A Vow Broken

Where we live we have KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, and of course, McDonalds.  So when we were planning our trip to KY, I promised not to eat once at McDonalds.  Then today we needed to return a Christmas gift in what I always considered a pretentious part of town.  Being there I knew we'd be able to find a nice bagel place.  Or an a muffin place.  Or even a Chik-Fil-A.  But not a one was to be found--even after 30 minutes of searching.

This was how I found myself at McDonalds this morning.  I did at least try to do something different, getting the breakfast burrito and remembering why I made my vow.  Then I tried to make it better by opening it and eating all the guts out with my bare hands like I would at home.  No help at all.  I still tasted like a McDonalds burrito (possibly the lowest point in burritodom, lower even than frozen ones I would cook in the microwave as a teenager).

I wonder a few things about people around here after spending over a year in Asia.  Like why we have never adopted the habit of eating rice for breakfast.  I mean people in Georgia eat pig intestines and lots of folks eat nasty stuff like grits and hominy.  Can't we get some rice around here before lunchtime?  

Also I wonder how people live when its so cold.  I guess they make it in KY because they know the weather will always change soon.  Sunday we had single-digit temps here.  Tomorrow, less than a week later, its forecast to be in the 70s.  That is seriously crazy.

Attitude

One thing we are not prepared for as parents is having the attitude that comes with little girls.  Angie is a bit better equipped to deal with dramatic stuff (although not totally prepared).  Poor ole Dad just says stuff like, "Why are you crying? ... Well, are you ugly? ... Well then he's stupid so just ignore him."  Which it seems is not all that helpful.

But if you find a cool afro wig how can you not bring on some 'tude?

The Supper of Champions!

Nothing beats eating at Grandma's house. You can have delicious, nutritious suppers like Crunch Berries and Funyons. Yummy!!

Bethany Baptism

Sunday morning we baptized Bethany in Glasgow! The obvious highlight of the trip!!

Updating

Some update on what's been happening in KY:

--Bethany was baptized this morning (pictures/video ASAP)
--Its FREEZING!! Tonight its supposed to be 4 degrees F (-15C) with a lot of wind...
--Our new Macbook arrived and has been downloading updates all day...
--When asked yesterday if he liked the Wildcats Hudson said, "I don't like High School Musical at all."
--Yesterday Craig spent multiple hours in Barnes and Noble
--Angie has been to Wal-Mart 16 times
--We have eaten pork every day
--We've been here six days and Angie STILL hasn't made it to Cracker Barrel
--Santa Claus is coming to town

Guess that is all for now. We'll get some actual pictures up whenever the camera, USB cable, and computer all end up in the same room at the same time :-).

Christmas Story

This week we ordered a new Macbook and now I am like the Dad in "A Christmas Story" waiting for the Fed Ex man to arrive. Except I am not expecting a huge wooden crate and I know what's inside.

I probably will say, "Fra-gee-lay, must be Italian" like he does when it arrives, though. The sad thing is that we are about to leave for Glasgow and so it will likely sit here all weekend without my being able to play with it and ignore all my family and friends in the process...

The Macbook deserves better than that. People? Hmmm ... can I get back to you on that?

Has Anyone Seen My Sun?

Every parent knows the panic of losing a kid in a crowded shopping center. This Christmas season we have lost something almost as important in the midst of all our shopping: a big, blazing, hot star in the sky.

One thing about living in SE Asia is that we have great weather ... if you like 90 degrees and lots of humidity. Sure lots of days we talk about how normal, everyday things can induce an all-over body sweat. Things like washing dishes or hanging out clothes. You can't even imagine what vacuuming does to you!! But we have the sun almost every day. Lots of blazing-hot-beating-down-sun.

Since arriving in KY, we have yet to see our big friend in the sky. It has been cloudy and cold everyday. Well, except today when its warming up but raining. I remember one time a few years ago when we went a month in Glasgow with no sunshine at all. So when it finally appeared again, I skipped out of work and got Angie for a drive. It was just good to stand there and let it hit your face!

We are getting a good taste of why in the winter of '06 we kept telling ourselves, "This is our last winter for a few years." Wow! Its hard to remember people live like this all winter long. I think of friends we know in Russia and other places and think how glad we are we're not them :-).

Blah! Blah Blah!

We made our first Wal-Mart trip in 14 months today. Its pretty much the same. One thing that struck me (though its not different from last year) is everyone standing around talking on the cell phones. I must've heard snippets of 50 riveting conversations. "Oh, I'm at Wal-Mart...what are you doing?"

