Overseas Telegram

Here’s an update on my big summer adventures.  Childcare is arranged (for the most part), clothing is purchased (for the most part), and Chinese Visa is in hand (well, on top of the entertainment center if you want to get technical about it).   My teacher profile is up at www.culturalexploration.org if you want to check it out.

 

From what I’ve received so far about my itinerary, here’s the first part of my trip:

• depart Seattle July 21st – 12 hour flight into Taipei, Taiwan.  Then, hop on another three hour flight from Taipei to Beijing.
• In Beijing, we’ll get to visit Tian’anmen Square, the Forbidden City,  the Temple of Heaven, part of the Great Wall, the Sacred Way, the Ming Tomb, and the Olympic National Stadium (Bird’s Nest).  Additionally we’ll enjoy an Acrobatic show and a specialty Duck Dinner.  Before leaving for Xian, we’ll visit the Summer Palace and see the giant pandas in the Beijing Zoo.
• After arriving in Xian, we’ll visit the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, the Big Wild Good Pagoda, the ancient City Wall, the Great Mosque, and the Hanyangling Museum and Mausoleum of Western Han Emperor Liu Qi.  In the evenings we’ll see the Tang Dynasty Music and Dance show, have a Dumpling Banquet Dinner, and shop the Muslim Bazaar.
• Then it’s off to Shanghai.  We’ll see the Shanghai Museum, Yuyuan Garden and the Bund and visit parts of the World Expo.
• After Shanghai it’s off to Hong Kong and then Taipei – but I don’t have details for that part of the trip just yet.

 

No doubt, if you are like me when looking at this itinerary you think, A. I’m already tired just thinking about it and B. exciting! 

 

So, what do I have left to do for this trip?  There’s an orientation meeting on June 28th where I get to see the entire itinerary and talk with teachers who went on the trip last year.  I still need some travel items, but am feeling pretty well set overall.  Before July 21st I have a few things to do – four days AP training in Bellevue, six days AVID training in Sacramento, three days at Pacific Beach with my family……I’m going to go take some Tylenol now.

Hurry Up and Wait

Oh dear.  Didn’t post anything about Camden’s 5th birthday.  So, here’s a little catch up post and then onto more recent things with a new one. 

So, at the beginning of the month was Easter.  We didn’t plan to all wear blue – just worked out, I guess.  The kids got balloons at Sunday School and we had a fun day, just the four of us.

Then came Camden’s 5th birthday.  First, the obligatory cupcakes for preschool.  Matt and the kids decorated them.

For Camden’s birthday, he chose to go to the Museum of Flight together.  We really lucked out because both Grandma and Grandpa Cochran AND Uncle Mark, cousin Maggie, and cousin Courtney came along.  They had fun running amok, but mostly enjoyed going up and down the glass elevator.

At one point, three of them were sprawled out on the floor and a nice lady walked by and said, “oh look, they’re all tired out”.  Um…yeah, right.

After the Museum we came home to enjoy Camden’s race track cake and open presents.  This is an easy cake to make and was extra easy because he wanted the same one last year so I had done it before.

Later in the month, Matt had a day off work and took the kids to Point Defiance Zoo.  They spent the majority of their time in the kids play area and had a very good day while I slaved away at an all day teacher in-service (gah).

Thank You Mom

There's a poem I think about every year when Mother's Day rolls around. I am thankful for my mom and my mother-in-law for raising me and my husband to become the people we are today. They raised imperfect and goofy people, but good people who love God and who are now trying to pass along that love to our two children. It is true that "you can never repay your mother" and while the gifts and flowers are nice, I think mothers just want to know their children understand the sacrifices they make and appreciate all the hard work that goes into raising them. Now that I'm a mother I certainly do understand and hope that both of my mothers know how much we love and appreciate them.


The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Gotta Travel On

A few people have been curious about this China trip I've been talking about. There's an organization called the Cultural Expoloration of Greater China (culturalexploration.org) that raises money each year to send Seattle area teachers to China during the summer. The teachers can then use their experience in China and integrate it into their classrooms. By seeking teacher who are able to best able to integrate the information in this way (I happen to teach a curriculum for 10th grade that focuses on world cultures and definitely can include more about China) they hope to provide a current world view of China in today's classrooms. The trip expenses are covered by the organization - travel, lodging, tour fees, etc. and the entire trip itinerary is organized by this group. I don't know too many specifics about where exactly we're going yet but the general itinerary states that we'll have ten days in mainland China, two days in Hong Kong, and four days in Taipei. In previous years they have explored the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tianamen Square, as well as the Terra Cotta Warriros. In Taipei, they've visited Chinese schools and met with current Chinese teachers and students to compare educational systems.

They have an application and interview process. I applied in February, was interviewed in March and heard at the end of March from my references that they had been contacted to provide a reference for me. Then, this week I received an email offering me a spot on this year's trip, to which I obviously said a big, fat "YES!". They are only sending four teachers from the greater Seattle area so to be chosen is a huge honor and I am THANKFUL. To anyone who is skeptical of the organization in any way, another Federal Way teacher went last year and made it back alive with lots of good stories to tell.

The next steps involve writing an article about myself to be published on the culturalexploration website and meeting with the team in May to go over important trip information such as the nitty gritty of overseas travel (getting a visa, flu shot information). Thankfully, my passport is still going to be valid so that's one thing out of the way already. The trip itself will be 16 days, beginning in July and ending in early August. I'm going to be on the hunt for affordable, comfortable, and easily hand washable travel clothing as well as a new water bottle that doesn't leak and...well, let's face it, probably a lot of other things that I'll think up along the way. Send your travel tips my way, please......