The "easy" teeth

Today was my red letter day for tromping back to the dentist where she planned to work on the "easy teeth." This required drilling out the old silver filling in one tooth (not a problem), then drilling in to the recently refurbished tooth next to it to find out why it was turning gray.

Wow. So it turns out that when you drill into a tooth and it's healthy, it should be yellowish, which the first one was. Now, I'm no dentist, but I didn't need her to tell me that when she drilled two holes in the second one and I was looking at two black caverns, it wasn't good.

The dentist was very proud and pleased when I told her initially that I could skip anesthesia for the first tooth. It got a little sensitive toward the end, but I reminded myself that I have pushed babies out of me and that I could handle it. She told me the second tooth was deeper and more likely to hurt. I told her I'd give it a try. Again, proud and pleased.

To our surprise, it didn't hurt at all. I thought this was good. She informed me it wasn't. She was potentially going to have to drill a lot deeper to get all the black out. Then she launched into a long explanation of the various possibilities (dead nerve with cavity, dead nerve without, not dead nerve suddenly being touched by drill equaling pain, most of these options involving more money) which would follow. My main concern was, "So WHEN are you giving me anesthesia? Because all of this sounds really painful." Showing me what would happen on her little three dimensional tooth model did nothing to assuage my fears.

Finally she called in a colleague who spoke English. I have never, in all my 11 years in Asia, been so happy to find an English speaker. He went over all she'd said again. I realized I had mostly understood her (though she didn't think I did) but it felt so reassuring to hear it in my own language. I could have hugged him, but that might have been awkward.

In the end, I did get anesthesia (thankfully not up to my eyeball like the last time). She was able to get out all the black stuff without hitting the nerve, throw some disinfectant in there, and fill it with a temporary filling. She told me I can't eat off that side for the next two weeks or the filling will come out, which feels a bit like saying, "So only sneeze out of the right side of your nose for the next two weeks, ok?" but I'll try. Then I'll go back for her to replace it.

I am so not looking forward to the "hard teeth."

Adventures in teeth

You would think that a family trip to the dentist would not be categorized under "adventure." But when a simple teeth cleaning must be navigated in a second language, let the adventures begin.

We wandered around our neighborhood, looking for a dentist some friends had visited. I don't think we found that one, but we did find A dentist. I was really hoping that there would be nothing wrong with any of our teeth beyond cleaning, because that's all I know how to say, "Please clean our teeth." Also, I understand the word "problem." (as you can imagine, that word will become quite relevant later in my story).

First, we experienced the new and exciting opportunity to view our teeth on a computer screen in front of us. Wow - my teeth look really nice from the front thanks to years of braces and a commitment to personal hygiene, but my top back teeth have been running feral back there, like it's some 1980's back alley. I say 1980's because there are still a few teeth with lingering silver fillings. She pointed out that these must be more than 20 years old. Yes, thank you.

And then she said, "Let me show you a few problems with your teeth" after which the conversation took a tricky turn. She kept using a few phrases like "bu ya" (which I believe must mean "filling") and "qian ti" which I'm a little afraid means, "root canal" but more likely means "cap." Often she'd say a word several times and then tell me, "You can check what that means later."

The gist of what she told me was, "You've got some nasty old fillings back here that are making your teeth gray. I suspect that means inside there's all kinds of wrong stuff going on. I'm going to have to go in and see what it is. Also, that tooth you had redone in Singapore is pure crap. I'm going to have to redo that too. Then I'll recover them with white, you will praise me as an amazing dentist, and you will hand over large stacks of renminbi to our office."

Erik's got one of those ancient fillings too. Is it normal to want to eradicate these? Are they really so toxic? This is the problem with dentistry in another language - I'm trying so hard to understand, I can't begin to question whether or not it's legit.

Next Monday I go in for phase 1 of "bring Gina's back teeth into the 21st century." Should be another great adventure.

Chicken Little

This afternoon I had the pleasure of guarding my favorite little person, and by little, I mean my favorite 2 year old. Our neighbor's daughter has taken a strong liking to me. I love hearing her sweet little voice say, "I want Gina Ayi!" Her parents are leaving on a trip tomorrow so I took my little friend out for some fun while they got ready.

We were headed home the back route, going up to the stairs to their deck, when she said, "Chicken!" We looked down, and there in their bushes was a little chick. I couldn't imagine how a chick might have lost itself in this backyard. Was there a wild chicken gang around I didn't know about? Soon we had all the kids looking at and cooing over it. It was pecking around, eating ants. When my friend turned on their hose to clean some dirty feet, it dove into it, obviously thirsty.

