Back in America (barely)

Well we arrived in KC on Saturday night but it wasn't without bit of nail biting. We left Seoul bound for Detroit Saturday night at 6:30. About halfway through our 13 hour flight the flight attendants got on the PA and asked if there were any medical professionals on board because there was a "medical situation" with one of our passengers. We didn't hear anything about it for a while so we assumed that the situation was resolved.

Not so much... with about 2 hours left in the flight the pilot abruptly comes on the PA and informs us that we are going to be making an emergency medical landing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. We are still not sure what was wrong with the passenger but we landed safely and they were taken off the flight and hopefully he/she is now doing well.

We sat on the ground in Winnipeg for 1 hour waiting for our new flight plan to Detroit and getting fuel to recoup what we lost from our diversion. We ended up arriving in Detroit at 7:05 PM, about an hour and 15 minutes delayed. Our flight to KC was set to leave at 7:50. We were not optimistic about making it.

7:05PM We get to immigration to find there are 5 agents processing roughly 300-400 people from two different flights... tick tick tick... We wait there for about 20 minutes.

7:25 PM We get through immigration and thankfully our bags are waiting for us on the carousel.

7:27 PM With bags in hand we get ready to go through customs to find 4 agents working here.

7:32 PM We get through customs, recheck our bags, and head for the terminal

7:40 PM We make it to our gate as the gate worker in making the final boarding call for our flight.

We were so thankful that we were able to make that flight. We really didn't want to stay the night in Detroit. I still can't believe we made it. Apparently Delta didn't think we would make it either because they had already booked us a flight for Sunday morning and as a result one of our bags ended up on that flight not the flight we were on (poor Bonnie, no clothes for a day).

We are really glad to be back and really excited to relax with family and friends!

it's official

We signed on the dotted line today.  We are staying in Korea for another school year.   We committed to be here for the 2011-2012, which will be our 4th year in Korea.  Time flies when you're having fun.

unexpected gift

Today I came home from hanging out with a friend and I found these...

Not only did Tom surprise me with fresh cut flowers but he also got me a Christmas poinsettia!!! Double bonus!!! Needless to say, this was an unexpected gift that made me feel very loved.

It is finished

I only wish I was talking about first semester. Still a little over a week to go there. Nope I am talking about the first time in my life (I think) that I (technically we) have taken down one of these bad boys:

We felt pretty accomplished after that bad boy was done.

oh Korea...

ICEC interview

When we were at the ICEC (International Children's Educators Conference) last week I was interviewed by a Korean Christian Television network. I never thought I would see this brief interview because it was done by Koreans. Well I got an email from school with the link in it so I figured I should post it here. The first 30 seconds or so are in Korean so be patient. Enjoy.

http://www.cgntv.net/cgn_player/player.htm?vid=69299

Go Mizzou!

The big Missouri vs. Kansas football game was this weekend.  Obviously my family supported the MU Tigers...well almost everyone did...  My brother's girlfriend, Jen, was sporting blue and red (KU colors)!  You know Jen must be accepted by the family if my dad is willing to sit with a Jayhawk at a Mizzou game.  Tom and I were sad we missed it, but we were cheering on the Tigers from Korea (figuratively speaking--the game happened while we were sleeping).  Go Tigers!

Christmas is coming!

I've been sick the past few days (booooo!) but on Saturday I finally felt well enough to get out of the apartment.  We had basketball practice in the afternoon followed by a team dinner at my assistant coach's apartment.  It was such a great time...I really enjoyed spending time with these girls outside of school and practice. Here are some pics of the night: 

 The lighting is really weird on this one, but the girls thought it made us look "angelic" or something.

 These are the freshmen girls with Coach Currier (JV Coach) on the far left.

 Tom and I in a classic Christmas pose...in our sweats!

We introduced the girls to the wonderful game of Mafia!!!  Tom and I co-narrated the game.  The girls really enjoyed it.  By the way, this is the game that was played the very first time I met Tom.  Tom lost in the game and got REALLY MAD (probably the most angry I've ever seen him to this day).  Let's just say that seeing him this upset was a turn-off.  I told a friend after that night, "I wouldn't want to marry a man with a temper like Tom Meyer."   Luckily I got to know Tom more and realized he's not an angry, temperamental man.  It was an isolated incident in the midst of competition.  But a funny memory, none the less.  

