Operation: Spring Break

As a parent, there is great deal of pressure surrounding spring break-- especially surrounding the entertainment that will fill the five day school-free span.  Why, so much pressure?  Not because the kids go back to school and compare notes on whose break escapades garnered the greatest amount of epic awesomeness.  No.  Because if you are not armed with copious amounts of age-appropriate F.U.N., you will surely face the dreaded "I'm boooooored" refrain before the sun sets on the first day.  (Can you tell I've been in this scenario once or twice before?)

I created a spring break strategy that would strike a perfect balance between fun in our own "backyard," cultural exploration, and kids choice events. And, bonus!, Joe took a couple days of leave to come out and play, so we had a ton of family fun over spring break.

We shared day one with the King family, fellow Fiends and great friends, hiking at Mt. Buraksan which is just around the corner from the base.  It was a beautiful spring day, the hillsides were dotted with budding blossoms-- and 7 children bounding down the path just made the scenery even more picturesque.  There is nothing better than seeing kids revel in just being kids.

We struck out a little further down the road when we visited the Korean Folk village in Suwon, which is about 45 minutes away.  It was a great chance to practice using our GPS (travel in Korea is complicated by the fact that you can't actually READ any of the road signs), and we made it with only one major U-turn required! Victory!

The Korean Folk Village is a display of traditional Korean houses and farms from around the peninsula, and really gives visitors a chance to peer in to the past.

In just a few hours we were able to see

•  a traditional Korean wedding ceremony (not very interesting for the kids, as you can imagine.... turns out Korean weddings are a lot like American weddings: really only interesting if you are the one getting hitched!), 
• archers perform on horseback (10 times more exciting than the wedding!), 
  

• traditional farm dancers,
• a very old man do stunts on a tight rope (not sure if he gets life insurance in his current position, but I would have made sure it was written into the contract!). 

By far the favorite activity was a small section of the park where they have a traditional playground set up with wooden swings, jump ropes, and Korean games. We spent well over an hour just PLAYING....but we were also learning.  It was a beautiful thing.  Edutainment at its finest!

 We spent this fabulous day with the Harman clan-- who are also part of the Fiend family-- and it was so sweet to make memories with friends who love Korea just as much as we do!



Our final major activity of spring break was a trip to Everland, which is a much smaller version of Disneyland with a definite Korean flair.  The staff were outfitted in exceedingly hideous uniforms of brown and pastel green and pink, and everyone performed an exuberant two handed "jazz-hands" salute to passers-by.  See? Very Disney.... choreographed enthusiasm around every corner! But, the kids had a blast riding the roller coasters, dashing through the fun house, getting whiplash on the bumper cars, and watching the parade.  Of course, this was all made more interesting by the fact that it was SNOWING! Yes, SNOW in mid-April.  Needless to say, we were not prepared for these wintery conditions-- most of us only packed light wind breakers-- but, we deterred by the strange weather.  The Koreans, in general, will not venture out if the weather is dodgy, so while the snow made our day a bit chilly, it also ensured that the lines for rides were almost non-existent!  Hurray for amusement parks in the snow!  I wish I had pictures of this crazy day, but the camera battery died within our first five minutes.  Now, this story will only get better with time since the only documentation we have is our memory. (I can just hear the conversation 5 years from now: "Remember that year we went to Everland for spring break and we stood in blizzard conditions while we waited to ride the tea-cups?")  Somehow that possibility is so much better than pictures.....