Life and times of a God follower

Just a video from Jeju

2010-05-10T18:24:00.002+09:00

I wanted to share a video that I created from my trip to Jeju. I was able to play with a great group of players. I won't mention names just in case they are either wanting to stay anonymous, or that they don't want to admit that they played with us. =)

Just a few thoughts

2010-04-03T19:51:00.003+09:00

You know I have very few places to voice my concerns and issues. But since very few, if any people read my blog, I guess I can write what I like on here, get things off my chest and move on.

When I was a young child I was given an allowance. $3.00 a month. Half of that went into the back for savings. I knew that if I wanted anything, I had to save my money, and buy it myself. I remember wanting a nintendo and begging my parents to get one for me. But all they would say is that I had to save my money and buy it for myself. I remember mowing our neighbors yard, and making $5.00 a week. I knew that if I wanted that nintendo I would have to mow his yard for 25 weeks. I always found things came up that took my money faster than I could save it. Mainly baseball cards, candy, movies, things that I realize now should have and could have been putting money aside for the things that I really desired. I eventually did get that nintendo but in the end it just wasn't what I had hoped it would be. It wasn't worth the pain of saving up for it.

Now please understand that I am not an economist, but it seems to me that the simple things seem easier. As a teacher I follow the motto: "Keep-It-Simple-Stupid" or K.I.S.S. Money is a touchy subject for a lot of people, it is like a monster and needs o be taken seriously. Now let's take a brief look at my distorted look on fiscal responsibility. It seems to me that you can't spend money you don't have. I can't walk into a car dealership and tell them that I want a car, and tell them not to worry and I'll pay them for it, but I won't pay for it for another 10 years. Go ahead, see what happens. Or I have another scenario. Try going into Best Buy and buy a flat screen television. When they ask for payment just give them the richest guy in the neighborhoods name and address and tell them that they will be paying for it. But it seems to me that this is the exact way the U.S. government seems to work. The money that is brought in doesn't come close to matching the amount that is going out. But this doesn't stop them from spending it. It doesn't matter who is in office. Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, they all do this. Try this...go take a credit card out and use that to pay off another one, and when that one comes due, pay that one off with another one. At some point those notes are going to come due. You have to pay your bills. Every credit card user knows that. But our elected officials seem to think that doesn't apply to them. Seems simple to me...if you don't have the money, you don't get it, whatever it is. Or better yet, you don't have Bill Gates pay for the things you want just because he has more money than you do. He worked hard for that money and doesn't owe you a dime of it. Whatever happened to the expression "There is no such thing as a free lunch." We need someone in office that can make the hard choices, the tough ones...the ones where if you don't have the money, you don't get it. And you don't take more money from the rich to pay for the things you want. I am not rich by any means, and shockingly I don't think I deserve their money. The things that are promised to us by our government are "Life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness." No where does it talk about that flat screen or nintendo that I want. This nation has a huge miss perception of what is a 'want', and what is a 'need'.

The war in Iraq:

Just a couple of thoughts really quick in this area...

Again a story growing up. Don't you love those? I remember growing up and being a smaller kid. I was picked on, and thrown into lockers. I even remember being too scared to go to school because I was threatened with a 'swirly'. For those who don't know what this is, this is where guys will pick you up, turn you upside down, and place your head in the toilet. Then they would flush it, hence a 'swirly'. I remember a guy, we'll call him Todd, he was much bigger and would stick up for kids who were picked on. We didn't ask for his help, and he didn't expect anything in return for his aid.

This is the way that I see our involvement in the wars. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are the ones about to get a 'swirly' and the U.S. is Todd. Do we NEED to be there, of course not. But I heard a saying one time that made a lot of sense: "Those that have the ABILITY, also have the RESPONSIBILITY to help." Were there W.M.D.? Who knows? Who cares? Were we lied to...probably. But let's not focus on the fact that only congress can go to war, which happened to be democratically led, when Bush was in office. Let's focus on the fact at hand. The world, like it or not, is a safer place without Saddam Hussein in it. I love to hear people say that the only reason we got into the war was for the oil. That's funny, after 10 years, I am paying almost twice as much as I did in 1999 at the pump. Where is this oil...I know, probably the same place as the W.M.D.'s. There is no perfect way to get out of the mess we are in, and yes there are still dangerous people in the world, but maybe we should do what we can to rid ourselves first of people that want to rid the world of us. Just a thought. Here's the fact...people are not going to get along. I have had enough discussions trying to get people to see things from my point of view, to no avail. We have always been a country based on REactive thinking rather than PROactive thinking. Which is one of the reasons that Clinton, who had Osama Bin Laden in his sights, didn't give the order to fire. We waited until two buildings came down, another was crashed into before we took action.

With all this serious talk, I thought I would post a comic that doesn't have ANY political humor, but I saw the funniest "Wizard of Id" strip and had to post it. Enjoy and we'll see you later. You know...another day, more issues. =)

Be blessed...and be a blessing

This one is for you Laura...my love

2010-03-31T14:31:00.001+09:00

See...I DID update it.

Obama Jokes

2010-03-29T11:28:00.002+09:00

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's new Obama Value Meal?

A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.

Q: What does Barak Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?

A: A fund raiser.

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?

A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.

Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?

A: America!

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?

A: Bo has papers.

Apparently Lindsay Vonn's downhill gold medal was taken away from her and given to president Obama. After further verification it was found that no one has gone downhill faster than Obama.

Be Blessed...and be a blessing.

Been a while

2010-03-22T12:16:00.003+09:00

Well people, I apologize once again for being away from this blog for so long. I have really no excuse other than that facebook took over my valuable internet time.

So much has happened since I have posted last on here. I will update with more pictures and items of interest in the very near future.

I wanted to get on here and pot some very exciting news...After seven years of international travels and teaching, I will be returning to the states. This is met with a lot of nervousness. I think I have a place to live lined up, I will purchase a car when I get back, and then the biggest issue is a job. I have approx. 175 job applications out there and am still anxious about this. If anyone knows anything about a job that might work, PLEASE let me know. I have considered getting out of the teaching market and would consider anything at this point.

So until my next post, please enjoy a picture, and we will catch up soon.

This picture was taken when my swim team went on a little journey to Shangi-hi, China. We'll talk about that later.

Be blessed and be a blessing

Craft Time

2009-04-04T13:00:00.005+09:00

Several people have thought that I was joking when I said that I can do crafts, and so I thought I would post a few pictures here as to what I actually CAN do. Now none of these pictures have me in them actually performing the craft. So Iguess you will have to just take my word for it. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

This is a piece by piece put together of a tissue box. I finally got the idea that I better do this so that I can see it coming together. This is kind of cute...

Updates & Things

2009-03-21T14:05:00.010+09:00

I know that it has been a while and no one really reads this. It usually just ends up being me venting about something. I did learn from a relative that they wanted to have an update and possible see more pictures. I thought I would take this chance, now that I am so sick and on spring break, to update a few things and maybe post a few pictures.

I am still teaching during the 08-09 schol year here in South Korea at Seoul International School. It is a complete English speaking only school. I have learned quite a bit of Korean, however by no means fluent. I am the Aquatics Director and spend my days teaching swimming to students who have no idea how to swim, some of thoe are high school students. Our school has about 1,600 students and over 100 teachers. It is a large school to say the least. My pool is four floors in the basement and on MOST days I don't get to see the sun. I am at school by about 6:00 and after practice I go home just after 6:00. I know that I haven't mentioned a team that I coach, that is because I have coached all year long. In the fall I coached junior varsity boys volleyball, during the winter I coached middle school swimming, and now I am coaching varsity swimming.

Love Life: I am now dating a wonderful woman who lives back in the states. You can say that I sort of met her online. Several years ago when I lived in the states, I was good friends with a guy by the name of Dave Sampson (still am by the way) I ran into he and his wife a couple of times at our local Target. He was walking through with his wife Jenny and her sister Laura. I had known most of them from Mid America Nazarene University. Fast forward to the end of this summer. Just as I arrived here in South Korea, I got a friend request from Laura and we hit things off from there. She came and visited me in Korea, and then for the first time since I left to teach over seas, I got to go home for Christmas. I got to visit my folks and her folks. It was a great time and since then we have still been together. It is hard and there are times where I wish that I didn't teach over seas, but she is awesome and we are finding ways to make it work.

Personal Life: There is none. I am at school 6 days a week for 12+ hours a day. I get home and usually do some reading or crafts maybe a little tv or video games, but I am in bed and asleep by 8:30-9:30. Just call me Party Animal. I do get to play sports when I am not just beyond tired, but I go out on Fridays and Sunday afternoons to play a little ultimate frisbee. On Thursday night I try and get out and play a little basketball.

Work Life: That is all that it seems to be right now. Just read above.

Spiritual Life: I have tried several churches around Seoul, however most of them are not in English. I was also kicked out of the one that I really liked and haven't been back since. Okay pick your jaw up off the floor. It was just before christmas and I had been enjoying this church from the basement or 'overflow' room. I had met a bunch of people and really enjoyed it down there. On said Sunday, a person came down and told me to leave, that they were closing the 'overflow' room. I told them that there were a bunch of people that were going to be there and that we enjoyed each others company, didn't seem to matter. I was ushered upstairs and just kept going. I now watch College Church online, and do my daily devotions in the morning at my desk at school.

American Values???

2008-11-06T13:34:00.003+09:00

Many of you that have read my entries before have understood that I am a strong conservative Christian. I believe 100% in the bible and what it says should be the rules we as humans follow. We alread do for the most part and that is what is so funny. Peopl want to take the 10 commandments off places like government buildings and court rooms. Think about it...Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal...these are in our laws NOW...even if you just thought they were a nice guideline, makes sense to post them.

Now I get to my main topic of discussion. Today in California, a democratic blue state, voted that the definition of a marriage should be ONE man and ONE woman. This is the greatest victory California has voted on in a long time. Very quickly let me point out that I am NOT a gay basher, nor am I a homosexual. I have several friends that are gay and I love them just as much as everyone else. The Lord has commanded us to LOVE the sinner but HATE the sin. I sin, I have trouble with a lot of things, but God still loves me. Since I believe in the bible, I too believe that a marriage is between ONE man and ONE woman. Without turning to the bible on this subject, let's for a second take a look at the world if we instead of doing whatever we wanted actually did what the bible says...beliving in it or not. I would marry one woman, never divorce, never have sex with anyone other that HER. If the worlds followed this guideline, guess what. NO AIDS, no other sexually transmitted problems. Smoking kills so we put warning lables on cigaretts, alcohol has warning lables, when is the world going to understand that sexually transmitted diseases are killing more than smoking and alcohol combined.

Whether you agree with me or not about homosexuality, the problems that sex itself brings to this world is enough for people to open their eyes and look at the world around them and say enough is enough. ONE death in Iraq is too many...have many need to die from this before people finally take notice?

Death totals... Smoking: 5,400,000 world wide in 2004. This year in the U.S. 438,000 and 1,200 a day...PER DAY die from smoking of some kind.

Iraq war death totals: 4,119 as of Nov. 6th 2008. Over seven years. That is 1.6 per day.
Drunk Driving deaths: 17,941 in the U.S.in 2006 alone. That is 49 per day.
Murder deaths: 520,000 world wide in 2000. That is 1,425 per day.
Suicides: 1,000,000 annually. That is 2,740 per day.
Smoking: 5,400,000 in 2004 World wide. That is 14,794 per day.
Aids: 2,100,000 annually. That is 5,753 PER DAY.

ALL of these deaths are preventable...ALL of them. But yet we allow people like the ACLU tell us that what ever feels good, just don't tell me I can't do it, because that is not fair. We have the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. I think that we take these too lightly. OR we paint them with too broad a brush.

Driving while drunk is wrong. There is NO way to see that differently. We know it and are taking measure to prevent it, Designated Drivers. Smoking now has warning lables everywhere. Suicide has help lines and people to talk to and even drugs for that are getting better. The war, good or bad right or wrong, the world is a safer place without Sudam Hussein...FACT. But we will leave and then there will be no more death due to the war. But then we come to Aids. Yes it can be spread many ways. Blood transfusion, needles, blood to blood, and through Sex. But lets not deny the facts. Aids is greatest among homosexuals. So what do we do to prevent Aids...we hand out condoms. wrong. that is a myth condoms will NOT prevent against aids. Educataion??? False the trend lately is to stop teaching children abstinence and start teaching condoms and other things to stop pregnancy. Sorry those things will NOT save you from contracting Aids. Won't happen. We need a new direction, we need a new thought process, we need people in this world that aren't afraid to stand up and state the facts and what it will take to bring us back to a place where our world doesn't have to suffer from those things anymore. Who will that be?

Be blessed...and be a blessing.

Election Results

2008-11-06T06:48:00.002+09:00

Well here we are...the wrong guy for the president was chosen and my heart is sinking. However I do want this not to be about him being elected, but why I didn't vote.

I have heard several people tell me that they didn't vote and for LOTS of different reasons. I am very curious myself as to the actual system in America. Most will tell you that EVERY vote counts. Well that can't be farther from the truth. If that was the case Al Gore should have been president the firt time. He won the popular vote, meaning more people voted for him than George W. Bush. So show me in that case where every vote counts. Secondly I have heard people that say, "Well, I just voted for the lesser of two evils." I understand what they mean but let's go back just a little bit in that statement...What you are telling me is that you voted for "evil"? Okay yeah THAT makes sense. I personally have gone with the approach that no where in the bible does it tell me to vote. It talkes about supporting the government, and some take that to mean that it is then your duty to vote because our government is saying vote. Well let's go a step beyond that. The government also tells me that abortion is legal and evolution should be taught in schools. I disagree with BOTH of them, but I should go ahead and agree with them because my "government" told me to??? You can't pick and choose.

Now that we have a new president, I will pray for him and support him, but I do NOT agree with a lot of the things that he is trying to do. "Joe the plumber" was my turning point. To take MORE money from hard working Americans and give it to people not working, what is this going to create? Laziness. Why would I want to work harder only to have more of my money taken from me, when I could stay at home, not do anything and I'll still be okay??? How does this make sense? The other point that struck me as funny was that of experience. When I took my current job I had to have so many years of international teaching, followed by so many years of teaching in general. I went through interview after interview, and I know that my job was not the toughest one to get into...ALL of this just to be an Aquatics Director at a large school in Korea. We now have a president who has been in the senate for 2 years. His own voting record showed that he didn't vote FOR anything, he only voted as present. 116 times he voted 'present'. Didn't want to take a stand on anything? Sent his assistant? What? Could you go to your place of work just sit down not do ANYTHING and get away with saying, "Well, I was present."

We as Americans have I believe a tough road ahead, but it is going to get worse if we do not come together as a nation, accept the hand we were dealt and move on fighting TOGETHER. I will be supporting and praying for both our newly formed government AND the direction in which we are going. Who will join me?

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Wow has it been a long time or what

2008-10-31T09:07:00.007+09:00

For anyone still reading this or checking up on it, I thought I better explain a few things that have happened since the last time I wrote.

1.) I am no longer in Sudan, and therefore can update and post things more freely now that I am out of that country. I loved most of the things about being there. I loved the people, and I loved the culture. But the school was another story. I will not bad mouth the school in which I taught, but needless to say, I am glad that I am out of there.

2.) This is a tougher one to figure out. Starting maybe Nov. of 2007 I was tlaking to Grace and she mentioned that instead of doing what we had planned, she would now be staying in Korea without an end in sight. I flew out to see her for a couple of days in December, and left on good terms, however, things just seemed to be estranged. We continued dating until the point where I headed home for the summer. (explain the summer comment in #3) I didn't hear from her for a while and then I got an e-mail stating that we were not as close and heading in different directions. So therefore we have broken up.

3.) About the time I flew out to Korea, I realized that I could stay in Sudan no longer, so therefore I started looking for a job back in Korea. I knew several schools having been the athletic director here for four years, so I had scheduled a couple of interviews for my Christmas break in Korea. However none of the panned out, so I headed back to Sudan still looking. I looked into Peru, China, Japan and a few other places before getting an e-mail from a lady I worked with at a huge school in Seoul. She toled me that there wasn't an athletic directors position open at her school, but they needed an Aquatics Director. So after a couple of days of talking to my director in Sudan and a few friends, I took the position. So I am back in Korea. Feels just like home again.

The school that I am teaching at is called Seoul International School, and where my old school here in Korea had at MOST 240 students K-12, this school has 1600 K-12. A bit bigger. I am currently teaching basic swimming lessons to every student at this school in stages of 10 days. I love being here again, and I have a very nice deal. I just finished coaching boys JV volleyball, and will start coaching the middleschool swim team in two weeks. After that I will be coaching the Varsity swim program.

I wanted to just get a few quick words in since I hadn't written in a while. I got out of the habit when in Khartoum, I COULDN'T write...they were blocking me because of the title of my blog. Now that I am out of the country and can write whatever I want, I need to say this...Mohamed is a great guy, but NOT the answer for your salvation. Jesus Christ is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE...the ONLY way to get to God is through Him.

During the summer I found a few older pictures of me, that I thought would bring a laugh out of some of my faithful readers. Take a look and have a chuckle...

Me at 9 months

My sister Kim and I (maybe 4 years old)
My family (Gordon, Eunice, Me, Kim and baby Renae)

Okay that is it for now...I have a few other funs ones that I'll save for later...

Camping and Pyramids

2008-03-27T15:57:00.009+09:00

I just thought that I would share a few pictures of my camping trip to the desert.

I can not say that it was something that I have always drempt of doing since I was a child, however the trip taught me several things about camping. Growing up I never got to go camping. Something that I feel everyone should do at least once. For example I don't have a lot of camping trip equipment here, and so therefore when I was offered this trip I hesitated. I was reassured that I would be okay. I brought the bare minimum since I figured that this was in fact the desert. The 'we' that I am talking about is my friends at Medair. During this year that I have been here I was introduced to this organizaton through the church that I attend. They are a great group of people. In total about 14 people joined in this outing. We met up around 3:00 and drove about an hour and a half into the desert to a few rock mountain formations. We slept out under the stars, most of us, three tents were brought, however they were filled by the ladies. I guess I can rough it for them. All I brought for the sleeping portion was a sheet. I figured that this was the desert right...we got there and it was 110 degrees. But once the sun was out of sight, and the rocks cooled off, the temp dropped rather quickly. I was shivering the entire night. I didn't think that I would get a lot of sleep since I'm not good in new beds.

We woke up early, got something to nibble on and then drove off from our camping site at 9:00. We drove a little over two hours farther into the desert to see the pyramids that are here in Sudan. Now this is Africa and Egypt is also a part of Africa. The pyramids that are in Egypt are huge and hundreds of times bigger than the ones that are here in Sudan. However, there are dozens and dozens of pyramids here, but they are much much smaller. We only got to stay there for about an hour. Several of us needed to get back to Khartoum to be apart of the youth group that take place every Saturday at 5:00. So we needed to leave close to 1:00 to make it back in time to attend the youth group.

Enjoy the pictures, let me know what you think. I'll tell another story here and there about the trip and the healing that is still taking place on both of my ankles.

My old expression to finish a blog used to be peace out...later on, but now I will be changing it to something a dear friend closes hs chats with.

Be blessed and be a blessing.

I hope you like the new layout

2008-03-07T22:14:00.004+09:00

For those of you that try and keep this page going by your viewing it, I have changed it up a bit and tried to make things more and more interesting. Some people have not necessarily enjoyed the posts about the vacation...they don't like me commenting on every aspect of the trip, but for me it is very helpful. I don't have the greatest memory and getting things down and reading them helps me to relive some of the greatest moments of my life.

Secondly with being here in Sudan things are just not being posted at a rate that I am happy with. The last post I actually wrote and published last month and I just checked today and noticed that it was finally uploaded. Kind of discourages you from posting when it takes a month to see it get onto the sight and not knowing if it even would be posted or not.

Quickly I'll post some new things that are happening in my life.

I will be leaving Sudan at the end of May. This will meet with several peoples happiness. I have choosen to take another job as a teacher in yet another school. I looked all over Kansas City YET AGAIN, with not even a reply to anything...I also applied to Peru and several other countries. I finally landed at a school I am actually familiar with. I will be returning to Korea and teaching at a school that was in our conference in athletics. The school is called Seoul International School...or SIS for short. I will be making more money than here and I will be ONLY teaching aquatics. I leave here with sadness and happiness as well. I love the students and the churches and bible study that I have been involved with, but I also feel that it is time to finish some things, and one of them is my Student Loan...after only one year of paying close to 1000 bucks a month, I am less than ONE year from paying it all off. That will be a HUGE weight off my shoulder. I will also be back in a land that I am some what familiar with. There will be more rest and more ability to do the things that I want.

I'm going to try and throw a picture in for those that would like to see more from Africa. We had a week here that we called "Sudan Days". We had art, food culture, Nuba wrestling, and that is where this picture comes from. I was not able to attend the wrestling event about two week prior to seeing them at school. There was one man that won every event he entered I heard. His name in English means "bird flu", yeah, yeah I heard all the jokes. Anyway, when he showed up at school all the other teachers were saying how much bigger he was than me. I keep trying to tell people that I am not the tallest person in the world, but they don't want to believe it. As they finished their mock wrestling, all the students wanted me to join in, however with my knee the way it is and my ankle not 100% I felt the best thing in the world was just to sit this one out. The students didn't like it, but it has taken me a long time to actually say no to things. =) So after the wrestling was over I went up to Bird Flu to see who was bigger...I'll let you be the judge of that...

I better close, but I hope that I haven't lost too many readers, I will try and post more now that I know eventually things will get posted. =(

Be blessed, and be a blessing.

SV07 #7

2008-02-21T16:13:00.004+09:00

Wednesday came so quickly…I mean it felt as though we had just got here and now we had one day left to have as much fun as we could before heading on to our next destination. Today was going to be a little different than the others. First of all I would be waking up at my leisure. I had a play date with my buddy “Hawk”. This was his nickname from when we both worked at a camp in Simi Valley. My name was Yosemite. We had to choose nature names, but now I am drifting from my story. I had plans to hook up with Hawk at his dads dealership and then from there go to lunch. I really felt bad that I hadn’t gotten a chance to drop in on his mom. She was always so cool. His family was and still is very awesome. I have spent several New Years Eve celebrations with them at Disneyland and I know his sisters fairly well. It has been a joy knowing and growing with this guy since 1995. We’ve been through a lot, and we have lots of stories, but that will be for another time.

Today I woke up and slowly got around to showering and then heading out the door to meet him around 12:00. Once there I got out of the car and gave him a big hug and we just sat there and kept telling stories of what we had been up to the past four years. The last time that I had seen him was during the trip out to Cali to go to my sisters wedding in 2003. It felt really good to catch up. We waited for a little while before his wife and child pulled in. We were all going to go out to lunch together. It was good to see the little woman again. Seeing her was even longer than 2003. I had met her when she also was a counselor at the camp. We piled into his car and then headed for CoCo’s. This is a little restaurant that is kind of like a Denny’s or Perkins. Good food, and lot’s of good conversations. We talked and talked and talked and got caught up on all the happenings going on in their lives. I think I might have had some fish. Hawk had a hamburger and a coke “no ice” he doesn’t like getting ice in his drinks because he thinks that the ice takes up more room. Even at a place with free re-fills, he always gets no ice.

During my lunch date, Grace was spending time with Cheryl and they were doing some serious shopping. I had no ill feelings of this. I mean hey it keeps me out of the line of fire from the shoppers…right fellas?

We finished lunch and I was locked into the booth so that I couldn’t sneak and take the check up to the counter and pay for the meal, so I let Hawk go do it and then I took out some cash and slipped it into their baby’s bag. I figured that even if they didn’t know where it came from, that they could use it to take each other out sometime. Not that I like throwing money around, but I also don’t like feeling like I can’t take care of myself. One of my biggest faults, but that is another story for another day. We drove back to the dealership and I said my good-byes and then took off to meet up with my sweetness.

I met her back at her brothers house and I think Cheryl was napping. I had to hurry, because I knew that Cheryl needed to catch the bus back to San Diego later that afternoon. I wasn’t sure where the bus station was from that point, so we drove around a bit until we found it. We were fairly early and so we went a couple blocks away to a shopping center and went to Costco so that Grace and Cheryl could do a few last minute shopping adventures. We also went and got some more ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Finally it was time to say good-bye to Cheryl. We drove over to the bus station and waited with her until her bus came, picked her up, and took her back to San Diego.