After dinner we headed back to our apartment to decorate for Christmas.  We put up our tree that we bought last year, which claims to be six feet tall.  However, if you look closely the top twig of the tree is probably a foot by itself (and looks ridiculous).  We ended up bending that top twig over so the tree doesn't look so gangly.

 Ta-Da! 

 We also put on display the nutcracker my brother bought me this summer from Germany.

We go fairly light on the decoration since we don't actually spend Christmas here, but we had to put a little Christmas cheer around the apartment.  Only 27 days until Christmas and only 20 days until we fly home!!!  We're so excited! 

students

A few weeks ago we had spirit week at our school.  One of the spirit days was "animal day."  Here's Korea's version of incorporating animal-ness into their wardrobe. 

 The kangaroo suit is a pajama outfit, which I found to be pretty funny!

One of the students from the GIN (Global Issues Network) club that help sponsor hosted a UNICEF week at our school.  She had posters around school raising awareness about UNICEF and set up a booth at lunch (see below) to sell merchandise with all the proceeds going to UNICEF.  She initiated and organized this all by herself.    Very impressive! 

I've rarely put pictures up of my classroom in action, so here's a few pictures of my US History class.  (Have no fear, I asked them if I could put their pictures on my blog). 

North South conflict

As a lot of you have probably heard there was a little bit on conflict yesterday here in Korea. To give some context the map below shows where we are located and where the island that was shelled is located.
Point A is Yeonpyeong Island.
Point B is Suwon.

As you can see it is a pretty precariously located island. At this point in time we are not terribly concerned about the conflict. This is a little more serious than some of the things in the past (first time South Korean soil has been attacked since the Korean War). It has been the norm that North Korea does stupid things in an attempt to get attention and aid. However, they have yet to do anything so stupid that it has warranted war breaking out. Though you could argue these last two (Cheonan sinking and this shelling) are pushing it pretty hard.

We think things will be fine but feel free to send up prayers that things don't escalate. Thanks to Kim Stewart for inspiring this post.

Happy Thanksgiving--meal #1

This year Tom and I will be working through Thanksgiving.  I mean, it does make sense that while living in Korea we don't get time off to celebrate an American holiday.   However, Tom and I take our holidays seriously and we know that work or no work, Thanksgiving must be honored!!! Our first Thanksgiving celebration was last night (Saturday night) with some friends.  In classic Tom Meyer fashion, we brought the green bean casserole.  

 Check out the spread of food we had! It was the real deal, folks.

 Tater mountain!!!

 Huge and delicious turkey.

 Here's my plate---stuffing, green bean casserole, homemade bread, mashed potatoes with gravy, turkey, and sweet potato goodness.  There were a lot of great desserts too, which I didn't capture.  I opted for a traditional slice of pumpkin pie.

I think I may have been overly focused on all the food because I now realize that I forgot to take pictures of our friends that we celebrated with!  We had a great time and I felt miserably/delightfully full afterward.  We have a few more Thanksgiving celebrations to come this week, but it's going to be hard to top this one.

On a very random note, we've had three basketball games this past week.  Both teams lost all three of our games.  Booooo!  During one of the games, one of Tom's boys lost his contact.  Thus during half time everyone (including the other team and their cheerleaders) went on the court searching for this contact.   It was pretty humerous to watch.

how do you spend your friday nights?

Tom and I had been catching up on our TV shows (the Office and the Big Bang Theory).  Right after the shows finished I looked up and there was Tom...

...reorganizing our cabinets.  This is classic Tom Meyer in action.  I love my husband. I married up in the world.

life

Life has been crazy the past 2+ weeks.  Here's a run down of things that have gone down in this short time period:

• a faculty death (RIP Mark) 
• THREE appendectomies (the third appendix removal is happening as I type this...I think)
• Can we just pause and take note that THREE people have had appendicitis out of a faculty of a 100+ people.
• 1 of my basketball starters got taken from practice in an ambulance due to a slipped disc in her back
• 1 more starter on my bball team left practice today for the hospital because of a bad sprain and she'll be out for our first (and maybe second/third) game.

Dang.  Let's just say I'm becoming a pro at writing incident reports at our school.  

All that to say, our community is holding up and moving forward (like my neighbor here says, we're moving upward and onward).  

