alohaaaaahhhh

We're beginning our re-entry to the reality of our lives by transitioning home through Hawaii - we know... quite difficult, and still thousands of literal and figurative miles from our reality. We're here with Grandpa Gene (my dad) and Grandpa Roger/Grandma Fran (Chrissie's folks). Matt decided we needed a distinguishing nomer for the two Grandpas in order to avoid confusion, and since we are staying at a place called "Papakea", he has taken to calling Grandpa Gene "Papakea" and Grandpa Roger "Papapea". Matt's keen on the nicknames.

We're fully enjoying the relaxed re-entry here and...
...Hanging with Chrissie's cousing Tammie and her family for a couple of days upon arrival [Jeff, Tammie, Jake, and Hannah, plus Uncle Bob and Aunt Janet who were visiting for Hannah's birthday]... catching the sea turtles and shave ice of Haliewa.

... A serendipitous soccer match between LA Galaxy (with David Beckham) v. Gamba at Aloha Stadium.

...Pearl Harbor with Grandpa Gene (aka Papakea, don't forget).

...Seeing Cousin Kathy and Bill Scharnhorst - We got a chance to see my cousin and her husband, here taking a little break from Iowa farming, and like my dad, a break from the below zero snow-zone Iowa has been this winter.

...The whales! The humpbacks are in their glory.

...Surf school - Andy and Matt are naturals, and are ready to take it up full time (and I'm noticing that I am 43). I did explain that the surfing options of the northwest are a little more limited, and require significant wet-suitage, but they remain undaunted.

...Boogey-boarding and trying not to get killed in the surf.

...Golf of multiple kinds: -Saw the big-timers like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Fuzzy Zoehler, etc. at the Skins Championship that just happened to be right near where we're staying. -Putting competitions on the putting green at our spot - even an official one with prizes - Andy and Matt came back with a t-shirt and a box of chocolate-covered macademia nuts respectively - each winning his age-group (made easier by the fact that each was the sole entrant in his age-group). Grandpa Gene won a key chain. -And, the simple joys of the driving range.

...And just the general joy of lounging around in this glorious place. We are looking forward to catching a little of the Bend winter when we get there (which will be on Saturday, and we're looking very forward to seeing the Wenndorfs!), but we'll soak up this sunshine wonder while we can.

hong kong

Sunday evening at the Olsen's in Hong Kong (Repulse Bay, for those of you who know the city). We are having a marvelous time with the Olsen family - Andy and Ari, and their three kids - Ana (7), Adam (3-almost-4) and Aaron - 2. Andy and Matt are having a blast being big brothers, and we have visions of Andy's baby-sitting service starting up upon our return to Seattle.

We arrived on Friday noon, after some all-night/little-sleep flying from Bangalore. We didn't mind the lack of sleep, since we were reasonably convinced we were never going to get out of Bangalore - our driver was almost an hour and a half late picking us up, and Bangalore traffic is crazy. So the fact that we made the flight at all, and didn't end up sleeping on the airport floor, made the lack of sleep not such a problem.

We've been adventuring with the A-team here since then. Andy is a friend and colleague from Seattle (we did the Danforth Principal program together), who has been teaching here at the Hong Kong International School for a couple of years, after having principaled an elementary school in Highline for a number of years. They are fabulous hosts, and all our kids are having a blast together. We've hit many Hong Kong hots spots and traveled by subway, bus, taxi, cablecar and foot hither and yon. Though Hong Kong is a high density big city of about 7 million folks, there is greenspace in the midst (not so much grass, but lots of little parks and playgrounds), and some real hiking. We had a great hike yesterday along Dragon's Back (a nice, high ridge, complete with some parasailors), played frisbee on the beach, and at moments we are reminded of Seattle and San Francisco as we adventure our way along.

One of our favorites here was our trip last night to the "night market" full of great deals that stretches for blocks. We picked up quite a number of things we didn't know we needed, and didn't get home until after 11pm.... Today's dim sum lunch is right up there - mmmm....

Suddenly tomorrow we are flying out to Japan (Tokyo... for one day, rather 23 hours) on our way to Hawaii and the grandparents. Originally we had intended to be in Japan for a week with Chrissie's cousin Steve and his family - but if you remember our Frankfurt day a ways back, the Steve-Austins moved to Germany - so we've adjusted our Japan time, and are heading to Hawaii a bit earlier.