It was getting late, and it was our last night in California. We remembered that her brother had been telling us about this place that sells used clothing from movies and television shows. We thought that would be cool to check it out on the way home. It was relatively close by and so we found it and headed inside. It was in a small shopping strip downtown. Kind of narrow and had a small upstairs. They did have a LOT of clothing from lots of different shows. The problem was that a lot of them were VERY used and just because they were used by some extra on Designing Women they felt they could ask 45 dollars for a white t-shirt. Not my idea of a good deal. But we did look around and it still was fun to see all the memorabilia that the owner had. After this we felt that it would be a good idea to get a movie and take some food back home with us. We stopped by Blockbuster and looked at their used movie collections. We looked for a while but nothing really suited us. We did end up buying “Trading Places” DVD. I had seen it before and it was pretty good if you like the show. We grabbed some food and headed back to her brothers house and just enjoyed a nice quiet evening at home. Grace was worn out, and I could tell. She was out before the first house was redone, and so I felt it best to get back to the hotel and let them get some rest…besides we had yet another long day tomorrow.

Back in the good ol' Sudan

2008-01-06T01:16:00.000+09:00

Well it was short sweet and before i knew it I was back in Khartoum.

My stay in Korea was very refreshing and much needed. I only got to see Grace for three days, and then she flew out to New York for her Christmas break. I stayed in the Worlds Hotel downtown Songtan and enjoyed a couple of wonderful showers. Grace and I got to watch a few McLeods Daughters and then went up to Suwon and enjoyed one of our regulars of eating at Outback. Always a fun outing. We also went to ICS-P's Christmas party. It is so funny that for the last five years I have spent Christmas break in Korea.

Christmas day I spent with one of our former teachers...Andrew Calamaro and his family. He and his wife are amazing cooks and it was fun to play with his three daughters that used to be in my class.

After Grace left I stayed at her house, and let me tell you, that was very strange. For the past couple of years I have been used to leaving her house at 9:00 on the dot usually and this time here I was heading in to sleep in her bed. It was just a weird feeling. The first day I could not get to sleep until very late, and then I woke up early...I just couldn't relax. Plus add to that the fact that the cats were wondering who this new person was that was sleeping in the bed and taking up the whole space. I would turn in my sleep and "Dude" would jump on my head thinking I was something needing to be caught. The last night I was finally used to it and actually got some really good sleep. Too bad that now I have to get used to my old bed in Khartoum.

I got to do a few things in Korea, but some of the things that I was hoping to do, as I went to do them, I just couldn't go. It just wasn't the same without Grace being there. It just wasn't the same without her there with me...for example one of the things that I did bring myself to go to was Costco, but one of the main reasons was because Grace wanted a bowl of Cheerios on Monday when she would be getting ready to go back to school. So I got that and replaced a few things that I had eaten from her kitchen.

I would like to talk more about this including the people that I got to see again, but right now I am SOOOOOO tired since I just got in the door a couple hours ago, and I have school tomorrow. Plus I'll have more pictures to share, but for now this is the only one that you get. Enjoy and we'll talk soon.

Peace out...later on.

SV07 #6

2007-12-09T17:25:00.000+09:00

At long last DAY 6:

Okay it is time to get back to my incredible journey that took place last summer. I have just received the pictures from the day that will allow me to finish this day and continue with the rest of the vacation.

This was one of the best days and one that I had been looking forward to since we planned this trip. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD. I was up very early because I was so excited. I wanted to make sure that I picked up Cheryl and Grace early enough that I could get to the park just as it opened. You know, growing up with a father that has an amazing concept of time is a wonderful thing, and I have since inherited his innate ability to judge time. I have the whole park laid out in my head. I got there and they were all set to go. I was so very happy because I knew that Grace knew how special this day was for me. We piled in the car and headed to the park. We got there just fine…all of those times I had been there before were coming back to me. We stopped to pay for parking and since this was a special occasion I paid for the parking that would put us right next to the door. It was great even though the girls offered a little protest. We got out and got to the gate just as they opened them for the day…what a treat. I know the routine, and have done it several times. Some times I did it on my own when I lived out here.

We headed first to the tram ride. If you do this first there should be very few people on it and it takes about an hour to take the ride. Not only that, but when we get done, people that are just getting there themselves are heading to the tram while we are now finished and ready to ride other things and see different things. The tram was just like always. I sat in the middle between Grace on my right and Cheryl on my left. I liked sitting in the middle because I knew what was coming up and could watch the expressions of each as they experienced each thing. For example the flood…that comes down from the left and gets the people on that side of the tram very wet. I remember videoing it and towards the end Cheryl stands up and almost jumps over me to get out of the way of the water. The other water section comes from the right. That was during the Earthquake adventure. The tram sits in the middle of this subway type scene and as the earthquake begins things rumble and then the ceiling falls in while a subway comes through. Towards the end it stops shaking and from the stairway to the right comes a rush of water. That was where Grace slid right into me pushing me into Cheryl. This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching them freak out. Several things were new on the tram including a huge cave set that was being used to film the new National Treasure. They also have the set from The Grinch that stole Christmas. There is only one part of the tram ride that even I can’t stand and that is towards the end they drive through a tunnel. It is round all the way through and once inside it starts to roll, but the tram stays level. It is totally an optical illusion, but one I can’t do. I get dizzy very easy, and so I had to put my head in my lap and just wait till we were through it. We got off and Cheryl desperately needed to use the restroom, but that was not on the schedule…we had to get to the bottom of the hill and do several things. The first of which was the Backdraft experience. This is from the movie of the same name obviously. They show you the making of the movie, and then let you stand behind this rail as the set fire to this building. Towards the end the scaffolding you are standing on drops about two inches, scares everybody their first time. I loved it. After this we hurried next door to a place where they teach you how movies are made…this used to be Back To The Future, Hitchcock Presents, and Harry and the Henderson. To my serious displeasure this was changed since the last time I was there to The Mummy, Robotronics and Foley artist work. It was still rather fun, even though I didn’t get picked for anything. Usually I get picked for at least on thing or maybe even two. I have been used to rock the car and also did the voice over for Harry and The Henderson’s. But this time I just got to sit and watch. I felt bad because I wanted to impress Grace. Oh well maybe in some other way next time. After going from theater to theater for these three shows we left in hopes of get to the Jurassic Park ride early enough that there wouldn’t be much of a line. This is yet another water ride that sometimes gets packed as the day goes on and so I really wanted to get there, ride it and then allow Cheryl to take care of the potty business. She was a real trooper. We got there and there was virtually no line and so we just jumped in a raft and took off on our adventure. I tried to record the whole thing, but water kept dripping onto the new camera, and so I did the best I could. We got off the ride and checked out our pictures. They were SOOOO funny. Grace and Cheryl were hugging the protective rail and trying to avoid the water…from the front row…come on… hehehe. I had to buy the pictures to make sure that I would never forget this.

After this ride I thought it best to get some food and relax for a while. Just around the corner is a little café that I had always enjoyed eating at when I had the time, most of the time when I would go to Universal, I would go alone. I would just do the things I enjoyed and then leave, never stopping for food. But every now and then I would enjoy eating at this lace because it has a little something for everybody. We stood in line to get our food; it was like riding another ride, or stopping for another show. The line was long but we had fun in line just talking back and forth. Cheryl and Grace made great company. This was probably the most fun that I had at Universal, and I have been there a lot.

After lunch we headed out and before heading back up the hill I wanted them to go on the E.T. Adventure ride. This is where you would first walk through a forest and then get into a bike built for 6 and then glide over the city and through the forest. It really was a nice ride. I knew Grace would enjoy it, however, they replaced the ride with “The Mummy Adventure”. This was TOTALLY different. Grace and Cheryl read the board about the ride and Cheryl wanted to go, Grace didn’t want to go and so I went on the ride alone with Cheryl. It was good we talked a lot and just had some fun. I felt bad that Grace was sitting out on the rocks, but I know that she also had fun. The ride was seriously intense. It started out by shooting us through this tunnel and then straight up. It reminded me of Space Mountain at Disneyland. But then it would come to a point where it would stop on a dime and then take the same course but going backwards. We were screaming and loving it. We got off and then bought this picture from the ride… It was a lot of fun. We met back up with Grace and then headed back up the hill to finish the day. Usually most shows and rides are packed at this point, however, at the top of the hill is Back To The Future The Ride. This is a huge movie screen where you get to sit in a car and it shakes along with the movie. There was no line though and we were lucky enough to just walk onto this ride. I remember when it opened you would wait three hours to go on this adventure.

After Back To The Future we walked back towards the main road and saw the animal show and the Fear Factor show, but no one wanted to do either of these. They also used to have a Star Trek adventure where people would get to participate in the show. This was replaced with Shrek 3-D. It was pretty cool it was a movie that was in 3-D and they would spray water on you every once in a while along with the movie. After getting out of this we did a little bit of shopping and walking around while we waited for the Water World Stunt Show. I have the perfect place picked out because I like the end. I’ll explain more about this later, but we had to get there pretty early in line so that we could get the spot. Cheryl and Grace were real troopers. Not too many could keep up with me. It was very hot, and the shade in the waiting area was not the greatest. You can see in the picture that even shading themselves from the sun didn’t help a whole lot…the sun really drained a lot out of us. Once the gate opened I made a b-line towards my spot. It is of course in the front row and of course in the soak zone. Before the show started we watched as some of the actors took cans of pressurized water and sprayed people as the walked to find their seats…this created a little enjoyment and people got a little more energy that had been lost due to the sun. The show started and it was a lot of fun. I won’t describe the whole show, but the reason that I wanted to sit in this place was for one part when they shoot down the plane. It is shot over the back wall and directly at where we are sitting spraying water everywhere. The girls were screaming, but in a good way. They had a blast. And I think they understood afterwards why I wanted to sit here.

After that we went shopping a bit more, took our pictures in a few places on the way out of the park. After leaving the park we went shopping in a little place called City Walk…it is associated with Universal. It is a big novelty strip mall. They have all kinds of fun things to see and do. We went all the way to the back because that is where I knew that the Hard Rock was. Grace has been to several around the world and so I thought this would be a great place to have some dinner. We enjoyed a lovely meal and then headed back to the car stopping at two more stores. One of them was a retro store that had all kinds of toys and games from the 70’s. Grace picked up some bubbles that when you blow them you can actually catch them in your hands without popping them. I bought a few candies that I remembered liking…bottle caps and pop rocks. I also almost bought a football game that I used to envy from my friends. In today’s standards it would be stupid. You tried to get this red light from one end of the field to the other with out running into another light. High tech huh? But I remember just wanting to play that thing all the time. After leaving that place we came across a little shop that was doing water massages. I have had a couple and really enjoyed them. I knew that Grace’s upper back and right side of her neck is always requiring attention and so I thought this would be a great way to end the day. I think we got the ten minute massage and what they do is have you lay down on this bed face down. You put these head phones on that take away all noise, then they lower the lid that puts a plastic cover on you so that your clothes don’t get wet, and then they shoot the water down on you. You get to control the speed, pressure where you want it to concentrate on your back. It’s incredible. I had them done at a mall in Kansas City, however, I also know that these places have a tendency to go out of business rather quickly, so while we were here we needed to take advantage of them. Grace got out of the machine just wiped out. It really takes it out of you, especially after the day that we had. After the massage, it was time to leave. So we got into the shiny red car and then tootled on home. From what I remembered I just dropped Grace and Cheryl off at her brothers’ house and then I went back to my hotel. I do remember once getting in to my room I just passed out. It was a GREAT day.

I couldn't have said it any better...

2007-11-21T22:45:00.000+09:00

This was written by Jay Leno. I don't usually cut and paste things, but I saw this and felt led to share this with as many people as I could.

With me actually living outside the U.S. I can see each part of this and can varify that it is all true.

'The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe It must be true, given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed, and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President. In essence, 2/3's of the citizenry just isn't happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ''What are we so unhappy about?''Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?

Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time, and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state?

Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?

I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough.

Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers s how up and provide services to help all, and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings.

Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler or intruders , an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs, or militias raping and pillaging the residents, Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks are unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the President who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The President who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same President who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The President that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks?

The Commander-In Chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad?

Think about it...are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the 'Media' told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go.

They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds, it leads; and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by 'justifying' them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about 'how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way'...Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad.

We are among the most blessed people on Earth, and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.

'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

Jay Leno

Outrage

2007-11-07T22:13:00.002+09:00

I know that I'm not read by a lot of people, but I just heard this on the news about five minutes ago.

The 2008 Olympics are just around the corner and the stadiums are still being built and events are still being planned. I love the Olympics and I enjoy watching several events and even find myself cheering for the country that I happen to be living in, along with my beloved America.

HOWEVER, this year I am at the moment planning on banning any talk of the Olympics. I usually run some sort of Olympic event at my school in our annual field day when we have classes compete against classes. The China government has decided in all it's wisdom to BAN THE BIBLE...Now let's get this straight...They are not going to allow ANY bible to be brought into the country or into the Olympic Village itself. Can you believe this. They are SOOOO worried about this book that they are banning it. That must mean that we as Christians are doing something right that they are fearing God. Now just to take this to a politically correct stand, they are not banning ANY other religious book such as the Quran. Those are okay...it is ONLY the bible that they don't want in the country.

I think it will be EXTREMELY inappropriate to send our athletes to these games. We have boycotted games before. I think it is time to do it again. Now, will it happen? Not a chance...now-a-days the games are more about money than anything else. But I have no doubt in my mind that there will be SOME athletes that make the right choice and choose GOD over sports. We need to understand that this is the new and latest attack on Christians.

I am asking those that do read these posts keep up on the news of this story. If this becomes reality I am asking that you too make the choice NOT to watch the games in any way. Turn off the tv, turn off the news, Let your government know that this is not okay. We need to make this stand. We can't allow a country to impose it's views on the world simply because they are hosting a world wide games...You choose what is more important to you...I choose Christ...who will join me....

Get the word out people. Let's make this right.

Old Journal

2007-11-07T00:23:00.000+09:00

I thought that as we wait for the pictures for the next day of last summers vacation I would show you yet another funny entry in my old journal...please remember that as this was written, I was 20 years old... =) Enjoy...I know I did...I still can't believe that I ever felt this way.

Tuesday March 8th 1994

I started a new job today. It involves packing computers. I was putting labels on computer boxes. I had to be up at 4:30 in the morning. I also got a back brace so I won’t paralyze myself. I have to keep my mind on things like Robyn or Mary just to get through. I hope when I get home I’ll find a message on the answering machine telling me that they would like to hire me full time and pay me double what I am making here. There are some cute girls here, but not like Mary or Robyn or Katarina. Witt’s beautiful, but she’s 28 and wants a husband.

In the meantime...

2007-10-21T16:58:00.000+09:00

Some of you that actually check this blog are probably wondering where the next day is on my journal of the vacation that Grace and I took this past summer. Well, if you see I like posting pictures that go along with this journey to help document what the things that we did look like. Well, the next day tells the story behind our trip to Universal Studios and I had the unfortunate luck to get my camera very wet. So most of my pictures turned out through what looks like fog. Our friend Cheryl has a bunch of pictures of the day since she got to go with us and so I am waiting for her to send me the pictures...but in the meantime I thought that I would post a few of the things that have been going on here. You know one thing that I like to do sometimes is grip, but usually not on here. I like saving this for the things that God is doing in my life rather than the things that I really need His help on...and that is where I am right now. This is going to be some gripping but mainly it is to be used as a prayer. If you would like to join me in praying for the things that are in this blog, believe me, I could sure use it.

This past week was my Fall break. We had the entire week off and several teachers got to go to other countries around the area. I have chosen to put close to $900 a month onto my student loans so taking that kind of a trip is rather tough at this point. So I had the wonderful time of spending the week working on things like my plastic canvas art, cleaning, putting my home theater together. You know the basics. But towards the end of the week I just really hit a whirlpool and struggled with just about everything. I started not feeling well and so I missed church. And I really like this church. I hope to video tape it some day so that you all can see what church I'm going to.

It really hit me that this school just has me bending over backwards and forwards just trying to keep my head above water and I'm suppose to be thankful for this. Let me try and explain...starting in Nov. we will begin putting our soccer teams together. There are both boys and girls teams in the following categories (under) 18, (under 16), (under 14). They do not pay their coaches here, and so there is very few teachers who want to give up their precious valuable free time to coach one of these teams. Which means that I get to coach all six...I also have been spared this past quarter from being on one of the curriculum teams...we are getting accredited this year and so we have to have all this information. I also am a new teacher here and so even though I have lesson plans for the whole year different school use different programs and so this school uses something called Rubicon which just takes FOREVER to do anything on. Then we also are a school that wants the students to assess themselves, and since we want the students to do that, why not the teachers as well. All teachers old and new have to fill out this long self-assessment by the end of Fall break, which I haven't even looked at yet. Then I thought you know what maybe I could do this at home during break...good thought right...WRONG. The internet connection at my house is terrible...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time it takes 10 minutes to open up a page...and sometimes certain web sites never come up. So working from home is not really an option.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord never gives us things that we can't handle, BUT, and it's a big but, it's one of the biggest buts you'll ever read about. BUT, it is really close at this point. You just got done reading about my insane schedule, but please remember that I am also still new to this country and am struggling trying to get used to being in 100+ degree heat every day. I go home to a house that is normally in the 70's back in the states, but here it is low 90's inside my house. My cable that I bought is scrambled most days and so I get worked up over not being able to watch things just to take me away. I also bought a car here and have yet to have it for an extended period of time without something wrong happening to it. Even now it is still overheating and I am just not having fun with it. I know that I will only have it till the end of next year, where I can hopefully sell it outside the school and make a good profit on it. I know this seems like a lot, and it usually is. I'm just used to being able to go to people and either talk about this stuff or vent or whatever, but there is no one here to be able to do that to. Grace, my wonderful girlfriend, and I just celebrated our one-year anniversary. I have never dated someone this long and I had to celebrate this from a long way away. The week before this splendid day we talked and decided that she will be staying in Korea for at least the next year to help out in the transition of leadership there. I am 100% behind this because this is where she feels God is leading her...doesn't help the human side of me. I already miss her a lot and making this work for another year will be hard, but I know that if the is in Gods plan He will let it happen.

It just feels as though things and events and just stuff is being piled on all at the same time. And I go to bed every night feeling guilty for my thoughts and feelings about either my reactions with Grace, or the happenings at school, and I know that it wasn't any one thing that gets to me. I know it's the heat and the life here in Khartoum that just adds to the frustration level and so my level of tension already starts out pretty high, and who ends up getting hurt or who do I end up making feel worse...the ones that I love the most. The ones that are already praying for me everyday, the ones that really miss me as well and want whats best for me. To those people I offer my deepest apology and only pray that they understand that I never mean anything personal by the things I say. I get frustrated by a computer that won't allow me to talk clearly to the people I love. I do have an amazing time of peace and solice when Grace and I have our "date nights". Grace and I send each other copies of a show called McLeods Daughters which is kind of like a soap opera that takes place in Australia on a farm...it is a great show and I have enjoyed getting into it. Grace and I would watch one or two episodes a night when we lived in Korea, but now we don't have that luxury. But on our date nights we will press play at the same time and watch an episode together...it really is nice. I will go back and watch it again just to remember those feelings. It's not the same obviously, because we are not in the same room, however, with the way things are for now...it'll have to do.

So please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I try and take each of these things head on...you know I once heard someone say "Go home. Write down all the things that you worry about. Ninety percent will never happen, and the other ten percent you can't do anything about that stuff anyway." But right now it feels like the other way around...

I leave you with one of my favorite bible versus that sometimes gets me through times like this... Jer. 29:11 "For I know the plan I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to give you a future and not to harm you."

Peace out...Later on

SV07 #5

2007-09-22T17:47:00.000+09:00

Monday I woke up really early because we had to be at the WB studio early for the Warner Brothers studio tour. I picked up Grace and Matthew and headed towards the WB tower. We had to go through the metal detector and then finally got into the main building. The main room had a big store of several different shirts, movies, dvd’s, key chains, and magnets. We waited in line for a while but since we were the first ones in the door, that wasn’t a bad thing. There was a guy who came in later and walked right in front of me while I was standing in the front of the line…as soon as the lady came out to take our order, I jumped in front of him and sort of ran him off the way to the lady. He was a little mad, but sorry, what was he thinking. We got the tickets…I wanted to pay for everybody, but Matthew wanted to do this for Grace for her birthday. So I paid for myself and he paid for Grace and himself. The tour wasn’t going to be for a while and so we left the place after we had tickets and went to try and find a store called CVS. We were on the lookout for flip flops for Grace. Grace and I had looked at SEVERAL places to find the right kind…but none seemed to meet with her approval. I picked up some circus peanuts and a root beer. Grace found a pair of flip flops that she could live with and we slowly made our way back to the WB lot. On the way back to the lot we past a few houses that seemed a little smaller than normal. Matthew informed us that these houses were built to house the midgets that were filming “The Wizard of Oz” If you look you can tell the doors and everything are just a lot smaller. We got back to the lot and just did a little looking around at the small shop they had there…also picking up another magnet. They took us into the little screening room and had us watch a bunch of movies from the past…it was really cool to try and guess the films that they showed short clips too. After we left that room, our guide, Erin, took us to a golf cart and lead us off to the rest of tour. The first stop was a little alley that looked like a New York street. The cool part of this was that she told us that this was the spot that in the first Spiderman movie that Mary Jane and Spiderman had their amazing upside down kiss. We continued on and the first major place that she had us get out of the cart was the emergency bay for the show ER. I never knew that it was mainly filmed right there. I got several pictures. A lot of the “L” train, where they go get on the subway was also right there too. One of the biggest things that Grace wanted to see was the things that had to do with the show “Gilmore Girls”. Erin, our guide, was also a fan of the show and took us to several spots where Grace was telling us what they were even before the guide told us. That was pretty cool. I think that Grace had a lot of fun seeing several of the sets from the show. There were a lot of places where they told us that they were filming there and that we had to lock our cameras under the seats of the golf cart. Some shots were sneaked and others we just have to use our memories of what we saw…for example they took us into the wardrobe building where they had several outfits and things from past shows like Friends and Harry Potter. In fact the entire upstairs was devoted to Harry Potter things and clothes. We got to sit on a seat JUST before having to get back into the car o leave where they put this hat over our head that told us what class we were suppose to be in at the Harry Potter school. Pardon me, but I’m not the biggest fan of Harry Potter. We also got to see a little garage that had harry Potters car, Batmobile, and several other vehicles from different films. The best part, at least for me was that they took us to this place that looked like it was at the end of a loading dock. The room was locked and our guide was struggling to open it and I was a little upset that we got off our cart when we could have been seeing other cool things only to find out that once she opened up this crate type door it opened to reveal the actual set from the show Friends. We couldn’t walk on the carpet, but we got some really good pictures from the set, it was so cool to be able to be that close to something that was so popular. At the end we picked up our picture that we had taken with the penguins from the movie “Happy Feet”. We gave the picture to Matthew so that he would have something to remember what we did.

