A half a year gone by??!?!!?

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Whatever happens

is what was supposed to happen.

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-Timothy Dogg Flaten

We landed at Incheon Airport on a Monday evening in mid-September and were met at the bus station by my school's owner and her son -  my former student, Tommy. They brought us to an apartment which was not at all the 2 bedroom they had promised us - in fact, I think it was even smaller than the studio I had had the previous year. They apologized and told me that they would sort it out 'as soon as possible'.

Despite being ragged and exhausted, I started work the following morning! Most of my old students were there and about 30 new ones too. The staff was completely different with the exception of Darius, the Kiwi that I had hired to replace me that previous spring. I spent the first day just learning everybody's names and reacquainting myself with the school and Korea altogether; but mostly, it was like we'd never left as the case usually seems to be.

When I came back from my first day of work, Sarah had some news for me. She had gone to visit her former school who had also told her to just get back as soon as she could and they'd have a job lined up for her....... well, they didn't. They told her that they had just hired somebody, but that it was no big deal; she could just start in January(?!?). Naturally, Sarah had other feelings about whether or not waiting around for four months before starting work was a big deal, and got on the job hunt!

When you're seeking employment and are physically here in Korea already, you are afforded tons of new opportunities that you wouldn't otherwise have via internet from home. Soon, Sarah would say her good-byes to the kindergarten life and trade up for one-on-one classes with adult businessmen..... all while making a time and a half the my wage!!! This would certainly help in keeping up with all of those mounting wedding expenses!

We readjusted with hardly any difficulty (being the second time around). We re-joined our beloved 'Ultimate' team with Sarah officially on the roster for the first time ever and finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in our history! Work was going well and the money finally - after 9 long months - started to flow again!! Back in business. However, we started to find that the school was far less concerned with getting us into the apartment that they had promised us, and finally took matters into our own hands. I gave my very limited, broken Korean language its first real test as I walked into one of the many apartment rental agencies in my neighborhood, was able to get my point across and was shown a gorgeous 2-bedroom basement apartment 10 minutes later! I took the guy's business card and passed the info along to my school. A couple phone calls and 2 weeks later, we moved in and have finally been living comfortably and spaciously after a year and a half in the country! - what a difference it has made!!!

Suddenly we both had great jobs, a beautiful apartment and almost all of our old friends still in town. From this point on, there was nothing but smooth sailing and enjoyment of life.... time really started to fly by!! Here's a taste of what we got into:

The Crabtree boys stand tall like Oak, love the outdoors and are super-quick learners. They were passionate rock climbers within a week of their first visit to the Daejeon Climbing Wall!

A fellow Minnesotan and member of the Daejeon Pandemic, Tonya "Prickles" on the high ropes course at Herb Hills, Daegu.

An hour of ropes course which included a 90 meter zip line for only about $10! Herb Hills in Daegu was a really killer find by the Crabtree boys.

Of course, no Ultimate season would be complete without a day or two of disc in the sand at Asia-famous Haeundae Beach, Busan. The fist day was drizzling cold awfulness (followed by an ocean-swim none-the-less), but the second shaped up to be much better as seen here.



First beer-bong in probably 5 years, but 'I still got it' as the saying goes. Gyeongju Hat Ultimate Tournament - Halloween, 2011. 



Pandemic crew and other Korea Ultimate schwenns enjoying the mild weather and Ulti action in Gyeongju. The pod- style tourney allowed us to play both with and against every single person at the tourney!



Typical Korean dinner with the guys after playing Ulti all day. Consider this the 'BEFORE' pic on Halloween night....

And 'AFTER'..... Jason 'Redneck', Nic 'Surfing Shark-attack victim', Dan Crabbo 'Badass Biker guy', Vinnie 'Ghost Skeleton' and me 'Aron Ralston of 127 Hours'. Naturally, we had a blast!

The Gapcheon 10K will almost certainly be the only race I run in my entire life as the 'Defending Champ'. (See my blog entry 'Why I Run.' from last year if you don't remember that story.) Despite improving my time (and previous 'course record') by more than 2 minutes, my effort was only good enough for fifth place this year! ..... I'll take it! :)

Finally, after training for 3 and registering for 2 previous to this one... I completed my first full marathon outside of the U.S. November 27th, 2011. Yeoi-do Seoul, completed in 3:27:53. I was just 2 minutes off of my personal best, which I will beat in 2012!