We weren't sure what to do with this little guy. I went out to the back fence to see if maybe there was a frantic chicken parent looking for its baby. Instead, there was a woman on a cell phone who asked me anxiously, "Do you speak Chinese?" (that's such a relative question). Then she asked if I had seen a baby chick that had fallen from the third floor balcony. She was afraid it had died. I think the plethora of bushes broke its fall. She was thrilled to get it back. The little boy hanging over the edge of the 3rd floor balcony just looked distressed.

So that was our little chicken falling from the sky adventure for the day.

Falling snakes, contraband explosives, and donkeys driving cars

Back in my younger days when I was oh so much more foolish, I pulled a bonehead move by passing a car so closely on a two lane highway that both the car I was passing and the car coming toward me were pulling off the road. That, I'm sorry to say, is how many overtaking experiences go down here in China. When this happens and you are the one being overtaken, it's tempting to scream something about the "donkey" driving the other car. But when it happened yesterday in our second Wild China adventure we refrained because there were children present.

We headed out of town about 100km in the other direction looking for a place called Black Dragon Pool. I decided I needed to gain more confidence in driving here so I took the wheel. It was mainly highway until the last 30 km, when it began to be winding mountain road. That's where we encountered said donkeys.

Once safely at our destination, we started hiking. Wow - we thought Ling Shan was a sight to see. This rivals stuff you see in Colorado! Beautiful rocky mountains dip down to flowing waterfalls and creeks. The kids were in heaven once we let them loose into the stream, where they became "undammers", helping the creek to flow as much as possible. Along the hike there were pools where you could rent little inflated boats for 20Y. After hiking all the way up and back, several of us paddled out, trying to get as close to the waterfall as we could. Many happy Chinese walked away that day with pictures of foreigners screaming with joy. Happiness all around.

Happiness turned to screaming on our way out though, when something dropped out of a hanging tree, landed on our friend's son's head, and smacked to the ground. It was a snake! It slithered away, thankful for someone to break its fall, and we spent the rest of the walk trying to encourage a six year old that having a snake fall on your head and living to tell is really super cool!

We decided to take the other way back home, which involved driving around the back side of the mountains. It took a lot longer but it was worth it! Wow - what views. At one corner there was an opportunity to climb up a short peak so we grabbed the chance. The second we were out of our vehicles, we were told by an ancient Chinese man standing there that the experience would cost us two kuai a piece. Ok, buddy, since you've planted your flag out here in the middle of nowhere, we'll oblige. But two kuai became so worth it when he started talking to Erik about something that would make a "boom boom" sound. He brought us over to his little cart of innocent drinks, lifted up his goods, and showed Erik the surely illegal grenade like explosives to be had for five kuai a piece. Who can pass up a chance to throw something into a deep valley and hear it explode? Not Americans! Erik pulled the pin, threw it, heard it hit the ground and said, "It didn't do anything." Two seconds later, kaboom!!

We ran into a few more donkeys driving cars on the rest of our drive. It was all worth it though to see such beautiful scenery and to give our kids a chance to roam freely in nature. What will we see next?

Hong Kong Disney, take 2

Erik had to bolt early in the morning to pick up our visas (oh yeah, that's why we're in Hong Kong) so the kids and I spent part of the morning watching - what else - the Disney channel. We tried to hit the pool but got rained out within 10 minutes, so we decided to brave the park on our own. Megan decided to give me a mild cardiac arrest by getting to the gate and announcing that she couldn't find the ticket I gave her back at the bus (never, ever, give your children control of their tickets early). Thankfully we found it in a little puddle, wet, but still intact.

I convinced Megan that she really DID want to go on Space Mountain again with me. She said once a day is enough. The kids figured out soon afterward that the Disney employees offer free stickers of all the characters if you ask. Megan proved more motivated and brave in this task, finishing the day with over 30 different stickers. We met up with Erik at Mickey's Philharmagic show, which is in 3D. It was amusing to see the kids keep reaching out, trying to grab what was coming out of the screen. What was more amusing was seeing the Chinese woman on the other side of me do the same thing. I discovered that my good eye can't compensate for my bad one when I'm wearing 3D glasses, so it was a bit of a blurry show for me, but entertaining nonetheless.

What Disney trip would be complete without pictures with the characters? We nabbed Pluto (Megan's favorite) and Mickey before Ethan said "enough" and we headed for It's a Small World. You what's great about that ride at Hong Kong Disney? It was obviously made recently. Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the one at Orlando, but I'm pretty sure those are the same dolls I saw when I was 6. They've also thrown in other Disney characters at this one, which is fun. There was a western family in front of us who told us all the primary schools in Hong Kong were cancelled that day because of swine flu, and Disney was giving discount tickets. There was an article in the paper the next day about how the government got upset over that. I can see their point, because it's like saying, "don't go congregate in school - come to Disney and pass potential germs to an international community!" But in Disney's defense, their sanitation practices are pretty good.