Since where we live almost everyone deals in the pre-paid cell phone world, we don't see so many people talking ... they just send text messages. So instead of hearing everyone blabbing away, every fifth or sixth person has their head buried and is click-click-clicking away.

Some other things interesting to us so far: driving on the "wrong" side of the road again, free refills, Big Red (the awesome drink not WKU's idiot mascot), cold toes, and almost everyone speaking a language we understand. I was looking out for Asians the whole time today.

Snowing!

The KY people did it up right and had a winter storm warning for our arrival. The kids have been having a great time running outside and Bethany felt the need to dump a bunch on her head. So bathtubs, snow, sausage and gravy, and White Castle have gotten off to a good start. We'll stick up some pictures s soon as we can.

Gone a Long Time

"You go to UK?"  the man asked me.  

"Uh, no.  We've been to such-and-such a country."  

"No.  To the University of KY," the man says pointing at my shirt.  "I'm a UK grad."

Which makes me think ... we've been gone a long time.  You see in our context UK is "THE UK" as in The United Kingdom not as in THE University of Kentucky.  
So here I am in my wildcat shirt in Korea and a UK grad is asking me how the new coach is going to do this year.  

And I am thinking that I don't even know what the new coach's name is and haven't watched a UK game in about three years.  I am glad we go through Immigration in Chicago since if someone read this about me not knowing the UK basketball coach's name, I could be denied entry into the country if Immigration was in Fountain Run or something.

The airport has Dunkin Donuts, too. We have these in our town, too, but we never go there. Here they have great CHristmas theme donuts. So we got to have a unique cultural moment. We were speaking English to the Korean girl behind the counter while listening to Feliz Navidad on their little radio. How great is that? Thats global, baby.

Badminton

Where we live badminton is a sport.  A real, live, get all sweaty, pay to watch it sport.

So we got a net for the yard, just to find out no one has a net.  They just play in the street.  Oh well.  We're weird like that.

Here are some action-less shots of the awesome sport being played recently at our house.

Notice we have a nice man who comes around with a weed eater and takes care of our "lawn".  

For him taking care of it is trimming off ALL the grass so that when it rains all day (like today) its a huge muddy mess.  Turns out when you mow your yard like this you do not need to do it as often, though, which is nice.

So badminton .... its not as compelling maybe as Jarts or that game when old me stand on boxes and throw washers into holes but its not just for family reunions anymore.

Transplanting

As part of Bethany's science she grew some plants from seeds and we finally got them stuck in the ground last week.  It seems a bit weird that its so cold in KY and we are still sweating every day, feeling the sun beat down, and working in the yard.  That is how we roll here.

Each of the kids actually had a pot: Bethany--cucumbers, Hudson--tomatoes, Caleb--chili peppers.  Selecting the spot was tough.  Most of the yard doesn't drain well and the soil is just like KY, a hard clay that actually bent my junky garden trowel!

The other big concern was the fence.  You see, I wanted the plants close to the fence to help with staking them but we use the fence to hang our clothes on (they dry much faster on the fence than our fancy drying rack).

Finally we settled on the corner since there is a "volunteer" tree just on the other side that has a bunch of thorns but not much in the way of leaves.  The tree inhibits laundry but not the sun.

Hope it makes you feel better about your cold weather to see us sweating in our shorts in December :-)!!

Sacrifice Day

On Monday our neighbors celebrated the Feast of the Sacrifice.  We were invited to watch and see what all the excitement was about.  Our neighborhood sacrificed six cows.  Hoping you are not to squeamish here are some photos.  The first being the most graphic ... sorry!

This guy was in charge of separating the head.  And he was doing so with a hatchet.  I tried to get a picture of him with the ax at the top of its swing but finally gave up.  He was too fast.  He was working at that particular job with a great degree of gusto all while wearing a motorcycle helmet.  Pretty cool.  Today a friend told me no one working there was a professional butcher, everyone was an amateur.  So I still don't know if professional butchers use hatchets or not.  I think I would.
The insides were cleaned out, then it was skinned and the head and legs were removed.  This is what you could call "preleather".  Its different from pleather.

This is a while into the process.  The separated parts were taken to other stations for further cleaning.

The leg bones go here when all meat possible has been removed.  They boil the bones for soup -- see I'm not crazy!! These big pots are full of rice.  If you remove the Hispanics and Orientals from Glasgow this pot would equal the amount of rice the whole city eats in a month I would guess.  They needed multiple pots just for lunch!
The end result.  The meat is taken, packaged, and distributed to the poor.  Now you feel kind of bad for thinking they were mean to the cows don't you?!?  Anyway as Bethany says, "I'm OK eating dead animals, I just don't want to see it."  Don't think of the hatchet, just keep your mind on the gravy!!

