Happy Birthday Cate Rowan

Our gorgeous girl is a year old today. Her gentle spirit has filled our lives with unimaginable joy. In love and adoration we look forward to many more.

Saturday

Today we made our long-awaited first family trip to downtown Daegu. It was, in a word, stimulating.

Transport was smooth. A three minute cab ride to Yongsan Station and a 20 minute ride on the subway, with one transfer, took us to Jungangno Station and the heart of downtown.

We first hit up Kyobo Books and bought some reading material (at a fairly decent price considering English books are all imported) and then made our way to the main shopping district. There were probably 10 million people shopping in a six block radius. At least. Maybe more.

Carmen had a successful afternoon. She has the prototypical Asian figure, and every piece of clothing in any store we visited fit her perfectly. I, on the other hand, had a more difficult go of things. I found several shops I liked, but the t-shirts fit like some kind of leotard, and I basically looked like Renton from Trainspotting. We found that in the private, specialty shops there's only one size of every piece of clothing, so if it doesn't fit you're out of luck. But I still got a Mitch Albom book and Keith Richards scarf.

Visually, downtown was everything we'd pictured of an Asian metropolis. Bright lights, huge signs, endless crowds and raw meat. Add deafening hip-hop beats coming from every store and you've got six hours of culture that will last a lifetime. Too much culture at one time can be overwhelming though, so we played it safe and had burgers for lunch.

I sort of wish I was shopping today with Brad Pitt, because he would have garnered less attention than Cate. If we stopped for three seconds, hoards of people would crowd around and gawk, point, touch and take photos. Not an exaggeration. Really. It's hard enough steering a stroller through a tiny clothing store, but when everyone in the store stands in your way taking pictures and trying to hold your baby, it's basically impossible. No-one shops when we enter a shop, they just swarm around our oblivious one year-old daughter. She is a phenomenon. Example: "May I take a picture of your baby. She is just so beautiful, I just can't resist it."

Don't believe me? Here's just a few of her fans:


The pinnacle of my day, a visit to the Adidas Concept Store, was spoiled by Cate stealing all the attention . . . and service of the employees:

I'm a Freak

There are some things that grab the attention of the locals here in Daegu. One is foreigners. Another is a foreign baby, especially a baby with light hair and blue eyes. Another is a man looking after a baby in public. Put all those strange, unusual things together and you have me and Cate - the most bizarre act to ever hit this huge city.

Everywhere we go, everyone stares. Men, women, children. Young, old. Everyone notices. We can't hide. Ladies gawk , school girls giggle and even old men can't help but talk gibberish to Cate. Korean gibberish.

To be honest, I do appreciate the attention. I'd never experience anything like this in Lethbridge, but being in a market and seeing a woman with rubber gloves on, who's been selling bloody fish and squid all day, just doesn't make me want to say, "Hey, you with the bloody, slimy hands; would you like to hold my first born daughter?" No. I'd rather say, "Oh, your hands have blood and slime on them. I actually don't want you holding or touching my clean one year-old."

But these are things that come with being an oddity in a foreign place where everything is different. I'm learning to deal with it, and Cate is surprisingly patient with the whole thing. And having waitresses take her to the kitchen in restaurants while Carmen and I eat is actually quite convenient, as much as it is creepy. I should mention though, that Koreans are generally very good with babies. While the attention can be annoying, it's often balanced out by the general concern for Cate's well-being shown by everyone we meet here. It helps us to realize that coming here with Cate was the right decision. Part of the reason we came was to give her a unique experience and so far, that's exactly what it's been.