Suddenly, it was winter and Christmas just showed up without anyone barely even noticing that 3 months had gone by. Right about then, my old friend from Tahoe, Laurie, must have somehow realized that I was feeling jealous about Aussie Nic's visitors from home... because she came to see me!! We picked her up in the airport just after Christmas and as always happens with real, true old friends, it was like we'd never missed a day! We tore Seoul up for about 5 days all reaching a crescendo at the midnight countdown to wrap up one INCREDIBLE year.

Laurie, myself, Sarah and Nic's two Aussie buddies who we referred to almost entirely as 'Bilbo' and 'Baggins' for the whole week that they were here. Shown enjoying a Margarita despite being the dead of winter. :)

As Sarah and I completed what had to be the best year of either of our lives so far, we simultaneously began our wedding year in Seoul Plaza!

Here's me, severely hung over and looking like a hobo in Seoul Station and on our way to pick up our  wonderful new addition to the family............

Now, if I could have figured out exactly where to put it, somewhere in the mix above should have been the story of a charity event poker game that benefited a nearby animal shelter. I got knocked out of the tourney early (insert generic, exaggerated bad-beat story here) and Sarah moved right along into the final few. This gave me lots of time to look around at the animal-for-adoption posters up around the bar and got me to thinkin'.........

About two weeks later and with a bit a bit of research, I let her open her Christmas present early and she unwrapped a leash and collar set that pretty much gave her the idea. It was finally time for her to go and find the sweet little 'baby' puppy that she'd been yearning for much longer than I had known her!!


Taken from the Korean word meaning something like babe' or 'lovey',we found our 'Aggie' in the Asan shelter and fell in love with her her right away! She has been all-about belly rubs and affectionate puppy kisses since the first day we took her out of her kennel. Our best guess is that she is half black lab and half dachshund and about 1 and a half years old - sadly most of that time had been spent in the shelter! Her shelter life seemed to make her extremely optimistic and appreciative however, because she has been a super-pet for us and a wonderful decision ever since we got her back to Daejeon!!!

Right away, she had to get blood-work done, go through a double-operation (to remove a hernia along with her female organs), wear a cone-head thing for a 10 days, one-a-day shots back at the vet, and was on special food to reduce her kidney stress caused by eating all that raw chicken at the shelter. Quite a lot for a puppy to go through all in the first month with her new family, but she was a trooper through it all and is now 100% healthy and an amazing addition to our lives!

Poor little Aggie didn't feel like walking to the vet in the slushy rain for one of her follow-up shots, so we rigged up this little back-pack arrangement for her. :D 

Aggie!!!!! Taking a snooze in one of her favorite places (between my knees), she is very precious and has been a bundle of joy since we adopted her!! 

Later in January came a nice mountain getaway with some extra groovy peoples. Here, you can see the creative juices teeming out into the room. Danyang Mountain Resort, Lunar New Year, 2012.

A rare (and somewhat illegal, but we cleaned up really nicely) bonfire with friends under the rural mountain stars!! A beautiful change of pace from the normally action-packed Korea-life.

As we geared up for the new school year and the doubled staff numbers that we would be welcoming, I had the pleasure of ripping down a wall to make room for this beautiful new teachers' room! Spacious and full of downtown windows, we have never looked back to the closet that we used to be in! 

We even got a visit from the old, always intrepid Jason Snow-balls! You may remember him as 'the guy we met in Phnom Penh and went to Lazy Beach with last year' during our time in Cambodia. We barely recognized him without his jumbo hair-do he was rockin' when we came to know him.

Winter hike with Jason up Gyeryong-san. Chilly and slippery, but a beautiful day to be outdoors!

Way back but straight ahead, you can see our 1.5 million person city; Daejeon, SK!

Gaining about 1 student per month for my first six months here, my home kindergarten class made it all the way to its capacity 12 before the end of the year. Here is us on our February field trip to the ....
Dirt Museum! (Did you guess it?)

In a month FULL of painfully sad good-byes... we lost one of our own. Marilyn and I went through a LOT together through this whole process and neither of us would ever have been here without the other. We miss you already Emz! Bon voyage and see you at the wedding!! :D

So, despite being only a fraction of what's happened in the past 6 months since we've been back, I'll wrap it up there and pick up next time with the new school year which once again lands me as 'Educational Team Manager'..... last time, I only kept the position for 2 months before stepping down. Let's hope for a much better result this time around! My cousin Christina and three other brand new teachers will be settling into their roles making Kid's College - Dunsan bigger and better than ever..... We hope! I'll put together a hi-light reel from our video scavenger hunt going away party of last month and will keep you posted as the weather warms and The Daejeon Pandemic takes a shot at regaining our title that we lost in November!

Keep on rockin'! Thanks for reading. I love you guys! :)