Sarah Smiles

Christmas preparations in Busan...

The temperature has finally fallen and today it was -1C!  So, we are starting to feel quite Christmasy now here in Busan.  Cards are actually sent this year as well as the boxes of presents to Norway and now we can just spend time on doing creative stuff together. 

As a child, my mother set up a winter scene in our living room and I remember being so fascinated by it and looking forward to having it up every year, almost better than the Christmas tree!  I have been lucky enough to find some small porcelain animals and a lovely carved wooden deer.  Together with bits we have found in the forest around here and some cotton, it looks really cozy!

And this is the new baby in the family!  I decided to get rid of that horrid plastic Christmas tree and make one out of felt - and she turned out lovely!  It was really hard to sew to bottom up after I had shoved in all the filling, so I just left part of it open and dumped it into the basket but tucked in a lovely piece of red velvet.  Most of the ornaments we have made but others we have found here, perhaps a bit too much loaded on, but I couldn't say to the children they had to stop decorating, so here she is!

Gustav is still quite fascinated with the idea of Santa Claus still, even though his 7 year old sister has been telling him it is all "not true" every day since early November - I love seeing his face of wonder - "maybe Mamma", he says to me.  I love Santa, the idea is a cozy one.  This pictures is of Gustav and Santa at school today.

 

tribute to an amazing house and amazing people..

Today is the first showing of our little house, a house we have had for 8 years.  Both our children had their early years here and the house has been full of happy days.  It is hard to say goodbye, if I think too much about it I am afraid I will change my mind.  It is a little house that has taken care of us and has given us so many beautiful memories and friendships.

The friendships we made in this neighborhood are among some of the most profound of my life.  Stein and Liv, Fredrik and Trine, Kjersti, Arnt Christian and Marit, Yngve and Åsta and Marianne and Knut were those that we frequently saw.  I remember coming home from work and seeing Stein and LIv in their garden - "Hey Sarah, we are having some wine, why don't you come over"! or Kjersti welcoming me in, offering me coffee and showing me all the new developments in her amazingly cozy home.  Trine and Fredrik always with an open door and an open heart, always making us feel like family.  And Heidi, the amazing Heidi, a 19-year old girl who is the world's best babysitter, someone to have deep converstations with and a person with an incredibly bright future.

I will miss seeing these lovely people nearly every day.  I will miss having Stein sing Happy Birthday to me as I leave for work on my birthday.  I will miss crawling the 10 steps to my house after a great party.  I will miss the feeling, the spirit, the life, the camaraderie.

But one thing I know I will not loose and that is their friendship and their love.  I am only moving 7 minutes away, easy biking distance.  If we can manage 3 years in Korea, we can manage a distance of 7 minutes!  

I will miss summer evenings in the backyard

I will miss good friends being next door

I will miss being in the garden barefoot

I will miss cozy times with family

I will miss dancing at 2am with Fredrik 

I will miss lounging in the backyard with nothing to do except to tickle

I will miss the parties

I will miss the everyday at Øygardveien 83

But I have it all in my head and my heart and I feel so lucky to have started my life with my family there - the house will always be with us!


 

loving Japan...

Teppanyaki:
I think my most favorite type of food is teppanyaki!  On Friday, the children and I went up to the hotel restaurant and had a lovely teppanyaki dinner - see the amazing view we had from where we sat.  We sat at a curved bar and was able to watch the chef make an amazing dinner for us - tenderloin steak, grilled onion, asparagus, bokchoi, and mushrooms, plus lots of side dishes and strawberry sorbet for dessert!  I was great!  We sat there, the 3 of us, for almost 2 hours, the children were so behaved even though Gustav showed us all, waitresses included, the half chewed food in his mouth - charming! 

Fukuoka zoo:
I am not a big fan of zoos.  I love seeing the animals, of course, it is an amazing chance to get close to animals you would never otherwise see, but I am always so sad when I go to a zoo.  This zoo in Fukuoka was a nice zoo, but I have to try so hard to be positive and excited for the children.  

The most difficult for me to see was the gorilla.  He was sitting against the wall, looking like he was waiting for something or just existing in the moment.  But as we watched him, his eyes kept shifting.  He kept changing his position just slightly.  I was sure that he was very uncomfortable with us just standing there looking at him.  It was an awkward situation for both sides.  Finally, he moved so that his back was facing us, a clear signal for us to move on.  I was so struck with how unnatural the whole situation was.  He didn't belong calmly sitting in a cement enclosure, his home was far away. 