We did several rides again - Megan loved the Cinderella carousel, and while the kids liked trying to improve their scores on Buzz's Astroblasters ride (you shoot aliens to get points) I think Erik enjoyed it the most. We watched The Golden Mickeys again because they were just so much fun (and because Erik admitted that he slept through it the first time), ate dinner, and went back to the hotel to watch an encore of the fireworks from the night before.

So what's our assessment of Hong Kong Disney? Well, I'd say if you had little ones, say Megan's age and younger, this is about as much Disney as you need. It's easy to navigate because it's smaller, the rides are better suited for them, and the lines are SO much shorter (our longest wait was 20 minutes). I will say that if you have already been to Disneyworld, this isn't nearly as exciting. On the other hand, if you take them here first, Disneyworld will seem FANTASTIC.

Hong Kong Disney

We left our hostel behind in the questionable part of town and upped our standard of living by moving to the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel on our third day. This was partly because one night there got you a "two days for one" deal at Disney. We were told you could do Disney in a day, which is true, but we planned to spend both mornings either traveling or doing other things, so this was perfect.

Hey, so how many of you have seen Lilo and Stitch? If you haven't, you'd better watch it before you go to Hong Kong Disney. I didn't really realize it was a Disney movie but apparently Stitch is filling in for Mickey at HK Disneyland. When you walk down Main Street into that center circle and look up at the Sleeping Beauty Castle (or in the case of Hong Kong Disney, just forward and slightly up. It's not a very big castle), right in front of you is a big sand like statue of Lilo and Stitch. And then there's Stitch in Tomorrowland, which makes sense cause he's an alien and that's where they put those. But then there he is in Adventureland, and Fantasyland, and on the t-shirts in the gift shop, and there are big pictures of his head all over the Disney map. All day I wondered about this. I just can't say that Stitch falls on my list of beloved Disney characters. To be honest, I think he's kind of obnoxious.

But we still had fun, despite the prevalence of Stitch. Hong Kong Disney is a scaled down version of Disney World. It has the same layout but fewer rides. In fact, the only one that really has a thrill factor was Space Mountain. Megan LOVED this last year in Orlando so we headed there first. We walked straight on. Erik and I loved it and were all prepared to go again, but the kids said it was "loud" and "creepy." Whatever.

Since it was a bit rainy, we stayed inside to watch the Lion King show and the "Golden Mickeys" which was a bunch of the songs from Disney movies with live dancing and singing. It's a little weird seeing most of these characters played by Asians, and particularly to hear them speaking Cantonese (especially Ariel, who was actually white but speaking Cantonese). But for the most part they have replicated Disney quite well. Megan and I got front row seats (on the ground) for the High School Musical show in front of the castle. She got pulled up at the end to learn a few steps to one of the songs. Normally that kind of thing would freak her out, but she was a great sport and did pretty well. We'll get that inner performer out of her yet!

We had the added bonus of getting a park view room in our hotel from which we could watch the 8 pm fireworks display. There's even a channel on the TV devoted only to playing the music that goes with it, so it was a great way to end the day.

Adventures in Hong Kong, day 2

The first morning when we went out foraging for food, Erik made the mistake of asking me, in front of a restaurant owner, what I wanted for breakfast. It was a mistake, because my honest answer was, "Probably nothing I can find on the street here" which was just rude to say next to the man offering us his set breakfast for $20HK. I just gave Erik a look and we moved on. I'll admit I'm not an adventurous eater, though I'm willing to be flexible at times. Those times do not include my breakfasts however. I'm an oatmeal girl. If I can't have oatmeal, I'll take cold cereal. Beyond that, things might get dicey.

So it was with great joy that I went into the lobby of our hostel yesterday morning (I use the word lobby quite loosely here. It's a room about 10 ft sq) and saw that the desk held cereal, milk, and fruit for our family. What a great start to the second day!

Our plan for the day was Ocean Park, supposedly one of the highest rated theme parks in the world. I didn't see this information personally. I only heard it from a nine year old, so it's iffy. But I have to say that for the price, Ocean Park is a good deal. There are two main sections divided by a hill which you navigate by cable car. It's a combination of amusement park rides and animal habitats like the "sea jelly spectacular" which really was spectacular. Especially the dark mirror lined room full of cylindrical tanks that was a crazy maker - which way is out? I don't know but look at these jellyfish! I can't tell you how many people walked into the walls in that room. One little kid full on ran into one.

