Setting a Record?

  According to Jason, this month is the coldest January on record for Korea.  If the weather trend continues, it will have only been above freezing for 44 minutes.  I'm quite certain they are not all in a row either.  I have said several times 'this is the coldest I have ever been' and now I have my proof. 

  During the Summer I used to check the temperature in Celsius thinking it made the weather seem cooler.  This tactic is not working in reverse for the Winter.  Tomorrow (January 26) it is supposed to be a high of -4C which is equivalent to 24F.  Somehow that doesn't seem any warmer. 

  At least I'm getting lots of stitching done...  I think the next time I tell Jason that "I will go anywhere with you" I'm going to add the word "LOCAL" to the end of it! 

A Use for Snow

  I think I may have stumbled upon a use for snow!  The snow sports are actually very popular here in Korea.  There are several ski resorts in the area.  This past weekend we went night sledding with several other families.  I've never been sledding during the day before let alone at night.  I'm so glad I tried it instead of just sitting in the coffee house.  I went sliding down this big hill on nothing but a piece of plastic landing in a pile of snow at the bottom.  Then there was an escalator to ride back to the top.  I actually got in trouble for going too fast!  I went down 2 more times 'way too fast' playing the foreigner card (pretending I didn't understand) and then went slower.  I don't know if it was fun because it was sledding or fun because it was at night sledding but it was a total blast.  The benefit of going at night was there were fewer really little kids on the slope so the lines were shorter.  The actual skiing areas were packed even at 9pm. 

  So let's count them;  ONE, yes one use for snow!

Team Dinners...

  So every other week or so Jason's group from work goes out to dinner after work.  It's part of this whole team building thing with the idea that sharing some food and some drink will build a better team.  I'm sure it does.  I'm confident there are studies out there that prove that co-workers getting together in a more relaxed atmosphere builds better workers,  teams etc., etc.  blah blah blah..
  I used to jealous...
  Then Jason started describing the meals.  The restaurants sounded nice enough but the food was enough to turn me off work gatherings!  I know these are considered delicacies here but to this Texas girl I'm good staying home with kids having mac-n-cheese.  Maybe if I were a bigger seafood eater....nope, sorry, octopus complete with the suckers where the waitress comes by to cut off the head...not happening.  Fish stew sounds good until the head pops up complete with eyeballs (food really shouldn't be looking back in my book).  Perhaps I'm just too visual a person!  Oh well.  Have fun at next weeks dinner, dear, I volunteer to stay back with the kids!

Reflecting on Singapore Part One

  We did several unique things in Singapore that are worth mentioning.  The first was a Night Safari.  It's incredible visiting a zoo in the dark.  Everything was lit as if it was a full moon and your eyes adjusted accordingly.  All the animals that are usually sleeping during the day are wide awake at night. 

  Universal Studios Singapore is a regular amusement park although only open since March of 2010.  The regular amusement park stuff to do.  The rides provided were fun although lines were incredible.  Not bad for one days worth of fun.  We were glad to get the advice to buy tickets in advance because they sold out before we got there.  From the amount of people that were there I believe it.

  Christmas Day proved to be a wet day.  We spent the majority of the day indoors playing a board game we discovered years ago called Catan.  If you don't know about it I would highly recommend looking into it.  Catan has provided a great time for everyone and we have all won at least one round.

  Christmas Night we spent walking around Orchard Road and taking in all the lights and sounds.  There were so many decorations it was beautiful.  There was caroling and dancing all around and several concerts.  It was truly a unique way to spend Christmas Day with thousands (yes, thousands) of others but fun nonetheless.  As only a tropical setting can provide, it poured on us on the way back to the hotel!  Somehow we all ended up laughing about it.

  The day after Christmas we decided to head for the harbor.  At the harbor we visited several sites including the landing area where Sir Raffles is believed to have landed in Singapore.   We found the Raffles Hotel and had a "Singapore Sling" at the Long Bar.  The Merlion statue that greets visitors of the harbor was also in the area.  The Merlion is the mascot of Singapore and is the head of a lion (derived from Singapores original name lion city) and the body of a fish (representing Singapores history as a fishing village). 

Jason strikes the same pose as Sir Raffles.

Merlion statue in the harbor.

Lisa and kids in front of Merlion statue.

    Galen spotted a floating soccer field.  We couldn't decipher which teams play there or why it was there, but we all agreed it was kind of a neat concept to play soccer over the water.

Galen in front of floating soccer field.

  David's big discovery is side-walk surfing!  The tropical climate means that it usually rains once a day making sidewalks perfect for this sport.  Building up some speed and then sliding to the end point.  I did try this a few times and it indeed proved to be some fun.  David was the expert by the time we left.

David sidewalk surfing!

Stay tuned for Reflecting on Singapore Part Two