Korean Spring Sprung...Then Sprang Away Again.

It was so warm a couple days last week that I thought FOR SURE that Spring had come early. We even went hiking with just light shirts on. So I took Harvey to the groomer and got him all shaved - totally - balder than a baby's behind. Then winter returned. :-( Now poor Harve is shaking in the park. In fact, this morning when I got us up to walk he wouldn't even get out of bed and I had to drag him out the door. Tonight I put his parka on him to make it more bearable. Anyways, hopefully Spring will be back soon...or Harve will grow some hair. :-/

Well we had our first Musical Theater class this year and surprizingly 13 boys joined. What amazed me more than anything is that a boy from last year, who is deathly shy, joined again. He reminds me of myself at his age. But when he read for the part of the bad queen he read with such feeling I just knew that he is going to be great this year. Their eyes all went wide though when I played the STOMP video from YouTube and told them that they were going to learn the routine. It is the one with the brooms so it should be A LOT of fun. :-) ...the girl in the picture is my assistant Miss Kim...really nice person.

It is so nice at the congregation these days. A young man from South Africa has started attending the meetings. He is also over here teaching. Brenda and I are really appreciating just having another foreigner to talk to. That makes four of us now, including the brother from Estonia. This week I am going to the printer to have personal cards made up to hand out to foreign factory workers that I pass at Suwon Station which is the big train station here. Often we will see them on their day off but they are going somewhere so quick that they really don't have time for a conversation, so we thought just handing them our card with a number on it, may encourage them to call. Will see. We meet several nice people in passing but it is really hard to connect again because often Sunday is their only day off. Anyway, just trying to think of ways to help these ones.

Well, I should run. All is good here. We finally got handbills for the Memorial so hopefully I can hand a few out over the next couple weeks. All of you, take good care,

Lots of love,

d :-)

Satan sure has these political leaders right where he wants them!

Hey hi everyone! This has been an excellent week here, albeit a vvverrry cold one too. Classes are into the swing of things, I have finally got my apartment somewhat organized, and my sleep pattern is back to normal. When we first got back, the first week Pearl was up at about 1am every morning crying for food. She was definitely still on LA time. :-( ...and since I have the spine of a jelly fish when it comes to those two, I was up whipping things together in the kitchen during the wee hours.

Well, things are tense in the news here. There is lots of "blah blah turn you into dust bowl" talk, with lots of "huff huff blah blah...will shoot your puny missile out of the sky" blather. Everyone...as in the politicians...are trash talking the other countries. I, on the other hand, am taking them all serious. :-0 Just in case they decide to test their strength I have stockpiled a few bags of dog food, some cans of beans, a few bags of bread in the freezer, and water. Hopefully it will all blow over very quickly but this is the most serious their arm wrestle has been in about the last 50 years apparently. If somehow something does happen though, this blog will probably turn into an account something like that lady from the Middle East - you know that woman that wouldn't leave without her daughter - mine would be called, "Not Without My Dogs", and you would start reading accounts on here of us traveling with our dogs overland to get to good ol North America. :-) All kidding aside, Brenda and I have a pretty solid plan of what to do if any of the rheotoric actually turns physical. We've both decided that the very moment we either hear "We..hate...you...war..now!" or see the glow of a missile trail whizzing by our apartments, we are on the next plane. :-)

Well, it is meeting day, and I better get busy and study the WT. This morning I was listening to the story (the audio download from the Watchtower.org site) about the brother from the Cambodian Killing Fields. What an excellent account! Really found i itnspirational. Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Love ya, d :-)

Back Into The Swing of Things

Since arriving back, I have been super busy. The school year in Korea starts March 2, so this week I have been welcoming all the boys to class and telling them about how they will be learning computer animation this year. It is really cool to hear all their oohs and awhs.

Also. I am teaching the musical theatre program again this year and have pretty much decided in my head to rewrite Snow White and call it "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Stomp, Rattle and Roll Edition". In my head it looks good, but I thought it would be fun to include some routines like Stomp or Taps Dogs into the story - you know music from common objects. Anyway, I will keep you posted as to how it all transpires. :-) ...I will find out how many victims I will have to work with this week. :-)

I thought that maybe I had arrived back in Korea to some show of defiance or something. You know all that huff huff blah blah between the North and South right now. There are flags hanging everywhere right now. But anyways, apparently the libertion day from Japan happened this week and that is what it is all about. Woooh! Much rather it be that than the other. :-)

The weather has been cold and icy, but mostly beautiful blue skies. In the early early mornings, Harvey and Pearl can only walk for about 10 minutes at a time before they start "seizing up", so I throw them in the buggy and just keep going pushing it through the park. Good exercise for all three of us then. :-)

The congregation was all fine upon my arrival back, but with a few interesting tidbits - two marriages coming up - maybe three I hear. Because many Koreans still do the introduction marriages, lots of times things will happen very quickly, especially in the congregation where basically they don't even talk to the opposite sex. So it goes something like this - Introduction, talk for a bit, "yup I will marry you", and then a wedding about 4 weeks later. Especially if they hit thirty and are not married - that is like the BIG D day. One sister at the hall today said she came to the hall specifically to ask her friend if it was true she was getting married, because they are very good friends and she had no clue her friend was getting married. Most of the time in the West usually at least your closest friends know what is going on. :-/

Brenda and I took the furbies walking this weekend, around the wall. By the way, Pearl's back leg is healing pretty good now - it helps that all the furniture is pretty much on the floor level here, so she doesn't have to do any hopping. I just got the camera working so not many pics today, but here is one of Harvey eating his favourite toy...and one of me, Marcelle, and Mom in Mex one evening.

Okay, love to everyone,

d :-)