Willowcreek Students Combine Service and Fun at Yearend Party

What is the best way for middle schoolers to fight cancer? Giant rolling hamster balls, of course.

Willowcreek Middle School pulled out all the stops for its annual year-end Mega Party: bounce houses, obstacle courses, dancing at centerfield, frozen T-shirt contests, sports, and yes — enormous inflatable balls large enough for students to enter and roll around.

This year, Willowcreek connected the fun with a deeper purpose — a Relay for Life with the American Cancer Society. The Willowcreek school family includes several cancer survivors, including both principals, and a few faculty are currently battling cancer.

To continue reading, click here for the full NWI Times story.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #92 - The Year 2008

2008 brought us some friends from Russia.  Ilya, Yulia, Sasha, Mirek (and later Misha) moved into the same apartment complex, and our girls became fast friends.  We also started wonderful a tradition of celebrating New Years together (which is the big holiday of the year in Russian speaking cultures).

English camps brought in extra money as well as extra friends and family.  Here are my dad and Jerry and Raylene Tucker, who adopted Emma as a grandchild of their own!

As always, we had lots of fun, including a KNU trip to Busan, our annual trip(s) to Daecheon Beach, and the annual halloween costume party at Outback.  Bruce and Susan Kim usually have the best costumes of anyone there.  Here's Susan (the cafeteria lady) polishing my boots!

Adam, Robb, Houston, and a few other folks also hosted a charity concert at the "Helicopter Bar," which is actually inside a restored chinook helicopter.  Amazing location, amazing music.

100 Things I Love About Korea: # 90 - The Year 2007

Ah, the joys of the McDonald's highchair train.  Life doesn't get any better than this.  For a spell, about half of our church would gather for Sunday lunch at McDonald's.  Not so healthy for the body, but oh so healthy for the heart in other ways.

In March, my Mom and Dad came to visit so they could witness my ordination.  (And that, by the way, was an interesting story.  Apparently, the KNU President and the District Superintendent kind of pushed me through the ordination process, skipping over several steps, so that when our church was officially organized in April, we could have an ordained pastor at the helm.)  While my parents were in town, we went to the zoo and the folk village, and our friend YoungMin took us out for Bul-Dalk (Fire Chicken).  Thankfully, YoungMin was wise enough to bring along a few liters of milk to cool the flames in our mouths!

100 Things I Love About Korea: #85 - The Year 2005

Sarah babysat Suhyun (the daughter of our good friends YongGi and KyoungRan) for most of this year.  She is just a few months younger than Emma.  I don't think either of the girls remember these early play times, but they were tight from the very beginning.  It's hard to believe now, but Emma was actually much bigger than Suhyun then.  Emma used to take her toys and push her around, and Sarah and I used to say we wished Suhyun would just sock Emma good for once to teach her some manners!


For our annual anniversary mini-trip we stringed together a babysitting relay team, so that we could go away for a night.  Someone recommended a spa in Asan.  Little did we know, it was actually in old town Asan.  But we still had a good time.  We got away to a mountain for some hiking.  At the train station on our way home, there was some kind of protest (probably for Dokdo), and some of the protesters recruited us and outfitted us to join their ranks.


We also did some cooking lessons for our good friend Belle's son, EungChul.  This was his birthday "cake."  E.C. joined me on a trip to Bangladesh in 2010, and he will probably be coming to live with us in American in a few months.

One of our favorite special occasion treats was going to Outback for a little taste of home with the Bloomin' Onion.  (Outback Korea no longer serves these because they were having supply chain problems, but they were good while they lasted.)

100 Things I Love about Korea: #81 - Pepero Day

11-11, AKA November eleventh, is Pepero Day in Korea.  Pepero are classic Korean snack cookies shaped like sticks and covered in chocolate.
According to one legend, middle school girls in the southern tip of Korea spontaneously invented this holiday on November 11 (because the one's look like the Pepero sticks).  They gave each other boxes of pepero along with the wish to be "as tall and slender as pepero."
But cynics say that the holiday is nothing more than a shameless marketing ploy by Lotte Confectionary, the manufacture of said snacks.  Either way, they get more than half their annual sales during the month of November, so I'm sure they're happy about it.
I love it because it's just good fun.  Who doesn't like eating chocolate covered cookies?  We all need another reason to celebrate life and taste a little more joy.

By the way, there are 10 different Pepero flavors.  Can you name them all?  What's your favorite?  Mine is almond - hands down.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #64 - The Thunder-Farting Daughter-In-Law

The Thunder-Farting Daughter-in-Law is a traditional Korean story.  I have this beautifully illustrated in a children's book.  Needless to say, this is absolutely going to be one of the few books I mail home.

