Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Vanuatu...
Alex and I received our tickets to Vanuatu. We leave for L.A. on September 10th, spend a day (the 11th) in training and fly at 9:30pm (on the 11th). We have a 3-hour layover in New Zealand and then a 3 1/2 hour flight to Vanuatu.
We're excited about it all. The plane tickets make it feel more real. We've still have a few more items to purchase/find and plenty more friends to visit and then we're off to our island.
We find ourselves spending a lot of time reading about Vanuatu on the Internet. I've made up some index study/flash cards with vocabulary words for the new language. We'll spend ten weeks in language training. The language we'll be learning is bislama. It's a pidgin English. 95% of the words are of english orgin, so, in theory, it should be a relatively easier language to learn.
We're excited about it all. The plane tickets make it feel more real. We've still have a few more items to purchase/find and plenty more friends to visit and then we're off to our island.
We find ourselves spending a lot of time reading about Vanuatu on the Internet. I've made up some index study/flash cards with vocabulary words for the new language. We'll spend ten weeks in language training. The language we'll be learning is bislama. It's a pidgin English. 95% of the words are of english orgin, so, in theory, it should be a relatively easier language to learn.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
saying goodbye and shopping
We said goodbye to my parents, I will be 35 and sun-tanned next time I see them. Before returning to America a month ago, I was super-excited (more so than one may expect) to see my parents. Saying goodbye to my parents a few days ago was much sadder than I had anticipated as well. My dad told me to make sure "neither of you do anything stupid" and mom gave us a packet of pepto-bismol.
I act much more like a bratty 13-year-old during visits to my childhood home. There's something about being around one's parents that always makes me act in such a way. Alex acts that same way around her parent's too, so I guess maybe it's kind of normal.(?)
We've spent the better part of the last two days shopping. $425 later we have almost everything we need for two years on a South Pacific island. We bought flip-flops, the thinnest t-shirts we could find, long skirts for Alex and rain covers for our backpacks - very different than shopping for Antarctica.
I act much more like a bratty 13-year-old during visits to my childhood home. There's something about being around one's parents that always makes me act in such a way. Alex acts that same way around her parent's too, so I guess maybe it's kind of normal.(?)
We've spent the better part of the last two days shopping. $425 later we have almost everything we need for two years on a South Pacific island. We bought flip-flops, the thinnest t-shirts we could find, long skirts for Alex and rain covers for our backpacks - very different than shopping for Antarctica.
Monday, August 3, 2009
packing....
Alex and I are at the village library in Rockford, OH. Checking emails and such things. Alex is on facebook and I figured it's been a while since we've blogged.
During the past 3 1/2 weeks we have hosted a garage sale, attended a mostly-amish company's picnic, spent hours playing with our neice, toured Detroit, listened to rainbow relaxation tapes, sold quail at a flea market, toured an industrial chicken barn, went shopping for island clothes in Ann Arbor (Michigan), watched relay go-cart races, walked a 5K run, harvested blueberries, drank beer and talked politics with a priest, ate a lot of ice cream, painted a bench and began learning a new language.
There's something special about immersing oneself into another's life. Something really special.
We fly to D.C. tomorrow.
During the past 3 1/2 weeks we have hosted a garage sale, attended a mostly-amish company's picnic, spent hours playing with our neice, toured Detroit, listened to rainbow relaxation tapes, sold quail at a flea market, toured an industrial chicken barn, went shopping for island clothes in Ann Arbor (Michigan), watched relay go-cart races, walked a 5K run, harvested blueberries, drank beer and talked politics with a priest, ate a lot of ice cream, painted a bench and began learning a new language.
There's something special about immersing oneself into another's life. Something really special.
We fly to D.C. tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)