Daydreaming of Antwerpen

Even though my friend Iene sees nothing special about Antwerp, all I can do now is daydream about where we can go, what we can do, and (look out waistline) what we can taste again.

I can't wait to walk up Sint-Katelijnvest to the Meir, stroll along past the shops, see again the baroque majesty of the buildings along Leysstraat, go to Nachtegalen Park on a Wednesday afternoon with friends when school lets out early, go to Linkeroever and visit the park along the river at van Eeden, hang out in the Groenplaats, explore the markets in the Hoogstraat neighborhood, visit the art museum, Korte Gasthuisstraat and the sweet little shops in that neighborhood, and on and on and on. We want to hang out at Het Elfde Gebod (the Eleventh Commandment) and take pictures this time! And I am going to email JieJie and MeiMei's former school to ask whether the girls might be able to go to school on a Friday around lunchtime and stay for the weekly puppet show, just for old times' sake. The girls rattled off the names of several people they hope to see again, not just at school but also Mr. K and his wife. We'll see the proprietors of the Highlander pub...the woman who runs 't Keizerke...the sweet ladies who sell bread at Goossens...the retired dancer who serves up great coffee and hot croissants at Chicco di Cafe...even though we were only there for four months, I have these faces in my memory...again, must take pictures!

John wants to go back to Brugge (gotta see that new movie In Bruges by the way). I'll be visiting a new business associate in Brussels--more on that later as we make our big announcement in the next couple of weeks. Because John is an historian, his half of the trip is tax deductible, and because I'm visiting T in Brussels to officially shake hands on a joint venture, my half will be tax deductible too! Unfortunately, the girls' visit to Plopsaland is not deductible as a professional expense...but hey, I thought "play was a child's work"!!! Does an established precept of developmental psychology carry no weight with the IRS? I guess not.

I have been hoping to work with more and more EU-based clients as I grow my small business, so another task on the to-do list for this trip is to open an account in euros that EU clients can transfer payments into without either of us having to pay a currency exchange fee. And really, with the euro as strong as it is right now, it makes a lot of sense just to keep some euros. If we keep traveling across the Atlantic every so often, we can use the euros while we're overseas and won't have to pay for currency exchange. Just have to check into tax liability...I'm sure there are some nuances there!

Lodgings...Check!

It's official - we can have the same apartment where we stayed in 2007!

In case you're going to Antwerp and don't have a "connection"--let me give you a great tip: go to www.immoweb.be and click on Holiday / Vacation rentals. There is a studio apartment on Korte Gasthuisstraat that lets for 800euros / fortnight (two weeks)--that's REALLY cheap compared to a hotel, and you'd have a kitchen, AND you would be right across the street from Goossens Bakery, the 7 & 8 tram lines, the Meir, Super GB supermarket, Groenplaats, you name it. That was our backup plan if good old 3B didn't come through.

This is so perfect - the girls already know the apartment, the rules, their way around, and we won't have to worry about paying twice for lodgings if we would like to take a small side trip in the midst of the Antwerp visit.

Now our travel agent at Carlson-Wagonlit is looking at flights. We can depart from anywhere on the East Coast between Richmond VA and New York City, and can fly to Brussels or Amsterdam, so that should give us some flexibility. Hoping to get roundtrips as cheaply as possible but right now they're (gulp) around $1,000 for a full-price ticket. Thank heavens the girls are under 12!!!

LG

Europe '08, Revised

Once again, experience proves that a little research goes a long way!

Tuesday, John and I did not have classes to teach. It was Assessment Day (cue the choir) at JMU, the day when we see what our students have learned...or the day we see just how much they detest sitting in class taking long multiple choice tests when some of their friends have the day off...

And it was also Primary Day in Virginia. We dropped the girls off at school, voted (oh yeah!) and headed down I-81 to I-64 to Volvo of Charlottesville to check out the vehicles and the whole Overseas Delivery Program.

Pretty quickly, we settled on the Volvo XC90 because it seats 7 passengers. Even though the girls are just starting school, I've already seen the interdependence of the parent network around here. If you want people to be able to give your kids rides to stuff, you need to be able to reciprocate. It's only fair. So to get a vehicle that pretty much guarantees we could never bring a friend each for JieJie and MeiMei to the fair, the park, the mountains, or even just home from school...short-sighted to say the least.

