Thursday, May 23, 2013

Farewell to the Ohs and a Mental Marathon



After nearly 3 months of a full house, Jusu and the kids are getting ready to head back west. I figured I better snag some of the pictures off her camera and make a quick blog entry. Ironically, I don't think there was a single picture of Jusu on her own camera, so we'll save that for when I upload our pictures.


Tae Geom had a fun time with a slew of newfound friends and crossing off about eight playgrounds from his bucket list. He also did a great job in teaching his Uncle Dan some Korean although I have a sneaking suspicion that some is not adult-appropriate and other words are completely made up.


Hye Rin and Ellie evolved in their relationship over the three months. At the beginning, they barely acknowledged each other aside from being a "bump" in the other one's crawling path. By the end, they were loving their morning conversations in adjacent high chairs.

 


One of highlights was a dinner invitation to the Kleins where Tae Geom was absolutely delighted to find a blow-up bouncy castle.






With the Spring beauty in full swing, we took Ellie out to frolic among the flowers.






This past semester was my final one of doctoral coursework. A couple days after I finished my finals, I began the written component of my comprehensive exams-- a series of questions from each of four professors representing the different areas I studied (math, math education, teacher education, and educational research). I had two weeks to create my responses and 'twas a long two weeks indeed. A mental marathon of sorts. 


I barely saw the family during the two weeks, and there were more than a few occasions when I looked like this...


With much-needed encouragement from family and friends, I eventually pulled through. In the end, it was as easy as 1-2-3... 123 pages, that is (counting references). I have to admit it was interesting to dive in and explore some issues to depths that I had never done before, although I'll certainly be content with swimming on the surface again in the near future :)