The story begins with EunMi, living together with her husband JunSeok and her father in law MinTaek. The father-in-law notices that EunMi doesn’t seem comfortable around him. She always has a sour look on her face, and she moves awkwardly. So he complains to his son, “Why is EunMi always so grumpy and grim?”
JunSeok laughs and says, “Oh, don’t worry about EunMi. She just has these incredible, horrible farts, so she’s holding it in around you.”
So the old man goes to EunMi and tells her to relax and let her true self out. She tells the old man to brace himself, and she lets out a fart that rocks the house. The old man is shocked, and he says, “Dang girl! You sure can fart! You’ve got something special there.”
Well, things seem to go on as usual for a while, with the addition of the occasional roof shaking fart. Then, a group of merchants travels through their area. EunMi meets them under a persimmon tree. The merchants are looking longingly at the lush persimmons, but they are all out of reach. EunMi offers to get them down for the merchants, and everyone laughs. So EunMi says, “Will you give me all of the silk on that donkey if I can get you all of the persimmons?” The lead merchant takes her bet. He thinks there is no way possible that this mild little lady can scale the tree and get all of the persimmons.
--- And here comes the best part of the story! --- Next, EunMi turns away from the merchants and points her rumpus up in the air at the persimmon tree and lets out a gigantic thunder-fart. The wind and sound from her nuclear fart shake the tree so hard that every last persimmon falls to the ground, and EunMi walks away with the donkey load of silk.
Back at home the husband and father-in-law are overjoyed, for they are now very wealthy. They slap each other on the back and say, “Boy aren’t we lucky to have a thunder-farting woman in our house! We’re sure glad she isn’t holding it in anymore!”

To see how I used this amazing story in a sermon, click here.  

100 Things I Love About Korea # 59: Replay - Icheon Pottery Village and Bath House

This is a repost from January 30, 2009.

This week, we did a little alternative vacationing.  I worked Tuesday (instead of taking the red-letter Lunar New Year holiday).  Then, on Wednesday, I took half a day off, and we all headed out to Icheon for a little overnight  tourism.  Our friends Adam and Elisa introduced us to this little gem, and we followed the same pattern this time.

We arrived in the afternoon, and after securing nice little two rooms in a "Love Motel," (which just means a walk in motel), we enjoyed a nice supper of galbi and an evening at Spa Plus, one of the best bath houses in Korea.  It also has a water park attached, but we've always been content with the bath house part.  This time, for all of us, our favorite part was sitting in the hot tubs outside while breathing in the cool winter air.  I also enjoyed the steam bath.  The steam got so thick that I couldn't see the other side of the room.

In the morning, we had a leisurely breakfast at Paris Baguette Cafe, and we taxied over to the Icheon Pottery Village. This is one of the coolest places in Korea, in my humble opinion. There is shop after shop after shop with all sorts of locally made pottery. We really, really enjoyed ourselves.

Sarah and Mom both had birthday cash to spend. Sarah got a nice, round white vase with muted leaves. Mom got a blue/green pot for a house plant.  We saw lots of stuff we loved but couldn't (or didn't want to) afford. We also got some cute little gifts for other folks.

Icheon is about 2 hours away by bus. If you wanted to go on a day trip, it would be a very full day trip (maybe not so bad if you don't have kids). If you spend the night, it turns out to be pretty relaxing (except that I was always worried that one of us would trip and knock over a table full of thousands of dollars worth of pottery!). All in all, it was a great little trip.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 57: Replay - Butterfinger Pancakes

This is a repost from December 27, 2008.   Butterfinger Pancakes is still one of the best restaurants ever.

About six months ago, our good friends Adam and Elisa took new jobs and moved to Seoul.  When we saw them about a month ago at the concert in a helicopter (yes, in a helicopter - a big one), we made plans to come visit them after Christmas.  This weekend was the auspicious occasion.
We came with no plans whatsoever other than hanging with them and eating at the restaurants of their choice.  They suggested a place called Butterfinger Pancakes for supper on Friday night.  Adam said that if we ate there for supper we would want to eat there the next day, too.  He's right.  We're ruined.  This place has some of the best food I've ever eaten anywhere.  There may be a bit of deprivation speaking here, but I was overwhelmed with the lush goodness of most of their food.
On Friday night, Sarah had some nut waffles - light, fluffy, crispy, excellent.  Emma had the mac and cheese, also very good.  Adam had the Fresco Burger, and Elisa and I split a Fresco Burger and a salad.  The salad was blah, but the Fresco Burger was outstanding.  It's actually a sausage burger topped with two kinds of cheese and bacon, then grilled on high quality bread.  It's a living heart attack, but oh so delicious!