The only hiccup in our plan was that our little Megan was not tall enough to ride the best rollercoasters, which led to some tears. Oh yeah, that and the fact that someone took my sunglasses. When Ethan and I rode The Dragon (big rollercoaster), we were invited to put our personal belongings on shelves next to the ride so we wouldn't lose them. Ah, the irony. I want to believe that someone accidentally took my glasses because there was a pair left behind (which the ride operator wouldn't let me take even though someone took mine. I thought that was a perfectly fair proposal). But my glasses were nowhere near the pair that was left behind. Thank God for gift shops with decently priced replacement glasses, because it was a sunny and muggy day. That's the other thing about Ocean Park - not for those unwilling to walk a great deal up and down hills, especially in this weather. It's situated on a hillside overlooking the ocean. Beautiful view but man, a lot of hiking and sweating!

In the afternoon we found some rides that satisfied Megan's height and interest, so all were pleased. This morning it's off to Disneyland!

Adventures in Hong Kong, day 1

I'm not a luxury girl. Sure, I appreciate a nicer stay, but I'm pretty ok with the average one. That's a good thing, because the path we've chosen to take in life could be characterized as "economy." I don't mind this because it means we end up living closer to local in most places, and I find it much more interesting. So in choosing a place to stay for our time in Hong Kong, we opted for a downtown hostel as opposed to a southern hotel, since it was half the price.

I began to question that choice when, as we approached the hostel, we found ourselves in a part of Hong Kong that I have only seen in movies like Mission Impossible and 007. Minus the motorcycle chases with crazy stunts that have been disproven as impossible by Mythbusters. The part of Hong Kong where the neon lights are so bright that it feels like daytime all night long, and the other hotels are pay by the hour.

Fortunately, our place is on the 9th floor, and while it's not exactly 5 star (or even warranting stars) it's new, clean, quiet, and the manager is a sweet and helpful woman with impeccable English. Sure, I have to sit sideways on the toilet because the bathroom is smaller than a closet, but sitting forward is so overrated. It has air con, and internet access, and we're the only ones staying here it seems, so we're ok. And we're only here three nights before we move over to one of the Disney resorts. We're just staying here to make that seem even MORE fantastic.

The purpose of our visit to Hong Kong is to obtain visas. We have letters of invitation from our company to get business visas. We came here with some trepidation as we were told by a few sources that this kind of visa must be obtained in your "country of origin" which for us means Singapore. So we came here knowing that it was quite possible we'd be boarding a plane back there if this didn't pan out.

But, armed with our Jedi mind tricks ("You don't need to go back to your country of origin for these visas. Move along"), and prepared for at least a 2 hour wait, we hopped the MTR (subway) to the embassy. 23 minutes later we were back on streets having submitted said visas without a hitch, and we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. Finally we took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak where we saw a beautiful view for about 5 minutes before we were swallowed by clouds and enjoyed a nice rainstorm. We probably should have quit there and gone back to our little hostel, but took a taxi across the island to Stanley Market. We'd heard good things about it, but when we got there, we realized we had no money, the exchange rate was terrible, and let's face it - living in Asia 10 years means we've seen our share of markets. Taking a double decker bus back downtown afforded a beautiful view of the coast, then we joined the evening commute (read "thousands of Hong Kong residents") back to Mong Kok.

There are several things which I've observed about Hong Kong: first, I didn't realize they spoke so much English here. Really, this should never surprise me about a former British colony. Those British leave their mark. I am also surprised by how many people can speak Mandarin, since this is a Cantonese speaking area. This means many people here are trilingual and I am supremely jealous. I only know one phrase in Cantonese which is "Where is the McDonald's?" This is an important phrase in any country because it will get you food you recognize and decent bathrooms. Second, I've never seen so many tall buildings in one place. They've certainly made good use of their limited real estate. Third, mango tic tacs and Mentos gum - very fun! Fourth, while parts of Hong Kong are offensively urban, others are amazingly beautiful. Finally, the public transportation system here is quite similar to Singapore's, and boy do a lot of people use it. I've never seen so many people use the subway at once.

Day 1 in Hong Kong complete.

Ski Catastrophe

Here's what you need to do right now - go to Youtube and find the most spectacular ski wipeout possible. Preferably it should be one on a medium slope, and the skiier should be on your left, gaining speed in a uncontrolled way. He (or she) should trip to the right, get the right leg trapped underneath his (or her) body, slide across the hill to your right, maybe flipping once or twice, and glide to a stop several feet before plunging over the edge of the mountain to his (or her) death. Oh, and all the while you should hear a strange "I'm out of control!" kind of scream coming from that person. Did you find it? No? Oh, maybe that's because no one on top of Sterling at Smuggler's Notch, Vermont, had their camera going this morning. If they had, they would have caught that exact scenario, starring me.

