Tobi writes

"Ooh la la" Like a girl. I want to say, "ooh la".

I love Korea best of all. Cause it's good. I'm happy.

Ocean world and more fun stuff

I am learning how to read and write Korean. I want to learn Korean because I am at Korea and I thought it would be a good idea to learn Korean. Because my cousins are in Taiwan and they are learning a language that I don't know and I want to learn a language so that they will be jealous and won't tease me about it.

It is hard to learn Korean.

I have had lots of fun here. I've gone to a place called Kids12 which is a big play place and I've gone to another big play place called Tiovivo. It is very fun there. I like Kids12 better, the people there are very nice, but my mommy says she likes Tiovivo better.

I went to this place called Ocean World. It was so cool. There was a hotel too there. It is all Egyptian. There was one ride that Mommy got to go on that I didn't because I was too short. It was so unfair because I was just a tiny inch smaller. If I went on my tippy toes I could reach it and taller. It was so unfair. But there's another ride that had this current and you'd go on this current and it would pull you. Once I almost got lost on it and Mommy got mad. You could go outside if you wanted or you could stay inside and there was lots of current and it pulled and you went all the way around and you would be in the beginning and you would go out. There were lots of hot tubs and there was this one that had pink water in it and it was so so so hot. It was pink because it was rose water, it was so fun but so hot. We had to go on the cool side, it was so hot. And I got water massages there and there's really hot hot tubs. And there was this giant wave place that looked like the real ocean and I got to go in the deep part and go all the way out to touch the line and come back, swimming up and down and up and down. I couldn't have gone in the deep part, but I wore a floatie so I could go up the wave and down the wave just like a boat. One time the waves stopped and then I just curled up and floated in the water like it was a comfy bed.

That's all I've got to say. Bye bye.

My Poppa's Funeral

I went to a korean funeral. My poppa died. My poppa is my grandpa. It was kind of scary. It was a five day ceremony and on three days my mommy and my two aunts had to wear these black dresses and white bows in their hair. On the first day, there was a room with his picture in it and there was incense and we bowed and lit the incense. I bowed two and a half times. His picture was really nice. If you were far back it looked like he was smiling, but if you were close up it looked like he was frowning.

On the second day we did the same thing. On the third day I went with my mommy and my aunty Sumi and uncle Brian and uncle Ben and we saw Poppa's body being wrapped up. It was scary when we saw his body because it didn't look like him at all. They had shaved off his beard and it did not look like him at all. At first he was wearing these linen clothes and there were no knots at all. Not even at the end of a thread. There was no knots because if there are knots it might trap the spirit and might stop the spirit from getting out. Then they put a paper bag thing on his head and then they tied his arms up but they didn't use knots. They had to tie his arms up because he was especially big and wouldn't fit in the coffin. Then they put him in the coffin and fit it with paper rolls so that he wouldn't wobble around. And then they put the coffin lid on and covered it with a red clothe that had his name on it and then another red cloth then put it in a freezer.

On the fifth day, we went to another ceremony place and there we saw them put his coffin in an oven. We waited two hours and then we went back and saw them take out his ashes. There was a fake hip that didn't burn because it was metal. My mommy got that. Then there was a glass jar that we put his ashes in and my mommy put the fake hip in there. And then we took the jar and went to a place where there were glass boxes and we put Poppa's jar in a glass box. On the sixth day, we went back and unscrewed the box and put pictures of his family in the box so he wouldn't be lonely. And I thought it would a good idea to put one of his sailing medals in there too because he was a sailor till he got Alzheimer's.

And that was my Poppa's funeral.

And tobi turned 4

Oh, and I forgot something. Tobi turned 4. He's my little brother.

My new school

Now I part-time homeschool instead of full-time homeschooling. The school I go to is not like a regular school, if you know what it is it's a free school. Manhattan Free School. You can sign up for classes and you can teach classes and you can play almost all day.

I have a best friend there. Well, not a best friend, but one of my closest friends. His name is Sam. When he gets angry, he's very scary. There's a ten-year-old girl there I like very much. Her name is Priscilla and she walks me home sometimes. My mommy pays her $5. I have two staff members. Their names are Pat and Noelle. They are very nice and they take care of my school and they are nice. That's mostly all they do. My mommy and my daddy and me teaches classes. My daddy's taught only one class and I've taught one class. My mommy teaches knitting and Korean. My daddy teaches Go. It's not like stop and go, it's an Asian game that's sort of like Chess, I guess, because I have no idea of what chess actually is.

I haven't written in the blog in so long because I haven't had a chance to, and when I have I forgot. So I didn't write in it till now.

During the time I've been away and haven't been writing, I went to France for 2 weeks. And we passed Hannukah too. Guess what I got for the 8th day? I got a Didji, sort of like a Nintendo DS, which my friend Sam gets his nose stuck in. Except it's not like like a Nintendo DS because it's bigger and it doesn't have a cover.

And at my school, I've got 5 pets: two guinea pigs and three gerbils. And that's pretty much all I've got to say. And I've got a dog. I forgot.

Wooly Bear Caterpillar

My Virginia Adventure

[A posting from our visit to Lily's grandmother and step-grandfather in Virginia.]

Today I had a real tiring adventuring day. Because we had a party, and the beginning of the party we went tubing and when you go tubing you use these big tire-y things and then you float there in the water and when I went tubing I found some friends and they were at the party too. I'm not saying their names but I'm going to just tell you about them.

I am in a big house that is my Grandma's and Grandpa's. There are two skeletons here who are Charlie and Toli and they are very nice.

When you go tubing and you get back, I was pulling the friend of mine I was talking to, the female, and I was pulling her. But there was a part that was currenty and then there was a part that was shallow and we had to walk. And then there was a deep part and she fell flat on her head in the water. And she was complaining because nobody else did, not even me.

Then I had cake and Oscar came and Aunty Emily and Uncle Chris and Adam. Then it was bed time and everyone was talking late and that leads me to this moment when I finished the story. So long from me, until the next daily news which I know won't be tomorrow because we'll be doing a lot of traveling. And I know I've already past the time when I should be stopping so I think I'll talk on for three more sentences. So my first sentence is I hope tomorrow goes on smoothly. And my other sentence is I hope tonight everyone sleeps well. And my last sentence is I hope Sadie is well. Okay, now here's the real goodbye -- So, bye and so long.