30 July 2009

Korea

30 July 2009
Just got this email from Eric :

ㅗ됴 ㅊㅁㄴㄴ,

ㅑ ㅡㅁㅇㄷ ㅑㅅ 새 ㅏㅐㄱㄷㅁ ㄴㅁㄹ디ㅛ ㅁ. ㅑㅅ'ㄴ ㅁ ㅊㄱㅁ쿄 챠쇼. ㅑ 쟈노 ㅛㅐㅕ ㅈㄷㄱㄷ ㅗㄷㄱㄷ. ㅑ'ㅣㅣ 드먀ㅣ ㅣㅁㅅㄷㄱ. ㅣㅐㅍㄷ ㅛㅐㅕ.

ㄸ걏

And then I got one I could actually read:
I made it to Korea safely. After enjoying ourselves in the international lounge in Tokyo, Daniel and I landed in Korea at about 10:30 last night. Due to the language barriers I accidentally withdrew $500 from an ATM machine. Then we had an impossible time trying to figure our where our hotel was and how to get there. (Our contact in Korea hasn't given us a ton of details.) Plus, we had some shady characters try and talk us into taking a cab, but we finally found a really nice Korean man who saw we were struggling and took us under his wing and helped navigate us to our hotel.

Apparently, we're staying in a pretty seedy area of town (e.g., the Love Shop is across the street and there are millions of *Karaoke bars). But overall, the city is incredibly clean and seems really safe. This place has gotta be the technology capital of the world. I've never seen so much technology in my life. It's everywhere.

Daniel and I each have our own room. We each have a 60-inch plasma screen TV, a computer, and free internet acces in our rooms. Plus, I have a huge jacuzzi tub in my room. Not bad, especially considering the fact that Dan thinks we're staying in a dump and has apologized for it on several occassions.

I'll be judging from 10:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. today (mock trial).

* "Karaoke" is sometimes code for strip club.

Where is in the world is Eric Nelson? By the time Eric returns from Korea, this will be his travel break-down, from May - Aug. (by the way, he figured this out, not me...and he's also accounting for layovers, but it's still pretty crazy.) :


Saipan:
Detroit:
Atlanta:
Manila:
Honolulu:
Kona:
Guam:
Tokyo:
Nagoya:
Seoul:
65 days
6 hrs
6 days
4 days
5 hrs
4 days
1 day
1 day
6 hrs
4 days

26 July 2009

Girl's Camp 2009

26 July 2009
Success! Another Girl's Camp came and went, and I think the girls had a good time. This year was much less stressful because I wasn't the person in charge. Plus, it was my second go at it so I had a better idea of what to plan and expect. One thing I've learned along the way is to focus less on making camp perfect and more on making the girls feel loved. And, they're actually really easy to love when you take the time to know them, rather than wasting all of your time being stressed and uptight over all of the details.

Maddie's Alfalfa impersonation.

I wonder why someone brought shaving cream to camp. Curious.




Madison stepping over to the cliffs.

We saw some incredible sunsets & sunrises.





This was the night we were all playing in the water & on the beach & spotted a couple of sharks a few feet away.



Madison & her uke.




Bird Island - after a hot, sweaty & somewhat trecherous hike through the jungle.




Can you see "Girl's Camp" in the sand?

And finally, our little octopus friend. We also saw 5 or 6 dolphins!

14 July 2009

New blog

14 July 2009
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Occasionally, I get questions about digital scrapbooking and Photoshop so I decided to start a 2nd blog in an effort to answer some of the questions. Hopefully, it's helpful in some way...I'll also add the site to my blog list.