Lunch with Wendy Jessica Won-Young Park

Wendy Jessica Won-Young Park is actually one person.  I taught her for my first three years at GSIS.  The first year I taught her she was Wendy.  Then after that year she decided to change her English name to Jessica.  So I decided she should go by both of her English names and her Korean name.  She was definitely among my top Math students here in Korea and was one of our 68 graduates last spring.  While she was back in Korea for her winter break from Rutgers she and her mom invited Bonnie, Everett, and I out for lunch.  It was awesome and we felt so loved!  Wendy had never met Everett before so this was her first time to meet our little man.  We had a lot of fun and hope to get together again in May once she has completed her first year.  Some pics from our time together:

Wendy's mom showing Everett the little fake stream that ran through the restaurant.

Wendy's mom, E, and Wendy

Thanks Wendy Jessica!

St. Nicholas Day

When I was growing up it was a Meyer family tradition to put our shoes outside our bedroom door on December 5th because December 6th was St. Nicholas day.  After we went to bed St. Nicholas (aka my mom and dad) would fill our shoes up with candy and a Christmas ornament.  We decided that we wanted to start a similar tradition with Everett (and any future Meyer babies).  The only bummer about starting it this year is that there was a fairly limited selection of ornaments at our local Emart (think Walmart).  We figured this one would get the job done though.

Everett says "Happy St. Nicholas Day!"  By the way, all of the presents are for him...  I can see where Christmas is headed.

Adios facial hair

It is finally gone.  I capped off the month of Movember with a nice Korean barbeque dinner with many of the guys that participated.  After dinner I went home and shaved.  Here are the before and after shots:

 This artistic little number was put together by my buddy Todd (3rd down on the right).  Believe it on not my boy Eddie on the top right actually did grow his mustache for a month.

Overall our ragtag group raised over $3000 for the cause.  It was a good time but I am glad to have my face back.  Thanks for your support!

2 more days

I only have 2 more days with a mustache on my face.  So far I have raised $66 for prostate cancer awareness and research ($25 of that was my own).  Any one else out there want to toss in 5 or 10 bucks? Our goals as a group (20+ guys at GSIS) was to raise $2000 and we are close.  Your donation could get us there!  Here is one more picture for motivation!


To donate visit http://us.movember.com/mospace/1618874/ and click donate!

Everett is healthy again

I took Everett to the doctor again today to get his lungs checked again.  The doctor gave us the great news  that his lungs were clear of any wheezing.  This was awesome news!  We were pretty worried that the doctor would hear wheezing again and Everett would get tagged with an asthma diagnosis.  If he has another episode like this that may still happen but for now he is in the clear.

On a similar note they weighed and measured him again.  20.2 pounds and 27 inches.  We were worried that this was abnormally large (which is kind of is) but we heard from my sister-in-law that while looking through my brother's baby book they discovered that at just under 4 months Jimbo weighed in at 19.5 punds and measured 27 inches.  So it seems like Everett is on pace for a Meyer boy.

Movember week 1

It has been 1 week since I started to grow my mustache.  I have actually had some students ask me why I am growing it so it has raised some awareness for prostate cancer.  I also received my first donation courtesy of Jerre Robertson.  Thanks!  Here is my progress:

I'll be honest.  It feels pretty weird and I have trouble taking myself seriously.

To Donate:

Visit http://us.movember.com/mospace/1618874/ 

click on "Donate to me"

Thanks!

awkward beginnings

Movember 2nd.  I gave myself my first shave forgoing the upper lip.  It just looks like I missed a spot at this point.

Can't really tell right?  My ultimate goal is to emulate the original mustache in my life.  It was worn from before my birth until sometime when I was in high school. I still remember that fateful day at Turkey Creek Ranch when I walked back into the cabin from a morning run and came face to face with the barren upper lip of my father.  It was a stunning moment. I hope I can have a stache like that a month from now.

If you know someone with a prostate you should think about giving a small amount to this cause.  It is good stuff.  

Visit http://us.movember.com/mospace/ 

click on "Donate"

click "someone you know"

search "Tom Meyer"

I am a member of "Real Men of GSIS"

Thanks!