Once we got done with the Warner Brothers tour, we figured that we would have a great chance to head to the beach. We piled into the car, and headed down to Santa Monica Pier. Matthew thought that he knew a short cut, so I followed the directions that were told to me and I think we got lost several times. It was a lot of fun…we would go up a hill and Matthew would say I think the beach is just over this road, and when we got to the top of the road we would see nothing but more roads and trees. We finally hit the freeway and then followed the 110 towards the beach. The freeway ended and veered to the right and we found ourselves right at the Santa Monica Pier. We pulled into a parking lot, which was pretty empty, got out, put our brand new beach walking sandals on and headed towards the pier. It was a pretty good hike to the pier. Our hope at this point was to find a restaurant to eat. It was getting pretty late and Grace was getting hungry. We had talked prior to coming out that I was hoping to find some good cod. My favorite fish is cod, and the reason that I was looking for some was for a couple of reasons. A few years back my father and I took a trip and we found this amazing all you can eat “Fish & Chip” place. It was right on the beach. From then on I was hooked on cod. I also wanted Grace to join me in that memory, kind of like becoming a part of that memory. But alas we couldn’t find any fish and chi places on the pier. This is part of my problem, I like to surprise people rather than discuss things, and that is what usually gets me into trouble, that and thinking I can read into things. Matthew suggested that we go up and into the city and see if there was anything throughout the small city that we could find. We walked up the huge hill, across the freeway and into the city. We were all pretty hungry by now and tempers were starting to escalate. I never meant to act like all of this searching was about finding something for me, like I said, it was more about trying to find something nice and special that I wanted to share with Grace. And for the trouble that caused you have no idea how sorry I am. We did get to walk across Santa Monica Blvd., which was something that Grace had wanted to do. I remember her saying something about the song which goes…”When the sun goes down over Santa Monica Blvd.” But back to our walking, we walked and walked but found nothing. I caught up with Matthew and basically just told him that we should find a place pretty quick, even if it meant going back to the pier. At this point we were a good 15 minute walk from the pier so that was what we did. On the way back we took a different way. We walked right along this cliff, and Grace looked incredible in front of the beach like that, so I asked her to stop so I could take her picture. I took a couple and then we crossed a small walk-over bridge that led to the other side, the side with the beach on it. We actually passed the car again and took a direct line towards a place called “Bubba Gumps” It was this cool looking shrimp place right on the beach. The reason that we didn’t stop in before was because we read the menu, and there was no cod. This time they took us down the stairs and to a table that was right near the window and the beach. We sat down and read the menu. When the waiter came to talk to us we asked him about the missing cod. He said ‘no problem’. They actually had some. So I ordered it and Grace, I believe, ordered the same thing. The food felt so good going into our bodies. We were tired and worn out form all the walking but we really enjoyed getting a bite to eat. We paid, and headed back up to the top of the pier and took a bathroom break. After that we walked along the pier playing some carnival games here and there. We started back and saw a game where you lift up the sledge hammer and slam it down, trying to lift the ball to the bell at the top of the tower. This was all electronic tough...the cheaters. Just a couple of weeks ago we had been at Everland in Korea and they had a smaller version that I also played in front of Grace and set the new record. So I felt that I could have a good chance at winning something. I took my three swings, feeling more and more stronger each time, but the lights said I was getting weaker and weaker each time. But in the end I did still win a teddy bear that I could give to Grace. Oh well, I was hoping for the huge teddy bear. But then again how would we ever get that on the plane, we still had all of our luggage from Korea with us. We headed back to the car, stopping to take a picture of Grace and her brother near the statue of a dolphin. While they were looking at a table with several craft items for sale, I headed secretly into the Bubba Gumps gift shop and bought a sprit and yet another magnet from our journey to add to Grace’s collection. This was becoming kind of a cute game. We even bought another magnet before heading back to the car.

We were getting short on time since we had to be at the Grey Hound bus terminal to pick up Ms. Cheryl Ayres at 5:00. We hopped back onto the freeway and headed back to Matthews house, the bus stop was nearby. We were running low on Gas so we got off the freeway and actually made better time on the frontage road beside the freeway. Even after stopping for gas, I think that we still were ahead of some of the cars that we were stuck in traffic with. We got to where we needed to be, but had some extra time and so we saw a costco. We pulled in and just took a quick look around. Grace was still looking at doing some serious shopping. We didn’t have a long time to look so we got back into the car and headed to the bus stop. We waited there a good time past the normal time that the bus should have been there, but then we remembered the traffic that we had just been in and figured that she must have gotten stuck in it as well. The bus finally pulled in and we all hugged and piled into the car and I took them all back to Matthews house. I didn’t stay, I figured that the girls needed some girly time and so I dropped them off and headed home. This ended my Monday.

SV07 #4

2007-09-14T18:17:00.000+09:00

Sunday came rather quickly. I told Grace that would be by to pick them up at around 9:00 to go to church. Their job, was to find one. When I pulled up and knocked on the door they were dressed and ready, however they still hadn’t picked a church. Matthew has gotten out of going to church and his girlfriend isn’t much of a motivator. I sat on the blue couch and just scanned the videos that the two of them had. They have a mighty nice selection of everything from Seinfeld to interesting chick flicks. Grace came down and told me that they had found a church that wasn’t too far from where Matthew lived and that it started around 11:00 or so. She also filled me in on some of the other weird church in the neighborhood, like one that was pastured by a lesbian. Could you believe that? I will never understand some of the things that are allowed in the church. Anyway, we got to church, and they had what I like to call dueling preaching. This is where one pastor would start and the other would get up and talk and then they would switch back and forth several times. I really enjoyed the church service. It was comfortable, and I got a lot out of. Not saying that this is the church that I would choose for myself, but they had good music, and not too long after sitting in a pew, we had a couple of people come up and greet us. My biggest prayer is that this might help Matthew get back into going to church. He said that sometimes he is too busy.
After church we drove Matthew home and I thought that it would be a good idea that now I had a camera that we go back to the Regan Library to take some pictures of the things that we did the day before. We figured that we would drive back and pick Matthew back up and take him out to dinner. We got on the freeway and headed towards the 101 freeway and took it all the way to the Oak Park Mall. This was a mall that I used to go to all the time growing up in the area. We stopped in there and even went into the same door. It’s funny every time that I go home and do things that I remember doing 10 years ago it is always odd to me.
They were doing major construction at the mall. One of the reasons that I took her there was to see the “Lions and tigers and bears…OH my” But once we got there we noticed that where they used to be had been totally removed and they were in the process of putting something else in its place. Needless to say I was a little bummed. We ended up just walking around the mall and taking in the sights of where the pet store used to be and where it look as though they were going to build a new parking structure. On our way out we thought it would be nice to pick up some cheesecake from the new Cheese Cake Factory. We picked up several that we thought that Matthew would like and then continued on our way. We drove through Thousand Oaks on the way back to Simi.
We pulled up to the library hoping to be able to at least go to Air Force One again. Alas we noticed that they was a different color to be able to get in, then the normal powder blue of when we were there before. We did go around the outside and took a bunch of pictures. The first one that I EVER took with the camera was one of Grace in front of the library near a statue of Ron with a cowboy hat. We also took them near the piece of the wall of Germany. They also had an area that they had gardened to look the way of the White House garden. Ronald is also laid to rest there and so I got my picture taken near his grave site. Grace also saw a sign that told us to be aware of rattlesnakes and so we did just that…but before we did she thought it would be cool to take her picture near it. After the library, I could tell that Grace was starting to get a little hungry, actually this had been happening ever since church. I was hoping that we could find a place that we didn’t normally get a chance to go to. We headed down the mountain where the library is kept and headed into the heart of Simi. Most of the things that I wanted to show Grace, had been shown on Friday, so I was more interested in finding a place to get her something to eat. I thought I would take her to In-&-Out. This was a place that I don’t really care for, but Grace had heard about it from a few people in Korea, so I thought this would be the time to take her there. The problem was that since I didn’t like to eat there, I think that I had only been there once while I lived in Simi. We took a few roads and turns and u-turns, and finally found it near the freeway onramp. We got something to eat, and then a t-shirt for her to be able to show off to John back in Korea. After getting something to eat, we got back on the freeway and hustled back to Matthews house because we were also suppose to be going to get something to eat with him. It would be about a 30 minute drive back to his house, and so we ate in the car and just again enjoyed each others company.
We pulled up to Matthews house and went inside, not really hungry anymore. But Matthew was. We kind of talked about things and came to the decision to have some home made pizza. Matthew would go get the stuff to make it, and we would head out real quick to see if I could find a normal adapter for my computer from the Best Buy that we saw driving in. We were a little late again, but we still had a great evening. We watched Casino Royale, ate some pizza and then had some cheese cake. I think I might have gained 20 pounds in just this one day of the trip…=) After the cheese cake Grace was starting to fall asleep and so we thought it was best to call it a night and pick up early the next morning…we had yet another big day to come.

SV07 #3

2007-09-09T02:03:00.000+09:00

Saturday was to be a busy day as well and so I felt that I needed to get some rest, but I woke up again at 5:00, but hey Coach was on and needed to be watched right?
After taking a shower and having a doughnut from yesterday, I got in the car and drove to pick up Grace. You know in Korea I’m used to just walking down a street and then a little alley and turn right and I’m at her door. Driving 15 miles to pick her up is not the same. But she doesn’t know this, but I would drive 1,500 miles to pick her up.
I pulled in and knocked on the door to be greeted again by this stunningly beautiful woman. Grace was busy, hehe just kidding. From where her brother lived I wasn’t sure how to get to the Chinese Theatre. We had to look it up on-line. We got the directions and then got the directions to Griffiths Observatory as well. Her brother was gone, so we locked up and left his apartment. We got in the car and I followed the directions that Grace was giving me. We pulled into a parking garage off of a very busy street, put the car in a spot and then walked up to the main street. On this street was the Grumman's Chinese Theatre. This is where actors put their hands, feet and yes sometimes lips into concrete. We still didn’t have a camera because mine wasn’t working and I’m not sure what was wrong with Grace’s. We had to buy a disposable one so that we could take some pictures of the concrete with us putting our hands into the hands and feet. Grace had hers taken with several like Shirley Temple. The newest ones were just put there two weeks before we toured the place. The actors from Oceans 13, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and others were all together, and people were crowded, actually more people than I have ever seen there. But we did get some pictures taken and walked a few blocks down to go through the Hollywood Wax Museum. By paying for tickets into this place we also were able to go across the street and tour the Guinness Book of World Records Museum as well. I think Grace had a lot of fun in both places. At the wax museum they had Forest Gump and all the characters from the show M*A*S*H. Grace had to go to the bathroom, so while she was in there, I went and looked at the Titanic exhibit. The last set of wax figures was a little on the confusing side. It was a story of the Last Supper. They had DaVincci’s “Last Supper” done in wax, but not just the last supper, they had someone narrating the story and had three crosses as well, something that I didn’t expect to see in the middle of Hollywood. We walked across the street to the Guinness museum. It was interesting and disturbing all at the same time. Some of the feats that they accomplished were pretty good, but some of the food stuff was off the charts disgusting. As we walked from place to place along the sidewalk were these stars, on the stars were different names, hence the “Hollywood Walk of Fame”. We saw names like Billy Graham, Buster Keaton and others. We didn’t go looking for names, but we did see some that Grace wanted to see. We were pretty tired from walking around the whole time so we felt that it was time to head out. On the way back to the car we had to walk through this mall type area. On the left was a place called “Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory”. We went in and smelled the most amazing chocolate ever. We looked at a few magnets and Grace saw one with little kitty cats on it. On the way out we saw these huge dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I saw Grace drooling a little so I had the lady behind the counter wrap us up a couple. In the car she couldn’t wait as so we ripped into the package and tried eating them. I got through all mine pretty quick. Grace cutely nibbled on hers and found the inside peanut butter cream to be simply incredible. We left the parking garage and headed up the mountain to go to Griffith Observatory. But before getting to far we encountered a guard and a blocked road. I kind of got snippy with him a bit but he directed us to where we needed to go to take a bus up to the top. Apparently they aren’t allowing anyone to just drive up there anymore because of all the fires that they have been having in the area. We went back down the mountain and went to the zoo parking lot, which was next to the buses we had to take. We made it just in time to catch the next bus. It was so funny because the bus went back the way we came and the guard at the road block opened up the gate to let the bus through. At the top it was just like I remembered it. They had done a lot of remodeling that we would discover later. First we went up to the top and took some pictures of Grace sitting on the ledge over looking the Los Angeles basin. She looked so beautiful in the pictures I would later come to find out. Meanwhile we went in to the dome. This was the first time that I was there that they actually let us look through the massive telescope. Apparently they were focused on Venus which looked like a half moon to our eyes. I looked and looked but only saw my own eye. I remembered an episode of Friends where Rachel was trying to see her baby on the scan but couldn’t, but said she did anyway. I tried that, but it didn’t work. I had to be the tough smart guy who could see it, but in reality I couldn’t see anything. After that we walked down and into the building. Inside they have several experiments and rooms set up to that you can see how things work like how the moon changes shapes and the suns flares. In the center I remembered the swinging pendulum that would not move but the floor would to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. When it would swing it would knock over a little chip on the floor every ten minutes or so. Those chips were no longer there because OSHA had told them hat it was unsafe for people to get down in the pit to reset them. What a stupid politically correct world we live in. I would be willing to bet that during the what 200 years the place has been open, there hasn’t been even one near miss.
This is one place that I really enjoyed when I used to live here. When I was in high school I took a class entitled Film History, where the teacher showed us movies and then asked us questions about the movies. One of those movies was “Rebel Without a Cause”, starring James Dean and Natalie Wood. I showed the movie to Grace while we were in Korea. She really impressed me when we were walking around. She would say things like “Isn’t that the place where they had the knife fight?”, “Or isn’t that where they had the shoot out in the end?”. She really took an interest in those things and it made me feel special because it was something in which I was showing her and she was taking the initiative in asking if I wanted to be in a picture here, or there.
They had built on a new section which was really cool to go through. We got to see how much we weighed on different planets. But the other thing that we had fun with was this interactive simulator where you could pick what type and weight and speed and size of the object you wanted to smash into our planet. Then you would press enter and it would tell you the amount of devastation that you caused. After going through the new section we went to the gift shop and got a few things for the little children that we would be seeing in New York. We got a shirt that glows in the dark. Back in the main yard and took a few more pictures of Grace standing near all of the main astronomers, Kepler, Newton and the likes. It’s incredible, every single picture turned out so great. Griffith Observatory is also a great place to see the Hollywood sign. That was something else that Grace wanted to do. The sign was right across the way. We actually thought that we would have time to go horseback riding up to the sign, but we just ran out of time. Maybe next time.
We headed for the line to get back on the bus to get back to our car. It was hot and sticky, but the thought of that air-conditioned seat made things more bearable. After getting back in the car we headed back to her brothers house where we met up with his girlfriend and we all went out to a place that Matthew knew of all in our car. It was a Mexican place. We ordered lots of food and I had my usually bean and cheese burrito. As we ate I excused myself and said I was going to go to the restroom, however, I actually got the waiters attention and had him produce the check and I secretly paid the check for everybody. I used the restroom and then headed back to our table. There was a really cool table fountain that was right in the middle of the restaurant. It had colorful lights under the water, one that I would love to have on my own. I got back to the table and the conversations went on and on. Then at one point Matthew’s girlfriend started to get a little upset about the fact that the check hadn’t been brought to our table. I seemed to have forgotten to tell them that I had taken care of all that. I finally did and Dara (Matthew’s girlfriend) said that she had planned to take us out. I told her that I didn’t realize that and it was a special treat for us to take them out. We went back to their apartment and I dropped everyone off and told them that I was still a little worn out from the whole days activities and I was still jet lagged. After pulling away I thought about the fact that we didn’t have a camera, and I didn’t want to keep buying disposable ones. So I went all the way back towards the place where we ate and went to the Target that was across the street to see what they had in the way of digital cameras. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw one for only 150 bucks. I bought it and then headed back to my hotel to read the instructions and get some sleep. The camera seemed to be a pretty good one. It had 7 times the pixel rate that my old camera had. I also picked up the newest M*A*S*H season and the final episode. I put them into my computer and it made a weird noise and I had to shut it down by flicking the switch. I tried to turn it back on and nothing happened. I plugged it into the wall now hat I had an adapter, but nothing happened. I left it plugged in over night in hopes that I would have my computer back up and running the next morning.

SV07 #2

2007-08-24T16:49:00.000+09:00

Part two is ready to be published, and I felt that now was as good a time as any...enjoy the happenings of Grace and I on our amazing vacation. This took place on the second day. Let me know what you think...

I ended up waking up around 7:00 VERY hungry. I got in the car and traveled down Sepulveda Blvd., just looking around. It had been since 2003 for Kim’s wedding that I had been here last. I got down a ways and didn’t find anything and so I just came back after stopping by a bank and picking up a little cash. Watched a little tv and then tried to go back to sleep. Off and on I slept till about 5:00 in the morning and then I couldn’t go to sleep any more. I woke up and tried to see what was on tv. Amazingly “Coach” was on. I hadn’t see that in forever and I really enjoyed it. I waited a bit. I told Grace that I would pick her up around 8:30 and so I took a timed shower and then just relaxed until about 8:00. I got in the car and then tried to remember how to get back to her brothers house. This was Friday and the traffic getting onto the 5 freeway was crazy. Since this was a rental car and I didn’t want to trash it I had to be very careful. I pulled into her brothers’ apartment right at 8:30. I walked down the walkway to the last set of apartments and knocked on the door. Wow it was great to see Grace. But right away she seemed a little upset. She said that she was a little upset because I told her to be ready at 8:30. I looked at the clock on the wall in her brothers’ place and it said 9:05. My mind went a little crazy because I didn’t think traffic was THAT bad. She took me into the kitchen and looked at the clock on that wall to double check the clock on the wall in the family room, and it was the same. I then looked at my watch and it said 8:30. I was lost. We then picked up Matthew’s cell phone and opened it and in bright numbers it said 8:30. I was thinking I was in a twilight zone episode. But we found out later that Matthew turns his clocks forward about a half hour to stay on time.

We left Matthew’s apartment and headed back towards Simi Valley. We got off the 118 freeway at Sycamore and went down to the Park District. Suzanne was there in the front office and was working with someone else and then we waited until she was finished. She came around the counter and gave me a hug. I also introduced her to Grace…”and here’s my girlfriend, Grace”. After talking for just a bit we went to see Dale Long and Doug Gale. I introduced Grace to all the people in Dale’s building. We talked to Dale for a lot longer. Joni Chavez and Dianne came into Dale’s office while we were sitting there talking. We left his office after about an hour and got in our car and I took her past were we used to live, on the way to a place that I had told her about, Doughnut Plus. This place has the most amazing doughnuts. They are huge and so good. We got about eight or nine and nibbled on them as we headed through the rest of the valley. I took her past a few parks and then took her up to the Ronald Regan Presidential Library. The building sits atop a mountain.

We took the tour which also included something new that I had never done before. They had actually taken and put a real Air Force One plane in a building there. They took our picture as we got onto the plane. It was really a treat walking through the plane and actually being able to look around and see where the last five presidents rode. They told us that even current president George W. Bush rode on that particular plane. I got a shirt and couple of shot glasses. I got one for Matthew’s girlfriend, she collects them and I thought it would be nice, and maybe earn me a few extra bonus points with her brother. After leaving the library we went up and tried to see the new mall that I thought was built on the other side of the 118. It turned out just to be a strip mall. We were just about at the time that we needed to head out to Saugus to have dinner with my sister Kim. We were a little early and so I thought we could stop by her office, because I had no idea where she lived, since the directions that I needed were on my laptop which just so happened to be out of battery power. We went to Wal-mart and Grace looked at a few clothes as I tried to call Kim. Her office wasn’t where I remembered. I couldn’t get a hold of her or mom and dad. Then it hit me that I could get a car adaptor to plug into the laptop. At least long enough to get the directions to Kim’s house. By the way I want to take a second and tell you that Grace is an amazing navigator. As a guy you would think that there would be problems with you know who’s right and which is the REAL right way, but Grace and I worked together and it turned out to be great teamwork. We pulled into Kim’s place around 6:30 and had a nice dinner of lasagna. We then watched a few videos of when Kim and I were little kids. Grace actually watched them. I didn’t think that she would want to, but she seemed to even enjoy them as she laughed several times. Mainly at the times when I was running around as a little kid...I didn't un that manly. We left their house after loosing the keys to the car. We looked everywhere for them. I had to get my backpack out of the trunk to give Bethany a stuffed pig that when you unstrapped the velcro between the legs it turns into a pillow. So I thought that maybe I locked the keys in the trunk. I was shocked that the drivers door was unlocked, but that helped since I was able to pop the trunk from the inside. We didn’t see the keys in the trunk, but when we went to close the trunk I saw them laying along the top of the rubber liner. Whew, that was a huge relief. Richard (my brother-in-law) gave me directions on how to get back to the freeway. I followed as best I could, but didn’t catch the last couple of turns, thankfully I had the most amazing co-pilot with me. She caught the rest. We dove by a Carl’s Junior and I picked up my favorite “Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger”. I had Grace try a bite and she said she liked it. We found the freeway and I drove Grace back to her brothers’ house. After dropping her off, I turned the car around and drove back to my hotel. I pulled in pretty late and then I just crashed. This ended Friday.

More from my old diary

2007-08-20T02:47:00.000+09:00

I really don't know if anyone likes these old diary entries, but I like to post them and let others know the thoughts that were going through my mind several years ago. Lokking back in my own mind as I read through them I really think that I could have used some serious mental help. I can't believe I waisted all that time thinking about the things that I thought about...I almost could have been called a stalker. Luckily that's not me anymore...I still hold on to the hopeless romantic, but I pray that all my days of looking are finally over. But until I write the next part of the amazing vacation, this will have to do for now.

Have a good laugh, and please remember I was young and somewhat innocent...

"Tuesday February 15th 1994

Met up with my old softball class at Moorpark. It was fun, and I’ll go back on Thursday at 11:30 – 1:00. Tonight is the Jr. High Pictionary game that I’ll lead. By the way I still like Kristin Sampson, but a new girl is on the way, her name is Robyn Powell. She is gorgeous and her eyes have that blue sparkle that makes me hot and makes my teeth sweat. I'll talk more about her later. Oh by the way, Mrs. Davis still takes drugs. Jr. High was fun but hard. More importantly I found out that Robyn Powell is available. I’m going to try for her soon but probably not tomorrow but soon, very soon."

All of this will make sense for those that continue to read this later...

Peace out...later on.

First of what should be many... SV07 #1

2007-08-18T01:08:00.000+09:00

SV07 stands for Summer Vacation 2007...

This was a great trip and I wanted to share with everyone what happend and the things that were done. I hope to be able to insert pictures where possible. All of this was prewritten in a word document and will just be copied and pasted. Enjoy and let me know what you think...

"Well, it is about time that I write something about this trip so that my wonderful mind ill always keep in close to the front of my mind. This trip was unbelievable. I really didn’t want any of it to stop. It all started in SongTan South Korea. We got to the bus terminal early and started this whole trip sitting next to each other on the two hour bus trip to the airport. You know as we were pulling away, the only thing that I thought about was the fact that usually I would be taking Grace to the bus and then waving to her as she pulled away. I was leaving Korea for good and the only thought racing through my mind was that of who I was sitting next to. Grace slept most of the way, and I tried to get a little shut eye. E got to the airport and had no trouble finding out check in point. The problem arose once we tried to get our bags checked in. Actually Grace’s bags were fine, the trouble was with mine. I was leaving for good, but my bags were a little heavy trying to get all my stuff home. I had a little negotiating to get the bags checked in, but we finally go through, got to our gate and on the plane. One little problem with that part of the trip was that it would be a two hour flight to Narita Japan, and during those two hours, I would not be sitting anywhere near Grace. I hated it, but I also know that I would survive…barely. Landing in Narita is always fun. The flight takes two hours, but the taxi to the gate takes three. It’s unreal. I sat closer to the door and so I beat Grace off the plane. I waited just past the ramp, and then we were on to our next gate. There were really no problems at the Narita airport and we got to sit next to each other on the way back to the states. Not only that, but we go two seats with one being a window and the other being an aisle. Grace tried to get comfortable but couldn’t and so I told her that she could drape her legs over mine and then lay back against the window. She slept like that for a long time. There were several movies on the flight. I watched Ghost Rider and Wings. We landed on time about 10:00 and then headed over to Hertz to pick up our rental car. We figured that we would need a bigger car and so we upgraded to a 2008 Lincoln Town car. As Grace would later put it, “It’s a pretty shiny red”.

