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.

very sad day

Here is a statement read to our students this morning:

"This morning we need to share with you students that our high school music teacher, Mr. Pash died last at Ajou University Hospital due to complications from a heart attack that occurred earlier this week.  As Christians we believe Mr. Pash is in heaven with our glorious Lord, Christ Jesus.  We, however, are left behind and will certainly grieve the loss and companionship of our friend and teacher.  Please pray for our school community and his family.  Mr. Pash has one son and two daughters who live in the United States...."

It's a very sad day at our school.  And in all this we know that God is good and gives us a lot of comfort and hope in challenging times like these.

Korean Census

A question from our Korean Census (make sure to check the "bathroom" section).  Thankfully we got to choose the first option.

our weekend in pictures

 Tom and I have had a great weekend of being with friends and getting to relax a bit (that is, after Tom spent all of Friday night and Saturday day in grad school--boo!).  Saturday night we celebrated our friend, Leslie's 30th birthday.  We went to an Italian buffet called Jessica's Kitchen a little outside our city.  They had the tiniest pieces of cake (notice Tom in the first picture).  Tom and I chuckled trying to picture an American buffet getting away with serving such a "generous portion" size....oh America.

Today (Sunday) we have had a lazy day around Suwon, which has been awesome!  We even went to see the Hwaseong Fortress since it was such a beautiful day to go for a walk.  This will be a really busy week of school--Parent Teacher Conferences here we come!!!--so we needed a nice day to slow down.  Thank the Lord for Sundays!

fall treats

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my Grammy Jo.  Growing up every fall she'd make us pumpkin bread, and it was so tasty!  I've been itching to pick up her torch and start making my own fall batches of pumpkin bread but canned pumpkin is scarce in Korea.  However, my parents sent us a fantastic care package so I finally got some pumpkin and was able to bake my little heart out.  I think it was a success!  Smelling this bread bake in my weird Korean oven/microwave instantly brought me back to watching Grammy Jo make this for me as a kid.  Great memories!!!

Ronald?

One of my students was wearing this shirt today. I'm not really sure what the shirt is getting at but it is rather strange and potentially offensive. I don't think my student had any clue what she was representing.
I don't really see the McDonald's to Nazi connection. Can anyone help me here?

PACKAGE!!!!

My parents sent us a lot of love in the form of a big care package.  Check out our spread...!

As a teacher, I constantly ask my students to take a source document and analyze its contents.  So this has inspired me to ask the question, what can you learn about Tom and I from this package? What can you learn about my parents?  Here are some observations I think I would make:

A.  3 boxes of cereal.  Really...THREE BOXES flew across the Pacific Ocean??!!! Yes, my friends, it is true and this reveals that my husband is obsessed with American cereal (he's come a long way because usually he asks for sugar cereals like Captain Crunch).
B. Canned pumpkin, evaporated milk....hm...this must mean THANKSGIVING IS NEAR!
C. Cans of beans = it's FALL and its time for chili and soups! (I will refrain from any bean jokes.)
D.  Weird cup? What could my parents be thinking? I can get weird cups in Korea.  My parents are innovative and inside this magical cup are home made Monster Cookies that are surprisingly well intact despite the long journey.
E. Jiffy Cornbread Mix.  It's the best.  There's nothing else to analyze here.
F. Slow cooker liners..hm...what are these things? This shows my naiveté on the intricacies of using a crock pot.  I have so much to learn from my mom in the kitchen!
G.  Fiber Bars. Hm....I'm not sure I want the general public to analyze this one.
H. Guilty Pleasures.  I love chocolate and peanut butter (Come on Korea, why are you anti-Reeses?!).  And Halloween must be near if I'm getting quality candy like this!
I. Hobby Lobby Turkey = a hint to decorate my house in seasonal themes?
J. Kansas City Chiefs plates and napkins.  This is easy to analyze...my husband loves the Chiefs!
K. Coffee supplies. It is true, I am a coffee addict.  But it is also true that I have been drinking a lot of decaf coffee lately, hence the need for the coffee to come from America (Korea doesn't do decaf).

All in all this is a QUALITY care package.  Thanks Mom and Dad.

Mongolia Pics

Here's a little slideshow my iPhoto put together for your enjoyment. For those of you that are Facebook friends with me (Bonnie) these are the same pics I put up there. But I know there are some of you out there that I am not fb friends with, so I wanted to post a few more pictures for our blogger friends. I have been listening to the sound track to Glee (the musical TV show) for quite some time now, so the background music is a Journey song--Glee style (we listened to this song quite a bit in Europe too).

Hair cut

I finally got my hair cut today for the first time since late July. I am always pretty anxious to get my hair cut in Korea but I think Rina (my stylist this time) did a pretty good job.
Before:
After:

Korean Culture Week

This past week was Korean culture week at out school. Bonnie took some videos with her fancy new iPhone so we decided to put together a little video. Don't worry. It is much shorter than the Mongolia video.

Mongolia--The Video

Tom and I have had a hard time blogging about Mongolia...maybe because it's just too much to put into words?  Mongolia is way bigger than the word 'vast' and way colder than the word 'cold' could communicate.  :-)   Our solution has been to make a video about the experience.  We did our best to capture the ups, the downs, and the beauty of our trip.  I know it's a bit long, but this is one of those things that Tom and I wanted to make for ourselves so we could remember the trip years from now.  We cover the whole trip from beginning to end in 16 minutes of video (it's in two parts on Youtube).   This is what we have to say about Mongolia.  Enjoy...

costco, how I love thee

About once a month Tom and I take our ritual journey to Costco to buy meat, cheese, and many other delightful things in bulk.  Every time we go we check out their home furnishings and appliances.  This time we hit the jackpot!  We got a rug and a food processer/blender!  (I'm officially an adult because I get pumped about home appliances.) I've been dreaming about getting a rug for the past year and this past weekend we found the right one for the right price.  I'll have to get a pic of it in our living room in the future.

 The food processor in action...I had to record this momentous occasion because it was the first time I ever made my own hummus (this was especially challenging because I even had to make some of the basic ingredients--like tahini--from scratch because I can't get them in Korea).  

So proud...hummus looks kind of gross but it's so tasty!

In other random news, I learned more about the electronic bidet in class today.  Click here to read more of this story.