Hakata textile factory:
This was a great place, small, but it was so calm, only a few people there.  There was a platform area to the left covered in tatami mats.  We could walk up there and there was a little table with some activities for children.  To the right was a big old loom.  Here they showed how they used to weave silk, just beautiful!

you have to love stilts made from old tin cans

In the back of building there was a small peaceful garden.  This inspired us for what we want to create at our house in Norway.

Shinto shrine:
We visited, by chance, a beautiful Shinto shrine.  It was a complex of small buildings with much detail and beauty.  "Shinto originated in prehistoric times as a religion with a respect for nature and for particular sacred sites. These sites may have originally been used to worship the sun, rock formations, trees and even sounds" (from Wikipedia).  This appeals so much to me, I intend on learning more abount Shinto.  

Lovely young girls preparing for some kind of ceremony.  They were very happy to pose for my camera.

City life:
The style in Japan is just so appealing to me.  Clean, simple, natural and elegant.  Even though there are almost always loads of people everywhere, the aesthetics are so natural and beautiful that it gives me peace, and feels like fresh air.  In the midst of chaos I always feel calm, I never feel like this in any other big city, something special in Japan.

just before dinner, children perhaps tired of picture taking?! - hehehee

This was most likely our last trip to Japan for a long time, I will miss the frequent trips, but I know I will be back

new pottery and a trip to our favorite cafe...

Cornelia and I have started a ceramics class.  For the next 4 Saturdays we get to spend 2 hours in a lovely ceramics workshop close to our house with a kind family that makes these beautiful pieces.  The mother runs the shop and the daughter helps.  The daughter is going soon to the University to study ceramics, lucky girl!  And the charming father was just hanging out making us tea and translating.  I felt so peaceful when we left.

 

Finally I found a unique teapot and tea pourer that I just love.  The roughness is so interesting and the technique where the glaze looks like dripping icing on a cake is just plain cool.

 

Today we went again to our lovely cafe up the street, we call it Raby cafe, since they have a lovely golden retriever outside, but it is actually called Haeoraby Cafe.  A great selection of very good coffees always served in unique cups.  This one here is a chocolate latte served in a lovely simple cup and wooden saucer.

 

     

 

learning to knit...

Not me actually, I have tried several times and never really get how to fix mistakes so I give up, but my daughter and 7 has just been taught by her grandmother and has just really caught on!  She picks it up when she is interested, does a few stitches and then puts it down again.  She is quietly proud and I am truly amazed!  

 

I have always loved people's hands, they say so much about a person - these little hands, still a bit babyish, work the knitting needles as if she had practice in a past life!
 

 

She made a little dress for an old doll we found in my husband's old toys

 

 

The proud kid with her newest project, these will be coasters :)

my mother's art...

When I was a kid and would come home after school, I would come in the front door and it was quiet, she was not to be seen, so I knew she was downstairs painting.  I'd walk down and just as I got through the door and she would say, "Oh, Sarah, come and look what I have painted today"  with a big smile and twinkle in her eye, giggling about how awesome it was, and it always was!  

The sun would be streaming into the window, always sun in Atlanta!  She'd have that old blue and white striped man's shirt over her clothes, a paintbrush in her hand, classical music playing and the big cat snuggling next to the fish bowl.  Wonderful memories :)

 
This is a picnic basket she did maybe 15 years ago.  I remember her making them and how proud she was when they were finished, she made several!  She is 70 now and hasn't painted for years.  My biggest wish would be that she find the inspiration again!  I'll do what I can to help.

ah, beautiful Norway...

Maybe it is because I am less visually stimulated here in Oslo than in Korea (in Korea the amount of signs, advertisements as well as blasting music is insane!), or maybe because the sun is shining so brightly, not something one sees for nearly 7 days straight.  But the trees seem so green and the flowers so colorful.  The nature in Korea is lovely in many ways, but there is a lushness and abundance here in Norway that I have missed.  The beauty soothes my soul, I feel relaxed and revived.  

 
One of my favorite spots on Earth - my grandparents house in Norway, my mother has taken it over now, luckily the terrace remains the same, beautifully relaxing filled with fun memories.

