Miss Christina Powers

Walks in the wood, Reisling on the river, and...uh, pig knuckles.

2011-06-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

I fell asleep blogging last night so when I woke at 5:20AM I opened my computer back up and picked up where I left off.

At 7:30AM I meandered downstairs to meet the tour group for breakfast. Our first stop was at a traditional windmill in Amsterdam. The bus had to gas up so we were left here for a good 30 minutes.

As opposed to the other truck stops there wasn't really a lot to see after this one monument. While others stood in place or walked in circles, I found a path through some woods. It wasn't a long walk but it was enough to take some time for solitude and reflection. It made me think of borogoves and tulgey wood and I found myself singing quietly to myself. I considered sitting by a tumtum tree but continued on the trail until it opened up to a bridge.

Those two shots show the less traveled areas (by our group specifically I mean) and marks really my favorite moments on large, fast, tour group outings that my mom likes to go on. It is, for me, really the time on my own that sells the trip.

On the other side of the windmill, there were some sheep milling around. This was picture worthy to the rest of the group, so I snapped a picture of it myself. At one point a mother sheep broke away at a fair pace from the others with her offspring running to catch up. Once she stop the child immediately tried to nurse again. The mother kicked and tried to walk away. Damn kid.

Once the bus returned we loaded up and drove to a diamond cutting factory. It's a pretty popular place for tourists. We were told they average 40 tour buses a day. When we arrived they had JUST opened and already there were two other tour groups.

The rain had started up again and the 120 or so tourist were squeezing to get out of the rain and into the lobby area. Our tour guide called for us to go through the main foyer and into an inner lobby. Unfortunately this meant we had to maneuver our way through another group. The guide of that group, who spoke with a thick French accent, started speaking loudly and with distain to our guide. "That is really rude. That is cutting our group. It is rude. I hope you don't think that you can just do that again. You better not behave like that again. So rude." Taking the higher road our guide said nothing. He was, after all, just trying to separate the groups and let the third group in out of the rain. There was really no foul play on his part.

We waited patiently in front of their group until she was done ranting and then allowed her group to continue up the stairs. I considered sticking a foot out to trip her, perhaps starting some tour group on tour group steel-cage-match-action at the diamond factory, but decided against it.

We were given a little demonstration about the steps it takes to cut and polish the diamonds and then we were shown several samples of different carats, colors, and cuts. But in the end the diamonds I find to be most beautiful (bluish, princess cut, etc) were too low class for this diamond shop. They pride themselves on the 121 cut so about 95% of their diamonds are round.

Eh... I was okay not buying anything.

We drove on to another truck stop where I again passed up the paprika and cheese&onion flavored Pringles. Interestingly, at this place (on the boarder of Germany) they were playing P!nk on their overhead speaker. I get playing imported music at a swanky clothing store or something but American music at a rest stop?

I suppose, in hindsight, they were pretty swanky. It did cost a Euro ($1.60) to use their bathroom after all.

Our next stop was a Cathedral in Cologne. It was situated nicely next to a McDonald's in a pretty skethky part of town. We were warned of pick-pocketers. Although I rarely take these warnings to heart.

This particular Cathedral our tour guide says in the tallest in the world. Wikipedia says it's the fifth tallest. It is the tallest twin tower Cathedral though... so there's that.

Sufficiently filled with a McDonald's McDouble (and not the veggie burger as advertised) and some pretzel bread from the bakery on the corner we headed down the road to our next stop... a cruise on the Rhine River.

I snapped a picture of a sign laying on the grass before boarding the boat. I am not quite sure if dogs are not allowed on the boat, the grass, or perhaps they are just not allowed to squat on the grass... either way the makers of this sign are very serious about their all caps "nein!"

Again we were given options of an indoor or outside sitting area. My parents again chose indoor and I went outdoors. It started to sprinkle a little and a majority of the people on the top deck went down below. As you can see I was quite comfortable though and stuck it out until it was shining brightly again.

Kiana soon joined me on deck. And then a guy from out group, Jason did. Shortly there after Stefanie came up and ordered a beer from one of the two bars on the boat. Two brothers, Raymond and Eric, joined us while I went to the bar and got myself a bottle of Riesling. And soon there was a small group of us enjoying some adult beverages and partaking in some good conversation.

Uh... we passed some castles and stuff. And I was the first to finish my beverage which caused an applause to erupt from our group that probably confused the other passengers who weren't exactly sure what they should be taking pictures of.

Docking the boat, it was quick five minute bus ride up to the restaurant where we ate ham hocks. The tasty meat did wonders in soaking up the alcohol in my system. The picture to the right shows what I found to be the "perfect" bite. For as good as the meat was seasoned it was still a bit thick and dry. With a bit of sauerkraut and rice, it was quite pleasant. Having said that, I ate less than half of the whole dish. That there is a LOT of meat.

We checked into the hotel in Frankfurt around 8:30 PM where I proceeded to plop down on the bed before even removing my shoes. Stefanie at one point mentioned checking out the pub across from the hotel and I may or may not have grunted about doing it after a little nap. I *thought* it, but I don't believe words came out. When I woke at midnight, Stefanie too had crashed out on her bed in her day clothes as well. By 12:30AM we were both in pjs and down 'till morning.

Side note... by morning... Sponge Bob and then Ren and Stimpy were playing on our TV in German. "It's Log" is a great catchy song in English (it's log, log, it's big it's heavy it's wood. It's log, log, it's better than bad, it's good.)

Bullies at security, Boys peeing, and Bikes

2011-06-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Day three began at 5:30AM with a wake-up call. Bags were required to be in the lobby by 6:15 and the bus to catch the morning train departed at 7:00.

There was a Starbucks in the hotel parking lot, which helped me to honor the times assigned to us. Unfortunately, this particular Starbucks, while open at 10:45PM (when walking past the night before) was not open at 6:10AM. Crestfallen, I met up with my group for a buffet breakfast that would have cost 21-pounds had we not been in the group. I did my best to eat 21-pounds worth of food, but I failed.

We loaded up into the bus and drove down to the train station where we passed another Starbucks. After dropping luggage with our tour guide (who gave us 30 minutes to use the bathroom and whatnot before entering security) I walked speedily back to the Starbucks to drink the nectar of the gods (or "a soy white mocha" as other people refer to it).

Stefanie had found that the train station provides free wifi which I took advantage of sitting down next to my luggage. It's hard to know which obsession I was more excited to have at that point.

Unfortunately my glee was short lived, as my tour guide, and my mother, decided it would be best to go through security immediately, rather than wait the time he had originally given us. Despite the scheduled departure for the train being 50 minutes away, and the announcement saying it was delayed, I ended up throwing away 3/4 of my beverage to get through security.

The train though was spacious and I was able to play a little on my computer, so my mood bounced back pretty quickly. Once my computer ran out of battery power, and I read of how Mr. Darcy's first proposal to Miss Bennett was met with a girl-powered-ass-whooping (thanks for the book loan Erin), we arrived in Brussels, Belgium.

Essentially, we had about an hour to kill in Belgium before driving on to Amsterdam. We visited the Grand Palace and City Hall and what our tour guide referred to as the famous "peeing boy statue boy who is peeing". It is an added special treat to see Europe with a Chinese tour guide. He speaks as if we were all Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. Occasionally though, I find it laughable. For example, he explained today, "Brussels, not capital city. But big city, not capital of Belgium, but only Brussels. Not capital of Belgium is Brussels." Everyone seemed to comprehend him well enough. Later laughter erupted (confirming that he was being listen to) when he announced, "population of Belgium not that much. Compare to other country in Europe. Belgium only take two hours to drive through. Not so big only population in Belgium is only eleven. Only eleven population in Belgium. (pauses for bus to stop its mockery and then corrects) Eleven million people. Population eleven million." Additionally, his pronunciation of "restroom" is the same as "restaurant" and "New York" sounds suspiciously like "New Year."

But I digress... Brussels was, as Stefanie remarked, "a city I could do some damage in." We walked passed storefronts that all alternatively advertised Belgium chocolates, Belgium beer, and Belgium waffles.

Unfortunately we passed the stores quickly to see the Mannenkin Pis Statue which our tour guide explained depicts a significant moment in history when a Dutch boy climbed a tree and pissed upon invading French soldiers. I was willing to buy the story until it was further explained that the statuted boy is small because he was only three years old. A three year old who could climb a tree and urinate on passing soldiers? Maybe someone truly gifted like Issac, but... nah.

Our guide released us for a few minutes here and I went looking for a money exchange that would turn my American dollars into Euros. Unfortunately, I was unable to find more than some dressed and trained dogs and a whole lot of rain.

Ducking into a store that sold Smurf and Hello Kitty knickknacks, to purchase an umbrella I had the following conversation with the clerk.

Me: Do you take cards?
Clerk: Of course. Just the one umbrella?
Me: Yes please. This rain came on quick.
Clerk: Yes, but we need it.
Me: Oh yeah?
Clerk: Yes. It is good for the culture. And it doesn't happen much.
Me: No? These flash storms don't happen too often?
Clerk: No. It's pretty kooky, huh?

Yes. Kooky. One minute Denise and I pose for a picture together in the sky-is-so-bright-you-gotta-wear-shades moment and in the next I am buying an umbrella to try and salvage some body heat coming from my sandles-and-tanktop-wearing body.

Returning to the bus we traveled another couple of hours to find our planned stop for lunch closed due to road construction. It was 3:00PM and it was here that I officially decided to carry my own supply of food for the rest of this trip.

We arrived at our next point, an Amsterdam canal cruise, at 6:00PM. All that bus travel and lack of food brought out the travel-grouch in a few of us again, and we were generally pleased to be in the fresh, albeit chilled, air.

There were two seating choices while on the canal cruise. Either you could sit inside (as you can see from the photo above) and look through windows covered in raindrops and generally sun-worn windows or you could move out to the back of the boat that was uncovered. Unfortunately, once outside you could no longer hear the narrative of what buildings we were passing.

So... here on the left is some building with the name "Nemo" on it. It sort of reminds me of the "bird's nest" building that was built for the Olympics in China a few years back. The picture on the right was snapped after the guy second on the left waved to our passing boat. I smiled and waved back. I can't say for that these guys are responsible for the chalk "victim on love" drawing there beside them... but with smiles like that, they looks like they could be.

Our guide informed us that there are far more bikes in Amsterdam than actual people. Checking out the bicycle-parking garage near where our cruise docked, I tend to believe this statistic. Even the streetlights reflect the popularity of this form of transportation.

We sat down for a Chinese dinner around 7:30 making it a full 12 hours (with the adjustment for the time change) between meals.

We checked into the hotel around 9:00 where I watched the Marriage Ref (with guest judge Ginger Spice) and paid the 22 Euros (approx. $31.47) for Internet for the evening.

Europe: Day One/Two--the 34.5 hour day

2011-06-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

I'd say my trip to Europe began with the Thursday, 4:30am shuttle bus pick up from our Best Western in Milbrae, CA. It ends with our hotel check-in for the night Friday, 11:00PM in London, England.

Admittedly, there's really not a lot to remark on with that first several hours though. My parents and I flew to Charlotte, NC. Met up with my coworker, Stefanie Masten, and her mother, Teresa. And then hopped on another plane to head out to Europe--first stop, London.

It was a 7.5 hour flight and I *knew* we would have to get some solid sleep in. Unfortunately, the smaller than AK Air seats, the anticipation of London, and the availability of eh-quality movies left me sleep deprived when we landed at 7:30AM (local time) ready to start a full day of touristy-joy. As it was, Stefanie, who was a bit under the weather, was the only one to really get any substantial sleep.

Upon receiving praise for her good choice, she admitted this particular position didn't really allow for any sort of neck movement in the following hours.

Customs in London, while previously a generally pleasant experience was hampered by an Immigration Desk Clerk who questioned my Kuskokwim River-loved passport.

After being told that falsified passports look exactly like mine, he asked to see another form of identification. I pulled out my AK driver's license. He told me he would accept my passage this one time only if I promised to replace my passport once I returned to the States. I pointed out my passport expires in 2013 and I didn't have problems before now (having checked with several agencies in the US before traveling) but this information only seemed to further to perturb the agent. He then asked a series of questions that I couldn't answer (I see you are leaving to Brussels tomorrow, what time are you traveling? How are you traveling? How long will you be there in Belgium? What hotel are you staying in while in London? What is the postal code for that hotel? What is the name of the Immigration officer in CA that said you could travel with this passport?) and some questions I could answer (Are you traveling alone? How long have you worked in schools? What is the name of the school where you are a vice principal? Where is it located? What are the ages of the students you have at your school?).

I appreciate the need for security... but dude... I am visiting your country for the third time. I'm gonna pay exuberant prices to take in a musical and check out the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and the sort. I'm not going to sell others into the slave industry. I promise.

As it was, I didn't have to make such a promise to the clerk out loud, he eventually allowed me to enter the UK. I made my way quickly to baggage claim and retrieved my bag along with my parents' luggage. My sister, Denise, and her eldest daughter, Kiana, had arrived a good 30 minutes before us, and I was eager to meet up with them.

Unfortunately, as soon as our tour group had gathered with all bags, someone discovered that they had left his/her money on the plane. The plane on the other size of Customs. I'll let you, blog-reader, connect the dots on how we ended up not meeting up with Denise and Kiana until a good 2.5 hours after we landed.

An uneventful bus ride later, and we arrived at the Tower of London. My first stop was the loo. I took a picture of the wall above my toilet.

I was strangely fascinated with the idea of a raven standing perched above me... behind me... while I did my business. Ravens are kept clipped and caged at the Tower of London because rumor has it when the ravens leave the king will fall. My experience with raven-lore is quite different with them being the Creator and all, but whateves.

Rain began falling while we were touring the Tower of London, so we didn't spend too much time meandering but, rather, headed fairly quickly to the Jewel House. I did snap two pictures of a remaining stockade and a memorial for the ten (then seen as traitors) executed persons within the Tower. Including , of course, famously Anne Boleyn and her sister-in-law Jane (who played both sides of the fence when it came to squealing to the king about infidelities).

We left the Jewel House (no pictures were allowed) a while later as the rain was just beginning to lighten. It should be noted that it was a good seven hours since a danish was served on the plane and about thirteen hours (not a fan of just a sugary treat in the morning) since I had eaten the pasta-dinner that was offered on the plane. In other words, I was not the only one in our tour group who found themselves resembling the Royal Beasts of the Tower.

We had, at that point, failed to exchange dollars for pounds and were thus taunted by the snack and gift shops we passed until my dad was able to swap out a little dough with our tour guide allowing for medicine (in the form of caramel fudge) to fix his low-blood-sugar-induced headache to subside.

And off we went...

Driving off we had the London Eye pointed out to us several times. I have previously been on the London Eye and... look... it's a nice view... but wow are the British proud of this merry-go-round of theirs.

Don't they know that their phone booths are just as cool to the average American tourist? As a side note when Stefanie and I took turns snapping photos inside the time and space traveling portals made famous by Dr. Who and Harry Potter, we caught a conversation between two others from our tour group:

Young Man #1: (looking at us) It's almost cliche, huh?
Young Man #2: Yeah, I mean who doesn't get their picture taken in the booths?
Young Man #1: So... want to go next?
Young Man #2: Yeah.

Following the theme of expected shots... here's the obligatory family photo in front of Buckingham Palace for those of you want to see that sort of thing. It is set beside a dragon marking one of the entrances of Chinatown (where we had a late lunch/early dinner/only meal of the day).

After eating, we were given thirty minutes of freetime wherein our group madly dashed to purchase tickets for that evening's showing of Wicked. At the start of the meal only Stefanie and I were confirmed to attend the show. But due to the persuasive nature of my mom (shoutout to all those who have traveled with my mom and can attest to this) we ended up getting five tickets.

Buying tickets to a London musical three hours before a Friday night, nearly sold out showing, didn't really score us any great deals. But it's London! And it's Wicked! So all we felt pretty comfortable splurging even though it was just "day one".

Unfortunately getting our money exchanged and getting the actual tickets in our hands took more than 30 minutes so Stefanie and I had the tour go ahead without us. Our next stop was to check into our hotel for a free evening... so we volunteered to just take The Tube and meet up with them shortly.
An understandably cautious Teresa and Stefanie questioned my ability to find the hotel (near the Tower of London) as well as the theater for that matter, but I assured them that navigating oneself in London is a breeze. Everyone speaks English after all.

This assurance I gave proved to be true. Although, I probably shouldn't have been so convincing as we didn't actually, at that point, know where the closest Underground Station was... nor did we know the actual name of our hotel. We knew it started with a "G". That's enough, right?

As it turns out, finding the Piccadilly Circus station, purchasing tickets with an agent, navigating the two needed lines, and locating the first "G" hotel we could see from the Tower of London station got Stefanie and I meeting up with our group before hotel room keys were shelled out.

A quick shower for all five of the attendees and we were off to the theater.

Those who either were privy to my notes from London six years ago, or who frequent my Facebook page, know of my affinity for men in suits *swoon*. And just in case there was any doubt at all, London, Friday night, on The Tube, does not disappoint.

At one point a dapper looking stylish bloke addressed my sister with, "'scuse me gorgeous" before reaching behind her head to place a newspaper behind her on the window sill (for travelers in the future who might be interested in a free read). I did my best to conceal my consideration of getting off at the Temple Station (as he and his four male friends did) and continue on to the Victoria Station.

We did, though have pretty great plans for the evening.

Wicked was... amazing. As I expected it to be. The show really is just that well crafted. And yes, credit is due to the actual actors on stage. The talent was that more impressive to me after purchasing a program and learning both of the leads as well as Madame Morrible were all played by understudies that evening.

When purchasing my coffee before the start of the show, the attendant asked if I had seen the show before, and I confirmed that I had. He then asked, "American?" And I nodded. He sort of shrugged defeated and said, "I do hope you like the show, I heard the production in Broadway is tops." I smiled and told him, that I saw the show in San Fransisco, so I am sure I will love it, here.

I wasn't wrong.

We arrived back at the hotel around 11:00PM... and confirmed the 5:30AM wake up call.

I assure you posts in the future will NOT be as long as this one. Surely, we can't have many more 34.5 hour days, right?

Morning meeting in Oscarville

2009-05-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Every morning from 8:30-8:45 Oscarville have the entire school community gather around our lunch table. The staff takes turns each week talking about one of the Yupik Cultural Life Skills (components of Yuuyaraq). At the end of the talk the students recite a pledge with appropriate hand gestures. This morning, on the last day of school, I took some video. Leading us today is those members who will be in High School next year. Well... the ones who showed up before 8:45 this morning.

Feel free to follow along in your daily Yupik Eskimo Language lesson...

Wangkuta elisngaukut. (We are smart)

Taigukut elicarturluta, ikayuutaaryarturluta-llu. (We come here to learn and to help others)

Maani assikuciqukut pingnatugciiqukut-llu. (We will be kind and strong here)

Caliciqukut assircaarluta, murilkelluta, niicugniluta, elilluta-llu. (We will work hard, pay attention, listen, and learn)

Watnaukut ciuliaput umyuaqluki wangkutnek-llu.
(Above all else, we think about others and ourselves here)

Graduation 2009

2009-05-17T16:11:00.001-07:00

Well the end of the year is upon us. I can tell because there are puppies everywhere...

(and... this very that last one that is still looking for a good home...)

love, it seems, is in the air...

and once again, I had a graduation speech to deliver...

So here is this year's tribute...

I'm here to congratulate four very deserving students on their graduation from middle school and their ascent into high school.

I, personally, have been extremely pleased to observe their progress over the past two years. Their growth, in every way, has been remarkable. They have, in that time, become mature, well-spoken adults helping provide for their families and making responsible choices.

They have become taller, too.

Allow me introduce Anissum Henry, Nick Joekay, Lyle Meier, and Patrick Waska.

These four boys work together well as a team. Last year along with Issa and Nicole they performed remarkably well making it to the state level with both Battle of the Books and Robotics.

I’ll be honest. I thought it was a fluke. That group of six being one of those classes teachers dream of having.

I was wrong. These young men have been leaders in the Jr. High helping the four new students in our group also become great teammates. The Jr. High this year has surpassed my expectations again with their ability to work well through communicating safely with one another. They were award winners in the Science Fair and the Multimedia competition. Two contests they have never been a part of before this year.

In addition to all of the amazing work they have done together they have also, independently, produced high-quality school work, under some serious pressure.

Perhaps even more impressive, in this time of nation-wide recession, each of them has had at least one job within the past year.

Young men, today is a turning point in your life. As you make it through this celebration, take a small part of your brain and think about the direction your life is going to go. It's been said that a high school education is one of the greatest gifts that one can receive. And I guess… you’ll have to ask Andrew more about that.

Well, starting now, you have the opportunity to earn that gift. Are you going to take advantage of that opportunity?

