Snowed In... Again

That's right. It's in the upper teens tonight as I write this, and it has been snowing since about 10am with a forecast of continuing through the night. We're staying at Rebs' mom's house, which happens to be on kind of a hilltop. So we chose not to get out today. This is pretty much a repeat of two and three days ago, except the first time was with an icy intro. Probably the best thing about it so far has been taking our dog Legend for walk in it. She about 12 and a half now, but when she goes outside, she acts like a puppy, bounding in the taller stuff, sometimes dropping her mouth into it as she walks to quench her thirst, occasionally rolling in it, and when we go around the block, she seems to like taunting the other neighborhood dogs that she's on a walk while they're behind the fence.

The good news is that all this cabin fever has forced us to get focused and take care of exciting things like going through junk mail from the past 2 years, torturing myself with climbing videos, or checking up on my 401K plan. Well, maybe it's not that exciting, but at least I have nothing better to do to avoid doing it any more.

Repercussions to a Minimalist Lifestyle

So if you've been reading, you know that we've been stateside for several days now. You may also know that I've been on somewhat of a minimalist kick, which I think is one of the best times to do it because you're tempted with things you "need" left and right. 'Tis the season to be spending. So far, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. I realize that right now in life, I have everything I need. It helps knowing that we likely have (at most) one more year in Korea, which means that we will be moving and will be vanquishing much of what we own, or shipping it home. I see my minimalism as a way of reducing my stress and work in the long run. Maybe when we move back to the States for good, I will think about things differently. We'll be getting cars, a house, and opening up our long-forgotten storage unit to fill it. But that's not right now. So for now, I will continue to minimize my life.

Rebs doesn't exactly see eye to eye with me on this whole thing. Yesterday, I happened to put on a pair of socks I hadn't worn in a while. I went downstairs and was sitting there when Rebs came by and noticed a big hole on the underside. Her first reaction was to want to buy me some new socks. I think that would be most people's reaction. But I still have plenty of socks, probably more than I can wear in a week. Let's face it, most people do laundry at least once a week. So if you can manage to have clean socks every day of the week, why does it matter if you have 4 pairs or 17? As far as I know, she hasn't bought me any new socks. But I did consent and tell her she can buy me some new boxers. :)

All is well here in Colorado. We're really enjoying our time with Rebecca's family. Life is so simple without work or a cell phone. And Rebs' dad and stepmom have been so gracious as to let us use their cars during the day by dropping them off at work. Two nights ago, we went to the Bonefish Grill for dinner, had some amazing food, but it was especially special because we were all together: us, Rebs' dad and stepmom, stepbrother Brandon who is in the Marines, his fiancee Kim, and Rebs' brother Josh, who flew to Canada the next day to meet his fiancee. Everyone's schedule (except ours) is somewhat complicated, so the fact that we were all able to be together was nice. Afterwards, we came back and had an early Christmas, opening a couple gifts at first, but Santa's helper (Gail) kept finding new gifts that should be opened at that very moment. So about half the presents got opened. We had some fun with doing one-legged squats (no alcohol necessary), and finished the night with some warm apple pie and ice cream.

Two things I've been enjoying a lot lately: working out and eating! If you know me well, you know that I really like eating. And the one thing for me that makes food even better is having earned it through a good workout. It tastes better and is always guilt free. I also like being in good health, so that doesn't hurt either. So yesterday, Rebs and I went swimming for about an hour. I think it was about my senior year of college that I actually fell in love with the sport. Before that, it had been a means to an end-- a scholarship. But I knew I needed a better attitude about it because of how much time we spent training. So I prayed about it and really set my mind to change. That last season was my best ever. I loved the way I felt gliding through the water with ease due to a finely trained body. I think that feeling has stuck with me. So now, even though I'm not in peak performance shape like in college, I love getting a good workout in every now and then.

