D-Day Invasion- "Strange"-ly Imminent!! TRIP REPORT IS UP!!

[TrayRene]

Ok - I have seen enough spiders on the internet today to last me a lifetime!! I am sure I will have nightmares tonight!!

I guess with over 30,000 species of spiders it is not easy to identify them. It could be a jumping spider, but I'm not sure at all. I couldn't find anything that looked quite like the one you saw - especially with four orange legs and four black legs! Oh well - I tried!!

 

[Pollito916]

Wow, what a start to your journey! The kids look like little angels in the pic of them sleeping That spider scares the crap out of me, I am not a fan of spiders. Though that one is kind of cool looking. The bright color makes me think it might be poisonous!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip - the Terminal reference sounds a little scary!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

[/SIZE]

Where's the road?? Were you literally driving over fields?

And where the highway briefly ducks into Kyrgyz territory is always an exciting thing…[/SIZE]

So, how do you pronounce that anyway?

[/SIZE]

Wowza! Think there's any way that thing's not poisonous?!

 

[All7OfUs]

Night sweet lady.

Oops! It's morning again. Getting ready to start installment #2

Sweet dreams; good to have you back.

Thanks, Kathy! I slept well!

Welcome back!

What a trip that must have been. Just getting there was exhausting to read about! I can’t imagine actually going through it. This looks to be a wild ride. I’m just glad you are all safe and sound. Looking forward to more. Now go to bed. You need some rest!

GBs here!!! I came back feeling like I needed 3 days of sleep on what should have been a family vacation. Dude, that was just the windup.

 

[All7OfUs]

Not again! The fun just keeps getting piled on your plate doesn't it. I can't think of anyone I know that deserves this trip to WDW as much as you do!



Let us all know what you come up with! I thought it was a lot bigger too. It quite freaked me out when it popped up on my PC this morning!

yeah, another set of puppies is JUUUUUUUST what I needed. Riiiiiiiiiiight. Idiot dog.

Yes, we will have to deal with the feeding thing- again. 3 times a day of making a stinking concoction of mash, etc... and we will have to see them all go out the door to owners who will chain them up, starve them and make them sleep in the cold. It's rather disgusting.

I looked for a good hour last night, and I agree, I think it may be a jumping spider of some kind. Those were the only ones I could find with some red on them. More on a certain kind of poisonous one we have around here later....

wow, what a trip , i love reading about it dare i say even more than disney trip reports. that is soooo out of my comfort zone. i consider roughing it a motel with outside corridors. and the only country besides the usa i have ever been to is an all inclusive resort in the bahamas. i am such a chicken butt i could never make that trek. looking forward to reading about more

It was an adventure to be sure; one I cannot say I am looking forward to repeating. I am ready for some serious pampering! I think WDW is the PERFECT antidote!! Don't you?!

I CAN rough it if I need to, but don't love it!

I would have gone nuts somewhere along the way during that drive. I don't know if I'm that patient.

It's a miracle I didn't!

speechless.....and that doens't happen very often!

I can't even fathom sleeping in a field along side the road!

Am I correct in guessing that there aren't regular rest areas along the highway?......I will never again complain about the stinky or dirty rest stops in Idaho....

Then, you're a lot like me! Speechlessness is not one of my gifts.

Nope, no rest stops, except a wide spot in the road here and there that the trucks pull off in, and sleep. Fields are better!

You have NO idea about stinky "restrooms"! Some are brimful of well... you get the idea.

 

[All7OfUs]

What an incredible journey so far. My gosh, I'd be envious of those kids to be able to just sleep through it all. I'd be the one (probably like yourself) all worried and uptight if we'd make it. Sounds like a very scary place to plan a road trip. So where are you now? Just so I can keep track of the time zone you're in

I've started a new PTR. Yup, it's official! Come on over when you recover from your journey.

I know! I wish I was 10 pounds lighter so I could still do it. But, I think it's also a ligment thing too. They get stiffer as you get older, maybe.

When a truck is passing in oncoming traffic with (no exaggeration!!!!) inches to spare, I worry- A LOT! Imagine that happening about 50 times in 2,000 miles. I think my heart skipped a few beats along the way.

We are still in KO, the abbreviation of our city, and we are 11 hours different from Central Time Zone.

Ok - I have seen enough spiders on the internet today to last me a lifetime!! I am sure I will have nightmares tonight!!

I guess with over 30,000 species of spiders it is not easy to identify them. It could be a jumping spider, but I'm not sure at all. I couldn't find anything that looked quite like the one you saw - especially with four orange legs and four black legs! Oh well - I tried!!

I looked for a while too. Nothing with an exact match- some that were close, but not super close. I agree, a jumping spider is most likely.

