Our first typhoon

Typhoon Koppu arrived last night, what a site to see. Gusts of wind, sheets of rain, I had no idea that this is what people in the gulf regions endure! We faired well, stayed inside and slept through most of it. Koppu was given an 8 rating this morning so school was closed, boy were the kids bummed. (ha, ha) By 9am kids from the compound were running back and forth to each other's houses. Fortunately the storm decreased to a category 3 so we were able to go out. The American club opened around 11:30am and we were some of their first visitors. It is still raining but the wind has subsided. The roads are littered with trees but fortunately everyone seems to be safe.

Other highlights from the week:

1. Back to school night-first was Annie and Conor. Both kids have male teachers that love to teach. Annie's teacher is Barry Mernin he likes to tell the kids: Barry from Boston and Mernin rhymes with learnin'! Conor's teacher, Ryk Newcombe is from Australia, he is calm and focused. The whole upper primary collected money for the kiva project-a non profit that gives loans to women in developing countries, this was in honor of the upper primary school principals birthday, pretty cool.

Thursday was back to school night for Riley and Seamus, this is when my jaw really dropped. Small classes, motivated teachers and state of the art technology....they are so fortunate!! Each classroom has a smart board-a section of the white board that is a computer screen...so cool! The algebra teacher explained how she demonstrates a problem to the kids, turns the example into a pdf file and then sends it to the school wide email system. So, when Riley is stuck on a particular concept at home she can go online and see the example the teacher gave in class...amazing. And then Riley's world religions teacher...I didn't want to leave his presentation, I wanted to stand up and scream, yes peace can prevail on earth! But fortunately for Riley I contained myself. This teacher is Indian, he speaks with love and compassion like Gandhi, I just melted.

2. I drove for the first time!!! Not as bad as I thought. I won't go to Central anytime soon but the southern part of the island is manageable. Even Seamus admitted that I am a better driver than Rich. Speaking of Rich, he is in New York City until Friday. Barclay's is having a pow wow in NYC a big get to know each other party. And I am here holding down the fort, trying to remember to bring my umbrella with me wherever I go. Kids go back to school tomorrow. Riley is playing volleyball and singing in the school choir. Seamus is playing volleyball and rugby and playing in the school band. Annie is swimming and playing the piano. And Bubba is swimming, playing baseball, rugby and sort of playing the piano. Yes, a busy group but fortunately a happy group. Kids continue to make friends, find the food they like...oh this reminds me...I took them to the American Club for dinner on Sunday night, you would of thought they had never seen food before! 4-5 trips to the buffet, I had to tell the boys to slow down for fear they would get sick! Pretty funny.

And me, having a good time. Missing family and friends. I am going to a bunch of informational meetings to see if I might enjoy dragon boat racing, golf, etc. I have started to collect pictures of clothes I like that I will bring to Shenzen and have made...that is the theory at least...we will see.

It is 5:30pm, time to show Mae how to make easy tacos.

Love to everyone,

Mary

Alive and Well

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to report that we are healthy again! Riley and Seamus have returned to school, Annie and Conor will return tomorrow (yay!). Since I last wrote, Riley and Seamus both started school volleyball. Riley also started Sunday soccer and Seamus started Sunday rugby. Sunday rugby is fabulous, it takes place at a military base in HK about 10 minutes from our house. The kids play on a field the size of two football fields. Kids are broken into age groups and taught how to play rugby. Bubba and Seamus caught on quick, no bloody noses yet. Each practice session ends with a scrimmage, Seamus' group really got into it. I sat in the shade and watched Bubba while Rich chatted with parents next to Seamus' field. The big highlight for me was listening to the CAL game on my iphone...the beauty of modern technology. After rugby Rich and I got a craving for Mexican food and proceeded on a half hour journey to find what was decent Mexican food. Finding the place was an adventure with Rich annoyed at me cause I WAS NOT LOOKING AT THE MAP! We found the restaurant and more importantly found a neighborhood that we will return to...it is in mid levels, lots of hip restaurants and shops...reminded me of the lower westside of Manhattan. The big highlight for the girls (and me) was finding frozen yogurt!! Riley and I have been craving frozen yogurt so this place was a big find. We returned home from our outing with an hour of down time (rich did bills and I went to the market) after which we headed to a friends house for dinner and a swim. This swim was a much needed relief as the pool was actually cold! The pool we have on our roof looks good but it is about 85degrees...

So overall we are settling in, going on excursions and meeting lots of nice people. Adjusting to the weather, the absence of our favorite foods and the school closure have been our biggest challenges. Rich gets dressed for work and has sweat marks on his shirt by the time we walks to the car. Rich is still walking Ginger regularly and to date has lost 12pounds! As far as food, we miss Brummel and Brown butter, Knudsen cottage cheese and ground turkey thigh meat. Meat and vegetables are delivered on Tuesday. The meat is from Australia and New Zealand, the vegetables are from a local organic farm. We had a compound BBQ on Friday night and BBQ'd some beautiful steaks...we sweated profusely but enjoyed being outside. As I said earlier our compound neighbors are lovely; warm, friendly people with delightful children. Seamus is over the moon because Ted, our neighbor, invited him to his air soft gun birthday party this Saturday. Seamus is begging us for an air soft gun but that isn't going to happen. Riley is still pretty unhappy about being here. She spend Saturday cruising around the city with some friends and will sleep over at a friends house this Friday. We are glad she is making friends, playing sports and singing but we know-through her outbursts-that she misses California immensely. Annie and Conor seem to be enjoying their life here, making friends, enjoying school etc. And me? Now that I am feeling better I can get back to exercising. I went to my boxfit class today-cute Australian guy runs a circuit class next to the beach (in the shade). Ten women train together, chat and enjoy good company. Annie and Conor have "virtual school" so I will help them with their assignments and then head to a friends house for an afternoon swim. I forgot to mention that we went to Big Wave Bay on Saturday. The heat was a bit oppressive but we enjoyed lunch and a swim. The water was decent, small waves with lots of boogie boarders. The scary part is that the water had been tested a week ago and it rated as "poor". Rich was reluctant to go in the water but Conor and I were desperate to cool off. Everyone joined us but Rich reminds me that if he gets sick....I am going to think positive thoughts!!

Ok, must check on Annie and Conor. Just wanted to say hi and let you know we are well.

Much love,

Mary