It was a huge car. It actually fit all of our luggage. We finally found a phone and she called her brother. It was in a not so good part of town but it was early in the morning still and most of the killers and robbers were still tugged tightly into their bed. After she hung up we looked at our mp and then found the freeway. We took the 10 to the 110 to the 405 to the 5 to Burbank and got to her brothers house pretty quickly. We had to wait for a few seconds while her brother was getting back from the local farmer market. He was picking up some cheese bread. He was really a cool guy, very open and friendly. He welcomed Grace with a hug and then me with a warm hand shake. Where was my hug? He showed us around his place and all of his toys along with his roommate/girlfriend’s Disney stuff as well. I was really starting to fade, and before I passed out I thought it was best to get to my hotel and check in. Grace would be staying there at her brothers house and I would be staying at a hotel off Sepulveda and the 118 freeway. It was 15 miles from Grace and 16 miles from my sister Kim. We stopped by Taco Bell before we headed in that direction. Grace needed her Gordita Crunch. The only place to get those in Korea is on base, but because they had just built a Chilies, and we were only on base a few times, Grace was amazing and went to Chilies because that was where I had wanted to go. On the way to the hotel, we started to play with the car. We were pushing all kind of buttons and found one that turned the heat on in the car seats. That I had seen before, what I hadn’t seen before was an air conditioner built into the seats. We also could control the air on either side of the car. I liked it cold like the Arctic where as Grace likes it closer to Amazon temp. We got to the hotel and checked in. Grace helped me get my things up to my room. I would be the last room on the end of the hallway right near the door. The hotel room looked kind of like an old peoples home that had been redone to be a hotel. But it was great for the price and I would only be there for a week, and even then I would pretty much only be sleeping there. As soon as we got all the bags up to the room, I hugged Grace and then she went and got in her brothers van, in which he followed us. I watched her leave, and then I went back upstairs and passed out. It was only 3:30 and I was nervous since I was falling to sleep rather early. I would probably wake up around 1:00 in the morning and then be wasted again the next day."

Well here I am in Khartoum now...

2007-08-11T17:36:00.000+09:00

I want to start this by saying that I have to be very careful about what i choose to write about. Everything here is censored and I do not want to get deported just after arriving. The things that I'll be able to share with you will probably have to be very generic...sorry.

The weather here is very hot. We have a thermometer at school and in the shade it was just over 100. It is very dusty and sandy, but that is to be expected since it is a desert community, right? My apartment is huge. I have two bedrooms, one i never even open the door to. There is a huge dinning room that has a large room on one end that I have put a couch and a desk there so that I can use it as sort of a study area. I have a nice kitchen, but the apartment across the hall is nicer. But who's complaining. I really didn't know what to expect when I came over here. I didn't even know if I would have a bathroom. But I'll try and post a few pictures of my apartment. I haven't gotten then license to actually take pictures out in public, but I will do that as we get a little farther along in the school year.

This is a picture of my family room. I have since moved the desk to the dinning room. I have also added a nice looking carpet that now sits under the kool-aid table...(I don't drink coffee)

This is looking down towards the dinning room and hallway. The second bedrooms dorr is to the right of the picture. My desk now sits along the right side of the wall. And the couch is against the wall that runs diagonal. I have 8 chairs with leapord print seats...cute huh? I love the tile floor, and I just noticed that you can see the carpet that is now across my family room in the back of the picture on the right...

This is my bedroom. Yes there are yellow strips down the wall, and each yellow strip has a shinny silver line next to it. I HATE IT. I have talked to the office at school and have been give the okay to paint it. Hey the school is even going to pick up the cost of the paint when they hear that I would paint it myself. I guess they are not used to people doing heir own work over here, they just hire out. I have two night tables and am working on several things like putting tin foil over the windows. This serves two purposes, one is that I love the dark, and it gets light pretty early, and two that it will help keep the temp down inside the apartment while I am away at school.

Ohhh this is a bad picture...I didn't realize it until it came up big on the site. But as you can kind of tell there are two monkeys sitting ontop of a carport. This monkeys are just outside my window. We feed them cantalop every morning...they are really nice and sweet.

I will write more later, but I have to finish setting up my apartment still. So as always...

peace out...later on

The time is a coming

2007-08-01T03:40:00.000+09:00

Well as most of you know I am about to leave to head back over seas to teach and inspire the youth of tomorrow, by teaching them sports. The one difference this year is that I am not going to be returning to South Korea. I loved it there, but differences of opinion and needing to get rid of my student loan have all had major influences on where I will be teaching for at least the next two years. Right now I am sitting at Culvers hamburger joint here in Overland Park. In two days I will be on a plane headed for Chicago and then Frankfurt, Germany and finally Khartoum, Sudan. I have gotten a lot of things done this summer. I had a storage unit that I have now gone through and cleaned out. I donated alot to a friends church and threw a lot out and the rest is sitting in my folks basement. I got to do a lot on this trip back to the states including Los Angeles, Kansas City and New York. Those trips were blasts. I hope to have lots more just like them. I plan on filling you in on the details of the trip later but this is just to give the heads up that I am sort of scared to leave. A lot goes through your mind in times like this. I just picked up my passport with the visa and everything, so going to Sudan is now a reality. There's always that thought that something might go wrong or Sudan found out that I am a christian and they won't let me in. But now it all looks like it is good to go. he other side of things is that I really do love South Korea and the school that I taught at there. And thoughts race through my mind to the point of if I am making the right choice. I know that I have laid everything down at Christ's feet, but the human mind takes over and tries to tell you that there are all these other situations that you really haven't thought about. But I know that I am doing what I feel called to do. As much as I have full confidence in the new p.e. teacher there I also know that the job is very tough, even more so for a young female. My hope is that I might be able to return to South Korea if all of the details work out. Right now I'll be working for a place that will allow me to pay off my student loan in 20 months. I can't believe that I will be debt free by the time my contract will be over. Other things are also in the mix and I will have more liberty to talk about those things later. But for now I welcome all prayers and thoughts as I head out into another unknown. Here is another picture from this summer. Enjoy and I'll tell you in full detail about it later.

peace out...later on

Try a little quiz won't you??

2007-07-23T14:26:00.000+09:00

Aaron behind the wall

Just click on the above link to see if you "REALLY" know me. hehehe

It is summer time.

2007-07-20T07:01:00.000+09:00

Hello all,

I thought I would take a moment to say hello from the basement of my parents house. I am about a week or so out from making yet another trip to another country to do what I feel the Lord is asking me to do. This is probably this biggest trip of my life in that I am leaving everyone that I know behind both in Korea as well as the states. I am packing up somethings and trying to see what I am going to be needing for at least the next two years of my life. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Lord will provide and protect me as I venture out into a country that is in the middle of a civil war.

I also thought that I would have a little fun here. This is supose to be sort of like a diary that the whole would can look at and learn about the other person right? So while I was cleaning out my storage facility, I came across my old diaries. They were the funniest things that I have ever read. I think what I will do is write them down word for word in a word document and then pick and choose which one to post on here every now and again. This one should be a great starter:

March 9th 1996

"Today was a very special day, it was our Championship as the Grizzlies coach. We were to win 29-28. What a win. I was so proud of all my girlsespecially of Mary Spease. I have never met a girl so eager to learn and to teach. We all got trophies, even me. I don't think I've ever been more proud. They are now MY girls. I call them that because most of them want me as their coach. I could write for pages and pages on end on just this season. Maybe I should write a book about my coaching life."

Enjoy this picture as I head off and take care of some more packing and moving. I do have a WONDERFUL story to tell you about the vacation that I was able to take just after school ended. I was able to go to Los Angeles, Kansas City, and New York. with A LOT more lay overs in between, but I want to get all of the details as perfect as I can since it was a great once in a lifetime trip. I guess this should leave you waiting for more.

Just flew back from Japan and boy are my arms tired

2007-05-25T22:46:00.000+09:00

He he he...I think that I have been living with our science teacher too long. That seems like on of his jokes. I know it has been a long time since I have written in this thing, however I do have good reasons.

Over the past month or so I have been non stop busy. We finished our soccer season, which was, to use a quote from "Monk" A blessing...and a curse. We hosted not only the girls tournament at our school, but the boys' as well. Two tournaments...two days and lots of soccer in the sun. My girls finished first in the regular season and so we won back-to-back championships was very nice, but in the finals we were not focused on the game and lost 2-1. Close game, but the better team won that day. For most years that would end our season, but not us.

Two weeks later we had our sports banquet which would be the last one that I was in charge of. And there is also a lot to worry about with that as well...are the trophies ordered? Are the names spelled correctly? Did you order enough food? How are the decorations? Is the power point with all of the slides of the athletes done and looks good? The students have a lot of fun, but if they knew how much went into planning and preparing for it, I think they would throw me a parade.

Most years after the Sports Banquet, I would only have to finish out the year with preparing for "Field Day", Not this year. Not only am I finished preparing for field day, we also weren't finished with our soccer season. Because we were in the championship game the last three years, the board of directors of the Far East tournaments invited us to play in the Far East tournament. This was totally our choice, but this was this was something our school has NEVER been a part of. So about two weeks into the season we got the invite and talked it over with my director and things seemed to go smoothly from his side so then I brought it to the girls' They were all for it...the one little catch was that this tournament was in Japan. Iwakuni to be exact. This is a marine base in Japan. Bases always scare me, not because of the big guys (and girls) with guns and muscles, but all the paper work that is involved in getting my team and coaches and one parent accessed onto the base there. It would take no less than 10 pieces of paper signed and gotten back in on time. Plus there was the minor detail of money. We would have to fund raise the entire amount of money that it would take to get over to Japan. The total was close to 7,000 bucks counting lodging and flight, entrance fee, t-shirts, food, this would not be an easy job but the girls were all on board. We had a small soccer camp for our elementary students which brought in a lot of money. One of the girls churches donated 1,200 dollars. Our school has been tight on the budget, and with the way that was going, we would not be able to count on the school chipping in ANY money. But we spent a lot of time in Prayer and our knees. We knew that if Christ wanted this He would have to be the focus of it. Up until a few days before our banquet we still were short about a thousand dollars and looked like we couldn't go, but a few late donations came in and we were able to fund the entire trip without any money being taken out of our girls or their parents pockets. We left last Saturday and stayed until Thursday morning. We played six soccer games and lost four of them, however we did come in 4th place out of 6 teams. Three of those teams were base schools. Which means they were a LOT bigger then we were. We were only able to bring 11 girls. For those who don't know the rules to soccer, you have to have 11 to play. This meant they played all 6 games with no subs. They were beat physically and mentally by the end of the day on Wednesday. We played Taegu first and lost 4-0 at 8:00 Monday morning...then we beat a local team from Hiroshima 6-0 at 11:00 then we played a third game at 5:00 against the base school across the street from us here in Korea called Osan who beat us 5-1. We had beaten Osan here in Korea 3-2 and so we were pretty bummed about that loss, but in the same sense we had playd a lot of soccer in one day and so we needed some rest. During the last game, in fact the last kick of the game my star player went down with an ankle injury. We had to have it x-rayed and we were told it wasn't broken but she would have to not play the rest of the tournament...when we got her back to her room, she looked at me and said "I'm playing". I told her to get some rest and we would take a better look at it tomorrow. We got to the field expecting to play the school from Hiroshima again, looking for that easy game, but instead we were told that the bracket for the tournament was made wrong and we would have to play Korea International School. A team from our division here in the KAIAC league. We played them twice here in Korea. The first time in a lightning and thunder storm that had to be delayed twice. We were down 3-0 and came back to win 5-3. Then when we played them at our place we tied them 1-1. So playing them would be a little harder then playing the team we beat 6-0, that really wasn't that close. The girls took it in stride and came out and beat them 4-0. The girl with the ankle injury scored two goals and came off the field and told me..."I told you I would play". The semi final match would be against the team we lost to first. Taegu had 10 subs, and in the bracket play the games would go from 30 minute halves to 40 minute halves. 20 more minutes? This was crazy. I wish I could tell you that it ended up being a Hoosier moment or one of those fantastic moments you always want to hear about but in our own way it kind of was. We played 20 more minutes and more tired against a team twice as big as us and we lost 3-0. We let up less goals in more time, and the girls came off the field happy with the outcome. Our last game was the next morning. The winner would get 3rd and the loser 4th. We played hard for a half against Osan again and held them to a 1-1 tie. Then in the second half my girls had nothing left in their tanks. Their girls would run by us like we were standing still. We ended up getting beat 7-1. But that score only tells half a story. Amy Peterson, Kim Wadsworth, Ashley Pierpoint, Sophia Yoo, HeeJung Kim, SoYoung Wolfe, Jeeyoung Wolfe, Jackey Lane, Becky Hennessey, Juliane Alfieri, Soojung Song...your names may not make many papers, but your play and your determination will stay not only with you but will inspire others to play like true sportsmanship. I love you all and will miss you terribly when I move on to my new school. Our school placed 4th and took home three awards. Amy Peterson bum ankle and all was voted one of 12 all tournament. Out of all six teams SoYoung Wolfe was voted best Goal Keeper and Our team played well enough that after every game the refs would come up to us and praise our sportsmanship and how well we played...they honored that by awarding us the "Best Sportsmanship" award. I know that all I talked about was the tournament, but that was what we were there for. I will talk a little more about other things we did later. I know I talked a lot about this but this was so huge. But as you can see for the past three months since we started soccer season it has been non stop...not to mention that I also got an "A" in the class that I took to begin my way towards a Masters degree...hard to believe that I have a 4.0...hehehehe Anyway I just thought you might need a little update for those that check in every now and again. I will be hopefully able to keep in touch a little more now that things will wind down, but I miss all of you and love you all as well...take care and I will be back soon.

peace out...later on

Korea War Memorial part 1

2007-04-23T13:33:00.000+09:00

Last week I had the chance to go to the Korean War Memorial and it was great. I did get to go there my first year here, however, it was during a field trip and I was watching the children rather than learning about the war itself.

I have lots of pictures to share with you, and I will explain more about it later, but I know that some of you do get frustrated that I don't put more on here all the time. But I will next week and I'll explain that a little more later too. But for now enjoy the couple of pictures that I'll post here and we'll catch you later

This is an actual helicopter that was used to transport patients, just like on the show M*A*S*H.

I had to fight to get into some of these machines...I don't think I would have done very well in battle.

Shhh...I think it is okay to come out now.

Man this tour is REALLY long....zzzzzzzzz

Nothing like a good hearty meal....not really this is a mannequin. Looks real though doesn't it? hehe

Did I tell you that in Korea I am HUGE??? Check out the doors that I have to go through around the country.

Are you kidding me?

Okay that's all for now...enjoy and I'll be back in a bit.

peace out...later on.

The long awaited decision

2007-03-10T20:56:00.000+09:00

Well I know that some of you have been praying over me for a long time and I want to thank you for that. God has heard your prayers and has given me extreme peace over the decision that I made...Coming this June 14th I will be leaving South Korea far behind me...a lot of things went into this choice, but I'll save that for a later date, there are other pressing matters. I want everyone to know that I prayed long and hard about this and feel that I am doing exactly what God is asking me to do...Since Dec. I have put out 25 applications and resumes to different schools and I got several school that were very interested in me. The trick of this is that none of the schools that I applied to were in the United States. I applied to London, Guatemala, Thailand, China, Africa, there were a lot. and even more rejections. However I only had one phone interview with one school and it sounded like a really great place to go to. Before I made my mind up to leave Korea, God put a peace over my mind that just made the picking very easy and hard at the same time. I really felt at peace about staying, going back to Kansas City or heading somewhere else. Any choice I would have made I know that God would have been okay with. I know you hate me dragging this out any longer, so I will tell you that I will be touching yet another continent next fall. Starting Aug. 4th I will be reporting to Khartoum. Khartoum is the capital city of Sudan, that's right Africa. The reasons that I choice to make this move are vast and numerous. I absolutely hate leaving South Korea. I love it here, the people, the country, the school, my job...I love every piece of it, however there are some drawbacks. This year about Dec. our enrollment dropped to under 180 and so every teacher had to take a 10% pay cut. This would hurt anybody, but with what we have to also pay for and my student loan situation, I felt that signing another year with the added fear that we may have to take yet another pay cut I just couldn't do it. I also don't like the fact that at our school a lot of our teacher have fallen into a clique. It almost feels as though I'm back in high school again. We are to be here for our students, through Christ, and I just feel several teachers are here for their own glory...sad I know. At my new school I will make several thousand dollars more than what I make now, I will pay for nothing other than food, they will pay for flights, housing, utilities, moving...everything. My thoughts were that in under one year I could pay off ALL debts and be able to come back to the states debt free. I had to sign a two year contract. My job will consist of teaching 1-8 grade p.e. as well as a high school block, which I consider an intramural program. I will also be arranging sporting events between the three schools in our city. So I will also have an athletic directors role. It is a secular school, however when I was learning about the church possibilities there in the city, I learned that my director is a pastor as well...nice to know that I will be led by a man of Christ. Our school day will go from 7:15-2:00 because after that it will be TOO hot. We will be getting out mid-May based on the same reasons. Our school week will go from Sunday through Thursday, because being in a Muslim country, they recognize Friday as the Holy day. I really ask for all of your support and prayers as I start this new chapter in my life. I know this may not make EVERYONE happy or probably even close to that, however I do feel that I am doing what I am suppose to be doing. I don't want anyone to worry about communication, I will still have phone, internet, mail, the works...they even tell me that I will have satellite tv where I can get the NFL package...so I can still keep up with my precious Chiefs. Please understand that Kansas City is my home, and I love it, it is where I want to come back to to raise a family someday and live. I just need to take the path I feel that God is leading me to get to that point. If I were to take a Christian school job in the states I would make less than I make now, have to pay about twice more than I do now just to live, as well as paying for all of my bills. I would have to have three to four extra jobs just to keep my head above water...I feel this is the best option at this point to please everybody all at the same time. So please understand if this might take me a couple more years to get back to the states. I love you all. Peace be with you, and I will write more soon...I promise.

Ohhhh great

2007-03-02T02:27:00.000+09:00

What a joke this is turning into...I apologize for those that actually read this blog, however I can't stand this and I am hoping that maybe someday I'll be able to figure this out and continue to write on this. A few weeks ago I four that I could no longer write or get to my account unless I arrangerd to have a gmail account. I really don't like google, and I didn't want to do it, but since I could write anymore until I did I went ahead and created one. The problem now is that Blogger thinks that I am in South Korea...they are right, however I never asked them to change the language that appears on the screen. There are two problems with this...my computer has trouble creating the Korean characters, they just usually appear as squares, the second problem is that even if it did appear as normal Korean characters I wouldn't be able to understand them. The set up is all the same, I'm just looking at a bunch of little squares all over my screen trying to remember which ones of these were the post ones.

Just a few things for those who read this and are wondering what my decision is for next year. Some might be happy and some might be sad and yet others will be left in the dark for a while longer. I have told my current school here in South Korea that they can interview for my job. They have had a few prospects however nothing has panned out as of yet. I have been looking everywhere for a job. Nothing firm has happened yet. If nothing happens on either front soon, I might go ahead and sign for another year. The Lord is really taeching me patience and humbleness throughout this process. The Lord love to tell me what to do at the very last possible second. He did that with bringing me over here, and He is doing it again. I think that He knows that I work best under pressure and so He waits and waits. Kind of like not doing your term paper until the night before it is due.

Speaking of which I am taking a college class to help renew my teaching certificate. It is called "Discipline With Dignity" It is a secular class from a secular universtiy, however, I need the credits, and since discipline is one of the things that I think I struggle with the most, I feel that this is the right class for me to take. It is a lot of work, both reading and writing. Of which it has been a long time since I have done either. I don't usually work this hard, but I really want to get a good grade in this class. Also during this time, I don't know how many of you remember, but it is that time of year again where I am coaching soccer again. We are practicing everyday in hopes of repeating as conferance champions again. I probably have a better team this year than I did last year, and that is a scary thought. The team last year scored 101 goals in 10 games while only giving up 3. And to be a better team from that....I would be scared if I had to play us. Along with the class and soccer, we also are looking at going to something called "Far East." It is a tournament for teams from all over Asia. We would be going to Japan for about a week, as a team, and cometeing with other schools from around Asia. To do so we are doing some fundraising here at school and at our games. It is looking like we would need about 350-500 per person to make this possible. I have 14 on the team and 2 coaches. So you can see that this is a huge mountain to overcome. But God is good and if this is something that He wants us to do, than I have no fears.

I know that this is something that I should be updating more often, and I hope to be as soon as I figure this whole thing out. It is 2:45 in the morning and I can't sleep so I think I might go do some reading for my class. I look forward to seeing you soon, or talking with you. I love you guys.

Oh yeah I totally forgot, if you go to www.youtube.com you can see me skiing here in Korea. I have uploaded some videos from our trip...I really think they are cool. I also am finding all kinds of things on that site...you can search for anything and find it. I was able to find Larnelle Harris singing, Steven Curtis Chapman singing. Someone even put a camera on the top of their car and drove through Simi Valley, sped up the tape and you can tour all of Simi Valley in like 7 minutes. To find my two videos so far, just type in my name in the search bar "Aaron Harring" and they should pop up...enjoy and tell me what you think.

Peace out...later on

Yet another slide show...for your enjoyment

2007-01-23T09:17:00.000+09:00

These are 20 pictures of the ski thrip that I went on with the youth from our church, during our Christmas Break.

All the pictures from my time at the English Camp

2007-01-09T15:51:00.000+09:00

Global Leaders English Camp

2007-01-09T09:02:00.000+09:00

This past Christmas break I had the great joy of working at an English Camp at a nearby school. It was four days, fourteen hours a day. The first day and the second day I taught in a classroom that look like a restaurant. My job was to teach the students how to order and how to be a waiter. This is what my class looked like:

It had two long tables on either side and a bar and a kitchen. What I did was tell them what it would be like if they were wanting to go to America, and they happened to either go to a restaurant, or work in one. There were two huge shocks to them that I got to inform them of. Koreans love to eat fast and get out. They also only eat in gender groups. It is very common for you to look at a group of Koreans eating and all the wives will be sitting at one table, and all the husbands will be sitting at another. I also told them that in the states, it is proper to asked the ladies what they would like to eat first, and then the men. This is new as well. Men are first in this culture in just about everything. The third day I had to teach about going to a department store. Not something that should have taken 2 hours, but that was my job. They have several department stores around here, and they function just about the same as the ones in the states.

During other times in the camp, we got to talk to them and learn about them. We also taught them some dance moves and steps. Not me of course, because I am 6'6" tall and white...there is no rhythm in my body. They got to write an English newspaper, and learned games like "telephone" or "taboo". We also did some scavengers hunts, and performed a play. My group got to do "Snow White: and the seven dwarfs". They had so much fun, and we were the best group. We were the only group not to use our books or teachers. Our group did the play entirely on their own. On the last night they wanted me to run a good-bye time. We sat in a circle, and the students got to say their good-byes to one another. One girl got up and said something in Korean, and the leader of the camp told her that she needed to say it in English now. She then looked at me and said "I love you Harring". Just to let you know all the students were between 12-15 years old. This young girl was in my group and she took a liking to me. I thought it was cute as she blushed and ran back to her spot. The following day after we did our plays and the final ceremony was over, she and another girl came and hugged each side of me and I wrapped my arms around them and they just cried and cried. I felt so bad, I mean this was only four days, but I guess that i have that kind of effect on women. (just kidding) These were the two girls. Crystal is on the left and Mary is on the right.

All of the campers have our e-mail addresses and I have heard back from a couple of them already. It was a lot of fun, and I am glad I went through it even though it was from 7:00am till 9:00 pm. Hard work, but I have met people that have taught me more than I could ever have taught them.

peace out...later on

On the serious side, please bare with me.

2007-01-07T13:34:00.000+09:00

I am not one to usually take a political stand, however, with a lot of people out there wanting to “Bash Bush” or see him hanging like Saddam, I felt compelled to write just a little bit about my feelings on this war in Iraq.

First I would like to capture your attention by talking about the death toll. It was a huge milestone just a week or two ago when the death toll for the American military reached 3,000. Over the last three years. I want to state very clearly for the record that even one death is too many. However, on 9-11-01, in that one day, the
American civilian death toll was 3,173. IN ONE DAY. In 1944 on June 6th, forces stormed the beaches at Normandy, in that one battle Americans lost 2,500-5,000 troops. Some of their bodies are still unfound on the beaches. The Battle of Gettysburg saw the loss of 46,000 troops. In 1950 US came to the aid of South Korea and were in a war that lasted into 1953, which ended in a cease fire, which technically means that North Korea and South Korea are still at war, but between 1950 and 1953 2.5 and 3.5 million lost their lives. This was taken from an article on the internet when I typed “Accidental military deaths” in the search tool bar…“An inspector general report published this summer shows that 6,790 service members died accidentally in the nine years from 1988 through 1996.” How about a few that need to be talked about that don’t include war…in the year 2000 alone, 435,000 people lost their lives due to tobacco. This includes innocent second-hand smokers as well. Poor diet and physical inactivity deaths were listed at 400,000 in 2000 alone. In that same year drug related deaths toped 17,000. AIDS is responsible for 3 million deaths world-wide.

