Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We miss you all and hope you are having a blessed time wherever you are.

love,

Eric & Andrea

Christmas Parties

We have had a fun time celebrating Christmas with friends and classmates. With our friends we met at a coffee shop to play games like Christmas BINGO, sing Christmas Carols, eat Christmas cookies they had helped make earlier in December, and talk about the meaning of Christmas. At school, our class and some nationals put together a party which Andrea got to help MC. We learned some new songs, did a Rudolph skit, and lit candles as we talked about Jesus being the light of the world. It has been a blessed season, and Christmas Day hasn't even come!

Thai Restaurant

So last night Eric made plans for us to check out this Thai restaurant for date night. It was great! We got this booth with a couch on one side. The food was fruity and spicy. And we were serenaded in English and Spanish by a small band of people from the Philippines, India, etc. (including a flamboyant man dancing around)... All in East Asia.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving here was spread out.

It started with a nice meal the Sunday before.

Then on Thursday night we had a part with some friends at school where we played games (like a pumpkin roll), ate KFC, and shared about the history of Thanksgiving.

Turkey is hard to find here, but finally on Sunday we got our first bite when we ordered turkey subs from Subway.

The Purple Sweet Potato

So we found purple sweet potatoes at the grocery store and made some small loaves of pound cake! It's pretty good even if it does look blue/green/moldy... :)

A Big Day...

Things that make for a great day...

• Finding the equivalent to Swiffer dusting sheets (a HUGE find - import from Japan maybe?)
• Buying a crock pot
• Having the bus seriously wait for you as you run to catch it with your arms full of a crock pot, bucket and mop, and groceries (a sight I'm sure...)
• Motioning to the man across from you on the bus to look at the no smoking sign and put out his cigarette... which he did... by rubbing it into the plastic seat next to him... all while smiling innocently at this crazy foreigner as if she's from outer space

Ah... the life...

FedEx

Last week we got an e-mail saying FedEx couldn't deliver a package for some reason... Ok, so we decided to go there. Found the address in a book. Found the street. Followed the map to the street. Wandered down the street... no FedEx... Saw this huge business with a US and national flag so decided to stop there and ask. No clue where it was. But with a little English they offer to drive us around in their seriously nice mini-van to find it. Hm... ok?! After two stops for directions (the last one being at UPS :) we finally spotted it down what looked like an alley (but probably wasn't). We were extremely thankful to our drivers and then tried to explain to the FedEx people why we just showed up at what looked like their warehouse. Of course we didn't have the tracking number... it was starting to look pretty hopeless when this younger guy came up to us and knew just what we were looking for. He had tried to deliver it but the phone number was wrong and he couldn't reach us! Ah! Praises that we finally got it and all is well. Just another day in East Asia!

Calligraphy Class

So on Wednesday afternoons we have an optional calligraphy class. Awesome. But hard! Here's us trying to get started. That's our teacher standing behind us.

A Rickshaw Ride

Grocery shopping

So today I (Andrea) decided to do some grocery shopping after school. No problem. Take the 33 bus. Get off and walk five minutes to the supermarket. Shop around looking at all the new fruit like tiny apples and persimmons, different vegetables, live fish and seafood in tanks, dried fish and seafood in bins and packages, a whole aisle full of ramen, and an international section where a tiny container of pb is about $6. Figure out where to get the vegetables and fruit weighed so they can put a price tag on it. And after a while, start to get a little discouraged when the workers tell you "may yo" meaning "don't have" when you ask about black pepper and different herbs and then say a whole bunch of other things you don't understand!

But regardless, somewhere in there I must have forgotten that I would be walking home because I bought a squash, an extra large container of oatmeal, bottles of vinegar and ketchup, frozen chicken breasts, vegetables, some fruit, along with the bottles of toilet bowl cleaner... Not smart! I felt like such a pack mule carrying it all home in my backpack and two bags on my shoulders!

I was later told that I need to take Eric with me. Yes, or just not buy so much at one time!

We Made It!

We left saying so many sad good-byes, but praise God that we made it safely along with all of our luggage! We arrived about 36 hours after leaving Iowa to a warm welcome and a clean furnished apartment. Our first few days have been spent learning new things such as:

• Buying our "water dispenser" and ordering 5 gallon bottles of water over the phone
• Getting a bus pass that allows us to take the bus for about $0.10 a trip
• Finding our way to and from the local Mega Mart - two floors of everything!
• Watching our coat rack and shelves fly down the road to our apt in a rickshaw
• Using our built-in rice dispenser

We're doing really well though and have been blessed with people very willing to help us. We start school Friday after a long national holiday finishes. Excited to start learning some language!

Settling In

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zai jian USA

Leaving the US was really exciting and really sad. So many good-byes, but I think Skype will help save the day and make the good-byes see-you-laters. Just before going up the escalator to security at DSM it hit me that we are crazy! We made it to Denver though. Three more flights to go.

We're in Virginia now for some prep before heading overseas. Eric's been working on a master's class that's been really hard, but really good. It's one of those one-week intensive courses. In class for 8 hours, then 300 or more pages of thick books to read in the evenings. Fun fun...it's good though.

So, we're just working on getting settled in to our new lives out here. Some differences: lots of curvy roads without shoulders and the southern accents! It's different from back home in Des Moines, but what we'll hit over in Asia will be much different still. Looking forward to it!

Trip to Cali

Before leaving the country, we took a trip to California to visit Andrea's brother and sister. We started by flying into San Fran and borrowing some camping equipment for a couple of days in Yosemite. The time there included amazing views, hiking to waterfalls, food bins for anything that smelled (no food left in your car), and making friends with a couple of neighboring kids. We detoured back through Monterey where we saw jellyfish, sea otters, and sea horses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and then drove up a not-so-scenic coast to meet up with the family. We were impressed though with the variety of crops in the fields and orchards.

In San Francisco we saw the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, drove up to cool look-outs, and went to the beach. The Knapp family and Aunt Marlene came over for dinner one night. We went with Shana and Tyler on a ferry to Alcatraz. The three sisters went on a run in matching pink UnderArmour, and the guys (minus Mike) went golfing. We power-walked to fireworks on the 4th and wrestled in the grass after the finale got overtaken with brown smoke! After church we had a great brunch at the Knapps' along with seeing their goats, chickens, and Cutco knives. (not all together) We BARTed into downtown with Patrick to check out the Samurai exhibit at the Asian Art Museum but missed the ferry to Angel Island. This meant shopping instead at Zara and H&M. Ahh.... On our last day Eric went to Angel Island, and we all had more good hang out time. There was also a less-than-9-mile run, Apple lessons, the Milk Pail Market, Trader Joe's and dinner at Melissa's.

It was really sad to leave, but we found gas at the last minute to refill our rental car and caught our red-eye flight back to Des Moines. I do believe a wonderful time was had by all.

And now it's back to the real world and the reality that we need to pack up our entire apartment...

Sigh...

Plans before leaving

This past weekend Eric and I ran our first 10K! (6.2 miles) We finished, and we did it with about a 9 minute mile pace.

This weekend we get to spend time in MN with the Wellers, and then next weekend we head to CF for a bachelor party. We'll get to see Weller siblings in Cali over the 4th, and then be home in Des Moines for our last weekend at church.

From the end of July to the end of September we have an orientation in Virginia. Around the first of October is when we'll actually head out to East Asia.

Hope to talk to you before then!

Getting Ready

We have about a month until we go to orientation. It's a bit busy, but we're having fun packing, giving things away, and visiting family and friends.