Happy Birthday, Iki (^__^)

Today, two years ago, Iki was born. Was a big 2006 New Year surprise for us, and will always be our new year gift every year. I couldn't prepare something special for him today since we're still busy with our moving stuffs. I just cooked Sekihan, Mochi rice with red bean, Japanese traditional food for celebrating big day.



He ate really a lot. Even before the sekihan was ready he started eating the side dishes already. Really was a hungry birthday boy :p



We had Soba for dinner. Japanese eats soba on New Year eve because soba is symbol of happiness: thin and long. Meanwhile Indonesian eats noodle on birthday for a long life. Hopefully Iki will have long and happy life. We also ate Japanese New Year food Osechi and left some for tomorrow :p



He got Thomas and Friends audio book from his auntie family, and various Thomas and Friends goodies from his grandparents. He screamed excitedly everytime he opened the wrapping and found his favourite character goods inside. All those presents were given earlier since today they are not in town.

And today for the first time he slept by himself. I just tucked him to bed, rubbed his stomach and gave little massage on his feet as usual; then he told me to go out because he wanted to sleep by himself. Earlier in the afternoon he also took a nap by himself. A big relief for mama-chan hahahaha

Happy Birthday, Iki-chan. We love you and are very proud of you. Hope you'll live your life to the fullest (^___^)

Hello and Goodbye

Again, quoting from a friend long time ago, Life is about hello and goodbye. I said goodbye already to my old kitchen and now am widely smile to say hello to my new kitchen here :)



We are settling down now. These few days have been hectic with unpacking our hand carry luggages (9 boxes and 3 suitcases), and shopping for house needs. In Korea we were almost fully facilitated by the company but here we really have to buy everything. We rented an empty apartment from Hiro's company's apartment complex. Lucky we got the futon set (Japanese bed style) as a gift from my parents in law, and we could also borrow some stuffs from them until our shipment arrives from Korea. I got headache counting the money we must spend, as well as thinking about the 47 more boxes coming from Korea within three weeks. I haven't even finished unpacking our hand carry, and feel so exhauted now :))



Moving out was not really a pain for me. The worst part was the cleaning part only. Then I just have to sort out which stuffs to be brought by ourselves, to be sent by air, and to be sent by ship. It took almost 24 hours (yeah yeah...we did it on the last two days HAHA). On the moving day 5 persons from the moving company came to our apartment and did all the packing stuffs. I just gave order and watched them working hehehe, They were very professional and to my surprise they finished packing the 47 boxes neatly only within 3 hours!! Later on the company will also unpack the big boxes and here I will just have to arrange our stuffs (but later would be ME only, because Hiro won't be available anymore).



That company even took care of our mountainous trashes, taking care of my christmas tree and helped us packing our hand carry luggages. But we have to pay 6000 USD for such professionalism. Oh, not us. Hiro will send the bill to his company :p



Tomorrow is Iki's birthday. But I couldn't prepare any cake for him. I made a big plan actually, baking a Thomas train birthday cake for him. I even looked for the train mould and bought it already. But it's still a big mess here and it's impossible to bake any cake for him :( . Haven't even bought anything to be cooked tomorrow. I have no power anymore to go out for shopping after he slept tonight.


Last pipis at APT in Korea

Yeah...I think I am ready to start our new life here. I must learn a lot this time, especially about Japanese language and culture. Must adapt to this new society with lots of rules. Let's just see if I'll grumble here later on hehehe

Gotta go for some more cleaning before going to bed. Be right back with more stories tomorrow (hopefully! :p)

My empty kitchen

I took this picture this morning, before we left. Goodbye my first kitchen!!! (T_T)

?!?! I just realized when I saw that picture that I forgot to take Iki's food guidelines from my desk's wall!! (@_@)

Goodbye

We're at JAL excecutive lounge now, having brunch while waiting for boarding time. Enjoying last luxurious facility from Hiro's company hehehe

I felt sad when we left our empty apartment this morning, we we said goodbye to our very kind apartment's security guard, and when we waved goodbye to Hiro's translator from taxi. Goodbye Incheon, goodbye Korea. Memories here have special place in my heart, and can be read somewhere in my blog :p

Goodbye.......

