since being home...

Tom and Hank cheering for the Chiefs (too bad it didn't help).

The boys with their game faces on:

Hank and Uncle Jim at our Korean feast:

Friends! Debbie, me, Jill and her baby Bella:

Bella and Me (Bella is so cute!!!!):

I love my Grandma

First off if you have never experienced the jet lag that comes with traveling across at least 10 timezones you really must sometime in your life. There is really nothing quite like it. It is like a war between what your mind knows you need to do and what your body wants to do.

So today Bonnie and I met my brother, his wife, my aunt Lisa, and my Grandma for lunch at one of our favorite places to eat in Columbia, Flatbranch. It is a delightful bar that brews their own beer and has a great menu. It is probably the restaurant in Columbia that Bonnie and I have eaten at the most. We had a great time hanging out, talking, and eating some great food.

My grandma is amazing. She has such a joyful and pleasant personality. She really is one of the sweetest and most precious people I have ever met. So as we are wrapping up our meal the conversation drifted to cats. My bro has a cat, Claudius Frixie, my sister Jill has a two cats, and my grandma has a black cat that frequents her house out in the country. Well she is telling us about this and the sentence that made me crack up as much as I can remember recently went something like this:

"I was trying to think of a name for that cat and I remembered my friend had a black cat that she called 'black beauty' and I thought that was okay but I thought I would just name that cat 'Obama.'"

My grandma has black cat that roams around her house out in the country that she has named after our president elect. I love it.

phone numbers

here are our phone numbers while we're in town:

Tom: 573-424-7309

Bonnie: 573-424-7310 (this was my old phone number)

later!

We're Back

We made it! After a long plane flight we finally arrived in KC last night.
It feels good to be home. We're still fighting jet lag, but we had a good night's sleep last night.

We'll post more later, sorry this is so short, but we just wanted to update everyone.

See you soon!

Korean Christmas

We are currently sitting in the airport in Korea getting ready to head to KC. I'm not really looking forward to 14+ hours on a plane, but I am excited to be home for a bit.

Tom did a great job of wrapping up the semester in the last post. In general it was a great semester and we're excited to have a bit of a break.

There was one thing Tom forgot to mention though, and that was how awesome Koreans are at gift giving! Giving gifts is very much a part of Korean culture, so for Christmas some of our students hooked us up with some awesome things! Here are some highlights:

1. 50,000 won to Outback Steakhouse (around 50 US dollars)
2. T-shirts that say "foreigner" in Korean...they're pretty funny.
3. Mugs with personalized messages
4. lots of chocolate
5. matching scarfs for both of us
6. fancy letter opener
7. small wreath
8. leather planners (love it)
9. huge candy canes
10. and plenty of cards with nice notes

We felt very loved and blessed. Teaching has its perks.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Coming to America

Not just a semi-entertaining movie staring Eddie Murphy, it is also a fact. We are coming to America very soon. We leave at 6pm this Saturday and get into KC at 9pm this Saturday. I love time zones changes. I love that Bonnie still doesn't understand the International Date Line. I love traveling. I love Shakespeare's Pizza, Shakey's, Margarita's, Chipotle, Walmart, QuikTrip, Flat Branch, and America in general.

We are officially done with school for first semester! We submitted our grades, said bye to our friends, and now we just need to pack our bags. Some highlights from the week:

Saturday we had our last b-ball game for a while. It was pretty bad for the boys. We looked okay but the other team was pretty good. As I've mentioned before the officiating is very bad. Well this game we thought it was especially bad and throughout the game Coach Currey made sure the officials knew that. Well at one point the back official is near our bench and coach very calmly and evenly mentions to him that the foul calls are currently are at a 2-1 ratio against us. The official proceeds to T him up. Well coach thought that was pretty lame so he gets fired up and starts shouting. He then turns towards a chair and at this point I get up thinking restraint may be necessary. He bends to pick it up and I decide restraint will be necessary. He instead picks up a clipboard and chucks it at a wall. Thankfully he didn't get kicked out. I have no clue what I would have done. Pretty funny scene looking back on it though.

Tuesday we went to Outback with about 140 people from our school for a Christmas dinner. We paid for our own meal but the school got soup, salad, and appetizers. Fantastic.

Wednesday Bonnie and I went out and had more Shabu-shabu and then I got together with some of the guys at our school and watched American Beauty. Very interesting flick.

Thursday night our PTA President took the whole staff our to dinner to thank us all for a great first semester. Amazing.

That was about it. See you soon. Hopefully we'll keep this up even when we are back in America.

oh the Chiefs...

So every Monday morning I get up at about 5:30 (normal time) and get on my computer immediately to catch up on what has been happening in the noon football games. I usually tune in about the start of the 4th quarter. I have found a couple websites where people some how broadcast the games over the internet. I'm not quite sure how it works but I get to watch live NFL football. Of course the Chiefs are my top priority. Well today I get up and they are winning 21-10. I wasn't able to find a TV broadcast but I did find a radio feed. I proceed to listen to the radio broadcast online and hear Mitch Holtus and Lenny Dawson describe in vivid detail the despicable choke job performed by the Chiefs. So depressing... Well what can I say at least they will get a better draft pick. Maybe if they lose out they will get the #2.

another video

I had my students do a video project earlier this quarter so I made a video of my own to show them how easy it is to use Windows Photo Story.

So I made a video about moving to Korea...it's kind of cheesy, but it works.
Check it out...

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=9HQwQcaMwVY

Also, we're days away from coming home! We're really excited. Right now we're just trying to finish strong. Over the next two days we'll finish up grading late work (which we hate), finals, etc. and submit our semester grades!!!!

It's a great feeling to have things wrapping up for my first semester of teaching.

basketball promo video

Some GSIS students made this as a class project. It is a promo video for the basketball teams.

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=wMMvHObbp6s

Enjoy.

The final push

Well, we have 8 school days left until the semester is officially over. This is going to be a crazy week for Bonnie and I. We have 3 basketball games, a Christmas concert, a Christmas party, finals to grades and a meeting about our mission trip to Nepal. All of that will have to happen between Tuesday and Sunday. Lovely. We've got a lot going on and are really looking forward to break. We are super excited to head back to America for a bit but I think we are equally excited to just get a break. It has pretty much been nonstop since we got here.

I will admit that even though life is pretty crazy right now it is still pretty enjoyable.

