We hosted several Christmas parties at our apartment. LB taught our guests some important Christmas songs.

Since we hosted a party at our apartment Christmas morning, we decided to exchange gifts Christmas Eve. Most of the gifts under the tree were empty packages.

LB and others contributed in providing us with some delicious traditional food. Special thanks to our friend who picked up 2 pizzas on her way to our house.

LB made sugar cookies everyday for an entire week.

The dog's normal size snack weenie.

KB's Christmas gift to the dog.

We decorated our Christmas tree yesterday. It is not the best looking tree, but it will do. To the left of the tree is our blue/white plaid couch. The couch came with the apartment. To the right of the tree is our coat rack with our heavy winter coats hanging on it. Hanging on the bookshelf to the right of the coat rack are our stockings. The bottom stocking is for the dog.

We are riding in a taxi on a one-way street near our apartment. Notice anything unusual? The bus is going the "wrong" direction. The rules of the road here are a lot different than what we are used to.


Outside our school is a little courtyard. Sometimes during our break between classes I will go for a walk in the courtyard.


This month we have been dog-sitting for our friend. The dog's name is Mimi.

Seasons Greetings!!!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with our new American friends. We had all the traditional foods we eat in America (except turkey since it is not available). After our dinner we played pin the hat on the turkey. L won!

















Cheese was a precious resource here in our city. We went a while with out it, but now that we have convinced the stores to order it for us we really need to buy it often so that they do not stop getting it for us - at $5.43 USD a block.
















Just like in the US, Christmas parties here start right after Thanksgiving. We went to a really fun one last night. We ate tasty party food, and when playing a game K got up to sing and dance L joined him. It looks like it may snow tomorrow. We are so excited, sort of....
















We love you all, K & L

Recently we traveled outside our city and we were able to see the beautiful countryside. Right now the farmers are harvesting their wheat and gathering hay to insulate their crops for the winter. It was amazing to see how they managed to pile it on. If you look closely you can see a man sitting on top. I guess he is there to make sure nothing falls off : )














Although our university campus here makes me very grateful for what we had in the States, the landscaping is breathtaking. The golden tree behind us is a ginko tree. We took this photo on one of our warmer days.














The locals often transport their goods around in what we would consider an inefficent way, but soon after we took this photo the driver came back and took off with his large load. I thought he was carrying bathroom sinks, but it is really styrofoam.

Hope you enjoy our pics. Love, K & L

We now have a Pizza Hut in our city. We don't go there often because it is expensive. This picture is from the grand opening. It does not taste just like it did at home, but it is still good.

A friend went to the Asian "walmart" in our city and asked them to get some cheese. We went yesterday and bought 5 little blocks for about 30 US dollars.

If you want...

Several people have asked us what or if they can send us anything. Rather than tell everyone individually what we could use we have put together a list of items that are not available here and that we would use with great joy! We call this our running wish list: powdered sugar, brownie mix, cookie mix, icing (chocolate or vanilla), icing decorating kit, sprinkles, holiday drink mixes (like spice tea), parmesan cheese, Velveeta, mac and cheese, pasta sauce mixes (like alfredo), tasteful Christmas ornaments/decorations, scented candles, Bath and Body Works lotions, magazines (ESPN, InStyle), children's Christmas books, nativity scenes, festive plates and napkins for all of our Christmas parties that we will be hosting.

If you would like to send any of this, please contact one of our parents. They have our address and can ship it to us. If you do not know our parents let me know and I will direct you to someone else that knows how to ship it to us. Just please keep in mind that it costs about $5.00 per pound to ship, and you will want to give the appropriate amount to whoever ships it for you. It usually takes about 10-14 days for it to arrive here.

We are not asking for anyone to send these items to us. This is just for those who have expressed a desire to do so.

We love you all! K & L

Living and Loving EA

We have been busy going to school, figuring out how to order our favorite foods, and tring to meet people who can speak English. Our wonderful parents have been sending us some packages lately. The parmesan cheese was soooo good! Who knew that we would miss that so much?
We have been preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving with our American friends. We are all contributing. L is making sweet potatoes, apple pie, jello salad, and deviled eggs. I think we will be eating chicken rather than turkey though. We will let you know how it goes. We will also be looking for a Christmas tree this week.
We love you all. K & L

We were in a service last Sunday and I heard some water splashing on the ground behind me. I looked down at the ground and saw a little stream of urine running downhill right between my feet. The little boy who did it was about 2 years old. The kids here wear split-bottomed pants so they can just go when they need to and the parents dont have to change any diapers.

Remember if you want to email us our address is eastasiabrownies@gmail.com. Love yall.

We found a Snoopy pillow at the store. Apparently Snoopy here is wiser than the one I grew up watching.


Another quote from Snoopy.

It is hard to tell because of the glare, but the computer on top of the Panasonic display is actually a Mac.

We got a new washer. The picture of the kids in diapers is the company enblem- we did not put it there. It looks big in the picture but it really only holds about 2 towels and 1 cycle takes an entire hour.


This is a pictue of L cooking our first meal in our new apartment. It was chicken and spaghetti and it was delicious. The cabinets are lower than American cabinets so we have to lean over to cook or wash the dishes.

This is the entrance into our bahroom. The bathrooms here don't have bathtubs. The shower heads are connected to the wall and water gets on everything in the bathroom when someone showers. Our friends got us 2 shower curtains to try and keep the water from getting everywhere.


