The exitement wasn’t over completely: The bus that took us to the airplane drove a few rounds around the air field, somebody else was a higher priority. As we found out, the police escorted a black prisoner to the airplane. He tried to resist against his extradition, kicked and screamed, fought with the guards. One of the police men had a wound over his right eye and lost his uniform badge on the right shoulder after they succeeded in seating him in the back of the machine. I don’t know what the reason for the extradition was, but he seemed very determined to oppose it in every possible way. He stopped screaming when we entered the airplane – it took us a few minutes to fold the buggy and hand it over to the ground personnel which is why we were last to board the prop airliner. The prisoner was kept in the last seat, closely watched by two male and one female guard. I remembered the deportation of a Sudanese refugee in ’99, who died of suffocation due to the restraints and the position he was forced to keep – the job to keep another person quiet and calm for even just an hour who doesn’t want to in a small airplane is unbelievably hard, the police officers today did a good job without having to resort to a harsh approach. I guess a few years ago I wouldn’t have thought this way, today my primary concern was how to calm down my son if the rioting should restart. It didn’t, and I was thankful for it.

Shiphol Amsterdam for us was running again, from one gate to the other, since our plane was late. We hadn’t time to buy one or two presents we planned to, so we skipped that part. One advantage when you travel with infants: Everybody is nice to you, the ground personnel asked us into the VIP line for boarding, skipping a queue of a couple of dozen passengers. When we boarded the KLM Boeing 747 to Incheon, we finally had a feeling of relief. The 8563 kilometers in 9 1/2h were over rather quickly. One detail mentioning: If you’re on international flights with KLM, beware of the food. Ours was good, but the stuff they try to sell as children food is far from acceptable. White bread with sugar (the slice of cheese helps a little), a chocolate bar and a sweet beverage – better bring your own breakfast if you don’t want a hyperactive kid jumping on and off your lap for the rest of the flight.

After arriving at Incheon airport the next day we ate at “our” Japanese restaurant and took the bus to Daejeon (대전, 大田). Beside hitchhiking, there’s no cheaper way to travel the country. Plus, you get your own track on the expressway. It was Buddha’s birthday, but the roads were rather empty. From my first visit I can remember that on that day there’s no coming through. Three hours later, our family fetched us from the long distance bus station and we arrived at home, happily and exhausted. The welcome dinner was fabulous!

Today’s lesson: Double-check passports, tickets, money and key. Triple-check passports. Check once more. And again. Rinse, wash, repeat.

1 Jahr, 4 Monate, 3 Wochen, 3 Tage, 11 Stunden, 35 Minuten
16 Monate, 3 Wochen, 3 Tage, 11 Stunden, 35 Minuten
73 Wochen, 1 Tag, 11 Stunden, 35 Minuten
512 Tage, 11 Stunden, 35 Minuten
12299 Stunden, 35 Minuten
737975 Minuten

Since he started to walk several months ago, the number of unbelievably interesting novelties that moved within his range rose exponentially. Things like knives in drawers, cups full to the brim with milk, juice or, if we’re lucky, just water, wall sockets, computer keyboards and last but not least the stove. We have a Bosch stove with irresistible switches: If you want to turn on a stovetop, first you have to push one of the switches to have it snap out of the stove and then turn the switch to the program or temperature you need. If the switch is set to a certain temperature, you can’t push it back in, only when it’s set to zero. This way to can stand far away and still see in a split-second whether the device is turned on or off. The snapping in and out is the eye-catcher here. Pushing it out and back in over and over again is a real time filler when you’re 16 months old. So, the provident parents that we are try to avert Jun from the stove and forbid him to touch the switches. If he tries to snap them out, we tell him not to do it and take his hand away from it. Most of the time, it now works just by telling him not to touch it (he’s scared by hot food so it’s not that difficult), but sometimes curiosity prevails. Today though, he found a way to please us and gratify his appetite: Instead of using the hands, he started pushing the switches with his head, grinning all over the face.

p.s.: In a conversation with a friend, I realized that Jun’s initials are JPG (Jun Philipp Grabić).

p.p.s.: I tried out Windows Live Writer for this post… curiosity killed the cat.

Yet Another Test Post. I bought a Flickr Pro Account per Paypal, it took me two minutes and the setting up of my WordPress blog in Flickr was simple. Great.

p.s.: Uploading works, although there’s an error message in Flickr – but I think I know where the error comes from. I’d also have to choose a category from within the blog. Well, nothing’s perfect, but it suits my needs.

p.s.: I really should clean up this blog.

Since spontaneous crib death was rampant in earlier centuries, Koreans started to celebrate the life (and survival) of every Korean baby that made it through the rough first 100 days. Nowadays, with the wonders of modern medicine and overall improvement of life conditions, the custom lost its original reason, but the celebration remained. Today, Jun is 100 days old, so, according to Korean tradition we prepared a rich table with rice, miyokguk (미역국), and fruits for Samshinhalmoni (삼신할머니). She’s the Korean version of the western storck you want to propitiate so your offspring can live happy ever after (the first 100 days). Actually, there’s supposed to be baekseolgi (백설기), a variation of steamed rice on the table, but the store where we ordered it, Kims Asia Shop at Stresemannstrasse, happened to forgot our order and had only a cheap excuse why they didn’t make it. Speaking of cheap, they’re one of the cheapest stores for Asian food in Düsseldorf, but you really have to be careful what you buy since they tend to overwrite the expiration date on their products. Jun slept though most of his 100th day, and I was so fortunate to get to eat everything we prepared for Samshinhalmoni. Oh happy day…

For the record, I didn’t get him the kitschy outfit, but he’s almost outgrown it anyway. At his fourth regular examination (U4) – the day before – the doctor said that with his 65cm and 6,850g he’s ambitiously scratching at the upper limit for normal growth.

It’s a peculiar feeling – on the one hand, you think, I knew this would happen sooner or later, on the other hand, it’s a huge surprise. As you can see on the picture, Jun is coming into his own. This afternoon he was holding his head up for the first time – but I wasn’t there! I had to work from 2 p.m. until late into the night, and I can only hope this is the last progress I’ll miss. Of course, there’ll be numerous other occasions where he’ll master the next step and I won’t be present. Note to myself: over 60% of all 400 pictures and videos I took so far (I know, I know, 400…) are blurred and darker pictures have so much noise, I desperately need a new camera. Any recommendations?

update: From the day he started to lift his head:

Jun now tries to imitate us when we talk to him, although it all sounds like aguuh, but I could be wrong, perhaps there are nuances I don’t hear. Anyway, there’s another couple that brings up their kid trilingually (Japanese, Polish and German), and it works out well, so there’re no worries about that anymore. His grip is getting stronger every day and his milk intake is at stunning 150-180ml every three or four hours, which accumulates to one sixth of his body weight! If I drank as much, I’d have to drown myself in 10 liters.

Funny encounter today: We were shopping at the Königsallee, when suddenly an old man approached me and asked with a startled face where did you get this baby from?. -It belongs to me, was the only answer I could come up passing by… this was the only time where people reacted in an odd way, everybody else is smiling and polite when they see a father with his baby in a carrier.