You each have a unique set of strengths. Find out what they are, and build on them using this school as your toolbox. With a little self-analysis, planning and focus; and with a lot of work, there are no limits to what you can do with your lives.

At this time, I would like to acknowledge each of you separately. Please stand as I announce your name.

ANISSUM HENRY:

Remember all the magic acts you saw and you learned in Las Vegas? You love magic, and we love seeing you perform it. Well nothing can be more magical than the way you've matured over this last year. All of a sudden, you're a voracious reader. You're great working with kids, and you were a good help to me in the classroom this year. You haven't yet chosen your future career, but don't worry. There's plenty of time. You've gotten a good start, though. You've researched everything from firefighting to marine engineering. That covers a lot of ground. You're a hard worker. Whatever you do, it will probably involve outside work, working with your hands. Keep up the research. There are plenty of options for you.

NICK JOEKAY:

Nick is punctual. He's never late for anything. Well... this week aside. This isn't just a good character trait. It reflects his energy level. Nick will never sit if he can stand. He'll never walk if he can run. If class starts in five minutes...and he's ten minutes away, don't worry. He can make it in three minutes. Of course, punctually is a good character trait too. So is his excellent record of always getting his homework done as assigned. Those aren't his only good traits. If you don't believe me, ask my niece, Marissa. She'll tell you that he's a good guy. You can get a good look at Nick's inner strength by watching him take on athletic challenges. He always pushes himself harder than anyone else I know. In Health and PE we have been doing an video called "Walk Away the Pounds." So a couple of times a week we have been walking two miles in 30 minutes. WE have been walking. Nick has been... running! This drive will help him accomplish goals for the rest of his life. Teamwork and a burning drive to succeed... Nick has considered a career in law enforcement or as a Navy Seal. Lofty goals... But get to know him and he'll convince you...He has what it takes.

LYLE MEIER:

Lyle always accomplishes more than he's asked to do. He's now entering high school, but he's been performing high school quality work for some time now. He's humorous, intelligent, witty, super friendly, popular, self aware, creative, etc. And frankly, at this age he shouldn't be. He should be... scared. But not Lyle. He's an independent thinker and… a… tinkerer. He has TINKERED with broken toys and made them into functional equipment. He has mastered skills typically demonstrated only by career electricians. He even taught himself to play the guitar recently...and he does it well. He hasn't yet decided what he wants to be; but given facts that he's super bright and mechanically inclined, once he decides on his path, the sky's the limit. Let's be nice to him. Someday, we all may be working for him.

PATRICK WASKA:

Patrick is a good student and so much more. He has demonstrated his leadership skills and ability to take on responsibility both at school and at home. We should all feel grateful that he is a member of our community. He's a positive example for us all. No matter what's going on, he always flashes this HUGE smile. Come on, Patrick, show everyone what you've got! Patrick is charming, passionate about everything he does, loyal and empathetic. He sees what needs to be done, and he does it. Patrick already has his future picked out. In case you haven't heard, Patrick intends to live in Anchorage, working as a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines. He's sure of this. And it's that commitment that will make his dream come true. I have no doubt, he'll make us proud.

There you have it...four remarkable young men, ready to move on.

Anissum, Nick, Patrick, and Lyle… it is obvious to me that they didn't get here and do all this on their own. The success and quality of these gentlemen are a tribute to the love and support they've received from their families and from the Oscarville community. Let's not forget your contributions. For those of you who have been a part of their lives, and that means all of you, we applaud you. (through applause) Your help. Your support.

I've felt very close to the four of you. We've worked well together. But don't feel guilty about abandoning me as you move on with your lives. It's the nature of being a teacher. I help you grow up, and then you leave me. It's the circle of life, only without the killing and eating parts.

Besides, you won't get far. I'll still be keeping an eye on you.

Next year, with Erin leaving, you will be getting a new high school teacher. Don't think can get away with reporting to a "Newbie." I read your paper and one of you wrote with hopes of that already. No slacking though... like I just said, "I'll still be keeping an eye on you." After all... I will be in here with the Jr. High and you'll only be just right down the hall from me.
Good luck gentlemen. And... thank you.

In addition to the eighth grade promotion into High School there was a kindergarten graduate and a High School graduate.

Andrew, our High School graduate, seems very pleased with his graduation presents...

as were the kuspeq wearing ladies.

The purple kuspeq, I am wearing here, was a gift from Eliza, Andrew's mother. A quick look around and we found a vast majority of the kuspeqs in this picture were actually all made by Eliza's creative hands.

There are three days of school left. But frankly, I am DONE with academic work. It's been a productive year. My students really pushed right up to the end. A picture is said to paint a thousands words. Well... here's my visual representation of the end of the school year.

Early this week I posted my expectations for each of my students by the end of the school year. Purple is what needs to be done. Orange means it was completed. A blue circle means that the student finished EVERYTHING. A pink square is the work incomplete.

The morning of May 12, 2009

2009-05-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote an email today. It's subject was "Too Lazy to Make This Blog Worthy." I sent it to my parents. And a couple of friends. The reply from one friend in particular prompted me to post it after all.

My original email:

I am too lazy to write this all with wit and drama and to turn it into a blog post but I just had an eventful last ten minutes or so. A couple of pieces of ice hit outside my classroom window so I went out and snapped a picture.
I then carried on as usual exploring Facebook as "prep" for the day. At 8:30 I left my room to go to the main school for morning meeting.

On the way there I heard a couple of dogs squealing and a couple of dogs howling. I looked in the direction of the dogs and thought I would see them being fed or something. They were not. No person was around them. Then I started to count. Two howling. One barking. Couldn't see the squealer. I got closer and realized a puppy had fallen into the river. It seems it was checking out the ice I was looking at just moments before. The ice had moved past; but, a puppy was paddling madly at the edge.

I did NOT grab my camera to get the shot, I picked up the puppy first. And then held it to my chest. It was shaking. Its little heart beating very rapidly. Clearly it was cold. I tried to track down the owner (the Joekays) but in addition to NOT being at the school it seems they weren't even awake. I knocked for a while and then took the puppy home and wrapped it in a blanket.
Once content in the classroom with a blanket and heater I went home to change my clothes. The dog didn't intentionally do its business on me or anything but I would have felt quite silly finishing up the day with the remains of the rescue on me.
And now that this story is told here's the final picture of rescue and rescuer.
So yes yes, it's a cute little story but worthy enough of taking my blog out of early retirement before the new summer adventures? Nah.

But then my roomie Erin and I got to talking. The conversation went something like this:

Erin: hey, are you ever going to post on your blog again?

Christina: Yeah, probably this summer. From my new road trip and all.

Erin: You should post now.

Christina: That's funny because I was just thinking about my blog after that whole puppy-incident this morning.

Erin: Yeah... you should do that.

Christina: eh... I have so much other work to do...

So that's step one of why I am posting... because... really... screw work.

But the other reason for this post is to introduce you to my new special friend. Somehow I managed to find an intelligent, attractive, snarky guy who has shown some interest in my life recently. Go figure.

This morning he had the following to say in an email:

"Glad all is well with the pup. I can see this being a family-friendly
adventure movie. Probably from the Mouse House. I'm writing the
trailer now. Ideally, Don LaFontaine would have done this
trailer--but he died last year."

He then went on to create a trailer of my experience. And because... well as I said... screw work... have decided to reenact the story for you here. The following words are his:

(open with pictures of happy Yupik frolicing with their dogs as happy
music plays--Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony,

NARRATOR: In a world where ice and snow rule, anything can happen.
Even to dogs.

(discordant note sounds as we cut to pictures of dogs running across the snow)

NARRATOR: And when the spring thaw comes. All bets are off.

PATRICK: The river's headed higher! It's gonna flood!

(cut to pictures of pup falling into the water, sounds of yelping, etc.)

NARRATOR: Only one woman can save him!

(heroic music, perhaps the score from "Superman" plays)

CHRISTINA: I'll save him!

ERIN: No, Christina! It's too dangerous! Think of leaving Michael alone!

(Christina looks skyward, and is shot from below like a scene from The
Fountainhead)

CHRISTINA: Heros can't worry about the future.

TOWNSPEOPLE engage in rhubarb. One is heard saying "She's right."

(cut to Christina running along the shore in slo-mo, like Pamela
Anderson in the titles of "Baywatch." In fact, let's have the theme
from "Baywatch" playing. Or the theme from "Chariots of Fire.")

(cut to dog yelping, looking helpless)

(cut to pictures of worried townspeople)

(cut to Christina swimming through a field of icebergs to rescue the dog)

(more shots of worried townspeople)

(over these shots the Narrator speaks)

NARRATOR: Teacher. Smartaleck. Savior. The fate of an innocent dog
rests in her hands.

CHRISTINA: I'm coming pup!

(shot of Patrick hugging Erin)

(more shots of worried townspeople)

(Christina comes ashore with the pup)

CHRISTINA: He's safe!

(crowd cheers, Patrick hugs Christina. Dramatic music plays, the
theme to Dragonheart)

CHRISTINA (narrowing eyes): Until next time!

NARRATOR: This film has not yet been rated.

CHRISTINA: I love being a hero. (looks at the spot on her shirt)
It's the dirty laundry I can't stand.

Tuai!

So here's hoping that the next several blogs posts are able to be as spiced up and entertaining as this one. One can only hope my friend, Michael, will continue to bless me with his unique ability to make my mundane life seem picture worthy.

And... that, as they say, is the final moneyshot of this blog entry.

Stolen from Alisha!

2009-02-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

(I'll get back to the summer again)

Here are the rules: Bold (RED) the things you’ve done and post on your blog.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Learned a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

What things on this list have you done? Which ones do you want to do?

Road Trip: Day Seven ("On the road again. I can't wait to get on the road again.")

2008-11-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

And then... the next morning... we were back on the road.

Back in the car.

Back to stopping only for the hotel bed and pool...

And... you know... dinner at Denny's... again.

Road Trip:Day Six (The coolest animal on zoo-day was the horse!)

2008-11-23T01:42:00.000-08:00

Today we were joined by my sister and her husband. They are also known as Denise and Andrew Gutierrez. They are also known as Kiana, Marissa, and Sabrina's parents.

They live in New Mexico and their contribution to our big summer extravaganza was to foot the bill and transportation to the Rio Grande Zoo and Botanic Garden in Albuquerque.

It was pretty hot that day and the animals were slow moving. Patrick found a friend here in a lazy Gorilla.

It seems Anissum and Marissa found some friends too. These exotic birds found pleasant resting spots on their shoulders and head while being fed.

It was hot there in sunny New Mexico that day and the water spritzer area was a hit. As a group we split off into natural groups here and there. But there were a couple of moments when our entire party of thirteen were together. Here at the water area, when we sat down for lunch, and when we traveled by train to the aquarium.

The aquarium was a hit. There were interesting play areas where a garden was built to look as if we had been shrunk down to one inch tall. And there was a great butterfly habitat too. But there's something about the containment... the silence... of an aquarium that just gets me every time. I understand though that aquraiums aren't magical for everyone.

For example, Anissum seemed to really like the grace of a yellow eel while my mom was disgusted. The jellyfish, as always, were fascinatingly beautiful. There was a sea lion show at the main zoo so it made sense that there was now display of seals here in the aquarium.

There was however, a large tank with sharks, rays, and other large sea life. It was set in a darkened room with some cushiony bleacher-type seating. I settled upon one of the steps there for a good amount of time watching others in our group come in and out of that room before asking Nick, Issa, and Nicole to stand against the backdrop of the tank. Don't sweat this picture on the right too much... no jr. high students were harmed in the shot. :)

The zoo closed strangely at 5:00 so we took one of the last trains back to our car together. Knowing this would be one of the last days that my nieces would be visiting with my students they really seemed to enjoy having a whole cable-car to themselves. It felt a little like the last day of camp.

Luckily we snapped a ton of pictures to remember all of this time together. Looking back on all of the events we had shared up to this point, there really was a great deal of beauty. Not to be outdone at the zoo, a peacock was kind enough to give us one last beautiful memory to see.

After the zoo we killed some time at Denise and Andy's place for a while and enjoyed the down time with video games and pizza. We then headed over to Denise's coworker's home. She keeps goats and horses. And while the warm rains had made for unfavorable conditions to ride the horses we enjoyed getting to meet the goats and experience first hand some of that farm-community that previously the Oscarville students had only read about.

They even had a pygmy goat baby there to show off. He's only about 2 1/2 weeks old and still drinking from a bottle. We took turns petting and holding the goat but as I have come to see first hand, Anissum really does seem to have a comforting way with animals.

While checking out the rest of the goats I pulled Patrick aside. It seems one horse in particular, had had her hooves cleaned and was read to be ridden. Patrick was definitely the one who wanted to ride the most as he had brought up his desires to me on nearly a daily basis. We couldn't take them far... just around a little yard in fact... but it was enough. Patrick was elated.

This photograph here above is quite possibly my favorite from the entire trip. Patrick's ride was definitely my most favorite memory. When the owner was able to lead the horse up to a gallop Patrick squealed with unabashed delight.

Hearing the glee, the rest of the Oscarville students took turns on the horse. We didn't have a while lot of time but it was enough for a few circles for each of them. Some had a real feel for it. Anissum and Nick seemed to understand the rhythm necessary to feel comfortable with the trot.

Issa and Nicole looked only slightly less comfortable than the others. But they enjoyed it all the same. As I stated in the title of this post... after a full day at the zoo the most talked about animal was... the horse.

It was hard to leave the horse but we did have a movie to see. We missed the previews and had to seat in separate seats all over the theater but we got to see Batman: The Dark Knight on opening weekend. WE were a part of those record setting numbers. The consensus was that it was the best movie yet. A must have on DVD for every single one of us.

quickie break from the summer

2008-11-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'll get back to the posts about the summer again, I promise.

After sending in a request for an absentee ballot, and then not getting mail in Oscarville for over a month, I was finally able to vote. Last Friday... five days before the general election, I was able to snowgo up to Bethel to drop off my ballot at the Post Office. I am officially one of those 40,000 absentee voters in Alaska.

Here's the headlining news this morning...

Some of that makes me very happy. Some of that makes me want to drop kick half of the general voting public in Alaska and California over to our sneaky neighbors in Russia.

Road Trip: Day Five (goodbye hole, hello Gutierrez)

2008-08-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

July 19th we left the Grand Canyon area and drove to New Mexico. It was time to drop off my three nieces with my sister (and brother in law) and end the summer romance for two of them. We would become a much smaller party of eight soon.

Early that morning there was a Cowboy Show that some of us were motivated enough to wake up for. Those who did attend enjoyed it. It was a pretty funny show and once it was over you got a chance to have your picture taken with the cast. Here's Nicole and Patrick with the sheriff.

After the cast pictures were taken Nicole and Patrick then found their way to the horses. There was a request for horseback riding from day one and we'd been trying hard to make it happen. Spending $50 a person for a guided tour or something was NOT something we were ready to splurge on but certainly we must know someone!

After the show I took a quick one-hour nap while everyone else watched an hour or so of TV before heading back to the road. We stopped only once on the way to New Mexico and that was to grab a meal at the Golden Corral.

But then it was back in the car. The weather was turning from painfully hot to occasionally raining. It made for a pretty rainbow a few times.

But mostly we were just starting to get stir-crazy from the road.

It was a great relief to get to the Gutierrez' place where there was plenty enough room for everyone to spread out and get into their own things.

They also have a bunch of animals that helped to entertain those who were sort of "done" with people but not really ready for an independent brain game either.

Road Trip: Day Four (from Lights to Holes)

2008-08-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

We were back on the road before noon. This time though it was slightly more lively in the car. Oh yeah, we really rocked things up this day. SOME of the time I didn't have the view of my parents' van in front of me. SOME of the time I had the view of my parents' van in the rearview mirror.

It was pointed out that perhaps I was not being entirely safe there taking a picture of my rearview mirror while driving. So I handed off the camera and allowed for them to snap some pics. Here's just one of the 30 or so shots like these.

Our next destination was a big hole in the ground. It was so big in fact that some might call it "grand".

I gotta say though... all together... our group is pretty darn grand as well. See... all together we pretty much overshadow the canyon.

So speaking of shadows... I did find a way to snap us AND the canyon...

We took a walk seeing some other views of the canyon. For those who haven't been there before the ledges certainly have safety railings and such but when you take a little mile or so walk to an information center you'll pass all sorts of ledges that you can climb down on. I let some students go exploring a bit to really get a feel for the energy of this place. They were safe. GIving one another space and keeping their distance from the real "edges". In fact the only one who really got scared was a my mom. Who screamed wildly for them to come back a few separate times. Admittedly it did look a bit dramatic from far away.

In the end we found it best to just sort of split up and walk at our own pace enjoying the scenery. I was alone some of the time. And other times I caught up to one or two of them finding their own personal favorite spots there.

Road Trip: Day Three (Vegas again)

2008-08-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

We were still in Vegas the next day. We did some shopping and purchased some poker chips with our faces on them. There on the strip I got a call from Anita Creamer a newspaper columnist in Sacramento and was able to set up some interview time. But other than that... it was pretty mellow. It was the day I found time to post some blog updates while they hung at the pool.

And then, that evening, we went to a magic show. Not just any magic show of course... it was rather the World's Greatest Magic Show. I know that because that was it's title. The Teens loved it. Magic is pretty cool in general but to these teens it's the end all of awesomeness. I am really glad we were able to provide them with an appropriate Vegas Show.

So yeah... Vegas wasn't a total wash. Magic and buffets were enjoyed by all.

We were back on the road the following morning.

Road Trip: Day Two (Vegas)

2008-08-11T14:48:00.001-07:00

So... here's the thing about Vegas. It hate it. I try to like it. My mom loves it. But me... I just am not a fan. I think the only way I could like Vegas less was if I were still under 21. But since I AM 21 I was able to do the real fun stuff like wait in line in a casino rather than wait on a couch in a casino. Look at their happy faces. Don't they just look THRILLED with Vegas?

And then later... I got to stand in a line to get a casino-card (cheaper admit into a buffet) while they again got a wait on a couch. See the smiles this time? It's cause they took to wrestling for space there on the couch prior to the photo being snapped. I did spend some time telling them to behave more appropriately in Vegas. But the truth is... I would have been bored out of my gourd and looking for some wrestling entertainment myself if I were them.

We ate at a buffet and I went and played a little Texas Hold 'Em (up 6 bucks at the end of a hour or so) before walking the strip. It was late. It was hot. And their legs were a little out of practice. So when we stopped for sodas there was a bit of a meltdown. This picture was luckily taken before the commotion.

Some more "waiting" occurred and then we decided to head over to Freemont Street to just get all this touristy Vegas stuff done in one horrible night. Freemont Street has a big light show every hour on the hour. The "hour" that we attended was not really geared towards kids. So the lit-up, sultry, stripper show (not flesh but in "lights") paired with the full frontal ads we saw for escorts-in-your-room here and there around town made for a real desire act as kindergardeners. So that's just what they did, post light-show, outside the casinos, there on Freemont Street. There was some anti-boy sentiments and then jumping an cheering and holding hands. It was the kind of play that can't really be captured in a photo but here's a taste of it.

Road Trip: Day One

2008-08-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

July 15th...a road.

A car full of peeps.

A van in front of us.

This happened...

And this...

The participants of both of those two events though have requested that their names not be released onto this blog. Anyone who knows a Jr. Higher would expect both of those "events" to occur. There is just something about this age. It gets the hormones a jumping. Jumping together. Jumping apart. And all that jumping gets a person tired.

Not that you would see that at the end of the day. We checked into a hotel in Needles. It was pretty basic. The Teens swam while the adults relaxed. I picked up some Del Taco for dinner.
And then some of them stayed up watching movies on my computer. It was a pretty mellow day followed by a pretty mellow night. I went to sleep long before they did.

Uh... not much to report.

2008-08-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

So much time has passed since I last blogged. I am currently in Fairbanks, sitting in a chair at the public library alone. I get on a plane tomorrow morning and I will be back in the village around 6:00pm I figure.

So let's see... July 13th was San Francisco and July 15th we began the road tip. So... July 14 we did very little. We went to a movie... uh... Hancock. They LOVED Hancock. I thought it was better than I was expecting. Interesting twists. Enough of a movie to talk about afterwards. A good popcorn flick.

... and then we met my parents for a Chinese food buffet. This was their first buffet and they enjoyed it immensely. Little did they know they were on their way to Vegas where there would be many more buffets to come.

On a roll... can't stop now...

2008-07-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

After spending the night at my Uncle's house in San Jose we drove to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

I never feel like there is enough time for the Exploratorium so this trip I made sure to have it be our first stop in San Francisco. There is just so much to see... and do... and play with. This first photo was one taken on one of their displays on perceptions. Patrick (who took the picture) could not bring himself to drink out of the water fountain toilet. As you can see, I was less hesitant.

