The Roberts in Korea

Becca Is Home from APAC

Becca arrived home safely from the Philippines on Sunday night.  It did this old dad good to see her walk through the door.  We all (Ryan, Dina, Sarah) missed her.

She had an absolute blast in the Philippines.  I will touch on some of the generalities of her trip and let her tell the detailed story when she has the time.  Right now she is overwhelmed with a mean chest cold and a pile of homework.

Becca spent four days in the city of Manila in the Philippines.  She went there as a member of the TCIS girls' volleyball team to participate in the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) Volleyball Tournament.  The tournament was held at the Brent International School in Manila.  While in the Philippines she stayed in the home of a student (and family) that attended the Brent school.  Her days were mostly consumed with volleyball games (7 matches for a total of 18 games), however she did see a bit of the city of Manila--specifically the malls.

Upon arrival at her host home Becca and the girl that she stayed with went and got a manicure and did a bit of shopping.  Becca ate lots of delicious food of the Philippines (much of it prepared by the in-house cook and maid of the home where she stayed).  Becca said that she ate fresh Mango every meal and she brought home about ten bags of Mango fruit leather--good stuff.

While Becca was in Manila the weather was hot and humid.  She noticed that the city was a contrast of rich and poor.  The city was composed of soaring skyscrapers or run down slums and shanties.  One thing that she found interesting was the many multi-colored old buses on the roads packed with people hanging out of the doors and windows.

The girls did ok in the volleyball tournament.  They took 9th place out of 12 teams.  It was stiff competition, but considering the fact that it is TCIS's first appearance in the by-invitation only APAC tournament they didn't do too bad.

Becca had a great adventure and a wonderful experience.

Two Offices

I (Ryan) have two offices.  One office is at Taejon Christian International School (TCIS) in Daejeon, South Korea and the other office is in Suwon, South Korea at Gyeonggi Suwon International School (GSIS).  I am serving in a new role this year as the Director of Spiritual Formation Programs at both schools.  It is a good adventure.

I work out of two offices.  I commute between the two schools each week and even my business card has a dual aspect to it.  On Mondays and Thursdays (and some Fridays) I leave TCIS (where I live) early in the morning and head to GSIS for the day.  On most days I share a ride with Dr. Penland (the Headmaster of both schools).  Sometimes I ride with the Darren, the Director of School Improvement and Technology (of both schools) and sometimes I ride with Brent, the Director of Residence and Boarding (of both schools), and sometimes I ride the train (alone).  (Some day I will get my driver’s license and share in the driving responsibilities—Yipes.)  The trip by train or by car takes between one and a half to two hours.  The commute is a good time to talk shop, return emails or do work on the laptop (I have remote internet access that I can plug into my computer).

The two schools are filled with great staff members and wonderful students.  My new job is multi-faceted and is still in the “formation” process.  I am thankful to have this opportunity and am enjoying the journey in this new role and as I travel the railways and expressways of South Korea.

If You Are Interested...APAC Volleyball

If you are interested you can check out the school website where Becca is playing volleyball in the Philippines.  Click on Brent International School Manila.  On the site you can see the scores of the games and there is even a video link of real time games.  You might get to see Becca playing!

Also, you can get information, pictures and even a video link at the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) website.  Here is the LINK.

Becca Is Traveling

Early this morning Becca boarded a plane bound for the city of Manila in the country of the Philippines. She went with the TCIS girls' varsity volleyball team to participate in the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) Tournament.  Becca will be competing with teams from Shanghai, Beijing and South Korea in a real international volleyball experience.  Becca and her teammates will be staying in homes of people living there in Manila.  She will be gone for five days, arriving home late Sunday night.  We pray she is having a wonderful time.  We already miss her.

Pumpkin Carving

Last Saturday night we went to a pumpkin carving party.  It was a blast.  A bunch of us from TCIS were invited over to the O'Neill's home for a potluck dinner, some pumpkin pie and lots of pumpkin carving.  The group consisted of families, couples and singles.  For some, it was their first time to ever carve a pumpkin.

The Korean pumpkins are very soft to cut, they are not very orange on the outside but they are a bright orange color on the inside.  We had fun scooping out the pumpkin and then planning and carving our design.  

Our pumpkin had a lowercase "r" (for Roberts) on one side and a relatively "cheery" pumkin face (with square eyes) on the other.  We carved the pumpkins outside and then took them upstairs to our host's apartment for lighting and display.  It was a fun "first" for us--carving pumpkins in South Korea.

