Running a 5K in a pink tutu

Does the idea of me jogging in a pink tutu make you laugh? Then please support Race for the Cure by donating to Hutchison School's team. I owe my life to smart women and seeing that I work at an all girl school I guess I owe my job to them also.

See the link below to donate to a worthy cause.
https://secure2.convio.net/rfcmt/site/Donation2?idb=235318590&df_id=1220&FR_ID=1100&PROXY_ID=13423&PROXY_TYPE=22&1220.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=2mzucvcun8.app243b

Either way I promise plenty of photos of me looking like an idiot for the right reason.

Thanks!
John
Sent from my iPhone

Happy hour in San Antone, TX

Need I say more?

Mission Concepción

A Franciscan mission in San Antonio from the early 1700's. There are five here this one is in the best condition.

A fine burger at Chris Madrid's

After a calm morning with a 4 mile run, some work, and way too much coffee Weiss took me took Chris Madrid's a local San Antonio burger joint. I had the jalepeno burger. Good eats. It's beautiful fall weather here in south Texas. The night will bring fun and maybe some trouble.

A evening of culture in Oxford, MS

In the first full day of fall break from the "H" I graded in the morning so the rest of the break could be awesome.

Link, his daughter Penny, and I cruised down to Oxford for some coffee at Square Books, dinner at Ajax, and a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet.

Yes, I'm getting my culture on! The weather is PERFECT!!!

Yet another reason to love Memphis!

Free music at the Levitt Shell. Cool weather, colder growlers of Ghost River beer, and great friends makes Memphis...., awesome!

Sunset, Drinks, and Dinner!

Sunrise over Memphis!

Fabulous sunset over the Mississippi River

For the first time, in a long time, it's beautiful out. Reading and enjoying a beer on the roof of my condo!

Last Days in DC

Another fantastic summer in DC. From visiting family and friends to the faculty and students of SPS the summer of 2010 in DC could not have gone any better. Although the weather was a bit hot, OK it was a scorcher, it was still a fantastic learning experience, a great deal of fun, and always and adventure.

The hallway of St. Albans

Each summer I think that there can't possibly be a museum or sight that I have not seen in DC and each summer I am humbled yet again. This summer on one of my last full days in town, Norm and Virginia took me to the National Building Museum. So much cool history of the buildings of DC and this history of how the District was built. Fascinating stuff!!!

Above is a photo of the National Mall. Notice the buildings on both sides of the reflection pool near the Washington Monument and where the World War II Memorial is currently located. The "temporary" buildings where put up during the Great War (World War I) and then taken down after World War II.




Left is a photo of a photo of the inscription near the entrance of Founder's Library on the campus of Howard University. I thought the quote was awesome!

Remarkably I have several Godchildren. No need to go into detail, just odd especially considering that the people who have chosen me for this honor know me well. This is a photo of Drew, son of a friend from high school days. Drew and his family met me after mass at Holy Trinity in Georgetown on my last full day in DC. Drew was playing with his Dad's Blackberry. Could he be a future policy wonk in DC? Luckily we met before the torrential downpour later that day. It was very wet, very, very wet.

This Drew after brunch, a walk through Georgetown, some ice cream at Thomas Sweet's, and a visit to a toy store.

He is racked out!!!

Summer in the District

World War II at night in DC

I know I haven't posted in almost a month. Ehh, is your day really any worse for wear?

I'm really enjoying my summer in DC. I can not believe that this is my 6th summer at SPS and in DC. Time really does fly.

For the most part the summer here hasn't changed all that much since last summer. I say that without any disdain what so ever. My time up here has allowed me to drop into a great rhythm and life in DC.

I've already played a couple games of softball with the Ugly Mugs, the congressional softball team that allows me to moonlight with them the last six years. Allow there are many new members we've had a great time after the games. Incidentally we won them both.

I've been able to hang with the high school and college friends. We had some dinners and some drinks out on the town. An added bonus is that one of the Memphis gang was in town for a teacher's workshop so he added a few days to the trip so we could hang out.

View of the Washington Monument from the World War II at twilight.

Work has been great. It's great catching up with old colleagues and meeting new ones. The students this summer are as sharp as ever and working diligently to keep up our crazy pace.

The program gets sharper each year. The students are working great case studies, old staples and some new ones. They traipse all over the District getting to spend time with policy makers and life long civil servants that transcend a lot of the partisanship of this town.

One "work" day I had to go watch Strasburg and the Nats!

Summer is here and Pete is back!

I know both of my blog readers are super psyched that I am back to the keyboard!

Emily's message to me for my arrival, Owen may have helped

Presently I'm hanging in Atlanta after a great visit Owen and Family.

