Bike Trail in Plymouth, England

I had a great opportunity to do some biking yesterday after class on a pretty challenging trail just north of Plymouth and took a few pictures you might enjoy.  Most people hike this trail, but, I prefer biking, so that’s how I conquered it…

Whew! I was a little nervous a couple of times!

Goodbye Again

I’m writing this post from Plymouth, England. I’m here studying my Masters in Education Technology and Elisha and Jakob are staying in Canada at the farm. As a result, I was once again faced with saying goodbye, this time to my wife and boy. Sheesh, I’m a little tired of all the goodbying. Anyway, here’s a quick update with photos.

Stop and Count Your Blessings

Have you ever had an experience where it feels like God looks down on you, smiles, and gives you an unlooked for blessing? One for which you can only echo James 1:17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” Elisha and I had that kind of experience on our return voyage from Korea. We got to the Air Canada ticket counter and were being issued our tickets when I thought that I had nothing to lose by asking if we could redeem our frequent-flyer business class upgrade coupons, despite the fact that we had a baby, and Elisha didn’t have a coupon of her own. The attendant said that Elisha could use my extra coupon, and that having a baby would not be an issue. How excellent, eh? The only hurdle to then overcome would be to locate the coupons. After 15 minutes of frantically rifling through our pile of luggage, I located them and we were confirmed business class. Whoa. What a blessing.

The only remaining question was how Jakob would handle his first flight. To put it succinctly; he was golden. Perfect. An Angel baby. THANK YOU GOD. The beauty part of his great behaviour was that it allowed me to focus on all the perks of being in business class! My champagne upon entry, the lovely filet mignon dinner, and the wine and cheese evening snack…mmmmmm.

Reflections on being back in Canada

Here are the first few reactions we had to being back in Canada.

1. The roads are bad… very bad.

2. With our first step outside the Winnipeg Airport (or is that the Richardson International Airport???) we were greeted by the fresh smell of farming. It was a mixture of earthen fields, lush vegetation and just a hint of manure. It was nice.

3. There are a lot of old, rusty clunkers on the road. Winnipeg has got to be the GM Cavalier capital of the world.

4. The peace and quiet at the farm is unreal.  On a recent bike ride I just stopped and listened to all the different birds, bugs and animals.  It was coming at me from every angle and I swear I could hear sounds from half a kilometre away.  The huge, clear skies are also something else!  Now, if only something could be done to adjust today’s high temperature of 16C…

Enough of that…we’ll be in touch. One more week of enjoying Canada for me before I head off to Plymouth.

Good Bye Korea

This is it. Only one more sleep until we leave Korea. As a final too-da-loo, we had Korean food for supper. Yes, Mandu-guk, and spicy beef soup. Home cooked goodness, kind of, for 7 bucks. Not bad, and only a 3 minute walk from home. Yes, there are things we will miss from the Hermit Kingdom.

Well, that’s about all I want to write, because if I go into all the things and people I’ll miss, the tears dropping onto the keyboard might short out my computer… actually, I’m kidding. Although, truthfully, I’m a little melodramatic when it comes to leaving places and people. I find it helps to balance pleasant memories of the past with hopeful thoughts for the future. In any case, I’ve packed for 2 days straight, and I really don’t have the brain capacity to write else that’s worth reading. So, I guess I’ll resort to more Jakob video. This is a video from the photographer and focuses on his one-month photo shoot.

What Exactly is a CBM?

Today’s the day. The heap of clothing, books, picture frames and what-not that are obscuring our piano are going to be packed up and shipped today by our moving company. All of our earthly belongings(besides the earthly belongings cluttering up my parents basement) will get on a slow boat to China…or Saudi Arabia…or wherever the heck we are moving to next. At first, we were assessed as having under 3 CBM worth of junk. A CBM stands for cubic metre. So, the volume of our stuff should’ve been the equivalent volume of 3 washing machines stacked side by side. Well, after all the actual sorting and setting aside of our belongings was completed we realized that the original volume estimate was probably too low. Oh well, you pay the most for the first 3 CBM anyways.

Obviously, in the midst of our packing joy, this blog has been slightly neglected. In fact, it’s so badly neglected that I’m resorting to actually posting recycled material. Yes, the video below is one you’ve likely seen before if you ever visited the Korean Photo Man’s site and saw Jakob in the hospital. Here it is again, as I finally was able to get his 1 month photos and videos on my very own cd, which is nice, because now I can print those photos off anywhere I move to.

Jakob in his Oilers wonzey. Some of you may wonder, “why the Oilers?” Well, I’m a fan of all of the western based NHL teams, but, until the Jets return to Winnipeg, which, by the way, I’ve heard is imminent and may happen as soon as next year, the Oilers will have to do.

Please find more Jakob pictures by clicking on the above photo.