As was the case in Santa Cruz the day before, everyone just spread out allowing themselves to really enjoy everything around them without the wait for their friends. I tried to snap photos while exploring myself, but in the end I handed the camera off to Patrick and he took the following few shots.

Every so often a couple of people would meet up and do come of the partner displays together but then they would separate again allowing for individuals to move at their own pace. About two and a half hours after we got there a group started to form around me requesting food.

I made some purchases at the gift shop since I will teach Life Science for the first time next year. I'll miss Earth Science. With the change in school the year before last I was able to teach the same curriculum for two years in a row!

After the Expolatorium we drove Lombard St. and then drove to the Pier 39 parking garage. We ate a late lunch at Jonny Rockets and enjoyed the nickel songs on the jukebox. It never ceases to amaze me how some music makes it to the minds of people born 20 years later. And in Bush Alaska now too?!!

Keeping up with the whole "dated" entertainment theme we then walked to the old-school arcade found at the end of Fisherman's Wharf. The arcade is full of older dime-operated type games. Of course now they cost a quarter or two to play but the attractions are still the same. There were palm-reader machines like Zoltar from the movie "Big," a claw machine that dispenses plastic-ring trinkets, arm-wrestling machines, etc.

There were also more modern-ish machines. Like Pole Position. I love me some Pole Position. "Prepare to qualify. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeep" brings an eager smile to my face. The biggest draw for them though was... Foosball. We got downright loud playing it.

It started as a game with me versus my mom and my uncle. Then Patrick joined my side. As it got louder and louder Issa and Arianna (a cousin of mine) took over the "seats" of my mom and uncle. Can you tell from this shot who the victors of the shot were?

Yeah, we're not so subtle winners.

After the arcade we walked over to Pier 39. There they strolled lazily down the Pier stopping at a variety of shops. Their favorite, by far, was the magic shop. Several of them walked out with bags of tricks and a couple of select boys were taken into a back room to learn how to perform their newly purchased trick.

Once we got to the end of the Pier I booked a table for ten at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant. We had purposely eaten prior to this visit because Bubba Gump is sort of ridiculously expensive.

Here we let the teens all partake in a couple of pounds of peel an' eat shrimp and fancy flavored lemonaides with light up keepsake cups.

As you can see they didn't seem to miss the company of the adults.

"There out there having fun, in the warm California sun"

2008-07-17T16:35:00.001-07:00

Today started off with the always-longer-than-I-remember drive to Santa Cruz.

We had planned to be on the beach at noon. We got there at 2:00. Blah blah it's hot blah blah we made stops for sandwiches and gas blah blah traffic blah blah.

I love Santa Cruz. The rides. The beach. The boardwalk. The cooler breeze. The corn on the cob and funnel cakes. Truly, once you're there, wants not to love about Santa Cruz?

We planned to meet my uncle and his family and well as my friend Michelle and her fiance Marc there on the beach. Do you know how hard it is to coordinate a group of 17? I don't particularly recommend it. But once we found a couple of tables and created a "base" it made for a really enjoyable day.

For those who know me it should come as no surprise at all that I insisted that first ride be "the Giant Dipper". Here we are (minus the non-wristband members of our group) in in-line for out first coaster for the day... the first coaster ever for Issa and Anissum. Note the mostly smiles met with some nervous skepticism.
This next photo is just after the ride was over. You'll notice my lack of sunglasses and the lack of Sabrina. Well... most of us made it through alive. The ride, as experienced by the two that have never been on a roller coaster before, was said to be "so cool" and "so scary, I almost fell out". One participant, Nicole, admitted she didn't open her eyes for a second of it.

So... okay... roller coasters are not for everyone. I get that. Kind of. What I don't get is how a person can walk out of lines half way to the front due to nerves and yet ride the skytram 23 million times. The skytram makes ME nervous. At least the first part does. When you are rising in those slippery non-restraining seats.

After that first ride it was just Rissa and Nick who went off just the two of them, while the the larger groups stayed together. They chose rides based on what my nieces (who have seasoned experience on the Boardwalk) enjoyed. After not too long though the roller-coaster apprehensive went off on their own and by the end of the night I think everyone had ridden at least one ride by themselves. Some prided themselves on riding most of the rides alone.

It was quite a different feeling than when we started out the first few days needed to huddle together in one specific area of swimming pools. But then again that is usually the case each time I have brought my LKSD students here. It's a lot to take in... much more than I can even imagine, despite having shared this experience three times now.

The fact is the Rural Alaska kids come to CA fearful of getting lost. But by the end of the vacation they are flat-out specifically try to get lost... just to experience the being able to find their way found again.

It was a bit of a chore getting everyone gathered up for lazar tag at 10:30pm but we did it. Our wristbands allowed for some free games and we were even able to talk my Uncle and Aunt into it. Sadly, my parents remain lazar tag virgins. We left the park around midnight. Pure satisfaction.

Awesome artists' art everywhere the eye can explore...

2008-07-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have gotten WAY behind. It's now Thursday and I am in a hotel room in Las Vegas while five teens are swimming at the Circus Circus pool and the other three (don't you just hate growing from a girl to a young woman?) are visiting the Ethel M candy factory. I hope to get several posts done in one day here.

So... I last left off on Friday, July 11th. Friday gets to be remembered for being the day when we spent the least amount of money. At least that's how I think the adults will remember it. I think the under 20-year-olds (the had requested I NOT call them kids) will remember it for all of the beautiful indoor and outdoor art.

After I send the Oscarville students home, I will be heading to Juneau for a week-long art class. I have heard really great things about the immediately applicable projects that are presented here from other teachers with LKSD who have gone. Recently, I received an email from an instructor attempting to get to know the people who will be taking her class in Juneau. I replied with my blog address and an apology for not really having a whole lot of extra time right now. As it turns the guest instructor for the program, Sue Anne Foster, is a resident of Sacramento County. What a coincidence!

After some email-tag and switching around of our itinerary (it's been too hot for a day at the Capitol and Old Town Sacramento) we decided to get together for a potluck dinner at her beautiful home. Additionally she mentioned an artist friend of hers who lives in Citrus Heights that we could visit.

So we started off the day with a visit to Ann Bowns's home and backyard art studio. Water lovers that they are of course, the students were particularly interested in her koi pond.

Ann Bowns took some time showing us some of the media she has been experimenting with lately. The students loved her demonstration of the vibrant colors she uses and her ability to make and fix mistakes. She gave them each a free postcard with her work and the kids have been found pulling it out and admiring it in these days that followed the visit.

After we left we went back home and allowed for some much needed downtime.

I took Issa and Rissa to buy some swimming suits at Marshall's and then we met up with the whole group again for some make-your-own-lunch (mostly left over burritos fixings and cup of noodles). Issa got to try out her swimsuit right away when my dad took the group to Tempo Pool.

While they swam I was able to pick up a few things for the potluck dinner including some wonton skins that my mom then turned into wonton cookies. She did this cooking while I selfishly took a nap upstairs for an hour or so. Mom had been feeling pretty sick and had been dropping out of events here and there to save her energy for the larger upcoming events. The making of these cookies along with the dishes and laundry were enough to put her down for the night.

Now a party of ten, we went to Sue and Gary Foster's home for a nice outdoor dinner. Sue has several things in her home that appealed to our group. They asked me repeatedly if they could stay the night there. It seems labyrinths in gardens, assorted musical instruments, indoor starred ceilings, player pianos, tiki torch lamps, and exotic fish and birds far surpass air hockey tables and a wii with this group.

I think it was nice getting to have Sue Anne meet my students. Spending the evening with her certainly has made me look forward that much more to the class. At one point she expressed some frustrations about not being able to pack everything (sample of art, materials, etc) to Alaska for the class. All the AK Bush teacher-readers can certainly relate to that!

Jumping off cliffs, cussing worthy of an "R" rating, and other things I learned from my teacher

2008-07-10T23:52:00.001-07:00

I woke up way too early this morning. After spending so much time in the sun yesterday I went to sleep pretty early. I was in a room with Patrick, Nick, Anissum, Issa, and Rissa. There were two big beds and two air beds on the floor. The sleeping arrangements were made before I fell asleep. Patrick and I were to take the two air beds. Issa and Rissa would share the big bed and Anissum and Nick would share the futon.

Now, when I woke up at 5:00 a mere three hours after they finally turned off the lights and tv the only bed that was "correctly" occupied was my own.

No, no, no... it's not as bad as you think. It's just that Patrick fell asleep horizontally on the futon leaving Nick in the air bed and Anissum on the floor... sleeping on top of my backpack and towel more precisely. And... for some reason... Issa too was on the floor with a pillow. I don't know how Rissa got lucky enough to have the big bed to herself but there it is.

So... after waking up at 5:00 and retrieving my backpack at 6:00, Rissa woke up. She and I spoke for a while on the balcony before deciding to walk into town to see what was open. We returned shortly thereafter with hot cocoa and a white mocha.

By 7:00 my parents and Patrick were also awake. By 8:00 Anissum and Nick were awake. By 9:30 everyone but Patrick and my parents went back to sleep. By 10:45 everyone was out of bed. And by 11:15 everyone was checked out and waiting in the car.

Our first stop was the Downieville graveyard.

My great great grandfather was a judge in Downieville. He's pretty famous there as he is rather notoriously known for having hung quite a few many men and women.

He's buried here in this graveyard that opened in 1861. It's really quite a beautiful site once you get past the morbidity. (ha!)

There are several graves marked "unknown" and this led to a small discussion on the area, in general, being a big gold mining town... and with that who would attracted to the area in the 1800's.

We also saw some graves for infants. Some so young they weren't named. We discussed our thought about that as well.

But it was hot there in that cemetery and for goodness sakes there was water to be in!

My daredevil niece, Rissa, was the first to jump from the rock ledges into the water of this second water hole we swam in in Downieville. Nick also jumped before he and Anissum went off for some other exploring.

Patrick also jumped a few times from the rocks before we left this area for lunch.

It was pretty hot in this area and even my water hesitant dog, Bailey, worked out a way to cool himself while the rest of us weren't watching. It's important that you know that he was away from the crowd in this picture. If we were to walk closer to him, he would immediately climb out of the water and lay of the sunny rocks panting heavily.

sidebar: For you and Loki... Shaun, I have tried to post more Bailey photos today. I understand the needs of my readers here and would hate to deprive you both of the real star in this group. How rude of me to only post a picture of a sick Bailey.

Eventually though the desire for food (the only known way to get these kids to leave the water) pulled us away. We had dinner outside of the pizza place in Downieville called, "The Gallows". The pizza, as always, was tasty. We had two pepperoni pizzas and one greek pizza. The greek pizza would have been a trillion times better with a white sauce but that was really my only complaint.

After lunch we went to our third and final water hole in Downieville. Earlier in the day Patrick had walked the town with my parents and he had decided this place was the best Downieville had to offer. So here he stayed in Patrick's choice water hole for the next several hours.

Bailey clearly approved of Patrick's choice and took his spot in the water away from us contently.

Here we had to keep him on leash because there was another dog off leash who came over instigating drama with him every 15 minutes or so before the dog's owner finally left the beach.

Free from the need to be ON Bailey I swam across the river and found my own rocks to jump from.

Seeing their teacher jump safely from the rocks those hesitant in the past (Issa, Nicole, and Sabrina) followed suit and took turns with Patrick climbing on the rocks and jumping out.

Anissum and Nick spent a good amount of time taking tubes down the rapids just upriver from us.

Everyone really got all the time in the water they could have wanted and them some. The teens were shocked when their question of when do we have to leave was met with a, "when YOU'RE ready." In the end we didn't get out of the water until after 5:30.

Nicole ended up cutting up her foot pretty good on a fall and Issa got out around that same time. But Nicole continued to be content to play her DS (with Kiana who was never really the fish the rest of her family and these kids from Oville are). And Issa? Well she seemed quite content watching everyone else swim.

About and hour before we finished my mom suggested we rent "Stand By Me" to watch. There was something about the woods and water today that reminded her of this favorite movie of mine. I reminded her of the "R" rating for language and she blew it off. My mom of all people! I for one always thought the rating was unjust so I was all for a viewing.

We packed up slowly and stopped at an In-N-Out on the way home. Contented with hours in the sun, bellies full of burgers, shakes, and fries everyone enjoyed a showing of "Stand By Me" to end the evening.

Well it ended the evening for me. After the movie I took and shower and began working on this post. My mom and dad went to bed. And most of the teens put in "Forrest Gump" to prepare themselves for our upcoming visit to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory Restaurant on Pier 39 in San Francisco.

Cheaper than Disneyland

2008-07-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Two rooms.
One tank of gas.
Steak meat.
Pasta salad.
Fried rice.
And lots of trees and water.

About two hours away from Sacramento is a little town called Downieville. Perhaps not little when you compare it to Oscarville but pretty tiny for California standards. It’s a town that was once a hub or sorts for gold miners. Then it went through a period where rafting was popular. Now it’s known for it’s mountain biking opportunities.

There is a little store and restaurant on the way to Downieville called, “Indian Valley Outpost.” And across from Indian Valley Outpost is a section of the Yuba River that I like to soak my feet into.

I rarely wade out very far into this water myself, but the group I brought today were risk takers. They coasted down the rapids mostly intentionally… and sometimes not so intentionally.

Once hunger got the better of them we all dried up in the heat of the sun and then had a shaded picnic lunch.

After lunch we drove to the McMahon Mine. There is a pipe and slough built along the side of the mountain that carries this “natural spring water.” At one point it runs along the edge of the road and drips enough for water bottles to be filling pretty quickly. He’s a shop of some of such bottles being filled. Free water! Imagine that.

The Mine is my favorite place in the whole world. Everything from its long drive way to its long walk to water appeals to me. The McMahon Mine is private property that has been handed down by my family for several generations. It was once gold mining territory but it’s been a while since any gold has been found there. Currently it sits at 800 acres of beautiful scenery on the cusp of being passed down from my parents’ generation to my own.

I snapped this photo of my mom and dad (the bankroll of our trip this month) coming down the driveway.

It’s hard to capture the real attraction of this silent area of trees and dirt. In the main area we go to there is no swimming water hole to wade around in. And yet… somehow… people always find things to do here. Ways to entertain themselves.

And even when not “entertained” they don’t seem all that unhappy to just be sitting around on a log. I get it. I feel the same way when I visit.

After sitting around for a bit I led those who were interested on a hike to the nearest water source. I started with six teens and two dogs but after not too long, I was down to four. Issa, Rissa, Nick, and Anissum and I hiked along this path nature had nearly taken back for about thirty minutes before finding a way down to the stream that passes through this property.

At one point Anissum lamented to Nick that he wished they had brought a machete. I wished they had too. It would be nice to have this trail all cleaned up for me. And shoot if they are willing to be free laborers… ;)

After a rest at the water we decided to head back. We nearly got to the trail again when Anissum decided to go back for just one more sip of water. Rather than skillfully walk his way down he ran and jumped down off a fallen tree and ended up snagging his new shirt on a branch.

That’s the thing about the pretty nature. If you don’t slow down to appreciate it, it bites back.

Also on this hike I feel through log. All the way up past my knee my left leg broke through the rotted, fallen, trunk. The kids thanked me for showing them the hole and then moved on around me. Glad I could help them out, I guess.

A few scrapes and scratches were had all around. That is to be expected when you’re hiking in these private areas. When you think about it… so many worse things COULD have happened.

Nick and Anissum in particular seemed to thing little of risks before doing what looked pretty darn ridiculously unsafe to me. But I guess that’s just ‘cause I value my life ‘en stuff.

side note: I have a picture of my dad in nearly the exact same pose Anissum is in here. And he’s lived to be 62-so far… so I guess this isn’t as hazardous as it looks. Of course if you ask my dad now he’ll be the first to point out that, “if you do slip, you’ll die.”

Leaving the area we stopped to make some wishes on the huge dandelions that are growing wild.

It took a while to decide on just the right wish but once they did they let loose and blew.

We finally reached Downieville at about 7:00. After our cars were unloaded my mom got to work on barbecuing the steaks she had been marinating all day. Anissum, Nick, Patrick, Sabrina, Rissa, and I went to a swimming hole by the hotel while the remaining members of our group relaxed in front of a tv for a hour. Issa, I heard, even took a little nap.

At the water hole, everyone quite happily let the current carry them around the deep water that flows under one of two bridges in town. The one we were playing under is the bridge many people were hung from back in the day when hangings were commonplace.

They were just about to call it a night and head back in when they saw the rope swing was open. Nearly dried off everyone hopped back into the water and swam across to the rope swing.

Nick was the first to swing out over the open water but then he contently swung back to shore before getting off the rope. Anissum took the more popular route by swinging out over the deep area and dropping into the water with a splash. Patrick and Sabrina later took Anissum’s lead.

I didn’t bring my camera down to the water this evening but I anticipate getting the opportunity to snap pictures of the rope swing again tomorrow.

Once hunger again led to a desire to towel off we saw a deer cross over the bridge everyone was playing under. Sabrina and I stuck around a bit longer then the rest and got to see the deer then cross down into the water and eat grass from the rocks they had been playing on moments before.

With the three hours of driving on mountainous roads I am proud to announce that only one of the member of our party got sick.

Poor guy. Doesn’t he just look miserable? He hacked up some yellow stuff before settling back down in between Nicole and Patrick. Bailey loves it up here but I don’t know how many more road trips to the mountains mr. grump can take.

For what seemed like little plans...

2008-07-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

We had a very full day today. It started earlier than any other day we have had here in California. Today we were up at 8:00 am and out of the house before 9:00. We caught a free showing of "Hook" at the theater at theArden Fair Mall at 10:00 this morning. I love the movie "Hook". It's just so colorful and happy. I had heard that these free movie really fill up so we got there early. And it's a good thing we did because the place really did fill up.

It filled up with kids who are too young and/or too noisy to be taking to a "real" movie. And... some special needs' adults. It was a strange crowd. The people watching was nearly as entertaining as the movie itself.

Before the movie began everyone separated and enjoyed some quality DS time in their seats. As the theater started the fill most of us ended up grouped back together.

Don't be alarmed. Issa was neither angry nor scared... it was just snapped at a weird moment.

After the movie, we walked into the main part of the mall and had lunch at the food court. And by "we" I mean me and the eight teens. My parents spent the time following the movie bringing the van, that we got back last night, back to the shop. Apparently the brakes are grinding. With Downieville on the docket for tomorrow, touchy brakes are really NOT okay.

After the food court feeding I stayed at the table with Sabrina (who was saving her money for later) while everyone else had free reign in the mall for a couple of hours. Some made full use of their time shopping and dropping bags off at the food court table only to then go back out shopping again. Others spent the time finding the places to play free games. And then there were a few who would plop down in a chair every so often and stare off into space hoping mall time would be over faster.

Now, I myself have had my share of buyer's remorse sadness but this was just painful. It's teenage kids! It's a mall! And you need more entertainment from adults?!!

After my dad arrived to take over table-sitting duty I took the opportunity myself to wander the mall a bit. There were some great deals today. I got a dress and five shirts for less than $100. This happened only after I shook off a coupe of kids who wanted to "follow" me into clothing stores.

Confession: I'm sort of hermit-like in my mall shopping. I really would rather do it on my own. If I am with a group, I'd really rather not buy anything more permanent. Food or candles, etc... that's group shopping. Clothing and shoes... that's for me alone.

Without any real established time for shopping to be over, it should come as no surprise to anyone that we ended up "behind schedule". After I finished my shopping I took a quick bathroom break and remembered (because the bathroom IS where my mind blinks on often) that the last "Jelly Belly Factory Tours" commence at 4:00. My watch read 2:45 and we were a good hour away from the tour.

The gathering up of the crew took longer than we expected and we ended up not getting to our cars until about 3:20. Hmm... forty minutes to travel what should take 60 minutes. Well... ONE of us made it on time. And it wasn't me.

Actually, it wasn't me because I made a wrong turn and ended up on hwy 99 for about 3.5 miles before turning around. It's not entirely my fault though... I was distracted. By having to call back the auto mechanic while not being able to talk on my cell phone with my hands. The fishing out of the earbud, etc was far more attention-distracting than if I had just held up the darn phone. But I digress...

I was also running out of gas. And by running out I mean I had driven my 13 gallon tank a good 460 miles on hills. And I knew I was really really pushing it to get to the factory. In fact I planned to have Marissa run in with my carload while I went to go fill up, that way I wouldn't have to use the gas necessary to start up the engine again.

Pulling into the Jelly Belly parking lot of the visitor's center the time was 4:17. I figure there was no chance at all that they would make the tour. But then I spotting my dad. He was holding 5 tour hats and a parking space right up front for us. I guess he had made it there at 4:05 and asked if it was too late. The staff said they would do one more tour just for them. At that point my dad confessed to the second car (my car) not being there yet.

