spring break

it is hard to get too riled up about internet censorship (and blogger constantly being blocked) when it is spring break and we get a whole week together as a family without pesky things like work, life and responsibilities getting in the way.

we started the week of with a trip to lake issy-kul with nelson, lauren and sebastian (olive's future husband). we stayed on the north shore about a four hour drive from bishkek at a resort called karven four seasons. i am not sure that it is fair to call the resort "four seasons" as blizzard blew through the first night and we lost power for most of it... but otherwise the place was super nice. i would go so far as to say "american nice". we shared a cottage with nelson and lauren and each family had their own side of the house with private bathrooms. huge living room area and a nice big kitchen (without a stove... which we were prepared for as we brought a portable stove... but still weird). the resort is right on the lake and features a pier built right over the water. indoor and outdoor tennis courts. indoor and outdoor pools. water slides. playgrounds for kids. bowling alley. disco. hot tubs and sauna. and the best 1000som (about $18 usd) hour and a half hot stone massages.

nelson and lauren have moved into the upper echelon of friends who we can say that we actually like traveling with (april, holly and randy/bridget would be the others). they were very laid back and easy going. quick to laugh and they place just as much emphasis on cooking and eating good food and taking naps as we did.

great trip and we are already planning another trip with a larger group in may and in august when mom and aunt ann come to visit.

the rest of spring break was pretty mellow and quite. loads of olive and boone time... so in other words... perfect.

summer travel to the states

summer still seems like a long way off but we had to turn in a form to qsi on friday requesting our travel dates/airline tickets for the summer. they look over the forms and in a couple of weeks will send us back ticket options to consider. sometime the choices are limited as they go with the "cheapest, safest" airline. we will either end up flying turkish air through istanbul, chicago and then houston. or aeroflot through moscow, washington dc and then houston. or bmi/british air through london and them directly to houston.

if we end up flying aeroflot we will come straight home. we have the option of visiting my high school friend patick buzzard and his family in moscow but we will pass on seeing them this time around. jen and i are both kind of soviet unioned out at this point. we might do a layover for a night or two in dc. we have some friends who were posted in bishkek last year who live there now. it could be fun to see them. plus jen has never been to dc before.

flying through london would give us a chance to go to wales again and visit some of jen's friends and the family she nannied for. if you remember - we visited there on our way out to bishkek the first time. it was a great trip and would be worth doing again.

if we fly through istanbul... we will definitely stay over for five days or so. both of us have wanted to visit turkey and the beginning of the summer would be a great time to do it.

(if you are wondering about boone - he will live with nina for the summer or with our friends dan and irene who just moved in across the street from us)

so we will get to houston sometime the third week of june. stay with mom and deana for a week or so. visit houston friends. and then either drive (if our car isn't with jen's dad in oregon) to the west coast or take the train to california.

we will spend most of the summer in southern california with jen's family - which i am looking forward too. i am sure we will take trips down to san diego and baja. and we will go up to oregon at some point to visit jen's dad.

then around the first week of august we will head back to houston to stay with my mom again before flying back to bishkek on the 18th of august.

again - on the way home we might take advantage of the free ticket and layover somewhere. we will see.

anyway - the point of this email is to say "we are coming home for the summer" and we hope to get to spend quality time with all of our friends and family (that means family and friends in houston, folks in rockdale and austin, my UH and CSUSB community, all of jen's family, aunt mary, rex and cindy, and hopefully somewhere along the way brian, phil, and randy). so if you know what your summer is like yet - share your travel plans with us so we can try to coordinate and connect.

four months and counting!

last days

the last days of our trip were a blur. kerstin drove us to munich. the drive was only suppose to be two and a half hours yet somehow ended up lasting almost six when all was said and done. might have had something to do with the 'shortcut' through the countryside to avoid the autobahn we took. or perhaps it was our one hour stop at a burger king. or maybe the three times we stopped because olive was protesting car travel. or maybe it was the two hour layover in ikea. by the time that kerstin dumped us off at some random tram station - it was almost dark. we said our goodbyes (we hope to see you again soon kerstin!) and took the tram into central munich where we met up with katja and thomas our local couch surfing hosts.

katja and thomas were a super nice couple. she is five months pregnant with their first child. they both have the travel bug like jennifer and i do and were curious to know what it was like to travel with a new born as they hope to do it as well.

after we got settled in we headed into old town munich where they showed us the sights and then we went to one of the famous bavarian beer halls for dinner (and the world's least attentive and most rude waitresses).

we had hoped to stay in munich for two days but decided it was better to head back to vienna early the next afternoon. another long train ride. more wandering around in the dark looking for our night's lodging (this time in youth hostel). we ate dinner from the hostel's bar and squatted in the room for the night instead of getting out to explore on our last evening in europe. we were all three exhausted by this point.