This is the floor of our bathroom. The floor is slightly angled to a drain by the toilet so that the water runs toward the drain in the ground during a shower. We have glass bricks lined on the ground to make a barrier to help keep the water from covering the entire floor.


Next to the toilet is the drain that all of the water runs to. It is just a big pipe with a grill on it. Sometimes it smells really bad.

Fabric softner anyone?

New Do & Packing

The day after arriving in Belton from Virginia both K & L cut their hair. L cut her hair 6-8 inches (depending on which section of her hair you are talking about), and K shaved his head (it has already grown out a bit in the photo). We are now in Houston packing. We are going to be taking with us 630 pounds of luggage, crammed into 9 suitcases. L has spent the last 3 days already rolling and rubberbanding each individual piece of clothing, and K is trying to max out the weight on each piece. We will have to let you know how we did. Please remember us as we prepare to say goodbye to our families and begin our journey overseas. K & L

Wrapping Up

We were able to go to Washington D.C. last week. We had a really fun time there. This was K's first time to go, and it was L's second, but she still has never seen the White House. We will have to go back sometime when we have more time.

While we were there we went to the Capital, and K even bought a doughnut the size of L's head! We love you all and will hopefully talk to you soon.

Love, K & L

Way Out Here

We are still at training right now and are having a wonderful time. Unfortunately we waited till very late the night before to pack for our time here, and so L had to pull out a lot of items to keep her luggage within the weight limit (In her defense she was carrying things that were both of ours, like sheets). So, L is having to learn to live without her collection of clothes. Her mom did ship her some things though. L somehow made it here with only 1 pair of jeans and 6 shirts for the entire 2 months we are here.

We have made many new friends and have gotten to spend a lot of time as just the two of us. Since there are so many of us here at training that are in the same type of situation that we are in, we cannot post any photos of our new friends.

If you have not heard, K's grandmother Sones passed away the day after we arrived here. This was a difficult time for K in that he was unable to return home to be with and grieve with his family. When we saw her in the ICU she seemed to be in a lot of pain, so although we wish she were still with us, we are so happy that she has received her eternal healing and is with the Father now.

Also, L's sister is expecting her third baby. This was a bit of suprise to us (and I think to Jami), but we are just hoping that this pregnancy will be easier on her than her last one. We already know that this one will be just as cute as the first two.

Love, K & L

This month in Belton has gone by so fast for us. After two weeks in Belton, we headed to Richmond for some more meetings. L's parents and brother drove to Richmond from Texas and took in some sights along the way. K's parents flew stand-by to Richmond from Houston for the event as well. After all of our meetings ended, we loaded ourselves into L's parent's Tahoe and drove to Knoxville, then Memphis, and then to Mississippi for a family reunion. We had a wonderful time at the family reunion, and L was able to catch up with family that she has not seen in years. They also had a very special time for us in which we talked about our move overseas.

We drove back to Belton last week, but we had to turn around and drive straight to Houston that same day (in all we drove 17 hours in one day last week). K's grandmother is very ill and is in the ICU in Houston. Her prognosis is not very good, and her health is in the Father's hands.

We are now in Belton preparing to head to training in a few days. Many of L's family members have come to Belton for a farewell party that will be held in our honor on Sunday.

Please remember, if you would like to be on our newsletter e-mail list, please send us an e-mail at eastasiabrownies@gmail.com; please include your name as well in the e-mail.

Thanks, K & L

In Belton

We are now in Belton, Texas with L's family right now. It feels like we have spent the last three months having garage sales each weekend (We have had 8 days of garage sales total). However, we have been greatly blessed, and incredible steps have been made towards purchasing a new laptop for when we move overseas. We have also sold both of our vehicles, and it has been nice having one less thing to think about having to get rid of.

In just a few days we will be out of state for some meetings. L's family will be driving out to us, and afterwards we will take part in a family reunion in Tenessee. We have already been saying goodbye to many of our close friends and family , but we are having a wonderful time being unemployed bums at this point. Please, e-mail us at eastaisabrownies@gmail.com to let us know how you are doing! K & L

Homeless

We finally moved out of our little townhouse yesterday. Apparently we collected a lot more "stuff" than we ever imagined. It took 2 Tahoes, 1 trailer, 3 truck beds, 1 Escape, and one Jetta to empty our place. We now realize it would have been a lot easier to have just rented a Uhaul! We ended up throwing away a lot of good items, but we were able to give away some as well. Fortunately family and friends helped out, becuase we would have never gotten out if they had not.

We will continue to update this blog, but if you would like to receive a newsletter that we will send out monthly (probably starting in late July), please e-mail your name to our new e-mail address - eastasiabrownies@gmail.com. If you know someone who would like to be on our list, please have them e-mail their name to eastasiabrownies@gmail.com and we will add them to the list. Also, please do not send us any forwards, and please do not add our e-mail address to any mass e-mails or newsletters that you might think we would like. We do love personal e-mails though.
We love you all and hope to hear from you soon! K & L

Moving Away

We are currently packing and preparing to move out of our first home as a married couple. K is finishing up his first year as a teacher, and L is finishing her last week at work. We are both excited about this change, but it comes with apprehension as we entering into a very unfamiliar area of our lives. For anyone who does read these, we will try to post photos and new messages every week or so.