Football (aka- Soccer)

We went to watch the national team play against Chelsea last night. For all those who don't know (since most of you are Americans who live in America, you probably don't)...Chelsea is a "Football Club." It's one of THE best teams in the world of soccer...its in the "English Premier League" which is the most popular league in the world. David Beckham played for Manchester United...another of the English Premier League teams. Just fyi.
We had a great time! And Chelsea- on their pre-season (I think...still have a lot to learn!) Asian tour- scored a merciful 2 goals on the national team to win 2-0. Although I think the national team guys were playing their best and Chelsea guys were only having fun.
It was Isaac's first professional sports event! He liked it as there was plenty of stuff to look at. Never thought I would ever go to a pro-soccer game much less it be one of my children's first exposure to sports. Fun! (Don't worry, the AMERICAN football season is about to start... we've got jersey's and t-shirts ready...also, NO I'm not a Seahawks fan...the hat was free and I felt "sporty" wearing it. I don't have a Dolphins/Braves/Gators/Seminoles/Jaguars hat or I would have worn it for sure.) Definitely a Father-Son type of thing! Anthony loved holding Isaac and just being at a game with him. Awesome:)
The cheering bothered him- especially "the wave" for some reason. But eventually he was able to drown the crowd and go to sleep. We had a great time!

IKEA: Swedish for "fun" (probably)

In August we're making a move from a two-story, 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house to a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom house in order give our language a boost. Many of our current neighbors speak English - some probably even better than us - and that makes learning a new language tricky. We've yet to meet someone around our new house who speaks English. Holla.

So how do we go from 1500 square feet to 800? Easy. Head to IKEA to gank some ideas off the Swedes.

Apparently the Swedish can fit a lot of stuff in a very small area. They even had a display showing how to decorate an entire house that was only 400 square feet big. Shoot, we can fit two of those in our new place.

As always, we had fun at IKEA. Baby Boy has never had so much fun in a changing station.But here's the real reason we wrote yet another post about IKEA. As we were eating lunch we looked out the window and saw this: Here's a close up:
And this road is much busier than these pictures let on. There are things that the locals do that seem so crazy to us, but we Westerners can do some pretty stupid things too. This takes the cake for stupidity. I can't even imaging the mom's thought process - "Hey kids, while we wait for daddy to pick up the car, why don't you just plop some chairs down in the middle of this busy road... that way dad'll be sure to see us."

Water-falling

We went to a rainforest again today with the Law family, General Lee, and Tennessee. (Gen. Lee and TN are visiting us from the states) We took them to the waterfall Kakak and Abang always take us to. Here's Isaac and I standing in front of it...it was his first time there too! It's about 25 ft high. The first time we were here there were a whole bunch of locals swimming but today it was just us. We watched the locals that first day slide down the waterfall.

Most everyone seemed to have fun (only guys did it) and come out ok except for the very first guy we watched. He came up out of the water clutching his dis-located shoulder and ran off without talking to anyone (his friends were sitting on the edge laughing at him)...

Dis-located shoulder! Gross! Ouch!

So right from the start we pretty well decided not to do it...

1) because of danger and
2) because if we did it wrong we'd be laughed out of the water... so really because of pride.

But today my friends, was a different day.

Perhaps because of the lack of locals or the willingness of Tennessee to go first...but we decided to do it.

Tennessee and Anthony went first and after they had both done it twice, I figured it'd be harmless enough. It started raining and so I hurried up and did it before the water flowed faster...(I came close to drowning in a flash flood a few years ago while climbing a waterfall...all very dramatic, but it'll have to wait for another day and another blog)

We all survived just fine...and it was fun!

Check out the video of Tennesse going first, then of Anthony. (Pay no attention to the dramatic lady holding the camera)



Here is Tennessee mid-slide.
Here's me getting ready to slide! Fun times!
Next time if locals are there we'll show 'em we ain't scared!

**Oh, and still no leeches for me. Gen. Lee had one within 10 minutes of arriving...grrr.***

Fish Therapy...

Fish nibbling as exfoliation...
Have you heard of this? Has it made it to the US yet? Its the new thing here. Mrs. Guru, Tall T, and I went to check this place out. Fish that eat the dead skin off your feet and legs. It's true. The brochure says they're imported from Turkey. So for about $10 we went to try it out.
Here's the tanks you put your feet in. Warm water, soft pillows to sit on...and the blue lights aren't for decoration they're special UV lights that help kill bacteria in the water. Go figure...
Before dipping our feet in, we had to rinse off any lotions, etc that might be on our feet. I am an avid Bath&Body Works fan, so I had some rinsing to do.
Mrs. Guru and Tall T getting in...
At first it REALLY tickles. I love pedicures and they never tickle in the least...these fish have obviously never been to cosmetology school. After a couple minutes its fine. Until a big one finds you. Then its like a mini-hoover vacuum cleaner with a special "tickle" mode. I also noticed when I was just talking and not paying attention that I didn't notice any tickles, but as soon as I looked at a specific fish I could instantly feel exactly what the fish was doing and it would tickle.