I've been having trouble adjusting to the time change from Korea to here. Korea is 16 hours ahead of Denver time, so when I'm going to bed here, it's about when I was getting up a week ago. So I wake up around 3,4, or 5 in the morning and am wide awake. It's happened every day I've been here so far. But Gail usually gets up early to work out and she invited me to come with her. So this morning, when I woke up at 4:30, rather than trying to force myself back to sleep, I was excited to get up and have a workout buddy. We did a CV circuit that Gail's trainer made for us, which is basically a mix of arms, abs, and legs, rotating through each station usually with less than a minute rest. His name is Chris and seems like a nice guy. Very perky for 5 a.m., but I guess that could be good for motivating the unmotivated. After a half hour, he had to go with his next client, but that was fine with me because I was already pretty fatigued. It's amazing the difference you feel at high altitude. I get winded so much easier up here near the mile high city. I believe Westminster is around 7000 feet in altitude. So during my lifting and running, I feel like my heart is burning a bit, hard to get air, but at the same time, fine tuning itself to be stronger. C'mon red blood cells, multiply!

So here I am at 7:30 in the morning, having already had a good workout for the day, a nice Fa La Latte (God bless the eggnog), and written a blog. I kind of like getting up early, but will probably need a nap later.

Arrived

After a ride from our friend to the airport, a flight from Busan to Tokyo, then Tokyo to LA, and LA to Denver for a total of 28 hours of traveling door to door, we are safe and sound at Rebs' dad's house. But for the 1 hour wait on the tarmac in LA, and then waiting for our luggage to arrive on the flight after us, it was a very smooth trip. It was a great feeling when we came up the escalator to see Brent waiting for us, to see the smile on both his and Rebs' face, the pure joy from a long-awaited embrace. It has been over 2 years since we were last in Colorado. So much has gone on while we were gone, it's hard to catch up sometimes. But the people we love are still here.

I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, my usual jet lag wake up time. We were slightly delirious upon arriving, having only slept a few hours at different times on different airplanes. But we still managed some good conversation with all of the family. And now that the camera isn't packed anymore, you will hopefully get to see some pictures as we travel.

America

It's 11:00 at night here in Daegu. Rebs' stuff is sitting in 3 open suitcases as she gets one last good chat with our friend Narina before we head home for two months. My stuff is mostly packed in one bag in the bedroom. I've been slowly adopting the minimalist attitude over the past few months, one of the reasons we've chosen not to carry a cell phone when we're home. Feeling like my world is cluttered, I've been seeking a solution. Now that the school semester is over (if you're unaware, we teach English in Korea), I am really looking forward to the time away, the chance to step out of the picture and look at my life in Korea from a distance.

It feels a little weird going back to the States after being gone for two years, and having not lived there for three. Rebs and I were talking about the reverse culture shock we expect to feel--noticing things we had forgotten about when we first left. In a sense, we've become weird. We now know and (as much as is possible) understand the Korean way, and have somewhat adopted most of those methods for ourselves. But in doing that, have we lost some of our western logic? A more tangible example for people who haven't lived in another country, specifically Korea, is personal space. In Korea, the larger the city, the smaller the proximity of personal space available. This is why it's not uncommon to have your nose in someone's armpit on the subway, or get shoved aside by a halmonee (grandmother) with her purse as a battering ram on the bus. I just imagine myself going home and bumping into someone in a packed store and continuing to walk on without noticing, then having that person turn around and call me names. Rebs also says I need to work on my driving skills. And we're not sure what's going to happen with driving because when we got our Korean driving licenses, we had to turn in our American ones. So we're going to the DMV when we get back and see what they say. I can only imagine the look on the lady's face when she sees my license all in Hangul.

But it's all worth it to get some much needed time with family and friends. If you're in Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or Kansas, drop us a line because we'll be around!

PS - this is Dusty writing, not Rebs.

Happy Late Thanksgiving

It's been several months since I last wrote. I believe it was just before my summer camp started. Well, there is good reason for my absence. It somewhat represents my feeling of life for a while. I was the absentminded professor. Basically, I worked 12-13 hour days 6 days a week for 4 weeks, then went straight into school. This semester was extremely busy for me because I was teaching 5 different kinds of classes: Basic English 1, Basic English 1A, Basic English 2, Restaurant English, and Hair Design English. Yes, hair design. Rebs does say that I care too much about my hair, so maybe it fits me. All these classes meant I had much more to prep for. So I've basically just been keeping my head afloat with school for the past 4 months. On the weekends, I abandoned responsibility and headed to one of our many crags. My love for rock climbing made everything else not matter so much. It was the most enjoyment I got out of life, so that's what I did the most.