Tomorrow is our first basketball games....here we go! 

the past 24 hours

Last night I got to drive up to Ft. Collins, Colorado (about an hour north of Denver) to catch up with some of my mom's extended family. It was my cousin (cousin-in-law?) Vanessa's 30th birthday and both her and my cousin Brett didn't know I was going to be there. This is me with Brett, Vanessa and their little boy Jaxon.
I got to see my cousin Kris, his wife Lauren, and their two kids Carson and Brady, but I didn't get a pic before they left. My aunt Lisa was there too.
And that night I slept at my aunt Carol and uncle Scott's place in Loveland ( a little south of Ft. Collins).
I got my first solid night of sleep since being back while in their guest room plus and extra hour of sleep (thank you day-light savings time). Then I woke up to this in the morning. Can Colorado be any more beautiful?
I then drove back to Denver and attended the conference until 3. I watched the Chiefs lose in ridiculous fashion. I Went to get some Sonic (pretty disappointing actually), and capped off the night with one of these bad boys:
I love Dairy Queen mint Oreo Blizzards.

only 48 sleeps? really?!

I may have downloaded this app for my iPhone yesterday....don't judge me.

tom has only been gone for two days...

...and look what has already happened to our Love Plant. 

But seriously, what is wrong with this plant? I watered it.

The Pilgrimage

Though I am in Denver for an IB conference there is another import feature to this trip I am taking. Today I completed the Pilgrimage (not to Mecca). Back in 1993 in the great city of Denver, Colorado a groundbreaking restaurant was born. Then it was just a single store. Now it is a nationwide franchise that has revolutionized the way we think of burritos. My 6000 mile journey to the birth place of the Chipotle burrito was everything I hoped it would be; a delightfully satisfying burrito set against the backdrop of the University of Denver.
Had to get this one to prove it.
"Chipotle #1" as the manager put it.
17 years later...still so amazing.

Papa

That's right...my grandpa won first place at his retirement community's pumpkin decorating contest.  Don't mess with the Robertson family; we're competitive people!

Bye Mark Pash

Today we held a memorial service at our school in honor of Mark Pash, our music teacher who passed away last week.  Since he passed away students have been leaving messages for him on facebook and on the whiteboards you saw above.  Two of Mark's three kids came out and participated with us in a memorial service for Mark.  It was a really touching service and a great way to remember this man that has been a part of the GSIS community for the past 3+ years.

The experience of losing someone in your community is just hard.  It is really amazing the impact one person can have over so many people.  There are many things I've been pondering and learning over the past week since we heard about Mark's unexpected death.  One of those musings is that I am so blessed to be a part of this community.  This community loves really well, and it has been so evident this week.  In the midst of sadness I feel thankful for Mark, for teaching, for great students, for friends, for family, and for a solid community.

Bye Mark.  Tell Jesus hey for me.

Living Life

We've been bad bloggers lately. No excuses. So here's a summary of of what we've been up to:

We've gotten to hang out with the Stewart Family who have an AWESOME new addition to their family...Lucy!!! She is such a sweet dog. I love animals.

We hung out with the Stewarts for dinner and also played a round of Banana Grams while eating these massive brownies. Thank you Betty Crocker brownie mix. To my friends living in America this would seem like no big deal, but in the land of Korea Betty Crocker Brownies are a rarity.

Ladies night---Yeah for pedicures, galbi (meat), and friends.

Last Saturday night the doorbell rings at 7pm. We open the door and this man just walks right in and goes straight to our secret utility closet. We haven't had any problems with the apartment and we were not expecting a maintenance man, but we couldn't communicate with him so we just went along with it. We ended calling one of our Korean staff guys to talk with the worker; apparently our water heater was leaking on the apartment under us. Yikes!

Tom watching the Mizzou v. Oklahoma game at a coffee shop. What a great game. Too bad this week wasn't a happy story for MU.

This weekend we had a Halloween Party at our apartment. Our friend Deb dressed as Betty Crocker and our other friend DJ had a Sumo mask that provided a lot of entertainment. Tom and I opted to not dress up...we're lame.

And finally we're back up to present day...Tom and I enjoyed juk, which is a rice porridge. It's a great meal for a fall day.

Life has been a bit busy and is now going to get busier! Basketball try-outs start Tuesday; I'll be the head girls coach and Tom will be the assistant coach for the boys. We're excited for the season to begin.