Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging) Class

I hadn't been to an Ikebana class for well over a year so when I received the email that my teacher was teaching a December class I signed up immediately. I had missed a few classes due to babysitting the grandboys but she keeps track of each students progress and what design.  This time of year is wonderful for Ikebana, with all the Christmas colors and foliage to choose from. This is just some of what we had to work with.



This was my first time working with this arrangement and working with the moon and star kenza. She had specifically chosen the holly for me and this arrangement. I really love holly. This was my start. It really is the placement of each piece and the direction. It always needs to curve up.

Now for the flower placement.

                                                     Here is my finished ikebana. I love it!!!

 Here are my fellow student's arrangements. They were all working on upright forms. That's my next step.

My teacher has this opening in her entryway and this was her ikebana arrangement. So beautiful. I had a great time and even though I forgot a lot, my teacher was so very helpful.

South Korea Vacation 2015 - Part 7

 My hanji teacher moved! Her landlord did not renew her lease so she found an abandoned coffee shop just across the street. I actually like this location better. There is a table outside so you can do hanji outside if the weather cooperates and she also has her own little bathroom. She has really expanded her woman's clothing and accessories due to the popularity of what she carries. She has impeccable taste and it shows in the things she sells.

Also, just having a hanji only shop has been tough. Hanji was really popular when I moved to Korea in 2007. Her shop was filled with Korean women wanting to make things. It has really dropped off since then and it was a good move to venture out into another direction while still offering hanji lessons.

The shop is really cute and she did a marvelous job of decorating. The tables in the center of the store are for hanji classes or to have a rest. That's my sweet hanji friend, Lim, in the front of this photo.

                                     She had some new hanji pieces that I fell in love with.

               This hanji piece also featured hand painted drawers. This piece just blew me away.

                              This is the piece my hanji teacher had been working on.

Then I noticed this dead fish over the entryway. I had never seen this before and I asked about it. A fish over the door is a good luck charm that symbolizes a lot of money coming to you and the wishes of good fortune. They had a great laugh over my shocked face at seeing a dead fish over the door even after hearing the reason for it. I did wonder what Rocketman would say if I too hung a dead fish over our front door.

 My hanji teacher has always been so very generous with me. These are the gifts I left with.

                                                             This is the inside of the box.

                                    She also gave me this beautiful hand painted table.

                          My dear friend, Lim, also had a couple of pieces for me. This is a light.

We also went to dinner with my friend Mr. Choi. He was my yoga buddy the whole time I lived in Korea and he really kicked my butt in yoga.  We went to the same Chinese restaurant we always go to when we visit. It also happens to be just a block from our old apartment in Suwon.

We had a private room upstairs which is for special people like Mr. Choi. We let him order, which this time was a BIG mistake. For some reason, he ordered a 10 course meal. The next problem was all my fault because I am a picky eater and have been my entire life. I'm much better than I was when I was younger but there are still lots of things I won't eat - like mushrooms. Guess what? Every course had mushrooms. Sometimes all that was in the course was mushrooms in sauce. I was dying! I tried to hide the fact that I wasn't eating much of anything. I was doing a lot of picking and was finding occasion things I could eat. Thank goodness for kimchi, I ate a lot of that.

But we didn't know Mr. Choi had ordered all these courses and he also seemed surprised when they didn't stop. We finally had to call an end to it at course 8 and Rocketman was going to burst. Mr. Choi was also glad we declined a few courses. Next time, we will order off the menu because their food is pretty good and of course, we have been told many times how famous this restaurant is. It is a very old building and just to have been in business for decades does say something. Rocketman and I chuckled about the whole ordeal on our bus ride back to Seoul and we still laugh about it today.

I think for our next dinner with Mr. Choi we will try to point him to another restaurant. But if he insists on this restaurant, we will definitely order our own meals. This was crazy. He wouldn't let me pay although we argued while he was paying. It had to have cost a fortune. We've had this argument before and I again forgot not to do it. It looks very disrespectful to argue with an elder, especially a grandfather. Mr. Choi knows me well and it didn't upset him but I did notice we got looks from the staff and others. Sometimes my American manners come out when they are better left unsaid, especially in these circumstances no matter how much I wanted to pay for the dinner.

He also gave me this beautiful lacquer plate. He knows what I like - that's for sure. 

