Goodbye Korea!

We had a wonderful time while we lived in Korea. It's hard to believe it's over already! We took advantage of our time there and the easy access to the subway, and saw so many cool things - some of which my native Korean friends haven't even seen yet. The Korean people are very kind and friendly though their driving is sometimes scary. It also took some getting used to the way they push and shove to get on and off and elevator at the train station. In the US it would be considered very rude, but it's just how they do things there - no offense intended. We learned to be aggressive with our big double stroller or we'd never get on! Haha. Anyway, I digress.

Probably the things I miss most about Korea are my friends, especially those that did the preschool group with me (though only one of those moms is still there), the yummy Korean food (though I appreciate having a little more variety in the US), and the easy access and affordability to so many family friendly activities and sites. Things I don't miss include lack of variety including food, stores, and doctors, difficulty in keeping in touch and visiting family, Chris's crazy stressful, abusive job environment and having him come home late most nights, lack of space in our home and not having our own things, and not being able to communicate with people.

Our closest friends came to our hotel room to say goodbye. This is Claire and Tommy. 

Alisha and I. (Don't mind my chubby preggo cheeks.)

While a part of us was sad to leave Korea, the much larger part was so excited for so many things - escaping Chris's horrible job (mostly his superiors who treated him like crap), moving close to family and seeing them all again, and moving into our new house that we purchased! (Chris's dad did the closing for us thanks to power of attorney a few days before we left Korea. :)) We stayed our last night in the hotel on post in Seoul. Chris hardly slept a wink that night and said, "It's like Christmas! I'm too excited!" It was a long night. Haha.

Claire loves these dragons outside the Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul.

There was an awesome play place in the Seoul airport near our terminal. It was a great way to get some energy out before the long trip. The best part was it was enclosed so I could contain Maddie who finds more fun in escaping and being chased than just playing.

Looking out the window at the airplanes.

Our trip home was looooong, but we made it. Thankfully Chris held Maddie for the majority of the time since it was really uncomfortable for me to do it with my big belly. Claire slept great, as always. When we finally made it to Baltimore, it was almost midnight local time and we had been traveling for about 28 hours, and we were pooped! We stayed the night at a hotel near the airport that night. Chris's parents came the next morning to pick us up and take us to our new house! When we got there, we got another surprise and my parents were in the house! I was so excited to see them and had no idea they were going to be there. We had a great time with both sets of our parents for a couple of days and did a lot of shopping settling into our house. We had finally made it and were so excited to start our new life in Maryland. :)

Stay tuned for house pictures!