The Roberts in Korea

"Art"...Work

Daejeon is a city of 1.5 million people and it is composed of a lot of concrete and a lot of bricks--especially on the sidewalks.  A very unique aspect of the sidewalks here in this city is that the sidewalks are made of bricks that are hand placed.  It is very convenient for the city because whenever they need to access some of the public works under the street or the sidewalk area they just pull up the bricks, stack them off to the side, dig down through the sand and dirt below and then replace it all quickly and easily when the job is finished.  I grabbed a picture of some Korean workers doing some of their "art"...work on the city sidewalks.

Post Closure

The six day, H1N1 closure days have ended and we are now back to school and back into the swing of things.  The closure days were tough as we just stayed in the house for the most part.  We did a lot homework and work on-line and via telephone, but we did get a few breaks to have some fun together.  We watched some movies and played a few games of Rook.  It was good, but we are glad to be back to school.

With the closure ending we were able to get out of the house and shake off some of the "cabin fever".  We went up town for dinner one night with the Millers, saw some sights of the city and had a good time.  We found an exciting part of town near the Time World Galleria store.  There was a ton of people walking the streets, visiting the many restaurants, norebangs, sticker photo booths and game centers in area.  We did a little stop over at the Starbucks in that area and enjoyed good time of visiting.

H1N1=School Closure

The H1N1 Influenza A virus has been having its way here in South Korea.  The numbers of confirmed cases of people having the virus is growing and growing and last week the virus made an appearance on the campus of TCIS and it decided to stick around awhile.

TCIS implemented a plan to monitor the students that were attending school, showing up sick to the nurse's office and showing up late to school.  As the school monitored the students it became apparent that some type of flu-like virus was spreading through the student body.  The school was in consultation with the local public health department and the local department of education on the issue and on Tuesday of last week TCIS had six confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in the student body and the school was closed down for six days.

The campus has been closed to all staff and students and schooling activities have continued as well as can be expected via on-line resources like, email, Edline and Moodle.  The TCIS staff and students have not been quarantined to their homes but they have been encouraged to not be too visible in public and to not gather in groups within the community.  The idea is to stem the tide of passing the virus from one person to another.

Needless to say, it has been a rather boring week sitting around the house doing homework.  We have enjoyed our time together as a family but we are looking forward to getting back into the routine of life and the school community.  With some "house" time on our hands we have done some cooking here in South Korea.  Becca and Sarah have been doing some baking and I (Ryan) even got in on the cooking action.  Stay healthy!

First Week and Friends

The first week of school started off with a bang.  Becca was involved in new classes and busy going to volleyball tryouts after school.  (By the way, she made the high school girls' varsity volleyball team--Yay!)

Sarah plugged into her last year of middle school with no problems.  She was busy working on a play that was to be presented to the middle school, high school and elementary school for the environmental emphasis week.  She did a great job in her role as a fashionable, but polluting zebra.

It was fun during the first couple weeks of school see some friends plug into the school scene in different ways.  Mr. Miller got involved in leading music and worship in the middle school chapel this past week and Brenna Loeber began the new school year as a student life minister in the middle school and high school.  She was busy planning and being involved in chapels, practices and planning sessions.

It was a good and active first week or so, of school.

Best Birthday

I celebrated most of my birthday up at Muju at the administrative retreat, but thankfully the retreat ended on Saturday and I was able to go home and celebrate the best part of my birthday with my family.  I got home in the evening and found Dina, Becca and Sarah waiting at home for me with a cake and gift. 

They had spent the evening baking me a carrot cake from scratch.  It was delicious and they got me a nice gift (a new iPod).  I was glad to be home, celebrating my birthday with my favorite people.  It was a good day.

Birthday at Muju

While I (Ryan) was up in the mountains at Muju I celebrated my 43rd birthday.  After a long day of meetings on Saturday the administrative team sat down to a nice dinner and there was a birthday cake set up on one end of the room.

Next to the cake was positioned a large, saber-like knife to cut the cake.  This type of knife is usually used by Korean couples to cut their wedding cake at their reception, but the hotel staff thought it would be appropriate for the occasion of my birthday as well.

Mr. John Nelson, the former assistant headmaster at TCIS (he is now the assistant head at GSIS) took advantage of the presence of the large cake knife. He used it to "dub" or "knight" me...something.  It was rather comical and a cool birthday memory.

Admin Retreat at Muju

On the first weekend of the first week of school, the TCIS administrative team had a working retreat at Muju Ski Resort.  The ski resort is about an hour drive from Daejeon.  We went up on Friday night after school and had dinner and our first meeting went until 10:00 pm.  We stayed in the Hotel Tirol at the resort and used one of their conference rooms for our meetings.

On Saturday we spent the day in working meetings but did take a bit of time to enjoy the beautiful sights in the mountains and we ate some terrific meals in the hotel.  Some of the spouses of administrators came up to the meetings, but Dina didn't.  She stayed home with Becca and Sarah. 

Sights

From the back seat of a taxi there are always interesting things to see in South Korea.  Why should a fence just be a bunch of boring old wires when it can be adorned with plastic bottles of various colors?

In South Korea beef and pork are favorite meats.  On the many restaurants in the city of Daejeon there are either pictures of cows on the signs advertising the sale of beef or there are pictures of pigs on the signs advertising the sale of pork.  I found this picture interesting.  It is a pig getting ready to cook a cow.

Another Beginning

The 2009-10 school year has officially begun.  Becca and Sarah finished up a summer full of travel, sleepovers and fun, and last Monday they donned some new school clothes and started another year of school.  Becca is in the tenth grade this year and Sarah is in the eighth grade this year.  Sarah won't be passing Becca in school, but as you can see, this just may be the year that Sarah passes up Becca in the height category.

Dina has started up a new Kindergarten class with ten kids in her class.  Her students are from places all over the world like, South Korea, USA, Europe and Israel.  They are all cuties and they are lucky to have a great teacher like Dina.

Ryan started up the school year with a new job on the campus of TCIS.  This year Ryan will be serving as the Assistant Headmaster of the school.  The role of the Assistant Headmaster is similar to the idea of an Assistant Superintendent in the USA public schools.  On Friday morning Ryan and a couple of guys had an early meeting at a coffee shop and out in the parking lot they stumbled upon this Korean pick-up that was covered with a bunch of little mini circular mirrors.  It looked cool, so we took a picture.

Back In Korea

We have been back in South Korea for about three weeks.  The weather hasn't been too bad.  It has been just within the last week or so that the weather has been exceedingly hot and humid.  Our return to Korea has included us getting settled back into our house here in the city.  Ryan has immersed himself in his new role and responsibilities as the Assistant Headmaster of the school.  Becca and Sarah have spent lots of time hanging with friends and having "sleepovers."  Dina has been unpacking boxes and suitcases that we brought back from the States and she has been busy setting up her classroom for a new set of Kindergartners.

At the school, teachers have been returning to campus from their summer trips home and from various places around the world.  The Korean school staff were full of welcoming smiles as all of the overseas staff returned to the TCIS campus.

We have gotten out and about a bit over the past week or so.  It is always fun to go "downtown" and see the many lights and masses of people that make up the beautiful  city of Daejeon.  It has been good to get back "home" to Daejeon and begin our fourth year of adventure in South Korea.