Something Worth Celebrating

I'm celebrating having one of the world's best jobs this week.  As teachers, we all go through peaks and valleys throughout the school year.  After sitting in a couple of career day sessions I was reminded of why I love teaching.  

It humors me to hear how many of my students want to be engineers, but lack the vision to know what a typical engineer really does on a daily basis.  Instead they live in the fantasy that an engineer works when he wants, follows his passions all the time and his ideas always result in million dollar profits.  I decided to visit the engineering presentation at career day to see if I had missed out on what I was meant to do in life.  Maybe the kids knew something I didn't… it's happened before.  Listening to an engineer talk about the pride he felt watching the completion of a challenging construction project made me reflect on the feeling I get when I hear a student say, "ahh" when they truly understand or the way their face lights up when they have success at a challenging task after hours of hard work.  Having a usually ungracious adolescent say, "thanks for the last two years" or "I finally get it" is worth conversations with helicopter moms, extra hours spent grading to give proper feedback and planning effective lessons.  Every day we get to do the problem solving of an engineer, data analysis of a scientist and personal interaction of a counselor.  Our job is awesome, it just has an undervalued name which is why I'm changing my job title to youthful mind engineer.  I think it has a cool ring to it. 

Meeting Ketut in Ubud, Bali

Just after graduating from college I picked up a copy of the book Eat, Pray, Love and it changed my life.  I know that many of you rolled your eyes reading that sentence because that book became such a huge seller and is now a cliché for women finding themselves.  I don’t care though, it was a great book for me at an unpredictable time in my life.  If I hadn’t read that book I seriously doubt that I would be living overseas right now, if ever.  I loved it.  I even convinced my book club in Flagler to read it. 

If you have never read the book you have missed a great read.  Elizabeth Gilbert writes beautifully and I have a complete writers crush on every thing she has written. I have a whole shelf in Colorado for her books.   Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir about a women who tries to find balance in her life by traveling through Italy (eat), India (pray) and Indonesia (love).  She speaks honestly about her insecurities, her self-doubt, her dreams and her journey.

When we were deciding if we should come to China I remember thinking that the only way I was willing to go is if I got to go to Bali, Indonesia on one of our breaks.  Well we did it!  I have special way of talking myself into things.

In the book Liz goes to see a medicine man by the name of Ketut Liyer.  He is a wise little old man that gives her advice about life and also reads her palm.  I don’t buy into all of that hubbub but I was fully intrigued by the process and I thought that it would be fun to try and see Ketut while we were in Bali if he was still alive.  It just so happened that the villa we stayed in was down the street from Ketut’s house.  I am not exaggerating here, I mean DOWN THE STREET.  It was meant to be.

Because the book had impacted me so much Matt read it after me several years ago, and then Tyler read it.  Brooke had instructions to read it but she ‘forgot’ it in Sterling, Colorado so she had to watch the movie instead.  Everyone on our trip knew who Ketut was and although no one was quite as excited as me, they at least understood my excitement. 

On our first day in Bali we set out to go explore Ubud.  I talked with the lady at our villa about setting up an appointment with Ketut.  She giggled at me and told us to just stop by his house on our way.  In one of our guidebooks it gave instructions about how we should be dressed, how to present money to medicine men and it basically discouraged tourists from going to see the Balinese medicine men because it took away from the locals that are really sick.  Feeling a bit let down by that information and thinking that we needed to be in proper dress my plan was to just swing by to make an appointment if one was available and then leave. 

When we saw the sign I was just glad we had found the place.  I was imagining Elizabeth Gilbert on her bike following the same path as us.  While Matt, Tyler and Brooke stayed on the street, feeling under dressed, I stepped into the entrance of Ketut’s home.  I expected to see someone taking names like a hostess in a restaurant and instead I saw Ketut.  He smiled, showing the few teeth he had left and I felt like I was seeing a celebrity.   He motioned past me for the others to come in.  “I need my coffee” he said “please wait”.  “Sure!” I said.  I was willing to wait all day.  We were the only people there to see Ketut.  The other people wandering around the garden were Ketut’s family.  A woman put out the daily flower offerings and lit incense around the compound as we waited.  There was a small Eat, Pray, Love movie poster hanging behind us. 

About fifteen minutes later Ketut emerged from one of the small buildings and I joined him sitting cross-legged on a porch.  These are the bits of information that he shared after analyzing my face, hands, arms, back, knees and feet.

-I am very beautiful.

-He is very lucky to meet me.

-I am going to live to be 100.

-No matter what I should never lose my husband, he is very good for me.  (He repeated this at least 6 times and he said the same thing to Matt.)

-I will have two children…. soon.

-My blood is good.

-I have strong bones.

Among other things, he told Matt that he is very smart and people should listen to him (including me).  He told Tyler he will get married if he wants to.  He told Brooke to drive carefully because she will die in a crash when she is 100.  It was a very memorable experience and as overdone as it may be, I am very glad that I did it.  Ketut was on my bucket list and I am overjoyed to have had the opportunity to cross that one off. 

Tyler learning how long he'll live and whether he'll be wealthy.

Ketut had the classic grandpa joke, " Did I break the camera?". 

Everyone ready to head our after learning we'll all live to be a hundred or more.