At first Isaac was just in his stroller but some 4 year old girl started messing with him so I had to hold him... so of course we put his feet in...
You could tell it tickled him because he would relax then suddenly jerk his feet up. Funny!
It was great to hang out...but as far as the fish go it wasn't like the most miraculous spa treatment I've ever had. The fish's mouths are supposed to have some sort of enzyme in them that leave your feet feeling fresh. I could tell something had been done to them, but no different than a peppermint scrub. It was fun but for about the same price I could have a lady not only exfoliate my feet and legs, but also massage them, lotion them, and then paint my toenails. However if you happen to be in our neck of the woods sometime, I'd be happy to take you... if anything just to see your face when the fish begin "exfoliating."

Ketchup Time!!!

Ok...SOOOOO sorry to all you blog followers out there! A month is too long! For all you who have waited patiently there are 3 posts below and the blog is now caught up. (still have to get to the baby blog...playing catch up is no fun!) Go down and start with #1 as everything will make more sense that way!

Hope you enjoy. Leave lots of comments!

Ketchup #3- Thailand

So after our one-day break we were off to Thailand. Most of it was a business trip, but we managed to get some vacation time in too:)
By this point Isaac was a pro at flying.We slept in as often as we could:)Waking up before it was absolutely necessary is against vacation rules!We hung out and watched Wimbledon on the free satellite...but that wasn't the thing that really interested Isaac...



Then to round off Isaac's water experiences for the month...a big pool!My legs look like they belong on a T-Rex in that picture! Ha!
He was a hit with locals who had no qualms with picking him up out of his stroller or taking him out of my arms. It should be interesting when we get to the 6-month "stranger anxiety" stage and they try to take him from his mama!We took some family pictures too:)

Thailand has "Baht Buses" or Song-Tows that you can catch to many places around town.
You can take a baht bus to a market......or to a delicious Mexican Restaurant in the red-light part of town. Actually, this city in Thailand is known for its "Red-light-ness" if you will, so there's really no part of town that isn't red light. So what can you do but go and enjoy good food while the waitresses pick up your baby and show them to all the other girls in the restaurant while you eat in peace? haha!
Just a note for anyone concerned out there... we didn't pick this town to meet in and in order to keep meals as family friendly as possible, we always went early to dinner. We also made a point to buy some items from a company that exists from women who have come out of prostitution. The women are trained to make cute handicrafts and other small items...we do what we can!

Ketchup #2- English Camp2

We went home, had 2 days to rest and then it was back on another airplane to another part of the country to do another week of camp.This camp location was on the beach too! We were NOT in charge of deciding camp locations, but we think the folks who were did great!It was fun again. This time Mr. Guru came and helped us introduce Ultimate Frisbee... we did it the week before too, but it rained nearly the whole time so the second week's Ultimate was way better!
We were getting to know our visitors from the US better and had a lot of fun with them as well. Buddy did some freestyle beat-boxing and Anthony joined in on the guitar. Later on in the week one of the campers played the recorder and they did it again...HILARIOUS! If y'all beg me, I'll see if I can find the video and post it.
One video we will show... Here they are very big on "Closing Ceremonies." Even something as informal as a camp for middle schoolers ends in a closing ceremony. Usually some important official (who hasn't been at the camp or even knows what's going on) comes and gives a speech and lots of awards are handed out. We had closing ceremonies for both weeks but the second week a group of (5th grade age maybe?) kids came and performed some cultural dances. These kids were good! They had even traveled to London to perform there. We enjoyed it. After a week of speaking English and talking about "...in America we..." it was great to see some of the local culture...and a quality performance at that!





The east coast is known for its batik. So at the end of camp we got to go to a batik factory...very cool!
Right before we left we ate at the local public beach. This is the public beach?! Gorgeous! I think the McDonald's there has one of the best McD locations in the world!
Then it was back on a plane! We had one day to do laundry, take Isaac to the doctor for vaccines/check-up, debrief the folks from the US, and then re-pack to leave for Thailand the next morning! (See there's a reason the blog hasn't been updated in a month!)