It all worked out in the end though. I got to join everyone for the tour (it seemed wrong to not take the pretty spot up front). It was my second time taking the tour in a week and my 10th time doing the tour in like the last 6 years. But that's okay. It makes me feel super smart to know everything right before it's said.

And to be honest, I needed that super-smart feeling of confidence. Because unbeknownst to me at the time, I had just made a horrible mistake. My dad insisted on following me to the gas station even though I told him I could afford the gas on my own. Just as I was about to pull on to the freeway the engine light came on. I had power but the air conditioning stopped running, etc.

I read, actually, I assigned my students to read, some information about the Prius Hybrid. And it turns out when you run out of gas there is a fail-safe where it allows you to continue to drive on just battery power for a few miles to let you get to a station. However, I would like to let the record show that I am a big chicken. When the engine sort of "shut down" I pulled over. I took my dad's car up to the next exit that claimed to be a place to get gas but didn't see a station. I did see a Target so I went in and bought a gas canister before getting back on the freeway for a few more miles to find a place to fill my new purchase.

By the time I got back to me car it was pointed out that it was over 30 minutes that I had left my 60 year old dad with 4 teenagers in a sweltering car with no air in 109-degree temps. Whoops.

And... by the way... for those keeping track... in four days... we have had a car in the shop for a new alternator, a car in the shop for new brakes, a different car buried to it's frame in soft sand, and yet another car out of gas 70 miles from home.

I figure the trip to Vegas, Grand Canyon, and New Mexico will either be completely car-worry-free or we'll end up starting a holocaust. One or the other.

Once returning home, much later than expected, some of the group borrowed my bikes and rode around exploring the neighborhood. A couple of others took the dogs on much needed walks. And my mother and I began prepping for dinner.

Eliza Joekay mentioned in a previous comment that she hopes the kids are helping out with chores. And while, it's true, we are still having a hard time with things like getting them to remove their garbage out of the car when they leave it, they have complied with direct requests.

Here, for example, Nicole is putting the sheet that my mom washed back on the mattress for one of the boys. Well eventually she put it on. The TV is a pretty distracting thing sometimes.

By the time the chores were done, the sun was set, the bicycles were put away, and all dogs were walked, I laid out our spread for dinner.

Today we had burritos. There were a grand variety of things to put inside their burritos and I let each of them wrap their own. There were beans, chicken, and shrimp but also guacamole, two kinds of cheese, salsa, olives, yogurt (instead of sour cream as a shout out to Erin), grapes, pineapple, watermelon, chips, and so on.

Some were quite good at being able to get the "right" amount in the shell...

Others were less good at getting it all in the tortilla and more good at getting more than enough to eat in one sitting...

It was a late night and by the time dinner was completely cleaned up it was near 10:00 at night. But... I HAD promised them lazertag and it could really not be put off any longer. Even Patrick, who's dinner didn't exactly stay down, joined us for this late night lazertag excursion.

Sun Splash looked pretty quiet even though I had read online that they were open until midnight. By the time we got up to the counter to buy lazertag tickets it was 10:30pm. The tickets though were buy one game get the other free so despite the staff's desire to close up early (at 10:30) they ended up staying to close until after out two games were done.

Lazertag, as always, was a blast! Patrick did exceedingly well beating out the seasoned professional Lazertaggers (myself and Kiana were distant seconds in these games). When it was done though there was some controversy over the leader's scores as he apparently had been observed "covering" his sensors. Dirty politics! I leave you with this group shot of the crew before the first game (notice the lack of drenching sweat that we had when the two games were complete).

PS. We'll be in a hotel tomorrow night so there will be no update until we return.

Road Trip Training: Day One

2008-07-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

Today we took our first extended car ride trip. In another week and a half or so we have a solid 17-hour car ride planned so today's planned 2.5-hour ride was to be the first test.

The test was mostly a success. Of the eight... one complained of carsickness for a majority of the trip, two others complained occasionally of it, and another one entirely actually did throw up. Mostly a success, right? I mean... you know... no deaths or anything.

Once we arrived at our first destination California Caverns we signed up for a tour and then wandered the gift shop for about thirty minutes before being able to begin. The tour starts with a five minute outdoor walk and then a short speech about the history of the caverns and time to select and put on a hard hat.

In the past we have always done the Moaning Caverns tour which is the one more directly on the way to the Big Trees. This cave though provided much more to really experience and enjoy. Moaning Cavern in a vertical cave. The tour itself is some 260 stair steps down to the bottom where some features and pointed out and then 260 steps back up.

California Caverns on the other hand had twists and turns that required occasional crouch-walks. The hard hats were very necessary as we made our way through several different "rooms".

At one point the guide allowed for up to touch the formation. Human hands can destroy very quickly these underground formations so this particular sacrificial stone is quite "dirty" as you can see. The original, untouched, pieces are white in color as you can see from the piece I snapped a photo of in the "jungle room". The tour guide said, it's their "Kung Fu Panda" or "Buddha" depending I guess on your generation.

I was really glad I was able to show them this cave. I remember very distinctly the day we covered stalactites and stalagmites in Earth Science this past school year. The textbook had a couple of pictures but when I told them that they would have the opportunity to see them first hand this summer one replied with, "really? they're... real?"

It caught me off guard because in my head I wanted to argue of course their real! This is a non-fiction text! Are you really asking me this now?!! But after taking a moment to get past my own insecurities about my teaching (and teaching materials) I understood a little more about what they meant.

Seeing really is believing. And as a teacher I can show a million different pictures of a snake or a horse or a roller coaster or a lazer tag game... but they don't really become real until you see and touch them for yourself. I am exceedingly grateful that I have the opportunity to make (what seems to me to be everyday) things... real.

After we left the cave we drove to Big Trees. On the way out of the California Caverns area we made a wrong turn and ended up going in the wrong direction for a couple of miles. In those couple of miles though four deer tried to cross the road in front of my dad's van. He hit his breaks and then ran back onto their own side of the road. As the second car, I was able to slow to a stop and snap pictures as they contemplated just how far off the side of the road they should be walking.

Once we got to Big Trees it was near 7:00 and everyone was getting a little hungry and irritable. We laid out the picnic dinner in near silence. As the strawberries, soda, and BBQ pork sandwiches disappeared, the conversations started back up again. It was nice to see these then car-coma kids become themselves again.

There is a great hike there as you enter the park called the "North Grove trail." Maps are well worth the 50-cent donation as they explain (history/information) 26 separate trees along your way. The three boys ran through the trail at lightning speeds and then cross off the path and back to the car claiming "bathrooming needs." Issa and Marissa walked the full 1.5 miles but didn't bother reading any info on anything... they just enjoyed the scenery as a whole. And then, in the final group, Nicole, Sabrina, Kiana, and I walked the trail slowly taking in each of trail markers, the text the map provided, and even a few climbing opportunities.
Here's the obligatory group shot for the day. They are standing atop a tree stump.

Hey! That shark jacked my floatie!

2008-07-07T00:42:00.000-07:00

Today started off a wee bit later than most days. And this time it was all my fault. We decided last night that I should make an egg casserole for breakfast. Unfortunately despite the noblest of efforts I didn't get started on it until after 11:00. Which meant "breakfast" was served after noon today.

After breakfast, errands were run, and that left the teens with the video-heavy downtime again.

Some opted to play air hockey in the garage which made for a nice change of pace, but for the most part it was the same morning we have been having since they got here.

Once the car was loaded with supplies for the day we headed out to our first stop, Costco. It was near 3:00 when we finally left the house!

The group paired off and wandered a bit in the store. Issa and Marissa took full advantage of the free sample tables while Nick and Anissum checked out the video games. Kiana and I stayed on course with the purchase of blueberries and pineapple to take with us to the beach. When Kiana's cart was intercepted by Anissum and Nick they officially lost their cart-driving privileges. There are far too many people in Costco on a Sunday afternoon to let those young men drive it like it's a skateboard.

We were sad to see that Costco didn't stock cheap inner-tubes and we ended up making a second stop, before the beach, at a Longs Drug Store.

Each of them got to choose between a floatie-noodle, a tube, a mat, or a kickboard. Amongst the eight of them there was a good variety.

Folsom Lake this year is pretty low. There's all sorts of stories about it but I won't bore you with those specific details. The point is, it's low. And what was a nice 5 minute, casual walk, from picnic benches to water is now a 10 minute hike up a hill (well up on the return).

After I saw this trek completed about a dozen times, I took it upon myself to a car shuttle a couple of times. Eventually though, I too joined them in the water.

I don't know what it is about water but everytime I have ever been in the water with people under the age of 16, someone inevitably becomes a shark.

This day was no exception. The pink mat, and whomever was riding it at the time, was a girl shark and the blue mat contained a boy shark. I asked why a shark would want to float so high in the water and it was explained to me that you couldn't tell their genders apart if they were under the water. *pause* This seemed a good enough explanation for me.

I contently sat in my inner tube floating around in slow circles until the cute little darlings that they are decided to gang up on me and flip me off my tube. My tube was then stolen by one of them and I contented myself with floating on a noodle for a while.

The dunking of the aunt/teacher led the way to make more dunkings. My favorite occurred when Patrick swam up to a pink-mat-riding Sabrina and threw her off. He then climbed on the mat himself and stroked off in record speed. Sabrina turned to me and delivered the the title for today's blog.

It was a tough choice for these water-lovers but the morning promise of lazertag eventually got them out of the water. My dad came down with the van and Nicole and I piled in for the first ride up while Issa, Nick, Marissa, Kiana and Sabrina opted for the second ride.

Things did not quite go as planned though because on the way off the beach and over to our picnic area we got the van buried in the soft sand. The tires, specifically the right front tire, spun like it was born in Indiana. The sand around us turned black. I found a log and my dad and I tried to create enough traction to get the van back to a more solid section of beach. On the second failed attempt at this a couple stopped us. They spoke with well seasoned experience and we all got to work on digging out the van with bark, oars, and my flipflops. When just about all the digging was done, three more vehicles stopped to help. It was a large group of men and woman in their 30s who spoke in Spanish to each other but in pretty good English to us. They suggested we move forward rather than backwards which led to another several minutes of digging. Eventually with the help of a dozen or so men pushing from behind we were able to get the van up and out of the soft sand.

Back at the water the group of five had given up on us and began the walk up the hill with dampened spirits for having been "forgotten". *Insert pouts and sad music*

As an apology we offered up the uneaten apple pie and watermelon when we got back home.

With the delay in digging out the van, we ended up not getting home until about 8:45. I was covered with dirt and sand and was nowhere near ready to go out for lazertag at that point. I looked online and found that lazertag closes on Sundays at 9:00. I told the crew sorrowfully and promised to come up with something else while I take my shower.
Bowling was suggested but I didn't like the idea of eleven of us all on one lane, etc. So I offered up mini-golf at Scandia and everyone seemed up for it. Well Issa was reluctant but the pleads of her friends helped convince her to come along.

As it turns out experience is quite helpful with minigolf as my three nieces and I took the first four places with our mingolf scores. Even with the lost balls and high scores everyone seemed to really enjoy the golfing. It was, after all, 11:00pm to midnight for this golf game. It's possible that doing anything outside near midnight would be highly enjoyable with this crew. Nick and Patrick cut out of golf after the ninth hole and went inside to play video games.
Tomorrow we head out on our first long-ish road trip. My mom is pretty antsy with it and is insisting on an early bedtime for all. Being a few year removed from bedtime I find myself the only one awake at 1:59am and I post this blog of the day's events.

Security! Stop that woman!

2008-07-06T00:37:00.001-07:00

Today started similarly to yesterday. Adults woke. Fifteen year olds and under slept. The first kids up? My nieces. By 10:30 everyone but Issa was awake.

I prepared breakfast while everyone situated themselves with wii play and DS play. I particularly enjoyed when Marissa and Anissum began beating each other up.
Well wii-beating each other up.

Actually, everyone is still really getting along well together. Sometimes I think they are getting along a little too well. They are all teenagers after all.

Breakfast was served at 11:45. Issa was finally woken up at noon only after I went back up stairs and got her myself.

Dorena, Aiden, and Tiger made a brief appearance during breakfast but I didn't snap any pictures. Below is a picture of Dorena and Aiden that was taken about a week ago. Just pretend that rather than being surrounded by pool Aiden was surrounded by our crew of eleven each vying for Aiden's attention while all he wants is the attention of Canyon and Bailey (our family dogs). After breakfast we split up into our two vehicles (my hybrid and my grandpa's van that my dad had borrowed this morning) and went in opposite directions. My carload went to the broken down van that is patiently waiting to be fixed on Monday to collect the things that were left in there from the previous evening. You know, back when we assumed we would be able to make the van move and all.

The other car went to pick up Edith our party of twelve member for the day's activities. Edith is one one my parents' Tai Chi instructors and she was able to join us for the Music Circus's performance of The Sound of Music.

After collecting Anissum's backpack and Edith's body, we met up again in the East end of the Music Circus Tent row K seats 8 through 19. The performance was stellar... which is more or less what I have grown to accept as the standard at the Wells Fargo Pavilion. Unlike many other musical theater actors, Cristin Mortenson (who played Maria), was really quiet impressive with her emoting. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a fan of her singing voice, but her facial expressions and body language when not speaking or singing won me over.

I was totally respectful during the show but during the applause I snapped a couple of harmless shots of the cast bowing. As we exited security pulled me aside and made me delete all of the ones taken. I guess no pictures are allowed at ANY TIME. I felt pretty bad to be breaking the rules here and extra embarrassed at having been caught in front of all of my students. I anticipate this is a story that will be haunting me for quite a while now, May as well out myself now.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the show. I sat closest to Patrick and I can attest to his laughing, smiling, singing along and even at one point the utterance of "so cool!" He seemed particularly impressed at the sets that flew up from the stage. Nicole also could be heard laughing over the audience. And Anissum... well Anissum may have given the biggest compliment of all. Waiting for everyone to come back together outside of the theater my mom asked him if he enjoyed the show. He admitted that he did and then added, "let me put it this way... it was better than the movie!" Knowing that the kids all really enjoyed the Oscar winning movie immensely, I knew this was some serious praise.

After the show we walked a good six or seven blocks to the Old Spaghetti Factory for an early dinner. When we entered we were informed that there would be a thirty minute wait for a party our size. We settled into the lobby and waited for our table to be called.While in the lobby I saw the cast had also chose to eat there. The actresses playing Gretel and Marta came in together as a table for 25 was being called. Over the next ten minutes or so the other actors in that party shuffled in with their respective families. I didn't do more than raise an eyebrow as they came in and when I later pointed them out, my mom admitted her desire to take pictures over at their table. Restraint is a good thing.

Dinner, as always, was good. Fast and plenty filling. The Italian creme sodas in keepsake glasses were a crowd favorite as one would suspect. After the the walk back to the car we drove home to regroup and then some of us went out shopping at Target and Dimple. There were some fun purchases at Target but mostly they were useful. There was one not so great purchase (a tracphone with no minutes that won't be useful once we return to AK) that was then returned before we left the store.

Dimple seemed to be quite a hit with everyone. What's not to like about a store where you can buy movies for less than five bucks and games for less than fifteen bucks? Anissum here made the biggest purchase yet with the obtaining of Rock Band Special Edition for his PS2 at home. It sounds like a pretty fun game and I can imagine it being quite popular once it gets used. Sadly, I don't have a PS2 for him to try it out on.

It's 2:03am now, as I post this. Will I still awake before the teens tomorrow?

Painting, Swimming, Fireworks-ing... Happy Fourth of July

2008-07-05T00:58:00.000-07:00

Today my nieces were the first awake. They were quietly cautious not to wake up the people who they were sharing a bedroom with as well as the boys who were still asleep down stairs. Essentially they had the choice to hang out in my room or the hallway. Shortly after 10:00 Nicole woke up. And she took it upon herself to wake up everyone else in the house that was still sleeping.

My parents went off to run some errands downtown while I prepared breakfast/lunch for the crew around 11:30.
It was a strange assortment of fruit pastries, salami, cereal, cherries, and left over fried chicken... but it worked.

After breakfast they busied themselves with the wii for a bit and then we all headed over to Color Me Mine. There each kid chose an item to paint and then the colors they wished to use. All eight started to paint at about the same time but four finished much faster than the other four. Rather than have them sit through the joy of watching others paint these faster four left with my mom and dad to return home for more wii-time.

I stayed, happily, with the meticulous. In the end, they took a little over two hours and only finished after the studio closed at 4:00. I was impressed with their work ethic. This is summer after all. Once our whole group of eleven met up again, back at home, it was time to head over to the DeVous's home.

Nicole DeVous has been a friend of mine for over 20 years. She was in fact my best friend through high school. Her parents generously opened their home to us for Fourth of July celebrations. Seven of the eight kids essentially entered the DeVous pool at about 4:30 and didn't get out again until fireworks lighting at 9:15pm (save for a quick BBQ meal). They really are a pretty easy group to make happy. I bet if we spend the next 3 weeks doing nothing but playing wii and swimming they would still go home feeling like "California" is the coolest place ever. They don't even take up much room, as you can see from the photo below).Once the sun set we all moved our party from the backyard swimming pool to the front yard street where we could safely light fireworks. The Ovillers explained that while the Fourth of July is celebrated with carnivals and fireworks in the surrounding villages, the fireworks are the up-in-the-sky ones not the light 'em yourself variety. They were beaming with excitement to light even the smallest ones themselves.

In typical teacher fashion we took turns with the crowd watching and not lighting waiting patiently in a line on the sidewalk as the lucky lighter ran out to make the wick sparkle. We were in fact so cautious at the beginning that Steph and Shay took shelter from the hazardous entertainment in Shay's car. I jokes.

Shay is pregnant and a full day at the pool followed by the sights (purple rain!), sounds (piccolo petes!) and smells (smoke bombs!) of the fireworks was really better appreciated while sitting in the comfortable car seats.

As the night grew on we all started to get more and more lax on the whole "safety" issue and we ended up doing a little of this kind of stuff.Good thing I had those parents all sign releases, huh?

So aside from the story I don't want to tell about our van breaking down again (suspected reason? alternator) it was a really complete, active, and fun day all around. Lots of happy smiles are hitting pillows in our house here at 1:51am.

The Eskimos Cometh

2008-07-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

There was drama.

Distanced drama.

I woke up this morning at 6:00am.

Sadly this was only about three hours after I had fallen asleep. It seems I was as nervous as the travelers. Nicole had made arrangements to fly into Sacramento at 11:15am while the rest of the Oville crew was scheduled to appear at 7:37pm.

As I was putting on my shoes around 9:45am, the phone rang. Eliza, our Alaskan tour coordinator (and parent of Nick), was on the line. She excitedly told me that the kids were just seen off. They had completed the first possible hang-up by actually making it to the plane in time with all of the appropriate identification and such. Excellent.

Eliza explained that after weeks of excitement the kids were rather calm about the whole boarding of the plane while the adults were nervous wrecks. Apparently airline security even asked at one point if everything was okay with these petrified parents.

She then informed me that they were sort of... late. And while they were able to scramble on board, they were not able to pay the $75 necessary for the "unaccompanied minor" treatment. This means, as far as I know, that these kids are traveling without the watchful eye of Alaska Airlines attendants. They will have to navigate gate to gate in Anchorage AND in Seattle on their own.

It seems it will be trial by fire with them gaining that independence in travel.

I assured Eliza that the kids would call home when they arrive in Sacramento and then woke up my nieces who wanted to accompany me to the airport to pick up Nicole.

We arrived about 25 minutes before Nicole's flight was scheduled to arrive. It turns out her plane was a tad early and was actually on the approach when we got there. It was a short Starbucks white mocha later that she stepped down from the escalator like she had been doing it all her life. She walked from the gate to baggage claim (to meet us) all on her own.

I was impressed.

The car ride back was talk talk talk and it became clear that Nicole will get along just fine with my nieces. Essentially all you have to do is laugh every few seconds and you'll get along just fine with them. :)

The next seven hours that passed before the rest of our party arrived Nicole fit in swimmingly with my nieces in front of the big screen TV playing wii. Can you spot the non-relative of mine in this picture? It's not easy.My parents and I went to Costco and Bel Air (grocery store) to pick up some lunch and some dinner for our crew while the of four them just shook the beegus out of their remotes playing Mario Party 8. They were brutal with the Smack Talk. But I am pretty confident the jeers and booing was all in good fun.

We then all loaded back into the car... actually two cars this time and went to the airport.

The flight from Anchorage to Seattle was over 90 minutes delayed so they were left with a layover of about 15 minutes in Seattle. This short time compounded by the lack of an "unaccompanied minor attendant" really had me nervous. I called the airline and was assured that Chinace Egoak made the third leg of the flight. I didn't confirm by phone all four... I assumed Chinace didn't just abandon the boys making her the only one who caught the flight.