Movember

Since today is Halloween that means it is also the last day of October and therefore November is just around the corner.  Along with a group of men here at GSIS I am going to be participating in Movember.  The point of Movember is to raise funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.


I have known several men in my life that have battle against various forms of prostate issues so this is a cause that seemed applicable to me.  


What does Movember entail?  Me growing a wicked awesome mustache for a month.  Why?  So that when people ask "Why is that thing on your face?" I can say, "For Movember to raise awareness for prostate cancer."


If you are interested in donating to the cause you can donate to me at: http://us.movember.com/mospace/1618874/


I gave myself my last full shave for a month this morning.  I have no idea what this is going to look like.  I can only hope that I will do some of the great staches out there justice:

Math-letics

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of sponsoring 7 of our GSIS math students at a math competition at another international school in Seoul.  I was really proud of the students that went because they all worked hard throughout the competition.  The day started with each student taking an individual test (roughly 150-200 kids came) at one of three levels (all of our students were in the middle level).  

Some of the other school's students were not as committed to the competition...

After the individual test each school took part in a team test where the whole school submitted one answer sheet for a 32 question test.  This test was freaking hard.  Here are some of our kids working at it.

After that it was time for a mental break with a pizza and ice cream lunch.

The final session of the day took our top four competitors to a "school bowl" and the other three took part in a partner test (which took place outside on this beautiful fall day).

Though our group was by far the smallest contingent our students worked really hard and even won some awards.  One student placed 3rd in the intermediate level individual test. And our top four took second place in the intermediate level "school bowl."  Also I won a raffle for a 20000won ($20) Starbucks gift card and a book about code writing.  It was good day and like I said before I was really proud of their efforts.

Volleyball

Hello blogger it has been awhile since I've written here.  Bonnie has been doing such a fine job that there just hasn't been much for me to say.  Recently Bonnie, Everett, and I attended some GSIS volleyball games as a family (Everett attended a Platte City game back in America).  Here are some pics from our time there:

Watching the action

Some silly glasses we stumbled upon

The action got a little too intense

The happy family

This was a Saturday morning when we took a walk to Dunkin' Donuts but since he was sporting the Mizzou gear we figured we'd throw it in here too.

At present Little Man is battling his first sickness.  He was sounding pretty wheezy so Bonnie and I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and and ear infection (and he weighed 16.5 lbs at 11 weeks, holy cow!).  Bonnie and I both had frequent ear infections as a kid so he may be cursed with that as well.  Despite the nasty sounding nature of the illnesses he still has a pretty chill and sunny disposition.  He's a trooper!

Bonnie and I are both feeling a little under the weather too.  This could be a rough weekend/week for the Meyer family.

rafting and more Seoul

This past weekend I spent Saturday with a group of our high school seniors on a rafting trip.  This is the river we rafted.  As you may guess from the picture it was not a rough ride.

I kid you not these were the only life jackets the place offered.  This was a classic Korea moment that had to be captured.  Also, I have never seen the through the leg straps before; not the most comfortable.  Fellow sponsors Greg (left) and Todd are sporting the gear with me.

 Here is the whole crew.

 Though the rafting was tame the time on the water was a lot of fun.  A lot of goofing around and jumping in the river.  It was nice to get out and play a little bit.

After rafting we went out for all you can eat sam-gyup-sal (think thick fatty bacon, literally means 3 layers of fat).  It was really good but fatty.  Here we are in the process.

They cooked it on this awesome makeshift grill. 

They would bring it over to us and cut it up straight onto our plates.  It was a pretty cool eating experience.

The aftermath.

 On the bus ride back we followed we followed this interesting bus for a little bit.

 Sunday I decided to head into Seoul again.  I spent some good time at a Starbucks reading and then worked my way up to the Philippine Market.  Basically they sold a lot of food and beauty products that are native to the Philippines.  There was one place that was making fresh Philippine food so I decided to check it out for my lunch.  It was pretty good.  The options:

After that I headed to the nearby Changgyeong Palace.  It was built in the 15th century and in 1909 when the Japanese imperialized Korean it was, like so many other things, destroyed (side note: it was destroyed and rebuilt several times before that too).  The Japanese turned it into a zoo and botanical garden.  One of the things that the Koreans decided to keep around after the Japanese were expelled was this greenhouse.  It was the first conservatory ever constructed in Korea and it was actually pretty cool.

