Thomas journals

Chris and Cole arrived finally, on separate days, after separate delays, but all healthy.  Just in time for Christmas holidays. We went to the gorgeous National Museum, on a beautiful cold winter day.  Note the NamSan tower in the distance.

Diorama in our subway station Is it DokDo? or TsuShima? or Liancourt Rocks? Two very tiny islands in between Korea and Japan are the cause of an ongoing dispute between the two countries.  They are simply large rock outcroppings, never inhabited — but national pride and potential mineral or navigation rights make their ownership valuable. Korea claims the Dok Islands, says they were part of the old Korean kingdoms five hundred years ago and so marked on old maps. Japan claims the Tsu Islands (the same rocks—Japanese name) because  Japan owned Korea in the first part of the 1900s so they designed the navigation maps used since then. This is a virtual carbon copy of similar disputes about similar rock outcroppings between Japan and China; between Philippines and China; and between Vietnam and China; as well as uninhabited glaciers between India and China.   Notice a common thread in these last sets?  The recent air-rights claims made by China over the Diaoyu/S...

Our Drama Department put on an adaptation of Pride & Prejudice .  Barb coordinated the costuming for the show.  She adapted costumes that we borrowed from a sister school that had done the same show a few years ago — she developed additional costumes and jewelry as well.  The result looked great, and all had a fun time.  I helped on show nights, selling baked goods at the concession stand, putting up signage, taking tickets.  I have promised to help with the elocution for the next play, as most of the performers had trouble slowing down enough to be understood.  Next spring, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!

Korean currency is denominated simply into Won.  Given inflation of the 70s, it now has lots of zeroes.  However, because the exchange rate is quite near USdollar decimals — at 1100won to the dollar, now increasing in value so it will soon be 1000won to the dollar — it is easiest for us to simply treat 1won as equaling 1/10 of a cent.  Thus, a one-thousand-won bill is like a dollar bill.   A ten-thousand-won bill is like a ten-dollar bill.  Easy! I think the won has a bit better purchasing power also — many small items can be purchased for under a dollar, whereas it is rare for anything substantial in the US to be sold for under a dollar. It is interesting to note that, just as in the US, coins are less and less important:  there is no coin valued as much as a dollar (unlike in Canada or Europe). I would guess that the government in Korea has a problem similar to that of all mints — it now costs them more to produce and distribute small coins than...

Jeff and I were among many YISS teachers who attended the concluding worship service of the "God of This City" Youth Event, at our school in September. It was held at the end of a full day of activities for Christian high school youth from English-speaking congregations and schools in Seoul. The YISS Praise Team led worship and did an excellent job. Afterwards, a team of youth leaders from the U.S. called Axis, led a tag-team discussion about how to read the Bible - a practical message to inspire us all to read our bibles as a story, not just as isolated passages. I was impressed that the message delivery appealed to the youth, but was not "dummed-down" for them - it challenged their thinking, as it did mine. 

Barb and I last night attended a lecture by a group working with Third Culture Kids, and specifically with North Korean refugee children.     The featured speakers were two young women who (separately) crossed the river from North Korea into China then made their way arduously to Seoul.  Their personal stories were touching, and their personalities were winning.   I wish we had more time to talk with them about life in that mysteriously isolated place.  They gave every evidence of being quite apolitical throughout, and neither had suffered from famine -- they simply wanted to escape from the incessant monitoring and fear of their government. The several autobiographies and memoirs of refugees from North Korea are incredibly frightening, all the more so because of their proximity -- in both time and, here, geography.   And we wonder, what can we do?   We can support refugee organizations and political efforts to pressure the Chinese government to acce...

For several weeks after our arrival in Korea in July, the weather was quite consistently steamy and hot, changing little.  Whether rain or shine, the humidity was unrelenting.  But on September 1st, it seemed to shift, with cooler and dryer evenings, and a different feel to the air.  The crickets and cicadas changed tune as well.  By now it is downright chilly at dawn, and wonderful warm weather at mid-day.  I suppose autumn and winter are coming -- this has been a clear change, something different from the New York back-and-forth up-and-down temperature swings. Our weekend at the staff retreat, at Taejeon Beach Association cabins, was just in time.  We caught the warm sun and warm water, for a truly restful weekend.   I swam at two quite different beaches-- one open to the mild waves, a very public beach with lifeguards and snack shacks and rental boats; the other, just around the point, in a sheltered bay with no waves, few people. ...