Here's something interesting about one near us...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3857927.stm

You have GOT to read that!! And yes, we have found them in our home.

Wow, what a start to your journey! The kids look like little angels in the pic of them sleeping That spider scares the crap out of me, I am not a fan of spiders. Though that one is kind of cool looking. The bright color makes me think it might be poisonous!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip - the Terminal reference sounds a little scary!

Angels? You are too funny! It's a metamorphosis that happens nightly. In between they are GREAT kids, with their moments.

Me too... I HATE spiders!! I seriously shudder when I see one. Every fall, when the weather changes, these HUGE tannish brown ones come in the house by the droves. My kids love to throw dishtowels at them on the ceiling.

Terminal reference comes a bit later in our travels.

Where's the road?? Were you literally driving over fields?




So, how do you pronounce that anyway?




Wowza! Think there's any way that thing's not poisonous?!

No, there was a "road" of sorts. Potholes, washboard, and buckled pavement is the norm.

There are several ways to pronounce Keer-gi-ston. The way it's pronounced here is: Kurr-gi- ston. NOT STAN with a short "a". In fact, NONE of the Stans have a short a in them. Pakistan and Afghanistan included.

I think it very well COULD poisonous!! I'm not too eager to find out!

 

[Flossbolna]

Good morning Liesa, sounds like you got some rest tonight!

I don't like all this talk about poisonous spiders - and the promise of there even to be more!! While I don't mind spiders as such. Anything with poison will not be my friend!

That is interesting about the "o" instead of "a" in the stans. We actually say a long "a" in German, so that is totally wrong. I am still confused why that country has different names though. Now I even came across a third one, we have Kirgistan, Kirgisistan and Kirgisien.

 

[All7OfUs]

Arriving in the nick of time is NOT my style!! I HATE to be late- to ANYTHING. But, in this case, it actually worked out well. I mean who really wants to sit through a long awards ceremony in which you know none of the kids who are getting awards?? We did miss a final blessing on the seniors though, and a nice mom of one of the other kids stood proxy for us. Each senior was given a parting gift from the school which was a nice gesture. Remember those hats I sent to you, Glenn, Rosie and Carissa?? Yeah, they each got one of those.

We arrived just in time to hear the last song, and the prayer over the picnic meal that followed. Yes!!!! FOOD!! If you remember from Pt. 1, we hadn’t eaten dinner the night before, nor breakfast OR lunch today. We were beyond famished and we needed a lot of food. Thankfully, Andrew’s house mom packed a beautiful meal of soft tacos (we can’t get hard corn shells here) and veggies and dip. It was perfect and VERY appreciated; as were the homemade desserts that we stuffed ourselves on afterwards!!

Here’s a pic of Andrew with his family AFTER the picnic, when we drove over to pick up his bags, and say their last good-byes. Yeah, THAT was hard!

While the adults did their usual yacking, the kids did a lot of this:

After a fair amount of yacking, we simply could not keep our eyes open any longer. It was time to head to our friends’ house, where we planned to spend the next 3 nights. It was a good plan. The wife was in London visiting her sister, and the dad was bachin’ it with their 3 kids. We knew it’d be a wee bit stressful for him to have to host guests while his wife was gone, so we tried to keep a low profile and out of the way. It was a good plan. We planned to eat out or at other friends’ homes, as we had gotten a few invitations, which was also a good plan.

The next day was THE day. The day every parent waits for. A day to celebrate the wonderful accomplishment a student makes when they do all that the system says they should. It was a day I will never forget- a beautiful expression of who the 12 kids were that were graduating on June 10, 2010 from the school that is about as far away from their home culture as they can get- except for the 4 S. Korean students who were in his class.

And true to the theme of our entire 2 weeks away, there was DRAMA! And true to my DISer heart, I was thinking to myself how interesting this was going to be for all of you!!

The seniors marched in one by one, with a rose in hand. In turn they presented them to their moms before ascending the stage. I think that’s about when I lost it for the next 2 hours. It was a blubber-fest as never seen before. It was so bad that I gladly accepted my hubby’s hanky which was already ummm…, soiled with allergy stuff. I didn’t care. The tears of joy and 19 years of memories HAD to go somewhere! How could my baby boy who spent his first month in a NICU unit of the hospital be graduating??! This little boy who had his first airplane ride on an air ambulance from Medford to Portland- how could it be that he is growing a mustache and wears his tassel on the left side; my firstborn son whose first words were Mommy, Daddy and poopoo.

I won’t give you a blow by blow account of the entire ceremony, but let me recount 2 highlights.
The senior speaker did a very interesting lead in to his message. He called out various stats and categories that fit the 12 seniors. It went something like this:

In this group of 12 young adults, there are 7 languages spoken (if you’re interested, here they are: Kazakh, Uighur, Korean, English, Russian, Chinese and Cajun).

