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| At the base of the Tokyo Tower |
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Holidays in Korea...not quite the same as being at home with my family. Well, I spent the day going to a couple of different holiday meals. Usually senior leaders volunteer to serve the troops at the Dining Facilities. I did a lot of standing around and watching. It's too bad I didn't get to serve because they got to wear chef's hats. I think I need to invest in a personalized chefs hat for my little Korean kitchen. The good news is the I recently made some good friends here in Korea and it only took 8 months! The best part is that I met them all at a Marriage Enhancement Seminar. The chapel staff put on a stellar workshop on communication and other relationship skills. I signed myself up to go alone and picked a table in the back with a couple I didn't know and two girls my age who showed up about 10 minutes later separately. When the time came for a practice session, they invited me to join and fast friends we made. We also determined that it's quite easy to practice communication with another woman because we're already so much better at it! Only on a remote assignment half way around the world would I go to a Marriage Enhancement seminar and meet two other geographically separated girlfriends! The three of us, plus another newlywed in the same situation joined up for Round 2 of the Marriage Enhancement Seminar and learned more skills to communicate, problem solve, and all together improve our newly minted unions.
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| Bird's Eye View |
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| Just in case you're looking for a treat....octopus at 7-11!!! |
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On the work side, I recently made my first visit to Japan. Flying over Tokyo, I saw a city much different than I expected. Rather than a shiny, organized plot of high rises and busy humanity. Instead, I viewed a dense city of low rise housing units packed amidst narrow roads with scattered clusters of office buildings and a healthy sprinkling of well-maintained cemeteries fanning out as far as the eye could see. I'm amazed that 30-40 million people are crammed into a continuous city. Once on the ground, I took a short trip to the Tokyo Tower, the quintessential really tall landmark easily seen from the air that tourists can ascend for a view of the city. The best part of my visit, though, was on the subway to the tower. As I waited for the train I noticed a little girl, no more than 7 on the subway platform. She wore a school uniform of below-the-knee pleated black skirt, blouse, jacket, red scarf tied in front under the collar, and a black hat with a turned up brim and chin strap. She was adorable and more importantly, she didn't notice me staring because she was busy perusing.....A NEWSPAPER!!!! That little vignette showed me without a word why the Japanese have pushed so far beyond US schools. Fortunately, the train arrived and the girl joined several little friends who were already on the train from a previous stop. They had an array of uniforms but all with the same basic style and all with structured leather backpacks. Under their hats, some had little black glasses or pigtails, but once they were together, the newspaper was forgotten and they got down to business being little girls. The 6 or 7 of them sounded like a group of little birds with their high pitched voices and constant tittering. Truly, they made for a pleasant ride on the subway. Upon arriving at my stop, I was able to negotiate a basic map until the tower came into sight. Having been in plenty of tall buildings and after flying over Tokyo in a helo, I didn't feel the need to go to the top on a cloudy, polluted day, but I took my time to enjoy the Christmas decorations. I'm sure it would have been quite a sight at night with the lights on, but my favorite part was a Santa climbing up one of the lower rungs of the tower. The afternoon was slow and pleasant, again different than what I expected when I thought of one of the world's most expensive and densely populated cities - maybe I wasn't in the right neighborhood. Regardless, I enjoyed my short introduction to Japan!
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| The downfall of the US education system! |
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