Teddy Bear Museums

 Korea is the place for Teddy Bear enthusiasts. While there are a lot of museums in the world that feature Teddy Bears, there are only 13 devoted solely to Teddy Bears (according to the info I got in Korea). Google has not been helpful on this matter; so, I'm going with that as fact. Korea has eight of these teddy Bear Museums!
I toured Jeju with a family of four and the kids were teens with no passion for the bears. Needless to say, while I went by the one on Jeju Island I did not visit the Teddy Bear Museum there.
However, Seoul was a different matter. My women physician friends from the USA were open to all sorts of adventures. Since we had already got to the N Seoul Tower, with a Teddy Bear Museum at its base, we were going to make it a fairly complete experience with a whirlwind tour.
I loved the historical scenes and famous characters displayed at the museum and would encourage anyone who visits Korea to drop by a museum.
Korean people are warm and friendly and have a delightful sense of humor. It's no wonder they have embraced the All-American Teddy Bear with their own unique flair!
Here's a tour for you. From historical events to pop culture - the Teddy Bear stars in the presentation of Korea.

Where to start?

 The beginning is the best place to start, I believe. So, this story starts with an apology for missing last months posts. I really do want to commit to a minimum of two posts a month and have kept to that pretty well. Last month, though, those two posts felt too much.
I was off to Asia. So much to do and get ready!
The Medical Women's International Association was meeting in Seoul, Korea. I've attended some of these meetings before in Tokyo, Japan and Accra, Ghana and a couple of regional meetings in Melbourne, Australia and a cruise from Boston, USA to Montreal, Canada. The big meetings every three years are quite spectacular with grand entertainment as well as a scientific programme (non-USA English used) and House of Delegates meetings. Lots of pomp and ceremony! Really, very fun. If I was going half way round the world I wanted to see more than just Seoul. It's challenging since I'm not physically up to a lot of activities and I'd be travelling alone. Nonetheless, I bravely figured out a trip that included three days in Jeju Island, Korea before the conference and a trip to Bangkok for a couple of days and then 11 days in Myanmar. Whew! Just writing that out was exhausting! It was a fantastic trip and it was exhausting though I got much help everywhere. Wheelchairs and assistance at airports and helpful guides and drivers as well as travelling in Myanmar with some women who shared many of my physical challenges with bad backs. It'll take me a bit to recover but much, much longer to review my adventures and process my photos and reflect on my experiences.
My husband asked about my most memorable experience. I think it was the moment when our grandfatherly tour guide in Bagan, Myanmar was discussing the younger generation and how he did not understand what this "Gangnam" song was that his grandson liked so much. I whipped out my i-phone where I could let him watch a video of a group of Korean medical students dancing to PSY's hit "Gangnam Style" and women physicians of the world joining in. This sometimes Buddhist Monk and serious scholar's (of physics and archaeology) expression as he watched my video was priceless. Wish I had a video of that! I will edit the video that I shared and try to post it soon!
Meanwhile, here's some photos of me at the Teddy Bear museum with a slightly different take on PSY.

Yes, I think the next post will be about Teddy Bear museums!

Went to a new crop group this past weekend

 I was very productive on Saturday. Went to a crop where I met some nice folk. Even met someone who had done some work for Charity Wings and the new Art Center. Awesome! I am looking forward to CHA Las Vegas (Craft and Hobby Association) and seeing my fellow volunteers and other friends there and the new products.
I started out finally finishing my No More Coffee layout. I have not quite got it down to zero but I'm down to one cup in the am with an occasional cup of tea in the afternoon. So, better. No More works well with the glitter letters, third try a charm.

I'm still working on learning digi. I know a few things but am reviewing the basics with Jessica Sprague classes and am learning a few tricks to make things easier and faster. Not that it is fast to learn digi; but, I am getting there! Here is a quick page with a Photoshop edited photo and a little more practice with brushes and leading on my type.DC is a sweet guy to scrap about!

Just a few paper layouts. I loved the photo of the flowers. I saw the light as soon as Meghan mentioned it but I need to train my eye to see it more readily on my own. Since one of Joe's favorite sushi rolls is Rock and Roll the photos on the table were perfect with this line of paper. Now why would I scrap terrible phone photos of service station rest rooms? Well, because there was a story to tell, of course! Last, but not least, Club Scrap made the line of lighthouse papers and that was perfect for the photos I had from Nova Scotia from a couple of years ago.

An eclectic assortment of pages that were fun to do. I hope to do a lot of scrapbook pages this summer. We'll see. These all came together quickly, which made it a lot of fun!