We test-drove the xc90 and both found it comfortable, easy to handle (the thing has a gyroscope in the middle to keep track of "yaw"!) and with lots of extra little goo-gahs that make it feel extra luxurious. Knowing how much we'd save off the retail made it even more fun to drive.

We got some information about the Overseas Delivery Program. Basically you tell them when you want to show up in Sweden and what you want and they build it for you.

Just for fun, when I got home I made two different cost lists. One was the price of a new xc90 minus the OSD program discount and the cost of airfare to Europe. The other was the price of a Certified Pre-Owned 2007 xc90 and paying our own way to Europe.

Guess what? We come out better the second way!!! Especially when you take cash flow into consideration. A lower monthly payment is paramount. Once the euphoria from the trip wears off, there's that payment every month for five years...is any trip worth eating ramen noodles half the month for? If we didn't have kids, maybe, but let's get real.

A brand-new xc90 is in the mid-40K range...OUCH. But a certified pre-owned '07 with 15,000 miles on it can go for just under $35K, and get this: the warranty is actually longer than it would be on a new car (6/100,000 vs. 4/50,000). Go figure! AND the used ones tend to be program cars that have some nice packages on them, but we wouldn't have to pay extra for those. The price is the price.

John says if the right one comes along, we could be driving a new-to-us xc90 in a matter of weeks, or even days. I'll let you know what happens, but FINALLY we have found a car that we both like, that has the mixture of sporty, practical, roomy, safe, and well-appointed that we were hoping to find. The gas mileage is not great (17/22), I have to say, but we really don't drive all that much, so it's ok. This car is the long trip-mobile, and it will be plenty comfortable. And if we can scratch together a decent downpayment, we can swing it as far as monthly payments go.

Next job...finding cheap fares to Europe. Good luck on that one, eh? If you see any deals from Dulles to Brussels or Amsterdam, lemme know.

Sweden, Here We Come!

Summer plans are starting to take shape, and it's very promising indeed! I am taking a risk in some ways by making such a confident proclamation. Regular readers have no doubt noticed that we don't always end up going where we say we'll go. But I suspect that the trip idea/actual trip ratio for most travelers is anything but 1-to-1. for us I think it's about 3/1. Still, the odds of us taking the trip I think we're going to take this summer are pretty good!

Proposed Itinerary for the Globetrekker Heritage Tour, made possible in part by the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program:

+/- June 14: fly to Goteborg, Sweden to take delivery on a Volvo (model TBA...Volvo of Charlottesville is sending brochures for the S80, XC90 and Cross Country wagon).

amorphous itinerary from then on: tour the area around Sunne, Sweden where my great-great-grandfather Nils is from. Possibly meet distant, distant relatives. Drive down to the crossing to Copenhagen, tour Denmark, where John's Oma was born. Visit Kiel, Germany where John's Opa was born. See a bit more of Germany, work our way down to Antwerp, visit friends there, scoot up to Amsterdam/Mijdrecht to visit friends, and then go home and enjoy the rest of the summer.

In retrospect, I'm so thankful that we just couldn't settle on a car or any summer plans last fall, and I'm glad we didn't settle for a car that we weren't truly excited about. The stars have aligned and now our purchase of a second vehicle is going to make a great trip possible! Cue the celestial choir! Let's hear it for paying attention to a gut feeling.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Year of the Rat!

from John, Louise, JieJie & MeiMei Globetrekker

the picture is of the character "fu" which means happiness and good luck. At the lunar new year, it is hung upside down (as above) because the expression "upside down" in Mandarin sounds like "is coming."

On a More Serious Note: China snow & ice

Hi all,

First, let me say the four of us are doing fine, no major news compared to what I’m writing about. JieJie is looking forward to her 6th birthday party, which will be in a party room at our area’s Children’s Museum and will have a “dog” theme. No particular dog, just dogs in general. MeiMei will try her hand as Official Photographer with a disposable camera, which we’ve found to be a very effective thing to have the Not-Birthday-Girl sister do. (JieJie’s b-day is March 9th).