Our Christmas

It's Christmas!!
Papa-chan even woke up early this morning. We directly headed to the Christmas tree, and Iki screamed happily when he saw big yellow present for him waiting under the tree. These past few weeks he's been waiting forward for Santa Claus' coming and asked for "uuh uuhh" (Thomas train) and "nyanya" (cat - in Japanese) as his Christmas wishes.

And look what Santa brought for him (^__-)



And because it's impossible for him to have a real cat, Mrs. Santa made a quick cat cupcake:



He ate it excitedly with spoon!!! He didn't want to make his hands dirty (@_@)



Then we went to Bokjuk restaurant for lunch. Definitely was our last visit there, since we are nearly at the end of our staying here. Papa-chan bought me a pair of cheap winter boots as Christmas present (?!), for emergency use during our ski and Hokkaido trip later on.

We had steak for dinner, with boiled veggies, potato salad and a bottle of red wine. I made simple Christmas decoration to attract Iki's attention from his railway set.



And he was excitedly trying to blow off the Santa Claus and Snowman candles - and finished his dinner as well.



We closed this day by turning off all the lights in this house and stared at the sparkling Christmas tree together, just like what we did last year. Iki bowed thank you to the Christmas tree (for the presents he got hahaha), and said goodbye to all the hanging decorations there because tomorrow I will have to pack it.

This would be my last posting from South Korea. Tomorrow the internet connection will be stopped and all the computers will be packed too. See you all again with other stories from our new rented apartment in Japan (^_____^)

Farewell with Deung Kalbi

Last Sunday we had farewell dinner with friends at Deung Kalbi restaurant nearby our apartment. The Deung Kalbi there is one of the best Korean food for us. Really tasty and delicious. We went to that restaurant regularly so it was also an opportunity to say goodbye to the owner and all the staffs. They were very kindly and helpful whenever we had our dinner there.



He gave us a bottle of big Korean Soju as a farewell present. I almost dropped y tears. Oh how I hate farewells!!!. Thank you, Ajosi. We will definitely come to your restaurant if we got any chance to visit Incheon in the future. Your food is one of our best memories of living in South Korea

Merry Christmas!!

Have a nice holiday, and may Santa find you!! (^___^)



Tons of loves from our messy-with-boxes apartment in Incheon

Coins

Iki loves to collect coins and put them into his big piggy bank



And this afternoon Hiro "operated" piggy's tummy and brought all the coins to the bank. We thought me might get about 50,000 won - 100,000 won in total (USD 50 - USD 100)



But surprisingly we got 269,600 won = about 269 USD = IDR 2,500,000!!
The coins only filled the piggy's feet area. Couldn't imagine how much would it be if the piggy's full!!

Farewell Dinner

Tonight we had farewell dinner with Hiro's colleagues. Tomorrow is Hiro's last working day. Boiled King Crab was the main menu. Too bad I didn't take photo. I had to take care of Iki who was suddenly full of energy.

Yeah...it was a nice ending. Nice food, nice people, nice goodbyes.

But the farewell party was like a very loud alarm in my head: WAKE UP AND START PACKING, LAZY BUTT!!!!

We're going to move out next week, but I haven't even packed one single box yet (#_#). Arrrgghhhhh

Iki and Snow

It was a bit snowing this morning so Iki asked me to take him out excitedly while pointing out his snowman pictures. He wanted to see snowman outside!!

I still have my flu so actually I planned to stay warm at home today, but I didn't have any heart to see his curious face about snow. Seemed that he didn't have any memory about snow he saw last year (_ _;).

As predicted he was really really happy. The snow was not that much though but the thin layer was enough to make him excited. He tried to catch the snowflakes and stamped his feet around while saying "uwawa...uwawaaa" (means bubbles in Japanese). He thought the snow's the same with soap bubble :p



He didn't want to go home then. Enjoying himself a little bit too much. We stayed outside for more than 1 hour. As the result now I got my body temperature raised (_ _o). Oh my.......!