So I was mostly unsurprised when I saw all of four of them with all their fingers and toes and a voracious appetite arrive out of Gate 26 at the Sacramento Airport.It turns out because they were late to their Bethel flight they had all of the luggage they were to check on them. It actually made the whole exiting of the airport a breeze. :) However, because they had to go through the personal security check with their big bags it seems all toothpaste (et. al) was confiscated. No worries though, we have plenty.

Here's our first real group shot taken outside the airport.
We're a good looking group, don't you think?

I gave them two options when they arrived. One is that they could go straight to my parents' house and relax with dinner. This choice was met with a "yesssss" from one out of the eight. The other option was to make it a late night. The other option was to leave the airport and go straight to the Sacramento 6 Drive In. This would mean we would not actually be walking into our air-conditioned home with couches, wiis, and beds until after 2:00am.

If you have any experience with Jr. High aged kids you'll know full well we ended up here. Since Alaska Airlines doesn't serve food any more, and the layover was a tight 15 minutes (where they had to ride a tram to their gate, etc), the kids were famished!

It was a less-than-pretty gorging on fried chicken, sourdough bread, soda, M&Ms, and dried salmon as we waited for the sun to set. With content bellies and the delta breeze blowing across us at the end of a 90-degree day, we all enjoyed the movies "Wall-E" and "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

We arrived home at 2:15am and I fairly quickly went to bed. I have no idea how long everyone else stayed up. I suppose their wake up time will give me some hints on that. Currently it's 9:04am and no one under the age of 30 is awake. Everyone over the age of 30 IS awake.

A good first evening was had by all.

Questions most asked of me...

2008-06-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

When I am in Alaska there is a question I am asked most often. It happens several times a day. It is asked from each of my students. It's asked sometimes on the upwards of 20 times in one day. The question most asked is... "when is break?"

There is another question that I am asked most often when I am here in California though. It's asked by staff in my dentist's office, by friends of friends, by waxers, by hairstylists, by... essentially everyone I am introduced to. The question most asked is then followed by another 20 questions all basically reiterations of the first question. The question most asked is... "Alaska? What made you move to Alaska?"

And the thing is... the question is not all that great of one to answer. Why does anyone choose to live in any place? If I lived in Nebraska and visiting California in the summer... would I get the same question?

Nebraska?!! What made you move to Nebraska?!!

*sigh*

So... here... in writing, I'll attempt to answer this question. Not the what made me move to Alaska but the why do I still live in Alaska and spend my summers in California question. And I'll do so in list form. In no order of importance, I live in village Alaska during the school year and then Northern California during the summer because...

* I have six students
* My students are bilingual
* I commute by foot to work
* I travel guilt-free
* I get to be there for students' first roller coaster rides
* I get to hear phone messages that are nearly indecipherable with excitement
* I have friends who think summer officially starts with me coming "home"
* I get to read myspace messages like this, "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! CHRISTINA!!!!!!!! i will start packing as soon as i gethome..im going home tommorow. im at akichak..im going to be so excited when i see you...AAAAAAAHHHHHH!! hehe i cant wait.."
* I get to travel to San Francisco twice this summer to introduce others to things like Pier 39 and Lombard St.

* I can buy organic fruits and vegetables and cheeses at the farmer's market cause I'm in town... and it's special
* I can fish for big 'ole fish

* I can fish for lil fish
* I can spend the day with Michelle looking at "wedding hair and makeup" options

* I can wear jeans and no make up to work every day
* I can take a helicopter to robotics and/or prom

* I can impulse spend $100 on a George Michael concert

* I can enjoy easter, christmas, v-day, mother's day, thanksgiving, etc... small group
* I can host a read in and have kids read!

* I can spend ALL DAY doing this...

*or this...

* Or watching others do this...

* I can clean, cut, and eat caught fish

* I can see that Hong Kong Disneyland is similar to United States' Disneyland

* And also NOT similar...

* I can hang with an ex and keep him an ex... (seriously, the distance helps)

* I can go on a non-date (that feels suspiciously like a double date) and meet a great guy who I think I connect with, and yet am not going to pursue, all the while loving the lack of pressure because of the grand-escape-clause, "I don't live here"
* I can offer wii-time for students as a reward
* I can reward myself with wii-time with Nicole and Steph (as I did today) or with Amantha, Melina, Dee, and Naomi (as I did last week-- insert pictures Dee took while playing American Idol)

* I can ride my bike and call it exercise even though it really just feels like playing.

* I can reconnect with my nieces once a year... which allows me to really see the amazing maturity that a year can bring.

* I can blog in-list-form and know that no one knows every story behind every bullet but a whole lot of really cool people know some great stories are here behind the bullets.

The Oscarville Kids come into town tomorrow. My "family" officially becomes a party of eleven in about 19 hours.

Katsup....

2008-06-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

So some people have been emailing me asking where I disappeared to. And the thing is, I don't know if keeping a blog is a realistic thing for me. So much has happened. And yet... nothing... really. I mean what constitutes blog worthy? Things I have pictures for? That has been my modus operandi up until now.

But I don't have new pictures.

I have been camera lazy.

So... here... is a list of what I've done since I left China.

*a couple of naps that lasted from 1100am to 8pm
*several pre 600am wake ups
*Saw "Phantom of the Opera"
*reconnected with my Aunt, Diana
*a gym membership
*water aerobics
*tai chi
*bought two new (inexpensive) bikes
*Nim's Island (okay)
*The Hulk (good)
*IronMan (better)
*Made of Honor (so lame)
*Sex and the City (twice!)
*Starbucks meeting with Marc (Michelle's fiance)
*bought lingerie for someone else
*Michelle's bridal shower
*mimosas at Dorena's
*lunch at La Bonne Soupe Cafe (delish!)
*visit to the Farmer's Market where I bought cheese curds
*Saw George Michael in concert
*learned the lyrics to "Turn a Different Corner" how did I not know this song before?
*fell in love again with "Careless Whisper" and "Everything She Wants"
*connected to "One More Try"... more than the first time.
*bought the new Alanis Morissette CD... love "Not as We"
*bought the new Jewel... was she ever NOT country?
*taught my nieces to play "Risk"
*got a few wii games
*wrote an email I'll probably regret sending
*asked for time off in September
*spent some time on viewaskew.com after hearing about George Carlin
*got a library card
*printed assignments for my nieces' new library books
*remembered why I love Jamba Juice
*started reading "He's Just Not That Into You" at the gym... good motivation
*bought a new poetry book ("Never Night") from an old teacher
*fell out of love... finally
*gave and received a mess of love and attention from Bailey
*had a business meeting with family
*committed to the ownership of 800 acres of land in my favorite place in the world
*myspace connected to a relative I hardly know and a friend I lost contact with a decade ago
*bought my books for my art class in Juneau
*bought an ipod for my dad for father's day
*bought a region-free DVD player for my mom for her birthday
*itunes purchased Flobot's "Handlebars"... love it!
*went to a family dinner at Far East Cafe
*turned down the opportunity to hang with three single guys to hang with three single girls

I could extended blog on any of these things. But who has the time? I am going out on a boat on Folsom Lake today. Might fish. Might tube. And tomorrow... I'll bike ride the American River. Friday plans? Babysitting Aiden. Saturday? Michelle, Marc, Jonathan, and I are going to Dave and Buster's.

And then come Thursday... (here's the updated itinerary)

July 3, Thursday Pick up kids (8:00pm)
July 4, Friday Celebrate 4th--Cal Expo and/or Nicole’s front yard
July 5, Saturday Sound of Music at the Music Circus @ 2:00
July 6, Sunday Folsom boat ride (if is OK with Kellie)… picnic @ Gibson Ranch
July 7, Monday Big Trees picnic, Mercer Caverns on the way
July 8, Tuesday State Capitol building tour, Old Sac
July 9/10 W/Th Little Canyon Creek, Mc Mahon Mine, Downieville—
(overnight in hotel to Citrus Heights late Thursday)
July 11, Friday Mellow day...Open
July 12, Saturday Santa Cruz beach boardwalk—roller coasters and the ocean
(stay overnight in hotel)
July 13, Sunday SF - China Town, Exploratorium, maybe Zoo, Pier 39
July 14, Monday Mellow day, get ready for NM trip
July 15, Tuesday Drive to Barstow overnight
July 16, Wednesday Las Vegas overnight
July 17, Thursday Las Vegas overnight
July 18, Friday Drive to Williams, see Grand Canyon, overnight in Williams
July 19, Saturday Cowboy show, then on to Denise's house
July 20, Sunday Visit Denise (Christina’s sister) & Andy
July 21, Monday Say good bye to The Gutierrez then drive back to Needles/Barstow
July 22, Tuesday Home sweet home
July 23, Wednesday Mellow day; Jelly Belly (Christina & kids only?)
July 24, Thursday Packing! Last minute whatevers, Birthday Cake (for Christina’s Mom)
July 25, Friday Kids fly home happy! (Noon)
July 26, Saturday I fly to Juneau for the BASIC Arts Institute

I'm baaaaa-aaack

2008-06-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, I'll get around to posting about Hong Kong sometime soon. But for now I wanted to update that I am back in the states. The sate of California to be more precise.

Adjusting back to the time difference has been rough. Taking naps from 11:00am to 7:00pm has not been helping for some reason.

Yesterday I went to see Phantom of the Opera (again) at the Community Center in Sacramento. Today I plan to hook up my cell phone and get my father a gift.

My real reason for this update though is to share a picture snapped of Kiana last night. We had just gotten back from the performance and the whole mess of us were in bed before dinner. Kiana and Sabrina called their mom before falling asleep... well mostly "before."

Wuxi to Shanghai: turtle heads, frogs, pears, rain, and light

2008-06-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well today we started off with a visit to a garden.

Actually it was a specific site called Turtle Head because this particular peninsula tip looks like the head of a turtle. It was owned by a wealthy family that was Japanese-friendly. After the invasion of WWI, the family prospered. Once the Japanese were finally driven out in the 1970s the family disappeared in the night. Names we changed to protect the innocent offspring, etc.

The area is now owned by the city of Wuxi.
There were tons of pretty flowers and ponds and greenery. And as is our norm now, the girls and I wandered away from the group to explore at our own will. Just call us Marco Polo.

Luckily, unlike Marco Polo in the 1200's, I have a camera to capture all of the foliage. Drawing these out by hand surely wouldn't impress anyone to become the next Christopher Columbus.

The vibrant colors really spoke to me on this particular day.

The stone work was also pretty poetic. This here on the left is a sea horse (obviously) that was sculpted by nature.

Marissa, Kiana, and Sabrina took off around the far side of a pond for some fish watching. I like this candid one in particular because I can totally see Marissa becoming the next teacher in our family.

If these girls follow the same path as the rest of our family they will all either be teachers or be married to a teacher.

Despite Marissa's predilection towards animals (career choices of vet, animal trainer, etc) it seems she will be the educator.

Speaking of animals the turtle head peninsula is known for a lighthouse at it's outmost tip.

Marissa, Sabrina, Kiana, and just about all other people under 35 were more interested in these little guys found on the opposing side of the walkway from the lighthouse.

Exiting the turtle head garden area my dad snapped this photo of me in a cut out window. The asian gardens, as I mentioned before, are not one-view paintings. They like to hide their art. Make it more of a hunt. So at the beginning of each garden there is a screen or wall that just hints at the nature within.

Where else could I be a grecian urn.

Our next stop was a pearl processing factory. They make a pearl powered with the pearls too small for jewelry. The pearl powder is put into tea to help with anti-aging. I snapped this photo of the tea they offered us during their presentation.

Here they had found a way to harvest pearls that are not just pearl coated. Many cheaper pearls out there are made by inserting a small plastic ball into an oyster and then letting the oyster "clean" it for a few years to give it that pearl coating.

They look the same. In fact the only way you can tell a solid pearl from these pearl-coated ones is to x-ray them.

The process involves inserting actually oyster "meat" from another oyster into the new pearl-manufacturing oyster as the irritant.

When you think about it, pearls are pretty inhumane.

But... you know... they're pretty too.

I got a couple of necklaces. One that was about $20 and the other that... well it had to be claimed through customs on our return.

My mom spent a small fortune on a ginormous golden pearl on herself and some pearl necklace, earring sets for the girls. The girls though won't get these sets until they graduate from college. I expressed my concerns that college is not for everyone but it seems that is the line drawn.

After the pearl factory, we all hopped back into the bus and drove to Shanghai.

It was pouring down rain in Shanghai.

We drove around the city but didn't get out of the bus.

It was just too wet.

So instead we checked into the hotel much earlier than we had been expected. We ended up standing around waiting for our rooms for a bit. I snapped this photo of the "birds" hanging from the ceiling there in the lobby.

After that break at the hotel we went back out into the streets of Shanghai for dinner. It was our last trip out as a whole tour group.

We stayed another five days in China (Hong Kong actually) but the organized tour was ending there with that dinner.

After dinner our guide took us through the streets of Shanghai one more time. This time there was less rain so you could see further away from the tour bus. ALSO, the streets were all lit up with night lights. Sadly though, it's scary in Shanghai in dark, so we still didn't get off the bus.

Hangzhou to Wuxi: West Lake cruise, snake myths, silkworms, and leisure gardens

2008-06-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

We had a very early start this morning. I had to be packed by 6:30 and then on the bus at 7:15. The reason for this early morning was to avoid the crowds at The West Lake in Hangzhou. It's the posh part of town and I guess it gets really crowded as the day wears on. So, blinky-eyed all 31 of us loaded onto a boat only slightly larger than the one pictured here. Unfortunately our less populated morning cruise brought with it fog as you can see from the pictures to follow.

Our tour guide told us a popular story from Chinese lore. It's their Romeo and Juliet. A long time ago there was a sick snake. The snake wandered onto a bridge and was discovered by a boy. The boy felt sympathy for the snake and made it better. The snake was thankful and wanted to make the boy happy in return. When the boy became a man the snake turned itself into a beautiful woman and walked out onto that same bridge and waited for the man.

The man and snakelady fell in love immediately. Some people knew that this woman was really a snakelady though and they were against this pairing. They watched in anger as the man and the snake lady were married and started their life together. One day one of the opponents to the pairing, a monk, confronted the man and told that his marriage was inappropriate because the lady is actually a snake. The man was shocked but inconvinced. The monk offered that if the man were to get his wife very, very drunk on the night of the lantern festival then she would lose her power and reveal her true self.

The night of the lantern festival the man served many spirits and late into the night the woman, as was predicted, became a huge snake. When the man awoke the next morning she was back to her human form. The man thought, maybe it was he who had too much to drink. He rationalized though that even is she is a snake, he loved her.

The monk was outraged! Thinking that the man had no sense to take care of this himself, he stole the snakelady and locked her in a pagoda. Unbeknownst to him, the snakelady was pregnant at the time. She gave the baby boy to her husband before being imprisoned. The fat pagoda (pictured on the right there after the picture of the broken bridge) is where she resided until her son grew up and passed the Imperial Test. He had heard tales of his mother's banishment and with the Emperor's permission he was finally able to free his mother.

The skinny pagoda was built to remember the monk who had imprisoned his mother. Both pagodas and the broken bridge were all parts of the West Lake.

The boat ride through this story was a relaxing was to start the morning. If only all mornings could start with a calm lake boat ride. It's hard to show in picture the calm enjoyable ride. The one to the left here was taken by my placing my camera on the edge of the point and snapping a photo of Marissa and Sabrina as they were leaning out touching the water as we gentle drifted through.

The one on the left I snapped of the shoreline. Note the man flying a crane kite.

The beauty is just overwhelming. It inspires poetry. Not from me mind you, not quite yet. It's just too much to put into words quite yet. But eventually, I will try to put together the right words.

When we got off the boat we walked through another temple area before returning to the bus. I believe it was the temple where the monk who banished the snakelady resided, but I'm not sure. As has been the case the last few times the gardens surrounding the temple are what really appealed to me.

The history and the lore is great. But as it was pointed out several time by my nieces, it just starts to feel a little too much like school after a while. For the rest of the day the girls took turns sort of separating themselves from the rest of the group to explore a little on their own.

Marissa turned fourteen today. And with that is seems she has grown a bit introspective. I snapped this shot of her as she wandered to the far end of a pond.

This next photo is one Sabrina took of me. Since Sara requested it, I have shown you my new jade bracelet. (Yes it is supposed to be worn on the left wrist only. And damn Nicole how did you know what I was showing off in that picture?!) It looks a little washed out in the natural sunlight here, but you can see it all the same.

This picture reminds me to point out that I have had three separate strangers in three separate locations have asked to take my picture. The first was on the Great Wall and I was kind of insulted by the whole thing. I was taking a break on the side of the wall along with several others and someone else ran up past a group of us and looked down to her friend who snapped a picture of us breathing heavy.

The next time was in the arena with the 8000 terra cotta warriors. Here a group of about eight Asian teenagers asked me to pose with them. They all smiled big and held up peace signs. I did the same and then laughed warmly. They were a fun little group and I wasn't at all offended. My dad and Kiana was asked to be in pictures with other groups too. I guess we are the whitest/kassaq/american looking people in our group.

The third person was a man with an expensive professional camera. We were waiting at the shore before our boat ride and he asked me if he could take a picture of me. I was only about 70% awake at the time and sort of nodded politely and didn't move. He snapped about five pictures and I stared off into the water, not even bothering a smile. When he was done she showed me one of the pictures. Damn, he was a pretty good shot. I half anticipated he would try to charge me to have a copy or something but he didn't. He just moved on taking pictures of the flowers and trees and other picturesque things.

I was quite complimented.

When we got back to the bus I set up my computer on the bus to type out yesterday's blog. I asked Marissa (who sat across from me) of me and my makeshift office. For those of you who have visited my blog and seen only pictures with no text in a particular post it's because I am using my bus/travel time to write text to accompany the pictures that I upload in the evenings when I have internet access in the hotel rooms.

Our next stop was a silk factory. This first picture here is of the silk worms that produce the cocoons that are the actual silk. In a silk worm's lifetime they each eat 30-40 mulberry leaves. The mulberry leaves are quite large considering the size of the worm itself. Essentially this eating of the leaves (pre-cocoon making) takes up about 90% of their life. Post the eating of the leaves is cocoon making and cocoon seasoning. From there they become moths where they reproduce and die all in less than 24 hours.

So here in the silk factory the silkworms don't quite make it to that last 24 hours of their life. Once in a cocoon they are picked up and microwaved for 20 seconds which kills them humanely. From there the cocoon's are de-threaded. It takes seven or eight cocoon threads to make one thread of the silk. And then seven or eight of those that is used to create the thread of silk needed to create parachute material.

Can you see the eight oval looking white things at the bottom of the picture? That is the cocoons themselves being unravelled into the machine and spun together to combine into that one string of silk.

Some cocoons contain two pupas. A little honeymoon suite perhaps? Anyway, these special cocoons are opened differently. By hand, the cocoons are opened and the pupas are removed. The remaining cocoons are spread to create the inner stuffing of a silk comforter.

I heard all sorts of things about how great a silk comforter is. I ended up buying one. For California. It's appeal is that it cools your skin. That's not so much a plus for me in Oscarville. I did buy though two silk comforter covers. One of those I will sent up to AK to shove my extra heavy down comforter into.

I also bought two small pillows and silk pillowcases for Marissa and Sabrina. They're really soft. I figured the small fortune I spent on my bedding was enough for me. As I mentioned though, I sat across from Marissa. And as we left I grew bitterly more jealous of her comfort. We were after all on the bus for quite a while.

Marissa also got a silk scarf from the silk factory. It was one of her birthday presents. She looked at several but became very attached to this one. She plans on taking drama next year in High School. He fondness for the color black and this ability to pull off blue leopard print silk scarfs makes me think she'll fit in just fine with the drama crowd.

In the silk factory I snapped these two photos from the outside of the bathrooms. Can you guess which is the "female" sign verses the "male" sign?

By the way, for those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, I used a western bathroom a majority of the time. But I DID eventually use a squat toilet. I was wearing a dress at the time so that helped immensely. I need to work a little on my aim, but you know... I am sure I'll get better at it.

Is this the sort of skill I can put on resumes in my future?

After the silk factory we went to a place called Leisurely Garden. Now stop me if you have heard this before... it was AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. Actually it was almost too beautiful. Every turn, in every direction, there was a great framed background worthy of being photographed.

Our tour guide, Kenny, told us that was the way it is with Chinese gardens. It's not like an American garden. It's not just one painting-like view. It's every corner, every slight turn. Even the floors were worthy of pictures.

The girls, again, found room to space themselves from the crowd. Kiana usually occupied herself with looking for fish in the water while Marissa looked about at the walls and various plant life. Sabrina seemed mostly focused on the people around her.

I snapped this candid photo of the three of them while on the other side of a tree. It just couldn't get any more beautiful, you know? I could have spent a month there and still not have soaked in all of the pretty.

Sadly, Kenny, and his hip microphone, ushered us away from Leisurely Garden and into a temple.