Beijing Part 2 "The Wall"

Our second day in Beijing we visited the Great Wall.  The area of the wall we visited was about an hour north of Beijing.  We were quite happy with our experience.  Travelers can get very different experiences visiting the Great Wall.  It depends on which section you visit or whether you go trekking along it somewhere off the beaten path.  At times, like most tourist destinations in China, the sheer amount of people can spoil the experience.   Much of the wall that is accessible to tourism has been rebuilt in the last 30-60 years and is under constant repair in those rebuilt sections in order to keep people safe when walking on it.  They say that the repairs last a fraction of the time that the original wall did.

Where we visited, the rebuilt section was about two miles long.  We were able to walk along the wall to the edge of the rebuilt section and then continue along to a tower that has crumbled.   It was nice to see both aspects.  Here were some of my observations:

- The wall was taller than I thought.

- Built initially to prevent attacks from the Mongolians the wall was most valuable as a means of transportation and communication.  It acted like an early highway for transport.  The watch towers would use smoke and fire signals to pass messages regarding any movement by the enemy.

-The wall is far from a single long wall.  There were a lot more branches than I realized.  In the section we visited the wall would branch off along jointed ridges and run for a mile before ending.  This may have been to improve the line of sight but I'm not sure.

-The wall was really steep in sections.  I really pity any creature that had to be the workforce for that highway transport system that I mentioned earlier.

We were lucky to have sunny skies despite the blistering cold.

Bri's watching her step on fallen watch tower rubble.

Brooke and Bri took pictures of each other while taking a break to catch our breath before climbing a steep section.

Words of Wisdom from Ayi

A few weeks ago I misplaced my wedding ring.  Its a long story that is not worth telling but there were a few funny parts that went along with the story.  Bri thought it would be a good idea to tell our ayi that the ring was lost.  This way she could keep an eye out for it when vacuuming and doing laundry.  Somehow this was lost in translation and ayi was very confused.  At first she acted as if she had been accused by the translator on the phone.  The translator stated that she had not accused, only informed her and asked her to be looking for it around the apartment.  After trying to clarify ourselves through the translator Bri and I left for dinner. Upon returning we found an entertaining and helpful letter from ayi.  Here is the translation by one of our friend's who teaches Chinese:

Teacher

Your ring is missing.  You said the ring was missing last Tuesday.  Due to holiday I was not working all last week and you were on vacation so I think you lost the ring outside of the house or inside the house.  Either way, I think only Jesus knows.

You should remember to put valuables in their proper place

God Bless You

Ms Yu

Beijing Part 1 "The duck"

About a month ago we travelled to Beijing with Bri's cousin Brooke.  It was a nice three day weekend.  Just about the right amount of a time for a visit to the capital city.  We had time to visit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, eat some Peking Duck and spend time at the Great Wall.  Here's some of the pictures from the first day of our trip.

We started the day on Tiananmen Square which is the largest public square in the world.  Its always fun to visit a place that is so historic.  It was freezing cold and windy that day but it was sunny.  We were so thankful for the blue skies as Beijing has notoriously "foggy" air.  At least that is how it was explained to us the second day by our tour guide.  Luckily when we entered the Forbidden City we were much more sheltered from the wind.  It wasn't near as cold thanks to the sun beaming down on us.

The Forbidden City was really neat.  It was hard to process a lot of the facts regarding its history.  They say over a million people helped build it.  It was held for nearly 500 years as the home of the emperor and center of the Chinese government.  I just couldn't get it through my head that the Forbidden city had been held as the capital for twice as long at our country has been established.  We spent a few hours hitting the highlights and wandering through one of the side sections where the emperor would keep his concubines.  The audio tour I purchased was informative and interesting to a history buff.

I'm wandering the narrow alleys between the hall of wisdom, hall of virtue, hall of honesty etc.  This is where the wives and concubines resided.  

One of the ceremonial halls of the emperor.  These were constantly threatened by fire due to the wood construction and fireworks and lantern festivals.

This is the massive public square inside the Forbidden City.  Here the emperor would great the military or host grand feasts.

The chinese tourists are known for their photographic extreme agility when it comes to capturing the perfect image.

After the Forbidden City it was time to warm up with some Peking Duck.  The famous fire roasted duck that is the most famous dish from Beijing.  We found ourselves a little hole in the wall with a good reputation.

Just a little hole in the wall place with a great reputation.

The cozy dining area in a covered courtyard.

The pit was wood fueled and the pole on the right was used to hang the ducks on hooks in the pit.  Then they'd move them around for even roasting.  Unfortunately we didn't catch them in action roasting any ducks.  They had just finished roasting ours when I took this picture.

The cook is carving our duck.

Brooke refused to leave without trying the restaurants second most famous dish.  The ducks feet in mustard sauce.  She tried one, I tried two, that was enough. 

Our feast, which was a package deal came with a whole duck and all sorts of sides.  Traditionally you eat the duck in the small "pancake/tortillas" wrapped with cucumber, green onion and a sauce.

That was our first day in Beijing.  The next day was the Great Wall.  More to follow.

Highlights of 2012

For Matt's Valentine's day present I made him this slide show highlighting some of the amazing things that we were able to be a part of in 2012. Unfortunately it is not in chronological order and I left out so much of Thailand, but you will get the idea.

http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d4028681kP180366034o2/matt-happy-v-day-in-memory-of-2012

What a year it was!  China, Vietnam, Philippines, San Francisco, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, family wedding, and Thailand.  We live a truly blessed life and looking quickly at a summary of events puts it all into perspective. 

Enjoy!