"look what you did you little jerk"

This is a great/horrible quote from Uncle Frank on Home Alone.

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time to start celebrating Christmas! This year we bought a fake tree and two stockings. I am sad we couldn't cut down our own tree this year, but that's just not an option here.









The stockings kind of look like kidney beans, but the Christmas decor is very limited in Korea. You just take what you can get. It feels really nice to have some Christmas cheer around the apartment.

a momentous day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year Tom and I didn't really celebrate the holidays while living in Korea for a couple of reasons: 1.) we were so excited to be in Korea that we didn't feel the need to be over the top in our American celebrations. 2.) We kept telling ourselves, we'll only be here two years...there's no need to buy decorations, etc. if we're not going to be here too long.

However, after living in Korea for a year the Korean excitement has weaned and our American pride has grown. Additionally, we extended our contract by signing on for another year in Korea, which means we will have lived in Korea longer than any other place as a married couple. So it's time to make Korea more like home and part of that is fully embracing the holidays.

This year to celebrate thanksgiving we invited our friends Andy and Lindsey, Emily Light, and Kim and Eddie (our neighbors) to come join us in making a thanksgiving feast.

It was a momentous day. It was the first time I have ever hosted a Thanksgiving meal. I've always had thanksgiving with family and have never had to take on the thanksgiving cooking responsibilities myself. I was pretty excited about it.

The day started off with some cooking tips from my mom (and then I had to call her for advice two more times throughout the morning). Then it was time to start the festivities. We started out the day by making homemade noodles (think dumplings).


It was then time to make a pumpkin pie. We couldn't find evaporate milk so we had to make evaporated milk. I was pretty nervous about it but it turned out okay.



The finished product:


Lindsey helped me make some mashed potatoes!


Emily helped in finishing the noodles.


Kim made some amazing chicken and biscuits. Check out this spread...


The food was awesome.


Desserts too!


After the meal we napped, worked on a puzzle, decorated for Christmas, and watched Home Alone. It was a great day and a day of firsts. First time hosting Thanksgiving, first time making homemade noodles, first time making a pumpkin pie, first time owning a fake Christmas tree (sigh)... We're very blessed.

Hot Pack

feeling better

Man, H1N1 sucks! I thought it was just like any other flu; not so. I was struggling on Sunday. I had a fever of 102 and was all achy and sore and snotty and coughy and... you get the idea. Miserable. Well, Monday I stayed home from school and progressively began to feel better as the day went on; probably because I just laid on the couch all day and streamed (watched) live NFL games. It was a bit of heaven for a sick man.

I stayed home today (Tuesday) as well and continued to progress nicely. I've been fever free now for around 36 hours. I think i will probably go to school tomorrow if I still feel alright when I get up.

Thanks to everybody that has been sending me thoughts and prayers. I got this email from a guy on my basketball team. I thought it was entertaining:

Hey Mr Meyer!
We missed you on Saturday :(
we still won both games though aahha
wish you were there!
how are you feeling?? do you have swine flu??
:(:(
get better soon Mr Meyer!!
I LOVE YOU!!

SO-AND-SO #15, starting small forward for GSIS Knights/ Mr Meyer's def fave students of all time


I found that very encouraging and humorous.

an unwelcomed visitor

Tom has H1N1 (or at least we're pretty sure).
He feels pretty miserable and he'll be taking some time off school. Pray for his health and for a speedy recovery.

We went to see the doctor today (thank you, Jesus, for sending us an English speaking doctor), and Tom is on some medications. They did not test him for H1N1 but he has all the classic symptoms: fever, headache, exhaustion, etc.

Ironically, our school is getting vaccinations for h1n1 tomorrow...

basketball update

Yesterday we played two basketball games. It was a bitter sweet day; the girls lost both while the boys won both. Tom had to miss the game because he woke up with a fever. We're worried he may have h1n1.

The boys are playing really well. They're aggressive, communicative, and unselfish on the court. I think they're going to have a great season.

On the girls side it's bit of a different story. While the boys are returning almost all of their team from last year, the girls have 5 returning players and out of the five we are missing the two girls that scored 95% of all the points last year. So this is a rebuilding year. The girls are great kids because they're so eager to learn and their coachable. They are just so raw and new to basketball. Even after two weeks of practice and extensively teaching basketball terms they still do not know where to go when I saw "go down on the block." Here's another example...

Me talking to a player: "I'm putting you in right now because I need you to play on the block in the zone. Beth (made up name) isn't playing their spot correctly so I want you to go in there and make sure that you defend the area near the block."
Player nods her head, starts walking to check in and turns to me asking: "So what number is Beth guarding?"
Me: "It's a zone! You don't guard a girl, you guard an area."

I can't really get too mad at the girls because they just haven't played basketball before. But it can be so frustrating at times because they are so inexperienced and lack aggression. Sigh. I hate losing, but I am trying to keep the mindset that this year is not about the wins/losses it's about building athletes, giving these girls a sense of confidence, molding these girls into basketball players and people that sacrifice and love well. A ref came up to me yesterday and complimented me saying the girls had great sportsmanship. It was one of the highlights of my day.

there's a monster in the basement