Another temple.

I am sure this temple has some incredible importance but I was done listening. I was back to noticing things like rabbits hiding in the brush and beetles on the pavement. And... in this particular case... the fact this Fudog had both a baby Fudog and a ball. Is it a hermaphrodite Fudog?

I was hoping it would explain itself to me, but it whispered nothing.

Other Fudogs within the temple had two baby Fudogs. One in the traditional pose under the foot and the other on the Fudog's back.

Twins?

Is this the monks way of saying they don't agree with China's planned parenthood policies?

My camera ran out of battery power here at the temple. Since it was our last stop and I had batteries in my checked luggage, I decided not to buy more batteries and take a tone of pictures from within the temple.

What I didn't snap a picture of was my dad and I entering a bell tower. It is said to take away one worry for every bong. The Chinese believe you have 108 worries. One for every hair on your head. You can NOT ring the bell 108 times though. For 5 yuan (about 72 cents) you can buy a ticket and ring the bell three times.

I am three worries lighter after today's adventures.

Xian to Hangzhou: new friends, bus boredom, and hella expensive tea

2008-06-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

Early the next morning we caught a flight to Hangzhou. It was a two-hour flight and it will be our last until we fly to Hong Kong at the end of our organized part of our vacation. We then will spend five days in Hong Kong but it will not be with a tour. I look forward to some shopping and some interesting food choices once we get to Hong Kong. When I was last in Hong Kong I ate at a special restaurant with Carey. There were fish and other seafood vendors that you could choose your meal from. Then you would head into a restaurant and they would cook it to your order.

This first photo has nothing to do with that. That first photo is a beetle I saw walking to the bus. My little friend here posed still for this picture. You see, today I was sort of done with the tour. No more history. No more beautiful dresses. Today, I pay homage to my ipod.

This picture on the right shows what I looked at on the bus ride while everyone else looked out the window.

End Rant.

Okay so we took a bus to see 500 monks. Not real monks but 500 bronze statues of monks. There was an awesome garden surrounding it. Perhaps the best garden yet. It had a stream and several carvings. This one in particular carving is of the laughing Buddha.

His story was that he came to Earth and told people he was the Buddha. No one believed him. They thought he was crazy. He laughed. All this time you spend time honoring me and now that I have visited you, you think I am crazy. The next day he disappeared. Whoops. They built a statue of him, hoping if he returns that people now will recognize him.

One we entered the gates of the LingYing temple, our guide told us an interesting story. Back when an emperor was just a boy he was very sick. His parents prayed that if his son were to get healthy they would give him up to the LingYing temple. He grew strong so his parents gave him to the temple when he was about fourteen.

At that age he had jobs to do when he was not in training. He was tasked to sweep up. In one of the buildings the gods of the North, South. East and West reside. Huge 30 ft tall statues. This boy noticed that it was particularly dirty under where the gods sat. So he told them to lift up their leg so he could sweep under them. And because the gods knew this boy was to be a great emperor someday they obliged.

Because they boy was just a boy and as such, quite forgetful, he never instructed the gods to put their legs back down. So there they stay for over 300 years with one leg raised.

They didn't allow pictures. But it was quite sight to see. Here are some pictures of a wild bunny (another new friend!) and a monk instead.

But that was just one room. The real attraction in the LingYing Temple is another building that held 500 statues of monks.

Each had a unique pose and most had props that showed a little about what they taught. Sabrina and I walked up and down each of the isles trying to figure out what they were known for, etc. Some were serious analysis. Others were not. I looked for a book in English that might tell a little about each monk but there was nothing like that to be found.

I set the timer to show us all at the end of that walk. Don't we look like a group that had had enough?

We exited through the garden again and I snapped a random picture of the pretty water. There is a good amount of pollution in this city. It's not due to industry. It's the farm land. It's all yellow dirt that gets kicked up into the sky. Also this city is surrounded by mountains. So it's hot and dirty. But here... in the garden... I would have loved to get lost here.

After we left the LingYing temple, we went to a famous tea family's plantation. This company is said to make the best tea in the world. At least that's what our guide (who makes a commission on the sales) explained to us.

The process from tea bush to cup is pretty interesting. I figured the tea leaves themselves were just laid out in the sun to dry but actually they are cooked. A tea roaster will place a small amount of leaves in a heated bowl and will stir them around for 30 minutes. They will be heated to about 120 degrees Celsius. No glove. After that 30 minutes they temperature is lowered to 90 and then they are stirred around by hand for another 30 minutes. The temperature is reduced again. This time to 30 degrees and it's then stirred for the final 30 minutes. Or you could, you know, use a machine. But a machine will only yield Grade D tea.

Some of the most knowledgeable tea drinkers and identify the tea cooker from just the taste. We received some information and history of this area from a self-proclaimed tea doctor. He works for the Chinese government now after having gone to college for four year studying tea. He seemed to know his stuff. He explained the whole process of how to make the perfect cup of tea.

In the end he gave each of us a cup of his tea. The tea made here in his home town.

Here's a picture of the cup of Grade B tea that they offered us. I bought a pound of this Grade B tea. Grade A is just under $200 US a pound. Grade C is just under $100 US. But if you think about it, a pound of tea probably yields about 500 cups of tea. So... anyway you look at it, it's less than Starbucks. I plan on gifting most of this, so loyal readers, I hope you like green tea.

Two days in one: summer home, monks, warriors, and dumplings

2008-06-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

The last attraction we saw in Bejing was the Summer Palace. Depending on who's story you here this is either the summer vacation home of the Emperor and his family or a place to put the child-Emperor's meddling Buddhist mother when she was getting in the way of the government.

The walk was plenty enjoyable though. I talked with our tour guide as we walked through these painted archways. Each meeting point gazebo, as I have pictured here, represents a season. The rest of the walls and ceilings tell historical stories.

The local guide explained that a majority of people didn't go to school so the middle class artists made it a point to get in as much history/education talking points into their work. Especially if they knew there would would be viewed. Here in the summer palace the staff and staff's family would be able to see these stories and become learned.

The art was practical. The marble boat pictured here on the right, seems a little less practical. Seeing as marble doesn't float and all.

The last picture we took together in Beijing was here in Summer Palace, looking a little less summer-y. From there we headed out to the airport to catch a place to Xian.

Xian is poorer, more farm-based community. The history though still runs very rich. The real claim to fame here in Xian is the Terra Cotta Warriors. But we had nearly two days to spend in Xian so we started with visiting a monk's temple. Da Yang Ta (the big goose pagoda). The pagoda itself was not all that picturesque.

So... here's a picture of Marissa and Kiana with a more modern built building designed to look like the ancient buildings.

Currently there are about 30 living monks who still reside here. It was a nice peaceful place, despite the tourists and all. I snapped some photos of a Fudog (half dragon half dog protector of the home). Our guide walked us up to a pair of them and asked if we could tell the gender of the Fudog. I hadn't a clue.

They looked exactly the same. So here's a lesson for you just in case it even come up in conversation, the female Fudog stands upon a baby Fudog. The male Fudog stands atop a ball. The ball represents power. This of course begs for more comment but I am leaving it at this-- male Fudogs play with power-balls.

Rubbing the head of the Fudog also gives luck. Different though than the Buddha belly-rub luck the Fudog gives protective luck. Like protection against bad spirits. The Buddha luck is more like prosperity luck.

Inside the Big Goose Temple was an incredible jade wall hanging representing the Buddha of the past, present and future.

Again this felt like one of those places I could have gladly spent much more time in. We entered an art studio and gift shop and I saw several postings with buddhist guides. One in particular spoke to me. It was the guide to simple living.

We had in that studio a mini-lesson on the two types of Chinese paintings. There's the freehand stuff (which I prefer) and then the more monotonous painting.

I forget what they called it but the process is intense. A picture is drawn and then retraced on to rice paper (which is actually like a pulp mixture with rice stalks and bamboo). The sketching on rice paper is then colored by adding several layers of paint to fill in each panel.

There was one particular piece that had birch trees and cranes. It reminded me of Alaska. But when I asked about it, I found it to be way out of my price range. I snapped a photo of a large cherry blossom piece contended to not actually be able to afford anything in there. But in the end I found a pair of paintings with love birds on bamboo that I did end up purchasing. After the haggling over the price of course.

After we left the Big Goose Temple gift shop with more luggage and a smaller wallet, we went to another jade factory. Oh, by the way, the Big Goose Temple was founded on the tale that Chinese monks went to Tibet to study. Historically in Tibet the monks were strict vegetarians. I guess now, they are looser, and only the monks from China remain vegan, but at the time they were vegetarians. One monk accidentally had some roasted goose he asked for forgiveness and it was immediately granted. But this Chinese monk felt so guilty he honored the goose by building a temple where others could train in a more stringent environment then those in Tibet.

Anyway... this second jade workshop was pretty nice. I didn't spend nearly what I spend at the first place of course, but there was a lot of neat things to see. On display was a piece of unrefined jade. It looks, as you can see, like a boring old rock, but inside... ooo... emerald and yellow jade throughout.

Leaving the jade museum I snapped a picture of a guy who had to stop on his bike for our ginormous air conditioned bus to pass by.

So this brings me to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Which sounded like buried Chinese Walruses every time our local tour guide said it. These Terra Cotta Warriors were found by a farmer in 1976. Randomly he was digging a well when he came across a terra cotta body part. The Chinese government offered the farmer 40 RMB (less than six dollars) and excavated 8000 Terra Cotta Warriors which is now one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country.

The farmer has been compensated since then though. He now hangs out in the museum and signs books for a government assisted income.

There's a story that goes with him. Several years ago Bill Clinton came to China for a visit with Hillary and Chelsea. The farmer was told he had to learn English because he was to meet and shake hands with the president of the USA. Now, this guy is near 80 and it's hard to pick up the language, you know? So his teacher told him you just need to learn to phrases, "how are you?" and "me too." He was instructed to shake Clinton's hand and say the first thing and then when Clinton answered he should sya the second phrase.

When the time came the farmer mumbled his words and asked, "who are you?" Bill Clinton thought he was being sort of cheeky so he answered, "Hillary's husband." The farmer answered, "me too." Bill sort of laughed it off and then asked to take a picture with him. At the time he was not given an income straight out for his signature and instead he charged people 10 RBM (70 cents) for his picture. So the farmer agreed to the picture with our former president ONLY after he paid the fee.

So anyway... the attraction is a huge underground army that was built over 500 years ago and buried five meters below the surface. As you can see from the in-progress photo on the right, not all of the warriors held up under the weight of the earth. It has been quite and ordeal piecing together the warriors.

There are three separate pits. The first is the largest and the one actually found by the farmer. The second is the smallest with only a couple of hundred warriors. And the third is in progress. It is expected to be about 2000 warriors. All officers. Unlike in the first pit where all of the warriors are facing east and wearing little armor, this pit contained warriors facing one another.

While there, my dad and I got our faces photoshopped into Terra Cotta Warriors. My dad is an officer and I am an archer. I'm not going to post a photo of a photo but just trust me when I say I make a damn realistic male terra cotta archer warrior.

Before turning in from a very long day we ate dumplings at a special Xian restaurant. There were 18 courses of dumplings and each one looked like a piece of art. I love dumplings.

The Olympics decoration did not fade once we left Bejing, by the way. As you can see the Chinese are pretty proud to be hosting. I snapped these two photos as we were driving to our hotel.

The Olympics, The Wall, The Tomb, Jade and Acrobats (incomplete--check back tomorrow)

2008-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

So, I am sorry to admit this in writing and all but I didn't know the Olympics would be happening here in Bejing. I mean, I remember traveling a couple of years ago and seeing cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and Hong Kong all advertising to be selected as the sites for these up coming Olympic games. But I never really paid attention to who "scored" the Summer 08 Olympic games. I just don't keep track of these things in the village.

But now, with events a mere 45 days away, Bejing is definitely gearing up for the Olympics. I snapped three photos of official Oylmpic buildings. The first on the left here is the building where all swimming and events will take place. The second picture here to the right is the Cycling building.

The last pictures I snapped is of the building they call the Bird's Nest. Kind of cool looking, huh? This is the building where the opening and closing ceremonies will take place.

The tour guides explained that next month they have cancelled all tours of this area and instead are planning to visit the United States. It is sure to be chaotically-crazy. At one point I guess the Chinese government put a cap on how high hotel can charge for their rooms. There was an official edict to prevent the gouging. The new policy is that hotels can NOT charge more than SIX TIMES their normal rate. Way to stick to their guns, huh? Whew!

Another interesting thing I learned in regards to the Olympic Games here in Bejing is that the core of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze metals will have Jade. White, green, and yellow jade will be incased in the gold, silver, and bronze. We went to a jade factory today but I didn't snap any pictures. I did, however, purchase a jade bangle for myself. It was costly, I am not going to lie. But I scored a pretty good deal, I think. I paid about 170 USD less than what it was marked at. I was willing to pay about 80 USD less than what is was marked but my mom is a bargaining champ.

It's a lavender jade with a little splash of green in it. I've had it on since I purchased it and I don't anticipate taking it off. As someone who doesn't wear jewelry my only real issue so far is that I now have my watch on my right wrist. And that's really foreign. Typing is wired. But I suppose with time, I'll get used to it.

So as I said I didn't take a picture of the jade factory but I did snap some shops of another shop we went into. We also went to a cloisonne factory. The workers take tiny strips of metal and manipulate them into swirls and other decorative designs and then attach them to a vase or plate or whatnot. They said a medium sized vase will take about a month to cover with the metal.

It's so precise. So interesting and intricate. I really was impressed with this stage of the art. After the wire work is complete paint is added. It takes 8 to 9 coats of paint. It is then pounded and fired and polished and all shined up to make the completed cloisonne piece. In all honesty, I'm not a big fan. I mean I like the piece with the bronze wire but once it's all painted and glazed, it looks kind of cheesy.

I mean I can appreciate the work but it's just not my thing.

I did buy some other things there in the cloisonne factory. Specifically, I purchased a present for Michelle and her fiance Marc. I hope they like them. If they don't I am SOL because they're specifically made for them.

Today we went to two factories. We watched one stage performance and we visited two tourist attractions. The first was an Emperor's Tomb. The second was the Great Wall.

The tomb we visited was built for the third to the last emperor in the Ming Dynasty. He ruled for 47 years. The two who followed ruled for only a handful of months each. This is said to be the second largest Ming tomb in China. The largest is having problems getting funded. That tomb is said to hold 1/4 of the countries riches and yet they can't find the funding to excavate. Hmm...

This photo to the right here is of our whole tour group. There are 30 of us from all over the United States. All but two of us speak English but most of the travelers are bilingual it seems.

The tomb we visited is surrounded by a garden. The garden had all sort of snap-worthy artifacts like these marble elephant table and chairs. The trees were clearly well cared for. And like in the Forbidden City Garden they trees here had the red and green plates indicating the tree's age.

There were several shops set up to sell good as well. One in particular caught my eye by opening up a variety of umbrellas and placing them around the stand. I was only one of several who found these worthy of a photograph.

With the garden being so immaculately decorated I was really looking forward to seeing the inside of this tomb. We went down about a dozen staircases (about 150 steps) to get to the base of the tomb. We circled around for a while until we got to the main attraction. The main tomb where the famous Emperor was laid to rest.

So there it is on the left there. The tallest red thing is where the emperor was buried. The slightly smaller one is where the Empress is. And those little red boxes were jewelry boxes. The concubines were buried in a different room within the tomb.

Generally speaking it was pretty lackluster down there. I walked back up and out of the tomb more interested in the gardens outside than the actual coffins. Sabrina ran up behind me and asked if I saw the ceiling. She said the staircase we took back up had a decorated ceiling. She asked for my camera and then ran back and snapped this picture on the right. So there it is... frills.

After dinner we went to an acrobatics show. They allowed pictures to be taken and unlike the previous show there wasn't a story to fallow. Just a bunch of "oooo" and "ahhhhh" moments. I didn't like it as much. I mean sure it was nice. Impressive. Picturesque. But... you know... how much of that can one sit through?

Perhaps it's like the difference between Nicole and I with music. I prefer the lyrics. She prefers the melody. I like the artistry but I prefer a storyline in my stage productions.

Regardless, it was pretty so I snapped a ton of pictures. We were in the front row so I found some of it a little too personal. The dragons came right to the edge of the stage at one point and one even barked at me. Eek!

For the most part my dad thought the woman did much more than the men. He was impressed with their components. They did a whole 10 minutes or so with tricks on bikes. A couple of times they did poses with eight woman all balanced on one bike as you can see from the photo on the right. "no hands" was clearly just the very beginning of their act.

There was another group that caught my eye though. Two men in only their boxer shorts came out and flexed their muscles for us for a while. Then they did all sorts of strange isometrics. It was so homoerotic I caught myself wanting to turn away at times to give them their own private time.

Rather than leave though I snapped a bunch of pictures. I mean come on... I pay for this stuff on Showtime back in the states. *sigh* I miss QAF.

Sidebar: Dee-- okay I saw it, David A was sort of QAF's Michaelesque. But I SO preferred Syesha. And when it came down to it I think I liked David Cook better too. He ranked about third for me I think. I thought he sang through his nose. I wanted to reach through the TV and open his mouth open more.

So... that leaves just our visit to the Great Wall. From the entrance there are two ways to travel. Off to the left is said to be the harder journey. There are 7 towers but a more stringent grade. Off to the right there are 8 towers. Kiana, Marissa, and Sabrina ll took the harder, less crowded option. My parents and I went off to the right.

Now here's where I might totally confuse you. Behind the picture of the girls is the trail that they DIDN'T take. The picture of me off to the left actually shows the harder (left) trail that the girls took.

Technically speaking, the picture of me was taken (by myself) half way up the trail on the right. So it's not that they hiked that whole thing pictured. Instead they hiked from the lowest point in the picture to way over past the highest part pictured. The trail apparently wraps down around the far side of that mountain. I wouldn't know first hand, because as I said, I wussed out with the right side.

Not that the right side was a breeze. In fact, I only made it half way. My parents when up to tower seven and barely made it back to the bus in time. I decided getting to tower four (the top of the mountain that is pictured behind the girls) was good enough for me. The views were beautiful. Ands after all, the hike was plenty strenuous up to that point. There were a few in our group that gave up long before tower #4.

So I will probably regret not having gone further. After all, it's not like I have another chance anytime soon. And also, I wasn't exactly smoked at the top of tower four. In fact, I went back from tower four to the main gate without even stopping once. Which means, I had plenty of strength and control left in me. We had about 80 minutes at the Great Wall. Getting to Tower Four took me about 30 minutes. Could I have kept it going? Sure. I probably would have made it to Tower Seven as my parents did. But I don't think I would have made it to the end (Tower Eight) in that time limit.

That is really the drawback in a tour like this, I think. There are some places I just want to spend more time in. And, in all honesty, there are some places I don't want to go to at all.

It's 10:50pm right now. The day AFTER the events I have written about here actually took place. Today we started at 7:00am and we didn't check into our new hotel room until 10:30pm. That sucked. I'm smoked.

We watched a show again. This one was strictly music and dance. There wore bright colored outfits. Shiny things everywhere. But... I'm tired. Our whole tour group is. The guy in the table next to our was yawning ridiculously loud.

I don't want to be disrespectful. Not at all. But... a few more days like this and I think I will struggle with keeping my attitude in check, you know?

Tanks, Ducks, Concubines, Kung Fu, and Heaven

2008-06-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

*sigh* I swear to you that I have written more notes and taken many more pictures than what I am going to post for you today. This *IS* the edit. :)

Today marks the first real day of our tour of China. We started with a nice breakfast. As is usually the case with these tours, breakfast was pretty westernized. Actually, I found it a nice combination of Chinese and American food. Sort of like my own diet.

So on my plate there is bacon and eggs, pineapple and watermelon, potatoes and pork bao, snow peas and bok choy. On the side I have congee with green onions and tofu, and hot tea with milk and sugar. Mmm... the best of all worlds.

Our first stop was Tian'an men Square. Interestingly I can't access much about Tian'an men Square from the Internet here. In fact in addition to the blogger block, I found that in researching Tian'an men Square wikipedia, youtube, and most photos searched are blocked too. And Google? It's sort of half-assed. It seems someone in China has a grip on the Internet here. And whoever that is is not real willing to let local information seekers learn about the massacre.

Anyway... we went to Tian'an men Square today and I learned that in the center is a tower called, "Hero's Memorial." On Sundays local honored primary students get chosen to stand at the entrance to the memorial and raise flags in couple-hour shifts. Today just happened to be Sunday so I snapped a shot of the uniformed tykes.