We are looking very forward to getting back closer to home, and beginning to reintroduce some routine into our lives. Hawaii will be a chance to do some organizing of pictures and thoughts, and decide just what it is that we have learned, accomplished and done with these past 6 months. I also need to start the process of finding work, so if you have any ideas for me, let me know. We'll keep the blogs coming, but they will certainly evolve as we work our way back into something a little more "regular."

happy valentines day... and another funny story

The two weeks we've been here in Bangalore have flown by (as you can tell, since it's been almost that long since I've blogged!). Tim, Chitra and the crew flew out of Bangalore this morning for an engagement party weekend in Mumbai (Cetric, one of the young men who works for the Hanstads, and a son of sorts, is the celebrant), and we fly out late tonight for Hong Kong. Our time here with the Hanstads was a wonderful combination of hanging out with family (playing ping-pong, chasing Oreo-the -loveable-family-dog out of the house regularly, trying to catch Star, the family rabbit, eating, evening basketball with the neighborhood college guys, eating again, school - Andy with Rajan and Matt with Asha, eating some more, bb gun wars, eating, watching the Superbowl - Go Giants! - live at 5:30 in the morning, eating and just generally enjoying being together), with some mini-adventures thrown in:

-Water World, the follow-up to Fun World, was Andy's birthday choice (the little sport turned 13 (!) on Feb. 9): This water park again would not pass OSHA standards, but that makes it all the more fun. Andy and Cetric talked me into going on the "Cyclone" without providing full disclosure. You start out in an enclosed tube that feels way to much like a free-fall, and just when everything goes dark, the tunnel takes a severe right angle turn - smashing you into the wall - then shooting you out in the toilet bowl spin, round and round, until it deposits you forcefully (most likely landing on another rather dazed rider) into a shallow pool at the bottom. Good times!

-Industrial and Technical Museum: Wonderful, quirky little place with lots of interactive exhibits. One of the favorites was severing our heads from our bodies. You can do that here in India.

-The Zoo: Fun, low key place, with our favorite part being the caged Rhesus monkeys, the same variety that attacked us in Bundi. We gloated a little over their condition, even though we realized that was petty and mean. Our second-favorite part was the 1-hour bus safari that felt strikingly reminiscent of the nice safari in the first Jurassic Park movie, except the really scary part was the bus ride, and not the animals.

-The Dentist: Our dental insurance runs out before we'll be back in Seattle, so we decided to get a cleaning while we were here. ColumbiaAsia Clinic is a spankin' new establishment just down the road, so we headed in, registered, and showed up for the cleaning. Funny things with this - the boys both came back out after about 3 minutes, with the pronouncement that they didn't need their teeth cleaned. Seems they must have been brushing better than Chrissie and I, because the two dentists working on them set them free. Chrissie and I, on the other hand, had an interesting 30 minute dental workover, getting our teeth cleaned with some combination of high pressure water, sonic vibration and enough screeching to send all the neighborhood dogs (of which there are many) howling for cover. It's all good, though, and now we can return to the clinic whenever we happen to be in Bangalore needing medical or dental attention.

-Prophesies: At lunch yesterday a nice elderly man in a walker stopped Chrissie to inform her that, as a Face-Reader, he had read Matt's and determined that he will grow up to be a great man, including becoming the prime minister of his country and having $55,000. Good news!

You can see that we've settled well into family mode here with the Hanstads, since much of what we've done sounds like anywhere. It's special here, though, because it's India, and because it's the Hanstads.

So on to the story... I'm happy to say that the story that follows does not contain any jinx-ridden reassurances from Mother-Chrissie. Any of you who know Chitra, know that she is keen on deals, and is always finding coupons for this and discounts for that. She is the queen of bargaining, and it was wonderful to be here with her and see her work her magic. So, she found us a deal - the "weekend package" at a nice resort about 45 minutes away - a local 5 star hotel, the Golden Palms. The story doesn't get interesting until the very end. Before that, we had a wonderful 3 days of swimming, biking, playing tennis, pool, ping-pong and squash, and eating way more than we needed to at the three-a-day all-you-can-eat buffet extravaganza.

