Sunday 23 September 2012

Intensive and fun days with Valerie and Claes!


Now that Valerie and Claes have left the peninsula, my house is empty and I feel lonely.  But we've enjoyed their company very much and are grateful for the time we had together!
 
 
Happy, happy mom!
 
 
It really has been fabulous to have Valerie with me for the past eleven days, for she's an amazing woman but also after Claes’ arrival we continued to have fun, for all of the 168 hours they were here.
 

And here the........  happy, happy couple!
 









I don’t think they were all that rested when their vacation in Seoul ended but I’m sure that not only Anders and I, but also the young couple had fun and plenty of impressions. The days have been filled with being together, to visiting cultural sites, to having sportive activities and social events. Below you’ll find a small selection (they made hundreds of pictures….) of the active fun time we enjoyed together!
 
 
 
 



















 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Day after Claes’ arrival the Swedish delegation had the UNC/NNSC spouses luncheon. Present 29 women from all different nations and one man…Claes. He took charge of the organization for “tipspromenad” I made (13 multiple choice questions about, UNC, NNSC, Korea, Sweden and Switzerland). The buffet luncheon was finished with a beautiful coffee table with lots of home baked cookies and of cause announcement of the group that won!


"The winner takes it all"!
Well done!










After the luncheon, Valerie showed Claes Itaewon and he ordered a tailor made suit and some shirts. As we call it they had “own time” for the next day was with us!!!

Eight o'clock and they kicked the day off with a 5K
FUN RUN!!!






 
They all ran fast for within 35 minutes they were back at the house for breakfast! Claes run best of the NNSC participants!
FUN???
 
 
North-East of the Hanriver to .....
 
 
Waterski!
SD & KD posing before the real thing but first.......
 
 
some instructions!
 



Valerie
 
 


Jaeyeon
 


Claes
 

Jaeyeon's sister, who arrived from New York, were she has been living for the past 9 years. We really enjoyed being with her too!
 
 
 
 
Two out of three here are just....
                        spectators!
 
 
 
 
 
A well desered luncheon (for some of us at least) and then back home for a nice homy evening.
 
 
 
 
Sunday was reserved for Valerie and Claes and they did the Seoul City tour with “hop-on, hop-off” bus tour.  And they did “hop-on, hop-off” ; Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul Tower, Insadong, Myong-Dong and more…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 






 








 
A wonderful dinner, offered by Gen. Lee and his wife Nam-Hwa at Itaewon finnished this day.
 

Monday, we had a small taste of the typhoon Sanba, with heavy rain and wind. Claes worked on the last alterations of his thesis and Valerie and I went to I-Park and e-mart shopping malls :)
 
Tuesday, Valerie and I had the American Forces Spouses Club, vendor shopping and luncheon! A taste of America!




 


 Bulgogi at our restaurant!
 
Insadong
& Namdaemun




 


Valerie and Claes ended their time here in Korea together with Anders spending a full day at the DMZ... 
 
and I well I look forward to their next visit, for there is so much more to see and talk about!




Tuesday 18 September 2012

First 100 hours with Valerie!


Can’t say how very happy we were picking up Valerie at Incheon Airport. Time was travelling fast before she came but now………..
 
A visitor’s 24-hours pass for coming on Yongsan Base should do the trick to get her home and the real stuff she and I would handle next day. We talked, had a late dinner and hoped she wouldn’t have too much problem with the jetlag for we had plenty to see and do the four days before Claes would join us.
So here a small composition of what we've been doing..…..



Four young woman and I............
 


 
 
 
First 24 hours we had adventure in getting her 12-days visitors pass. This mainly caused by me for I drove wrong. So she had some sightseeing of downtown Seoul..... and if you’ve followed me you understand the traffic situation  alone in this immense city, is an experience.
When we finally fixed the ID we came back to Yongsan and went to the PX for some American shopping, had lunch, a pedicure and a manicure. The day we finished with a “girl” dinner!  
 

On our way to Dongdaemun

Purse heaven market, first stop
 


Shoe street next......



Lunch break with Korean fish soup bowl


 
 



Fabric market, department store a coffee break and scarves, gloves and so forth to finnish first day of shopping. And she did shop.....







Wednesday morning................1 hour body sculpting and..........

 
1 hour Zumba, to kick the day off!
 
 
 
 
 
 



Anders took the day off to join us on our.......shopping round to Itaewon :)



 
The day prince charming would arrive, we went to Namdaemun.




My Hanbok friend liked meeting Valerie, very much!
And yes I bought a Hanbok and am sure I'll show up in it one day....







Scarves, Korean honey candy, assesories, cards, decoration material and much more before we ended with the flower section.


 
Happy colors, happy daughter for Claes is joining her within 3 hours!