I know that these are a lot of numbers but there is one more set of numbers that need to be said Adolf Hitler, during his lead of the “Nazi Party” went on a mission of purging the country of 11 million people between 1939 and 1945, in the name of purity of race and religion. Saddam Hussein killed over 250,000 people for the same reasons. These took place from 1979- and the time of his capture. Now I understand the reasoning behind the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” not being there and the “real” reason behind going to war might be a little suspect, however, don’t we as a nation not just have the right, but the responsibility to come to the aid of nations that can’t defend themselves from ruthless dictators.

I have seen comments on sites that say that Bush is the same as Hussein and that he needs to be hanging next to Saddam. Let me point out that in his term of office he has not attacked any part of America, let alone women and children for the sake of any cause. He in fact is coming to the rescue of a group of people that have been put to death for their beliefs. Where is the crime in this? Let me try and put this into a smaller term that we might be able to relate to; you see a child being picked on and bullied by three kids that are much bigger than that child, what is your reaction? You can either go in and break it up, being a much bigger and more mature person, or you can just sit back and see how it turns out. If you go in and break it up, I doubt many people will sit on the side and say, “Wow, why could they just leave good enough alone, and watch and see if that littler child could stand up for themselves.” And if you just sit back and watch you will be blamed for not taking action. We have not just a right but an obligation to stand up for those that can not stand up for themselves. We will lose life, as tragic as that is, however, for the most part, the men and women fighting for our country “Volunteered” to be put in harms way. They signed up; there is no draft at this point. And that is what makes the actions of people like Cindy Sheehan all the more disgusting. After the loss of her son in Iraq, she set up camp in front of Bush’s Texas house in hopes that this would bring a stop to the war. Her son was not forced into action, he went on his own. In my opinion her actions are trampling on the memories of someone who should be remembered for the sacrifices he made for beliefs that he had for a better nation.

I know that I don’t usually write things like this, however, I feel that I needed a place to voice my frustration at the people who feel that our government is anywhere close to the level of Saddam or Hitler. I am not in the mind of those in power. I can’t tell you 100% without certainty that this whole thing was for oil. I can tell you that gas prices are still high. And that we have made the world a better place to live in with the removal of Saddam and his ideals.

Let’s pretend for a minute that Saddam or Hitler was still in power and the United States didn’t do anything. Where would we be? How many countries would be in fear of other countries based on one mans desires. Bill Clinton had marines with Osama Bin Laden in their gun sights and didn’t take the shot. Having taken the shot one would have to wonder if the Twin Towers would still be standing. Right now I am living in South Korea, in a place that is often a target for international news based on the threats of one man Kim Jong Il, and he is still up there in the north playing with his little button that could light up several countries around Asia. And this is what we want? We all went to school with bullies, and actually giving the bullies more things to beat people with would never solve a situation. Nuclear power is something that even Einstein himself said that if he could go back and undo he would take away E=MC2. But I lay this question at your feet, who would you rather have the control of that power, the bully or the playground, or the milk monitor? In this case, we are not just a milk monitor, but we are a “God Fearing” mil monitor. We have the power, if we wanted to, to just make an oil slick out of Iraq if we wanted to. But that isn’t what we are doing. We are teaching and setting up a new freedom that the people in that place of the world have never had before. It is new, and being in another culture, I understand the trouble that can arise from trying to make people think the way we do.

One more question and I will close this out, because I feel that I have been on my soap box long enough. If you were in the place of George W. Bush and had the whole thing to do over again, what would you do? The buildings have just fallen down, over 3,000 innocent lives were lost, not counting the ones that could have been lost had the other plane found its mark. You have two mad men Osama and Saddam that have no problem and actually promote things like this. What would you do? Would you sit back and say “Ohhh, that’s terrible, I hope it doesn’t happen again.” I think it’s funny. A mosquito lands on your arm, bites you and then tries to fly away. You have the choice of letting it go or killing it don’t you. I have never seen someone say, “You’re welcome for the free meal, come back anytime. Bars always open.” No you kill it, because it has done something that you deem as wrong. How great it would be to be a country like Switzerland, Canada or France, that have no trouble sitting back and watching the outcome of something and not having to worry about getting involved.

The bottom line here is that we need to get off our Soap boxes and get on our knees in prayer if we have any hopes of seeing the best possible outcome to the situation we are now in. The Lord is not just the answer for what we face today, but everyday. Find His will for your life. Find His will for how you should see the happenings of the world, and find His will for the best possible ways to react under these difficult times. The Lord not only loves us as Americans, but He even loves the Muslims and the Buddhists and any other false teaching. He wants you to lay down your troubles and your crowns and pick up your cross and come and follow Him. No strings attached. And that is a wonderful thing. Every other religion has something you have to do to prove yourself to whoever, but Jesus just wants you, and for you to know Him. Make that choice to follow him today. Believe it or not I do pray for each of you who reads my blog. You are in my prayers a lot. I will write more later. Right now it is the day before school starts back up, and I have a lot of things that I have to prepare for. Blessings to you all, not just at the beginning of the 2007 year, but every single second of every single day.

Peace out…later on.

Ski Time Again In Korea

2006-12-30T14:07:00.000+09:00

Many of you remember that I went skiing as a councilor last year through our church here in Korea. Well it was that time again. I thought that I was going to be the speaker this year, but that wasn't the case, which worked out pretty good. I had a lot of nerves getting up in front of 70 students and being the main guy...Seinfeld once said..."Humans greatest fear is public speaking, second is death...SECOND is death...that means that if you were at a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket, than delivering the eulogy." I can't dispute that. If I know the crowd sometimes it makes it harder, I mean they might actually know how little I know, you know? Richard Dean Anderson said in an episode of Stargate..."Though the candle is on in my house...there is no body home." Call it a self-doubt thing.

Anyway, last year someone told me that snowboarding would be easier because you only had one thing to worry about. That's right DYING. I have now done both and let me state very clearly here, SKIING is totally easier. I was given the basic instructions by a fellow teacher, how to stop... (a VERY good thing to know to me), but it was amazing, I went about 50 feet and didn't fall. Of course my feet were in the position of a pizza the whole time, and I actually saw a snail crawl past me, but I didn't fall. This slope was huge. We got on it at 3:45 and I got down to the bottom around 5:30. Not that I was that slow the whole time, but it really was a long and great slope to learn on. But out of the 8 or so that were in the group learning, I was the only one to make it to the bottom without help. Now I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I was very confident. I only fell twice the whole way down, but in that short time, my leg muscles were KILLLING me. using the ones I rarely use.

The next day we got up got our skis on and hit the slopes. I had every intention of learning ALL day, but that was not to happen. My soccer girls got a hold of me and wanted to hang out and ski with them. Amy Peterson, JeeYoung Wolfe, Beckey Hennessey, Heather Packard, and Sophia Yoo wanted to go out together. So me being the big coach and almighty PE teacher, couldn't let them down. They headed right to a slope that I hadn't even seen, but they said it was easier then the one that we went down the day before. And they were right...I actually had to use my poles to get me going to get started. We went down that one three times and I didn't fall once, and my legs weren't burning like the time before. I was even learning how to turn from side to side. Then they get ambitious...students are like that. They think, well I did this so let me try skiing off this cliff over here, can't be much different. And what does it say for me, when I am wanting to join them, so that I don't look like the one wimp, looking back it should have been less of a wimp and more of a wise man. I want you to know that I still only fell once, but the slope was WAY steeper. There were times that I would comes across a little flat part, and then just nothing...I couldn't see the next part of the slope. But I survived it.

At this hotel, they had two hot tubs, and a very warm pool that was divided into two. During the afternoon session of skiing I thought I would take a break and just relax and bask in my accomplishments. It was beautiful. I had such a relaxing time in there. Koreans would walk by and just stare at this dumb American in a pool with the weather outside about 10 degrees. But the water was SOOOOO nice. The air was a little cold but I loved it anyway. Some of my guys came and jumped in with me, it was really a fun bonding time.

The next day was met with more of the same, I tried new slopes that I hadn't been on, and was successful at all of them. I even ran into our fellow teacher who taught me to get rid of the pie and turn by pushing down with the opposite foot from the direction I wanted to go, then lifting up and turning the back foot. Oh man I loved him for that. It was beautiful. I had a lot of success with that and was practicing that the rest of the morning with a new group. Liz, the one in charge, and three younger girls Melanie Ivey (pastor daughter), Amanda Rich (Friends daughter) and Miriam Calamaro, our bible teachers daughter, all were about 6th grade and right about at my level. On our last run before lunch, we went down the yellow course that the teens had taken me on the day before. This was Miriams Choice. We started out with me telling them that there were places that they needed to be aware of. And sure enough we started out, and it got steep right away, and I was using the stuff I learned and was going back and forth, doing a great job mind you, but out of no where Miriam went flying by, she was in somewhat perfect form, but the pie wasn't stopping her as she was sailing down the mountain. I in the meantime saw this and had my eyes on her and didn't see this Korean boy in front of me until the last second and ducked out of his way but fell in the process. I look up just in time to see the Mountain start to flatten out, but not before a class was going across the mountain, just in time for Miriams flight plan...she collided with another Korean student, a young female. I thought for sure we were in trouble, for both of their sakes, Miriam is not a small 6th grader, and she met a very small 20 or so Korean female. I put back on my skies and got down to them, and Miriam was holding her wrist, and the Korean girl was looking up in utter shock, she had no idea what hit her. But both were okay in the end, but Miriam got to have her second assisted trip down the rest of the mountain.

I did have one problem. The last full day of skiing, I was looking back up the hill for a fellow skier, when my foot caught something and I went down, but I had fallen before, and there had never been a problem with pain, but this time I really hurt something I could feel it. I got up and brushed myself off, but when I came to my hip, I had excruciating pain. Then I realized that I had left my chapstick in my pocket. I had fallen on it and it had jammed into my leg, bruising my front side of my hip real bad. I didn't notice though until we got back to the ski lodge how bad it was. I got my boots off and I could barely walk. I thought this is stupid. I have fallen before this should be shaken off and I'll be fine. In the morning though I wasn't. But I had a problem. I had a couple of videos shot of me, but nothing standing still which could be placed on my blog. So I had David Peterson go out with me while I struggled to put on my boots, and hobble out to the slope nearest the lodge, and take some pictures of me with skies on and ready to go. Problem being that I was close to the top of the hill and when we were done, I sort of slide into the slope and since I knew that I couldn't walk back up in skies or just in boots, I had to go the rest of the way down, and take the gondola back up. I struggled because I knew that if I were to crash without having two good legs, I could do some serious damage. Counter that with it being Friday and more people were on the slopes, and let's just say I was happy to be going down it alone, with no video cameras. It could not have looked pretty. but when I got to the bottom, I had gotten a little confidence back, and the boot was keeping my hip from moving to a painful position, so I figured that I would go all the way to the top for one last run. No worries, I came down with flying colors, we took pictures with the group, and then we got in our bus and came home. Now I do have a couple of pictures to share, but the ones of me will come later, and I'll add them when I get them. The one is of Amy Peterson, athe other is of my calf and if you look closely, you can see the bruising. I'll try and get one of my hip when and if there is any coloring, right now it would just be one with my hip, and I don't know how many would want to see something like that.

The only other thing I would like to tell you about the trip, at least at this point was the food. Because we had had a deal worked out with another place, then that fell through, and another place fell through, our guide had a friend at this place hook us up with a really good deal. But it should have been close to double what we paid. Because of that, the food was rationed for us. We had different Korean soups just about every time we ate. The different kinds included, but were not limited to, beef soup (which meant water and a bone with fat on it), Clam soup (this had three clams in shells at the bottom of a bowl of water), crab soup (Okay you get the picture, but this had a claw at the bottom of a bowl of water), our students didn't know anything about the great deal that our guide worked out, but nicknamed the soup "Holocaust Soup" anyway. The last morning there, the other Koreans were eating eggs, bacon, sausage, orange juice, all the good stuff, but were throwing most of it away, just like we were doing with our meal. I told one teacher they should just go up to the rack and grab some plate and finish up there discarded food. This seemed to spark a mass following by other students. The staff didn't seem to know what to do, since there was no rule on there books about eating someone else's trash. Just a little funny story to end with. I better get going, this turned out to be a lot longer than I had thought. Just remember that I will post the pictures of me skiing, and if I can figure out how to do the video, I will do that as well. I hope you all had a great Christmas, and will have a great New Year. I love you all.

peace out...later on

Just information for those interested

2006-12-22T18:24:00.000+09:00

Well I keep checking my blog for any comments, and haven't seen any in a long time. I'm not really sure why, but oh well I guess that is something I'll have to live with.

It is a couple of days before Christmas, and I am home, but not alone this year. This year I have a roommate. It can be really good, but sometimes it can be taxing as well. But that is just the price I pay for having a great place to live.

I know that a lot of you are probably wondering what I am going to do for next year....well as of 6:28 pm on 12-22-06, I HAVE NO IDEA. Really not a one. I have several wants and desires, but nothing seems to fit. If I leave here and go home, I will be starting not from scratch, but WAY in the hole. I have about 11,000-14,000 in student loans. Not that I am trying to get out of paying them, but taking what I have earned as a missionary teacher, and having to get restarted again, is a little scary. Buying a car, finding a place to live, no job. The list can go on and on, and it is very freaky to think to hard about. I have had just about as much as I can take here at ICS. Don't get me wrong there are several things that I love about this school, the fact that I am teaching others about God would be on the top, then there is the students, I really love these students, both from coaching and classrooms. I have a very difficult ninth grade class this year, but as those who have taught before know, you will always have one of those. I love being over seas. Think about it, I am doing something that VERY few of my friends and family will ever get to do. I have a really good friend at another school a little up the road who is leaving and her position is open...the good news being that her boss and I are friends, and he knows me and what I have done with our program here at ICS, the bad news being that I have to wait until after they go to a job fair and see what is there as well, then they'll take all the applications in and then go over them and then they'll take a look at mine. It kind of reminds me of what it was like to get pardon my expression, "screwed over", by both my college and the school district that the college was in the center of. I applied at an unnamed school district having heard the rumor that this school district hired first from Emporia State University, then after having done that, they would look at other applications. Talk about your discrimination, I felt like someone graduating top of their class at one college should be picked over someone finishing middle to low at Emporia State, would have more of a say, but boy was I wrong. I really have an ill feeling in my stomach when it comes to the district that I have had trouble with, and the problem with the college comes from the fact that they said that they would aid in job placement...that's why after I graduated with a education K-12 degree with a 3.6 g.p.a., I worked two day cares, a foster care agency, a concrete pipe manufacturing plant, and building fans, not to mention my moving boxes from one place to another. Not that any of these jobs were bad in and of themselves, but my university, that I paid a high price for, to hear them say they would aid in job placement, do you know how many jobs they even attempted to help with? Not one. I find that funny, since that was one of the reasons I went there in the first place...now get this. I also was told when I was there that if I got a teaching job, that most districts would help or sometimes even pay off my student loan debt. My thinking was Great here is a school that will help me to get the job that will help pay off my student loans. What a bunch of crock. The truth is that only inner city schools might help pay off a very little, if you promise to stay there for a period of time. Now you can tell where I am now, listening to others who really don't know what they are talking about.

Sorry this went off on a tangent. I figure that I had to get some of that off my chest, and since I don't have a huge reading fan base, I could vent to my hearts content. And believe me I have a lot more that I could go on about, but I'll save that for a later post. But I will leave you with a picture that was taken last weekend. Actually I'll clip three on here. One being of me and another being of outside my house. And the last being Kool-Aid discovering her first snowfall. This was last Saturday evening and into Sunday morning. How beautiful snow makes a normally sad a dreary city. Have a great night and a glorious tomorrow, and as a friend of mine always says "Be blessed, and be a blessing"

Baking is something I love to do.

2006-12-18T18:08:00.000+09:00

Over the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to really do what I love to do. I have a real kitchen for the first time since living in Korea, and I put that to good use. The first time I just wanted to see if I could make something so I picked something easy. I made some french bread. This was something fairly easy, but still stressful. I have no candy thermometer, and getting the yeast to be the right temp is hard to do when it is only by feel that you have to go by. But anyway here is what the french bread looked like...

The next thing I thought I would try was to put a little test to my skills and do some cinnamon rolls. I have always hated these because my mom makes such awesome rolls, that I sometimes feel as though I can't make anything that comes close. But I keep trying. most of the time it is because I don't roll them tight enough, or that I make the slices different sizes after cutting them. This time I rolled it as thin as I could and then got out the trusty ruler and made them all exactly the same size. I woke up extra early and put the in the oven and got them to school for the teachers to enjoy some nice fresh warm cinnamon rolls. I didn't get one either time I made them. They were gone before I even set them down in the teachers lounge. I guess that means that they were good right? But these are the second rolls that I made...personally I think these are the best I have made both in the states and here in Korea...

We also had a Christmas party at school and we were told to bring a dessert. I tried to figure out the best thing to make and to bring. This was a last second thing and I wasn't sure just how much I could make, so I got to work around 4:30 and finished around 10:30. I knew that we needed bread, so I made four loaves of french bread, another batch of cinnamon rolls, and then I made my mom's famous peanut butter pie. I still can not get this one right. This time it was the top. I blended it like crazy, but the meringue just stayed a liquid instead of stiffening up. But it still tasted great. I love making this pie...it's easy, and so good. Here is what it looked like...

Well I had all three things going at the same time. It was an interesting night to say the least. But I really do enjoy seeing everyone's face when they find out that I made these things. They look like "A guy can make things that taste like this?" "Wait until he gets married...he is going to make a great wife"

Well That is all. I only have two more days of school left. I can't wait to post my next one. I have some great pictures. Take care everyone...I love ya lots...

peace out...later on

Lamar Hunt's passing

2006-12-15T12:59:00.000+09:00

It is a sad day for all sports minded people, and those who love the Chiefs like I do. On Dec. 12 Lamar Hunt, owner of several sports teams died due to complications with his battle with cancer. He was 74 years old. I know that most people probably don't know who he is, but he was the owner of my favorite sports team, the Kansas City Chiefs. But he was also one of the founders of the Chicago Bulls, and three Major League Soccer teams. Even if you don't know him by name, you might know the phrase "Super Bowl". This was something that his children were playing one day with a "Super Ball" and it gelled together and now we have "Super Bowl" He also was the founder of the AFL, which was the counter part to the much bigger NFL. This was a league to challenge the Bears, Packers, Vikings. Teams like the Raiders, Broncos and Seahawks would not exist if it wasn't for this man.

I know that this is just a man, and I got to actually meet him once. I was at a Wizards game in Kansas City, and he was near the concession stand just talking with some fans, and I got to go up and meet him. He was a very down to earth human being. I know that he'll be missed. He has been so instrumental in every area of sports. It was his idea also that the NFL play a Thanksgiving night game, and that got to happen just this Thanksgiving with the Chiefs beating the Broncos 19-10. This was the first game that Lamar missed and that was because he had been admitted into the hospital for what would be his last time.

Good-bye Lamar, you will be remembered.

Renae's Wedding Finally

2006-11-21T09:27:00.000+09:00

I have put together a slide show of some of the pictures that have been sent from the wedding. Since I wasn't there, I have had to put just the ones that I thought were pretty good on my show. I hope you like it, and if you have any requests please let me know.

Congratulations Renae...I love you, little sister.

Cutest Cake ever made

2006-11-14T09:32:00.000+09:00

Last month was my turn to make a cake for all of the teachers birthdays that were in October. I thought it fitting since I also have a sisters birthday that is also in October. As the month went along I struggled with just what to do. It isn't easy to make everything here without things you have to go buy down on the "grey market". I was able to get a lot of supplies and proceeded to make a cake that I remembered making when I did my student teaching at Scarborough Elementary. I thought it was cute and so I made it and took a picture of it before it was devoured. The teachers seemed to like it, and even though it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make this, the teachers still want me to make more things, because a few of them know that Mr. Harring can actually make things. Enjoy the picture, and if you want to know how to make it, just let me know and I'll tell you the very simple steps. More later.

Saddest Picture ever taken

2006-11-09T09:08:00.000+09:00

A few posts ago I wrote about the best picture ever taken. It was of my soccer girls praying before the biggest moment of the year for them. It was something that I will never ever forget. God really spoke to them and to me during that year, and that picture serves to remind me of just how powerful our God really is.

To go along with that thought I am posting the saddest picture ever taken. This was not taken by me, nor was I even in the same country while this picture was being taken. Due to choices that I made, and places that I am, it made it impossible to be there to be in this picture. I am not upset or mad, just very sad. My next blog will have more pictures from the wedding of my sister. The picture makes me sad because this is my family. These are the people that are closest to me, these are the people that I treasure more than anyone on the face of the planet, and there is one person that is not in this picture...me. You can take this several ways, in 5 years when I am back in the states people will look at that picture and say "where were you?" And then I get to tell them that I was in South Korea being a missionary teacher at that time. It also can look as though I really didn't want to be there, which is so far from the truth. God had me right where he wanted me and to get there for just the weekend would have cost over 2000 dollars not to mention that I would have been able to spend more time in the air then at the wedding and reception and I didn't want that to be an added burden on a day that should be all about my sister. In my next blog I will talk a little bit about the wedding. But for now I'll post this picture and leave it at that.

A little fun with North Korea

2006-10-13T19:21:00.000+09:00

Now I do get to see some American news, and I think they are making a bigger deal out of this North Korea thing than they are here in Korea itself. For us at this point it is business as usual. Nothing has changed, and I think most of that has to do with the fact that South Korea would be the last country North Korea would want to bomb. They are having more problems with Japan, China, and the UN then to worry about us. Now the fun that might transpire is the fact that a South korean is going to be the head of the UN. That might make for some fun times ahead, but I promise that I will let you know one way or another. But for now I found this funny little clip and thought I would share it with YOU, my faithful readers.

-click here for video-

I'll probably get a chance to write more tomorrow or later this weekend.

Peace out...later on.

A little reading for your pleasure

2006-10-09T06:27:00.000+09:00

During the summer I met Melissa, she was at PFO and is going to go to Brasillia if I'm not mistaken. She was like 6'3" tall and so it was fun to play sports with her. She somehow knew that I was into Steven Curtis Chapman and after getting back home to for the summer she sent me Steven Curtis Chapman Chapman. This book has has really had an impact on my life, and I am not even finished with it. But what I'm going to do is share just a little bit of it every now and then...enjoy.

It is easier to be convinced of our unrighteousness than our self-righteousness. Unrighteousness is usually in direct opposition to Sctipture or conscience; it is external, observable, and usually easy to define. But self-righteousness is more subtle. Most self-righteousness people are religious. They have strong passions about certain rules and regulations. When the self-righteous encounter the irreligious or those who "break the rules," they feel good about themselves and condesecending toward the lawbreakers.

The truth is, there is no greater unrighteousness than self-righteousness. Jesus' most scathing remarks were directed not at pagans and "sinners," but at condesending religious people, blind to their own graceless hearts. Jesus singled out the scribes and Pharisees as the worst examples of this evil. They were the religious leaders who taught that God's acceptance of us is based on our scrupulous adherence to the laws of Moses. Typically they were confident of their own righteousness but suspect of everyone else's. Thus, Pharisaism emerged as a term synonymous with self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness is the proud, judgmental attitude born out of a false gospel of legalism. The self-righteous individual puts his confidence in what he has done to earn God's favor. An orphan spirit is the self-centered attitude of a believer who lives either ignorant of or indifferent to the fact that God is his or her Abba, Father.

Really gets us thinking doesn't it...sometimes we as Christians are more concerned with the religion, and what being that certain religion should look like. I have had people, strong in their faith, tell me that you can't get to heaven unless you are a "conservative, republican, Baptist." Christ could care less about that stuff. He wants to know us personally, does that mean you have to be the "conservative, republican, Baptist?" Not a chance. however, can you be? Of course you can. But I think that once we as Christians start putting those types of requirements on our fellow man, we minimize the teachings of Christ. When I read the bible and Christ is on the cross speaking to the thieves, He wasn't trying to get these men to be this or be that, He simply looked into their heart and told them that "Today you will be with me in paradise." Or, the adulterous woman, or the woman that he met at the well. There was no requirement on these individuals to be this or be that. I go to a Nazarene church back home in Kansas City. I teach at a school that has sstrong Baptist roots. I also am not a member of any church. Again this is based squarly on the fact that no where does Christ say..."Go sign a membership card, then come and follow me."

