It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Hannah played in a Christmas concert on Thursday evening last week, and Christmas lights are going up all around the city. We even had a few snow flurries yesterday (for a brief five minutes, but they still added a nice feeling to the day!). Brian has been in Hong Kong all weekend, at a conference, and the four of us girls spent Saturday afternoon decorating our apartment for the holidays. To celebrate our successful decorating session, we went out for dinner (with a last course of donuts and coffee at Krispy Kreme), and then did a bit of shopping. The Christmas season really feels like it has begun, although I think we're all in shock that the year is almost half-over!

Traditional Korean Dance...

On Thursday evening, LeeAnne and four other wonderful women from TCIS attended a traditional dance presentation. Six traditional Korean dances were presented, some featuring the most famous dancer in Daejeon. It was a truly cultural event. LeeAnne and her friend, Rachel Dewey (a fellow drum dancer from last year), could appreciate the complexity of the dances as the result of their dance lessons from 2007. Korean dance looks simple but the movements are very complex and measured, with every movement involving intricate poses of the feet, knees, hands, arms, shoulders, neck and head. It is tricky, indeed!

Faces from the orphanage...

On Saturday afternoon our Serving Hands student service group traveled to the Peace Village Orphanage for a visit. We spent the afternoon playing and making crafts with the kids, and it was a wonderful time. Here are some beautiful faces...

Family & Work Photos...

We spent part of Sunday afternoon enjoying some lovely fall weather with the Willoughbys (our friends and neighbours who live directly below us in our apartment building), taking family photos. I thought I'd post a few of my favourites, along with a few photos of me dressed up with two of my colleagues to introduce Macbeth to my IB students today. Very fun. Fair is foul, and foul is fair...

Hanging out downtown...

In a rare convergence of cosmic energy last night, all five members of our family happened to be home at the same time. Taking advantage of this miraculous moment, we all went downtown to enjoy some fancy drinks at Starbucks and wander around the brilliantly-lit downtown area. It is a fun place to be in the evening. Crammed with people, with neon shining everywhere, you never know what may happen. In fact, as we stepped out of Starbucks, a crowd was gathered in the plaza and a young man was down on one knee, holding a big bunch of flowers, proposing to a lovely young lady. Everyone cheered and clapped for them. One photo in this post features a bunch of colourful boxes containing pepperos (little cookie sticks that resemble mini baguettes, dipped in chocolate). Tuesday is Peppero Day here, and these sweet little treats will be distributed with wild abandon as people declare their love for one another.

We're Back!

The month of October was a bit on the hectic side with work and school, and I just realized a few days ago that we did not publish one blog post the entire month! Unacceptable, indeed. For Rebecca and Hannah, October was busy as volleyball season ramped up, culminating in our regional tournaments at the end of the month and, for Rebecca, an Asia Pacific Athletic Conference tournament in Manila, as well. Both high schoolers are now involved in basketball. Rebecca made the varsity team and Hannah is playing on the junior varsity team. Cora wrapped up her cross-country season with a 5-kilometre run at a US army base on Saturday (Nov. 8th), and she'll be part of the Middle School swim team in a few weeks. Clearly, the girls are enjoying athletics these days! As the last photo in this post shows, the weather these days is clear and sunny, with daytime highs around 16 - 20 degrees. The leaves are turning colour and it's perfect hiking weather.