tomorrow morning we have to get up early to hitch a ride to the airport for our 1100am flight. along the way we need to buy some diapers for our daughter who has run out.

new years day

happy new years everyone.

we had a nice quite (with the exception of the crazy amount of fireworks being shot off by every german) new years eve. we cooked dinner together on a __________ (i have no idea what you call the thing - it has a grill on top and little trays underneath were everyone can bake their own veggies, etc) which was great. we would love to have on of the ___________ at home because they are perfect for entertaining friends. the girls were asleep by this point and the three of us (kerstin, jen and myself) found ourselves reading and lounging on the couch looking at the clock wondering if we could stay away until midnight!

as the new year got closer, we each shared our highs and lows of the past year (i am pretty sure you can guess ours - olive being born and my dad dying) as well as our resolutions for the coming year.

it was a good way to bring in the new year. sharing good conversation with my best friend (that would be you jenny) and someone who we know who will be our friend for years to come.

on the first we spent another full day with kerstin. went to lunch up in the albs (the local mountain range... it isn't a misspelling. the name is 'albs' not alps) with kerstin's family. ate so much wiener schnitzel that it is dripping out of my pours. but i am happy. afterward we went on about an hour walk (i think we were actually lost for a little bit) along some trekking paths outside of the restaurant. i carried olive most of the way and loved feeling her sleep up against my chest and neck as she slept.

we are slowly making our way back to vienna tomorrow. kerstin is going to drive us to munich (about 2.5 hours away) where we will spend one night before heading into austria. the trip is coming to quick close...

new years eve - the day

good first morning in germany. kerstin's apartment is in a small village surrounded by green lush hills/mountains. outside her living room window we can see the castle teck. the weather is gray and overcast. but the good kind of gray and overcast. reminds me a little bit of what wales felt and looked like when jen and i visited at the beginning of the bishkek adventure.

the (little) girls slept in until 800ish which allowed the grown ups to sleep that late as well. we shared a nice breakfast and started to get ready for the day - which is a challenge as right as we are ready to go the little ones are ready for their morning naps. we finally left the apartment around 1030am and headed to the neighboring town of kirchheim (which means "church" and "home" in german). the city center (as most city centers in europe... what is wrong with american city planners?!) is closed off to traffic and is full of people walking, window shopping, and eating from sidewalk vendors. it was very nice - just the kind of thing that jen and i like doing.

we did some shopping for our new years dinner tonight and stopped so jen and kerstin could share some ice cream.

we returned home around 300pm for napping (if olive and lenara will allow it) before our exciting stay in at home new years evening.

travel to germany

we traveled to stuttgart, germany today to visit our friend kerstin.  on the map... everything seems a lot closer!  we ended up taking two trams, a bus (for four hours), a train (for two hours) and a car (for forty minutes) to get to her house.  so all in all a long day of travel.

but we are very excited to be here.  we feel like we know kerstin much better than we actually do.  we had chatted with her on email and read her blog before we even moved there and she was the first person we met when we moved to bishkek. we only got together four of five times together in kyrgyzstan before she moved back to germany - but we really connected (although she might disagree with that!).

much has changed in the year plus since we shared a farewell dinner at stari gorad so we feel like we are both catching up and getting to know each other for the very first time.

kerstin has a eight month old daughter named lenara who is complete cutie.  it is interested to see how much more developed she is than olive and for us to be able to better imagine what our daughter is going to be like in four months.

our days here will be pretty low key - which is nice after how active (well... except for nap day) we were in prague.  we are not sure how long we are staying.  our flight leaves on the morning of the fourth out of vienna. perhaps an extended stay here (don't be scared when you read that kerstin!)... or heading to munich where we have a couch surfing host... or off to vienna early (ikea anyone?).

we are excited about tomorrow and new years so not trying to look too far ahead and returning home.

our last day in prague

today was our last day in prague... for now.  all three of us (olive's vote counts) really like it here and we hope to come back and visit one day.  we actually ended up sending in our resumes to the international school here as it also seems a good place to live as well.  we didn't end up getting much out of the touristy areas - but the little we saw seemed really nice.  the city is surprisingly expensive.  in some regards we have lost a sense of what things cost in the real world outside of bishkek - so anytime we spent more than $10 on anything we have sticker shock.  but at the same time - prague/europe in general is much more expensive than things in the states.  go america!  let freedom ring!

we were determined to get out today after our lazy monday and as a result we ended up spending a good portion of the day out walking and exploring.  we started by walking to the prague castle which is located right up the hill from our apartment.  our interest in visiting the castle was perfunctory at best.   we much prefer to get off the beaten track and get away from the tourist and tourist places.