On Saturday, we sat around in our pajamas until noon.  What a welcome reprieve from our busy end of semester and Christmas schedule!  It was so nice to sip some coffee with friends and have nowhere we needed to go and nothing we needed to do.  We also called our friends Mark and Naomi who are now studying in Canada.  It was great to have all six of us on speaker phone, almost like old times.
About 2pm, we returned to Butterfinger Pancakes for another mouthwatering meal.  Sarah had a very good grilled bagel sandwich.  Adam and Elisa had a large omelet, packed with goodness.  Emma had straight buttermilk pancakes, which come with your choice of butters and fruit toppings.  Em was a little overwhelmed by all the choices, so we helped her out and recommended blueberry topping.


I had - get this! - the cream cheese and mozzarella pancakes.  It sounds a little weird, but I figured: "When will I ever be able to try this again?"   The cheese is actually in the pancakes.  I topped it with a side of sunny side up eggs.  It was incredible.  I was practically moaning as I ate!  I've never had pancakes so light and fluffy, and the idea of filling them with cheese was a stroke of genius.  Elisa passed me her extra pancake - I think a gesture of generousity for the newbies who can't come back tomorrow - and I gladdly downed this perfect specimen of all a pancake should be - light, moist, fluffy, sweet, but not two sweet, buttery, but not greasy.  I'm not kidding, I think those were the best pancakes I've ever had.
So if you're in Seoul and you have some time.  Check out Butterfinger Pancakes.  The prices are surprisingly reasonable for a Western style restarant in Korea.  They now have locations at least in ApGuJong and KangNam, maybe more.  Just google them to see some blogs.  They don't have their own website, though.
Thanks, Adam and Elisa, for opening your home for some much needed rest and relaxation and for introducing us to a restaurant that has already become a legend in my mind!

100 Things I Love About Korea # 56: Replay - Doctor Fish

This is a repost from May 4, 2008.  Alas, the "Doctor Fish" cafe has long since closed down, but it was good while it lasted.

Friday night Sarah and I had our weekly date night.   Amazingly, we had a real babysitter this time - two in a row!  We decided to take advantage of this freedom and try something new.
A few weeks ago, we noticed an odd looking sign advertising a business on the third floor of the Yaoori/downtown area of Cheonan: "Books, organic tea, coffee, spa, doctor fish."  I asked some friends about it, and Ron Knickerbocker was able to give us the scoop.  It's a really cool coffee shop.  You basically pay a cover charge, and then you can have all the house coffee you want.  They have a small library of books and magazines to choose from (even one English book about touring in SE Asia).  They even have a few puzzles available.  It's a large room, so it's easy to find a quiet nook.  It would be a great place to read or for a small party.
But the really unique thing about this place is the "doctor fish."  They have two long tanks of small fish.  For the very reasonable fee of 2,000 won (about $2US), you can put your feet into the tank for about 20 minutes.  These little fish literally eat the dead skin off your body (in this case, our feet).
Doctor fish are most famous for Turkish spas which use them as a medicinal treatment, particularly for psoriasis.  However, apparently, the ones in Cheonan are Chinese knockoffs, not the real Turkish fish.  (Amazing, huh!)
So Sarah and I finished our coffee and gave it a try.  It was amazingly weird.  We put our feet in the water and about 100 fish attacked each of us.  They nibbled away with a furious passion to get at every last dead skin cell.  It felt kind of like being attacked by tiny piranha, but it didn't hurt.  It kind of tickled.
The weirdest part was seeing them swarm.  When Sarah took her feet out (which she did often at first), all 200-300 fish would swarm my feet.  Sometimes I couldn't even see my feet.  That was really freaky!  I took my feet out at first, and I laughed so much that the store worker asked me to be quiet several times.
Finally, I was able to talk Sarah into putting her feet into the water to take some of the pressure of me (more available food for the fish).  And about the same time, I started to get used to having hundreds of little fish eat on me, so I just relaxed and left my feet in the water.  By that time, they seemed to have cleaned me off pretty well, so they preferred Sarah's fresh feet with - um - fresh dead skin.
All in all it was a great experience - lots of fun and definitely one of a kind for us.  This was a great break from the date night rut: dinner and a take home movie.  Thanks Ron for the recommendation (and FYI, Ron said Bruce squealed like a little girl when he met the doctor fish!).   So if you're coming to Korea to see us, let's go check out the doctor fish.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 53: Replay - Itaewon

This is a repost from April 1, 2008.

