Week 14: Foolin' Around

Alright. One more week down. I didn't have to get creative with this one because my kids are always just "foolin' around"!

Day 90: I can't really explain this one. Friday evening, they started playing in the bathtub. It was one place bright enough to take a picture, so I went for it!

Day 91: On Saturday, Eric went golfing in the morning, so the kids and I hung out, talked to Grandpa on FaceTime, and went to lunch in Itaewon. It was so good to spend some quality time with my kids!

Day 92: Cade...just being himself!

Day 93: Monday was a long day for Eric and me. We didn't have the energy to make dinner, so we ended up with cereal, toast, and fruit. The kids were thrilled!

Day 94: Cade doing one of his favorite activities...

Day 95: On Wednesday, the kids got to dye Easter eggs and have an Easter egg hunt with their friends at play group. They were so excited to show us the eggs they dyed!

Day 96: Cade was just being goofy before bed. He kept curling up in his blankets while we were trying to put his pajamas on. He is such a sweet boy.

I always have such a hard time picking a favorite. I think I like the last one of Cade the best. I always love shots of him in bed. I really love that one of Kennedy with her egg, too, though!

If you'd like to see others' work on Project 52, check out the links:

www.styleberryblog.com

Day 2: Traveling

On day 2, we got up, packed our bags, and walked down the street to have some breakfast. My girls ate Subway sandwiches, chips, and pop for breakfast while I headed to the nearest coffee shop for the largest cup of caffeine I could find, a bagel, and cream cheese.

We returned to our rooms, picked up our bags, and boarded (yet another) bus to head down to the harbor front. We then carted our bags through the ferry terminal (where we got many angry stares for being a large group in our bright red t-shirts and not a 50 year old wealthy tourist ready to board a huge cruise ship) and through Vivo City mall to the movie theater where we would be attending a youth service.

We were honored guests at the church service where they all laid hands on us and prayed for our safe travels throughout the week, but then we had to rush out of the service in order to make it to the ferry terminal in time to buy tickets, check bags, and board the ferry. We had a few minutes to grab food (McDonalds unfortunately was the closest and fastest food we could find!) and then we were off.

Our team leader and the pastor

We all made it on the boat just in time, and we only had one student lose his boarding pass! We did have a group of girls who didn't have their immigration cards from arrival in Singapore when they reached the immigration counter for Indonesia, but it turned out their group leader had them, so everything worked out in the end. By the time we sat down on that ferry to eat our (cold) lunch, we were ready to sit and relax for 45 minutes!

Vivo City mall

Our ferry ride was much too short for most of us, but for one of our students, even 45 minutes was too long. She ended up getting really seasick and being dehydrated already. She was not excited about the fact that we still had to get on small boats and ride for another 2 hours!

We managed to get through some pretty disgusting bathrooms, and then haul our suitcases through the market at the ferry terminal in Sekupang (where we got called some interesting names such as "princess" and "Cinderella"), and then we made it down to the dock where we boarded the small wooden boats to take from the island of Batam to Sugi, the island where Telunas Resort is located.

the boys headed out first

The boat ride was cool, refreshing, and beautiful! Our one seasick student was able to drink some water, take some Dramamine, and take a nap on the boat, so she was feeling better once we arrived.

our first glimpse of Telunas

Upon arrival at Telunas, they brought out cool washcloths for us to wash the salt water off our faces and greeted us with an orange and pineapple drink that tasted amazing! We basically arrived in time to get settled into our rooms, change our clothes, and get washed up before dinner. We were exhausted and so happy to finally be at Telunas!

Day 1: Singapore

Alright, well, my Bible class is writing scripts for the Easter skits that they have to perform tomorrow, so I'm going to take advantage of the few minutes of focused work to get started on the story (because I've managed to get caught up on grading!)...