It was a strange sort of place to be. There were guards in uniforms walking amongst us casually. On the bus we were told you may not take pictures of these guards though... they ARE working. And if it looks like you are wanting to cause a ruckus you will be "handled". Our guide told us that on a previous tour a group took out a newspaper and snapped a photo (I am thinking like the Delta Discovery--people take the local AK paper to different places and snap a photo that appears in the newspaper as a sort of shout-out) Anyway... this newspaper was apparently confiscated by the guards and the couple taking the picture were held up about 20 minutes for questioning. It was all just sort of strange feeling.

I snapped a photo of the group traveling. And while my plan was to not post it... just keep it for my own collection, I am going to go ahead and show it to you here.

Do you see that chain behind them. It marked off the square that didn't seem particularly important or anything. But a few minutes after I snapped the picture a little boy ran under the chain and into the open area. Two guards called after him. He didn't respond so they chased after him. When they reached him he looked up at them.

WAY UP at them. Because he reached about mid-thigh. They pointed to the chain he had crossed. He sort of half stumbled, half ran, back to his family, frightened. They too were frightened and took a hold of him on both sides. I couldn't snap a photo of the guards but I did get this one here of the criminal.

At the edge of Tian'an men Square is the Imperial City (wherein lies the Forbidden City). Prior to the end of the last Emperor this is where the Emperor's family would stay when visiting. We entered the Imperial City and walked the 3.2 miles through the part that is open to tourists.

There is this one particular place called the Meridian Gate within this outer area of the Forbidden City. The Meridian Gate was a place where people were tortured or put to death 400 years ago. Wars were also "announced" in this great open area. Our guide told us specifically about one autumn when 360 officials were tortured and then dropped from high off the ground to eventually die by hitting the ground. It was all pretty gruesome.

I looked down to the ground to imagine these 360 bodies meeting their eventual end by broken neck or whatnot on the earth, and I saw I had a hitchhiker with me. Do you see him there? Using me as protection as we crossed the meridian? Wishing me luck perhaps?

After we crossed the Meridian Gate we officially entered the Forbidden City, or rather the gathering place for officers who waited for the Emperor's daytime Court. Here I had a photo snapped of our whole group crossing one of four bridges crossing a moat. This was an entrance only for men. It seems the Empress and concubines (the only woman allowed into the Forbidden City) had another entrance. An entrance forbidden to us tourists.

Our tour guide gave us some time near the officer's "Break Room" so I snapped a photo of Sabrina poking the roof of one of the several male-only buildings. This one in particular was one that is being all shined up for the Olympics so we couldn't go inside. This picture could have been better without my backpack in the way, but you get the drift.

I took a random picture near the highest point in the Forbidden City. You can see here a little of the general expanse. There are 9,000 rooms within the Forbidden City. Heaven is believed to have 10,000 rooms so the Forbidden City worked hard to get close to Heaven and yet respect that the Emperor is not a god.

Everything was so intricately designed. I snapped a photo of a roof top corner just to give you a little peek as to the details in every building. Numbers of animals in the design all have important meaning. Buildings with odd numbers of animals are for men. Also, specifically, the number nine means longevity. Any even numbered designs signaled places for the Empress and other concubines.

The life of a concubine fascinates me; what can I say? I snapped a picture here of one of the many concubine rooms. Each one had a lock from the outside. The guide said they pretty much spent their entire existence in this room. In the evening the Emperor would walk the courtyard between the concubine's room and choose one or two to talk to. Yes, my tour guide told us he would chose who he would "talk" to. hee hee.

When the Emperor died concubines had one of two choices. She could choose to be buried alive in the tomb of the Emperor, in sacrifice; or she could move to a small house until she died of natural causes. This second choice carried with it little honor. What a lonely existence and what a strange choice to make at the end. I imagine the concubines all together at the end who chose to be buried with their Emperor. Sure, they were seen as nobel... but in that room... did they share stories of regret? Or did they stay proud? They are woman after all. I can imagine some major bitch-fests.

In between all of the concubines' rooms we saw the Emperor's room. I wasn't that impressed. It was frankly pretty small. We KNOW this is the Emperor and Empress's room though because it had a golden blanket and only the Emperor would decorate his bedroom with this color.

Leaving this area we entered the Forbidden Garden. Honestly, I missed the stories here because I had somehow managed to misplace my sun glasses attachment. Marissa offered to retrace our steps to see if it could be found. The tour moved on without us into the garden while she ran back. I didn't even find them which is a bummer because they fit rather nicely and it's damn sunny out. But that's just the the way it is sometimes. Life could be worse. I could like... be a concubine or something.

I did though hear an explanation on why the trees were each given a red or green plate. They said the green-plated trees were less than 300 years old but the red plated trees have been growing for more than 300 years. You can see here a photo of both.

After we left the Forbidden City we had a nice lunch, and then headed over to a park called the Temple of Heaven. Also in Bejing there is said to be two gates. One gate enters a Temple made by an Emperor the other enters the Temple of Heaven. It is said that an Emperor had a dream that God dropped seven stones from the heavens indicating where to build this specific temple.

The temple itself is a architectural mystery. It is said to be made of three large tree trunks and there isn't a metal nail in the whole thing. The drawback to this is that this is actually the third Temple of Heaven because the first two burned down.

The temple is not open to the public. But there are four showrooms around the temple that show what it does look like on the inside. In addition to the amazing paintings and other decorative elements the temple has a staircase and an alter. The Emperor was to place his givings to God on the steps and then burn them. Yeah, do you see how the Temple of Heaven burned down a couple of times?

Here's another group shot of us facing the Temple. That building behind us is one of those showrooms. We had about 30 minutes to wander this area. I was rather disappointed with this because on the outside of the gate surrounding the Temple of Heaven and the four showrooms, was a park. The park is very popular for exercise, music, dance, card games, etc. In the mornings the locals pack the place with their leisure activities and in the afternoons it's flooded with tourists and retired people. There was one guy in particular we passed on the way to the Temple who was playing a really interestingly looking string instrument. I was hoping to snap a picture of him, but our "freetime" was within the Temple gates. Not in the park.

So... left with just a quick walk by, I was only able to snap this photo to share. As you can see playing card games near heaven is a popular past time. Who am I kidding, this is exactly how *I* hope to be lucky enough to spend my retirement. Whether that be really here in Bejjing or some other beautiful park that makes me feel near God is irrelevant to me. I'll place my own seven stones.

Sitting near the temple I snapped a couple of photos myspace-style. Here's Sabrina and me on the left. And Marissa and I are posed here on the right.

After we left the Temple of Heaven we went back to the hotel for about an hour. Marissa and Kiana whipped out their DS and started clicking away. Sabrina sat at my computer and typed an email to her mom. I flipped on the TV and watched "The Net" on one of the two English stations we get in our hotel. My parents went to a nice courtyard on the side of the hotel and did a little Tai Chi before one took a shower and the other took a quick nap.

After our hour of downtime we went to an optional performance called, "The History of Kung Fu." It told the story of a young boy who trained at the Shaolin Temple to be a great leader. It was amazing! I bought a copy of it thinking I would gift it to a couple (Ted Berry and Pam Lau) I know who run a Karate program in Bethel. However, not opening it myself might be tough. It was so amazing. The costume. The strength. The acrobatics. The color. The pacing. It will be hard to not open it up myself to share it with others. I snapped just this one photo as the curtain fell. You'll just have to use your imagination until I break open my DVD copy.

After spending some time and money at the gift shop there, we were bused back to the hotel to pick up those on our tour who did not go to the History of Kung Fu.

Reunited, we all went to dinner together. We had our official Peeking Duck dinner. Or rather our Bejing roasted Duck dinner. They cut the duck tableside and then taught us how to roll them up with these potato pancakes.

Inside the pancake is the oily and flavorful Bejing Duck dipped in oyster sauce and sprinkled with onion threads.

We were told by our local guide that Bejing food is known for being very oily and very salty. I liked everything but it also further drove home for me the fact that I prefer the poor, light, Vietnamese food to the more popular in American-Chinese food.

It was tasty. Everything was tasty. Here's a closing picture of our dinner table.

Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall.

So why was I up at 4:45 am?

2008-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well... we got into Bejing around noon local time. Customs went ridiculously fast and we met with our tour guide in the lobby of the new Bejing Airport. It seems there were two other groups (in our same tour) who were supposed to be on our same flight from Bejing. They had not yet checked in with our guide. So... we waited.

Our guide doesn't like their new airport. It's big (and pretty). But I guess it's not really enjoyable for those who have to wait around for hours on end. The old airport had better seating, he explained. Here we are are just sort of standing around and waiting. Look at the really interesting.... big thing... to the right. Yeah... uh... big bowl surrounded by flowers was not impressive to our guide.

Looking closer, BTW, you can see Marissa is in between my mom and dad playing her DS. hee hee Marissa is addicted. I LOVE it. Kiana and Sabrina play too but for Marissa it's like every minute of downtime is DS time. I think it was a really good investment. My mom might grow to hate it. "Put down that DS! Look out the window!" But for now, the very long airplane rides were only really full of whiney complaints during take-off and landing (when the DS was stowed).

In general though, the kids were champs. I mean really, they're not kids anymore. Kiana is a Sophomore and Marissa is a Freshmen in HIGH SCHOOL for goodness sakes. And Sabrina... she's in Jr. High. So it's not like they are the babies on the plane. Having said that this is by far the longest trip they have been on. Their longest flight before this was from New Mexico to the East Coast about a year and a half ago. On that trip they went to Canada for a couple of hours. And last year they took a cruise to the North part of Mexico. But this is there first time really OFF the continent.

By the way, I snapped this photo of a sign (shout out to Carey and her photos on signs) on the moving walkways. It reads, "Please look after oldster and child." Oldster... I like that. I gotta think that sign was for me, right? I am traveling with my Oldster parents and youngster children of my sister.

So there we sat on the floor of the airport waiting this time for strangers rather than for another plane. Eventually, Marissa's DS battery went dead. She talked Kiana into letting her use hers to continue to play. As it turns out, Kiana's was almost out of power too. We went into that place there in that first photo called, "Le Cafe" to steal their power for Marissa and to pay for a coffee for me. I ordered an iced mocha thing and a ham croissant. It was around $5... very reasonable I thought. Before they brought over my coffee my mom came over and said that our tour guide (Henry) decided to stick around because another plane from Hong Kong to Bejing was delayed. And just in case the other groups were on it, he'll wait for another three hours.

We, on the other hand, could go to the hotel and then have the rest of the day free. We were next committed to a 8:30am meeting in the lobby the next morning. Free time is an exception on these tours and we were all very grateful to be able to get to the hotel and get out of our traveling funkyness.

The six of us are staying in three hotel rooms. As you learned from my previous (Business) post I am staying in a room with Marissa. My daughta' from a different mutha' (and fatha'). Kiana is staying with my mom. And Sabrina is staying with my dad. We are all on different floors. Which is just strange.

We checked into the ammenities and found that they have a swimming pool and a gym. The girls and I decided we would like to take a swim. My mom previously had told them that they would NOT have free time in China and should NOT pack swimsuits. As it turns out I am the only one traveling with a suit. A swimsuit I picked up during my Seattle layover because I left mine in Oscarville. So... we decided to spend the rest of the day getting dinner (we had after all only had breakfast on the plane), buying swim suits, and then enjoying the pool.

(side bar Marissa just woke up and said sleepily, "ah-wah." She sat up. "Is it morning?" It is quite bright out. I said, "It's 6 am. You can sleep more." She thought for a moment mumbled something about not having ever put on her pajamas and then lied back down.)

We moved our stuff into our room and then brushed teeth and hair before heading out of the hotel. We had heard there was a department store about a block away so we just sort of walked around in a loop until we found a restaurant we thought looked pretty good.

So here is the first photo of the six of us. (By the way, you can click on any photo to make it bigger but I am only attaching small pics because trying to attach them any bigger times the server out.)

I promise in the future to take photos of the food and decor and such, but last night, my objective was just to use my timer to get us all together.

After the tasty meal we walked back to where we had spotted the department store. At this point my mom and dad were feeling sleepy and were pretty much not committing to watching the girls swim. With the mix of being unshowered and humid/smog in the environment I was starting to break out and feel just generally unclean. But, I was committed to enjoying this downtime. So we pressed forward on our swim suit search.

The department store had five floors and it took a while to find the suits. Once we did, we saw that they were all pretty small. Damn those Asian size-zero figures. My mom and dad found another shop close by. The name of the store translates to "Fat Lady". Charming, huh? Anyway... they were on the too big side for my nieces and they were also swimsuit-free.

So, reluctantly, we headed back to the hotel where the girls agreed to a little lay-down time in our separate rooms and then to meet up again later and to go to the gym. That was at about 6:00pm. I fell asleep to the clicking of Marissa's DS at about 7:15pm.

I never heard from any of the other rooms.

I woke at 4:45am and blogged for you all.

Now it's 6:20am and Marissa just finished up her shower. We are gong to meet for breakfast at 7:45am to start our day.

Business....

2008-05-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

Okay... so this is weird. I'm in Bejing now and I can create, edit, and publish posts but I can't view my own blog. I also can't view anyone else's. (so bummed Nicole!) So I guess I am just going to hope things look formatted correctly, etc. And... I guess I don't get to read Australia updates from Carey (and Maria) until I am back in the USA.

Also, I can't view comments. Luckily, I was able to change my preferences so your comments are emailed to me. Any blogger loses all energy without feedback. So while I can't post to your comments specifically, Dee, Nicole, and Carey thank you so much for reading and commenting! Anyone else out there lurking, you can post a comment without registering and such. You can stay "anonymous" and just sign your name.

Also, also... Richard, I emailed you again two days ago. I asked how the interview with Dillingham went and also if I had left three small DS games there. But... you haven't responded. Which means you probably still aren't getting my emails. Or you hate me. What is up?!!

Also, also, also... Nicole, I heard we are, at the closest, 1,000 miles away from any earthquake ridden areas. But really... I can't tell you where we're going. I'm just along for the ride. All I know at this point is that we are in Bejing.

Did you know Bejing and Peeking (as in Peeking duck) are the same place? They decided to switch from the Cantonese pronunciation of the word to the Mandrin pronunciation a few years back. The airport code for Bejing is PEK. Just like the airport code for Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) is SGN. And Istanbul was once Constantinople and Old New York was once New Amsterdam. And Myanmar will always be Burma to me.

And just because it seems strange to have a post with no picture. Here's a business-themed picture for you. Yeah, that's me... as I type this. In my nightgown... unshowered. That's Marissa's sleeping leg back there (she even sleeps like me with one leg out of the covers!) It is, after all, 5:00am Hong Kong time.

Three down, one to go.

2008-05-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

So that was a long flight.

Even though we got in 30 minutes earlier than expected, 30 minutes isn't a whole lot when you're looking at a 13+ hour flight. It's Saturday morning here. Hong Kong time. It's Friday 4:00pm California time. I lost a day in my 40+ hours of REAL TIME traveling.

I did get some sleep though... finally. I'm feeling much less cranky. When I woke up, the attendants were passing out orange juice and water. In my sleepiness I sort of lilted to my right and saw an eight year old Indian kid, let's call him Saint Peter, sitting patiently in his seat while his three year old brother, let's call him the Devil, was trying to push him out of it. The boys' parents were sitting on the other side of the Devil and were softly offering, "have a seat" and "relax" to the monster. I felt Saint Peter's pain. After a couple of minutes of this the Devil kicked Saint Peter's tray and an entire cup of orange juice spilled over Saint Peter's seat. He jumped up and into the isle. Somehow he managed to avoid it on his clothing. The orange juice just pooled in the seat while everyone else just sat there not moving. Saint Peter stood waiting. I called for a flight attendant but none came. Poor Saint Peter. After about 1/2 of it had soaked into his seat his dad threw him a blanket and just told him to soak it up. He did so without complaint.

About this time my mom decided she had to go to the bathroom so I let her up and she stood in the isle while Saint Peter tried to dry his seat. Then the kid seated right in front of Saint Peter (another 8 year oldish Indian boy) woke up long enough to throw up. Twice. On the isle carpet. On my socks. And my mom's.

Again. No one did anything. My "call" to the flight attendant was still lit so there really wasn't much more to do. My mom went to the bathroom and changed her socks. Saint Peter went back to his seat by climbing on top of the blanket that separated him from the wet seat. The vomiter put his tray down and sort of held his head in his hands. Well one hand. The other hand had vomit all over it.

No one answered my "call" intentionally but a flight attendant did try to pass through the isle to deliver breakfast trays. When I pointed out the vomit he looked rather irritated.

He turned around and came back several minutes later with some news papers he threw down on the floor and some air freshener. He wiped the kids face with plastic gloves and a wetnap. The kid looked miserable. I asked if he was okay and offered to get him a bag or something but he said he would be alright.

A few minutes later his dad walked by. He pushed him up from the tray table he was laying on and said, "sit up straight! You'll get sore" and then he walked away. I stopped him. "Uh, sir... he just threw up." I pointed to the newspapers. "You might want to, you know, check in on him." You could see the dad was embarrassed. He came back and comforted his son a little wiping up his face again with a wetnap.

Poor kid.

I was proactive during landing.

You know those screaming babies that accompany every flight's landing? Well a few years ago there was a real wailer on a flight from Alaska. The mom was embarrassed. I was mostly sympathetic. Only slightly annoyed. The flight attendant came over with two drinking cups. She said, "look, I know is sounds strange but just trust me." She took a couple of napkins and wadded them up in each of the cups. Then she got them both slightly damp. She put the cups on either side of the baby's head (covering it's) ears. The baby stopped crying instantly. She mumbled something about air pressure but no one was really listening we were all so impressed with her voodoo power.

I made the magic cups before the landing in Hong Kong. It worked. I felt barely any pain at all. No tears. I looked like a goof. ... as you see. But it worked! I'll take looking dorky over the pain of what I imagine feels like child birthing through your forehead any day.

And one more thing... they are calling for pre-boarding on my final leg of travel right now. As much as I would hate to not be able to join the hoverers and all, I have one more thing.

Check this math--
My dad and I ordered a couple of things. The total came to $65. He paid with a ten-dollar bill. We got $11 back. Where does this happen you might wonder...

Hong Kong Airport's Starbucks!

65 Hong Kong dollars was about 9 US dollars.
The change was 1 US dollar which was 11 Hong Kong dollars.
Mind you I am just trusting that the barista was doing HIS math right. :)

Me cranky

2008-05-30T00:32:00.000-07:00

I've been awake 40 hours.

I watched "Bucket List" and half of "Once" (again!) while on my longest flight (thus far) rather than sleep. That, I swear, was the only stay-awake that I made intentionally.

I hate airports.

And people with kids.

And air pressure.

I have a bit of a head cold. For those of you who haven't experienced "landing" with sinus pressure in your head, I can't possibly express to you the severity of the experience.

I...

wanted...

to...

die.

And I got to experience it TWICE so far. Firstly, I attempted to rip off my ears while landing in Seattle. And then secondly, after an 8 hour layover in Seattle and then a 90 minute plane ride, I punched myself rapidly in the eyeball in an attempt to become unconscious while landing in San Francisco.

I can't believe I am about to get on a third airplane. Only to land again. This time in Hong Kong. And hey, guess what I'll do once in Hong Kong? I'll have a LAYOVER AND THEN GET ON ANOTHER EFFING PLANE AND HAVE ANOTHER EFFING LANDING. I've been in San Francisco for 8 hours. Most of that time looked like this...

I bought my nieces all Nintendo DS(s) for the trip. I am the coolest Aunt ever. They are grateful. And quietly click click stroking away on those game systems.

I have only one more photo to share. And it's not a very clear one. But here's the thing... I don't get why people crowd the aisle when preboarding is announced. Someone? Anyone? Help. Why in the world would someone seated in row 7 stand up and block the walkway for EVERY OTHER passenger. Why not just sit for another 20 minutes and enjoy your freedom. I just don't get it.

In Seattle about 30 people did this. I snapped their photo. The gate is on the left. There are five people in "line." The rest? On the right there? That hoard of standers? Just waiting for their row to be called.

Bah! Traveling.

En route to China via Anchorage…

2008-05-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Well… since I last posted the school year ended and I left Oscarville for the summer. The year ended well. It was joyous… but that is to be expected. It was a bit sorrowful… but that is to be expected. And mostly, it was busy… and that too is probably the most expected.

As I have experienced in all five years with LKSD we had a great end of the year picnic. Unlike most years it was sunny and bright and picture perfect weather. Before the “feast” part of the picnic we had about an hour of outdoor freetime. It was used mostly for “junkyard” and “Bat”.

“Junkyard” is a game played with any number of people and a basketball. I have seen it played countless times before but this was the first time it was both named and explained in words to me. “So… he shoots and if it hits the rim the one closest to it has to defend before he can make another shot. Otherwise you're out.” That’s it. That’s the game. I understood the last part all too well. I was first “out” the three rounds I played.

