Happy New Year from South Korea

Happy New Year from South Korea! Today we returned to school after a three week Christmas Break. Our break was great! Liisa's sister and family (Marja, Bob, Eila, and Mak) made the trek to South Korea to spend Christmas with us. It was great to be with family again. We spent some time showing them around Daejeon and also ventured up to Seoul for three days. On Christmas morning ( at 4:00 am after Santa visited) we took off on a 10 day trip to Thailand. What an experience- 3 days in Bangkok, 3 days on the island of Phuket, and 4 days on the island of Yao Yai. Swimming, riding elephants, renting motor bikes, eating Thai food, and experiencing the culture of Thailand is something that we will never forget. We tried to capture a few of those moments with the pictures posted below. We hope that everyone had a great holiday season! Liisa is off to Australia next week for 8 days to attend an MYP workshop. Nice - I only left for 5 days for my MYP training in Japan. All teachers at our school are required to attend these workshops for the IB certification. She is a little stressed since she has sub plans to prepare for five days! That is why I am the "guest" writer on our blog. Also, Liisa's parent's will be arriving in two weeks for a visit, so the kids are excited to see Noni and Grandpa. We have been thinking about all of you at home and kids are missing their friends! Only one more semester and we will be home to visit for six weeks this summer. Take care! Andrew