We took second place in the overall pumpkin carving contest!

Have you carved your pumpkin yet?

Sadie Hawkins

This past Friday night was a new and big step in the Roberts' household.  Becca went to a dance...with a boy!  It was the Sadie Hawkins' Dance (girl ask boy).  It was on the TCIS campus, in the high school auditorium and yes, her father was there.

Becca asked a guy to the dance a couple of weeks ago.  He said yes, so last week they went shopping for what they were going to wear (that is what they do here and yes, her father accompanied Becca, her friends, and "the boy," on the shopping trip).

On the night of the dance, Becca's friend, Hanji, came over to the house and the girls got ready for the dance.  Then they both walked to the school and met their "dates."  The dance was a good time.  The music was a lot of techno pop music which lead to a lot of funky "hip hop" dancing.  It was surprising to see that the music for the dance was run off of a Mac computer that was plugged into the school system.  Things sure have changed...

The dance was over at 10:00 p.m.  I (Ryan) walked Becca and a group of her friends home from the dance.  On the way home, I overheard the girls talking about the dance.  They were talking about the fun time they had and they were talking about the fact that all of them didn't slow dance with their dates because they were all too embarrassed.  From this father's perspective...it was a good first dance. 

Korean Food

What types of food do you eat there in South Korea?

I am glad you asked.

Here are a couple of pictures of Korean "fast food" items.  The first picture is a steaming hot bowl of Cheese Ramien (pronounced "chees-uh lah-me-un")  It is very simply ramien noodles in a very spicy broth with a couple slices of cheese thrown in.  Mmm good!  Good for you???....

The second picture is a heaping plate of duk-boki (pronounced, "duck-boe-kee).  Duk-boki is composed of long thick rice noodles that are called "duk," a hard boiled egg or two, some pressed fish called "o-dang" and sometimes a deep fried egg roll of sorts.  All of these items are covered in a red colored sweet and spicy sauce.  Good stuff!

TCIS Homecoming 50th Celebration

Taejon Christian International School is fifty years old this year.  Following the Korean War, Christian missionaries flooded into South Korea to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and TCIS (formerly known as Korea Christian Academy) was formed in 1958 by various mission groups as a place to educate their children. 

Over the past 50 years the vision and ministry of TCIS has expanded beyond a place that only provides education to children of missionaries to an international school that educates and ministers to students from around the world.

This past week TCIS celebrated its 50 year Homecoming celebration.  Former staff, students and graduates of TCIS came in from all around the world for this event.  It was a grand time of reunion and homecoming.  There were some students that lived in the dorm together 40 years ago and they reunited for the first time in 40 years at the TCIS campus this past week.

This past week and weekend on campus was a great time of being together with new and old friends and for thanking God for His work and faithfulness in our midst.

Saturday In Seoul

This past week has been a good one.  It has been a full school week with the added element of the celebration of the 50th birthday of Taejon Christian International School (TCIS).  This has been the week of the alumni reunion.  There have been students and staff on the campus that attended and/or worked at TCIS (formerly known as Korea Christian Academy) over 40 years ago.  It has been nothing less than incredible to hear their stories about the early days of our school and to hear their testimonies of God's grace and faithfulness in their lives.  Many of the students (who are now in their 60s) credit their TCIS experience as being a highly formative spiritual influence in their lives.

On another note, last Saturday Ryan attended an Apple/Mac workshop in Seoul with a group of staff members from the schools, TCIS and GSIS.  It was fun checking out the Apple product, but the real excitement was in the visit to the city of Seoul. 

The Apple workshop was held on the 30th floor of a giant silver/glassy building. The workshop was good but the view was great.  After the workshop a group of us went to a huge underground shopping area in Seoul called the COEX Mall.  There are hundreds of stores in the underground mall and many great places to eat.  After some great Chicago style pizza in an Uno's restaurant, we wandered a bit through the mall.

There was lots to see and eat.  We stopped at a Cold Stone ice cream shop and in the courtyard in front of the shop was an artist creating a three dimensional chalk drawing featuring some brand of alcoholic drink.  It was an impressive drawing.

It was a busy day in Seoul.  There were lots of activities going on in the city and lots of people walking the sidewalks.  In fact, the city was so busy and crowded that our taxi got caught in a traffic jam and we missed our KTX train back to Daejeon.  Not to worry, we exchanged our tickets and eventually made it home to our quaint little city of Daejeon.

Volleyball Action

Here is a nice little spike by Becca!