On Friday, I taught 5 of my 6 classes, then in the middle of 7th period, our team congregated in the lobby and started the parade to the subway station carrying our bags behind us. The trip to the airport via subway is almost 2 hours long, so most of the girls took a nap. A well-timed nap for them since we were up for almost 24 hours that day.

We finally boarded our flight about 7 pm after a quick dinner at the airport. We only had one issue with too many liquids in a checked bag and a bottle of bug spray being thrown away. I felt like that was pretty good!

Our flight was about 6 hours and thankfully the airport was pretty empty by the time we landed at Changi in Singapore, so we were able to get through immigration, customs, and baggage claim pretty quickly even with all 40 of us. We got our money changed (the longest process!) and were on the road to Praisehaven Retreat Center by about 3:30 am. We finally climbed in bed at about 4:30 am and we were up again around 10 am.

We spent our whole first day just sightseeing in Singapore. We went to Orchard Road in the morning for a late breakfast/early lunch at Pizza Hut which had the best pizza I've had in the last 9 months!

Then we let the girls shop for an hour or so in a mall where they were able to take advantage of all of the 3 for $10 deals on sunglasses and jewelry!

When we (as teachers) decided they were done shopping, we began our venture to the Singapore Zoo. We managed to get on the subway and get to one of the nearby bus terminals to board a bus to the zoo (all without losing a single child--or our minds!)

Unfortunately, by the time we actually reached the zoo (we needed to change all of our cash for smaller bills for eating and bus fares and it took forever!), we only had about an hour and half to check it out.

Most of us opted to hop on the tram that goes around the zoo so that we could see more in less time, but it did leave me feeling like I missed out on a lot!

Being from the Pacific Northwest, I've never been to a natural habitat zoo and it was incredible! All of the animals were so close, it felt like you could reach and touch them (if you wanted to!). I can't wait to go back with the kids!

I just have to mention that I know that everyone jokes about how clean Singapore is, but it really is impressive! There were some of the most amazing public bathrooms I've ever seen in Singapore. It was even more exciting when we returned from Indonesia, but the bathroom at the zoo was also what you might call "natural habitat". It was open air and had the most beautiful sinks. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I guess I'd felt I'd taken enough pictures of bathrooms for one day when I got the shots of the signs.

By the time we were ready to leave the zoo, the clouds had rolled and thunderstorms followed shortly. Our bus ride back into the city was crowded, humid, and thunderous! We had dinner at the bus terminal  that was about halfway back to Praisehaven (and was equally crowded!). We finally made it back at about 10:30 pm. Needless to say, we were exhausted!

Favorite Photo of March

I can't believe another month of 2012 has gone by. I can't believe that we're in the 4th quarter of school. I can't believe that my Indonesia trip has come and gone already.

It's so hard to pick a favorite every month. I feel like I should pick one of my kids and then another of whatever I want. I don't know. Maybe next month. I love this one off the dock at Telunas Beach. It brings me right back to that serenity even while I sit in the craziness of my classroom in Seoul!

A Start

I did it! I whiddled down my photo collect to just over 600 photos and I edited them all in less than a week! I'm so impressed with myself...Eric doesn't seem too impressed, but that's okay. Now if only I had the energy to tell the story! It's not going to happen tonight, I'm sorry to say, but I can show you a few more pictures in the meantime...it's a start.

The narcileptic student in my group...this child can fall asleep anywhere: standing up in the bus, during a thunderstorm, at the zoo, on any type of boat...

Sing dollars...very pretty...more funny money!

A couple of signs we saw in the bathroom in a mall in Singapore...

they must have problems with that?!?...and of course, when paying 20 cents to use the bathroom (and employing the attendant who watches you drop the coins in) you must always put the coins in yourself! You most certainly shouldn't hand it to the attendant to put it in (part of her job is to prevent people from taking pictures of this sign as well, it appears. I honestly didn't know it was against her "rules" when I took it!).

More to come soon, but for now let me say that is was so nice being in a country where English was the first language again! It's amazing how at-home I felt even though I was so very far away from home!