journal of a wacky expat family
The other night I was in our bathroom getting ready for bed. For whatever reason, Truman was in there with me and, as kids do, was watching me without me realizing it. I was flossing my teeth when he surprised me with a question.
"Is that hair? he asked, referring to my dental floss.
"No" I chuckled, "it's dental floss."
"Eww! That's gross!"
Apparently 35 year olds and 4 year olds have different ideas about what is gross.
[Note: This is one of those half-written blog posts that I never got around to publishing. In this case, from October 2013.] When you travel you are like a dry sponge. As you take in the new sights, sounds, and experiences of your destination, you are slowly wetting that sponge. Different people have different size sponges, but eventually one of two things happens:
Rest assured that the Cooper family will not be moving to Marrakech permanently.
Right now, our sponge is saturated; filled full with Moroccan experiences and it's time to return home to wring it out. The tide has turned and the charm and excitement of many of the new things have worn off and in their place is a longing for our own beds, our own food, and a little routine boredom. Sounds nice, right?
I was discussing with Jess that I think a perfectly planned vacation is when you are ready to go home on your last day. If you want to go home on your first day, that's no good, if you want to stay on your last day, and you can't imagine going back home, that's no good either. When you've vacationed, learned a few things and relaxed some, and are ready to get back to your normal life, that's a vacation well planned!
Well done Jess. Without you, I'd probably never go anywhere, due to the unbelievable hassle of the planning.
[Note: This is one of those half-written blog posts that I never got around to publishing. In this case, from October 2013.] We don't talk often about things like upset stomachs, diarrhea, fever and vomiting. I sounds like the list of symptoms on a medicine box, and frankly, doesn't make for very exciting reading.
On Tuesday, after a few days in Marrakesh, I started having an upset stomach. This is not unusual for me when I eat things that I'm not use to, so I chalked it up to too many carbs and some low quality grub. However, by Wednesday morning I needed to skip breakfast because of the cramping. Simply excellent. I practice quite safe travel hygiene, especially around food, but in the end I got it just the same.
Jess followed me down the path to ruin about 36 hours later. This wasn't like Thailand when I made a bad decision about some Chinese food and that night wound up puking and laying on the bathroom floor in a fevered sweat. No, Morocco was more gentle to us, and we only had to endure stomach cramps, fatigue and constant diarrhea. It definitely could've hit us worse. In this case it slowed us down, made us a little grumpy, and took some of the charm out of our Moroccan experience.
Like crime scene investigators, Jess and I tried to figure out how we got sick and the kids didn't (thankfully). In the end, we zeroed in on the coffee that we were drinking by the carafe-full in the Riad. It wasn't espresso, but Moroccan coffee, and I'm pretty sure they used tap water.
Those bacteria are so sneaky.
So, the queen is a big deal. I implicitly knew that, but it's hard to understand until you start wandering around Windsor (the town built around Windsor Castle). Most things are about the queen. Or the royal family. Or people that used to be queen, or the royal family. I find it incredibly confusing trying to keep everyone and every title straight, but I can see how people get obsessed about it.
Today Yvette drove us to Windsor Castle. The Queen was there at the time (you can tell because the royal flag is flying over the castle if she's in residence). We tried to see her but apparently we weren't on the invite list. Go figure.
The castle itself is incredibly old and quite amazing. We saw St. George's Chapel inside the castle. The Chapel is architecturally amazing and extremely ornate.
We all received headsets to feed us information as we walked through the open parts of the castle. Truman hung in there for several hours before he got bored and just wanted to leave. He spent more than a little while laying on the red carpet of the inside of the castle. :)
After we finished the castle, we needed to change our plans around to accommodate the kids' interest and energy levels. Instead of driving to the zoo, we walked across the street to an old British pub (across the street from the castle) and enjoyed a nice pint of ale and some traditional British food.