The real adventure begins when we go to check out. We are presented with a bill that is double what we expected (and though Chitra got us a good deal for the nice resort that it was, there was no way we could afford "double" what we expected). It turns out that the killer rate was PER night, not for the whole weekend. We showed them the ad that said "weekend package" and "It will make you wish the weekends were longer", an ad that nowhere said anything about per night, and they informed us that "In India [Tim and Chitra really appreciated the condescending tone], everyone knows that 'weekend package' means just one night, and anyway, you should know our prices wouldn't be that low... we're a 5 star hotel." I tried to explain that a key aspect of being a 5 star hotel is treating one's clients with care - something that everyone except that day's desk manager was very happy to do - but that fell on deaf ears. To make a long story short, we said we'd happily pay the part we expected to pay, and we'd let the owner decide if we needed to pay the other part. The desk manager said we would pay all or nothing. When we told him given that choice, we'd choose nothing, he called security and had the exits blocked. He even tried to go get our luggage out of the car, but fortunately, he was unsuccessful.

In the end, after a two-and-a-half-hour stand-off, Tim wrote a long letter (while standing at the reception counter) to the owner, and we attached both the ad and the other portion of the bill, asking him to weigh in, and we'd abide by the decision. By this point, the desk manager had washed his hands of us, so the nice other people took that document and we headed home. They did let us out, though the rest of the two families were planning our escape while Tim and I negotiated for our release. We still don't know the final outcome, but we'll keep you posted.

So now we're down to our final 6 hours in India, and a wrap-up blog seemed a fitting close. It's been a fabulous time in so many different ways. And we hope you all have, are having or did have a joyous Valentines day! Here's us, with Tim, Chitra and their friends Pranu and Emu on our little date night.

Home with the Hanstads!

We have landed in Bangalore, India, home to not only a bustling IT community, but also our family-away-from-home, the Hanstads - Tim, Chitra, Rajan, Rani, Asha, Shalini and a whole host of local supporting cast and crew. It's wonderful to be here, being able to be with our dear friends, and settled into a home for an extended stay. Tim is the pres/ed of Rural Development Institute (RDI - http://www.rdiland.org/ ) - an organization working to secure land rights for the rural poor around the world, as well as an expert net installer. Tim's office is in a home near the Hanstad home here in Bangalore, and our "guesthouse" for our time here.

We arrived Wednesday evening, after an eventful departure from Udaipur. Not only did we have to say goodbye to our India travel-mates Steffen and Grace (who headed north, while we headed south), but the friendly guesthouse host-dog, Alfy (think very large, playful, hyper cross between a black lab and a greyhound), decided that Andy's offer to pet him was rather an imminent attack, and chomped his arm twice. Andy's got some nice punctures and bruises, but fortunately both Andy and Alfy have had their shots... so not too much to worry about. So while we escaped the teeth of the mad monkeys, Andy did not leave northern India unscathed. Alfy was immediately repentent, and sheepishly lay outside the door while we put Andy back together.

This weekend we are fully engaged in Aunt and Uncle mode, as Tim and Chitra are gone for a speaking engagement. They'll be back tonight, but we did have time to get in a trip to Fun World this afternoon. It's a sweet little low-key amusement park that has equipment that feels a little like hand-me-downs from the Bremer (or Deschutes) County Fair. I must say my roller-coaster ride this afternoon was scary for all the wrong reasons.

Now that we're settled in here, we have consistent (and worthy) connectivity, so I'm going to add some pictures from our last few weeks - some chronological, some thematic. Enjoy, and we'll keep you posted.

India...

like Delhi traffic

Udaipur

A little drainage project, but cars, motos, bikes and peds continued to navigate effectively, the fresh fruit market and our guest house (site of the bite).

Bundi

Some of our new friends, and color of the town...

... and overnight trains

first class, and not-quite-first class

Cambodia

Us and the Morefields...

The boys helping Kathy M. with an ESL lesson, and the mighty Mekong.

The temples of...

Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Phrom...

plus Chrissie and her friends and Matt on the scooter.

Our delightful lunch with Min Sor and his family.

Bangkok

The family at the ancient city, a little taste of home with Katie and Matt and Andy with their mates Tiger and Monkey (a different monkey than the ones we encountered in Bundi....)

Impact of Drape Academy

... and last, but certainly not least, The Chicken Chronicles