Tonight we had the privilege of enjoying a wonderful Middle School Christmas concert. Sarah is an eighth grader this year and was involved in the concert. Sarah played the bongo drums along with the middle school orchestra as they played, "Feliz Navidad." It sounded great!
Later in the program Sarah was both seen and heard singing in the middle school choir as the band played, "O Come All Ye Faithful." It was a great evening...very "Christmasy" as Elf would say.
We are proud of Sarah.
Last Thursday we attended the TCIS High School Christmas Concert. Becca is singing in the high school choir this year. It was a great concert, but one of the highlights of the night was the late night that we spent after the concert with the Lavender family at a local coffee shop.
The Lavender's have daughter's that are the same age as Becca and Sarah and the kids are fast friends. Over the past four years we have traditionally gone to concerts and then gone out to a coffee shop with the Lavender family to celebrate the event. This year was no different.
This year we visited a new coffee shop that featured booths where people sit at floor tables and in tree house like lofts where people can recline in privacy. Sarah and Cora took a loft, Becca and Hannah took a floor table booth and the adults sat at a boring table with four chairs.
We enjoyed a great time of visiting--so much so that time got away from us and we didn't get home until midnight. Not a good move on a school night, but oh well... it was a great memory.
Last week a new tradition began between the TCIS Dragons and its sister school, the GSIS Knights. Even though the two schools are currently in different leagues, they are playing each other at least one time a year in volleyball, basketball and soccer. The basketball meeting was last week at GSIS in Suwon, South Korea.
It was a fun time for the students and the staff to share in a time of good spirited rivalry. TCIS soundly won both the girls' and boys' games, but the competition was grand. It was amazing to sit in the new, beautiful gym at GSIS and reflect on the fact that the school of over 500 students didn't even exist four years ago.
The story of GSIS is a long and amazing one, but it can be summed up very easily with one look at the picture of the students and players from both schools gathered together at center court at the end of the games...praying.
We are up to two boxes of Christmas Decorations here in South Korea. Four years ago we left our 13 boxes of Christmas Decorations in Idaho and started over here in South Korea with a three foot tall tree and one strand of lights that had the star attached. By the time I got the Beach Boys' Christmas album fired up that first year...we were done decorating.
This year we brewed some hot chocolate, cranked up the Beach Boys and enjoyed the moment. Dina and I used to help two little girls decorate the house for Christmas. Now, we have two beautiful young women setting up the tree, stringing the lights and hanging the ornaments. I just try to stay out of the way and take a few pictures to remember the moment.
It is amazing how things change. It is hard to believe that this is our fourth Christmas in South Korea. This Christmas I am thankful that in the midst of change, these three things remains the same: (1) the hope, peace and joy of Christ in our home, (2) the love we share as a family (3) the memory filled, nice, tight Beach Boys' harmonies.
Savoring the moments...
Merry Christmas
The American holiday of Thanksgiving is experienced a bit differently here in South Korea. Even though our international school model and calendar is based upon a model that would commonly be found in the United States, our school is located in the country of South Korea and the students and staff that make up the TCIS community are from places all over the world. The Canadian Thanksgiving holiday took place in October and in South Korea there is no equivalent to Thanksgiving.
While working in the public schools in the United States we enjoyed a two and half day break over the Thanksgiving Holiday whereas here at our international school we had a half day off on the Friday following Thanksgiving day. We had school and worked, as usual, on the Thursday that is Thanksgiving as we know it. In fact, were were eating dinner with some friends at a little Korean diner on the Thursday night of Thanksgiving and only then realized that it was Thanksgiving Day. We had to chuckle a bit about our "Thanksgiving Dinner" that included Korean Kimchi, Ramien and Kimbap.
On Friday night TCIS provided an all school Thanksgiving Dinner and celebration. The meal was delicious, complete with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. It was a fun time to gather with friends in the TCIS community. It actually "felt" like Thanksgiving and now the Holiday season has begun. It is time to pull out the Christmas tree and the Christmas music and videos. I wish we could pull out the egg nog, but they don't sell it here in South Korea. Bummer...oh well, we are still very thankful.
Fall is upon us here in South Korea. The first frost of the year brings out the coats, gloves and the humongous piles of Kimchi cabbage in our neighborhood. It is amazing to see giant piles of cabbage, beets and other vegetables that are used in Kimchi preparation piled outside many of the shops and homes near our house. Every Fall in Korea the families celebrate what is called "Kimjang Day." At this time of the year families work together to prepare between 100 and 200 cabbages--making them into Kimchi to last them through the winter months. The task usually lasts all day for 2-3 days.
Early one morning I (Ryan) saw this lady and her husband tackling this giant pile of cabbage. In the preparation process they cut these giant heads of cabbage into quarters and then soaked them in 33 gallon plastic garbage cans of salt brine. They soaked them awhile and then use the process to clean the cabbage of all bugs, dirt, etc. From this point the cabbage is rubbed down with ground red peppers, salt and other seasonings and then it is packed away in underground canisters and in special refrigerators for fermentation. Twelve hours later in the day I walked by the same lady and her husband and they were still chipping away at their huge pile of cabbage. They own a Kimchi shop. I have bought Kimchi from them before--it is delicious.
Kimchi is a staple food here in South Korea. It is interesting that I only see elderly people working diligently on the Kimchi making process. I am sure that there is an art to Kimchi making--and it is a lot of work. I hope that it is not an art that will be lost in the midst of this rapidly developing consumer culture here in South Korea.
On Thursday, November 19, 2009, TCIS broke ground on a new campus site located in the Techno Valley area of the city of Daejeon. It was an historic event in the fifty-one year history of the school.
The crowd at the groundbreaking event included the six hundred plus students of the school, the two hundred staff members of the school and another two hundred parents, guests and VIPs from the city and the country.
The ceremony started off with special music by the TCIS high school band directed by David Miller. The program included short speeches by numerous city and national officials as well as messages from the TCIS Headmaster, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and the high school student body co-presidents. I (Ryan) enjoyed the privilege of leading the opening prayer at the event.
It was a grand time and the initial realization of a 20 year old vision that the previous Headmaster of the school had for the school's growth and development. The ground breaking included gold shovels, confetti, fireworks and celebration.
Donald Miller: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Ryan just finished this book.
Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped (Penguin Classics)
Sarah is reading this book.
Randy Alcorn: Deception (Ollie Chandler, Book 3)
Dina is reading this book.
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