Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Never mind what I said last time about spring coming. We have had more snow in the last week than all of our winter combined. Maybe it’s winters’ last hurrah. It is quite nice, though, and covers the mountains beautifully.

Pregnancy
As some of you know, Will and I are pregnant! This happened during our 2 month break, so some would say we used our free time wisely. Hehe. This, as you can imagine, has been an interesting experience for us, being in a different country. First of all, the opposing Eastern/Western advice. In Canada, pregnant women are told to exercise and watch what they eat. In Korea, pregnant women are told to rest (I was even told “bed rest”), and my doctor specifically said I can eat anything (however, most Korean doctors would say to be careful about what to eat, as well). Another difference is that I get a sonogram (internal ultrasound) at every visit, so I have seen the little bean right from the beginning, and that is not the case in Canada. I could even see the little blip of a heart beat on the screen! I didn’t even knows baby’s that small could HAVE heart beats. Shows what I know.

So, we’re at the 2 month mark, and things are going pretty well. One unforeseen benefit is my immune system has gotten quite the boost. I haven’t gotten sick once since pregnancy, even when Will got sick! That would never happen otherwise. Usually Will never gets sick, and I do, or if he does get sick, then I get it much worse, and it usually becomes some kind of infection. But not now! I’m at the stage where I’m becoming a picky eater (Will would laugh that I said “becoming”), and seem to know exactly what I want to eat based on whether the thought of eating something makes me feel nauseous or not. One of our friends told us that it is a Korean tradition for a mother to name her baby before it’s born, so I decided to name our pre-birth baby “아람” (”Aram”); At one of the church meetings, our names were written on the agenda to show what tasks we were assigned, and our Korean names were misspelled a few times, and “아람” came up, which is a hybrid of Will’s Korean name (”일암”= Il-am) and my Korean name (”아라” = A-ra), so it seemed only appropriate.

One frustration about communication limitations is that our doctor doesn’t offer very much information, perhaps because of limited English, and the nurses and receptionists don’t speak English at all. We bring a translator friend for that purpose, but for some reason one of the nurses told our translator not to come anymore, which we don’t understand. Our friend said she thought the doctor was uncomfortable speaking English to us in front of a fellow Korean. Interesting. So, we’re wondering how things will work out if we don’t bring a translator with us. Another theory I was given by some women is that the doctor would prefer an older translator who has been pregnant before, as opposed to one who hasn’t. As they put it, “You need a Mrs. Translator, not a Miss.” Also, our doctor is very quick with understanding medical jargon (for example, when I said to him “so, I don’t have an ectopic pregnancy?” he understood right away and responded in kind with more medical terms. But, when I ask him anything on a conversational level, he gives short answers that usually don’t quite answer the question.

We announced our news at church last Sunday, and Will said it in Korean; “우리 아내는 임신해써요” (My wife is pregnant) and everyone burst into applause. I’m pretty sure they were mostly applauding because a) Will said it in Korean and b) he said it correctly. Oh, and one set back to the pregnancy is I can’t seem to stay awake during evening meetings!

Knitting Club
Thanks to the knitting club, I had more time set aside to work on Will’s second sweater, and I finally got it done. One of the husbands came to an evening prayer meeting with the new scarf that his wife made for him during the knitting meetings, so I said “Nice scarf!” and everyone applauded. It was neat. We had a meeting last week and I had 5 women come, and it was quite good. It was wonderful to see that they are all eagerly working on their projects; prayer shawls, bags, scarves, hats and vests. Oh, and now I am working on a baby blanket for “Aram”.

From L to R: The group at our third meeting; The sweater I knitted for Will

Peace Dam
A friend of ours took us on a day trip to see the Peace Dam in Hwacheon, and another friend of ours came along. As mentioned before, there were rumours in the 80s that N. Koreans were going to break a dam to flood the south, so many S. Koreans donated money to build a dam to protect Seoul. And today, a dam sits, about 270 metres high, when the river, at this point, is only around 170 metres high. The dam is very close to the DMZ, so as we looked out from the top of the dam, we were looking at N.Korean mountains. It was crazy to think that if the dam was at full use, we would have been completely under water, as well as most of the surrounding trees. There was also a rock garden in the shape of Korea, as well as a wooden cross with a war helmet perched on top. We then went to see the Peace Bell, which was a huge bell hung in the middle of a big circle. It was a temporary bell, but the real one will be made from the metal from melted guns, I believe. Very meaningful.

From L to R: Scenery in Hwacheon; More Scenery in Hwacheon; View from top of Peace Dam; A peace statue; The cross with war helmet; Suzy and I with an otter; Another from top of Dam; Carved Peace poles; The measuring lines on dam; View from Peace Bell; The gang under the bell; The bell close up

That’s all for now, folks!