Not trying to preach here, just trying to put some things out there that have been on my heart. God waits to judge us until we are dead, why should we be any different?

WOMEN...AHHHHHHHHHHH

2006-10-06T23:37:00.000+09:00

You know I have rarely just gone and tried to figure things out by putting them to words, but in my world here in Korea, I am getting more and more confused. Don't worry, I'll be brief and I'll use no names to protect the guilty. I want you to see a few things that I am very curious as to "WHAT IS GOING ON" but I also will finish this by using a bible verse that is perfect for this frustration... This is an e-mail that I recieved within the last month or so...

I'll only put in the relevant parts :

"I know that this might be the wrong time to tell you this but you have been in my dreams the last few weeks or so, and it is becoming more and more clear as to what God has intended for me. I hope to talk to you soon. Still loving you from the bottom of my heart...xoxoxoxoxo:)"

(from a woman I haven't writen to or talked to in several years, this one is unmarried and has one child as far as I know)

Next e-mail:

"Do you ever go back and think about what might have happened if I hadn't gone off and gotten married and had two kids. I have to admit that sometimes those thoughts go through my head, do they go through yours?"

(from yet another women that I have not writen to nor made contact with in several years, this one is married and has two children a far as I know.)

Okay, again my e-mail and computer are freaking out...and so before I throw it as far as I can, I think I better close this out with the bible verse that I cling to. Now before I put this on here I want people to know that I kind of like what Mark Lowrey said in one of his concerts concerning marriage...he said: "Well I figure that I'll get married when I turn 33, because that's when the Lord laid down his life." I thought that was pretty funny, and the fact that I turn 33 next year is sort of freaky. Anyway I'll close this out with the verse. See even the bible tells us that we aren't supose to understand women. Take care people and I'll post more soon.

Proverbs 30:18-19

There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

Peace out...Later on.

Insert cute title ...here...

2006-10-05T23:59:00.000+09:00

Okay well I know that some people read this since I have come and gone several times and see that the counter keeps going up. So I must either have one really eager reader or just a stadium full of people anxiously awaiting the next blurb to come out of my mouth.

It has been an interesting year so far to say the least. I have had my ups and downs. The latest down was that on Saturday, Sept. 29th my sister got married. Now you might be saying to yourself, "How could that be a bad thing...?" Well for her it was a great thing. I met Jason, and he seems like a pretty stand up guy and I got to talk to him briefly over the summer. I found out a little something funny about the man. My sister had bought him a ticket to go sky diving. Now that sounds fun and I don't think I would try it but none-the-less, he went. I'm not sure where I was, maybe not there in Kansas City yet, but my parents got to see the video of him doing this. Now the man jumped out of a perfectly good airplane from like what??? 10,000 feet? But yet I got to go up on the roof of their new house and clean the gutters, because my dad freaks out at heights, and Jason I guess can only handle heights if he is falling from them. Go figure. But back to my point...don't worry I remember...I didn't get to attend. My family was there, my grand father and his brother. I really wanted to be there, but God had me doing other things in South Korea.

By the way, right now the North is trying to figure out if it is a good idea to test a nuclear bomb underground. Now, I'm not sure but isn't that just a little on the moronic side of things. Anyway, for those that are reading this, there is nothing to worry about. We live about three blocks from OSAN Air Force base, and so far there is no news and no sirens going off. I'll let you know if anything changes.

We had our spiritual emphasis last week here at school and it was awesome all the way around. We had some strong men come in and give it their all to prove that they were stronger then me...not really but these guys were built. One, whose name is Paul, was actually on "American Gladiators" he played the part of "Thor". I watched the show and sort of remembered him. The other guy was a member of the group "Genesis Strong Men". below I'll post a few pictures from the amazing feats of strenght that they showed. Now that was impressive and all, but we had 11 students in grades 7-12 make a decision to follow Christ, several more make re-commitments, and a large group that are wanting to be baptised. That is what being strong is all about, being able to choose to walk by faith and follow our faithful leader, even though the rest of the world is teeling us that we are stupid. Okay check out the photos.This is a picture of Paul "Thor" trying to bend a iron bar three times in a circle...he does do it by the way, I have the bent bar in my office.This is Mike just getting finished breaking through five slabs of ice...The man is a stud I promise you. He is such a fighter and a warrior for Christ. When he told his testimony, it really broke me.This is Mike squeezing a soda can and making it explode all over the students...the elementary students LOVED this one.This is the last one for now. I have others that I will show you but before I go crazy. (the computer is having fun with me tonight and not doing what I ask of it) This is Mike breaking through 13 slabs of tile. The number 13 is supose to represent Chaos, since 12 is perfection. Mike actually after doing this feat, had a nice trail burn about 4 inches wide all the way up his forearm to his elbow. These guys gave it their all, and the students really loved them for it.

Okay I better sign off for now but I hope this gives you guys a little more into what we are up to over here on my side of the world. Take care, I love you all and I'll hopefully see you guys soon.

Later on...Peace out.

Interesting

2006-09-12T21:38:00.000+09:00

I thought that you guys that are my true loyal readers might get a kick out of this site that another blogger posted. I stole it...that's right I stole it.

~click here~

let me know what you think of it.

Sorak-San trip Labor day 2006

2006-09-12T14:49:00.000+09:00

This labor day, just like other ones we go as a group of teachers to a place around Korea to spend our four days together. This year we went to the East side of Korea and spent the weekend at a ski resort. Usually during the winter it is a snow ski place. During the summer, they have a water park at the complex that has slides and golf, and actually now that I remember it that was the very funniest thing about this trip. There was of course no snow and but does that stop the Korean from playing golf? Not a chance. We stayed on the 8th floor of the hotel (out of 20) and from our window we could watch them playing golf on a real course all the way down the regular ski slopes. We never played, but we joked about putting just a tad too hard and watching the ball roll all the way down the mountain. Crazy stuff. The water park was cool but here is the kicker. Which by the way is another thing that I am VERY grateful to my parents for. We went in to this place and we HAD to wear a ski cap. I figured that we would have to so I brought mine. Tad Mark and Jake all had to buy one there for 3,000 won. (3 bucks) Tad bought a hot neon pink one. Was stared at all day. They had a wave/current pool, really cool place but to get into the current you had to have a life jacket. I was saying..."Are you kidding me?" I have take years of swim classes, even taught them. I even subbed as a lifeguard in California for a summer. But in Korea, the main population can not swim and so I think it is more along the lines of, if we were to be in there without life jackets on, I think the Koreans would be doing it too or at least wanting to do it and then everyone would start to drown and guess who would be to blame...Little ol' me. But I only have a couple of pictures from both the resort and the trip to the beach. I'll post some more once other people send them to me.

Kool-Aid is getting bigger

2006-09-12T14:39:00.000+09:00

I have one more set of pictures that I would like to post before I go home today. I have been really blessed to have a dog here in Korea. She is a puppy and while I was gone Kim Wadsworth came over and fed her and took her out. She is still a puppy and has so much energy. I have built her a dog house out of used metal from school. But I think my eyes were a little big while picking them out. I now have a dog house that we call "Chateau de Kay Go Gee" which translates roughly into "house of fried dog". We joke about putting in a basement and maybe a patio. Possibly a little pond or swimming pool. Or at the very least an attic. You be the judge but here are some new pictures of my dog "Kool-Aid" and her new house. (or at least almost finished house).

Okay New year, new toys.

2006-09-12T14:06:00.000+09:00

Well it is the first month of school and we are having a blast so far...it's hard to believe that I am the top man on the pole. I think there are only 2 or 3 teachers here that have been here longer than I have.

This summer while I was back in the states I figured that I needed to get a few things to brighten up my office, so I bought a Kansas Flag, and a nice little window covering that has golf on it. I was also looking for a wall mural that had a sports theme to it. When I lived in California, I had a nice one of a minor league baseball park, that was taken from center field, during a game. You could see the shortstop and the second baseman along with the pitcher, catcher and the umpire. Then it wrapped around the wall and had most of the stands in it. It actually covered my closet and the knob for the door was in the catchers glove...SO COOL. I really loved it because when I would be sent to my room I would go through it and look at all the little things that you might not catch. Like a guy bending over to pick up his wallet or whatever. And this was caught on film, and people have this in rooms all over the world. While I was looking for something like that to add a little spice to my office or room. I thought it would be really cool if I were to get a shot of Arrowhead, like during game day from midfield. And then 360 degrees around and put that on my walls in my gym, wouldn't that be cool to be in that room with 77,000 fans cheering you on. However, I don't think something like that exists. So I got the next best thing. However, it wasn't available to be brought back with me and so my parents were awesome enough to send it over to Korea so that I could put it on my office wall. below you will see the transition from nothing to full wall. By the way, mom and dad, you have no idea how grateful I am that you sent this one and after I was done putting this one up I couldn't imagine the pain and trials that you had putting the baseball one up and I don't think I thanked you enough for that. I hope you guys enjoy.

After the first one (1 of 8)
(2 of 8)
(3 of 8)
(4 of 8)
forgot to take one after 5 so this is (5&6 of 8)
(7 of 8)

(8 of 8)

And here are just a couple o m being a little goofy. Tell me what you think...I think it is really cool. Now I am looking for a ceiling fan that has palm branches and then I'll just have constant beach music being played all day long. I think I might stay here some night and pretend that I am on vacation.

The best picture ever taken

2006-08-28T20:56:00.000+09:00

before I sign off for the night I thought I would post two pictures that I think are the best ever taken of me...I HATE my picture being taken because I always think I look like a dork...many people are like "No you look good" I know they are placating me, and I appreciate it, but it is okay to call the picture what it is...kindling. But these two however are awesome...I actually looked at the one of just me and I thought it was one of those that comes with the frame of a picture ya know? The other one is of me and my dad. Now please don't think that just because I am in a tux that I got married. I have already heard people thinking that. These pictures were taken at my sister Kim's wedding back in May of 2003.

I KNOW

What a pair of hunks right?

Back Again

2006-08-28T20:18:00.000+09:00

Okay loyal readers, I'm sorry again for not posting sooner. I could give a lot of excuses, but they really wouldn't do anything justice. I have just got back to Korea and have been getting ready for school which we started last Wed. I was in Memphis again this summer, this time as an advisor rather than a participant. It was a real blast and I met some really awesome people. I plan on going back there this next year after my time in Korea is done. I have been really doing some praying about staying another year or not and I feel God calling me to other places. If that is in the states, or in another country, I plan on following Him wherever He leads. I will come up with a few stories later, but I thought I would throw a few pictures on here so that people might be able to see some recent things...plus I know that people really only come here to see the interesting pictures anyway right?
This was me at the Redbirds game in Memphis...don't ask me who won...I really could have cared less about the game...It was the company and the friends around me that really made the night one to remember.

This was only half of the people that were at the PFO training in Memphis...about 140 people from all over GOING all over...what an awesome show of faith and determination.

This is our new Third grade teacher here in Pyongtaek...Mr. Mark Boyson...He is just a tad shorter than I am but as you see whether we are in the states or here in Korea, SIZE MATTERS...

Can you believe me in a talent show...If you can see I am there sitting in the chair in the blue shirt. Trevor is standing and going from my right is Avery, Gregg, Dave and Mark. We were all in a play of Cinderella. Mark was Prince Charming, Dave was the Fairy Godmother Gregg and Avery were the ugly step sisters Trevor was the narrator, and that leaves me and one part left to play...yes I played Cinderella. The whole skit was set up to be spoken, even read from the script in a VERY monotone voice. So I would get up slowly walk over to the mic after Mark would get up to say "I am prince Charming" I would follow with something like "I am so beautiful" or "Alright" the crowd loved it and I enjoyed myself. I had a great coach and was told to pick a spot out in the room and boy did I ever. Thanks Coach.

Okay I better wrap up this little journey. I will share more pictures of friends and events later. Thanks people for checking in every now and then. I will try to do better, but it is always great to hear people from home say that they check the blog out...it really makes me write a little more often...keep it up, and feel free to make a comment every now and then.

Later on...Peace out

STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN

2006-06-12T06:53:00.000+09:00

Well I know that it has been a while since I last blogged, but I relly wanted to make this as perfect as possible. I really couldn't believe what happened during these two days and so I was left in awe. But now it has been a few weeks and my eomtions have calmed down a bit.

During our Spring Break, Grace, Paul, Beckie, Laura, Jerry and I went up to Seoul to go on the Seoul City Bus Tour. This is my third year here and I can't believe I have never done this before. We get on a bus at a certain location, and they take us from place to place, where we can get off the bus, look around, take some pictures, and get back on. One of the places that we went to was the USO at Yongsan. We had an American lunch there and then waited while the girls went to the bathroom. While we waited, I was standing by the door, near a stand that had flyers of things around the neighborhood, kind of like at a hotel in the states, where they have little things of "things to do while you are in Podunk". You know what I'm talking about. Well Grace looked over at me and out of the corner of her eye she saw something and said "Hey, why haven't you seen that yet." I looked over and my eyes fell on a ad for Steven Curtis Chapman in concert in Seoul. I was almost floored. I grabbed it expecting it to be a past event that I miss, however to God's wonderful blessing, he was going to be in concert the next month on the 18th, at 7:00 pm in Seoul. I took it, put it in my backpack and continued on the way. The following Monday at school, I went to one of our secretaries and gave her 110,000 won, which is roughly 110 dollars and had her put in an order for two tickets as close as she could get them. I got them and was thrilled that I would be seeing him again. This would be my third concert of his that I would see. One in Kansas City, one in Oklahoma City, and now one in Seoul South Korea.

The next morning, I got to school and was excited about telling people that I would be going to the concert in like three weeks. But Melissa Williamson beat me to the announcement. In our daily devotions, Melissa made the announcement that Steven Curtis Chapman would be in concert. I was sitting there with this grin on my face thinking, "yeah I already have tickets". Then she dropped the bomb on me. She went on to tell everyone that he would be at nearby Camp Humphries giving a "FREE" concert to the troops and she was asking if anyone wanted to go. This concert would be the night before the one I already had tickets too... What in the world was I going to do? Grace and I looked at each other and kind of put our hands up. I really didn't know what she was thinking so I waited until the devotions were over and went over to Grace. I asked her what she thought about doing both concerts, knowing that she was very busy with end of the year things and stuff like that. But she suprised me and said. "Yeah, let's do both of them." Wow was I in shock.

Fast forward to the night of the first concert. It was going to be at 6:00 on base,so we all brought our passports and things to be signed on, and headed to the hall around 5:15. I really thought that this concert would be outside because of all the people that would be at a FREE STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN concert. However, I was wrong. We got to the building and it was a small 200 seat auditorium, and three people were there when we showed up. And they were sitting in the middle of the hall. So I went in saw the front row open and started drooling. I went over the the middles and sat down on the second seat from the inside. Everyone else that came with us was laughing because they knew how I was feeling. They wanted to go get something to eat, so I saved all of the front row for our teachers. They asked if they could come and trade so I could get something to eat and I said "Like I could eat now!"

Anyway the concert was GREAT he came out and said that he wanted this to be between a normal concert and just a get together between close friends. After the concert some of the troops went up on stage and behind the curtains to get autographs, and I just figured that that was it. We started packing things up and all of a sudden he walks out and takes a seat at the far end of the hall. We got in line and because there weren't a million people there we just waited about twenty minutes before we were at teh front of the line. Once there, I bent over and shook his hand, laid my "Steven Curtis Chapman guitar book" down on the table and we talked for a bit and I told him that I was a missionary teacher here in Korea, and he seemed interested in that. I then asked if he would take a picture with me. He said "Sure". So I went behind the table that he was using to sign autographs and stood behind him. They couldn't get both of us in the picture, so he stood up, well that didn't help much either because he only came up to like my armpit. So he actually climbed up me and stood on a nearby chair and wrapped his arm around me which is the picture below.

Coach of the year...hehehehe

2006-05-05T23:57:00.000+09:00

I have always thought that it is the girls that put forth the coaches mind and thoughts and ideas on the court or field and so to receive the "Coach of the Year" honor, I really feel it was the girls who deserve all of the credit. They worked so hard and should be the ones getting all the praise. The kept me in check a lot of times reminding me that we needed to pray before the games, or when all I wanted to do was Win Win Win they reminded me just what was important to them. I always thought that they wanted to win and so I coached that way. I found out that they just enjoyed playing with each other and being able to get out there and play for Christ. They all were a great inspiration to me and my assistant coach Laurie lambert. More to come later.

Soccer tourney...picture time

2006-05-05T23:24:00.000+09:00

During our tournament I thought it would be cool to shave my head in the shape of a soccer ball to hopefully inspire the girls to win the whol thing.

This is another picture for the other side obviously. You can see the sun that I got during this two day tournament. I had our art teache, Mr. Gary, I would never have had someone either do this or tried this myself. Not to worry folks I shaved it off on Tuesday after we won the whole thing.

This is right before the final penalty kicks to win the tournament. They are praying together. This was something we did before every game but this was prompted by the girls themselves since the coaches were not allowed on the field.

Ashley Pierpoint. Probably my most aggressive player. She is built for soccer. She scored 33 goals on the season. We are the ones in the green pennies. Michelle Lane is the on looker in the background.

This is Kim Wadsworth. She played midfield and you can see how scared the girls are of her. This is also from the first half of our championship game.

This was the last shot of our penalty kicks to decide the championship. Soyoung Wolfe is in the goal and if you look close you can see Darlene Black the other goalie near the gol not wanting to look on.

After the kick our girls were caught celebrating. From left to right...Ashley, Sophia, SoYoung Amy, Kim, Michelle, Danica, and half of Mrs. Peterson's head.

The lonely life of a coach. This was taken at our game against local OSAN, an Air Force base. By the way it was just a friendly game but we lost it 5-0. They are a division 1 team and we are a division 2 school. More to come...I don't think they are letting me add any more and I have another cool one to put on here.

Soccer season is finally over

2006-05-02T12:43:00.000+09:00

There are good things and bad things that bring this soccer season to a close this year. The first and probably best thing that happened this year was that we won the Championship this year. During the regular season the girls won 10 games lost 1 and tied 1 which gave them the championship outright. Ashley Pierpoint, who played forward for me, finished the season with 33 goals. Unreal considering that most of the teams both boys and girls together couldn't get 33 goals. Then came the tournament. We were the number 1 seed and had a pretty easy road to the championship game. There was no score after regulation and so we had to play two, five minute, halves as a golden goal. Those who do not understand that, it is sort of like "sudden death" in football. First one to score wins. Didn't like that, hate that, because a fluke can happen and the better team might end up losing. Well those 10 minutes ended in a tie as well and that brings us to one of the most exciting situations in sports, a shoot-out. They pick five of their best and we pick five of our best and they shoot on our goalie and we shoot on theirs. The team making the most out of five wins the game. What a way to finish the season, right? Well We got to shoot second which is a huge bonus. Their first shot was blocked by our goalie. Our first shot was taken by the girl that had 33 goals in the regular season, I figured that it would be a no brainer...I was wrong. She kicked the dirt and the ball trickled to the goalie, easily blocked. their next player drove the ball right past SoYoung, my goalie. Up next for us was Michelle Lane, my only senior, playing in her last game for our school. She drove the ball past their goalie... 1-1 Third round was the same as the last with Jeeyoung scoring for us. 2-2 now. The fourth round had their girl kicking it way left of the goal. Kim Wadsworth kicked it into the upper right corner of the goal, now we were ahead 3-2 going into the fifth and final round. I had Amy Peterson as my fifth kicker so I had the odds in my favor since I knew that Amy had a strong enough leg to kick the ball through their goalie. But it never came to that, as SoYoung blocked the final kick by the other team to win the tournament. At the awards ceremony for the tournament, I had 7 players receive All-conference and 6 receive All-Tournament. They also gave out a "golden boot" (most goals in the tournament) Best goalkeeper (self explanatory), Best defense (same as last), and M.V.P. (Most vicious player) Our school took three of the four. Ashley Pierpoint got M.V.P. , Amy Peterson got Best Defense and SoYoung Wolfe, with her unbelievable play as our goalie got best goalkeeper. Let me also state here that this is a small varsity team and girls from seventh grade to 12th grade can play. SoYoung is an 8th grader and in the shoot-out she beat a 12th grader. What a great tournament. The other award that we got, that I really don't like to mention a whole lot, was Coach-of-the-Year. I really treasure it but it is the girls that deserve all the credit. I love coaching them and going to games and practices with them. I am really going to miss this season. That is where the whole, I'm glad it is over but at the same way happy. It is very stressful. Our school hosted the tournament. Two days of taking people places and arranging the food and the coaches, where are seven teams going to stay while they are here, placing, awards, standing, and the list could go on. But not this blog. I will post some pictures on this blog as soon as I download them to my computer. All the glory goes to God. That was probably the coolest thing of all was our first game of the tournament, I was so brain fried that I had a couple of girls as I was leaving the field tell me "Hey, Mr. Harring, we haven't prayed yet!!" That is always touching and then to also be in the van and listen to them all singing praise songs. I will not be coaching basketball next year, however, I would never give this coaching job up as long as I am here.

KOOL-AID

2006-04-18T13:12:00.000+09:00

I thought you guys might like to see a few pictures of my new dog. I told you that Iwould post some in the near future and so here they are.

Isn't she cute...just like daddy.

Big topics of discussion...

2006-04-17T21:44:00.000+09:00

Okay guys, enough of the comedy for a while. I have been in discussions with a few people about deep theological things. Mainly Pre-destination and the ever popular "once saved, always saved" Which are kind of the same but also not. What I would like to do here is that I know my readers have dropped off so what I will do instead is post this question and you may leave comments on it and then in a couple of days I will post again, this time adding my own thoughts as well as those that respond to my e-mails. Thanks guys and let me make this point VERY clear before hand I am not doing this to start a Holy War. Just state your views honestly and openly and leave others opinions alone. Thanks and happy hunting. :)

"What are your thoughts about pre-destination?"

Midway and still truckin'

2006-04-03T09:58:00.000+09:00

Well...

It is midway through the soccer season and we have finally lost a game. However, we are still in first place and looking strong. I just wanted to get a message on here for all my faithful readers all one of me so that you know that I am still alive. Other than sports things are going well. Our school is going on a mission trip to Thailand which is the same place we went last year. This year, however, I won't be able to go. I will be staying and catching up on much needed work. I have been getting behind with practices and games. Next year will be great since I won't be coaching basketball or volleyball. I will have those two seasons as breaks before starting what is probably at this point my last season of coaching soccer.

On other notes I will be coming home for the summer for a couple of weeks. Last year I went to something called P.F.O (pre-field orientation) I was a student last year and this year I will be an advisor. I am really looking forward to that. That will be the last week of June and the first week of July. Then I am going home to Kansas City where I will stay and hopefully find a temp job until I head back maybe the middle of the second week in August. I want to get to see all my friends and sing in the choir, play some volleyball, go to a royals game or two and of course spend a lot of time at Wally World. You really never know how much you miss it until you can't go there at the last second. The one near me is open 24 hours a day and sometimes when I can't sleep I'll go and walk around the store. We have one here in Korea however, they tell me it is filled with Korean products and Korean sizes which as you know would do me no good. I miss being able to order things at restauraunts and actually getting what you ordered. Sometimes we will order and then go and pray until the food gets to our table that we got what we ordered. I also find it funny that when I am back for the summer that when I check out of a line at a supermarket that I usually say "thank you" but I have said thank you so much in Korean that I usually say it to the check-out girl and she looks very confused until I change it and get red in the face as I try to explain. Thank you in Korean is Com-som-ne-dah. Just for those that would like to learn a little Korean. I shall put some things down later.

Well I better get going...just wanted you to know that I love you all very much and miss you all. Take care and I hope to see and hear from you soon.

