pinterest

danielle recently introduced me to pinterest a few days ago. and it took awhile for her to explain bc i had never heard of it and had absolutely no idea what it was. but after going to the website and getting it set up and "pinning" a bunch of stuff, i am actually really excited about it bc i now have all the things that used to clutter up my bookmark bar and recipes from a bunch of different sites all in one place, not only for my benefit, but anyone else's too. and not only recipes and sewing projects (none of which i have actually accomplished yet, but fully intend on), but recommended books, fave travel destinations, and things i want to do in our house (one day). check it out. let's be honest- if you are a girl, check it out. i think you'll like it. www.pinterest.com

notorious nick nemetz and molly moll

last night jarred and i went to a "1920s murder mystery party" to celebrate halloween with some friends here. jarred's assignment was to be notorious nick nemetz, the northside mob boss, and i was his fiance, molly moll. the whole thing was awesome. i can't tell you how many times over the past 2 weeks i said "UGH, we have the perfect (fill in the blank) for my costume just sitting in the dance costume closet at my parents' house." those tacky things my sisters and i wore for years would have come in handy. well, those, and the prom dress i wore in 9th grade that looked more like a mermaid's costume than a prom dress- kat and laura, how did you ever let me where that?! but, i did manage to find a black sequin dress, fishnets, a red boa (that scared the daylights out of max to the point where he went and hid from it), some red danglies (not quite actual fringe) for the bottom of the dress, a red beaded necklace, and some sequin fabric and feather for a headband. and i was proud to win best dressed. and jarred, as you can see below, was awesome in his black suit, a toy gun i bought for $1.50 that max loved, the perfect gangster hat, a disgusting cigar he hated even having in his mouth for pictures, and a marker mustache (the real one he tried at first was too gross for me). unfortunately, jarred was the one murdered at the party. and also unfortunately, none of the 10 of us that survived were able to solve the murder. dang. but it was really really fun and the perfect halloween celebration for adults who live in a country with no good candy. enjoy the pics:

the 6 girls.

us as nick and molly.

Protesting neoliberalism

I try my best to keep up with the news in my homeland from the other side of the world, but these past 2 weeks have been busy, so I fell behind. As I was catching up the other day, I saw that apparently people had been occupying Wall Street. I was immediately concerned, seeing that the last time I was on Wall Street during a tour of NYC with my dad, there was a police officer with a machine gun protecting the NYSE.

So I was wondering who could possibly have occupied Wall Street. A terrorist attack? A foreign nation invading Wall Street? Tanks from our own military overthrowing the government? I clicked to discover it was actually none of the above, but a large number of protesters. And man are they angry! After reading, I couldn’t quite figure out what they were angry about. Something about being part of a large majority and being angry at Wall Street. In order to discover more, I typed “Wall Street Protest” into Google and the official Occupy Wall Street webpage came up. I figure there is no need to let the liberal media tell me what they were talking about, and Fox News was busy figuring out who won the like 98^th who is going to take on Obama debate, so I figured the best way was to hear it was from the protesters themselves.

On an interesting side note, the official website is occupywallst.org. I found this strange that they couldn’t get the full name “street” and had to abbreviate it. I typed in “occupywallstreet.org” to figure out who had purchased that domain name and I was redirected to occupywallst.org. Looks like they have purchased both just in case some imposter other 99% of people want to use the full word. Smart move.

It turns out that they are protesting neoliberalism. They had a link to the word “neoliberalism” on their webpage, so I clicked to get their official explanation of what “neoliberalism” was. They had done extensive research on the topic. I was sent to Wikipedia. Realizing I needed look no further, I decided to read up on this neoliberalism. Here are some facts about neoliberalism from wikipedia’s webpage:

“There is considerable ambiguity in the definition of the term and whether it refers to fiscal or monetary policies; to policies impacting income distribution or intervening in the business cycle; or even to political liberalization and the degree of such liberalization. The term is not associated with any specific ideology, belief or system of thought: rather, instead of being used to describe one's own beliefs, it is usually used to criticize one's ideological opposite in an accusatory and derogatory way. ”

Well so far I was on to something. It doesn’t really mean anything, it is just a term used to criticize someone who is different from you. I then proceeded to read. Here are some other facts that I discovered about this neoliberalism evil:

1. Neoliberalist ideas stem from the University of Chicago School of Economics. When I heard this I immediately thought to myself: “wait, isn’t the University of Chicago one of the best economics schools in the world?” Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion: “Approximately 70% of the professors in the economics department have been considered part of the school of thought (neoliberalism). The University of Chicago department, widely considered one of the world’s foremost economics departments, has fielded more Nobel Prize winners and John Bates Clark medalists in economics than any other university.”