Thankfully I was in the best of hands - the president and the public relations director of the resort (read: excellent skiers) were right behind me, as was my former ski patrol husband. While small children swooped past me, chuckling under their breath, my family untangled me and helped me down to an easier place, from which I could navigate the rest of the way down. It wasn't pleasant, as I had to strike a balance between staying in control and not putting too much pressure on my knee. But I made it without incident.

Where did I go wrong? Well, I should have insisted on listening to the voice inside me that said, "I need to start at the bunny hill again." But I didn't, and the rest of my party was confident that I could join them on the bigger slopes. That confidence is now shattered, at least until I've refreshed myself on an easier hill.

But there will be no more hills today. Not sure if there will be tomorrow either, as my knee is officially tweaked. I thought it might be broken at first but the ski patrol said I'm good. But there's plenty to do at Smugg's that doesn't involve embarassing falls. If not for Erik, I would never attempt to downhill ski anyway. I much prefer cross country or snow shoeing. Anything with less potential for speed and injury.

The kids on the other hand will be surpassing me in skill within the next 24 hours. We caught up with them at lunch where they informed me that their ski instructor, Eric, would be taking them up the hill after lunch because they are now "experts." If only I could have started so young, I might have avoided today's debacle.

What to do with snow

When it started snowing and turned cold here, I mentally panicked a bit and thought I might end up spending the rest of our time inside. How could I go outside when it was so cold?! But the arrival of several inches of snow, and the possibility of cute "kids in the snow" pictures drew me out with the kids, Erik, and my brother this morning. Turns out it's really not all that cold. You just have to dress for it (which I am now able to do again thanks to Old Navy).

We tromped down to a hill by my parent's house that was blanketed with untouched snow about 6 inches deep. We brought four sleds and a shovel (shovels actually make decent sleds). After I'd taken a few pictures and returned the camera to the house, I joined in on doing what we did when we were kids. It all comes back to you - when faced with chilly temps and loads of the white stuff, you keep warm by configuring the snow into various play devices. In our case, we built jumps for sledding.

After building what we thought was a great jump, we sent Christopher and Ethan down for the inaugural run. We think the weight of the two of them together somewhat destroyed the jump, but that's part of the fun - you rebuild better. After a few runs, it had had enough but not before watching various family members launch themselves over it.

At that point I'd had enough, but it was a fun trip down memory lane. Forts, people, tracks, angels, jumps - there's no limit to what kids will make from snow. And it looks like we have enough of it to try every one.

The Magic Kingdom

My first trip to Disney World was when I was six, so it seems fitting that Megan's first trip would be at the same age. I think six and up is the perfect time to take kids to Disney. Our kids were wired with excitement as we parked, took the tram to the "transportation center," hopped on the monorail, and entered the Magic Kingdom.

We thought it might be better to hop on the train to the back side of Disney and make our way forward to avoid crowds. Turns out the train's pretty slow, so I don't think we beat anyone, but it was a fun ride nonetheless. The first ride we hit was Goofy's Barnstormer, which is a mini-roller coaster. Ethan and I went together with Megan, Nonna and Erik soon to follow. Ethan laughed the whole way, and we had barely slowed down when he exclaimed, "Let's do it again!" I think he might have been happy just staying there the whole day. But we moved on.

I have some strong memories from my first trip which kept cropping up as we moved through the park - the Mad Tea Hatter's Ride which, as it turns out, is more fun when you're six; Snow White's Scary Adventures, which we avoided after we scared the pants off Megan in the Haunted Mansion; Pirates of the Carribean, where you can tell which animatronic people were created more recently than 1980; and the Jungle Boat Cruise, which was on a much larger river when I was 4 feet tall. Or so I remember. It was fun to relive my own memories while watching the kids make their own. And thank God for fast passes, though this time of year isn't a busy time at Disney. We hardly had any wait time for any rides.

The only part of the day I really didn't enjoy was Space Mountain. I know - it's one of the best rides, and it was Megan's favorite. But having my petite six year old, who barely made the height requirement, be flung back and forth in her seat in front of me in almost total darkness terrified me. Especially since by that point of the day she was all into the "raise your arms like this, it's more fun!" kind of coaster riding. I reached as far around the seat as I could and clung to the hood of her sweatshirt, like that would help if she launched from the car. I know, irrational of me, but I couldn't help it.

What surprised me about Disney was the amount of crying I observed. There's no crying at Disney World! C'mon - it's a magical place where dreams come true! Can I offer an explanation and perhaps a warning? The children who were crying were the little ones - the ones who were scared of the rides and the giant characters, tired from missing naps, and from being dragged around a huge amusement park. They're just too young. Save your money. They won't remember it anyway. Unless you know that your kids are troopers who love new experiences, take them to the county fair until they're old enough to appreciate it.