To update on GSIS b-ball. The boys have dropped their last 2 and are now 1-2. The girls however are 3-0. We both have tough match ups on Wednesday and again on Saturday. Hopefully the boys can pull it together.

We have been doing some Christmas shopping the past two weekends. Hopefully people like what they get. We went to a new place in Seoul this weekend called Insadong. It was was a kind of open air shopping mall. There were all kinds cool little pottery, antique, gift, and art shops. After shopping with our friends the Majors they took us to try some new food called Shabu-Shabu. It was amazing. Bonnie's favorite thus far. I would try to describe it but it would take too long; maybe Bonnie can sometime.

We also tried making my favorite Korean dish, dak-galbi, again this weekend. It was a definite success and we plan on making it for both of our families when we are home. I hope you all like spicy!

Okay that's all of my ramblings for now. Hopefully we'll get some more out here from time to time when our heads are above water this week.

To put things in perspective.

According to Wikipedia...

Columbia Missouri:
Area: 60.40 square miles
Population: 99,174 people
Density: 1,592 people per square mile

Suwon, South Korea
Area: 46.8 square miles
Population: 1,086,904 people
Density: 23,246 people per square mile

I love numbers. They just describe things so much better than I could. So things are a bit different here than good ole Columbia Missouri.

thanksgiving

If you know Tom fairly well, you know that one of his favorite food dishes is green bean casserole. Green bean casserole has been the classic side dish that we've always taken to any sort of potluck. So when our school announced we were having a thanksgiving dinner, we knew that we had to bring our favorite casserole dish. The problem was the ingredients.

Over the course of our stay here we've kept our eyes out for the main ingredients of our dish. About a month ago we spotted cream of mushroom soup! Surprisingly, we really struggled to find green beans, but finally a week ago we discovered canned green beans!!! Our last obstacle for our dish was the "Frenches fried onions." There was no way we'd ever find these here so after some brainstorming we decided we'd just have to make our own fried onions.

The pictures above our us making the onion rings to cut up for the casserole. Although our casserole was more primitive than normal, it was a success! It tasted great and was a big hit at our dinner. We had a great thanksgiving at GSIS.

korean sign

Freak Out!

It has been a busy week but here is a taste of the level of freak out that we sometimes see from our students. I think this is partially a joke but I believe there is a large degree of seriousness to it. An e-mail i received tonight (name changed of course):

Hi Mr. Meyer;
This is Soandso Kim and I need HELP.I haven't been getting the last few sections of this chapter, and I really want to get some help.I would stay after school if I can, but I have afterschool classes on my free days :(
And plus, I'm freaking out about the last homework check because the terrifying 'C' has brought my grade down from a high A to a low A-. So I was wondering if there's a way for me to both get some extra credit as well as some assistance in understanding this chapter a bit better. Perhaps a worksheet that I could have to makeup for the my plummeting grade? :( PLEASE help me, because our next unit test is the ONLY way I could recover my grades:(
I knew I would forget telling you about this tomorrow in class, so here I am;) Please please save this poor student from failing!

Thank you,
Soandso Kim

So the point is this: kids here freak out all the time. I chose the the name Kim because about a 20% of the kids here have the last hame Kim. That's no joke. In one class 6 of 17 are Kim.

School History

Well this past Wednesday night the GSIS boys basketball team made school history. They won their first game ever. Last year they went 0-10 as freshmen. This year they began their season with a 56-29 victory. It was pretty exciting to be a part of this little bit of history as an assistant coach. The girls team also won that day by a count of 40-6. Their game was a little less competitive.

We then played our second games of the season on Saturday (boys and girls teams play games on the same day vs. the same opponent to cut down on travel time). The girls and guys both looked pretty sloppy. The girls managed to pull out a 22-16 victory and the boys lost an extremely close game 42-40.

The caliber of play is lower than back home, probably not even at the JV level of a big US high school team. However, it is still pretty entertaining because you just never know what is going to happen. The officiating is horrible. I mean absolutely horrible. I mean worse than I can even put into words horrible. Let me just put it this way... In the girls game Saturday a girl on our team was called for traveling, not an unusual call given the skill level of the players. The problem is that SHE NEVER STOPPED DRIBBLING. I kid you not. I was virtually speechless.

Anyway. That's about it from here. 4 weeks from right now we will be back in KC. Craziness...

the canyon curse

When I went to college, Mary Kate and I became quick friends. For much of freshmen year we did almost everything together. One of the reasons I think we became so close was because we both love to go on adventures. Then through a random series of events our freshmen year we pledged that we would go to see the Grand Canyon together. Right before I got married we decided we must make this dream a reality. So spring break, junior year, we took an awesome trip to see the Canyon.

We flew down to Arizona, rented a goofy bright blue car, and lived out of that car and our tent for 4 days. We did a lot of hiking on our trip and checked out cool sites along the way, but the climax of the trip was suppose to be the Canyon. We finally made it to the Canyon in one piece, paid money to get in, got out of the car...and then we were crushed. The weather was awful! It was rainy and cloudy and so foggy that you couldn't see anything. Literally it was like a giant cloud was sitting in the Canyon. It was disappointing and sad. I am sure that we are some of the only people that have been at the Grand Canyon but couldn't see any of it (see the picture above for evidence).

Well, on our DMZ tour history repeated itself. On the way up to the DMZ it started to rain and get yucky. Although we could still see some of the main attractions, a big part of the tour was getting to stop at observatories and look out onto North Korea. And what did we see? Nothing. Zip. Nada. That canyon curse has returned. Behind me in the picture is North Korea. There are lots of trees, villages, North Korean propaganda to spot...I wouldn't know from seeing it. That's just what we were told was out there.

the DMZ (part 2)

We woke up early and left the Sauna for the DMZ tour. In our original plans we said we'd just get breakfast on the way at a coffee shop. When we woke up and walked out of the Sauna, Korean reality hit us and we totally forgot that Korea is dead asleep until at least 9am. This is quite annoying because the earliest you can go out to get coffee (or really anything) is 9! After we beat ourselves up for being so stupid, we plotted our next step...and that was when an anomaly happened. Out in the far distance I could see the lights on in some sort of shop. Upon closer inspection we realized it was a Tom N' Tom's, one of our new favorite coffee shops. Much to our surprise, T n' T's was open!!! So we started our day out right, with breakfast treats and a latte.