2. The list of countries considered “neoliberalist” includes: Australia, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Scandinavian Countries, South Africa, the UK, and the US.

3. It encourages public spending in areas like education, health care, and infrastructure.

So what you’re saying is that neoliberalism is the school of thought of the best economists in the world and is present in the most developed countries of the world, and it encourages development in education, health care, and infrastructure. I was still confused as to what there was to protest here. Luckily, Wikipedia tells us why people are protesting neoliberalism. Here are a few examples:

1. It isn’t realistic because it demands growth and our growth is limited to the size of the world. If we keep growing we will eventually run out of earth to grow on. There is an environmental issue at stake.

2. “Exploitation: critics consider neo-liberal economics to promote exploitation.” No further explanation given.

3. It increases the power of businesses by promoting the idea that businesses should make money.

4. It encourages the government to encourage business growth and thus make policies that favor the upper class against the lower class.

I think reason 4 explains why they are protesting Wall Street, but apparently this protest has expanded beyond Wall Street to the world! CNN reported that it was spreading like wildfire. 200 people in Tokyo were protesting! 200! That’s like, .0099% of Tokyo. They were angry about neoliberalism in the form of “No more nuclear weapons” and “free Tibet.” Apparently Reagan and Clinton weren’t the only neoliberalists. Mao was too. In Indonesia, they were protesting neoliberalism at the US Embassy, oh wait, that was US imperialism.

It would make sense that anti-neoliberalists would be from the lower class who have been exploited by the government. You know, the 99% of Americans living in dire poverty… but these protesters are all apparently middle class citizens. They are angry that Wall Street is getting rich and they aren’t! They are out of work (I can’t tell if that means they don’t have a job or if they are skipping work to protest) and out of money (which didn’t stop a large number of them from owning a $1600-a-year iphone to tweet from).

The other day I saw a guy on the street who had no arms and no legs. He wasn’t in a wheelchair. He was inching his torso along the ground. He hadn’t showered in months, and hadn’t had a haircut in that long either. He was begging for money. He had done about 47 US cents for the day according to the money in his box. There is no government aid to help those in need of medical care here. No unemployment or disability.

In an apartment in my complex that hasn’t been built past its concrete shell, there are 13 men living crammed together doing construction work. Most of them used to be farmers. The prospect of making a dollar an hour in a developing city hundreds of miles away from their family was a better wage then they were earning as farmers. And, the construction company was even willing to give them a place to live. Movin on up! The construction company who hired them probably won’t pay them. The foremen wait until the job is over, take the money they promised the workers and run. How did a construction company like this get a contract you ask? It probably took some mid-level government officials out to a decadent lunch, got them drunk, sang Karaoke, and probably followed that with a large cash bribe, and bam, contract signed. These marginalized people aren’t the 99% here, they only make up about an honest 60% of the 1.3 billion. They don’t protest. They can’t protest. They wake up, go to work or go to beg for their 14 hour day, and go home. There is no other way for them.

One of the things you gain from living overseas is perspective. I am sure that 99% of Americans aren’t out protesting foundational economic policy (Occupy Wall Street boasted 3000 today, which isn’t even 1% of New York City), but we should be thankful that we belong to a nation that allows protests, that provides for the unemployed, and where even the out of work can own top of the line technology which probably hasn’t even been fully paid for yet. I have several friends who are out of work right now. I have family who have lost their houses. It has been very difficult for their families. It isn’t fun. They have responded bravely, by finding rental houses, by looking for jobs, or by going to school to get their masters. That is the great thing about America, in the face of these difficulties, there are opportunities to respond in that way. It is something unusual and special, and honestly if the government and Wall Street are to blame for that… well, it ain’t that bad of an accusation. We didn’t do anything to deserve to be born in America, into the richest country in the world, into a stable economy (yes, it is still stable when compared to the other 5 continents with people on them in the world) and the top 5% of wealthiest people in the world (just being an American puts you in the top 5%). We just were. Thank goodness. Other than Hawaii, there isn’t another country like it in the world, and now America even allows our presidents to come from foreign countries like Hawaii so long as they can produce a birth certificate. Really, what’s to protest?