Wait until they're five or six, then have a great day with them, like we did.

My Native Soil

Took a walk in the woods today, and I felt very much at home. It's like the cold wind and the smell of dry leaves calls to distant memories buried deep within me, years of growing up with this kind of nature and weather. Even now as I look out the window and see black trees against a fading sunset (and it's only 5:02 p.m.) it feels so familiar. It's like finding something I lost a long time ago.

For the kids, it's all brand new. Like discovering what happens when you play in icy water with your mittens on. Despite our warnings, Ethan kept crawling back to the stream any chance he got to break apart the ice crystals and send them swirling through the water. He also kept picking up wet logs so he could carry them to the next part of the stream and use them as battering rams. Of course this made his mittens, boots, pants and jacket damp. We weren't too strict about it because it was relatively warm today, but part of me realized how much you learn as a kid growing up in Minnesota about the dangers of winter. This is knowledge our children of course completely lack.

They also continue to display an obliviousness to the cold. Ethan was out playing ball in his socks today. They constantly run outside without their coats. We keep bringing them back in, instructing them to put more on, but they insist they aren't cold. In fact, they've spent the better part of this day out doors - right now they are raking leaves and burning them in a bonfire. (Where there is fire, there is Ethan).

I have tried my hand, or rather, my feet, at running in temps other than 80 degrees for the first time. Well, the first time I can remember. It's much easier, though I find that I have dry wheezing when I'm done because I'm used to air that is filled with 80% humidity. I'm thinking of running with a medical mask on my face to hold in the moisture.

The fire is raging outside, so I think I'll go join them and make sure no one gets too close. Where fire is, there Ethan is, and he's not quite as fire safe as we'd like him to be yet.

The Cost of Peace of Mind

When your daughter has had a fever for three days and suddenly starts complaining that her neck hurts a lot, the wise doctors on the web say "Go to the hospital immediately!" So I did.

I suspected it might just have been stiffness from lack of activity, or too much movie watching (she's been a pretty tired little girl) but it was 7 p.m. and I didn't want to wait until midnight, realize I really should have taken her in, and then spent a miserable night in the ER, or worse yet, have a really sick little girl.

Thankfully Lisa the maid could stay with Ethan, so Megan grabbed her pink bear for comfort and we went. The ER at the KK Children's Hospital here is a slick operation. S$80 will cover everything you do during your visit. We got in to see the doctor quickly, and she ordered a blood test to rule out meningitis. We had to wait what they said would be 40-60 minutes but which turned into more like 90 for the results. You know what's cute for about 5 seconds? Those squeaky shoes people put on their toddlers. You know what's not cute after 90 minutes? Yeah.

I did get a chance to be entertained by watching I Survived a Japanese Game Show for the first and hopefully only time. Don't get me wrong - I laughed, but watching that level of shame and pettiness is something I can skip. Where do they get the people for reality shows? One of the great mysteries of life.

Before the blood test, the doctor said she didn't suspect it was meningitis, but wanted to be sure. I called Ethan because I knew he would be worried. Somewhere in his life he developed a deep fear of illness - is it post traumatic syndrome from living through SARS? I don't know. He told me he'd been very worried, and Lisa told him to read his Bible. Man, I love this woman. He said, "So I went to Lego Bible and then played a few games and felt better."
One of these days I need to convince my son that Lego Bible is not the same as the other Bible.

After all was said and done, the doctor said she just has a viral fever and it can run its course. I have to say, a Singaporean accent is sometimes hard for me to understand. But a Singaporean accent in a hospital full of screaming babies, when spoken through a surgical mask, might as well be another language. But she got the job done and we were back home by 9:30 p.m.

Going to an emergency room at 7 p.m. in Singapore: S$80. Finding out that your daughter just has yet another tropical mystery illness and NOT meningitis: Priceless.

New Photos

Since it's SO much easier to upload photos to flickr than to blogger, I'm directing you to our flickr site rather than putting all our new photos on here. I posted photos from our two recent adventures - the Forest Adventure and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Check them out!

Langkawi Diary #4 - Cable Cars

The prospect of seeing Langkawi from up high seemed like a good one. And our kids love the cable cars in Singapore. What could be bad about this outing?

