ITS HERE!:  Finally it has arrived!  It was supposed to be delivered at 10:30 but got here at around 6 and then I ended up paying 70,000 won for it (import tax for electronics) so in all I paid roughly the same amount if I had bought it directly from Sony *sigh* but its here and I am happy (except really tired… see next).  Take a look at this beautiful creation…

..I was referring to the camcorder but I agree that the girl is much more attractive ^_^

Talk about friggin’ small (the camcorder)… I almost couldn’t find it in the box!  Everyone has been dubibly impressed…. now I just have to figure out where the ON switch is.

SCHOOOOOOL’S OUT FOR THE WINTER!:  Yes today the guys head home for Spring break, though the day was long yesterday the weather was awesome, but today it snowed (go figure), China will probably be worse.  Oh well, nap time!  Ciao.

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Will

COFFEE BREAK:  As most of the foreigners in Daejon rejoiced when Starbucks™ opened shop downtown, I wasn’t one of them.  At the risk of being burned at the stake as a blasphemer by the likes of this gent and these two ladies… I honestly am not a fan of coffee shops, they tend to be very over-priced and I’m not a huge coffee drinker.  However, I’ve always enjoyed fruit smoothies but again they are so pricey in the States.  However, coffee shops in Korea are very good and not as expensive.  I have gone to Starbucks™ (much to my shame) but the same coffee that I could get for much less and (in my own humble opinion) better tasting at my favorite little coffee shop, Rosebud.  Eun Young, the nicest coffee shop lady truly makes you feel at home and how she treats every customer you walk away feeling very special, she is grateful for your business while at Starbucks™ you are just another customer.  I have started slowly developing a taste for lattes but Eun Young makes the best strawberry smoothies and with its reasonable price its truly hard to turn one down.  I will truly miss it.

 
LEFT: Inside Rosebud                                                      RIGHT: The nicest and best smoothie maker in Korea

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Will

MY NEPHEWS!!!:  That much relieved young lady be my sister Kim holding Grayson and Parker.  Aren’t they awesome!  Oh how great the temptation to up and leave right now to see and hold these guys.  I doubt the boss man would mind… uh yeah he probably would… *doh!* 

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Uncle Will

MORE SCHOOL DAYS:  Sitting here in class watching the students working furiously at homework.  I have Brian with me again (the guy who always asked to go to McDs but first must answer the unanswerable question of the day.  I tell everyone that Brian failed last year’s study hall and that’s why he’s back with me again.  Brian and I have an interesting little competition: we both try to outsmart the other.  He knows some difficult logic problems that are taxing… while I stick to trivial knowledge.  Today’s question:  What’s the oldest letter in the English Alphabet?  [Here's a hint: it was used by the Egyptians in 3000 b.c.]  Poor Brian actually guessed the correct letter but changed his mind before I could say correct.  So as I look over to see him playing with his graphing calculator he kicks himself every couple of minutes… its nice to have the power!

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Will

THIRTEEN GOING ON…:  Sunday marks 13 more weeks until the school year is over!  This truly has not yet sunk in, I need to start thinking about what stuff to leave & sell and what to take back.  Mailing will cost an arm and a leg.  Hmmm… I will need to head up to Songtan for closure there… I am not sure about Seoul, I never truly had a memorable trip up there… and its pretty pricey riding up there too.  Unfortunately Korea does not have much in the way of touristy spots.  When you think China you think Great Wall, Tianamen Square, ect. ect.  Maybe when I return to the States I will realize something was here that nobody knew about and kick myself for missing.

BIBLE READING:  Normally I do not write about what I’ve read in the good book but today I felt compelled to share.  Trying to read the Bible without any preconceived ideas from movies or what has been written in the later books (reading it as it was given at the time)… it is very good.  Exodus 2 talks about Moses’ birth and upbringing, born a Hebrew but his parents hid him until they had to toss him into the Nile River per command from Pharaoh.  They tossed him (inside a floating basket) and he washes ashore near the daughter of Pharaoh who has Moses’ mother wean him and then becomes the grandson of Pharaoh.  Skip many years ahead… now Moses is grown up and decides to go visit his people and see their labor.  He spies an Egyptian beating a Hebrew; making sure nobody sees him he rescues the Hebrew by killing the Egyptian.  The next day he finds two Hebrews fighting and when questioning the one in the wrong, the Hebrew questions if Moses is going to kill him as he killed the Egyptian.  Yeah, word gets out!  Sooo Pharaoh finds out and wants Moses dead (What a nice grandpa, sounds like a loving & stable family situation).  Moses’ revolutionary days are over as he flees Egypt and resides in Midian.  What causes Moses to reject the life and pleasures of Egypt to identify with these slaves?  If I was in his shoes would I have cared one flip about the slaves or gone back to my lavish lifestyle?  God really stepped on my toes with this one… what luxuaries do I possess greedily that prevent me from following God as Moses tried to do?

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Will

SAY UNCLE:  On March 14th my sister Kimberly gave birth to twins, Grayson & Parker Burton.  Here’s the scoop: Grayson 4lbs 15oz (17-1/2 inches), Parker 4lbs 9oz (17inches).  I’ve always wanted to be an uncle wish I could be there and hold the little rascals!!!