We arrive at the USO for our tour at 7am. They quickly got us onto a bus and informed us it'd take about an hour and a half to get up to the DMZ. Since neither of really slept well at the Sauna we used the drive for much needed naps.

Finally, after much anticipation we arrive at the DMZ. Along the way we have to go through many security check points, we got told to not take any pictures of certain things along the way, and then our first big stop was at conference row. Conference row is where you can really see a line on the ground and on one half there are South Korean soldiers and on the other there are N. Koreans. Straddling the two sides are blue meeting rooms (blue for the UN) where conferences can be held between the North and the South. We got to go in the main conference room and because it straddles the North and South we technically got to stand in North Korea. This is a picture of Tom "in N. Korea" standing by a ROK guard (Republic of Korea=south korea). They wear the shades to be intimidating. They remind me of the sunglasses my dad wore my entire life until he made a big sunglasses change a few years back.

On the tour they also took us to many check points to look out onto North Korea. Unfortunately the weather was really bad and because it was so foggy we couldn't see much (more on this in a future post). But we learned a lot of cool information and seeing conference row made the trip worth it.

Something we couldn't take a picture of was Tunnel 3. The North Koreans made many underground tunnels for infiltration purposes. The ROK's found out about it and they dug tunnels down to blockade the N.Koreans. We got to walk through Tunnel 3, one of the underground tunnels, and see what it was like. The tunnel was only 5 ft tall, so Tom and I were both hunched over for the trek through the tunnel.

Here are some things to note from our trip:

1. the DMZ is a real reminder that Korea is still at war. Although there is an Armistice, there is a serious tone at the DMZ that each side is prepared for war at any moment.

2. there is barbed wire and mine fields everywhere around the DMZ

3. there is an agreement between the north and south that only Military Police are allowed to carry weapons at the DMZ. As a result, every US soldier wears an MP arm badge even though they are not MP's because they all are mostly infantry soldiers.

4. there are ROK special forces near the DMZ that can suit up and arrive at the DMZ in less than 60 seconds.

5. north korea is creepy. this one is just my opinion.

DMZ style (the prelude)

So this weekend Bonnie and I made a trip to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone, the boarder between North and South Korea). The journey began on Friday night because we had to report to the military base in Seoul by 7AM so we headed up early. Our plan was to sleep in a sauna. If you read the blog regularly you might remember a post I made a couple of months ago about these places. Another perk of these lovely bath houses is that you can sleep there for free. However, they are not at all like a hotel. The sleeping arrangements consist of a 1/2 inch thick foam mat and a rectangular block of foam "pillow" about the size of a brick. Regardless of the sleeping condition it is cheap; 5 to 10 bucks a person at most.

Like I said our journey began Friday night when we headed up to Seoul. Usually it would have taken us about 1.5 hours to make it to our destination; this night it took 3. So we didn't get to Itaewon (part of Seoul) until 9PM and then we couldn't find the sauna we planned to stay in. We went to a nearby Cold Stone to sooth our frustrations. As we sat in Cold Stone we noticed across the street that there was a building with a sauna logo on it (looks like a little steaming pot). It wasn't the one we were looking for but it would work.

We decided to pay for access to the jin-jil-bong, a coed section of the bath house, with the hope that we could sleep in the same area. They give you special pajamas to wear so they know you paid for it, which is kind of funny because the only people in the room are wearing pink or blue pajamas. Anyway we go soak in our respective bath houses and meet in the middle to go find a place to sleep in the jinjilbong. Well it turned out that the jinjilbong was kind of loud and the the lights were still pretty bright at 10:30 so we decided to sleep separately in our male and female bath house sleeping rooms.

I go to my room which was basically like a loft above the bath house (this made things very warm) with a 4 to 5 foot high ceiling. I find a little foam mat a try to fall asleep. This was a very strange environment to fall asleep in because there were bodies scattered about the loft and you don't know any of them and they are snoring and making all kinds of strange noises; you can hear people rustling around and coming and going too. We'll I'm getting pretty sleepy and I begin to hear someone walking toward my section of the loft. He is getting closer and closer and eventually I can tell that he is standing right next to me. My mind begins to race as to what I should do. Did I take his mat? Am I doing something wrong? So I open my eyes a little to see where this guy is and he is hovering directly over the top of me just staring at me! This was pretty unnerving. I close them and wait. He doesn't move. I finally open my eyes again and just stare at the dude, as if to say "go away." He kind of flinches, shuffles away, grabs a mat, and pulls it up right next to me; less than a foot away. What the crap is going on!?!?!

I try to just ignore the guy and I lay there paralyzed for like 10-20 minutes. Eventually I hear him start snoring so I get up and move to another part of the loft. At this point it is about midnight. Now I can't fall asleep because it is so unbearably hot that I am sweating a ton and sticking to my foam mat. I finally decided about 1:30 to head back down to the jinjilbong and see if it has quieted down. It had and there were little 2 foot tall vertical divides lined up against one wall with mats in between so I laid down there with two foam blocks much cooler and confident that I wouldn't have anyone pulling up next to me. I think I woke up about every 20 to 30 minutes out of discomfort. At some point in the night (I have no idea when) I was startled out of my sleep by a Korean woman shaking me, leaning over my divider, and shaking a foam block at me as if to ask if she could take it. Once again what in the crap is going on!?!?! Yes take the block! Please! Let me sleep!

After all that I managed to get enough sleep to make due. Bonnie had a less harrowing evening but was still unbearably hot while trying to sleep. Wow that post took a while. More on the actual DMZ in the next post.

Pepero Day

So when I got to school today I thought it was just any other day of school. Then I looked at my watch and realized that it was something special. It was 11-11. I thought this was pretty cool. 11th day of the 11th month and all. I mentioned this to some of my students as they walked in before first block and they gave me that, "wow, you are a huge nerd" look. I shrugged it off.

Soon after that though I noticed that many of my students were walking in with boxes of these candies. They are kind of like chocolate covered pretzel sticks. Kind of. I asked them what was up and they told me that it was Pepero Day. It is tradition that on this day girls are supposed to give guys these special treats but it seemed to work both ways from what I saw. I think this is just a holiday that was made of by the Lotte corporation to sell more of their product. The reason it is on 11-11 is because the date resembles the Korean spelling of the snack (see the box at right) or because the sticks look like 1s. We got different stories from our students.