I feel like I should share some statistics about the cable cars - maybe how high they were, distance traveled. I got nothing. Just imagine going high and being able to see a forest covered island surrounded by ocean. Really we couldn't see the whole island - just the western part. It's not that small. But the cable cars are at the western tip, so we could see ocean on three sides. Unfortunately it was a pretty hazy day, so the view wasn't breath-taking, but it was enjoyable. At least it was enjoyable to the adults. To the kids, the ride in the cable car was cool. The climbing out and staring off into space was cause for whining, complaining, and at some points downright refusal to move. Ethan's default setting to new situations is "resistance." If he doesn't know what something will be like, even if it sounds fantastic, he will insist he doesn't want to go and will have no fun at all. That's how he was by the time we reached the second stop on the cable car. There was no way he was going on the tree top walk - it was down steps, he was tired, he was bored, pick your excuse. The crazy thing is that even when he does have a good time (say when we found The Loaf and he had such a fantastic meal) it doesn't reinforce the idea that new can be good. In fact, when we went to The Loaf the next day, he didn't want to go. I think this disproves Pavlov's experiments.

We, on the other hand, were enjoying ourselves, and then it got even better. It's hard to see in the pictures, but literally this cloud starting creeping up the mountains, seeping between trees and appearing in front and then soon all around us. Before long we were actually in the cloud itself. We enjoyed that as long as it took for the park people to shoo everyone back into the cable cars and down the hill. I've never experienced anything like that, literally being consumed by a cloud. It was the highlight of the cable car for me.
Here comes the cloud, peering around the corner at us.


You can't see the end of this walkway, where we were just a few minutes before. Not five minutes before this, you could see the ocean looking this direction.

Langkawi Diary #3 - Beware of Monkeys

As we traveled around Langkawi, we noticed that monkeys were everywhere. Our first close sighting came at the waterfall, where several of them came for lunch at the local garbage can. Next, we were fascinated to see them on the road in our hotel complex - two mommies with their babies. So cute! As we tiptoed nearer, another monkey - presumably the daddy - came scurrying down a tree and made it clear that we were not to get an inch closer. I think he may even have sworn at us in monkey. He seemed pretty angry. Not so cute anymore.

That night we made the mistake of leaving a bag of rambutans and a bag of raisins on our porch. While we slept a gang of monkeys came and mauled them. We began to think maybe the monkeys weren't our friends.

From then on, we were a little edgy around the monkeys. On Friday, we rented fishing gear and parked next to the road across from the marina. As I stepped from the car, bag of dead fish in one hand, bag of rambutans in the other, I glanced at the trees near us and said, "Erik, I think I'm going to leave the rambutans in the car," and in the time it took me to do that, two jumped down into the tree next to me. That was when we switched into slightly panicked mode and instructed the kids to get out of the car and get behind us while we backed across the street, keeping our eyes on the monkeys. Soon there were four or five - a few of them staring at us across the road, waiting for a break in traffic to follow us, one climbing all over our car looking for a way to those rambutans.

I threw a warning rock across the street toward the one big monkey who was about to follow us. We walked down a path through the woods and spent about 30 seconds at the shore before we decided we'd rather fish from the other side of the marina where the people were and the monkeys weren't. We fully expected to find our car covered with monkeys like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They were still there, but in fewer numbers. We threw more rocks, Erik ran for the car (way to take one for the team honey!) and we drove away to a safer, monkey-less spot.

Tiger Kingdom

When a friend suggests that you should take your family to a place where you can pet tigers, you shouldn't think aboaut the potential danger. You should just go, because when are you going to have the chance to pet one again? It's not like you're going to happen upon on in the wild.

We drove about 1/2 hour with eight kids aged 2-8 piled in the back of a rented car, and two dads trailing behind on motor bikes. We took a bit of a detour but finally found the Tiger Kingdom. We happened to have with us the three men in our company arguably most likely to be able to talk their way into a bargain, so they negotiated a better price while the kids talked about how they were going to pet all the tigers. We also looked at pictures they were displaying on a screen of people cuddling tiger cubs and laying casually on reclining tigers. It all looked promising.

We were given 15 minutes in a cage with two young tiger cubs, 3 months old. They were both the size of a small lap dog. Two cages, four sleeping cubs, and eight children. They were hesitant at first, but soon most of the kids were enjoying touching the cubs. We tried to get them to sit in on laps, but that woke them all up and they preferred wandering around their cages and playing with empty water bottles to sitting on laps.

After the kids' time, Erik and Travis got some time in the big boy's cage. Those tigers were obviously adults, but still quite small compared to some breeds I've seen (like the white tigers at the Singapore Zoo). If they ever got fiesty, the handlers were there with small sticks to bop them on the nose.

So now we can say we've petted tigers - who can say that? See our flickr account for pics.

Take Me Back to Thailand

And so, for the umpteenth time in our Asian life, we headed out the door to Thailand on Friday. Our taxi driver gave us a taste of what was to come as he flew down the highway to Singapore Changi Airport, the "Speeding Kills" sign a blur as we passed. Thai taxis are a lesson in trust and faith - trust that your driver doesn't want to die any more than you do, and faith, that you will get to your destination without injury and in record time.

