adventure time

Tomorrow we leave for our trip to Singapore and Malaysia. We most likely will be on a blogging hiatus for the week, but we'll be back.

If you find yourself needing some entertainment check out our new favorite Korean TV show, Boys Before Flowers. Here is a link:

http://www.mysoju.com/boys-before-flowers/

Have no fear, it's subtitled in English.

this is a really girly post...sorry men

Over the past few years my mom has turned me on to pedicures. It's a great activity...you hang out with women, you get to look pretty, and it just feels so good to get your feet rubbed! My favorite time to get a pedicure is toward the end of winter. After going through a few months of the cold I always just feel pale and my body misses the bright colors of spring and summer, so I love to get a pedicure to brighten my appearance (and my mood).

This week has been a good week of school, but it's been pretty grueling because we are trying to get a lot accomplished before we leave on winter break, which is next week. As a result, my friend Jane and I decided that this would be the week to get a pedicure. Plus, Tom and I going to be in Malaysia wearing chacos and playing on the beach so I want my toes to look pretty.

Anyway, Jane (who luckily speaks korean) and I went out tonight to get our nails done and we had a great time. Ultimately, our goal was accomplished. I got my nails painted and they look great. However, the whole experience was quite a bit different than what I am use to.
Some things to note: 1. There was no where to soak my feet (usually your feet get a little hot bath to soak in). I have to admit, I did miss this because its pretty cold outside. 2. There is no foot massage (this is usually my favorite part). The really just get down to business here with cutting your nails and painting them. 3. Koreans like really glittery and tacky nail designs. They tried to get me to do something "extra pretty" to my big toe. They think since its the biggest toe you should accessorize it. (I decided to pass on this). 4. They were going to make me pay for sandals to wear so I wouldn't mess up the polish. I refused because its too cold to wear sandals and walk home. So they decided to wrap my toes in cling wrap to keep them from messing up! As weird as this was it really worked.

All that to say, it was not a "normal" pedicure experience when you compare it to America, but it was a great time because the korean women were so nice to us. I also felt blessed just to get the opportunity to go get pampered for the night, and my mission was successful...I now have a bit of brightness to shine in on my drabby winter life.

B-ball is over

We just got done with a weekend packed with basketball. We had boys and girls conference tournaments which mark the end of the season.

The Boys got seeded 6th (of 6) even though we were in a 3 way tie for 4th. Friday, we ended up winning our first round game over the number 3 seed in a great game. We then had to come back later that afternoon and play the 2nd seed who had a bye. We got smoked. It was so ugly. The worst game we have played all year. 'Nough said. So we came back today (Saturday) and played in the 3rd/4th game. Unfortunately we dropped that one too. We were down 12 at the end of the 3rd and staged a fabulous comeback to take the lead but just couldn't pull it out and ended up loosing by 4. All in all the season was a huge success. We were totally comprised of 9th and 10th graders going up against older and more athletic teams. Placing 4th was a huge accomplishment. The guys were awesome and I had a blast.

The Girls had the 2nd seed and lost a heart breaker in their first game getting upset by the 3 seed. They then played the 3rd/4th game today and pulled it out pretty handily. They were pretty disappointed they lost that first game but all in all it was a good season for them. I think Bonnie enjoyed coaching them a lot.

After the Championship game there were 2 coaches vs. players all-star games. The coaches won both (guys and girls). It was a fun weekend but a lot of basketball and a good season. However, we'll be glad to have our after school time open again. We are now getting ready to head out and get a nice Valentine's Day dinner and then maybe catch a movie. Later

February Break

Matilda: Derek that was unbelievable!
Derek Zoolander: I know! I turned left!
Matilda: Yeah, that too, but Derek, you saved the prime minister of Malaysia!
Derek Zoolander: Oh, right, cool.

Well in a little over a week Bonnie and I are going to get a chance to see what Derek Zoolander's bravery has done for the world. We are heading to Singapore and Malaysia for our February break. We leave the 21st and get back the morning of the 28th. We are pretty pumped to take a vacation. We are flying into Singapore staying for a night and then taking an overnight bus to Penang (beach/colonial area) the next night. We'll hang out there for a few days and then take a cheap flight ($50US combined) to Kuala Lumpur. We'll stay a night there and then fly out the next night at like midnight. It will actually be the first trip that just the two of us have taken since we have been here. We hope to relax, get a tan, buy some cheap and interesting stuff, and see the Petronas Towers.

I think we'll be taking a computer with us so we may even be able to blog too. I can't make any promises though because we are going to be backpacking on the trip. Computers are heavy. Later.

hiking

The past two weekends Tom and I have gotten to go hiking! It's still cold in Korea, but it's not as bitter as it was in early January making it more enjoyable to be outside. Last weekend we had a great hiking experience with our Nepal team. In April we're going with students on a mission trip to Nepal. As a part of our training, we made our students (and ourselves) pack our backpacks and go on a hike so we could try to simulate what we'll be experiencing when we do the real thing. We had a great time! Here are some pictures:

basketball

We're in the home stretch. We have a little over a week left of our basketball season. We have a game this Friday night and another one Saturday during the day. Then the following weekend we have the big end of the season tournament on Friday and Saturday, and that's it! A few more games...3 more practices and we're done.

Quick update on our teams: The girls have been rocking it! That's a picture of the girls above. We've only lost two games this season, and both were to the same team. They've shown a lot of improvement this season and have dominated the last few games. The boys, on the other hand, have had a rough go of things. After break they lost a few players for various reasons, and they have struggled to come up with a win the second half of the season. They're just a young team (9th, and 10th graders) that plays against juniors and seniors. There's a big difference between a freshmen guy and a senior guy on the basketball court.

Basketball has been really fun. Tom and I both had developed deeper relationships with kids because of coaching, and that really makes it worth it. Tom and I will probably also be coaching middle school basketball this spring. It's nice to get a little extra income, and it's also nice to get to know kids outside of the classroom. Middle school bball is smaller time commitment, as well.

So the end of Varsity basketball is bitter sweet. I'll miss the time hanging out with kids, but we both are pumped to have a bit more free time and to have our schedules more open after school.

Here's a video of the boys playing (we're in the purple):

Lunar Break

We mentioned in previous posts that last week we had a few days off of school to celebrate Lunar Break. Lunar, the Chinese New Year, was on Jan. 26 and we celebrated the New Year (for the second time in 2009) by going over to Jean Choe's home (she is our middle school student life minister). Jean knows how to cook! Below are some pictures of some of the Korean dishes we ate. There was actually much more food than what I took a picture of here, but these are some highlights.



The soup in the picture above is a traditional Lunar soup. In the soup are mandu (kind of like dumplings filled with asian goodness) that we made, as well as, pork, egg, rice cake, and a chicken broth. It was tasty.

Here are some other meats and dishes we tried.

Not only was Jan. 26th Lunar, it was also Australia Day! Some Aussie friends came with us to Jean's house and they taught us an Aussie tradition called Tim Tam Slam. "Tim Tam's" are these great Australian cookies and the "Slam" part works something like this: You bite off opposite edges of the cookie. Then you suck coffee (or milk) through the Tim Tam like you would a straw. The problem is when you do this it makes the Tim Tam crumble from the inside out, so as your sucking up coffee goodness you have to time it just right so that you stuff the whole cookie in your mouth before it crumbles in the cup. It was so much fun and the Tim Tam's were great. Here's a video of Tom doing the Tim Tam Slam.