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.

An Unexpected Night.....

The other night we were in the middle of our nightly routine when all of a sudden we heard noise coming from outside. We looked out our 17th floor window and saw…


A stage set up on the only small section of grass located in our apartment complex. There were already many people sitting in chairs and many more were walking toward it. The girls began getting excited and wanted to go see. So we eagerly started making our way outside to the stage to see what it was all about. There we found…



The locals were putting on a variety show! There were acts of traditional dances, magicians, musicians, and much more.



We really enjoyed how people of all ages participated in the show.



Here are a few pictures of the crowd.


We smiled at many people while we were there as we were the only foreigners attending the show. One sweet lady and her son took the time to translate for us. Every time Jen would take a picture or video she would insist Jen stand where there were no heads in the shot. She gave up her spot many times to make sure we could see. We hope to run into this stranger and her family again soon.


It began getting late so we decided to head up to get ready for bed. On our way, we passed by our guards setting up for a huge firework show! YEAH! They know how to end a show right! We ran to our apartment to watch from high up. Sarah set up our window seat with pillows and blankets. We were ready, but the camera battery was not. We did happen to get one picture and one very short video. Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed our Unexpected Night!