We had to stop through Bangkok on our way to Chiang Mai (oh non-stop flight, where have you gone?). In the immigration line, we were approached by a thin older gentleman with sparse black hair and wire rimmed glasses. He introduced himself as a Catholic priest and offered us prayer cards for our children. He said he is part of "Opus Dei, have you heard of it?" Erik said no, and all I could think of was, "That's the crazy cult from Da Vinci Code!" But I kept smiling. He seemed nice, and not at all muderous.

On the second flight, Ethan came back from the bathroom and said to Erik, "You might think this is amazing, but that was the first time I've ever pooped on an airplane! And it's also the first time I've ever washed my hands on an airplane!" (I swear that's not true - I washed his hands when I took him, but I can't vouch for solo trips.I assumed we'd trained him well enough. Never assume). Erik said, "Why don't you always wash your hands on an airplane?"
"Well, I didn't know how to work it before. But this time I thought, 'my hands are disgusting because I pooped. I should figure out how to wash my hands!' So I did."

It took some time before we could locate the driver sent to fetch us. On the way to the hotel, Ethan observed a gas station. "Mom, if you lived next to a gas station, it would be good, but also bad."
"Alright, tell me why."
"Well, it would be good because if you needed gas, you could just go right next door. But it would be bad for two reasons. First of all, if the gas station blew up, you would die. Second, you would always smell like gas."

That Ethan, always thinking.

We are on the 10th floor of our hotel, where we have a nice view of the foothills lining one side of Chiang Mai. Our two rooms have wood floors that have already provided plenty of fun sliding for the kids, and moments of fear for the parents as we see them careen out of control toward objects in the room.

More Thai adventures to come.

There's a Hot Dog in My Waffle! and other Thai Adventures

It seemed like a good idea. Since I was buying pad thai for my kids for the first time (traditional Thai noodle dish) and so was my friend Martha, we decided that buying the waffles on a stick would be a good alternative if they didn't like it. When they bit into them, they found hot dogs. Not just regular hot dogs, but the nasty flaming red piecemeal hot dogs you can find here in Asia that make Oscar Meyer hot dogs look organic. What a waste of 30 cents. Good thing they liked the pad thai.

We have two adjoining rooms here. The first morning Ethan shut the door between the rooms and said, "Mom, it's ok that I shut the door because I have the key!" A minute later he told me that he'd tried 10 times and the door wouldn't open. I tried. Erik tried. I told the front desk. They frowned at the idea that their keys couldn't work (these are actual keys, not cards). The bellman came with me and he tried the key. I was sincerely hoping that it wouldn't work for him so I wouldn't look like an idiot. He realized that someone must have turned the deadbolt, so he went off for the one master key.

When he returned and opened the door, we discovered that some little person had also thrown the other lock, you know, the one that lets you open the door about three inches? When that happened, the bellman looked at me and threw his hands up in defeat. I set off in search of a leatherman tool.

I was surprised how quickly I found one. Do all guys carry these around? I think I need one. I intended to use the screwdriver and take the piece off the door, but I couldn't maneuver it. The man indicated that I could pry another part off for the same effect. So I pried one off, and he pried off the other, and we were in.

Thailand is not without its own version of crazy English. One day for lunch we had "white baan curd in brown sauce" and "stir fried blocolie." Last night we were blessed with "Mini Stone Soup." Yum.

Did you know that this year the king of Thailand had his 80th birthday? You can't be in Thailand and not know this. To help you celebrate, you can buy a wide variety of clothing and paraphernalia, mostly in pink and yellow, and show your love and support for the sovereign. I might buy one of those little rubber bracelets. I only love the king 100 baht worth.

So that's been our adventure so far.

The problem of ants

I am something of a recovering sugar addict. I had quite a sweet tooth up until recent years. I still like to indulge in some good dark chocolate and other occasional goodies, but for the most part I've decided that my health is more important. And I've found that the less I eat, the less I crave it. But I am still a firm believer in the healing power of baking therapy. When I'm down, I like the peace and satisfaction of baking something good (and then passing it along to someone else to eat). This time of year calls to my inner baker, but in my new house, I'm finding a major obstacle: ants.

Ants like sugar, among other things. In my new apartment, there is already an army of ants waiting at my back door to scurry in and carry away any minute crumb we leave out. Erik left the wishbone on the front of our stove on Thanksgiving. A few hours later it had been moved to the back of the stove by ants, I kid you not. So me spreading sugar cookie dough on the counter is like a call to arms for them. Thinking about making a gingerbread house with the kids and leaving it out overnight sounds like a recipe for infestation. It's put a damper on my merry cookie making for holiday gift giving tradition.

On the up side, I am becoming an immaculately clean cook.