappointed. Fortunately, however, there're many other funs like sled, ice tunnels, ice house and so on.

(We needed real fish, but this fish lamp was also nice)

Sledding was another fun we could enjoy for hours. Real pleasures. We spent most of afternoon for this sled-riding on the river, the side of the fishing spot. There were big family-size sleds on which three or four kids could ride at the same time, but we rented three small traditional sleds due to the more than one hour waiting time for the big one. The small sleds were also nice anyway.

(My nephew and younger brother went together. 3 adults and 3 kids. Playing with kids is a hard-labor sometimes)


(My little girl was getting asleep while sled riding..)

We left the place in the late afternoon, and could be back home after 4 hours driving due to the weekend traffic jam.. I think that's a sort of payments or costs for pleasure..

(The crowded river for fising and sledding)

What are the necessaries for 7 months ?

The next moving date was fixed: Jan 26. But not fixed yet what we are going to bring with us to the new house.

Actually, it is a sort of furnished apartments and we don't need to move kitchen gadgets or a closet. No fridge, no gas-cooker, no washer, and no closets.

We'll bring some clothes, bedclothes, the small stove, the electronic kettle, and some kitchenware like pots, dishes and spoons. The computer and the small audio player will be moved too. Kids books and some toys, too. We may need a small table and chairs.

(SJ's toy house -The Jae-Ne Jib,means His House, would be the largest size toy we have to move )

I'm hesitating to bring the TV set and the DVD player becuase a small desk or draw table might be needed for them, but kids must be demand them.. Don't know..

I'm hesitating for a book-shelf. Actually we used four big book shelves and 3 small ones before, but I'm not sure we still need any of them. I threw away a lot of my books already, and put away a lot of kids books . Perhapse we can give up this item.

I'm hesitating for the sofa, becasue I- I'm sure WE- might be rolling over the living room or the bed room while I'm staying at home. And I don't like to see the rolling kids like potatoes while watching TV. But it's too large to move by myself. It would be better to change my mind. What's the matter if we are rolling over all the places at home for moments..?

I'm a little bit worrying about that I became too familiar to discard something, but not so bad.. Anyway I wish it would be like living in a hotel..

The Lake Park at Ilsan.

The Lake Park at Ilsan is quite famous but we've never been to there so far. We went to there on the last sunday and spent couple of hours in a small theme park(with baloons and air mats). SJ had enjoyed his first bunge jump-actually a sort of tumbling. The little girl enjoyed the air- mat-playground but cried for my stupid attempt of the tumbling..

We found the next destination and are going to move two weeks later. Again, my wife sought it and had a contract for it. It is a small apartment in Ankookdong-exactly Kyungwundong and very close from the old downtown. Yes, it takes quite long to my office..

The Second Search.

My wife are looking around two or three places for our temporary residence.

Her necessary condition is that SJ can take his school bus easily as possible. My condition is that I can get to my office by metro or by bus within reasonable time. SJ has also his own idea on this. He said he doesn't like old apartments, and it should have a silver-colored appearance(he means the brandnew buildings wrapped with aluminum panels or glass curtain-walls, i think)


And it would be better if

• the directions of this and the next moving are not westward
• the cost is not too much
• the space is large enough for four family members
• the surroundings are nice for daily life: parks, hospitals, shopping malls and pleasant neighbors
• and so on..

We are considering a small apartment or studio in one of these areas: Jamwon, Angook, and Hannam dong. Kwanghwamoon was a strong candidate, too, but there's none available at the moment.

Some of the family members and friends are wondering why we do not settle down simply and why we are hopping from this place to the other place far away, and hopping again soon. I fully understand the question and agree the curiosity partly. But hard to explain.

What I can say at this moment is that the journey is still on the planned track so far fortunately.

Winter Wanderers

New resolutions for a new year? No, no, never to my family, at least, this time. We could manage only daily schedules or, at most, weekly schedules. Any yearly plan may smash and destroy my wife's brain as well as mine.

Two words for my family at the moment are wandering and wondering. Wandering life and wondering future.

-

Bundang is a wonderful place for living, according to my wife, because

• most of places are flat and no high hills to climb to go home.
• there are a lot of markets and stores, and no need to buy food for a week in discount stores.

In my opinion, it's a nice place too because I could reach to my office from home in 40 minutes by walk, no costs for commuting, and plenty in the morning and in the evening.

As for my kids, they are really pleased with two new family members. Their aunt and uncle are very kind and deliberate.

There's a lot of benefits in living here, but it is just a temporary shelter for January. I think we moved to here only in terms of sleeping, eating, and daily chores. If not, why did we have such a hard saturday in the last weekend.

Due to the sudden attack of the big snow while we were waiting for SJ's one-hour english class and my appointment with the dentist, which were happened far more than 30kms from the current home, we had to wait for more than two hours of snow removal.

Anyway, in the coming weekend, we'll resume to search for another rental house in downtown again.

PS. There're some confusions in the move at the end of the last year. The biggiest one is that the two-day-long plan was changed to a single day one. In the meanwhile, the fridge was delivered to the wrong place. Many of plants and pots were broken/lost due to the careless handling. I was annoyed but no way.

PS2. Thanks to stone for your interest. Actually there's no private place for me at the moment, so it's hard to update the blog..