In the end a lot of our students gave us boxes of pepero. It was pretty awesome and a great surprise. The score pictured below is what Bonnie was given by her students. She even scored a pepero rose. Mine was a little bit smaller. I had a couple students go outside the box and give me a KicKer. Which is basically like a 8 inch long single KitKat stick. I was excited about this because I love KitKats

put me in coach

Basketball practice started this week, and Tom and I are both assistant coaches! I am helping with the girls team and tom is the assistant for the boys team. Neither one of us have really coached before, so we're pretty excited for this opportunity.

Sports are not as big of a deal here in Korea at the high school level like they are in the US. In korea, a high school kid's life revolves around school. period. why would you go to basketball practice after school when you could could to a tutor???? (at least, that's the mindset)
Needless to say, the kids don't play at the same caliber as they do in the states.

The boys have never won a game in the history of the school. Now I will point out the school is only in its 3rd year and this year we only go up to 10th grade. So last year it was 7th-9th graders playing older high school kids. Tom is hoping that this year he can be a part of a win, because even one win would be huge!

As for the girls, they lack aggression and skills but I think they have a lot of potential. Last year they did quite well. They got 3rd place in the division and like the boys, the team only had 7th-9th graders in a high school league. There are high hopes for this new season and I'm excited to be a part of it!

the blessings of korea

1. we don't have to clean our place. every other week we have Cora, our cleaning lady, come and clean our apartment.

2. we don't have to iron anything. there is a dry cleaners in the bottom of our apartment building. for a dollar an item they iron whatever you need. considering how much i dislike ironing, how long it takes me, and how bad i am at it...i will definitely pay someone a buck to do it for me.

3. we get our milk delivered to our apartment. 3 days a week we have a fresh quart of fat free milk waiting for us when we wake up.

4. every morning i get an international newspaper (i've never had my own newspaper before!)

5. we mysteriously have cable, although we don't pay for it (i think this will eventually catch up to us)

6. we don't pay utilities. our school covers most of our housing bills.

7. the bills we do have the school coordinates our payments for us from our checking account.

8. we get free lunch every day at school.

9. there is a shuttle that drives us to and from school

10. if we order food for delivery (which hasn't been very often because of the language barrier), they deliver the food in plastic bowls, plates, etc. Then when we're done eating we put the dirty dishes outside our door and they come back and pick them up. now that's service.

11. we don't have to pay for car insurance or gas. the downside to this one is that we don't have a car, but the public transit system is pretty great so it hasn't been too much of an inconvenience to not have our own car.

I don't say this to be boastful...I say all this because we really are humbled and so grateful for the blessings of korea. Teaching overseas is a lot of hard work and at times I start to get in self-pity mode, but then I look through this list (and this is just the superficial stuff) and it makes me realize how much God has blessed us here in Korea. We feel grateful and blessed to be in this place.

fall fun

This weekend we did some local exploration. Suwon has an old castle and fortress that wraps around part of the city. It's actually really cool, so we decided to hop on the dragon trolley (see below) and take a tour of the fortress.


We actually had to kill an hour before we could go on the tour so we found some really cool trails and hang out spots.
After the tour we were able to just walk around and enjoy many of the fortress sights. This is us at one of the fortress posts.

After we saw the fortress sights we noticed that you could practice archery! It was only 2,000 Won (less than 2 bucks) and you we were able to play with bows and arrows. I was a little reluctant to do it because right before we bought our tickets there were like 20 kids doing it and that was basically it. Tom, however, was persistent and we decided to give it a go. During our archery session there were just three of us, Tom, myself and a little kid. I love this picture of Tom next to the little boy. haha...it was also great because our target looked like the mascot for the University of Arkansas! We got to kill some razorbacks! Yes!!!!

This was a very strange magnet (like what you would put on your fridge) that we found at one of the fortress gift shops. I can't believe someone would buy this!!!

Lastly, we met a man from the Netherlands and he took this great fall picture for us.

Overall it was a great fall day! We had a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. This was one of those weekends that made us realize how much we enjoy life in Korea.

changes in our plans

Due to some schedule changes with Delta we will be staying in Columbia one extra day during our break. We will now be flying home on Jan. 6th.

We don't start school until the 12th so we have a lot of wiggle room on when we need to get back. We just wanted to get back to Korea a few days before school because jet lag is no fun to deal with while you're working! 7 weeks and we'll be home.

korean culture week

This past week was Korean Culture week at our school. Basically our school just took some time out of the school day to honor our host country. It was a great time. We had three different assemblies throughout the course of the week. The first assembly consisted of a group of korean kids performing dances and music. The second was a series of performances put on by our faculty and students (more on this later). And the last was a group of adults who also did cultural dances and music stuff. Additionally we had local artists come in and display their artwork and other korean talents.

The assembly put on by our faculty and students was probably the most entertaining. Over the past few weeks tom and i have been taking korean lessons at our school once a week (tom is easily the best in the class...show off). Anyway, our beginner class had to perform during the assembly, so tom and i and about 6 other teachers sang "Arirang" which is a "classic" korean song (like Yankee Doodle Dandy or something like that in America). The song is pretty funny. There were two lovers. The man was going to leave the woman but before he finished passing through the mountain to leave he got a foot disease and had to come back to the woman. Charming.

Another highlight from the assembly was a puppet show put on by a group of students. The puppet show was entitled "Puppy Poo." Yes..like poop. There was a korean author that was a Christian and liked to write books about redemption and weak things used for great purposes through children's stories. So the story our students chose to perform was a story about how there was this dog that pooped. The poop thought that itself was dirty. The ground said it was dirtier than the poop. Then there came this dandelion that said it needed the poop. So the poop ended up fertilizing a beautiful dandelion. The poop found its purpose in giving life to something else. The performance consisted of a large poop cut out on a stick that our students gave a voice too. It was so weird and so funny. Only in Korea.

New Video

A package from my parents. Go Jim and Jean!!!!! See the video bar on the right.

Thoughts on education in the USA

So we just finished up parent teacher conferences. I met with 67 of 100 possible parents. I was blown away by how many came. It was actually a pretty good experience. It is pretty tiring and I felt like I repeated myself a lot. However, I felt like it gave me a lot of insight into where my students are coming from and that is always useful.

So I have some thoughts about education that I have been considering. You always hear about how the US does poorly compared to other countries when it comes to education. Well from my experiences so far here in Korea I would suggest that those shortcomings are more a result of culture than methodology.