South Korea Vacattion 2015 - Part 6 Gwangjang Market

Rocketman and I love Gwangjang Market. It is where I find my bojagi supplies (Korean quilting) and is heaven to photographers and those who love Korean food. The many vendors makes it mecca of motion. There is always something going on no matter which way you look.

 Here are some of things Rocketman photographed. 

There are lots of these fresh seafood restaurants where you choose your dish and then enter the back to have it cooked for you.

 After so many years visiting, I recognize lots of vendors like this one. I was sad to find my favorite mandu vendor was gone.

                                                       There are lots of side alleys too.

 

                                   Now these are photos I took with my handy point and shoot.

 

 We also found a little restaurant to have some lunch. They actually called us over using English and were pretty insistent. It was really tiny but they had a spot for us.

 I had to order kimchi jeon. It's one of my most favorite foods. The kitchen is actually in the front of the restaurant as you enter.

We also got an order of kimbap. Of course, I had to have the kimchi banchan refilled and they happily complied.

I took a couple videos of the area. I was sad to see why some food vendors were gone. They were replaced with perfume and other nonfood vendors. I'm pretty sure it was to appeal to the Chinese tourists.

South Korea Vacation 2015 - Part 5

 Of course, we had to drop in to visit Nan-Young and Metal Guy during our first visit in Suwon. I was setting up to take some classes with Nan-Young. We decided on three classes during the time we were visiting.

After we finished that, she and Metal Guy took us on a walk. We turned up at this little pottery shop where we met a pottery artist named Won Young-Duck.

We sat around a small table as he brought pieces of his work to show us. He is famous for clay sculptures where the subjects are in various posing as they poop. He had an especially gross one that he showed us where three or four animals were stacked on each other with their mouths open as the animal above them were pooing into their mouths. He was really proud of this sculpture but Rocketman and I were getting sick to our stomachs at this point.

 

He does do other sculptures, like busts of people and he also had some gorgeous sculptures of Korean castle turrets but the majority of his work was people squatting as they would do to poo in the old days, and some still do it that way, which is why you still find squat toilets.

 He insisted that I chose a sculpture as a gift and frankly I tried multiple times to thank him and that it was not necessary. But as you can see he insisted and he chose this one for me.

It's not as bad as a lot of the work he does and it's kinda growing on me. Pooping is very important to the Koreans for health reasons. Poo says a lot about your health and I do agree with the Koreans about that aspect. It's just all the children's books and artists' obsession with it that I could do without. I haven't posted on Kim Nan-Young, my chilbo teacher and her latest obsession which also includes poo.

 

Roman William Meverden - November 17, 2015

Our fourth grandson was born yesterday afternoon, Roman William Meverden.  He was a week later than his due date but he knew when he wanted to come. He gave his mommy a 30 hour labor including hours of pushing. I  can't even image what she went through. My children were born by C-sections for both of our children due to  my suffering with toxemia which included extremely high blood pressure. Poor mama was so exhausted from the ordeal but she is a trooper.

Here is a photo of the new family.

Grandma (me) totally smitten with Roman. I held him for over an hour in which we just stared at each other. He would glance around the room and then back to me. I wondered what he thought of it all and if he had any idea how much joy he has brought to us. I thought about how I held his daddy just the same way and marveled at where had all the time gone. But knowing that as we do as grandparents, we know that every moment spent with them is so very precious.

I found out that things had changed a whole lot since I had his father in 1987. Back then, the babies were brought to you to feed whether by breast or bottle and then returned to the nursery. They didn't like to keep the newborns in the room with you very long, germs and all. Roman stayed in their room the entire time.

The decision of circumcision is totally your decision with no pressure one way or another. When I had Luke, I was given a three page report on the importance of not having your child circumcised. Then a social worker also spoke to me encouraging me not to have it done.

They offer things like aromatherapy and massages. Wow, that would have been great.

Rocketman and I were treated to a steak dinner in the hospital in celebration.  No such luck for my son and his wife.

The nurses did all the changing of the diapers. They wouldn't even allow me to change one. My son and his wife did all the diaper changes.

I must be sounding really old. My mother told me that when she was in labor with me they gave her ether and it made her totally out of her mind as to what was going on and also very, very ill. Yuck. So change is good.

Happy Birthday, Roman!!