Search This Blog

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A little catch up.

Welp, I know everyone thought I pretty much killed my blog...and I kind of did...but it's sorta back to life! Since it's been a bazillion years since I posted anything I'm just going to bring you up to date really quick like.

Finished up coaching my awesome volleyball girls at the end of October who had the best season that a TCIS girls volleyball team has ever had in the history of histories! They are amazing to say the least. We went to Shanghai for our APAC tournament this year where we got to compete against some really solid teams from all over Asia.



And we brought our game faces.




And posed like bosses.









And added two new members, Haibao and Baibao, to our team.


We eventually had to say Shangbye but not before one of us totally bit it and provided entertainment for all of China.


And then we came back and took second in our KAIAC tournament, making it to the championship game for the first time ever! Sidenote: The coach for Seoul American which is the team we played in the championship also played volleyball at PLU for Kevin and Tim!


Then volleyball season ended and basketball started, just in time for me to mess up my knee so that I am totally useless.


Went to an awesome floating lantern festival in Seoul with my friends Katie and Erin!




Had an awesome birthday with a ton of wonderful surprises, two of them being a pumpkin spice latte brought from America since they don't have it here!


And a sweet surprise from my vball girls who I love most dearly.


And then thanksgiving weekend came and its not even horrible weather here yet! We've had some awesome days which would be so perfect for running but I will have to settle for walking on these old legs.


But got some awesome slippers!


And went to Everland with wonderful friends and rode rollercoasters oh yeah!


Other than that stuff, everyday I am blessed to have the coolest job and teach kids to do fun stuff like this.


The end.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

busaaaaaaaaan

yikes, i've been pretty bad at updating this thing...hopefully you've not all forgotten about it:)
a few weeks ago we had an entire week off from school for the korean chusok holiday, which is most similar to our thanksgiving. so my friends erin, danny, scottie, christine and i all took a trip down to the big beach city of busan! this isn't going to be a long post but i wanted to throw up some pics from the week because it really was pretty great. we decided to stay in a pretty classy hotel right on the beach and just fork out the big monies. actually, it was a pretty great deal for how close to the beach and how nice of a hotel it was. it was just the vacation we needed and we had perfect weather! on our way down, we actually got to spend the actual chusok day with danny's family who is korean and lives about 30 minutes outside of busan. he grew up in the states but his mom is from here so it's a pretty cool thing to be between two cultures, and it was neat for me to be able to spend the day with his fam! him and erin are also engaged and getting married in december (woo!) so his cousins took erin to buy her a traditional korean hanbok for their wedding. pretty cool.



and then we headed to the beach!







ICE CREAM CAKE!


danny the flying squirrel


the dog i want so bad it hurts




coolest department store with a water show in it...this pic doesn't do it justice








the view from the workout center in our hotel. i could live here.







COME VISIT ME!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

thank goodness for volleyball.

These are my volleyball girls here in Korea and they are awesome for a lot of reasons...








So here's a few...
1. The first is because they are pretty stinkin fun. There are a lot of times where I would rather hang out with them than adults (no offense to my friends), and that very well could be because I sometimes, pretty often, act like I'm still in high school. The fact that they have felt perfectly comfortable pantsing me in front of others for the past 2 years tells you something about our equal levels of maturity.
2. They are clutch.
Our first game of the season was against Seoul Foreign School. I wont say much about SFS except they can be pretty bad sports which makes it even more difficult because they are always pretty good. TCIS hasn't beat them at their home gym in atleast 10 years I think, and when we were walking in some guy said "you guys came a long way to lose". Of course I was fuming, but like champs my girls kept on walking and totally ignored everyone around them. First and second game we pretty much demolished SFS. The third game though, our wheels started coming off and they pretty much did the same thing to us. So going into the fifth game, we didn't start off too strong. I used my last timeout when we were down 11-2...yep. I told the girls that I was going to keep quiet and let them do their thing because I knew they could. My senior captain responded by telling the girls that she is excited for this opportunity to come back and that whether we win or lose we're going to thank the Lord for the challenge. Humbling experience for her coach who wanted to beat this team so badly that I would've been ok with this being my last day on earth if we could just get this win. My girls went on to beat them 19-17.
3. They teach me probably just as much as I teach them. The example of my captain humbling me to the ground is a perfect one. But they continue to do it. Last week we played OSAN which is a U.S. airbase high school. The kids there are American kids and I forgot how mean kids can be. Our boys absolutely crushed their boys team and so did our girls JV. We played last and beat them pretty easy the first 2 games. The third game we lost but pulled it together early in the 4th. So I'm sitting there on the bench with my assistant coach and the score is 18-6 and we are kind of killing them. But their students and boys team are sitting next to us and behind us and absolutely tearing into my girls and hurling some of the nastiest insults at them that I've ever heard. I was so close to turning around and telling them to shutup, to check out the scoreboard, and then starting one of those gym chants where you get your keys out and yell 'warm up the bus' just to remind them they were getting schooled. I did control my mouth...and my fist... and told them if they were going to do that right behind me they could go somewhere else and they all got up and left, but I definitely didn't say what was going through my head. However, my girls just kept playing and smiling, and when the game ended they shook hands with each girl, we prayed, and they even stuck around and talked to one of the coaches.

As some of you know, TCIS is going through some pretty trying times financially so things are very much up in the air right now. I won't go into it, but there is a lot of uncertainty and it can be pretty anxiety producing. These girls are such a breath of fresh air though and I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend time each day with them.

I have to say that I miss my PLU girls something fierce too. They just finished cleaning up big time at a tournament in San Antonio, and as always are unbelievably talented, so if you wanna see some dang good volleyball in Washington you know where to go. I'm bummed I wont get to see the seniors play in their last season but I'm so excited to hear about everything that they accomplish. If you want to follow PLU this year check out http://golutes.com/landing/index. Miss you girls:(

Sunday, August 28, 2011

track and field world championships in daegu!

This morning my friends Jaci, Christie and I got up at the bumcrack of dawn to take the train to Daegu because we had tickets to the track and field world championships that were just an hour away! Such a cool experience. I can remember watching professional meets on tv with my dad when I was little and being able to see the fastest men and women in the world in action has always been on my bucket list. I got to check one off today, wahoo! We had morning session tickets and got to see the mens 400, womens 100, mens 110m hurdles, womens 1500, discus, shotput, and pole vault. So basically it was one of the best days ever. Plus I found a few potential husbands. Here's some pics and videos for the day! If my camera skills make you sick I'm sorry...I was trying to video and watch at the same time and I'm obviously not very skilled.















Fastest man to run the 400m in the world right now. No big deal.


Trini and Tobago! My homeland...









This guy is AMAZING. His name is Oscar Pistorius and he runs for South Africa. And he has two prosthetic legs. WHAT A BOSS.




Seriously though, he is unbelievable. Here's the footage from his heat.



And the best for last...These are the most amazing calves I've ever seen on a man. I know for sure that we are meant to be wed.