Peace out...later on

Soccer season is in full blow

2006-03-29T19:51:00.000+09:00

Well here it is soccer season yet again and I am busy beyond belief. We have practices most days and when we are not practicing we are traveling to go play. We have played six games so far in our season and have 67 goals to our credit, with none against and six wins. Our scores in order are 12-0, 16-0, 11-0, 11-0, 15-0 and 2-1. Now I know you might think that we are just killing them, but let me assure you that we have played the very easy part of our schedule. I, as the coach, hate to blow teams out. During the first three games our goalie touched the ball a total of three times. We have really gotten better over the past couple of years and am anxious to see how far we can go. My first year here we scored a total of I think eight goals. We went 4-4-4 that year. Now we have a group of girls that have played together for several years and are ready to take home the championship. That being said, we are also trying to make sure we are showing Christ’s love out on the field. Our girls are telling the other team good job or great pass or great save, and the other team looks at them confused. It's almost like they expect us to rub their noses in the beating that they are taking but both teams come away from the game with a very positive experience. I have 14 players ranging from 7th to 12 grade. I have three 7th graders who are really scared to get on the field and learn the game so far. Because our league is rather small they have to go up against 12th graders. So imagine a 12 year old playing soccer against an 18 year old, I can understand their fear. But they are doing well in their learning process.

Along with this time we have been doing Cup Stacking in pe. I have a couple pictures to show you of them doing it. If you really want to see some speed go watch a girl by the name of Emily Fox. All you have to do is type in her name and click on video and she should come up. The can go through the cycle in 7.43 seconds. My students are not that fast yet, but the are getting there. I have a fourth grader who is at 14.00 seconds and she is getting faster every day. Some may not believe that this does any good for the students, but if you were here to see it in person I think you would change your mind. I have had other teachers that think they are joking around in the lunch room when they put a few cups in a pyramid. But then I brought little Samantha in and all of their mouths dropped. This sport uses both sides of your brain and body. You have to remember what comes next and do it. It also works on hand eye coordination. I'll have to show you some pictures of this later the dumb computer isn't letting me upload anything right now. So just be patient and you will see them later I guess. I better go classes are about to hit third period which is my high school pe class.

Later on...peace out

Great end to a Great season

2006-03-01T08:33:00.000+09:00

Well the season is finally over and I can't believe that it went by so fast. We started out with a few practices and we were actually doing lay-ups and doing them properly. I felt good about the season because we had a lot of new teams in our division and some of them were just starting out. We played teams from all over Korea. From way down south in Pusan to way up north in Uijongbu. We started out with two quick loses in which we totaled 8 points in both games. That's 4 points a game for you math majors. Our next game was against OSAN a nearby Air Force base that is sort of our friend games since all of our students know theirs and vice versa. Three years ago OSAN was our first game and the final score was 63-1. That's right "1" Ashley Pierpoint hit a free throw in the third period. So I was expecting much of the same but these girls have gotten really good on defense. My motto has always been "If they can't score, they can't win." And they took that and made it reality. We won that game 20-18 What a great game. That game put a spark in them as they went on to win another five in a row. Before that we hadn't won more than three in a whole season. We finished the season 10-8 and in fourth place going into the tournament at the end of the year. The tournament was held up in Seoul. We had to get up really early to drive up there to make a coaches meeting at 8:00. Our first game would be at 9:30 and against a team that we hadn't lost to ever, KENT. But this team has great attitudes about the game. Last year at the tournament we went through and found several players on their team that hadn't scored all season and found a way to make that happen. This year we had had some interesting games and I only had eight girls total...not much of a bench. But the starters got out there and really made things fly. With :30 left in the game we were winning 22-0. I never like to see a shut out, not in basketball, but none of their shots were going in. They were taking them. And they were taking some good looking shots too but they just weren't falling. But they finally did hit a nice jump shot with 30 seconds left and the final was 22-2. Good game and they were okay after. By winning that meant that we had to play ICS-Seoul. A team that beat us in our second game 46-5. They can be mean and evil. We have rules here where once the point total reaches 40 points they have to call off the press and take the starters off the court. 40 points can you believe it. Most of these teams can't even muster 4 points a game and we are going to let it get to that point. I have fought that battle and lost several times...but anyway back to the game. This game was to see who went to the championship game. We weren't expecting much since I had several girls just tired and worn out. We came out and their star players ran the score up to a 20 point advantage. But our girls hung tough, fought the whole way. I wish I could write one of those crowning victories that you see in the movies but that just didn't happen. We lost the game, however, we only lost by 10 points. What a great moral victory for the girls. They fought back and did a great job and lost to the would-be tournament champions. They placed third out of eight teams and really look good if they all come back next year. There were several awards that were given out at the tournament. All-conference went to Sophia Yoo. All-Tournament went to Jackey Lane and Jeeyoung Wolfe. The team also made such great strides and got so much better over the year that the rest of the league rewarded them by given us the "coach of the year" award. As much as it is for the coach, I firmly believe that if it hadn't been for these awesome girls, we wouldn't have even been mentioned for that award let alone received it. Anyway just a couple of pictures that the girls took on the way to games will be below. Above starting from #23 at the top that is Soyoung Wolfe, #40 Chloe Codero, #41 Clara Youn, #3 Danica Auman, #43 Sophia Yoo, #15 Jeeyoung Wolfe, #33 Jackey Lane, #32 Ashley Pierpoint, and not pictured is Amy Peterson, who went sledding in Jan and broke her collar bone.

Next year they will be doing all of this without their coach of three years. I have felt that it is time for me to take a step back and allow someone else to pick up where I have left off.

Great Season girls, I love you guys. You made this a season that I'll never forget.

Peace out...later on.

SNOW DAY

2006-02-18T19:56:00.000+09:00

Well finally I can get a photo to upload on blogger and so I am now adding this to my blog along with a few others. Tuesday Feb. 6th about 5:00 in the morning I got a call from our principal telling me that school was not going to be in session because a little snow fell. We, as teachers are to call the students at that point and let them know that there is no school. But before I did I went to the window to see exactly how much snow fell. Sometimes the bus drivers see a light dusting and think that it is too dangerous and won't do their routes. I got to the window to see in part, the picture to the left. It doesn't snow a lot here but when it does...
So I got done calling my students and then I tried to get back to sleep and I just couldn't so I got up and thought that I would take a little walk up to the gazebo that I like going to. I thought that the walk through the mountains might be kind of pretty. Wow, not really a cool guy thing to say...hmmm, let's just say that it was pretty in a manly, guy kind of way, okay?

The picture to the left is of a little pathway off the main trail. This leads down to a little lake but I chose not to take it since I was already slippin' and sliding all over the place.

The picture on the right is of the pathway down the mountain, looking from the gazebo. You can see the amount of snow on the trees. It was freaky to be walking down the trail and then have a branch that had a lot of snow just drop it right on your head.

I thought that I would take a few pictures of myself since I don't put a lot on here of me. All of these were taken by me. I didn't want to drag anyone else up to the top of the mountain. It was very slippery, and I had just some lowtops on I figured that it would be easier to have a slide and just go down the mountain that way. I do love to have fun with the camera.
Just listening to a little Christmas music as I walk through this "Winter Wonderland". Yes it is Steven Curtis Chapman... =)
Who is over there? Fun with faces...

oops...

Who, little ol' me???

I wish you guys could be out here to see some of this stuff with me. It really is a lot of fun, and I would love it if you could come out and even visit...sometimes seeing the same people day in and day out can get monotonous. I have one more picture that when you see it most of you will say...ohhh that's just typical Aaron...enjoy and I hope to be able to post more soon. Our KAIAC tournament is coming up and my girls are really looking primed for a good run. I'll let you know how it goes.

Later on...peace out.

These are a few of my favorite things.

2006-01-14T21:23:00.000+09:00

My List:

Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. Farmer
2. Foster Care Coordinator
3. Referee and umpire
4. Creative Movement Specialist

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Hitch
2. Princess Bride
3. What About Bob
4. Bruce Almighty/Liar Liar

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Stargate
2. M*A*S*H
3. Without A Trace
4. Scrubs

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Nassau, Bahamas
2. Yellowstone National Park
3. San Francisco, Ca.
4. San Simeon, Ca. (Hearst Castle)

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Yahoo
2. miniclip
3. my blog
4. kcchiefs.com (Go Chiefs!!!)

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Bulgoggi
3. Chicken Tettrizini
4. Chili Dogs

Four things you would change about your house:
1. Heat in the floors
2. Carpet
3. new and not falling apart
4. More color

Four bloggers you are tagging:
1. KT
2. Laurie
3. Britt
4. Krista

I can't believe it.

2005-12-30T19:09:00.000+09:00

I just got back from a ski resort about 45 minutes away from SongTan. Our church group went out there for three days. I had never been on snow like this before. I have been water skiing, but this was WAY different. I first started out on a little hill that actually looked as though it was angled off a cliff. This was the canyon that they were planning on teaching us on. What were they thinking? I couldn't even get up on the snowboard. I should stop and tell you that I chose to snowboard rather than ski because I thought that I would look cooler. It didn't work. I was taught a few things and then headed for what we liked to call the "baby bunny" hill. It was actually on top of the ski rental house. The slop was a little less than that of a sidewalk across the middle of Kansas after a professional builder made sure that it was level. I actually had to wiggle the hips back and forth just to get the board moving. I went all the way "down" the hill and took the lift back to the "top". I did this several times getting better and better. I thought I was ready for the big time. The students that we took with us were nice enough to help teach some of us newbies. This was so that we didn't have to go through the four hour course that they offer there. The only thing that we would have gotten out of that was being able to fall down better in Korean. Anyway I felt better about my skiing ability but the day was over since we got there at 2:00 and after the learning and the waiting in line to go back to the top of the "plains" the slopes closed at 5:00 to get ready for night skiing. I went to dinner with dreams of racing and tricks and someday entering the X-Games. That night I laid on the floor, which is how they sleep over here in Korea. They call them Yo's. The other, sometime very cool thing, is that the heating system here is sent through the floor. It is actual little tiny pipes that run through the floor. When it is cold out it is fun to lay on the floor and get the heat. It makes sense because if heat rises where is the best place to start the heat? At the bottom, right? Anyway our rooms heat was broken and was stuck on 30 degrees Celsius. Which translated into terms that we all can understand was three degrees hotter than the surface of the sun, during the summer, of a heat stroke. And this was what we had to sleep on. It was VERY hot. I really didn't get any sleep. The heat and the fact that I was dreaming about great things in my snowboarding skills. I woke up, got some breakfast and then headed for my board. I had a plan. I would go on the baby bunny hill to make sure that I still "had it" and then go for the gusto. I was barely able to get my big feet into boots that were only meant for Korean feet. The Korean size was 300, but let's not talk about that. Anyway I sat down on the snow, in my shorts, and strapped on. I pushed myself up only to topple over face forward. Okay, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. But never-the-less, I was going to be a star. I flipped back over and got up. I think I fell down seven times in the next 100 feet. I went to the lift with my head down trying to figure out what just happened. I figured that this was a fluke. I went with four other students and they were trying to talk me into going over to the REAL "bunny slope". I was feeling the need to impress my students with my athletic ability so I was talked up to the top of the bunny hill. Were they serious? I stood at the top of the "bunny hill" or should I say "THE WORLD". Looking down from the top the thought of greatness left faster than it came. Now my only thought was that of survival. I thought about taking the snowboard off and just walking down the hill. There was no shame in that was there. Walking down the middle of the slope while skiers and boarders went flying by? I mean what were the patrol people going to do, I was four feet taller than any of them and I don't speak but a few words of Korean. But I also knew that I had to look good in front of my students. SO I sucked up my pride and let it all hang out there. I started out by strapping on again and then standing up. I looked down the slope and couldn't believe that I was about to do this. However the fear left as I started down, only to be replaced by terror. The students were laughing at this sight, but then again I couldn't blame them.
I mean if I saw this sight I probably would be dying too. From this picture you can see the resort that we stayed at in the background. I had one more slope that I had seen that I was anxious to ride out as my goal before I left. After I got to the bottom of this "hill" (enter rolled eyes here) I was going to take a break...(not literally speaking thank goodness). I went and sat at the heaters with our Bible teacher who sort of organized this trip. We talked for a bit while I was resting my muscles and bones. I think I found a few muscles that I never knew that I had. Anyone who has ever tried a new sport knows that muscles just appear and than say to you "hey I've been here the whole time and because you have never felt me before I'm going to make sure that you know me now... he he he he" And boy did these muscles. Anyway Right before lunch the second day I was coned into taking my chances with the Peak that I had been eyeing since I got there. We got the the lift and then again the male ego kicked in again. I was very nervous but thought that because I hadn't fallen the last time down the "bunny hill", that I was ready for the next step. Silly me.

In this picture the peak that I am talking about is right in the middle straight up. The bunny hill is far on the right.

Once at the top of my new found "hill" I had to snowboard down an extremely steep slope just to get to the point where I got to go down the face of this one. I am more than happy to tell everybody in the world that not once did I fall down this hill. However, my muscles wouldn't allow me to finish in one attempt. They gave out and I had to sit and rest twice. Not too bad. I think that in the long run I would go back but I would do one of two things. I would do skiing next time or I would see how much it would cost to make my own board. These boards were built for Koreans. The center of gravity for these boards is like my ankle. My feet were practically together. With my height I needed to spread my legs apart further. I really had trouble with balance and that isn't common for me since I love to rollerblade and ice skate. I usually have pretty good balance. I'll put a couple more pictures on of our trip. Enjoy.

Later on...peace out.

This is from the 11th floor of the resort of the two hills that I got to go down. It also has the top of the rental house where the "baby bunny" hill starts.

This is looking down the other way from the "baby bunny" hill. I can't believe they even have a lift for this. All you really need is a good push.

New information for those keeping up.

2005-12-23T07:40:00.000+09:00

Okay, here it is. I know that some really close friends and family read this and so I figure that I'll put it on here first and then slowly put it out for others to know. I have decided that my life here in Pyongtaek, South Korea is NOT over yet. Every year we are required to fill out a paper stating our intentions for the next year. If we intend to stay or go, or even if we don't know. This year, my third year, I marked that I wasn't sure. I guess sort of hoping that this would give me more time to decide. It lasted not even a month. At our Christmas party our principal told me that he had been given a resume from someone interested in the pe/ad position that I currently hold. John, our principal, told me that I now had a week to decide. I did a lot of praying and thinking in my so-called timed showers. What these are, are wonderful timed events. They really allow me time to think and pray and have some quiet time with Christ. I turn the shower on and then plug the drain. I then sit down and once the water gets to the top of the tub I unplug the drain and let the water out. Once out I stand back up, finish washing and then it's over. The whole process takes a half hour exactly. Sometimes I re-plug the drain and do it all over again. It is great especially during these cold winter months. Anyway, back to the choice. I have had other offers and things have come up but I really feel that this is where God is calling me to be. I weighed all my choices and looked at things from all angles. Without having a job back in the states it makes it really hard to leave one that is so rewarding. I DO have responsibilities back in the states, monetarily speaking, but even back in the states I wasn't making any head room. I don't plan on ignoring these duties, but at the same time I believe that God will help provide for those needs if I am following Him obediently. I know that I am going to be met by people that don't understand this. There was a saying that I heard a long time ago and I really took it to heart. It was "Christ has a call on our lives independent of anybody else's expectations or desires upon our lives." My life over here is busy and a constant struggle, with trying to maintain a good pe program alongside a great sports program. I just feel like my work here isn't finished yet. I do not think that this is going to be a life long job, I just feel that Christ has other ideas for me here. At least for the next year.

Several of the student here have begged me to stay and coach them until they graduate, however this could continue over and over again forever right? :) This next year I there won't be a student at the school that I haven't taught. These are two students that I have both taught and coached. The one in the clue shirt is Beckie Hennessey and the one in the black dress is Amy Peterson. Both will be playing soccer this year for me.

Anyway I just wanted people to know what has been going on in my life as of late...stay tuned for my next installment. I have a few things that have really been weighing me down. More so than my coaching schedule or my business. But it is well worth the wait. Everyone have a great Christmas and I'll be in touch soon.

Peace out...later on.

Finally

2005-12-23T07:26:00.000+09:00

This blog is dedicated to my sister and my new neice. I should have put this on a long time ago but again busy is not enough of an excuse.

The little on in the picture is my first neice. Her name is Bethany Grace Wilson. She was born Nov. 9th and weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

This is a first for her as it becomes a first for me. I have never been an Uncle before and it is a weird feeling. I guess I still in some ways think of Kim as a little kid still...it's hard to believe that she has been married now for almost three years, and now add to that that she now has a child. This is just weird to think like that. I might post some more pictures of her but for now this is what you get... :)

Women shoes are you kidding me?

2005-12-12T13:11:00.000+09:00

New shoes are taking the Asian market by storm.

I just thought these were really funny. I have been over here in Korea now going on my third year and I have yet to see these. Someone sent these pictures to me, with the comment that they were all over Asia. I have not seen them as of yet but I have seen VERY high heels. It is understandable since the height over here is very short. But anyway, this is my funny picture for today.

I know that it has been a while since I last blogged. I can't believe that it has gotten this long since I wrote anything. I used to be so good and now look at me. I think that sometimes I get to a point where I am only writing to myself, and sometimes I guess that is all that I need. It is actually a few things put together. I think in part I want to get things off my chest and the other thing is to let people from around the world know what's happening in my little part of it. I'll try to do more posting as I can. I know that I use the fact that I am so busy all the time. Dumb answers huh?

Harvest Time here in Korea

2005-11-05T18:34:00.000+09:00

Okay folks...I know it's been a while but sometimes I hate updating this without a picture to apply something to. So here I am with picture in hand as I write this out...It is harvest time here in Korea and that means the rice patties are coming down. I know that while I was in the states and even saw movies that had people out in the patties working it was mainly at planting time...now it is harvest time...What really happens. Well what you are looking at on the left is the starting point of a field. They will cut what you see by hand and place them nearby so that the machine will be able to get in there and get a start at the rest of the field. The machines that harvest are small and there is just enough room for another farmer to stand on the machine and by hand keep bags moving to catch all of the rice. Rice is typically like grain in that the part that is harvested is at the top like what corn looks like before it drops down to start growing into ears.

The picture to the right is of all of the bags that the farmers have caught in big 50 pound bags. They lay them all out in long lines until they have a chance to empty the bags sort of like you see towards the left of this picture. This is all done right there in the middle of the field. This field happens to be right there in the front of our school. They will drop them off of the harvest machine. Another little single engine weird looking machine will go around and pick up the bags which have been dropped around the field. They will bring them to this point and lay them all out so that they can do the next step.

This is the next step in the process. They will open all of the bags and spill out all of the rice. The rows look like they are made by a rake or some other machine...right??? No, they are actually made when the farmers put on their rubber boots and drag their feet as they walk through the rice. Nice, huh? Gives you something to think about when you eat that next helping of Minute Rice... :)

This is a close up picture of the rice sitting on the black tarp. What they do is dry out the rice which will make it easier to crazy when it goes to the plant. This is a great way. They let the sun dry everything out. After it gets to the dried out stage, they bring in a big machine that picks all the rice up and puts all of the rows into one huge bag.

One more funny picture and then I'm gone:

Peace out...later on

Wow it's been a while

2005-10-22T18:54:00.000+09:00

So sorry for those who read this. I have been busy because of the end of volleyball season and then parent teacher conferences. This schedule doesn't get any easier. I will be unbelievably busy starting this coming up Friday. That is our family gathering. There are three school like ours in Korea and all the teachers and staff will get together on Fri. I'm excited because I have the best p.e. area out of all three and am anxious to show it off. John, our principal, is also excited because he is really happy with the way that it turned out. But as nice as it is going to be to see everyone, he has also put me in charge of running a volleyball tournament in the afternoon up on our soccer field. Don't get me wrong I am so ready to play some volleyball, but I would just rather play it than run it. Just last Tuesday, the teacher got to play the students. Well let's not say play, it was more of a "let's stand there and pray that the ball doesn't come to me". Paul (our art teacher), Emily (our English teacher), and myself were pretty much the only ones that had even played the game before. Our secretary at the school (the principals wife) and our first grade teacher, decided to change the plan for the games five minutes before the game. The plan was to play the guy teachers against the boys volleyball team and then the female teachers against the girls volleyball team. Well that didn't make the few female teachers happy. They wanted to be a part of the guys game...the problem was that NONE OF THEM COULD PLAY. And I don't just mean oh look they are holding their hands wrong, I'm saying "Oh look, a net". Then they wanted to rotate in after every side-out. Well this would leave five or possibly six players on the court who were lucky to find the ball if it hit them in the face. So what that means is that the ONLY time that they would rotate out was if the guy players hit the net on the serve. Then with six teachers sitting on the bench, you were luck to see the court again. Paul and Emily had to leave a little early to go to praise team practice, so that left me being the ONLY teacher who had any idea about volleyball. Now for those at our school that might read this. I am not upset at you nor am I trying to make fun of you. But there is an element of compromise and the ONLY people hat did ANY compromising were the ones that had the idea to play the game in the first place. Next year the plan will be set ahead of time and there won't be any changing. Anyway my attitude probably wasn't the best and I got yelled at several times about it too, and I bit my tongue wanting to shout out things like "Hello, this was suppose to be a challenge for the volleyball teams", or "I don't remember asking you to play", or "Look bundt cake" Meanwhile back to my crazy schedule. after this Friday and the family gathering, the very next Monday is our annual hoedown at church on the 31st. They do it as an alternative to Halloween. After that the very next Friday the 4th of Nov. is our annual Fall Festival at school. This is a late night event where each class will make up carnival like games and try to get as many tickets as they can. So within the span of seven days there are going to be three major events taking place. The next week after that our school will start basketball. Since our boys coach from last year had a child, I will be coaching the boys basketball team. I also will be coaching the girls basketball team like I have done for the last three years. Our tryouts will be the next week. Games and practices and tournaments are sure to follow, followed closely behind by the girls soccer season. Please be praying for me as I am going into my extremely busy part of my school year. Okay I better close so that I can go bake some cookies to prove to these teachers that I can fend for myself. I'm going to attatch a photo because like another teacher has said in her blog it is the pictures that people understand a lot better so enjoy. "They found Nemo. " Peace out...later on

Back in Memphis

2005-10-09T14:13:00.000+09:00

This is an amazing place at the "Mud Museum" In Memphis TN. The last day of PFO was a lot of meeting that really had nothing to do with some of us...so I took the opportunity to go up to Memphis to do some exploring. I went up with this teacher from Lima. Kyle Boles, she was at PFO for the same reason that I was. We both missed our PFO the first year and so we had to be there this year. The last day had lots of insurance and stuff like that talked about and so I borrowed a car and we drove to the NICS headquarters and then went to downtown Memphis and saw this "Mud" place and thought that we'd take a chance. What you see in the picture is around the museum. It is a small replica of the Might Mississippi river. It is huge and I think they said that the scale was about 1:1000 or something like that. It took us about 45 minutes to walk the whole thing. At the one end I tried to throw her in the Gulf of Mexico. This
is an even closer picture of part of the river. Most people would take their shoes off and walk through the water. In some places it would get pretty deep. There were several different places that empty into the Mississippi and those were all represented. We had a lot of fun. After our little trip to Memphis we drove back to the SBEC where we were staying, which is a huge school in South Haven MS., we stopped by Maggie Moo's and got so amazing ice cream. As we walked back into the school the other teachers were jealous of what we were bring back after their boring meetings. Thank you Kyle for a great afternoon.

Electronics Market here we come.

2005-10-09T13:38:00.000+09:00

It's been a week and I think I have a little time to write a little something. This picture is taken with the backdrop of the electronics market. This is a section of Seoul, that people can buy ANY type of electronics. I have gotten so many things up here. They have phones and cameras, computers, dvd's and divx players. It takes about and hour and a half by subway. Most of the guy teachers just drool when we go up there. There are several buildings going about five blocks and five to ten stories high. You can also build your own computer. There are several other things here that we love to go for. But most of the girls hate going here because they lose the guys attention. You know but turn about is fair play. There is another place called the fabric market. It is eight floors, four buildings wide. And they will get mad because the men don't want to come and help carry all of there purchases back home. I know where are our manners. But this is how it is here...for at least a little longer huh?

Peace out...later on.