Birthday Girl Yang Kedua (or Number 2)

Now everyone in the household has had a 2008 birthday.   WHEW!  If we find any more reasons to take days off from school, someone will call the law on us.  I remember when the guy from the school board came to hound us for having a combo of 6 tardies/absences.  If he were here now, he'd be like that Principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off hanging out in our bushes with a court order.  But we are in a different place now and so I guess the guys at the District Office on the Square have to find other things to do :-P !!

Of course Barbie had to be represented.  Bethany said last year her b-day was a let-down because everyone who came to her party gave a Barbie doll.  I remember getting model cars during gift exchanges at school and wondering, "Who likes models?  YUCK!"  So I know how she felt.  But still ... an 8-year-old girl?  Barbie has to make the party.
Technically these are "Barbies" too in the way that all soft drinks in KY are "Cokes".  (As in this conversation, "Hey, you want a Coke?"  "Sure."  "What kind?"  "A Big Red.")  All spindly-leg, plastic dolls are Barbies to me.  But these special Barbies are Troy and Gabriella.  If you don't know who they are based on that description, you are officially out of it and beyond help.  Just don't bother.
The big deal was a bike with fringy things on the handlebars.  Awesome.
Then we went bowling.  And then on to see Bolt.  Yeah a pretty big day.  Everyone was worn out and so we are actually waiting on the cake and ice cream for tomorrow, can you believe that?!?  

Birthday Girl

Friday saw our third family birthday in a month as we celebrated Angie's youth.  The kids seemed as excited as she did--thinking surely they would get to go to a movie like they did on Dad's b-day ... but no.  She did get some good cards.

We won't say how old she is this year.
Dad was able to find some Christmas socks, even though it is too hot here to wear socks!  They are a favorite of Angie's and she would typically wear them every day from Thanksgiving to New Years (at least).  Somewhere in KY a box of them is hidden away awaiting her cold toes. 

Also, after searching for weeks we found her an iPod dock thing.  All her gifts she had guessed days ago, though.  She's next to impossible to surprise.  In the past 19 years I have surprised her once.  Just once.
We wound up the early part of the day with lunch at TGIFridays where they made the Birthday Girl stand in a chair and sing.  Not so bad since the place is priced the same as the US so typically not too many folks are in there.  She got a piece of cheesecake and we all wolfed it down (Hudson was especially wolfy with it).

Later we had some brownies and ice cream, too.  One needs to make sure one has adequate sweets on special days.  So until we celebrate another birthday (Monday) we will have to put away our festivities.

In between the BD girl got to hang out with some leeches ... but that is another post!!

Quote of the Day

"I try to be optimistic .... but I just can't."  --Caleb W. Davis

Are You Boiling The Bones?

One tradition we have around the 'ole Davis house is after all the turkey has been ripped from the bones I like to boil the bones and make soup.  Its the kind of thing Angie doesn't like so much when I do it (she thinks I am soooo cheap).  It was a bit harder since we had carried all the turkey stuff 8 hours from home.  But I got it done.

There I was Friday after our turkey time in the mountains.  Then Angie says, "What are you doing in there?"  "Nothing," I say.   Then she knows.  "Are you boiling the bones?"  Ouch ... busted!  So after the bones were boiled and cleaned I had to carry the magic goo home in a ziplock bag until today when I freed its goodness!!

Oh, the finished product.  So tasty!  Even famous chefs long for my recipe.  But there isn't one.  I just make it up as I go along.

We did encounter the issue of not having wide egg noodles but we tried it with some bow-tie pasta and it worked out OK.

Don't they all look so happy and satisfied?

Creepy Crawlies

While we were in the mountains we went to a "butterfly" farm.  Which was short on butterflies but long on creepy stuff and things one can use to make various narcotics (according to our guide anyway).  Here are some highlights...

Talking a little car insurance...
This millipede was very weird feeling.  Tight on my wrist and when it started wriggling could induce a rather crazy outburst from a lesser man.  But not me!!
The stick bug.  Lucky he evolved this way.  The first few were red and easily spotted by birds.
This snake was a favorite.
The scorpion.  This was just before I started yelling, "Get it off me!!  Get it off me!!  Get it off me!!" like a little girl.  Well, not really yelling it ... but thinking it.  I was quite cool on the exterior.
Caleb worked up to holding this snake and was feeling quite brave by the time we were finished.  You'll notice the absence of two of our children, who though there refused to even hold a butterfly.  But not because the guide didn't try to "encourage" them.