So, Yvette and Allen have a full coffee shop in their kitchen. It's like a bed and breakfast combined with a Starbucks. They have an industrial grade espresso machine from Italy, locally sourced freshly rusted beans, a grinder, grounds box, and a large assortment of syrups for flavored lattes. Allen gave me a crash course before he left for Houston. Remember, two 1 oz shots in less than 30 seconds or you're doing it wrong. Respect the espresso machine.
We made it to London! Taking off on Friday night after a long week might not have been the best decision, but we did it anyway to maximize our time in London. Truman, who is still trying to adjust to full days at school (meaning no nap), hit his limit right around the check-in line at the airport. Not so fun, but at least the flight from Madrid to London was short (under two hours!).
Allen picked us up at Gatwick, and we grabbed a few supplies before leaving the airport (diapers, Costa coffee, and snacks) for the ride to Allen and Yvette's house in Ascot. We were in bed by 2:00am and slept like logs.
I've ridden in right-hand drive cars before but that odd feeling never seems to go away. And by 'odd' I mean 'going to hit something at any moment' feeling. Allen says it takes a few months before it feels normal.
We kept our ambitions for Saturday pretty low we walked into Ascot for lunch, played on the trampoline and pool, and enjoyed some wine with dinner. All-in-all, we're saving up energy for some of our bigger London excursions later on. :)
Some interesting news today. We found out (via a school email) that Henry's next "unit of inquiry" at school is called "The Human Body". They will cover fun and exciting topics such as reproduction, conception, organs, and bodily hygiene (boys and girls separately). Jess is of the opinion that 10 year olds are more concerned with Legos and cartoons, and are probably too young to learn this stuff. I agree with her, but then I think that the learning paradigm for kids these days is different than what we are used to. 10 minutes on Wikipedia is probably all they need if they are really interested.
Oh well, we'll see how it goes.
Things that we've been contemplating for several months now are finally coming together. I don't know if that is because we are getting more proficient at living in Spain and being pseudo-Spaniards, or, if it just took a long time and the fruits of our labors are finally coming.
One of those things, is to find a Chinese housekeeper here in Madrid. After a lot of searching, and some very awkward 'interviews', our new Ayi started today. Her name is Fang and she is originally from Shandong, China. She spent 5 hours with us today and I really hope it works out. I'm not getting my hopes up too high right now because we went through three ayis in Beijing before we found Xiao Guo.
Olive and I met Fang at the metro station and we walked together to our house so she would know the way. She's very interested to find a bus that will get her near our house but I am completely incompetent about the Madrid bus system. You would think I would've explored the bussing options back when I was walking 6 miles per day (that was pre-car and pre-bicycle) but I never did.
I'm really excited that having Fang in out lives will allow us to have a little more free time to enjoy our lives here in Spain, by liberating us from the drudgery of using the world's smallest washing machine, and ironing our own clothes. It sounds horrible, I know. These are not real problems, but we are definitely hoping to get more free time.
Today went pretty well and we were able to communicate well enough. Our Chinese is definitely rusty! My old Chinese teacher would've been appalled if she heard me interspersing English words, Spanish words, and the occasional pantomime into Chinese sentences. Fang understood mostly. Her mandarin accent is more similar to the Beijing accent that we're familiar with than some of the other people that we interviewed.
Let's hope it works out!
Two old gently used chandeliers. I will pay you to take these fugly things out of my house Price negotiable. For the true collector.
Sometimes, even Spider-Man has trouble waking up ...
Just got word that Ted and LuAnn have the motorcycle in the custody. Finally! After nearly 1 year of email, phone calls, stressing, and paperwork, it's finally on it's way to Iowa! I imagine it will sit next to my bus in Ted's barn, when they can spend the days talking to each other about their neglectful owner's passion for over-sized, under-powered eclectic foreign vehicles.
Thanks for all the effort Ted and LuAnn!
Update: more pictures I 'borrowed' from Luann's Facebook page.