Education is a huge deal here. Students in Korean public schools spend ridiculous amounts of time at school (like 7AM to 7PM or later, 5 days a week). After that they go to private tutoring. This isn't just our school; its Korea in general. Education is the gatekeeper not only to status when it comes to money making but also socially. If you fall behind you are done for. You must keep up and you must do well. Nothing else is an option. That is the expectation laid down to any kid no matter what their social status is. Poor kids are expected to perform just as well as rich kids; they just have to work more for it.

I think that in the US the problem with education is that it is not a priority to our society. School is something you have to go to. It is a necessary evil. It is day care for some parents. From my experiences at RBHS we had some fantastic teachers doing interesting and challenging work with their students. I think this goes on at many schools. I just think that the culture that our students are immersed in does not give a rip about education. It is all about the money. You know the rundown: movies, sports, music, etc... A lot of "attractive" folks making crap loads of money and acting like they own the world as a result (I fully realize this is a broad generalization and there are a lot of intelligent, educated people in those occupations).

Here are a couple suggestions to help solve this problem. 1) make people fill out applications before allowing them to procreate. This process would work to ensure that they will be responsible parents (this one was a joke). 2) Mandate early childhood education starting at age 2. This would presumably get kids into a constructive learning environment sooner, and hopefully begin modeling appropriate learning practices at an early age. 3) Don't allow a kid to advance past a particular grade level until he/she has proven they are proficient at that grade level. 8 y/o in kindergarten? If that's where he needs to be keep him there. (This sounds like it should happen right? It doesn't.) 4) Have the US go through one giant paradigm shift.

Now let me say this too. Korea has problems with the way it views education. There is a reason that it has one of the highest suicide rates of any country in the world. Failing is viewed as worse than death because of the public shame involved. That's why so many people take their own lives. Also the emphasis in the Korean public schools is to memorize as much information as you possibly can in preparation for the end of high school exam (which determines your college choices). There is very little emphasis on critical thinking and innovative thought.

I feel like there is more rolling around in my head about this but it is not coming to the forefront at the moment. I'm sure it will spill out at times throughout the year.

it's dead

So my mom has this gift (one of many) and that is that she can keep things alive. I do not have this gift. At our wedding we had two ficus trees to help decorate the alter. After the wedding my parents took one and we took the other one. Over the past two years we have slowly watched our tree almost die. Huge chunks of the tree were missing at times and it had an over all drooping appearance. When we moved to Korea we gave the tree to my parents so it could have a home, and go figure...after only a short existence in Jerre's care the tree has flourished! On one hand I am excited that our wedding tree is thriving because I feel like the health of our marriage is some how linked to this tree. I believe this only because my parents have a ficus tree from their wedding that STILL LIVES today (it's huge) and they have a great marriage. So in my head I think, healthy ficus, healthy marriage. On the other hand, I feel a tinge of bitterness because my mom can make things grow and I CAN'T!

When we arrived in Korea and moved into our apartment one of the first things we noticed was a small plant in our place left to us as a gift. How charming. Over the past three months we have slowly watched this plant grow weaker and weaker. I watered it, talked to it, tried to give it some sun (the instructions on how to care for it were in Korean so I just guessed on how to give it some TLC). However, I am sad to report that our plant has died. I seriously contemplated sending it to my mom when it started to look sick, but I figured it wouldn't survive the journey. Since this recent death, I have thought about getting a new house plant but for the plants sake I may refrain. Apparently, unlike my mom, I can't keep things alive. How did I miss this all important gene???

May it be noted, that I was able to successfully keep our dog alive for the year we had him. Hopefully I'll get all the kinks worked out before we start having babies (good thing I have a while).

Parent Teacher conferences

Tomorrow (Thursday) we begin parent teacher conferences. We have a half day of school and parents come from 1-8:30 with a break for dinner from 5-6. Then they come back Friday from 11-3. So we actually get to sleep in on Friday! Yes!!!!!! The school basically sets up a table for each teacher in the auditorium and then parents come and visit any teacher they would like. This will actually be the first time that Bonnie or myself have ever done parent teacher conferences like this. I probably only had 3 or 4 parent teacher conferences in my 3 years at RBHS because there was never a scheduled time for them like this. This should be interesting...

P.S. My eyes got better. I don't really know what was wrong but we skyped doctor Jean (my step-mom), she took a look from 7000 miles away, and diagnosed me with some sort of sinus infection. She then recommended some meds that we ask the doctor for. We went to the clinic here and told them that my step-mom was an eye surgeon and what she recommended. They really didn't ask any questions and just prescribed me the meds that she suggested. Grand total it cost $18 including meds and without filing with insurance. The Medical field is interesting here.

feeling icky

this has been a rough week for tom and i. Earlier this week I had to stay home from school one day because i have been fighting off a stomach bug. I went to the Korean doctor (that was an experience) and got some meds, which have helped. I'm still trying to get back to feeling 100% but I am much better.

On a sad note, the icky bug has landed on tom. A few days ago his eyes started to feel irritated. Then yesterday he woke up and his eyelids were majorly swollen. He went to school and all the kids thought it made him look more Asian. Some kids even said it made him look more handsome! I for one, like normal Tom better. We called Dr. Jean (tom's step mom) and got some advice, so now we're going to try to go to a clinic and see if we can get Tom on some meds. Hopefully we get an English speaking doctor!

Just a water cooler?????

Now don't just look at this picture and say, "Come on Tom we have water coolers in the good ole U S of A." This, my friends, is more than just a water cooler. You see how there are two spouts? Well the blue obviously put out cold water, but from my experiences in the past the other one usually puts our room temp water. Here is Korea that is not the case. It puts out freaking hot, burn your hand water. What is so fabulous about this is that you have hot chocolate, ramen, and even coffee on demand.

Since we have been advised by our school and the coutry of South Korea as a whole to not drink the tap water purchasing one of these for our home was a must. I think this has been so impactful because of that purchase. Maybe some of you have experienced this at home... but this is a first for us. So here's to you Korea. Well done on the water cooler/heater.

Also... Apparently posting Sponge Bob on Youtube is a copyright infringement because it got yanked off and we got a nice condeming note from YouTube. Oops

Saturday in Seoul

So this past weekend Bonnie and I got to go to the Passion Conference at Olympic Park in Seoul. For those of you who don't know Passion is a huge Christian concert/conference tour that travels around the world. It headlines with some of the biggest names in the Christian music scene; Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and David Crowder as well as a speaker name Louie Giglio. We just got totally lucky that it happened to be in Seoul this week so we decided to spend our Saturday there.