 
 
 
First breakfast with all the children - there are only 4 of them, but it feels like 10, lots of action, but also very fun

Cousins meeting again after 1 year - it's like they hadn't been apart a day - fun to see

A lovely dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house 

Cousins 

Cool shop in Oslo, close to Vestkantorget 

Had to go to Sprell :)


Lunch at Nobilis - fantastic food, the 3 of us had a lovely time

reflections on being 7...

For some reason this birthday has made me feel like I have a really big girl now!  This last year has been so amazing in terms of what she has learned and how she has developed.  She now sits down and starts to read her books on her own, reading in her head - this especially has struck me as a turning point, I had such joy from reading books as a child!

Cornelia's good friend, Andrea, is moving back to Finland before we have Cornelia's class party (just girls this time) next weekend, so we had a sleepover with 4 lovely little girls.  They are all such good friends and we all had such a good time.  Svein-Olav was out so I hung out with them, we all pilled into the bed and watched Howl's Moving Castle together - it was so fun!  I love these little girls, they are all my friends too :)

  

On Wednesday the 19th, we had a fun and crazy dinner with our "Korean" family - us 4 together with 2 lovely Norwegian families that live next door - we were 6 grown ups and 6 kids.  Cornelia was so happy and she felt very loved by everyone.  Here she is wearing a cool sari given to her by Siggi, Sophie and the boys in UAE - fun stuff - she loves it! 

So somewhere in the course of the last few days Cornelia had written this and I just happen to find it when cleaning up!  It says "I like Mum and she makes it so cozy for us"!  It is enough to make me cry with joy - all the times of frustration and difficulty just getting things done seem a small price to pay for notes like this!

 

impressions from the philippines...

The poverty is enough to take your breath away, the piles of trash are everywhere, dirty kids in flip flops hang out on the corners, but there is an amazing peace to the place.  People move slow and smile at you behind their lines of washing.  Several women holding babies standing in front of their just amazingly sad little shack smiled warmly to me as I passed by.  Little kids eating whole fruits walk down the street giggling in groups.  The air is sweet and the pace is slow and most people seem to be trying to make the most of life out from what they have.

The seafood was not only so amazingly colorful but so amazingly fresh, usually grilled simply with garlic/butter or with chili sauce, so amazing and nice with a some good dry white wine!

 

So, from what I could conclude these were actually little purses (with zipper and everything) made from the skins of big fat toads.  The skins looked tanned and were super soft.  I didn't reach inside it, but I wonder what you'd have to do to get small things out of the legs?!?

 

A tiny little tivoli right in the middle of the market section, this was fun, the moon was nearly full, we had just eaten a great Greek dinner and the kids were in great shape!  Fun!

 

This looked like a little sewing shop.  It looked like they made mostly work uniforms.  Small and dusty but it looked rather organized.
 
  

We rode some cool buggy cars (or whatever they are called) through the countryside.  It was fun, I like this shot especially.

 

The plants and flowers were just abundant on Borocay, so many colors and they were everywhere.  

 

I don't think this hollow little tree stump was actually used as a toilet, which confused me even more.

This horse had just been let in from a ride and rolled around on his back getting cooled off.  

 

This man owned the stables.  He was an unusual looking dude, he had an amazingly warm and kind smile.  I think some people who work with animals often have this peacefulness about them.  

A great trip, we saw so much that was new to us.  For the children, I think seeing a culture so different from theirs, seeing people who have so little who still show such kindness and warmth is so important. We talk a lot about gratitude and appreciating the big and small things in life, especially the moment and the people we love.  

Also I must add that we talked a lot about beauty during our trip - the sunsets, the moon, the blue color of the water, the kind beauty of some faces, the beauty of the food we eat (we ate fresh mangos on the beach almost every day) and the beauty of each other.  Some people may think that children so young cannot appreciate beauty, but I disagree with every fiber of my body, it is so lovely to see how often Cornelia and Gustav point out something beautiful for us all to appreciate - I think they understand!

    

  

 

fun day at a wood working shop....

I tagged along with the 1st grade class yesterday to a very fun wood working shop and we made two things!  The children were so into the projects and were all so very well behaved! 

 

A fun project, we put together all the pieces and then put together the box, so fun
 

We figured it out, thanks to Mr. Bok!
 

 Love this old stool
 

My daughter and I having "super much" fun

 
Everything was ready for us, really well done

One of the world's coolest dads and my friend, Eric Bok!

The Fantastic First Graders!