One of us is a National Merit Scholar: 1 stood up

Some of us had LDs to overcome: 4 stood up

Some of us have lived in at least 2 other countries in our lives: All of them stood up

Some of us have lived away from our parents for the last years of high school: 1 stood up

Some of us were homeshcooled most of our lives: 4 stood up

Our class SAT average was 1850

You get the idea....

Another memory that EVERYONE there will NEVER forget, was just as the diplomas were starting to be passed out, one of the KIDS PASSED OUT!!! WHAM! Down he went, right onto the kid next to him. Andrew had already received his, as had 2 others, before the principal noticed what was going on. The school nurse rushed up on stage, asked someone to bring her some Coke right away, and a couple of his fellow students buddy-carried him off stage. The seniors, as a group, asked if they could start over, so Jeff could see the whole thing. LOL! So technically, Andrew received his diploma twice. Just so you don’t worry too much, he was fine. The poor kid stood up, locked his knees, hadn’t eaten all day, it was REALLY hot, and down he went. In the end, the whole scene made for some awesome Trip Reporting.

I’ll spare you the 40 pictures (all bad) I took, and give you just a few. These were my favorites:

The receiving line and picture session that followed were fun, yet bittersweet for us. Many of those there, who were not going to the party afterwards, we will likely never see again. Some we’ve known for more than 10 years, and offered comfort on those especially hard days. We will really miss their camaraderie in the years to come.

One Small Steppe for (a) Man… Continued in the next post…

 

[All7OfUs]

Having finished up getting the kids to throw their mortarboards in the air- at the SAME time, and watching them successfully jump off the steps without breaking their necks, we all took off for the party house. The girls and I had spent the morning over there before graduation decorating the yard with the other seniors’ moms and dads, and when we all arrived it looked festive and fabulous! Streamers were all over the place, balloons, confetti, tables with the school colors, you name it!! My personal favorite thing? A grassy yard to sink my feet into. Grass doesn’t grow where we live, so it’s always a treat!

WDW vs. Graduation in Central Asia: They both have balloons. But at WDW they cost $10.

Here’s a couple of shots of the huge yard that the grad bash was held in:

The party didn’t actually start until 8:00, so we had a bit of time to stop and pick up the drinks and salad we were supposed to bring. Thank goodness for pre-made Korean salads!! One of the dads was asked to make his famous Jambalaya for dinner- which ended up not being done until 10:00!!! To say we were hungry would be a bit of an understatement., but at 10:00 we all dove in and filled up on spicy, well-flavored rice.

After we all had eaten and yacked some more, it was time for some open mike and a slide show of the seniors. 3 of them are amazing guitar player/ singer/ song writers, so we were all treated to some original music that was written and performed just for graduation. Most of the songs focused on memories and friends and God’s love and provision over the years. Tears flowed freely once again- no one was ashamed.

WDW vs. Graduating in Central Asia: Tears likely at BOTH places.

Anyway, I wanted to share a funny contrast of a couple of the things we were treated to on graduation day. Here’s something that one of the students performed during the ceremony- You can probably all guess that she’s going to major in music, specifically conducting.

WDW vs. Graduation: Top notch entertainment in both places.



Later, at the party, this was more the mood- I wished I had gotten the whole thing, because it was HILARIOUS!! (The entire book of Fox in Socks recited almost by memory- in case you can’t hear it very well- rap-style)



I have no idea why they made a big deal about cutting their cake- you’d think it was a wedding or something:

And lastly, my favorite part of the whole evening was the Mother/Son- Father/Daughter Dance!!

WDW vs. Graduation in Central Asia: NO KIDS- I’ll say it again, NO KIDS!!

I won’t get to do this again until who knows when:

You didn’t think we were all done with drama did you?

The party wrapped up, my daughter weeped (no sobbed) all the way home because she had to say some very painful good-byes, and just as we got about ½ mile from our host’s home, the gauges in the car went completely bonkers! I mean there were more lights flashing on the dash than Saturday Night Fever’s Disco! Engine, speedometer, tachometer, and whateverelseometer- all of them completely whacked out. We coasted into the driveway, and all we could do was throw up our hands and go to bed. Whatever it was would have to wait til morning.

 

[Flossbolna]

I was patient and did wait for the second part! What a lovely party!

For how long did Andrew attend this school, just the last year or for longer? The other kids are being homeschooled so far, aren't they? Have any of them ever attended a real school? And will they once you get back to the US? Homeschooling isn't an option here in Germany at all. All kids must attend a formal school, so this is always something interesting to me, because it's differnt from what we are used to.

I am glad that there are even things which Blankistan does better than WDW (balloon prices!) and one which can go both ways (kids).

