Today was a fun day. It followed one of those curious Saturday arcs of fear and trepidation, a successfull morning, imperfect napping, a nice walking, and then an almost diastrous post-dinner hour. Still, some good things happened. As I write this the kids are all asleep and Emily is cleaning.
We did the sister cities presentation this morning. We talked to about thirty high school students and then had lunch with them. For all but two, it will be their first time to the States, and they seem excited and energetic. They cooed over the kids. Eva seemed to like the attnetion, but the boys were shyer and Sam was clearly getting frustrated (it was good he had a stroller he could hide in). They're less overwhelming in "public," but still a lot a lot a lot of work. Emily played with them in the school library and said they did fairly well there.
We had some other funny moments. Sam went to the bathroom this afternoon and called over Emily to announce that his poop "looked like a manatee!" Not sure more needs to be said on that....
We all took a family walk today. The weather is pretty good. It's neither cold and damp nor blazing hot and mosquitos are stll rare. We're enjoying spring while it lasts.
I've also been negotiating with my US employer. I think they'll cover child care. We're thinking of moving from a 3 to 4 year term. It wouldn't have a big impact. What we would do is go home for eight week in summer 2014 and then return for a semester (or something close) in January 2016. So this term would look like: 6 months in US at beginning of term (2nd half of 2012); ~18 months here; summer 2014 in US near family, ~18 months back here, home in the US for 4-7 months Jan 2016. That's the idea. We'd get an extra set of plane tickets and some more stability (I think). We'll still have to talk it through, but it sounds promising.
Other things are less simple. We're not sure about the newer vehicle, but probably should just go with it for the next year or two.
Language is coming along. Sam is saying the local word for "noodles" instead of "noodles." Emily noted he's translating more in his head, which is pretty interesting. I think he's old enough now to be pretty conscious of langauge difference. Eva can say thank you enthusiastically in the local language. They're all making general strides. Sam's big into "frog and toad," but we've also read "where the wild things are," "the three trees," and many other books. For a while Sam's been forcing Emily to read a superhero book she's really sick of.
Emily seems to be making progress on the dissertation. There's an international conference in her field in the region she could get to in August, and she'll probably try to go to it. A friend there could house her. We were talking about it in the car, and I forget how the conversation went, but it was something like this:
Emily: I don't know if I should go...
Sam: You can go! You should go! Eli and I will take care of daddy
Eli and Eva: Go! Go!
So, I think now she pretty much has to go.
Other logistics are still coming along. We probably need to do a little more nesting while we have a vehicle that can transport furniture. I have a bit of a cold and am not feeling great. I'm going to try to ramp up exercise, since the weather is good and my schedule is lightening up (major manuscript in, classes all started).
That's the news! Hope to talk to many of you soon! Jon