I left that game and joined the much larger crowd playing “Bat”. “Bat” is a great game. The rules are similar to baseball but really… not at all. There is a team at bat and another in the field. Once you hit you can choose to run or not run. You’re out if the ball is caught in a popfly. One out and you switch sides. So let’s say the first 5 people hit the ball and don’t run. Well now you have the sixth person up to bat and a possibility of six runners. Let’s say batter #6 hits it way off in what would be a “foul” in any other field but is actually considered a GREAT HIT is bat. As the fielders scramble to retrieve the ball all six people run to the other end of the field. Once the ball is back in field it is thrown at the runners. If the ball hits a runner any of the member of that team has the opportunity to throw the ball at any other member of the team. The game becomes a free for all as everyone scrambles to get the ball and “tag” the other team. Positions change back and forth a dozen times before eventually the ball is retrieved from base or all players are off the field. At that point the last team “tagged” is in the field. As you can imagine it’s utter chaos but rarely is there a fight. You just start again hitting or fielding the ball while waiting for that perfect hit that’ll have a whole mess of batters running at once. Score is never kept and no one ever wins or loses. It’s over when people stop playing or in this case, time is called to eat.

The play deck was stocked with burgers, hotdogs, chips, Capri sun, corn cobettes, and assorted condiments. The students, staff, and community were all invited.

There was quite a crowd. One of my favorite elders in the community, Andrew Larson, came to the feast and I was able to snap these photos.

After a couple of clean up activities the school year closed and I said a “pleasure mixed with pain” goodbye to Qugcuun Memorial School year 2007-08.

In the couple of days that followed I watched Erin be a champ and clean the house and pack like it was her favorite pastime. I, rather, took part in my favorite pastime and bitched about not wanting to clean and pack. Once I got over my own sloth-like behaviors I helped out where I could but really Erin was near done with our house. I guess in Oscarville they cut power to the teacher’s housing unit in the summer. Every year, in every village, they threaten this but it never happens. I guess in Oscarville they really do it. So out refrigerator and freezer are empty and salad dressings and butter needs to be purchased at the start of the school year along with all of the other frozen vegetables and meats I end up pick up before that first trip out.

Then on Saturday I hitched a boat ride from Chris, my Site Administrator, a car ride from Faith, my Site Administrator’s daughter, and a plane ride from ERA Aviation to land here at Richard’s place in Anchorage. Richard moved from LKSD last October accepting a computer tech position in the Anchorage School District.

When his six months of probation was about to end he was called into his boss’s office and told he wasn’t really picking up stuff quick enough and that he should start looking for employment elsewhere. That was about two month ago and he’s looking a lot. His furniture-free apartment is one big ole job search. He’s submitted several applications all over the state and had several phone and face-to-face interviews but so far his search had been fruitless.

While I have been in Anchorage I have been reading next year’s Battle of the Books books. There are 12 this year. I have read two so far. “The Graduation of Jake Moon” is the shortest of all of the books, and as such, the first one I chose to read. The second book, “Touching Spirit Bear” I read yesterday. I had heard so many good things about that book. My Aunt read it with my cousin’s son about 8 years ago. Since then it has been brought up in all conversations about good Young Adult Literature. In fact, last year, I recommended it to a collogue of mine. All the while, I myself, hadn’t read it. Well I am proud to say, yesterday, I finally read “Touching Spirit Bear.” And I totally meant all of those things I have said about it in the past. It really is a good book. Chalk full of blood and anger and self worth and everything else one would want a jr. high boy to read. Next year, I have five boys (and two girls) all lined up for a read of it.
So yeah... when I am not looking like this…

I have seen the new Indiana Jones, been out to dinner at the Outback with Dirk and Erin, and taken walks with Richard.

I leave on Thursday morning for China. There will be a several hour layover in San Francisco before I actually am on a plane to China… but essentially… it’s Thursday morning.

And then the following Friday...

2008-05-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

Wow am I on a blog kick or what? I can't possibly keep this up for long, I mean come on, four posts in a week? Don't I have like a job, 'en stuff? But, here we go again. Yesterday, Friday May 16, 2008, Qugcuun Memorial School hosted it's 25th annual commencement. In addition to being in charge of creating the program I also gave a couple of speeches.

The ceremony had one high school graduate and two eighth graders who walked in "promotion" to High School. As the eighth grader teacher I delivered the eighth grade promotion speech. The following is a transcript of my speech as well as a few shots taken from the performance.

Good morning Site Administrator Chris, faculty and staff, honored guests, and of course you students. I'm here to recognize and congratulate Chinace and Nicole and their advancement from the eighth grade. [directed to them] You both should be very proud. You made it! At this point, you should take a moment to think back on what you've done in these last near decade worth of schooling. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed it. You haven’t gone through this alone so you should also find the time to appreciate the support of your parents and other family members who helped you to get here.

Eighth grade. You've finished "middle" school. You’re no longer stuck in the “middle.” This ceremony means that you've gone past the middle, and you're only four years, fingers crossed, from being where Grace is today...a high school graduate. [quick aside to graduate] Congratulations, Bunna. You now have written proof in the school records that, unlike many adults on TV, you really are smarter than a fifth grader.

This is a time for celebration, and also a time to ask, what happens now? Many, many years ago (before most of you students were born) I, too, graduated from the eighth grade. Looking back, I realize now, there was something I really didn't know at the time. You. At this stage… have all the power to shape your life. You need to recognize that you OWN your future, and it's up to you to make it a good one.

I didn’t take this time you have here… and really grab a hold of that power. I graduated from middle school and then high school and then entered college at UAF following the course laid out for me by the people around me. I didn’t think about it. I never questioned where I was going. It was expected. And after three years of that, I took a break.

I moved to San Diego and worked in an ice cream shop. I used the following five years to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. It turns out, what I wanted to do, was be here… with you all… today.

Do you know where you want to be five years from now? Do you know what career you want to pursue? Probably not...hardly anyone has that figured out by the time they start high school. It's time, however, to realize the possibilities before you and to ask yourself some important questions.

No, I don't mean questions of national importance, like who should win the presidential election or more important still who should win American Idol… but I mean personal questions about what your interests are. What YOU would like to do?

If you plan a career, what might it be? I still remember when I was ten years old my Aunt gave me a book to read. It is called One Child, and it is written by Torey Hayden. It’s about a teacher, and how she helped a child overcome learning disabilities. I didn't jump right up and know I would be a teacher, but I knew that the story interested me and that I admired the teacher for what she did to help that student.

That five years I took after I left UAF… and after I served all that ice cream… I reread that book I had received back when I was just a kid, younger than you are now, and it got me started on what turned out to be my career.

The same thing could happen to you. You might get a camera for a present, and decide that you want to learn more about photography. You might visit someone in the hospital and decide that you want to learn more about careers in health care. You might take an airplane trip and decide that an airline company might be a good employer. You might read a book about a boy wizard and decide that you want to become the best Quiddich player at Hogwarts. Well, maybe that last one is a bad example.

Chinace and Nicole, I know that you both are already well on the way to thinking about all this. Nicole, you want to build on your mechanical interest and aptitude. Chinace, you know that you want to explore your options at UAF (with Jackie) [smile at Jackie] and to choose a career that will be fulfilling and stimulating for you.

This here, right now, is your time to open you eyes to the things around you. The world is giving you hints all the time about who you are going to be.

There are careers in engineering, health care, education (be me! be me!), banking and finance, construction, service industries, science, military, computers, police work, retail sales, fishing, farming, entertainment, and on and on. There's plenty of opportunity to decide what you really want to do and to prepare for it.

You don't need to lock yourselves in yet. Take time to appreciate the fact that you've already accomplished so much. Then, decide just how you're going to enjoy the summer. If you have a chance, visit a college campus this Summer and see how it looks.

Oh wait… you are spending the summer with me, aren’t you? Well let’s be sure to pencil that in.

Then, continue your good work into high school. I never taught high school. So last night I went home and looked through my entire movie collection so I could figure out what you high school experience might be. I even found a movie with HIGH SCHOOL in the title. So now I know what happens there. It looks like most of your high school time will be spent dribbling basketballs in the halls while singing and dancing! SWEET! Have fun with that.

But, also, keep an eye on your future.

Watch your older friends and family and follow their lead. At the same time, you can serve as role models for those students coming along behind you. You have a strong community here in Oscarville, and you should use it to help you.
Remember, life is an adventure. In closing I want to congratulate the two of you and your families once again and to wish you both a bright future. Since I'm half Chinese, I'll put it this way, "Chen tu woo lan" With apologies, that's "Chiu-nuk-garrr-Bu-DiKKKK-nee chut Umm(theth) doot" in Yu'pik.

Thank you.

The eighth graders then accepted their certificates of promotion.

After that, the "real" graduation began. Each staff member was asked by our one graduate, Grace "Bunna" Joekay, to share a memory we have of her during her schooling.

The first to speak was Olga "Aanan" Mesak. Olga is the Primary/Yupik teacher here. She shared a story about Bunna's first day of school. The speech was in Yup'ik so I can't so much explain what the memory was... but the audience laughed warmly. Bunna look gleefully embarrassed so I bet it was a good one.

And then I stepped up again to deliver my second speech. This one was far shorter. AND it had visual aides.

Although I have only been here a year, I have had the unique opportunity to get to spend about 170 hours one-on-one with Bunna in this last year. Every morning at (AROUND) 8:45 we would squeeze ourselves into the library and watched a Video Tele-Conference for Applied Math.

One of our math labs involved creating a home plan to scale. I’ve blown it up for you here to see.

*have 8th grade promoters hold up the two pages of the map*

Interestingly, in addition to the staircase she constructed, the balcony on the top floor, and the artic entryway with TWO freezers… it seems she spent the most amount of time “tricking out” or decorating her kitchen and two bathrooms.

*reflectively look at the drawing*

At 8:45 am is she both hungry and needing a trip to the potty?

Don’t worry too much about her spending all of her time in the kitchen though. It seems she forgot to put in a door to get in there.

During parent-teacher conferences her mom, Eliza, once told me that as a kid she drew her future. Her home with her boats and her snow machines and other vehicles. And now… all these years later she has achieved all of those dreams.

I thought it would be a good idea to show you all this now. Because, it seems, like her mom, Bunna is a master at getting her dreams to come true. And Alex (dad)… you better start getting money and supplies together soon because she also calculated that this dream home of hers is going to cost about 1.35 million dollars to build.

(hand home to Bunna) I hope this one comes true for you too.
Congratulations Bunna.

Thank you.

After I spoke, Erin Kavanaugh, the high school teacher stood to deliver her speech. Erin is a rockstar of a teacher and a pretty kickass roommate to boot. Bunna is the first student she has carried all the way through High School to graduation. I tend to think this ceremony meant as much to her as it did to Bunna. Maybe more. Erin understandably got a little choked up at the start of her speech. The stress of all the hours getting the writing course work completed... the sleepless nights... the struggles of work undone... the triumphs of work completed. It all culminated in this bitter sweet, proud, moment of goodbye.

After Erin's speech, Bunna's mom, Eliza spoke. Eliza helps out with our pull out programs for Special Ed. She also runs an after school program. Eliza and her husband Alex (who is also employed by the school) have six kids. The eldest is Bunna. As you can imagine, they were very proud of their eldest daughter making it through to graduation. I heard that Bunna's graduation is the 4th in over a decade. With a school as small as ours, I am sorry to report, it is quite a triumph (and not necessarily the norm) that a student meet all the requirements of graduation.

Like Erin, Eliza's speech started out with quite a few tears. Tears from the speaker, the graduate, and over half of the adult audience in attendance.

After Eliza's heartfelt speech Chris introduced our guest speaker, and the only remaining member of our teaching staff, Barbara Ulroan. Barbara was a graduate of Qugcuun Memorial having graduating in Oscarville in 1996 before attending UAF mostly through audio conference in Bethel, AK. By the time she finished getting her teaching credential she also was married and had two kids. She moved to the village of Atmautluk before moving back to Oscarville to teach in 2005. She teaches the Elementary School here.

Since her move to Oscarville she has had her third child. An energetic, strong willed, girl named AnnaLayne. Can you spot her in this picture on the left taken in the middle of Barbara's speech?

Peek-a-boo

Oh, and just because we're on the subject... here's another picture I snapped of AnnaLayne and Erin after the graduation ceremony was over.

After Barbara spoke, our valedictorian of the senior class spoke. Bunna's speech spoke briefly on her struggles in school and then highlighted some of the reading she has enjoyed and some of her favorite papers she has written. She offered to the younger students her opinion as to the importance of sticking it out in school and making your dreams come true. For someone who has never seen a peer graduate, never had to really write anything like this, it was a pretty good speech. I am ridiculously pleased in our graduate.

After Bunna's speech, Chris, our Site Administrator, gave the short but important Principal's Address. Effectively wrapping up the ceremony. Nothing left after that but the traditional stuff that concludes all graduations.

And just in case you haven't had enough yet... here are some other random pictures taken from the day's festivities.

And for our final two pictures...

here we have the entire Oscarville Staff along side the honorees.

And...

presenting...

the crew I gush about far too often...

the entire Oscarville Jr. High...

P.S. One member of our household was noticeably unhappy with all of this time we have been spending away from home.

P.P.S. Before you feel too sorry for her, Macy was able to come to the slumber party that took place the following evening. Does this really look like a dog deprived of attention?

Not that I am political. But...

2008-05-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

To quote Rent...

"You teach?"
"I teach. Computer age philosophy. But my students would rather watch TV."
"America."
"America!"

I am going to be in China in 15 days.

I just read my first news article about the earthquake.

When I got down to the bottom of the article I saw this...

... I am embarrassed and apologetic for my country.

Heal China.

Heel America!

From the vaults...

2008-05-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Erin and her ELD (English Language Development) class inspired me! They are working on a Poetry Unit. Today's format was "odes".

Unfortunately my inspiration can only take me so far. We are down to two "real" school days left and then five sort of half-day, limited learning days. It's crunch time. Papers to edit at lightning speed. Grades to enter in our snail-paced, online system.

So rather than writing new odes, I scrounged through my email account and found the only two odes I have written in the last ten years.

The first is a silly sort of a poem I wrote in my college poetry class. I liked it and took the time to turn it in and all... but again... it was silly. I was really surprised to find my instructor thought it was a publishable piece of work.

"Ode to My Muse"

Silver parka pulled back to reveal you
The flexible powdered 2X4
I fold you in half
With my thumb and forefinger
Toss you carelessly to my cave of communication.

Like a cat’s Mickey (or Minnie)
My teeth
My tongue
Beat you into a misshapen mess

I tinker and toy with you
(But I mean you no pain)
Truth is
You challenge and motivate me

You were there for me when I tripped into love
(You were there for me when love tripped me back.)
You were there for me when I grew out of school
(You were there for me when I grew into school)

It’s been you and me, kid
More times that I can calculate
(even with your company in my math tests)

This poem is for you,
My sweet inspiration.
(I could not have done it without you.)

Can you guess it? Do you know what my muse in college really was?

The second ode I wrote after living in Quinhagak for three weeks. Those of you living out here on the delta, familiar with what the term "honeybucket" means, will probably understand this piece right away. For the rest of you... mwhaaa haaa haaa. Try to research your way into understanding. I dare you!

"Ode to my Honey"

It is around 6:30 am and I'm
taking a stroll with my honey.
In my left hand, naked without
its watch, is a flashlight
that unsteadily illuminates the
gravel path. My time piece
battery went dead and the town
store doesn't stock them. I'm
adapting.

My right hand busies itself
with my pale, pure companion.
Their sweet, firey familiar
scent will remain with me after
we part. I know this because
this is the morning ritual we
share, everyday, at the
pre-dawn-break.

In all honesty it's the only
time we have together worth
reflecting upon.

Neither of us hardly speaks
and when we do it's silly
triflings, a song stuck in my
head, my do-not-forget plans
for the school day. These
words are not for my partner,
the one so much a part of me,
but rather for myself.

For when one spends such
intimate time together with
their honey, sometimes... words
are needed to break the
uncomfortableness of the drop.

"They say that break(ing) up is hard to do"

2008-05-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Oscarville is nearly perfect. When I look back on my last five years of teaching, I definitely think this one... this one's the keeper. Small class size and proximity to Bethel aside, it's just been an amazing year.

But to honest, I wasn't so sure about this move. Last year I left Nunapitchuk a little worried. I had heard mostly positive things. But one thing that kept being said every time I bought up the word, "Oscarville" was "watch out for break up". "Break up" is a special time of year around here where the solid frozen roads turn back into the flowing Kuskokwim River and all of it's countless slough and tributaries. "Break up" is the time of year where I finally get some answers about that saying we've all heard about Eskimos having 20 different words for snow. Happen on in to any feast or maqivik at this time of year and your hear fervent discussions about needle ice and overflow and chunks and black water and white ice and clear ice... and if your lucky you'll even be treated to the "whooooshhhhh" or the "cruchuggggek" or the "plink plink plink" as the ice's break down is explained.

It's break up here in Oscarville. The view out my classroom window looks like this... Note the icebergs just sitting (or floating) in the middle of a slough that may or may not have ice below the surface.

We stopped traveling last Tuesday. It just wasn't safe anymore.

This time when the "roads" are somewhere in between ice and water is a dark time for the village. Pike, Seal, and Geese are here. Salmon and other birds will be here soon. But... it's not safe to travel.

I had been warned that THIS is the time when everyone just stays at home nit picking at one another bitterly. All year long we prepare for this. "Save that art project for break up, there won't be anything else to do." "Saturday work day? How about during break up, no one can get anywhere anyway." "Stock up on food for break up." "Could be weeks until there's mail because of break up."

Bah Humbug.

Now... if you know me at all you'll know I wouldn't bother to spend the time on a post that remained bitter cookies about break up. Oh no! Let me tell YOU how I battled the nefarious (thank you Moonlighting) break up this weekend.

Oscarville was invited to Napaskiak's prom. Hooray! Only... cepting' there's break up. So while the river was "good enough" for us to get our invitations a week prior we couldn't possibly get across the river by boat or snow machine last Friday. Our site administrator came up with an idea to charter a helicopter to prom. Only it was looking at costing a good $1,200 to get there. Twelve hundred bucks for prom?!! Images of MTV's My Super-Sweet 16 and multiple woman who charge by the hour come to my mind. Neither of which I am interested in for myself or for Oscarville's High School students.

The fact of the matter is we just couldn't afford it. Our site administrator called up Yukon Helicopters and said it was just too pricey. At that point Tom, the co-owner (with wife Cindy) and pilot, agreed to donate their services to get our kids to prom. Super-sweet, huh?

From that cushy helicopter ride (I know like we're friggin' rock stars!) we took a four wheeler ride to the school.

Riding a four wheeler is significantly less glamorous. Especially when there are about eight of us (and luggage) all on one four wheeler (with a wagon).

But beggars can't be choosers and damn did we clean up nice for being beggars!

This here is the whole group of Oscarvillers who made it over for Prom. There are six kids in the High School but only four of them are considered to be either a Junior or Senior. Because of this division the two remaining High School students had to be "dates" of the four legitimate invitees.

These stand as record of the official "couples."

We in Oscarville are showing just how current and politically correct we are by having a girl/girl couple readily accepted by the general public. The fact that they are also sisters may make this look more like a big move backwards. But let's just not go there...

A truly good time was had by all. In fact, I even snapped a photo that reminded me of my own Senior Ball. Mind you, I'm not showing the "leg" I showed when I stood with Michelle, Nicole, and Alexis. But still... it was reminiscent.

We spent the night at the school eating popcorn, drinking kool-aid, and watching "The Princess Bride" which I must point out reminded me EVEN MORE of my own prom. Not that I actually watched THAT movie... but for Junior Prom the after prom movie "The Lost Boys" was enjoyed with popcorn and pop I recall at Michelle's house. So... you know... certainly in the same vein.

The next day we woke up casually and heading to the airport to catch the 11:30ish helicopter ride back to Oscarville. No big party to see us off. Helicopters are so passe.

Once safely back on the ground Erin confirmed that the student council was still going to host a volleyball get together at 2:00. I was surprised but elated to see that these prom-goers were still raring to host an event for the younger less (helicopter-)traveled folks of Oscarville.

So after a few short feet up moments in front of so American Idol Rewind (I loved Frenchie but I LOVE Syesha too) I headed out to the "play deck" for some nice sun-in-your-eyes volleyball playing. The rules to the game are far better explained by Erin but essentially it was play to play. And while score was "kept" it was... negotiable.

A fairly tall fence surrounds the play deck so every time the (MUCH LIGHTER then regulation) volleyball caught wind it took a few minutes for someone to climb down from the play deck and run around to the ball. What can I say... several of the pictures taken didn't exactly contain a volleyball. As you can see here...

So yeah, they say break up in Oscarville is hard. But I don't know... I certainly didn't feel all that trapped this weekend.

Rumor has it the river here will "flush" by the weekend.

Shhheeesh! Break up is a breeze.