Steven Curtis Chapman

2005-10-03T13:34:00.000+09:00

"S C squared"

I couldn't go much further without telling people about my favoite singer. This is Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. I didn't really know a whole lot about him until a few years ago when our Sunday school class had a sign up to go to one of his concerts. I thought that I better prepare so that I didn't look like I didn't know who he was. I pulled out a c.d. that I had that I hadn't even opened, that was given to me as a gift. I think it was his "Heaven in a Real World" album. I got hooked on the song about the ships. I got to the concert and just went nuts. The man is amazing. He sang all night, ADN he was funny. At this concert he also did something called "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" It was the story of Jim Elliott and the other missionaries who were killed by the Auca Indians in South America. After he showed the slides he actually brought out Jim's son Steve. I thought that was so cool and then Steven took it one step further and brought on a man by the name Mincaei. He is a member of the Auca tribe. He in fact was the man that murdered Jim Elliott. To see them standing next to each other on stage was awkward. But anyway, I really took a liking to Steven Curtis Chapmans music. I liked it so much in fact that I went out that next and bout the "Declaration" album, which was the one done at the concert. I memorized every song but still couldn't get enough. I looked on line and saw that his last concert was going to be held in Oklahoma, at the Cook center. I told my dad about it and he thought it would be a great idea to go and he even wanted to come too. We made a day of it. I had to work in the morning, but I took the aftenoon off and we drove the 5 hours to Oklahoma City, had a great time and then came back

My home church

2005-09-29T20:15:00.000+09:00

College Church:

Wanted to show everyone a couple of pictures of my home church in Olathe, Kansas. This is a picture taken from the choir loft on the last Sunday that I was home for the summer. This church has been such an amazing influence on me. I went to the college that was affiliated with this church. We would have to go to chapel's every Tuesday and Thursday. The I had bible classes and it was just exhausting to go to church again on Sunday morning. Then I met a fellow student, whom I later dated, she asked me if I wanted to come and join the choir. I had never sung in my life, at least loud enough for people to hear me. I was so scared in the fact that I thought that I would have to "try out" sing in front of 140 people? Are you crazy? But I got there and met David Hubbs, and all he asked was what I sang and then pointed me to a seat. Another main reason was that I wanted to be a soldier in our play called "The Victor", which I later found out that I really didn't have to join the choir for. I can still remember taking my music home every week so that I could be prepared for the following Sunday. But I was laughed at by Amy and several members of the tenor section. I learned pretty quick how to just blend my voice with the really talented people like Doug Lott, Mike, Galand Gott, Kevin. All these guys are just amazing singers, it has been a gift from God to just stand in the loft with these guys. I can't wait to get back there and join these guys.
As you can see we are a pretty large choir and I have really loved the songs that we have sung. Probably my favorite so far has been a song that has been sung with the quartet called "Mountain Get Out Of My Way" all I can say is WOW. This choir has even made a few c.d.'s and I was lucky enough to be involved in the one called "Sunday's Best". Our church is rather large and has two services but the second one is the one I enjoy the best. I also am involved heavily in the Sunday school class called "Oasis". Again something that I can't wait to get home and get back involved with. I also have been keeping involved by playing some volleyball. This is where I hone in on my kill skills. This is a great chance to get active. I have been playing volleyball ever since we started the nightly volleyball session. I have usually been the main stay. We have had as many as thirty and as few as three. We will find a way to play with any amount. My favorite to play with is an older woman, Michelle, I have met some other amazing people at volleyball like Denise and Julie and Sarah.. This is an amazing church that has really added in my development as a christian. I know that I wouldn't be here in Korea if it hadn't been for the teaching that I received here. We have been choosing a new pastor now that pastor J.K. Warrick has gotten promoted to like God's aide or something like that. If ever in the Kansas City area please give me a call I would love to show you the finer points of this church.

PFO Speech

2005-09-20T14:10:00.000+09:00

A lot of you who know me know that I was at PFO and was the comedy person for the talent show. Something in which I took great pride in doing. One of the things that I did was to write a speech and then read it like Ryan did with the Constitution. The problem was that I was interrupted before I could finish...like I was suppose to be, but I still wanted people to be able to finish hearing the speech so I thought what a better place than right here to express myself openly, so here it goes:

O say can you see. Fore score and seven years ago, I had a dream, that this was one small step for man...and one giant leap for mankind. To be or not to be because basically I feel the need...the need for speed. When you are floatin' like a butterfly, and stingin' like a bee, a dry vodka martini,shaken, not stirred is the only way to be. Show me the money and Ask not what your country can do for you, because you had me at hello. That which does not kill you makes you stronger. Frankly Scarlet, I don't give a circle of life. I have not yet begun to fight. You have nothing to fear but there's no place like home. It's not easy being green. And always remember "Read my lips"...I am not a crook.

Peace out...later on.

School

2005-09-16T15:42:00.000+09:00

Just wanting to show everyone the school that I teach at. This picture is taken from the soccer field that I take the students to everyday. There is a little white strip by the telephone poles...that is a rice patty road. Our school is the three story building just off to the right. The light green looking grass is actually rice. We are surrounded by rice patties.
This was a beautiful day...probably about 80 degrees and a light breeze. I think we were playing football up on the field this day. At our school right now we have about 200 students between the grades of K-12. Most of them are Amerasains. Most classes are at about 17 students or so. I have one of each K-8th grade and then one highschool class. We have volleyball, basketball, and soccer. I coach the boys and girls basketball and then girls soccer. The picture on the right is from another angle and you should be able to see the very ripe rice ready to be harvested. The road you see in this picture is the road that I take up to the soccer field. It is about a half-mile one way so I get a lot of exercise during the day just walking. The next picture is of my students in my highschool class. This is Charles in the foreground. Shin is holding the cone in front of his face and Clara is the girl on the right. Just on the left you'll see two large poles, these are the lights for the tennis courts. Behind the students is the soccer field. The soccer field is all dirt. There is no grass, except for the archery field. They don't believe in walking on the grass anywhere in the country. Hope this gives you an idea of where I teach.

Peace out...Later on.

Pranks, pranks and more pranks

2005-09-16T15:32:00.000+09:00

Ah tis the season for pranks. This is my old apartment. It is the home to Tad and Teal Romsa. Tad teachers second grade at my school and has no key to get into his apartment. The key pad has never been changed and so I could go in whenever I want. He likes to be a little of the prankster and so everytime he goes down the steps it sounded like he would knock on my door and run away. So last night I had a little fun of my own and took six rolls of toilet paper up to his place and went to town.

It turns out that it was his son that was having the fun with my door so from now on it is war between me and the eighth grader. I just thought that you might like to see the pictures from my triumph. Anyway I'll leave you for now to see what I am capable of and I'll blog again real soon.

Peace out...later on.

It is that time of the year again.

2005-09-11T22:00:00.000+09:00

Well it is that time again. Right now as I write this it is 10:00 Sunday night here in Korea, while back in the states they are getting ready for the Kansas City Chiefs season to get underway. How I wish that I could be there to watch the season opener against the Jet there at Arrowhead. I have been to several games at Arrowhead and possibly I'm a little biased but there isn't a better place to watch a football game. If you look in the picture you will see a wave of red. Not one other teams colors will you see among the 80,000 fans that pack every single seat. With the way the stadium is built it holds the sound inside better than any other stadium even the ones inside. It has been as loud as 116 decibels, which is louder than a jet taking off. They say that the official scoreboard operator cannot tell the crowd to be louder or they will fine the Chiefs...well as you can see by this sign that never stops them. I have seen several teams play against the Chiefs and when the opposition goes into the huddle the noise begins and doesn't stop until the play is over only to start back up again. I have sat all over the stadium from lower level about 20 rows back right at the goal line to upper level last seat in our section and there isn't a bad seat in the joint.
The thrill begins at the National Anthem singing before the game. Everyone sings and when they get to the last line "...and the home of the brave." All the fans replace the word brave with a deep and loud "CHIEFS". After a touchdown or a field goal, the crowd has a little chant that they all do. It goes something like this.. "Hey...Hey...We're gonna beat the heck outa you...you...you...you...you...you." Something you have to be there to actually experience.
The reason I became a Chiefs fan was as simple as any other. We used to live in Kansas City before we moved to L.A. I think I would have been in about the 6th or 7th grade. Probably didn't know anything about football. But My dad took me to two Raider v. Chiefs games. I still don't remember who won those games but I was enthralled by the atmosphere. The smells, the yelling, the games itself. Even to this day the Chiefs tailgaters are usually are the winners of "The Best Taigaters In The NFL" It's hard to describe the sensation when you have to park about a mile away from the stadium, but you don't mind because of all the barbecues that are up and cooking. And usually those that are doing the cooking are more than nice enough to share their bounty. Add the fact that they are the best to the fact that one of the things that Kansas City is known for is their incredible barbecue sauce and skills, and you will have smells and tastes that you can not get anywhere else in the world. The fans are also in one unit usually, meaning they are friendly and eager to please. This picture of a tailgater is on the grass a long way from the stadium but you should still be able to make out the lights of Arrowhead in the background. Multiply this picture times the 80,000 fans and you will begin to see what I am talking about.
Now the players: When I went to my first game the quarterback was Bill Kenny #9 the teams were horrible I think they would go 4-10 or something like that every year. Quarterbacks would come and go and we would end up getting the greatest ever in a trade. Joe Montana was ours for a few years. My mouth dropped when I heard the news. We also had Rich Gannon and Dave Kreig. Now we have the best offense in the NFL. Led by Trent Green, Tony Gonzales, Priest Holmes, Dante Hall and Larry Johnson. This year 2005 is the best on paper that I have ever seen. Add that to the fact that the coach is Dick Vermeil, and my expectations are very high.

Well, now that you have heard my feelings about the chiefs maybe you can understand my attraction towards them. I know not everyone is going to read this whole thing, but for me and the people that care about me you have to understand my obsession about them. I use to get physically ill when they would lose. I also would go and buy something with a Chiefs emblem on it every week of the season, thinking that that would help the boys in red win that week. Now I have grown up, a little bit, and just enjoy the game. I still try and find a way to watch all the games. Now that I'm in Korea, I have offered my students extra credit if they will record a game and bring it in the next day. I also will at least find a computer and listen to the game on the 101.1 "The Fox" radio station. There are a few problems with the games over here. One is the fact that the game is taking place at 2:00 in the morning Korean time. The second is that when a Monday night game happens in the states, it is Tuesday morning, and the temptation to check the score is great, but I even threaten the students with failure if they tell me the score, because the game is recorded and then shown on AFN that evening and I want to watch it not knowing the outcome. So far two football seasons and still doing fine. Gets hard but I will manage. Go Chiefs beat those jets this weekend. Always makes the week go by even better with a win to start it off with.

Cute Signs

2005-09-10T11:42:00.000+09:00

This sign was seen on a little trip to the city of Cheonon. This is a little pub and is supposed to be based off the 1953 movie "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Some of the signs here are funny and some sad. The main problem that is the cause for these signs is the fact that the Korean alphabet is based on 24 letters or symbols. Some are even interchanged, like the p and the f. For example if you have had too much to eat you are not full you are pull. Understandable since english is the most confusing language in the world. Korean is pretty simple because it's very mathematical. Like in the picture above you see some Korean... the first symbol on the top looks like a 2 the sound that makes is a "l" but also is the sound of an 'r' below that you see a laying down line with a short line sticking up that is sort of an 'ah' sounding symbol. I can read the sign but I still have no idea what it means. I just thought that you guys might like to see something like this. I could fill pages and pages of signs like this. But I'll just stick to this one.

Take care you guys I miss you all and I'll write more later.

Peace out...later on.

In Memory of Bob Denver

2005-09-07T08:52:00.000+09:00

I just felt compelled to write a little something about this. I just found out this morning that Bob Denver died of cancer at age 70. Normally I wouldn't make such a big deal but this time I thought I would make a small deal. Bob Denver also known to millions as Gilligan was a hero of mine growing up. I'm too young to have seen the show when it aired in the 60's, but I still remember coming home and watching rerun after rerun on t.v. I would love the humor of Bob and the way that he put it across to his fans. I found out that he got into acting when he found that his law degree wasn't going to do much. He got his big break when asked to play Maynard G. Krebs on the show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" After this he got the break that changed his life. Best known for his role as Gilligan, Bob was one of only four cast members alive. Now down to three Dawn Wells, Mary Ann (now 67) Tina Louise, Ginger, (now 71) and Russell Johnson, the professor (now 80). Jim Backus, Mr. Howell died at age 75 in 1989, Alan Hale jr., the Skipper dies at 71 years of age in 1990, and the lovely Natalie Schafer, Mrs. Howell died at 90 years of age in 1991.

This ones for you Michelle...

2005-09-04T10:00:00.000+09:00

All about the power:

This was a picture from my final night at Tuesday volleyball while I was home for the summer. The young lady who is setting me the ball has become someone that I hold in very high regards. She is a little older than I am and married to a fantastic guy, and the two of them have six, count them six, wonderful boys. Michelle and I played in the Kansas Summer Olympics. We didn't fair very well but Michelle and I know how to have fun anyway. I really treasure my time that I get to play with her. I was only able to play three Tuesdays and yet I got to be on her team every single game. This is the woman that I would love to find sometime. She is an amazing athlete and loves the chiefs. She loves to go out and have fun and she loves her children. She actually is now going back to school to become a nurse. I have no idea where she gets the energy to do all that she does. Michelle thank you for all you do...you really mean a lot to me and I don't probably tell you that enough, thanks.

You say this is what?

2005-08-31T21:20:00.000+09:00

John the Baptist Finger:

I know what you are thinking, I said the same thing. The was take this past summer at the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City. What this is suppose to be is a golden reliquaries. A reliquary is a container for relics or objects of religious veneration. In the center you will see a bone standing end on end. This bone is said to be the finger of Saint John the Baptist. I have no idea how they came upon getting this. In fact I really don't want to know. So we'll just keep this under our hats okay. I think what just fascinates me about this is the fact that, whether it is or not, it is just more than a mind full to think that this finger just might have touched the head of Jesus.

Peace out...later on.

Deep thoughts by Big Mac...

2005-08-31T08:08:00.000+09:00

NO PICTURE?

Today I couldn't find a picture worthy enough of placing on my blog. So today I would like to talk about some things and hopefully start people thinking...Now before I do let me state here for the record that I am not a bible scholar. I just do the best I can and follow what I believe to be the true will of God.

Today was chapel and our speaker was the youth pastor from our church. One of the things that he talked about was the concept of "Pre-destination". This one topic has spawned more debate than anything. And thinking about it myself I can come to both conclusions very easily. First the against side: If you were against "Pre-destination", you would say that there is no way God knows everything about our future, whose going to heaven and who doesn't because that takes away "free will". Free will is something that is talked about several times in the bible. How can a God that wants us to choose Him have "pre-destination" in mind. You eliminate any choice on the human part which in turns makes us sort of like robots. Now if you believe in "pre-destination" you would counter that by saying that you are putting limits on what God can know. A God that knows how many hairs are on my head, a God that knows us so well that He knew us before we were born. How can you say that an all knowing God, who is Alpha, Omega, beginning and end, doesn't know the future.

Can you understand my confusion. I had a Christian Beliefs prof at Mid America Nazarene University once pose the question..."If you were walking along the street would God know if you were going to kick a stone" At this point I was very much in the belief that God knew me so well that He knew that I was going to. The pro retorted that why would God even waste His time worrying about that. Maybe not in those words but it got me to think which was probably the whole point of the example. Matthew 6 :25-27 says: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not like more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds or the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life. I really took a look at this...if God knows us birds that well and He takes care of them. How much more important are we His children.

I worked in a snack shop in college and the guy I worked with, he and I would talk about this kind of thing a lot. (he was a bible major) His feelings on this kind of made sense and I thought I would share them with you. He said that God is the author of the book of our life. He wrote it so he knows how it is going to end, He holds the book so He is can also turn to any page at any time, but He is also rereading the book like He has no idea what is going to happen. Not knowing but CAN knowing are two different things. This concept might be hard to wrap around, but as I was also once told, A fish will never know what snow is, there are some things that we as humans aren't suppose to know. That is the best that my little brain can come up with at this point...I hope that I was able to really throw you into a state of confusion right along with me.

Peace out...later on.

Just a quick follow up

2005-08-30T14:40:00.000+09:00

SIZE AGAIN

This is a picture of our Histroy teacher Mr. Mooney. We are sitting on metal slides that shoot people down the side of a mountain. We were not going to get down the hill very fast since it should have taken us like two slides to make it work. We would race and Koreans would beat us down the hill on the same track that we were on, that was made for one. Fun day. The ride down took about three hours and the ride up the hill was usually double that time.

Anyway I wanted to get out some more names and correct a place where one of my friends went. Please keep the following in your thoughts and prayers... Simon Bandung, Indonesia, Joel & Karina Belem, Brazil, Kyle who is in Lima, Peru. Peter and Pellen in Singapore. Kristen, Rachel, Lisa and Kara who are in LaPaz, Bolivia. Kara decided to stay in the states but please keep her in your prayers. Sam & Noelle I previously stated were in Germany however I was mistaken and they are actually in Singapore. Daniel who recently got his visa and has been in Brasilia, Brazil for a while now.

These are new friends that I met at my training in Memphis. I really enjoyed it and sometime I'll go into some of the happenings there. It was two of the funest weeks I have had in a while. 140 people all training to go out and do what I have been doing for two years.

Just short sweet and around to the point. Take care all and I'll be checking in with you later.

peace out...later on.

Is he cool or what? Oh and then there's me...

2005-08-30T00:35:00.000+09:00

TOURISM

This picture is of me and a palace guard. I would actually love to know what he is thinking. "Here is a 6'6" guy coming over to take a picture with me." "I think I might have to go a wet myself" Just kidding of course. This was taken at a palace in Seoul. It is called the Namdaemun Palace. It is actually the place where the Amazing Race ended one of it's legs of its race. Kind of cool to be able to do things that I know that a lot of my friends and family will not get to see. Not saying that I don't wish any of you guys were here. I love all of you.

God has really been doing some amazing things in my life and I thought I might share a few of them with you. This year at school I was seriously thinking about not coming back for this year. The reason behind this was because of my 9th graders this year. Last year they were really hard to deal with. There were a few students that just brought me down mentally each day...This year it is, how can I say, amazing but times 50? The students that I thought would be a problem are actually the ones that have helped out the most. I still can't believe that this is the same class. Classes are going really well. I really enjoy going to school everyday. Sometimes it can get really hot outside and the students do their whining, but they also respect me enough to know that I love them and only want the very best for them.

I also have been finally getting into reading the bible on a regular basis, to the point that I never have before. I usually get scared off from doing that because I'm not sure that my mind is wrapping around what the bible might actually be trying to tell me. This usually happens when I make a comment about something and another person would tell me that I'm totally wrong. I get discouraged but not this time. I bought a bible last year that is a sports devotional bible that has a different passage and devotion for every day of the week and so I am about four weeks into it and now I can't put it down. Only by God's grace have I been able to do this. I have my new gym that has been two years in the making. Still can't believe that I have this new place to do p.e. God really does answer prayers and I am here to tell you that things in the personal world can also be a little confusing sometimes. But through God's love and grace, everything will work out to His will. I'll talk more about that later.

Okay real quick I wanted to shout out some names that I want to hold up in prayer. These are my new friends that are all over the world now, doing the same thing that I am doing right now... Jan, Debra, Katie, Karen, Ryan who are all in Kabul, Afghanistan. Curt who is in Kunming, China. Trisha who is still on her way to Rio, Ryan and Krista that are in Suriname. Jenny, Kara, Aimee, and other in Seoul. Jamie and his fiance in Uijongbu, Korea. Sam and his new wife Noelle in Germany. I will write more names later, but please keep all of these new friends in your thoughts and prayers. The teachers in Kabul, I can't even imagine the things they are going through.

Well this is all for now...if you have and thoughts or prayer requests please write them in the comment section and I will be praying for you. Take care until next time.

Peace out...later on.

HERE IT IS FINALLY

2005-08-26T21:49:00.000+09:00

This is our janitor on the couch asleep. Mr. Song will come into my office and do this every afternoon. He also tells me in very broken English that I am to tell no one that he does this. He is well into his 60s. He does EVERYTHING at our school and we are terrific friends. We are going to try to put this picture in the yearbook. He jokes about getting mad at us if we do...He always tells me "no speekie" about telling people about this.

Here at my desk...this is the one room that needs a lot of work. The high levels of humidity, coupled with the fact that they try to cut costs by adding water to paint has given the walls the look that it has.

This is a picture of my office looking out towards the gym. You will see a couch where our janitor comes in to take his daily naps and a coffee table. Also my desk is just below.

This picture is in one corner looking at the other. You can see the door leading to where my class was the last two years. I have tripled in size and the students have so much room to run around now. They love it.

This is a picture of my gym that has finally been finished. A lot of work has gone into it trying to get it just right. What you are looking at is the main open area. The ground is made of foam pads that are obviously both red and blue. I chose this design because when I pick teams I wanted to be able to have a clear division in the classroom. The pads are three foot square puzzle pieces. When I got back to school from summer break they were almost finished with the room but they hadn't layed the floor yet and so in two days just before open house Emily Williamson and Kyle Williamson and Dakota Romsa all helped me put the floors down. All of those names are students of mine and also have a parent who is a teacher. Emily 7th grade, Kyle 4th grade, and Dakota is an 8th grader. The pillar in the middle of the room is something that I couldn't get rid of since it supports the rest of the building. I told them that would be okay since we would pad it up as well. Which should happen shortly.

Size doesn't matter....WHATEVER

2005-08-23T15:00:00.000+09:00

Height

No some people might tell you that size doesn't matter but if you look over at this picture I beg to differ with you. This was taken at our school "Spring Fling Thing". The Korean woman in the picture is Ms. Moon. She is our secretary. Amazing woman, does everything for us. But I'm 6'6" tall and the History teacher Mr. Mooney (in red) is 6'4" tall, and Ms. Moon is standing on three inch heels. Busses, taxi's, subways, doorways, you name it, and I just don't fit. I will walk down a street in Seoul and hear just gasps as I pass by. I sort of let it go to my head. Sometimes I'll even pretend to hit my head on doorways as I walk under them. Just to get the reaction.

Today was a beautiful day. Blue sky finally came out and let my students get outside. I was very grateful and thanked God again and again. Monsoon season is coming to a close but everything still is very wet. My students get very wild if they can't get outside. So today was a very big blessing. Tomorrow I have a meeting in Seoul that I have to go to as the Athletic Director. Please keep me in your prayers as I will be talking with another school about the way he has his teams playing. This is a sister school that is also a Christian school and our two schools love the competition, however, it also leads to fights in all the guys games. Even in volleyball with a net separating the two teams, they love to cuss each other out under their breath in Korean and our coaches have no idea what is going on. The other school wants them to play like this. For example in the last soccer game between our two schools, a game that meant nothing as far as the standings went, saw two students get thrown out of the game for fighting. Two Christian schools. What in the world would others watching the game say. People should be able to look out there and say wow those teams are edifying Christ even in their play. The AD thinks things are okay and we are at the point where we just want to forfeit the games because we want to avoid the temptation of putting these students in a position where they might resort to fighting. Please pray the meeting goes the way that God wants it to. Thanks.

Peace out...more later

There always has to be a first doesn't there?

2005-08-22T14:30:00.000+09:00

WOW!!! This picture was taken early in the morning from a mountain top near our little city of SongTan. I couldn't believe that I was able to capture just a little part of what this really looked like. All I kept thinking to myself was the bible talking about everywhere you look there is evidence of God. I just sat up there for over two hours before and after watching the sun slowly come into view and then the brightness of the day.

I realize this is my first post but I wanted those who knew me to see some of the things that I get to see everyday. God truly has blessed me with an amazing job and it is suppose to be all for his glory, however, seeing the things I get to see I just can't help but be left astonished and amazed.

Since this is my first official blog I wanted to take a chance to tell you what I am up to over here. July 15th or so, 2003 I was having a bad day at work and my mom had sent me a web page from Christianity Today. At the top it had a link for jobs. I click to just have some fun and found myself looking at a page that had a school in search of a p.e. teacher and an athletic director. Funny that is exactly what I went to school to be. The only problem was that the job was in South Korea... I went ahead and put my name down just to see what would happen and on the way home I got a call from the principal. THAT DAY!!! He told me all about the school and the country and the fact that I would make 15,000,000 won...(that's like $3.50) in dollars. Joking of course but not by much. Long story short we prayed and I accepted the job and on Sept. 11th 2003 I was in South Korea via Japan to star a career as a teacher.

It is now two years later and I'm beginning my third year. Really don't know if I will be doing any more years or not. This is really exciting. I have never done something like this before ad now here I am learning Korean, going to Thailand, China, Fiji, meeting all types of people and growing in my faith more than I ever thought that I could. During these past couple of years I have had some very good times and some very bad times. Some I have put behind me and others have been learned from. God has a funny way of getting what he wants.

Peace out...more later.