but we are so glad we went and left wishing we had gone earlier in the trip.  of course the place was swarming with tourist (which we begrudgingly have to consider ourselves at times) - but rightfully so.  the castle and supporting buildings, churches, etc were so, so beautiful.  built on top of the largest hill in prague - the castle grounds command an amazing view of all prague.

lots of walking and olive slept through most of it.  olive - don't ever say we didn't take you anywhere as a baby - you don't remember because you love sleeping while mom is toting you around.

after the castle we recharged our batteries a bit and warmed up with some "authentic" irish stew - assuming that authentic irish stew is made with canned beans and hot dogs.  headed out to the suburbs to another castle complex (beautiful parks all around it) where we did lots of more walking until it got so cold that olive's mouth actually froze to jen's nipple.

ended the night by returned to st. nicholas (we went there on our first night in prague) for a last night pizza.

lazy monday

we had great intentions today. lots of exploring in the itinerary. instead we opted for eating a late breakfast and then lounging around the apartment all afternoon - high lighted by jen and olive taking a four hour nap. the rest was much needed and appreciated. we didn't feel guilty at all for not getting out during the day.

after dark we heading down to the charles bridge to see the views of the castle at night. we meandered into old town... ate goulach for the first time (it was on our "must do" list)... and watched the astrological clock at the top of the hour.  it was fun being in the square at night with all the holiday revelers. 

the highlights of the day was olive sitting in a high chair for the first time and trying solid food for the first time (a small piece of banana that she swished around her mouth before spitting it out). our little girl is growing up!

the jewish quarters

today was a pretty mellow day. we got a slow start to the day as olive let the family sleep in until 900am. we ate our usual vegan breakfast as the castle steps restaurant (who needs bacon... we do! we do!). and then took the trolley across the river to the jewish quarters. small, narrow cobble stone streets. lots of great old buildings and churches. made for a great day of wandering. and what says jewish quarter more than thaifood? we found a small little thai place and couldn't resist. it was wonderful although it gave all three of us gas for the rest of the day and evening. jen is convinced that anything that she eats that is spicy goes directly into her breast milk and makes olive gassy. i think she says that just to draw attention away from her own gas.

our wandering eventually took us back to the old town. the square was packed with people. live czech music and meat on sticks.

we ended the night by taking the tram around town (and getting lost in the process) in search of diapers. our limited russian actually comes in handy here. many folks (especially the older ones) speak russian. i think the two languages are fairly similar anyway. we finally found diapers in a tesco store located inside of huge mall called my narodi. we also bought some cereal and lunch meat from the grocery store there so we can save some money (it is so expensive here) by eating in.

dinner ended up being scrabbled eggs with ham tortilla rolls.

job interview

christmas is the season of giving. it is also the season of applying for jobs next year if you are a teacher at an international school.

this morning we had a video skype interview with larry, the director of the american community school in amman, jordon. i had originally applied for the athletic director position but as it was already filled... they wanted to talk to us about teaching middle school math for me and second grade for jennifer.

the interview went well and jen is confident that we will be offered the positions. we have some friends at the us embassy in bishkek that use to live in amman and they loved it. we are still waiting to hear from qsi regarding what our options will be with them next year.

back to our vacation... we are heading out to explore the jewish district today.

prague

we woke up fairly early this morning (olive is still on bishkek time). our apartment is located right over nerudova street which is one of the oldest and most historic streets in prague. we can look out of our window down on the busy street below and watch as the tourist (an overwhelmingly amount of tourist) head up the hill to the castle or down the hill to the charles bridge.

a (vegan) breakfast is included each morning with our apartment so we started the day walking up the street a short distance to the castle steps restaurant. good breakfast of fruit, veggies, bagels and cereals.

our plan for the day was to walk into town and explore the old city. the streets are all cobble stone, narrow and full of historic buildings. the top floors seem to be mostly apartments and flats. the bottom floors are all cafes and shops.

we were a bit taken back by how touristy everything was. compared to vienna where we seem surrounded by locals - here the tourist crowded the sidewalks, spilled into the streets, and bumped into you where ever you went. it didnt' take away from the experience - it was just different that bratislava or vienna.

i am not surprised at how many tourist there are here. the town is amazing. like no place either one of us have ever been. it seems like in every direction you look... down every side street... there awaits something to be discovered. it feels so authentically european here. so much more so than vienna which by comparision seems sterile. that isn't to say we didn't like vienna... we did. it just is so different than here. the skyline is dominated by the spires of cathedrals, castle towers and ramparts.

we slowly made our way over charles bridge (it is amazing and as romantic as we imagined) and into the heart of the old town square which is dominated by two churches and the clock tower. the christmas market is still going on there and we ate (so much eating on this trip!), mingled around and shopped.