So there. Now you're caught up on bullet points. Now that school is winding down, I hope to have more time for blogging and keeping up with people better. Last year we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. So this year, we made up for it with two! Two turkeys, double the casserole, double the belly ache. It was actually lots of fun. There is definitely a different feeling when you do Thanksgiving with friends. But we laughed a lot, and enjoyed our family away from home.

We head to the U.S. in just under 3 weeks! The majority of that time will be spent with family and friends, catching up after not having been in America for 2 years. I imagine that we will have somewhat of a reverse culture shock upon returning. Since we last left, my sister (and about everyone back home we know) had a baby. He is walking and starting to talk and we've never met him. So it will be really exciting to get to know him as well as her other two kids that are growing up fast. Also, my parents bought a piece of land with a cabin on it. They have been renovating it with hopes of having it as a future home someday. Well, that's at least one of the dreams. We are excited to see it and possibly help with some of the renovation.

Epic Weekend

One to write home about, literally. This past weekend was our bi-annual weekend get-together for our nearest and dearest climbing friends in South Korea. It is one of the few times a year we gather together in the same place at the same time to celebrate our unique family-like friendships and create new memories. True to form, the festivities commenced Friday evening and the next 36 hours or so was full of excited energy and laughter. Sunday afternoon we were exhausted from it all but full of joy and satisfaction. Here is a brief rundown of the weekend shenanigans.

We kicked off the weekend with a delicious barbecue at our place followed by a Saturday morning breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls (thanks Dusty), eggs, fruit, and lots of coffee. It was a slow morning to get around and make decisions due to the drizzle outside but eventually it dried out and we all made our way to Shinban for some yoga and climbing. Shauna led a bunch of us in a super amazing practice which prepared our minds and bodies for some fun and exciting afternoon climbing. The newest addition to our family, Epic, had a ball running around in circles, chasing dragon flies, and chewing on sticks. Saturday evening we all headed to Bryan and Shauna's for some delicious South St philly cheese-steaks. Then Dusty posed the next challenge for us all, a dance competition. We were all divided into teams and had only a few hours to pick a song and choreograph a dance to perform in front of everyone. Let's just say it was a MEMORABLE competition and we got it all on video. Finally, we all headed back to our place so the girls could do some clothing/book exchanges. It's always so much fun sharing and trading with each other. We finally all headed to bed around 3am. Those that slept at our house were lucky enough to sleep in Sunday morning. Shortly after a light breakfast we headed back over to Bryan and Shauna's to celebrate Hana's birthday (she's 3). The party was hopping. We partook in appetizers, games, and cupcakes followed by our own parade outside. Everyone gathered musical instruments and played them in unison as we all walked to the park together to let the kids get their energy out. It was a crazy and chaotic blast of fun. The adults took turns resting and playing with the kids and by the end of it all, we were exhausted! One by one we all said our goodbyes and Dusty and I headed home for some much needed rest.

We're always so humbled and amazed at how God has blessed us with such amazing friendships. We are so thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives. Thanks to everyone who made it. To Bryan, we will never look at you the same after seeing you dressed in Shauna's bikini-top and tube dress (falling off) and dancing like a girl (followed by the security guard knocking on the door). Shauna, for the amazing yoga session and the delicious elmo cupcakes. Hana for your sweetness and love of dogs. Jess and Charlie, cuz you guys are just such a fun couple to be around. Terra (Harriet) for listening, for being my trusty belayer and inspiring me to climb hard. I love climbing with you, girl. Zen, for your joy, zest, and butter. Heidi, for your laughter and sharing your new experiences. Hanna, for your hilarious dance moves. Louise, for your gentle sweetness. Josh, for your genuine personality. Tom and Kate, for all the tasty pastries. Madeleine, for crawling around on the floor and making us all laugh. And Will, for your hilarious rap poem about poo. Indeed, it was a weekend to remember.