Phone Conversations

Thaddeus has begun calling in the afternoon before he comes home, and Malachi looks forward to the ritual of reviewing his day, working on his phone etiquette, and sometimes astounding us with his memory and talkativeness. Today he was not talkative, but the usual formula was still roughly followed. Thaddeus is asking things like "Did you go outside today?" "What did you see?" "What did you eat?" (this one usually dominates the discussion) and sometimes other overly-personal toilet-related questions that needn't be repeated, but which are natural conversation topics between father and son at this stage...

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today, we arrived in Korea.

We celebrated by wondering who shut off our water all afternoon, and why, and whether the announcer guy was talking about that or whether he was doing a poetry reading, and by ordering non-Korean pizza from Dominos, and (for me) by going out shopping this evening and feeling moderately satisfied in my ability to communicate (in Korean) to the cashier that I needed a bag, that yes, I'm pregnant and the baby is a male-child, that I 'forgot' my point card, and that I understand there will be dire consequences if I do not bring my point card this weekend.

In other words, for us, it was a classically Korean day. The sakura trees have bloomed, which we don't remember from last year (it's been a late Spring this year - so maybe we never saw them last year?) and Thaddeus took some pretty pictures of them on his way to school: