Dec 16-20 Am I dreaming?

I grew up in a small town in Alabama. My parents owned a gas station / convenience store and worked very hard 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We never went on vacation, and only rarely would we be able to make a trip to Tennessee to see relatives. I rode on an airplane for the first time as a junior in college when P&G flew me to Orlando for a job interview. Going to Australia was a dream - a fantasy. Phillip and I have been very fortunate to be able to take our family on vacation throughout the last 14 years. Our favorite vacation destination is Disney World (where we have gone 6 times!). We have also gone to Outer Banks, NC and to South Carolina to visit friends (and Alabama, Tennesee, Missouri to see family). So, we have not ventured very far from our Cincinnati home. With the move to Japan, we have been given an amazing opportunity to see parts of the world that I thought would never be possible. So, as I sit on the balcony of our vacation apartment in Palm Cove, Australia, overlooking the ocean, I keep thinking ... "Am I dreaming?" I want to share part of my dream over the next few blogs.

We started our journey on Thursday, December 16. We got to the Osaka airport to find that our JetStar flight had been canceled. We had been re-routed on a flight that would get us to Sydney about 2 hours later than anticipated. JetStar is interesting. You get one small water for international trips and nothing for domestic. You have to buy water, soda, snacks, even blankets! We learned about this before we left, so we brought our own.

We arrived in Sydney on Friday, Dec 17, at about 1:30pm. A car took us to our hotel by Circular Quay. We freshened up a bit and went over to the Sydney Opera House where we did the essentials tour. Pretty amazing architecture. This originally planned 2 year project turned into a 14 year project. We saw the theaters, learned about the history, and got to experience a rehearsal. Even the kids liked it! We enjoyed the beautiful evening along with many folks who sat outside along the harbor, sharing drinks and dinner.

Jacob, Matthew, and Jessica at the Sydney Opera House

On Saturday, we took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo. Upon arrival we took a sky rail up to the top and the walked our way back down. This could possibly be the best view of Sydney, and it was certainly a wonderful animal experience. There were koalas, red pandas, tigers, etc, but the best part was walking through the kangaroo walk-a-bout where we were able to pet those cute little roos.  After we returned to the Quay we walked across the Harbor Bridge. Wow. It was breathtaking. 

Koala

Yikes!

We loved the kangaroos.

Red Panda

View of Sydney from the Taronga Zoo

View of Opera House from the Harbor Bridge

Harbor Bridge

We closed out our evening with even more breathtaking views atop our hotel. We just stood there together in awe. Jacob and I both broke into tears as the reality of where we were sunk in. We talked about how very blessed we are to have good health, safety, family, friends, and the opportunity to have these experiences together. Matthew saw a bright star and told us that he was sure it was Grandpa smiling down on us. :) This time together - just talking, with our arms around each other, and looking at the beautiful Sydney harbor - is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. It was fitting that my favorite movie "It's a Wonderful Life" was on TV when we returned to our rooms.

On Sunday, we spent some time walking around “The Rocks”, eating pancakes and shopping at the weekend Farmers’ Market. We then took a bus to famous Bondi Beach. It was a bit chilly but this did not stop the Maloney kids (including Phillip) from playing in the ocean. The beach and surrounding shopping area were both lovely. We took a bus ride back in the pouring rain. The rain slowed down a bit, so we walked into the garden where thousands of fruit bats fly around each night. Totally weird. We then took a ferry to the other very famous beach in Sydney - Manly. We just looked around a bit, grabbed dinner, and took the ferry back to the hotel.

On Monday, we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens. We got to see those fruit bats hanging upside down in the trees. Some of them flew around. We took lots of pictures. Their heads are so big that they look like little "fox" heads. The Botanical Garden was full of lots of beautiful vegetation. As well, the path led around the Sydney Harbor where many people were walking and running. We went to Macquarie's Point where the former Governor's wife would sit and look at the harbor. It is one of the very best places to take pictures as you can get the opera house and the harbor bridge in the same photo. It was very windy, and one of the local weathermen was there doing his broadcast. He filmed Grandma taking our picture, balancing herself in the wind. Then, he came over and talked to our whole family. We had to fly out that afternoon, so we don't know if we made the evening news or not!

Thousands of fruit bats in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Macquarie's Point

I found Sydney to be every bit as beautiful as I had seen in pictures and on TV. However, the picture I will now hold in my heart is the view of the harbor from atop the Intercontinental Hotel, and the feelings of love and appreciation that go along with it.

Peace and Love from Australia,

Tina

Dec 3 - Grandma is here!

Grandma Maloney was scheduled to arrive on Friday, November 19. However, her flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was a bit late, and she missed her Seattle connection. Delta sent her to Honolulu for the night to fly to Osaka the following day. Honolulu is great, but not when you are alone, tired, and do not have time to enjoy! She made the flight on Saturday and arrived in Osaka. Phillip met her at the airport, and they took the 57 minute bus ride to the Sheraton on Rokko Island, about a block or so from our apartment building. The kids and I met her there with welcome signs and lots of big hugs!

There was no rest for the weary as Matthew had a rugby tournament on Sunday. His team finished third. He scored 1 try and played amazing defense, including a game saving tackle! :) Grandma was very proud. I told him after the game that I am proud of his play, but I am more proud of his courage. I am not sure I have ever told him that before. But, once again, as I looked out at about 400+ kids ages 6-12, and saw this single blond head, I was very touched by his courage and drive to go out there and play as the only American (English-speaking) kid. This certainly must build character and confidence. He has one more tournament on December 5. Then, we are done until he moves to Grade 5 team on April 1. The team season is coordinated with the Japanese school fiscal year which starts in April. All of his teammates will start grade 5 then, so he will move up with them.

Find the blond head.

Grandma got to see Jacob as Dracula in the middle school play "Drac's Back". He was very charming as Dracula :). She also saw Jacob play basketball and sing in the choir's winter concert. She saw Matthew and Jessica play soccer, and next week she will see Jessica sing in her winter concert. The kids LOVE having Grandma here. Jessica took a picture of Grandma dressed in yukata (summer kimono) and submitted for a Japanese photo contest! :)

Jackie and I took a trip to Chinatown, Meriken Park, the Kobe Tower, and Harbor Land. The highlight of this trip was enjoying a drink while sitting in the revolving cafe at the top of the Kobe tower, overlooking the ocean and Kobe ... just beautiful. We also enjoyed the Brazilian Restaurant and ate more meat than we have consumed in weeks! Delicious! Last Sunday, the kids and I took Grandma to the Oji Zoo, one of our favorite places here. The Giant Panda was sleeping, but the kangaroos, tigers, lions, jaguars, and elephants did not disappoint. Jackie and I also went to Kyoto, the capital of Japan. The Kyoto train station alone is amazing enough to make the journey, but we visited temples and the Kyoto Tower. This is such a lovely time of year with the multi-colored leaves. This was just beautiful. And... We made this trip without getting lost one single time!

Kyoto

Kyoto

Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Train Station

Oji Zoo

I forgot to mention that we bought Grandma a Japanese bicycle. It has a basket, bell, light, fenders, reflectors, and a built-in lock. Truly Japanese. We ride our bikes a lot to get to Canadian Academy for school activities, performances, and sports. It has really been fun.

We celebrated Matthew's 10th birthday on November 23. He got a rugby ball and a new soccer ball. Does this surprise anyone? We also celebrated Thanksgiving with about 12 American couples and 1 Australian couple last Saturday. We had turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie,... just terrific. It was as close to home as we could get. We definitely miss our family and friends back home, but we are blessed to have found terrific friends here.

Happy 10th birthday Matthew!

This weekend? 60 degrees and sunny. Soccer, basketball, and rugby. Fun.

Peace and Love,

Tina

Nov 18 - update and random thoughts

It is hard to believe that we have been in Japan for almost 4 months. I have grown accustomed to everything being in a different language. I tend to use a bad version of Japanese words and use my arms and body as if I were playing charades. I can ask the right questions, but it is very hard to follow the answer! I went to the post office yesterday. I was able show her the envelope, and well, she had to show me how much I owed by typing it on a calculator. Common here, I guess. I know just enough Japanese to be polite and to get myself to the toilet. "Toire, doko desu ka?" Hey, first things first!

Shin Kobe

Our family went along with some friends (the McCrearys) to Shin Kobe Ropeway and Kobe Nunobiki Herb Park. We took a bus about 30 minutes to Shin Kobe where we rode on a ropeway (cable car) up into the mountain. The view was gorgeous, overlooking cities and ocean, and the leaves in yellow, orange, and red. We got to the top and walked around to see the herb garden. The brochure says "a pleasant place and time with herbs". OK, I laughed too. Flowers, herbs, spices ... maybe not up my alley, but still very cool. We hiked down the mountain along a waterfall. Really beautiful, but lots of huge spiders!

School and child update

The Canadian Academy has a very cool part of their program called reflection. The idea is that kids reflect on what has gone well and where their opportunities are so that they can continue to improve. The children do this weekly in many classes. In its simplest form, Jessica does a reflection in first grade every Friday. She writes: one thing I did well this week, one time I took a risk, one thing that was hard for me this week, and one way I was helpful to others. Then, a parent writes one observation from the week. Another example is in 7th grade, Jacob writes a reflection each week on how his project team has done - what were their goals, did they accomplish them, what went well, what didn't go so well, what their goals are for the next week. I think this is a very cool concept. Imagine if we all learned from our successes and failures each week!

Jessica is doing great. Even her brothers say, "Wow. Jessica is a great reader!" She is playing Saturday soccer and starts street Jazz next week. Jessica lost a tooth on Nov 1. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy that said, "Dear Tooth Fairy. I am English. It is my 3rd tooth I lost. How much money will you give me? Love Jessica.  (also signed in Japanese). My tooth is in this (with an arrow and a picture of the little bag), but it might slip." The tooth fairy does indeed come to Kobe, Japan and pays in Japanese Yen! She went through a growth spurt a couple months ago. Her jaw grew and her teeth now have gaps. Seriously. One morning, Matthew said "Jessica's teeth look different." It really happened that fast!  Her top left front tooth is so loose, but she does not want to pull it. She does not want to "have a gap and talk funny". Jessica enjoyed her 7th birthday with three friends - making pizza, doing nails, and having a sleepover.

Lily, Jessica, Laura, Alex

Kailey helped with nails.

Happy 7th birthday Jessica!

Matthew loves his teacher. He says that he is best teacher ever. He is doing very well and continues to really excel in math. He plays Saturday soccer, Thursday flag football, and rugby. He starts baseball next week. Matthew's rugby team has made it to the semi-finals of their end of year tournament. They play 2 games on Sunday - semi finals, and finals (hopefully) or consolation game. (See youtube video Matthew rugby 2010 for a few highlights from their first tourney of the fall. The link is also on my facebook page.) Good luck Matto!

Jacob is also doing very well in school. He continues to love math as his favorite subject. He starts on the middle school basketball team and has practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He still has play practice on M,W,F after school until next weeks's performance. He plays the part of Dracula in the play "Drac's Back!" Jacob's flag football team got third place in their tournament last weekend. He is growing like crazy - almost as tall as I am, and his feet are only 1/2 size smaller than Phillip's!!

Random thoughts

I just have to share a couple of funny quotes.

One of the great things about living here is that we get to have dinner together as a family a lot - really as long as Phillip is in town. We have great conversations. One night, we were talking about someone's new baby. Matthew asked, "If we had a baby here, would it be Japanese?" I was laughing so hard that I almost spit my food out! (Oh, ... and no, we are not having a baby here.)

Separately, Jacob's PE/Gym class had a badminton tournament. In the semi-finals, he played against an 8th grade Korean kid whom Jacob knows from playing baseball together. He has quite a personality. During baseball, if he made a strike, he would often throw his arms out and yell something in Korean. Just a character (in a fun way). Anyway, Jacob won this game at PE. The kid then yelled, "How can I lose to an American?" Truly, one of my favorite comments of the move so far. Funny, though, Jacob then lost to a Japanese girl in the final game! :)

Grandma Maloney arrives Friday evening to stay with us until January 10. I look forward to sharing some great adventures together!

Peace and Love.

Tina

Vietnam

We had a wonderful week with family in Vietnam during our first excursion out of our home base in Kobe. We spent a day in Hanoi, 2 days on a junk boat in Halong Bay, and then 4 days at China Beach in Da Nang. Things did not go smoothly the whole week, but we recognize that we have had amazing vacations through the years. We have always been fortunate that everyone has stayed healthy and that our weather was always very good. We also learned this week that even with the bumps,... vacation is about sharing time and experiences as a family. I will share some highlights and try not to write too much!

We left Saturday morning at 6:33am on a bus from Rokko Island. (The next 2 buses were already full, so we had to take this one.) Matthew immediately felt car sick (and the ride was 50 minutes)! We made it to the airport before Vietnam Airlines opened. I hung out with the bags, while Phillip walked around with the kids. Alas, we checked in and headed to Sky Club. Our flight was fine, and we all tried to take naps. Once arriving in Hanoi, we found that people stared at us even more than in Japan. One lady watched Jessica the entire time we were in line for immigration. She finally just reached out and touched her hair! She looked to be very "grandmotherly", so Jessica just smiled at her. A car took us to our hotel in Hanoi's Old Quarter. The chaos began as soon as we left the airport. Try to imagine busy streets with about 70% motor bikes, 20% cars, and 10% bicycles. We saw entire families on motor bikes, with 1-2 children between Mom and Dad. They never stopped. We basically had to grab our kids' hands and just run to get across the streets. The cars and motor bikes were very good at anticipating where you are going. One hesitation could be trouble. There were many, many small shops and people following us around to sell things. It was quite overwhelming. One lady was in my face and kept repeating "cheap for you baby". Yikes!! Phillip really enjoyed the constant negotiation, though. Jacob had a very bad stomach ache for awhile. When we stopped to get a Sprite, a young man walked up and touched Matthew's hair!

Our hotel in Hanoi

Center of Hanoi

Bananas anyone?

On Sunday morning, we embarked upon a 3.5 hour bus trip to Halong Bay. Poor Matthew was car sick the whole time. We stopped about half way at a big shop and met a family from Cincinnati - just 5 miles from our old house in Beechwood Farms! Crazy! We made it to the Huong Hai Junk boat. There was a couple from London on the boat with us, and then 2 other gentlemen from London joined us later. It was almost like having our own family boat ride! We saw beautiful mountains, ate wonderful seafood, walked through a cave, and kayaked to a beach where we climbed a mountain for an amazing view. The kids jumped off the 3 floors of the boat and played in the water before dinner. After dinner, we hung out on lawn chairs on the top floor of the boat and admired the full moon. I loved just laying with Matthew and talking about what a wonderful life we have and how very fortunate we are. We had fun spending the night on the boat. There was actually a shower in the middle of the bathroom!

Our view at the end of our cave tour

Who is driving the boat?

The food was amazing.

The next day we took a bamboo boat into a monkey cave. This could be the highlight of the trip! I bet there were 40 monkeys playing around on the walls of the cave. Very, very cool.

When we got back to Hanoi, we had about 30 minutes to shop before heading to the airport. The flight to Da Nang was only an hour. Matthew could not stop crying. He felt so sorry for one of the men that had followed us around. He just wanted to go back and give him money.

The Furama Resort van picked us up, with cinnamon-scented washcloths, bottles of water, and fresh fruit. Wow! The resort was just beautiful. We did get to play in the ocean on Tuesday, but after that the ocean was closed because of high winds and strong undercurrent. This was a bit of bummer. We had lots of rain, but we did manage to play on the beach, swim in the pools, go to the spa for nails and hair, and get a couple of excursions in. We went into the city of Da Nang. Not very impressive, but we stumbled upon a very cool place to eat called "Bread of Life". An American couple started this restaurant and training for the deaf who are very overlooked and isolated in Vietnam. Most cannot do sign language and do not go to school. The cooks and servers are all deaf. They come to work to learn sign language and a skill, and they are paid for their work. It was a blessing for us to be there. The next day we went to Hoi An. Very cool town. Lots of shops and bargaining, but it was cleaner than Hanoi. Also, we did not have people following us around. We discovered that many families live right there in their shops, sleeping on cots. The families would come outside to eat together along the streets in the evening. This is very tough life for Vietnamese people.

Phillip and Jacob were so bummed that the ocean was closed!

We met up with friends (Bart and Marcy Finn) from Kobe. This was fun as they have 3 kids about the same age as our 3 - the 9 year old is actually one of Matthew's best buddies. This was a great balance of just family time and friend time. During the week, both Matthew and Jessica got a little bit sick... but we made it through just fine. Thank goodness for Ibuprofen!! :)

As I write this, I am sitting in the lobby of the Furama Resort in Da Nang. Our car comes at 7:30pm to take us to the airport. We fly through Hanoi, and then arrive back home in Kobe at 6:40am Saturday. I will post pictures tomorrow.

As I reflect upon the week, I am again very thankful for my family, our health, our friends, our safety, the opportunity to see another country, and so many, many wonderful blessings that God gives us each and every day.

Peace and Love,

Tina