We went to a session at 10AM and then decided to skip the 2PM session and head out to explore Seoul a little bit. We ate some lunch at a nearby Quiznos and then hopped on the subway. We visited a more Americanized part of the city and found a used bookstore there. I bought the Clancy novel Rainbow Six; Bonnie got The Great Gatsby, and a book about Jim Elliot. As we walked out of the bookstore we saw something that floored us... a Mexican restaurant. Those are extremely rare here. We ate dinner there and it was fantastic. Then we went back for the 7PM session of the conference. It was a fantastic Fall Saturday. It was no comparison to the Sausage Supper going on in Brinktown, Missouri this weekend but it will have to do.

We posted a little video on our YouTube bar on the right. It is a medley of video clips I put together from the songs at the Passion conference. There's also some Korean Sponge Bob on there.

too cute.

these are pictures my mom sent of the dogs. i guess hank and macey have become quick buddies, so much so that hank can practically sit on macey's head and not get eaten. I also think it's funny to see a huge 90 lbs. dog curled up in a little ball by a little 25 lbs puggle. they're just too cute.

I think Hank has also been good company for my dad. A few weeks ago my dad severely sprained his ankle. It's pretty bad and he's stuck at home for at least 8 weeks keeping that foot propped up. At least he has a little friend to keep him company!

One connection to America that won't end

Despite the fact that I am over 6000 miles away I refuse to let my love for American football be hindered. Through friends and some internet surfing I have found ways to watch games on the internet. The quality is a bit rough sometimes but I can watch nonetheless. Earlier today I was able to watch the Tigers smash the Nebraska Cornhuskers to little pieces of gravel. It was priceless. I'll be honest I probably keep up better with the news of the NFL here than in the states. There's just not much entertainment when at home other than the internet and my browser always seems to navigate to nfl.com, espn.com, kansascity.com, fantasysports.yahoo.com and so on...

One thing that I am especially proud of is the fact that I managed to stay a part of the fantasy football league I have been in for the past 4 or 5 years. It has been more or less the same 10 guys that whole time give or take a few changes here or there. We even completed the leagues first live in-person draft with me calling in on Skype and another guy calling his picks in by phone. This meant that I had to get up at 5AM but that's what commitment is all about right?

Another first for our league this year was the first international trade. I traded Zach Osborne: Anothony Fasano, Maurice Jones-Drew, and Roy Williams in return for Willie Parker and Randy Moss. I think I got the better end of the deal but only time will tell. They are now members of the Korean Conquerors.

Anyway... Those of you disinterested in football have probably stopped reading by now so I better wrap this up. I love the football and nothing is going to stop me from being a part of all of the action. Not even 6000+ miles. Except for the noon games, that's 2 AM here. I can't do that.

I think in coming posts we will be discussing some great Korean innovations. There are many things here that we find ourselves asking, "Why don't we have these in America?"

thanks mom and dad!

We got a package from home! This was our second one since we've been here and it was glorious. We filmed the opening of our package, but the video wouldn't load up on blogger! bummer! so I posted the video on Youtube. You can click the link below to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdS6YJ9MiI

We also added a video bar to our blog on the right hand side. This will display the videos we have posted on Youtube (our apartment and/or our package)

2 months in

Well as of today or yesterday we have been here in Korea for 2 months. It is kind of hard to believe. It seems like just recently we were just getting off the plane and finding ourselves totally befuddled in a foreign land. My how the time passes.

I am pretty pumped because I (and Bonnie) am learning to read. I can read most of the Korean symbols now and am getting more speedy. It is pretty funny to look at English words translated into Korean.
For example: I went to McDonald's last night and got a ice cream cone. This would be pronounced (based on the Korean spelling) as: ah-e-suh guh-rum go-nuh (the uh's here make the uuuuh sound like in bud). Almost any word we English speaking folk would end in a vowel ends in UH or EE sounds here. It is just very humorous to hear a kid answer a question in math class by saying "slope-uh." It is hard to make all of this make sense by typing...

Also we booked our flights home for Christmas over the weekend. We will be coming in at 11PM on Saturday, Dec 20th and leaving at 7AM on Monday, January 5th. At this pace that will be here before we know it.

my scariest moment since living in Korea

This post is in dedication to my great friend and hairdresser: Liz Wheeler.

Yesterday it was time...I had to get my hair cut. I've put this off as long as possible, but I just couldn't put it off any longer because my hair had become a shaggy mess. Some other ladies at school have gotten their hair cut recently, so I picked their brains, heard some horror stories, and ultimately found a place to go to that did a good job on my colleague's hair.

I show up at the salon. The hair dresser doesn't know any English. I don't know any Korean. So, we had some awkward exchanges accompanied with many hand jesters. Finally I take my seat in the chair. To my credit, I came prepared. I printed off a picture of how my hair looked after the last time Liz cut it so I wouldn't have to try to explain anything to the guy. He liked the picture, or so I surmised, but it wasn't until 5 minutes later that he realized it was me in the picture (that's how bad I needed a hair cut).


The haircut: I am terrified. Koreans are great in a lot ways, but hair style is not one of them...lots of ugly bangs. Instead of washing my hair before the cut, this guy had a spray bottle and he would just spray one area at a time and then cut it. Everything seems to be going okay until it was time to cut the bangs. He takes a whole bunch of hair from the front of my head and gives it one big chop. My heart is racing in this moment. The result was something like this:


The only thing I could think of is the 1990's hair style of the huge bangs (thank you Mom for never making me cut my hair like that). At this point I am freaking out. So I make some hand motions trying to describe that I want my bangs to sweep to the side. He solves this by making a few cuts and mostly by just combing my bangs over.


Now that the cut was finished it was time to wash my hair. This was pretty standard except when she gave me a head massage; it was the hardest my head has ever been pushed by human hands. They then styled my hair. Some things I noticed: they didn't sanitize their hairbrushes. The brush he used on me was covered in hair. They also aren't as careful with their scissors; my dude poked me right above the eye with the scissors. Lastly, he didn't really part my hair before he cut it, so now my hair has a funny part.

