Celebrating Harvest Time...

We love this time of year, no matter where we are. It is not the candy or the dress-up, it is the fact that we love to create a good time and good memories, based on making things from scratch with family, whether it is decorations or costumes... or memories... Making memories, good memories, is cause for celebrating.

People We Meet...

One day, while sitting in a Marketing Class, a thought entered my (Russ') mind, "People can't understand what you are trying to tell them, unless you tell them in terms that they can understand (A person that has no interest in Sports, is not going to respond to a Sports Ad on ESPN, mainly, becuase they will not be watching ESPN to see the AD first hand), furthermore, most people will not understand unless you go to them personally, find out their interests, and take time to tell them what you have to say on a level that they understand".

So, if you like to play guitar, people that play guitar may listen to what you have to say. Or, if you love to talk about LEAN Manufacturing and Business, people that share that interest, may also listen to things you have to say. And most of the time, this can be done over Coffee and/or Tea...

The Riverwalk...

We are very fortunate to have this beautiful view from our kitchen balcony. We may have posted this picture before to a newsletter, but, regardless, it is a very nice picture of the riverwalk that runs through our city.

This Riverwalk is new and many people take a morning or an evening stroll. We meet people here often.

Ta Xihuan Zai Gongyuan Dushu..

Before this chapter in our life, we often were so busy that we failed to enjoy the simple things in life, like reading a book in a Park. During our daily "journeys" we often see people (strangers) sitting, reading books, and enjoying life. The "Simple" things in life. We are not are conveying laziness or any other type of negative connotation one may think when they hear the word "simple", by any means. Actually, we want to stress just the opposite. We feel that in order for someone to appreciate the "simple" things in life, like books, food, shelter, good health, it takes an intellect that can only be obtained from an appreciative spirit.

We encourage you to NOT be so busy that you can't appreciate the simple things in life, like reading a book in the park and having the good health to do so...

A Sunday Afternoon Walk...

In our opinion, there are few things like spending the afternoon with your family, eating junk food (and walking it off), laughing (for us, mostly at each other for saying we are learning to speak Korean, which we are not), or just getting lost in the moment.

Pictures speak louder than words in this case...

Meeting the locals and seeing the city...

We always seem to discover the most intersting things in our city. If we were to post every cool picture of every neat thing and every smiling face, we would be on here 24/7!!! So, the best way to experience this for yourself is to come visit. Our city is really neat to say the least. Just the other night, Russ was up around 11 p.m. working on some guitar lessons. The weather has recently dipped into the 50's at night, so, the windows were open on the 17th floor; the breeze was blowing and it was as silent as an Autumn night on the road to Whittsburg (sorry, you just have to be on the "in" to know this reference ;-).

The breeze isn't really the thing that made the night so perfect, but instead, it was the sound of crickets and frogs in the garden of the complex seventeen stories below. Russ actually smelled honeysuckle and heard crickets and frogs, while playing guitar.

Now, for those of you that don't know this history of the Crossroads near Whittsburg, well... that was worth more than all of the Lipton Decaf Tea in Asia...

By the way, the night picture of the city is not enhanced, it is not colored up... it is what it is.

More of the "Same but Different"...

Although it may seem we have things readily available to cure ills of homesickness, don't let the labels fool you. Every culture tends to put their own spin on a classic, like the Shredded Pork and Seaweed Dunkin Donut or the Green Tea Glazed Donut. We aren't quite there on tasting some of the flavors, but we hope to one day have the intestinal fortitude to partake.

We find that the Pepsi and Coke have a little difference as well. That difference is that they seem a little flat and have a small aftertaste (similar to a diet drink) than their distant cousins from the states. By the way, Mountain Dew has extra Lemon Flavor (and even seems to have extra caffeine, simlar to JOLT cola for all of you that can remember cramming for exams in college). Regardless, they taste AWESOME and we are so thankful them.