Life has been fun and crazy since my return from a month Korea. Since touching down in the land of the Delta Blues;

1. BBQ Fest, 'nuff said.
   
2. Graduated seniors who were in the 5th grade when I arived at the "H", I'm old.
   
3. Chaperoned 60 eighth grade girls in St. Louis
   
4. Pittsburgh, PA for Andy and Laura's wedding and a great visit with a long time friend and his family.
   
5. Chuck and JoAnn's wedding in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. No oil. lots of fun.
   
6. Two weeks of a summer leadership camp at the "H".

Now after a great visit to "The ATL" I'm heading to Erie, PA for a short week before I head back to Albans and the School of Public Service in Washignton, DC.

My life is fun and busy, sometimes to much of each.

Emily knocking back a cold, cold one.., of Milk.

Scored VIP tent passes to watch the Whalers and Better than Ezra in Candler Park, Atlanta

Delorean outside the Cleremont Lounge,

not sure if it ever found 1.21 gigawatts to get back to 1985

Braves v. Kansas City on Father's Day, Braves won and Chipper is in the groove!

A last tidbit of knowledge, Hill Country Revue, an amalgamation of the North Mississippi All-Stars has an awesome album out. Check it out. Here is a song and interview from their new album. Memphis Incredibleness!!

Hill Country Revue



You can make it don't give up

World Cup promo

Enjoy!

Leaving on a jet plane!

We are about to board the plane. See everyone soon!

North Korea

This is a photo of North Korea from the DMZ.

Pyeongang

This is the last stop on the railroad before North Korea.

This place has no traffic.

Ok it's Namsam not Namwon

Here is the last view of Seoul from NAMSAM tower. View of Pyongyang.
North Korea less than 200 KM, @120 miles, away.

United States Embassy

Here is a photo of our embassy in Seoul

More views of Seoul

Cool views

Views from Namwan Tower

More pictures!

Seoul view from Namsam Tower

Pretty cool view!

Post Skype snack

After we skyped with my Mom and then one of my History classes we
ordered fried chicken take out.

So much fun.

New Posts on the school blog

Here are a list of links for new blog posts and photos from the school blog.

Blog Posts
Last days in Jeonju

Sori Performing Arts Center

Jeonju English Center

Photos Albums
April 28th, Jeonju

April 29th, Jeonju, Korea

Oh the press is so bothersome

In the news, again! So much fun.

Teaching in Korea

We visited a middle school, high school, and an arts academy. The
music division of the academy focused on traditional Korean music and
art.

Afterword I was able to speak to a class of Korean students. I was
able to play Greer's photostory. They loved it!!

I then lead a question and answer session about American schools and
Hutchison.

It was great to be in front of a classroom again.

The photo below is of a "senior" in high school who played a
"kayeageum", a traditional Korean string instrament. It was great.

Visit with the Lieutentant Governor of the Province

Today we visited the Jeollanbuk-do government. We visited the province
(think state) assistant Governor.

After meeting with him we met with the head of the State Assembley of
Jeollanbuk-do.

We watches some promotional videos for the state. The cool thing is
that we saw nearly everything that te video promoted.

A visit to a Pepper Farm

After we left the Jirisan Mountain National Park we were treated to a
you of one of our new friend's farm. He grows green, red, yellow, and
orange peppers.

When you drive around Korea you see these small to large greenhouses
all over the place. They enable the Korean farmers to farm all kinds
of things that would be typically out of season.

The Koreans may not have a ton a land in their country but they use
eery inch of it.

Tea with a monk

Today we visited one of the most simple yet most spiritual Biddhist
Temples. Ssanggyesa monastery is well known in Korea and in the
Buddhist world.

They have an organic farm and anyone can go and live there while they
learn to farm in an organic and "Zen" way. Sounds neat, for a week.

While there we were invited to have tea with the Head of the
Monastery. Even the Koreans we were with had never done this!

He was great. He spoke pretty good English and had a very warming
smile. We had a couple of cups of tea with him.

Lunch in the Mountains

After our walk in the mountains and the park we had lunch at a small
mountain resteraunt. They cooked a meal thatvis special for the region
called, "Black Pig".

They smoked the meat outside the place. I sat outside while they
cooked the meat. It was delicious.

Great meal and better people. The peope of Namwon have been fantastic.

A Walk in Jinsan National Park and Mt. Jiri

Although today was a bit chilly the sun was shining and the view was
great. We walked for about an hour and a half up the mountain. We
stopped were the photo was taken.

The view was spectacular!

On to Namwon

Namwon is a smaller town about an hour drive from Jeonju. It is known
as the, "City of Love". There is legend in this city about a couple
from different classes of society that falls in love. It's basically
the Romeo and Juliet of Korea.

They were finishing up their three day town festival which celebrates
the city's history and culture.

We walked around the fesrival. Even though it was in the rain it was
still quite nice. In the afternoon we had some delicious freshly
ground Ginger tea.

Dinner was amazing as usual. People imagine having Thanksgiving dinner
for three straight weeks. Welcome to my Korea dining experience.