Friday night Sarah and I escaped to Seoul. We went to Itaewon - the central spot for all things foreign in Korea. We had a great little hotel - which we never would have found without Seth and Ann's recommendation, and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. After supper, we delighted ourselves with a little walk and then some luscious ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery - possibly the best ice cream in the world.
This was our first real venture into Itaewon. Before this, I had always kind of scoffed at how the foreigners flock there. I had made a brief trip in before, and it just didn't seem like all that much. However, this time with hours on hand and no kid to drag along, my eyes were opened to the great - um - beauty? - or at least attractiveness of Itaewon. I was consistently amazed at how many foreign restaurants were there, one after the other: maybe a dozen Italian places, African cuisine, Middle Eastern, Indian, Thai, Japanese, etc.
Itaewon is also the home of the best English bookstore in Korea: What The Book. Sarah and I made a little venture into that mecca, and she had to pry books out of my hands.
After that, we picked up some cheddar, sour cream, and green beans at a foreign food store. That will stave off another trip to Costco for at least a month. Before we hit the subway stop, though, we shared one last bowl of Cold Stone sweet-God-has-definitely-blessed-this-stuff ice cream.
All in all, this was the best anniversary trip since we've been in Korea. Definitely gets the 5J rating.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 30: JimJil Bangs

Why is it relaxing just to get out of the house?  Somehow, going to a public space and just lying around calms the mind and soul.

Connected to most Korean bath houses is a common area called a JimJil Bang (or this can refer to the whole bath house).  The Jimjil Bang area is for both sexes, and the bath house provides special clothing for this area - usually some funky color so you won't be tempted to take it home.

The common area usually has a mixture of large open spaces and smaller specialty rooms.  Our local bath house has:

• salt room (where you can cover yourself in salt rocks)
• a charcoal room (where the walls are lined with charcoal - supposedly making the air cleaner)
• a super hot room (shaped like a cone, and so hot the area above the door is blackened and the door handle has an oven mitt permanently attached)
• a cold room (basically a huge refrigerator)
• a small restaurant
• a computer room
• massage chairs
• a play area for kids
• and a few different quiet rooms for sleeping.

We often bring a book and some snacks and just hang out in this room for an hour or two.  It's great with kids age 4 and older.  They can just run around and take care of themselves in a safe environment while the parents lounge, chat, read, or nap.

Doctor Fish

Friday night Sarah and I had our weekly date night. Amazingly, we had a real babysitter this time - two in a row! We decided to take advantage of this freedom and try something new.
A few weeks ago, we noticed an odd looking sign advertising a business on the third floor of the Yaoori/downtown area of Cheonan: "Books, organic tea, coffee, spa, doctor fish." I asked some friends about it, and Ron Knickerbocker was able to give us the scoop. It's a really cool coffee shop. You basically pay a cover charge, and then you can have all the house coffee you want. They have a small library of books and magazines to choose from (even one English book about touring in SE Asia). They even have a few puzzles available. It's a large room, so it's easy to find a quiet nook. It would be a great place to read or for a small party.
But the really unique thing about this place is the "doctor fish." They have two long tanks of small fish. For the very reasonable fee of 2,000 won (about $2US), you can put your feet into the tank for about 20 minutes. These little fish literally eat the dead skin off your body (in this case, our feet).
Doctor fish are most famous for Turkish spas which use them as a medicinal treatment, particularly for psoriasis. However, apparently, the ones in Cheonan are Chinese knockoffs, not the real Turkish fish. (Amazing, huh!)
So Sarah and I finished our coffee and gave it a try. It was amazingly weird. We put our feet in the water and about 100 fish attacked each of us. They nibbled away with a furious passion to get at every last dead skin cell. It felt kind of like being attacked by tiny piranha, but it didn't hurt. It kind of tickled.
The weirdest part was seeing them swarm. When Sarah took her feet out (which she did often at first), all 200-300 fish would swarm my feet. Sometimes I couldn't even see my feet. That was really freaky! I took my feet out at first, and I laughed so much that the store worker asked me to be quiet several times.
Finally, I was able to talk Sarah into putting her feet into the water to take some of the pressure of me (more available food for the fish). And about the same time, I started to get used to having hundreds of little fish eat on me, so I just relaxed and left my feet in the water. By that time, they seemed to have cleaned me off pretty well, so they preferred Sarah's fresh feet with - um - fresh dead skin.
All in all it was a great experience - lots of fun and definitely one of a kind for us. This was a great break from the date night rut: dinner and a take home movie. Thanks Ron for the recommendation (and FYI, Ron said Bruce squealed like a little girl when he met the doctor fish!). So if you're coming to Korea to see us, let's go check out the doctor fish.