a few days at the lake

ok, so we are really going back in time to blog things now, but a month ago we spent a few days at a lake near here with some friends. and lake = nature = jarred took some great pictures. and here are a few:

scavenger hunt

the first week back here jarred and i put together a little scavenger hunt for some of our neighbors. there were about 10 pictures each group had to take. and to make it a little more interesting i gave extra points for creativity. it definitely made things more interesting:

at the fake kfc/mcdonalds

guarding a mansion- aka, the shelleys'

ryan and lyndsay, you are great at impersonating chinese "lovers" in the cafeteria. daniel, you are a creeper.

warning: this next picture might be one of the most disturbing photos ever posted on our blog. that lake is so gross!

josh at the market. doesn't that fat look delicious?!

at the hojo.

lydia

meet our new neighbor lydia. she just moved out to where we live, having never been here before. and for the past month she hasn't had a roommate either. talk about a trooper. we are so glad she is here and you will probably be hearing lots more about her over the coming months.

picnic

a couple of weeks ago on a saturday night we had a picnic at josh and danielle's with a bunch of friends- the 5th annual one i have been to. it is amazing to me how crazy it is that we live in asia but can still pull off a september cookout with grilled chicken, potato salad, fruit salad, deviled eggs, rolls, muffins, sweet tea, lemonade, and desserts galore. yumm. and thanks to our new neighbor lydia we will not only have great pictures of landscapes taken by jarred, but also great pictures of people!

photojournalism by lydia :)

danielle (by lydia again)

me and j

kayla and kiddos.

me and the harvster!

when daniel walked into the shelleys' looking like this we couldn't resist.

jarred and daniel.

grandma bev

out of all the things that have happened in our lives here the past month (and it's been a busy month) only one thing stands out as the most significant. 10 days ago my grandma bev had a major stroke and passed away 24 hours later. it was completely unexpected. i cried for 2 days straight. we looked at plane tickets home before we decided that it wasn't realistic to try to get back for the visitation and funeral. and my family graciously understood and supported that.

when she had a stroke, she was at her church teaching the Word to other women. it couldn't have been more appropriate. she loved her Heavenly Father more than anyone I know. She outlived 3 husbands and had her fair share of trials throughout her life, but a couple years ago she told me that she wouldn't change one thing in her life looking back because of how everything had worked together to draw her closer to her L ord. her intimacy with CJ is what i long to have.

she loved her family and has impacted all of us more than she ever knew. she was strong and loving and full of grace for everyone around her. she always told jarred and me that she chatted for us every single day, and while a lot of people may say that, she actually did.

she loved Psalms 91 and 103 and i don't think i'll ever read them without thinking of her. she prayed for my immediately family a lot, and a lot of what i am now is a result of her faithfulness in doing that.

as sad as i have been. over the past week i have been so thankful to have had the privilege of having her for a grandma. and i have been overwhelmed just trying to imagine the joy that she is currently experiencing face to face with the One who is worthy of all praise and glory.

grandma bev.

at my unc graduation.

with her 4 kids. my uncle rob, uncle don, aunt nancy, and my dad.

with 6 grandkids (plus rusty)- laura, kat, me, jordan, scott, rusty, mark.

thanksgiving at grandma's house- kat, rusty, me, gbev.

at our wedding.

this past summer at the beach house. kat, rusty, gillian, scott, laura, dad, grandma bev, me, mom, jarred, aunt nancy, aunt melonnie, uncle don.

with her great-grandbaby gillian :)

homemade pizza!

for the past month or so we have been trying to have out our friends the rupps to dinner at our place and it finally worked out last night! and the fun thing about the rupps is they include 3 little boys and an adorable little girl. what do you make kids for dinner? i'm not entirely sure, but jarred ingeniously suggested homemade pizza. i think that worked out particularly well for him since it is also one of his own personal faves. and as far as i can tell, the pizzas were a hit. check out the kids making their own: these kids are amazing. they constantly spout off information about animals i didn't even know existed, have incredible imaginations, possess boundless energy, and really love their siblings and parents. just being around them, jarred and i glean tons of parental wisdom that we are sure will come in handy one day. the entire family is so fun and we loved getting to spend some extended time with them. one of the greatest blessings of living here is the other foreigners we get to know and we are continually grateful.

babysitting harv

last spring some of our best friends here, the shelleys, had harvey, the cute little baby below. he is now 4 months old and definitely the most popular member of the foreign community out here. and a couple weeks ago we became the first non-family babysitters he has ever had! josh and danielle went out to celebrate their anniversary and we got to hang out with the little man.