Here is a photo of the city park. Namwon is a beautiful city.
Tommorrow we head for a walk through the Jirisan National Forrest.

See everyone soon!!!!!

New post on school blog

Video and photos. Check it out.

http://johnstephany.blogspot.com/2010/04/rotary-district-conference-video-and.html

Sent from my iPhone

Pine needle tea

After a rainy but beautiful walk in the grounds of a Buddhist Temple
in the woods we stopped in for a traditional tea service.

The tea they chose for us, we told them to pick, was pine needle tea.
Now before you think, "Ewwww gross!", hear me out.

The take the pine needles from saplings, baby trees, and soak them in
local honey for six months. The pine needles infuse the honey with a
pine scent an taste. It was deleicious. It would be perfect for a cold
winter day near Christmas.

The coffee house was on the grounds of re Buddhist temple and was all
natural wood. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Out!!!

Homestay families and eel!

On the road again this morning. Our stay on Gochjang was one night. It
was brief but very enjoyable.

We had a dinner of grilled (at our table) eel. You take a price of eel
place it on a big piece of lettuce. You the. Add a slice of raw Gaelic
dipped in spicey Korean sauce, some Ginger, and finally some mountain
herbs an then you shove th whole thing in your mouth. Honestly, it
tastes pretty good.

After dinner I hung out around the living room with my homestay
family. They had three kids, a boy who was 14, a girl who was 12, and
the youngest boy who was 9. They were great. The oldest did home work
most of the time except when he has to translate for us. The youngest
boy was hilarious, he crawled all over me like I was a Jungle Gym. He
woke me up this morning by jumping on me in the bed like some sort of
professional wrestler.

I'm sad the visit wasn't longer. We dropped the kids off at their
respective schools this morning.

Great day!!!!

Turtles and Dragons

We visited a montain shrine the other day. Near the temple was a
cemetery. The photo represents a typical marker in Korea. The bast of
the marker is. Turtle which represents longevity and the top is a
dragon which represents kingly power or leadership.

Gamma rays and radiation technology

Intersting day today/yesterday. We visited a radiation technology
research and product development company.

They do all kinds of interesting things with radiation and gamma rays.
Shockingly after that description I must remind everyone that I am not
a science teacher.

They research develops everything fro
space food to cancer cures. We saw inside a beam accelerator. They had
Geiger counters and lead walls. It was safe, ok I'm pretty sure it was
safe

The picture is of Cobalt-60 been beamed. That's the bulk of my science
knowledge, sorry Mr. Clancy.

Later!

Crazy and awesome day.

This post goes with yesterday's the previous post's photos.

Today has been one of the best days we have had so far. We started the day at the Jeonju Provincial Police Headquarters (think state police). While here we saw the Jeonju CSI lab and met with some of their investigators. They displayed their profiling and computer sketch abilities. They even hooked one of us up to lie detector machine, not me for once. I then shot a gun in their shooting range. Ok, it was a gun that shot electronic bullets and after getting a feel for the target on my second round scored rather well.

A visit to Woosuk University was next and there we toured the campus and met with a professor who is doing research in Kim Chi, the fermented and spicy cabbage that Koreans are famous for. Kim Chi is commonly thought of as one of the world’s healthiest foods. See article link here (LINK). He is basically looking at replicated and improving upon the amino acids that Kin Chi has. It’s basically better for you than yogurt, less fat!

We were also treated to an impromptu Tae Kwan Do performance. It was spectacular. Their performance told the story of the Donghak peasant revolution in late 19th century Korea. Think River Dance meets the Karate Kid, with really athletic and violent ballet. Now that’s a mental picture. Woosuk University is famous for their Tae Kwan Do program, it’s a major and required study by every Korean soldier. SO it was like walking up to tour Duke and then getting to watch them scrimmage before the NCAA tournament.

We visited a museum and then went to a great noodle restaurant. Afterward the families took us out to a little whole in the wall dive for food. It’s like a meat and three in Memphis, except they have fish, Kim Chi, and …, live cut up octopus. I ate some…, of course. From there we hit the town for the typical Karaoke performance. I revisited my performance of Elvis’, Suspicious Lies to a thunderous crowd.

After getting “home” I slept for about 4 or five hours and then had a Skype class with the 8th and 5th graders of Hutchison. They asked great questions and it was good to see everyone.

I’m out!!

The most awesome and ridculous day in Korea yet

Is Pete in trouble?!?!?

How connected is Rotary International in Korea? Well we had a police escort everywhere we went while driving around the Mt. Muju Ski Resort.

The photo below is me having some fun, well my version of fun. I may have the maturity level of a nine year old. Oh well, it's good for a few laughs.

This is a obviously a joke.

Below is a video of funeral conducted by the Buddhist Monks in the Muju Mountains

Random videos and photos from Korea

Here are some random videos and photos from the trip.

http://johnstephany.blogspot.com/2010/04/catching-up-photos-and-some-video.html


Video of our bus trip