marionettes originate from the czech republic (we did not know that) and the are everywhere. old antique ones. crazy scary ones. small kid ones. we are shopping around and planning on buying one to go along with the one we bought while in india last spring.

after four or five hours we were all pretty exhausted and cold. we navigated our way back home using the tube. i cooked dinner (we have a shared kitchen with another apartment). miso soup and grilled salami (from vienna) and cheese.

vienna to prague on christmas day

we left vienna early this morning for prague. rainer was nice enough to get up and see us off. either that or to make sure we really were leaving at last.  i like rainer and hope that we keep in touch.

we took 59a one last time to the station and boarded the train for the almost five hour trip to prague. traveling on a train is so much more pleasant than flying.  i wish we could travel everywhere that way.  we shared a compartment with one other guy who didn't seem to speak english (he didn't flinch when i tested the theory by saying the words "penis" and "vagina" out loud). he also didn't seem to be too excited about sharing a compartment with a crying baby. it was olive's most challenging travel day - she was fussy a good portion of the trip - which in turn made jen and i fussy towards each other a bit especially when we arrive in prague to find out that our hired taxi was not waiting for us.  turned into a total pain trying to figure out our own transportation into the city and to our apartment.  i think this was the first time that parenting stress got the best of us and caused us to get in a spat.  it didn't help that i let olive chew on a plastic cup (against jen's objections) that ended up causing her gums to bleed and sent her into another bout of crying.  jen who is always so composed and patient ended up calling me a name.  i won't repeat it here as the blog isn't a place for us to air our dirty laundry... but the name started with an "a" had a couple of "s'es" and a "hole" in it.  ok... since you can't guess i will tell you.  she called me an "asshole".  maybe i had it coming.

on a good note... the czech country side was lovely and we decided that we are going to own a farm there one day (it is good to dream).

once we finally got set up in our room our spirits rose considerably.  we are situated right in the old town - right below the prague castle and a short walk from the charles bridge and the old town square.  after calling home to wish family a merry christmas and let them know how much we missed them (we miss you family!) - we headed out for a christmas dinner of our own - salads and pizzas!

we are so excited to explore the city tomorrow.

christmas eve

in austria - as well as most of europe from what i can gather - christmas is celebrated on december 24 instead of december 25.  the holiday is all about christmas eve and not christmas morning.  we woke up early (around 600am) as olive was ready for the day.  she is still on the bishkek time zone which is five hours a head - she has been going to bed around 700pm and waking up around 600am.

most of the house was up already starting christmas preparations.  rainer had invited his whole family over so including us there were going to be 13 people over at his house that night.  the couch surfers (being us) were given the fun job of pealing potatoes and polishing the silverware.  after finishing with that we cleaned up our stuff (we have been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor) and decided to head out and explore vienna one last time.  we returned to the opera/old town area (good ole bus 59a) and wandered around for a couple of hours.

we returned to rainer's around 300pm and got dressed - which included a shower for me (first time in five days... i was starting to get looks).  olivia had a cute christmas dress jennifer had packed for her.

people started showing up around 400pm.  most of them only spoke a little bit of english at best so jennifer and i were forced to practice our german... which meant we ended up playing charades the entire night.

folks sat around talking for a couple of hours until dinner was served around 700pm.  the dinner was traditional austrian christmas fare consisting of fish soup, potato salad, spinach salad, and baked fish.  no turkey or ham or mash potatoes for us this year.  dinner was nice though and different - which was we were hoping for - a different experience.  rainer and his family were very nice to us and they all made sure we felt included throughout the night.

after dinner santa delivered the christmas tree and gifts and we all moved into the living room.  it is austrian tradition to sing christmas carols before opening gifts.  the words were in both english and german.  after singing we opened gifts.  we brought some misc. kyrgyz gifts for everyone and we received some nice small presents as well including a knitted hat for olive.

it was a very nice, strange, but wonderful evening. 

we had so many photos that i put them on smugmug in slideshow format. 

bus 59a

in our second day in vienna we have become fairly intimate with bus 59a. it has been our main means of transportation into the city centre and back from rainer's flat. the weather warmed substantially from our first couple of days and it was much more comfortable outside and conducive to walking around.

we spent the entire day walking around the old town and getting lost on side streets always finding ourselves someplace worthy of exploring. jen and i talked about it and by far it is our favorite thing to do... just kind of wander without a plan (same could be said about our non-vacation life maybe!) and see what the day presents us.

today held lots of lovely old historic buildings, christmas markets, and holiday cheer (it has been fun to see all the families out and about). olive loves walking around in the baby bjorn and has been a trooper so far. we think she is having fun!

we made dinner for the couch surfers. it was suppose to be a tomato bisque soup but turned into a tomato sauce with gnocci.