 

[All7OfUs]

I was patient and did wait for the second part! What a lovely party!

For how long did Andrew attend this school, just the last year or for longer? The other kids are being homeschooled so far, aren't they? Have any of them ever attended a real school? And will they once you get back to the US? Homeschooling isn't an option here in Germany at all. All kids must attend a formal school, so this is always something interesting to me, because it's differnt from what we are used to.

I am glad that there are even things which Blankistan does better than WDW (balloon prices!) and one which can go both ways (kids).

HA! I saw you online earlier, and figured you were waiting. It was a lovely, very emotional (dare I say, cathartic) party.

Andrew went there for his last 2 years (Junior and Senior years). He made some very deep friendships and grew and matured in a myriad of ways he probably never would have here.

All the kids went to "national" school for the year we arrived, mostly to learn the language, which they did- but nothing else. (Hence, he was a 19 1/2 year old graduate). All the rest of the kids' years were homeschooled.

Honestly, we are in deep angst over what to do for the girls next year. There are so many options and none are the clear answer for them yet. To throw them into public school would be too big of a shock we feel, so there are co-op options, homeschool, charter school (don't know much about these yet), and community college choices. We have to do a lot more fact finding before we can say for sure what they'll be doing.

We have acquaintences living in Germany, and I remember them not being able to homeschool. They were totally fine with the German system though, so they weren't put off by it. In the States it's something that has been fought for long and hard, and the scores show that it does indeed work. (in most cases)

Admittedly, the balloons at WDW ARE shaped liked Mickeys.

 

[jenb1023]

Just dropping by to say good morning! Even though I knew a lot of what was coming, your mini-TR still makes me say wow. It looks like a wonderful graduation and party. How are the kids doing now with all of the goodbyes that have happened and will continue to happen?

 

[glennbo123]

Wow, what a whirlwind of drama and emotions for you. I do recognize the hats!

What a perfectly appropriate title for a graduation installment!

 

[All7OfUs]

Just dropping by to say good morning! Even though I knew a lot of what was coming, your mini-TR still makes me say wow. It looks like a wonderful graduation and party. How are the kids doing now with all of the goodbyes that have happened and will continue to happen?

Good morning!! LOL! Just finished our dinner of bean and potato burritos. Mmmm!!!

It was a great party full of BIG fun!

It will easier for them to say goodbye to their local friends, as they've never really "gone deep" with any of them. Sad, but not quite as much. I think the oldest 2 who are back in the States, are focusing on hellos. They've a lot to learn!!!

 

[All7OfUs]

Wow, what a whirlwind of drama and emotions for you. I do recognize the hats!

What a perfectly appropriate title for a graduation installment!

I am now VERY sure it was TOO much drama...

I thought you might like that title. (Thanks! once again!)

 

[maroo]

Wow. What an incredible day! No wonder you are exhausted! Just emotionally, I would imagine - nevermind not sleeping and eating.

Would it be strange to say that it seems interesting to me how "normal" everything looks in the pictures. The parties, etc - all look like you are over here in the States. And you were in a war zone. Very juxtaposed, I guess.

Oh my gosh, the CAR!

I can't wait to see how similar our trip is to this one. We will have to buy a balloon.

 

[All7OfUs]

Wow. What an incredible day! No wonder you are exhausted! Just emotionally, I would imagine - nevermind not sleeping and eating.

Would it be strange to say that it seems interesting to me how "normal" everything looks in the pictures. The parties, etc - all look like you are over here in the States. And you were in a war zone. Very juxtaposed, I guess.

Oh my gosh, the CAR!

I can't wait to see how similar our trip is to this one. We will have to buy a balloon.

Good Lord! I hope it's NOTHING LIKE THIS TRIP!!! In almost EVERY WAY!

I think to sum it all up (the whole trip), it was a few shining golden nuggets nestled in a load of pucky. Greaduation was definitely one of the highlights of my whole life.

Graduation and the party were in Blankistan- BEFORE we crossed into Chaostan. In fact, The Big City is one of the most expensive to live in, in the ENTIRE world. I heard not long ago that it had surpassed Tokyo in most expensive places to live. Glad we're in Podunk City sometimes!!

Things are very green and somewhat similar to the States. We can affirm that the difference between where we live and The Big City is far larger than say Portland, OR and The Big City.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Sounds like it was a really lovely, intimate graduation ceremony.

Oh boy with the car troubles.

 

[All7OfUs]

Sounds like it was a really lovely, intimate graduation ceremony.

Oh boy with the car troubles.

Good Morning, Leslie! I forgot to ask the other day on your thread how your classes are going. Everything going well??

 

[If U Had Wings]

It sounds like a wonderful day for all the aggravation getting there. Just beautiful!