The whole thing took about an hour and was a little under 20 bucks. How do I feel about my new cut? Well, it got the job done. My bangs are pretty bad. I will become the master of bobby pins because I think I will be pinning them back quite a bit. The weird part in my hair throws me off. But it could be worse. Overall, I think I am okay with it. It's not as edgy and full of layers as I would like, but it's just hair so it will grow out and then I can come home and have Liz give me a cool new look.



This picture was taken after the cut. I already have my bangs pinned back. I'll try to post a better picture of the cut later. We just found this bear walking on the street.

A long awaited purchase

So one thing that Bonnie and I have always wanted is a coat rack. We would look everywhere for them back in Como, but they were always way too expensive or just totally out there tacky. Every time I would go to a garage sale or thrift store and look for books I would always keep my eyes open but always to no avail.

So since Bonnie and I actually had a weekend off this past Saturday and Sunday we decided to spend part of Sunday at our local Homeplus (target-like) and actually take our time walking through the whole store and checking out the goods. This is actually pretty important to do. Since we can't read we really have to look closely at pics and stuff to decipher what we might be getting.

Well long story short as we were wandering through the home section the clouds parted and a light shown down from heaven upon the holy grail of our marriage thus far. There is was. A coat rack made of wood priced at 23,000 won (about $20) that didn't look tacky. We decided we must snatch it up. Now it sits in our front entryway eagerly awaiting the winter.

The other two pics were some sweet finds at a furniture thrift store across the street from our apt. We had always seen this place with little relics sitting on the sidewalk from our window but never had the time to venture down. We found the time and now we have a new love seat and a second tiny night stand for our bedroom. Yippee! That's all I've got.

Cheers to my first fantasy football victory of the season this past weekend. My team needs some improvement. Pray for them.

one thing we've been missing

Tom and I have been thinking recently...and we miss Hank. At times we picture what it'd be like for Hank to live in Korea: hearing his paws pitter patter on the hard wood floor; what it would look like for him to be perched on the back of our coach looking out the window at Asia; what would he think of all the interesting smells??? But then we think about how he would be cooped up in an apartment and he would have to go to the bathroom on concrete because we don't have grass. And then we think more about how sweet of a life he has at my parent's house just hanging out with Macey, getting treats (but hopefully not getting fat), and going on all these great walks everyday with Jerre. Yes...he's better off without us and without Korea for now, but we still miss him snuggling in bed with us.

Hong Kong final thoughts

So we have returned safely from Hong Kong and can now breath a bit easier. I posted another 50ish pictures on the Hong Kong slide show so feel free to check those out. The night after the last post Bonnie and I went out to a nice dinner at a very energetic, pricey, and pleasant "Surf and Turf" restaurant as our guide book called it. It was great and the food looked like it was straight out of Top Chef on Bravo. After dinner we walked across the street and strolled down a boardwalk that ran along the harbor. It was really cool because that night there were a ton of locals out because of a holiday. People had all kinds of glow sticks and toys and candles and such.

The next day I took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to an island near Hong Kong and did some hiking. It was pretty cool because there were no roads on the whole island. Just concrete walking trails. I visited a couple beaches along my 4 to 5 km hike and then caught a different ferry on the other side of the island and made my way back to the hotel.

That night Bonnie and I went up to the "Peak Tower" to catch a really cool night time view of the city. It was absolutely amazing and the video and pictures do not do it justice.

We slept in the next day bummed around the area near our hotel and then made the journey home. I don't care how many times I go through customs. I think I will always feel like Jason Bourne. That was our journey. Thanks for reading and posting comments! We love those.

Pics up

I got the slide show feature to work properly so the pictures are up on the right hand side. If you double click on the slide show it will open in a new window so you can view the pictures larger.

Hong Kong Day 2

So yesterday Bonnie started her conference and I headed off to begin exploring Hong Kong. I found out some interesting things. #1 fast food is cheaper (and faster) here. You can get a McD’s breakfast extra value meal for about $2.50 and lunch/dinner for about $3.75. The quality of food tasted about the same too. You can also get a cone for $.33, a shake for $1.25, and a McFlurry for $1.25. That is so awesome I can't even explain it. One negative about eating here in Asia is that chicken is a little funky. For the most part I don’t think they do cuts of meat here. I envision them taking out a butcher knife and just getting after the chicken. Then it gets cooked bones and gristle and all. Don’t get me wrong it still tastes great it’s just most of the time I can’t pinpoint what part of the bird I am eating. Anyway, on to more interesting things…

I explored the more downtown part of HK and then went to hit up “knock off alley” as I have dubbed it. Downtown had a lot of big buildings but on the whole wasn’t too fascinating to me. I'll post a new slide show on this sometime soon.

Knock off alley on the other hand was pretty cool. I went early in the day and then Bonnie and I went back later in the evening and fleeced the place, or was it the other way around? Time will tell. I got a nice midsized hiking backpack for about $25. Bonnie got a “D & G” leather purse for about $25. She got a pendant necklace for $2.50. We got a set of place mats for $5.75 and a 2’ by 3’ painting of a traditional Hong Kong market for $10. Oh, I also got a mini tripod for my camera for $2.50.

I think we may do a little bit more shopping in the coming days but Saturday was a good day. That’s all for now. As soon as blogger stops being dumb I'll post that slide show.

Arrival in Hong Kong

Well, we made it to Hong Kong. This is just one of the tons of huge buildings in this crazy city. Hong Kong itself does not encompass a large amount of area, but it does bring a new vision of a city built vertically to my eyes. Sorry Jill, Adam, and MK but in my opinion the urban environment in Hong Kong is even greater than in downtown Chicago. I'll try to make another slide show when time permits so you can check out more pics of the city.

So we got in yesterday in the early afternoon, quickly grabbed some lunch and headed out to do some shopping. Korea doesn't really have the cheap shopping (from what we've seen so far), but Hong Kong on the other hand... yeah, it's got that going on. Bonnie got a Goach (like the Coach purses with C's all over them but his has G's) for about $11 USD. She also got some nail polish, pens, and jewelry each of those things was about $2 to $4 each.

I'm hoping to do some more exploring today. I'm going to try to find some cheap camera accessories. Maybe a new teacher (messenger) bag. Tangent: Never buy a Swiss Army brand bag. They are crap. Buy their knives. The Swiss know how to cut stuff and make gadgets but bags...nope. Anyway, I'm in the market for a new messenger bag and maybe a heavy duty backpack for some possible intense summer traveling. That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update more later and even get some pictures up.

i did it first

I just want to note that the "sauna" Tom mentioned before isn't just for boys...it's a big hit among the ladies too. In fact, before Tom ever stepped foot in a sauna I went with a group of women from my school. Yes...it is true. I too stripped down naked with my co workers in Korea. This was a big step in my life...you know, the whole sitting around naked just talking to people...but it I did it. I think I'm a better (and cleaner) person for it.