Seriously?!?

Vatican thanks Muslims for returning God to Europe

Yeah, seriously...

Home!

Well it turned out our landslide was nearly a 4 hour delay and so instead of getting away at 10:30 it was more like 2.  But we are home now.  Thought someone might like to know we are off the road.

The Road to Nowhere

We were headed home from the mountains this morning. About an 8-9 hour drive for us. Then about 1 hour into the drive the road was closed due to a landslide (how is that for mountain living?). So we had to backtrack that hour-plus since there was more traffic heading back to town. We actually had to pass the place we stayed to find another road out of town which is farther out of our way ... with a ton of traffic since everyone is using one road!

We've had a great time, though, and no one wanted to head home. That is the mark of a good time--when no one is ready to leave! And maybe we won't be leaving after all anyway :-)!!

Thankful

What are we thankful for this year?  Well, a lot has been going on but here are some things that we can be really appreciative of this weekend:

Bathtubs!  The last time we were able to take a bath was in … um … in …. early June, maybe at a hotel.  Now we bathe everyday (some days more than once depending on the sweat factor) but an actual bathtub?  That is pretty awesome.

Hot Water!  At our house we have these wall-mounted water heaters in our showers (2 of 3 anyway) so when we bathe we do so with hot water.  Well, actually, hot water is available but often not used by Craig since its always so hot, cooler water is a soothing change.  So we do not have hot water for: sinks (hand washing, dishes, etc) or the washing machine.  Where we are staying has hot water in the sinks so we can wash our hands and dishes in hot water.  That is nice.

Cold water!  Since where we live is hot and the water we have at sinks doesn’t come from pipes buried deep in the ground, its never very cold.  Its cool here and so on Thanksgiving Day when we were eating at Kumar’s we went to wash our hands and found the water was COLD.  That was pretty sweet.  Hard not to splash it all over your face when it’s cool like that.

Fire!  This place has a fireplace and since its cool here, we can use the fireplace (maybe its 60 outside and everyone was covered with blankets as we watched ‘Miracle on 34^th Street’).  It’s nice and smells good and reminds me of my grandparent’s house before they installed that dastardly, efficient wood stove in their fireplace (booo on the wood stove insert).

Turkey!  We carried our turkey 8 hours in a cooler to have it here for our big meal on Friday.

Enjoying ham sandwiches for breakfast!
Ham!!!  Omigosh … we haven’t had a ham sandwich since June.  You have to know that here pork and things like that are sold in a “special” section of the grocery.  It has everything except flashing DO NOT ENTER signs.  It’s actually in our rental agreement for our house that we cannot have pork there.  Plus our neighbors hate it and so we wouldn’t eat it there anyway.  But Wednesday night we shelled out $8 per pound for thinly sliced ham for sandwiches.  The lady offered us the first two slices to taste and we thought the kids were going to go crazy.  I hear pork does that to people…

Quiet!  We live near a pretty busy road and the traffic there never seems to stop.  So never does the noise of the traffic stop.  Now we are sitting and its so cool and quiet it’s amazing.  (Plus did I mention its cool?)

Towels That Don’t Stink!  Something about living in the tropics makes your towels stink.  They smell like mildew and it’s almost impossible to get out.  You wash and air out and throw in the dryer.  Then as soon as you get it wet and wipe your face it hits you, “Man, this towel stinks!”  It seems this weekend we have towels that smell like what towels are supposed to – nothing!

Christmas Music and Movies!  I love Christmas movies.  Normally I am sort of cynical and sarcastic (no, seriously) but I love Christmas movies.  You know, the kind where the bad guy has a change of heart and does the right thing and people go for the peace and goodwill of it all.  I love it that Charlie Brown has people rally around him.  I love the hope and that people see how shortsighted they are being and they mend relationships and they reach out and the give and think of others.  I love that I was standing in a parking garage surrounded by hundreds of people who know nothing of the true reason we celebrate Christmas and I could hear, “He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love…” and I can close my eyes and be reminded that He really does rule the world and He does it with grace and love and patience.

Now two years ago I probably would not have been able to make a list that included things like these (and commodes, soap and paper towels in bathrooms, free refills, and mall holiday decorations).  My list would have been different.  I’m sure yours is different.  Which leads me to worry that maybe you’d feel sorry for us or think we are missing something by not having hot water to wash our whites.  Then you’d be missing something important. 

I am thankful for all these things but they don’t make me wish my life every day were different.  I am so appreciative for the opportunity for us to do what we do, where we do it.  Today we got to stand at the base of a big waterfall feeling the mist cover us.  I got to hear someone say, “You speak my language really well.”  We get to be different for a reason.

