In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Homemade "Settlers"



When we visited Thailand, Luke left his board game "Settlers of Catan" with his friends there. Since the symptoms of withdrawal were too great, Luke and 2 of our foreign friends here handmade a whole new game. It's not the best ever, but it'll do.

Sports Meeting



On Nov. 29th, we had a day off to go and spend some quality time with our co-workers from school. We spent the day playing games of various kinds with various levels of success. We were not so good at a game involving idioms from their language, but we did okay at ping pong and badminton. We were pretty tired at the end, but hey--it was a day off!!

Party Time!


We just got another shipment of goods from home. Thanks to those of you from Luke's hometown who put the box together. We hope to use the supplies to have several parties this holiday season. (If we can control ourselves long enough not to eat them all ;)

Cooking Lessons




Recently, we were invited to the home of a friend to learn to make dumplings. Even with Robyn's aversion to dumplings, we thought they were quite good--and easy to make as well.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Presents


Robyn's family sent us a box of goodies we are so thankful for. We weren't sure what to go for first!

Thanksgiving



We had the privilege of having 3 Thanksgiving dinners. We ate at a western restaurant with our friends in Thailand on Wednesday. It was good to have turkey and pumpkin pie. Then on Thursday we had dinner in the big city to celebrate on Thanksgiving day. Again we ate at a western restaurant. However this was an even better dinner, though still not mom's. Finally, we got to celebrate on Sunday with the local fellowship. This dinner consisted of chicken, boiled potatoes, cabbage, and pomegranates for dessert. We reminded just how many things we have to be thankful for.

Vacation Time

Nov. 17-24 our prefecture celebrated its 50th birthday, and as we result we had the week off. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a little traveling and get acquainted or reacquainted with some friends. Therefore, we spent the week in Thailand visiting some of Luke's Filipino friends.


We are the Champions!




Luke's soccer team remained undefeated to win the Fall league championship. Go International College!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Lights! Camera! Action!



Recently we had the opportunity to be in a commercial that will promote our prefecture and will run on stations nationwide. We were told we would receive a copy once it has been edited, so we may be able to post it once we get it. We won't hold our breath.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Oh Baby!

Before you get too excited--no Robyn is not pregnant. But we are excited because we recently learned that Luke's sister-in-law is! This will be the first time either of us will have a niece or nephew, so it's something to look forward to. The baby is due in late April.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Soccer vs. Football



Luke joined the soccer (football) team of the International School here on campus. The team is made up mostly of Vietnamese, who apparently begin playing soccer as soon as they can walk. There is also one Hungarian who speaks the local language, English, and Vietnamese... But as Luke was getting yelled at in various languages, he couldn't really help. It didn't really matter, however, as they won the game 10-0. Luke learned that he is very slow and cannot run very far, but that he still enjoys the game!

All in a day's work

Luke teaches an English conversation class to freshmen--many of whom are speaking English for the first time. Recently, he had a class that required the students to list various objects made of particular materials. Desks, pencils, and doors are made of wood; windows, glasses, and jars are made of glass, etc. He wasn't quite prepared for the answer when he asked the question: "What is made out of leather?" More than one student quickly said, "Pigs!"

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Being the judge



We have been asked several times to judge English speaking contests. They say we are "experts" simply because we speak English. Too bad many of those we are judging don't.

Monday, October 8, 2007

More vacation pictures

Our "Golden" Vacation




We had a week off from October 1-7 to celebrate a national holiday here.
We used this time to travel to the local metro area and get some much needed Mickey D's, and then on to a "quaint" village beyond. It took 9 1/2 smoke filled hours to reach our destination and we shared the "quaintness" with about 800,000 other people... The town was beautiful and well-preserved with cobblestone streets and wood and stone buildings. We also visited one of the largest gorges in the world near the end of our tour. Robyn almost didn't make it past the cliffhanger road (heights and all that), but we did make it down to the bottom of the gorge and back up and we're pleased to say that we're still married! We threw in the towel with ground transportation and flew back to the big city (we love non-smoking flights!!). We picked up a few much-wanted goodies and visited with some new good friends. Robyn even bought a flute before we made it home and we must say, there's no place like home.

Mid-Autumn Festival



September 25, we took part in the celebration known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival. It's kind of like Thanksgiving, but no turkey. Rather than a stuffed bird, they stuff these cakes shaped like a full moon with different fillings. We sampled a couple of kinds--some a little more appetizing than others. The tradition dates back several centuries when some people hid messages of revolt in the cakes and passed them throughout the villages unnoticed by the Man. Hmm...old style fortune cookies??? Someone probably didn't get the message way back then and got a little more fiber in his diet than he'd planned.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A lesson in culture




It is custom to have dinner around 5 or 6 and then do a bit of recreation. All around campus we see students walking or playing tennis, basketball, volleyball, or badminton.

A tour of campus

Friday, September 14, 2007

Making Butter



There are a few important things that we can not find here(i.e. butter), so we had to be creative. After searching the Internet we were able to find a recipe for making butter. Luckily they do sell whipping cream here and after a while, we had butter!!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Our search for "The Holy Grail" aka toaster oven

Our first solo trip to the big city proved to be productive. We went in search of a toaster oven. We found one at Walmart, but they were out of stock and they would not give us the one on the shelf. We were directed to two more stores that did not even carry them and finally to a store that did. Unfortunately, they would have to order it from the warehouse. Just as we were about to give up, we stumbled upon the grail and it was only 200($28) more expensive than the first, but what can you do. The rest of the trip was great!!



Hong Kong at night.

Monday, September 3, 2007

We have our computer!

After a long hiatus, we're now able to regularly access the internet once again. Just to let everyone know, we're doing well and slowly adjusting to life in Asia. We are still adjusting to the food...or at least our stomachs are. We'll be keeping this blog more up to date in the future, with pictures and stories to come.

We had a nice LONG trip over here, but we did arrive safely. We got to spend the night in LA and Hong Kong. Here is a picture from HK at night. The city itself is a boiling pot, and they pride themselves on keeping the bay nice and colorful. We got to stay in a nice hotel and take the metro into town just long enough to take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Gettin' Ready to leave

Well, it's apparent that we're leaving in less than a month because our apartment is pretty much empty. We're not sitting on milk crates yet because we have fold our chairs that do just as well. As of right now, we'll be leaving the country on August 15. We'll have more details and more pictures as our life becomes more interesting.