Hong Kong here we come!!!

Hong Kong bound.

Well Bonnie and I leave Friday morning for Hong Kong. Bonnie is going there for some IB training and I am tagging along for the ride. I had to pay my own way and make all of my own travel arrangements so this could be a little bit of an adventure for me... I hope to watch some NFL while there. That is my goal for the weekend. That and see Hong Kong... More later.

high school retreat

We went on a retreat with our high school students this past weekend. We had a great time and it was a huge turning point in developing deeper relationships with our students.

One thing that is really big in Korea is Noraebangs (you say it Nor-ray-bong). It is kind of like karaoke, but instead of going to a karaoke bar you go to a noraebang with your friends and you rent out a room to karaoke in. For whatever reason they are a really big deal here. My students really wanted to go to a noraebang but it was closed when we tried. However, they quickly discovered that the arcade at the resort had a very mini-noraebang that you could sing in. Here is a video of a few of my students singing their hearts out. They love this song...."I'm so hot..." They were kind of mellow in this video...but I really think part of it is due to the fact that they were just so dang focused on singing these songs! These girls meant business. Watch out America, you don't want to mess with Koreans and their noraebangs.

Big Sauna

Let me begin with a disclaimer. If you get squeamish thinking about an area filled with pools and naked men then please discontinue reading at this point. Everybody still on board? Okay lets proceed.

So Wednesday night I joined 3 of my fellow male staff members and took part in an aspect of Korean culture that is definitely foreign to me. We went to what is called a sauna. This is a large health club type place filled with all kind of hot tubs and cold tubs and steam rooms and actual saunas. These places are very common in Korea. The particular one that we went to was especially large. It probably had 10ish tubs, several steam rooms, 5 or so saunas, and even a sleep room where you can spend the night (on a 1 inch foam mat with a wooden block a for pillow).

So here's how it works: First off, it is basically just on a floor in the big mall type shopping buildings that they have here. We walked up to a desk and purchased our tickets. Next we headed to the male locker room. When you walk into the locker room the first thing that you see is a bunch of rows of small lockers. You pick one, open it, put your shoes in, and take your key. Then you head over to another part of the locker room and find the big locker that corresponds to your key. Then you strip down naked.

Yeah, it is a bit strange at first. But then you look around the room and you just see tons of naked Korean dudes walking around and you begin to feel a little weird having you clothes on. So then you head into the actual Sauna. Before you enjoy all the attractions you are supposed to shower off. No stalls, you just line up along the wall... naked... one of a few white dudes in the room.

Then, you can basically choose from all the options above. There were some wicked hot hot tubs. One which advertised in poor English translation that it provided a "full corpse cleansing." That was a bit creepy... There were also luke warm tubs, jet powered tubs, cold tubs... all were very pleasant. At one point we stepped into a sauna that registered 94 C (about 200 F) for 3 or 4 minutes. I have never felt like that before and don't desire to again.

At the end of the night you shower off again. You can shave, brush your teeth, and do basically whatever hygiene activities that you want. And then you leave feeling like a new man and you go home and sleep like a baby.

You may think this sounds a bit strange and awkward but surprisingly it really isn't. Just think about it this way: If you would feel strange naked in a room full of clothed people, then wouldn't you feel strange clothed in a room full of naked people?

Overcoming Mountains

At our faculty retreat Tom and I got to go on a hike! It was great. This is us at the top of Tohamsan Peak. It's not the Rockies, but it sure was pretty! In the first picture, it's hard to see, but in the distance is the ocean. Korea is a beautiful place.

My Korean Business Card

I've never even had a business card before but now I have a bilingual one. I guess that says "Tom Meyer" in Korean?????

Subway Salesman

Osan

Check out a new photo album on the right!

This past weekend Bonnie and I did a lot of great things. On Friday night we went to Outback Steakhouse (yes like we have in the USA) with some of your fellow teachers. It was everything I had ever hoped for in a visit. There was tons of rye bread loaves, a bloomin' onion, and wonderful dishes. It was nice to experience a bit of America (via Australia) in the midst of Korea.

Saturday was probably the highlight of the weekend. We went to a town just south of Suwon called Osan. There is a US Air Base there and right outside the main gate there is closed street shopping mall with all kinds of interesting shops. We went with 3 other teachers from our school and shopped for about 2 hours and then went and ate at a Thai Buffet (delicious but $15 each). We then walked through an open air market, which was filled with all sorts of interesting and gross smells.

The great thing about the shopping is that you could haggle and stuff was pretty cheap. We ended up getting a rugged looking bag that could be thrown over the shoulder or could strap around your waist like a huge fanny pack for $19. Bonnie also got a little metal case to put cards and such in for when she doesn't want to carry a purse for $13 (basically a business card holder). We thought both were good deals.

We also unintentionally went to a cool date type coffee shop. We wanted to just hang out and read but they ended up bringing a menu to our table and the drink were really nice looking and actually tasted okay too.

Sunday we took an adventure and successfully navigated the Seoul Metro (train/subway) to go to a church in Seoul. We met some very nice people but I'm not sure that we will make a return visit... It wasn't quite our style for lack of better terminology.

That's all for now!

the train came to town

My friend Leslie (fondly called, L Train or Trainer) came to visit Tom and I!!! It was great to see a familiar face from home. Trainer had been teaching in the southern tip of S.Korea for the past 5 weeks and she stopped to stay with us in Suwon for two days while she was on her way back home. In preparation for her stay Tom and I were able to find a air mattress from HomePlus (like a wal mart...kinda) on sale for 9,000 won (9 bucks) so she could have a semi-bed. So, if any of you people are thinking about visiting us...keep in mind that you too could sleep on a small air mattress on the floor.

We had a great time. We ate some GREAT Korean food and got to share all of our Korean stories. It really was a miracle Train even found us because we had to give her directions to get here from Seoul to Suwon to our apartment....let me tell you, this was not an easy task! People here don't understand us and we are illiterate and we don't have cell phones...it's an intense situation. But I am proud to say L Train made it and was a fantastic house guest. We look forward to having more guest in the future.