Last Lasagna

Today we had lasagna for dinner. Our last lasagna in this house. Tomorrow I must clean my oven because we will pass it to a friend this Saturday. The door is broken, thanks to Iki!! (>.<) But it still works, by holding the door tightly until the food is cooked :p



Usually Iki doesn't like to eat lasagna but this time he ate a lot. So happy to see him eating enthusiastically, and somewhat for us that lasagna tasted really really good. Might be the best lasagna I've ever had in this house. It was a very nice farewell to my lovely oven. My very first oven.....

(_ _;)

I'm sick (+_+)

Feel like there's hammer inside my head and muscle pain all over my body. The worst is the vomitting part. I hate to see the food I cooked with all my effort being thrown out.

I have lots of things to do. Haven't started to pack anything yet. Why should I get this sick at this time?!?! Grrhhhh

I hit Iki!!!

Yesterday I hit Iki for the first time (_ _;)

He was driving me nuts. I knew it's because he couldn't pass his BM. He felt uncomfortable but he simply kept he "trash". He was too afraid to push because he always got pain. He asked me to put him on his toilet seat for many times though, but once he felt that "it's really time to push", he got really panicked and jumped out of the toilet (>.<). He didn't want to play by himself, he didn't want to eat, he didn't want to go out, he didn't want to sleep. He was just being clingy the whole day. Meanwhile I also got my period yesterday, with very bad mood because of stomach pain and muscle pain all over my body. One thing leads to another, I couldn't remember the details, I hit Iki on his butt.We both were so shocked. He cried out loud for few minutes while I checked his butt, trembling. I could see my palm's mark on it. I hugged him and said sorry until he stopped crying. He looked at me in the eyes, bowed sorry, smiled and hugged me back. It made me feel even worse. What a terrible mother I am!!!!!!!!!!

I cried silently in the kitchen after he's asleep. I could still hear the loud SPANK in my head. No, I don't say a mother who spanks her baby is bad. It's just I promised myself that I wouldn't hit Iki. I had bad experiences during my childhood so we (Hiro and I) have decided not to hit Iki at all. But I did it yesterday. I'm a horrible mother!!!!!!!



Look how sweet he is....and how could I spank him?!?!?!

I emailed Hiro right away yesterday and last night we had a midnight talk after he got back home. He suggested me to go out of Korea for refreshing and offered a getaway weekend alone to Indonesia. Ehm...getaway WEEKEND?!
Let's say...I'll leave Korea on Saturday morning, arrive in Surabaya at night and have nasi bebek as dinner. Eat ayam penyet Bu Kris for breakfast, buy some traditional snacks, have kwetiau siram Apeng for lunch, eat Bakso pak Salam for second lunch, find tahu tek tek for tea time, and buy mie dok dok to be brought to the plane. Then I'll be back in the plane to Incheon on Sunday night.
Oh oh oh....what a getaway!!!!

I said thanks but I refused. Maybe next time :p

But I promised him not to hit my little boy anymore. Forever!

Kimchi

Early winter has passed. Making kimchi for winter stock season has passed too. I could hardly see people fighting to buy huge Chinese cabbage and radish at supermarket already.

Kimchi is Korean traditional fermented side dish served almost everywhere here in Korea. If as an Indonesian chili sauce is a perfect match for white rice, then for Korean it's Kimchi. There are many kinds of kimchi, and in fact not all Kimchi are spicy as what the world imagine as they heard the word.

Anyway these are type of Kimchi I like the most:



These Kimchi are the most common one, could be found at almost every restaurant. I like the fresh one and those are served at Seolongtan restaurant nearby our apartment are my favourite.

One fact about Kimchi I figured out when I was in Korea already was that the Kimchi served on our table could be some leftover from the previous customers, and the restaurant will also serve our leftover Kimchi to the next customers. And people do not use special spoon or chopstick to take Kimchi from the small saucers. It's the same chopsticks they use for eating (@_@). "Sharing" is one of Korean's important motto.

The Kimchi at that restaurants taste good anyway, so I kept eating it. Hey....if you live in Roma, live like Romans do. I live in Korea so I have to follow at least some of Korean customs :p.

But we're guarded by Hepatitis B injections for safety reason :p