I decided that the palace grounds would actually be a really cool place to come visit in the fall because there was a lot of nice coniferous and deciduous foliage.  Maybe Bonnie, Everett, and I will come back for a stroll.  They fenced this tree off.  I guess because it looked like it should be dead but it was living.  Resilient, like Koreans.

 More nature:

Good times out and about over the weekend.  Only 9 more days until I am reunited with Bonnie and Everett!!!!!!

New address

This is not the most exciting post but just a heads up if you ever need to send anything here.  The government changed our school's address the new one is listed on the sidebar of the blog at all times.

Here it is:

Tom and Bonnie Meyer
c\o Gyeonggi Suwon International School

451 Yeongtong-Ro, Yeongtong-Gu,

Suwon City, Gyeonggi-Do

Republic of Korea 443-808

Saturday in Seoul

Since I was flying solo this past weekend I decided to head into Seoul and do a little exploring.  I went to  this place called Dongdaemun (Dong-day-moon).  It is known for being a clothing mecca of sorts.  I am not a big clothes shopper, especially in Korea, but I wanted to see what they had in the way of baby clothes.  It was actually kind of slim pickings but there was some stuff to choose from. While there I found a series of shops selling used books.  If you know anything about my past you know I spent a decent amount of time selling used books on Amazon and Ebay.  So I am always drawn to them for some reason, even if I know I won't buy anything.  These shops were especially cool though because they were so compact.  They were probably like 8 feet wide with and aisle about 2 feet wide down the middle.  Check out the pics:

Literally wall-to-wall books 

 There was a strip of about 8 to 10 of these shops right in a row.

 I actually bought a Korean/English Bible from one of the shops though it wasn't this one which I later noticed was a Christian bookstore.

There was a shop that sold restaurant style paraphernalia and for some reason I found myself very tempted to buy one of these.  

I spent some more time exploring other places but forgot to take pics.  I'll have to work on that in the future.

Civil Defense Drill

We have signed up with the US embassy to get email notification of any important news that we need to know about at Americans living in Korea.  This one came into my inbox today:

"The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is transmitting the following information as a public service to all U.S. citizens in the Republic of Korea.
Seoul Metropolitan Police authorities advised the Embassy that on Thursday, August 18, at approximately 2:00 p.m. an air-raid siren will sound for one minute to signal the start of a nationwide civil defense drill.  Pedestrians in open and public areas should seek shelter in nearby buildings or subway stations.  All drivers/vehicles on the road must pull over and come to a complete stop. At approximately 2:15 p.m. a second siren will sound, signaling the conclusion of the drill.  Local authorities will give further instructions if necessary."

I have never actually seen one of these take place because we are always in school.  I feel like it would be super creepy to just be going about your business on a Thursday afternoon and then this siren goes off and everyone goes into "holy crap we are being attacked" mode.  The crazy thing is that there is a reasonable degree of necessity to the drill based on who our neighbors to the north are.  I'll do my best to remember to honor the drill tomorrow by doing a good ole duck and cover under my desk when I hear it.

Nesting

One of my assignments while being here in Korea is to get stuff ready for our new addition.  When I got back one of the first things that I noticed was the awesome folks at our school that work in the housing department had set up our crib and moved in a dresser.  My task was to inventory all of the stuff that we have here so we know what we have and if we need to get anything else before bringing Everett here.  I also wanted to get the room cleaned up and organized.  I've still got 3 weeks over here but when you are living the single life and jet lagged there can be a degree of boredom involved from time-to-time.

So over the past few days I counted up all Everett's baby stuff, cleaned up his room, hung some curtains (and in the process put about 5 unnecessary holes in the wall), threw down a rug, and put a sheet on the mattress.  The walls still need a little love but I may have to wait for Bonnie on that one.

I can't wait for Bonnie, Everett and I to get settled in here.