GOING POSTAL!:  Speaking of weights, stupid FedEx/UPS… next time you see one of their commercials turn the stank channel!  Get this, my dad heads up to the post office to ship my camcorder to me (probably a 5-6lb box) was going to cost $274!   I mean that’s almost as much as I paid for the thing?  My dad and his friend were so in shock as would I have been. But they shipped it 4-5 day at $70.  Can you believe that?  I do not know who is responsible for pricing, is it Korea’s side or ours?  I am pretty steamed about this because if its Korea then that is the thanks we get for defending their country?  If ours, why are we ripping off our ally?  If anyone knows how they set pricing or who let me know because I’m…. aw screw it, I’m an uncle  life is good.

JUST CALL ”MR. FIX-IT”:  The past two days our internet service has been turned off due to our provider going out of business (no warning).  You would think that North Korea had invaded Daejon!  Several guys are so addicted to the internet,  if instant messenger didn’t connect, or internet explorer doesn’t open up it is the end of the world.  So as neat it is to think that Drew, Ryan and I are looked upon as the saviors of the dorm, after continuously being told to “fix it”, “do something” or asked is it working yet and having to repeatedly tell the guys over and over and over that we have no service I don’t want to be the savior of C&J anymore.  Heroes have it so tough.  How do they do it?  That would explain why there are so many villains out there I wouldn’t want to put up with the same thing every day either.  But for today I will, because I am an uncle  life is good… at least for today.

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Will

WHITE OUT!:  Yep, today is White day, all the guys go out and buy chocolates for the girls they like.  Over here Valentine’s day is girls give guys stuff, then a month later on White day, guys give girls stuff back.  So seeing all the couples up and about made me think how much I missed my girl *sigh* can’t wait to see her.

CHINA TRIP PREP:  I got to spend my after school time with Lupita getting ready for China.  We booked our rooms at the glorious Beijing Leo Hostel.  This is a great step for us since mostly we had been doing was meeting and discussing things that we wanted to do, look at different hostels on-line, ect.  Its hard to believe in 12 days I will be in the capital of Communism itself!  Getting to spend a day with Lupita is always time well spent.  After dinner she’s convinced that going for a walk is pretty healthy so we ventured over to Hannam for a good look at our neighboring environs.  I saw this and could not resist dedicating these pics to my buddy Chris who always is good for some awesome shots.

   
LEFT: Hannam University soccer stadium in the sunset          RIGHT: Ice formed under a series of water faucets

After study hall, Lupita and I took off to Walmart for some stuff we’d need to survive on our Chinese adventures such as travel soap, travel toothbrush and granola bars *mmm*… as you know, traveling to the store you will always find some bad translation on an item or two but this one really sucks:

Someone in marketing tells us what they REALLY think about Starburst

Well, its already Tuesday… man gotta get this thing posted faster…  dang!

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Will

LETTING THEM ALL HANG OUT:  Much to their pleasure I do let the guys come hang out in my room.  They have trouble cleaning up after themselves but after a couple days of banned entry they are allowed back in to play Soul Caliber II  (a popular fighting game) on my PS2.  From left to right is Anton, Jonathan, Peter, Myung [a.k.a. "MC", a.k.a. "portable Korean"] and Andy’s head at the lower right hand side.  When I first let them play in my apartment they left my living room a disaster area, a week later I allowed them back in… but they didn’t learn their lesson so another banning, and so on but they get better after each time.  They are slowly learning to respect other people’s property.  *ahem* You will notice my Clemson afghan proudly displayed on the wall… gotta show my love to my team.  Go Tigers!

MC: “Wow Peter you’re pretty good fighter, but definitely not as good as Mr. Will!”
Peter: ”Yeah I know, he likes to kick alot… one time he kicked me out of his room for two weeks!”

STUDYING IS TORTURE:  Ever wonder what happens when a Korean studies too much?  I was covering the ol’ Springer dorm this past Tuesday when I was there to capture this rare and unique scene that few foreigners have been privy to witness.

…and 10 seconds later Joon’s head exploded.

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Will

HERE’S RACHEL!:  I found this ol’ pic among the back files that I didn’t know I had in this laptop.  Its pretty dated (two years old) not much has really changed, Rachel’s still shorty but my hair now has fading reddish highlights from an experiment I had been “dying” to do for awhile.

This was taken after Eric and Faith (Thomas) Needham’s wedding, a couple weeks before I left for SK

We’ve known each other since our sophmore year at college, we didn’t run into each other that much until our senior year.  Even then it wasn’t that often, she was interested in someone else for awhile… so our friendship was pretty platonic even when my best married her best friend… oh how Trent & Liz prayed that we’d hook up.  I was always interested in her but was one of those things where I expected some other guy to come sweeping in and winning her heart.  Despite her (apparent) lack of interest we still were good buds through alot that was happening with me here in SK.  Little did I know that she was coming around, she’s got a poker face like you wouldn’t believe guys.  Though we never talked about our feelings concerning each other God really brought us both around for this and I thank Him for that.  For how could I ever thank Him enough for all that He has already given?  That’s the question that has no definite answer, my friends.

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Will 

I saw roadkill on the way to school today.  Its a rare sight in the city… made me think of home.

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Will