Oftentimes I tell the kids that everything you get costs you something.  And it does, every choice costs you something.  But if you make good choices it also gives you something.  Maybe something you never even thought to ask for but find you can really love.  I guess now I even sound like a Christmas movie but I’m thankful for that, too!

Stealing? Not ME!

I am against the very idea of sitting outside a place and using their free wi-fi without buying anything.

I am against the idea, that is, but very willing to do it in practice.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happening This Week

We'll be traveling some the end of this week for Thanksgiving and are unsure if we will have internet or not.  If so, we'll keep you updated on our exciting lives ;-).  If not, we'll just have more stories for when we get back on Monday.

Here's hoping you have a great Thanksgiving ... try to do your best and enjoy your family time.  

From the people who brought you Imitation Crabmeat

Its Coming Together

With Thanksgiving approaching, our holiday things are coming together.  A few weeks ago we found some canned cranberries, then recently a package of Stove Top stuffing.  Finally we found this guy.

Some folks had said turkeys were hard to come by and expensive so we were excited to get this dude.  Weighing in at around 8.5 pounds, he cost right at $32.  Not exactly the loss leader you'll find this week in the US groceries but still we are glad he will get to be a part of our holiday!!

Igor = EGAD!

We just got back from seeing the new movie Igor  (well, its new here anyway) and man was it BAD!  Had I paid out the $1.38 for a bootleg DVD I would still feel robbed.  YUCK .... STAY AWAY!!

More Monkeys

The other day about 20 minutes from our house Craig was driving with a friend when he came upon a police car parked on the side of the road.

Now police check points are nothing new here (we've seen three in the past two days) but this was odd in that it was seriously in the middle of nowhere.

So when they got close they realized the policemen were feeding the monkeys bananas.  Which is a great idea for monkey viewing since we have taken the kids there before and not seen any primates at all.

So the policemen (being all about service and the public) shared their bananas and talked about the stress-relieving benefits of monkey-feeding.  Who knew?!?

Once all the bananas were depleted and people were tired of standing in the blazing hot November sun, everyone decided it was time to go.

But then came the best part.  One policeman took the banana stalk and threw it into the vegetation along the side of the road.  Which seems fine since its technically biodegradable.  Then he took the plastic bag and threw it into the weeds, too!!

Then it was time to get back to work.

**Disclaimer.  Wild monkeys are dangerous and can carry disease.  Please do not attempt to interact with wild animals on your own.  These law enforcement officers are highly trained professionals.  It is never right to litter.**

Yummy ... Slimy Things!

A friend and I got to hang out with some folks today having a Coke and some conversation.  When all the sudden a food offer came.  My reply?  The standard, "I ain't skeered!"  So out came the snails ... or something.  Here is a look into the slimy abiss.  Mmmm, tasty.

Turns out the trick is to make this kissing sounds whilst sucking the little critter out of his shell.  But of course not sucking so much so as to lodge the little dude in your tracheae or anything.  Careful now.  We didn't come all this way to die sucking on a shell.  I know it looks like we're doing shooters but we're not.  We sucking on mollusks ... or something.
Here is said friend who only ate one because I shamed him with my bravado.  It turns out its harder than it looks and tastes worse than you think.  Also, its very funny if you are not the white guy.  I guess so anyway since everyone was laughing.

Wet Sunset

The other night we went out for some Indian food.  When we left the house it was pouring rain.

As we got a seat at Hamid's, the sun was just going down (i.e hampir magrib).  Seems far off to the west things were a bit clearer.

So we had a pretty nice sunset and pouring rain all at once.

The bottom picture looks a bit like the road is flooded but its not.  I think its just a back road and looks like that.

When the rain comes hard like that, though, we have plenty of water on the road.  Once it stops things generally get back to normal pretty quickly.

Guess one should expect that kind of weather in the tropics.  Sure beats flurries and lows in the 20's in my opinion.

Happy Birthday to Dad!!

We celebrated the big 38 with a trip to see Madagascar 2 and then on to TGIFridays for supper.

When we got home Angie quickly whipped up some homemade chocolate frosting for the cake she made earlier in the day.

She is quite the cook and goes way above and beyond the call of duty.  You can bet she won't get homemade icing on her birthday.  Just a bunch of curry puffs with candles in them!!

Sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy ... its the waiters fault.  Also notice we were all FREEZING in there.

If I am elected...

I promise to only allow people who can drive to install road signs.  Non-drivers will only be allowed flag and shovel duty.

P.S.  Water Update:  We had some for a while but now it is gone again...