Now to the news. You may have noticed news items here and there about the terrible, terrible winter China is having, the worst in 50 years. Snow shut down the port of Shanghai a few days ago, one of the busiest in the world—and at the same latitude as South Carolina! Beijing is dealing with terrible road conditions, snow and ice, with interruptions in food supplies and power. To make matters worse, millions and millions of people are trying and trying and trying to get home and see family during the upcoming Lunar New Year, a ten-day-long period beginning this Thursday that for many people represents the only time during the year when they can take off from work and make the long trip home by bus or train. Imagine being a migrant worker and leaving your wife and children with your parents, going to the city to find work, and the desperation of knowing that if you can’t get home now, it will be another year before you see them again. Lunar New Year is like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Easter (spring festival) and the 4th of July (fireworks!) all rolled into one, and there are usually parties and feasts every day. A week or so ago, the Guangzhou train station was mobbed with 800,000 people all trying to get on trains that weren’t running because of the snow and ice and power outages, and the police were called in to quell the panic. The government is now urging people to stay put as they release emergency food stores to stave off a looming humanitarian crisis.

And the orphanages have been impacted. Because of the snow, many of the caregivers—who also care for the elderly in these “Social Welfare Institutes” for the young and old—have long ago given up on their new year holiday. And because of the unpredictability of travel, many are staying 24 hours a day at the SWI.

Because of power outages, water pumps are not working and the orphanage staff
are carrying water by hand in addition to all of their normal duties.

In one instance, the local government allowed the fire company to supply water with trucks because the situation was desperate. Many of the buildings in the more southerly locations don’t have heat, because they don’t usually need it. At an orphanage where my friend’s daughter was cared for, three babies in fragile health have already died, despite the best efforts of the nannies. What we have heard from Fuling is that the rooms in their new building all have heat, but that many people in the surrounding areas, including some families of the nannies, are suffering in the cold.

We hope and pray that the weather warms and the situation doesn’t get any worse.

There IS something you can do, however.

You’ve often seen me mention a group called Half the Sky Foundation, and they are on the ground in China delivering supplies like diapers, formula, and heaters to orphanages in need. Our adoptive families group is going to set up a donation bucket at our New Year party this Sunday night to collect donations. If you would like to donate, or would like to see more information about the number of orphanages impacted by the severe winter storms, here’s a link to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund.

Please help!
LG

On the horizon: a cruise in Europe

Just a quick heads-up. My parents just booked passage on a Danube River cruise for September of this year! I'm so happy for them. Their trip will take them from Budapest to Munich, via Vienna. Sounds lovely. Alas, you can't join them as they booked the very last cabin yesterday with Uniworld. And double Alas, we can't join them because the girls aren't 12 yet. That's fine with me - something to look forward to. I doubt the luxuriously leisurely pace would appeal to children, though it certainly appeals to ME (And Mom and Dad, I am not hinting. Seriously. Happy 42nd Anniversary, and here's to many more trips & beautiful memories).

I was daydreaming about travel today as we ran a few errands related to JieJie's 6th birthday, and from the back seat all I could hear were repeated questions... "Mom, when can we mail the invitations? When can we mail the invitations? MOM, whencanwemailtheinviTAAAAYYYY-SHUUUNNNNZZZ? And when can we get the things to fill the goodie bags and the pinata?" Etc.

These legendary rivers and waterways have shaped the history, culture and economy of Europe for thousands of years. Now they will help shape your vacation experience, giving you an intimate and up-close view at how life once was lived in Europe’s sophisticated cities and tiny villages. Travel through the heart of Europe and be prepared to be amazed as history unfolds before your eyes.--Uniworld website

Someday, a trip like that will be a dream come true, though I couldn't really enjoy a kid-free trip right now (the kid-free areas of the Disney Cruise ships strike a good balance, I think...parents get a break but still get to tuck the kiddies in). John and I are looking forward to going back to Washington Street Inn in Key West, one of our favorite spring break destinations pre-kids. But we can't. I just went looking for their website to make a hyperlink, and it looks like this secluded, sweet little kid-free getaway has changed owners and is now the Alexander Palms Court. Oh well. Good thing I returned the last book I borrowed from their resort library!

So Mom and Dad will send quick notes from their trip, and I can let you know how it goes. As for us, I saw John tracing a route through Northern Europe with his index finger last night. And one finger was on Goteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden...where the Volvo factory is.

Highland Retreat, VA: a Great Escape

One of the great things about living in the Shenandoah Valley is being able to get away from the city and up in the mountains in such a short time. Last Saturday morning I had the privilege of leading a women's retreat program at Highland Retreat, a getaway northwest of Harrisonburg, just inside the West "by-God" Virginia line (not sure where the expression came from, but if you want to get a knowing smile and laugh around here, you just say "West By-God Virginia"). If you keep going on Route 259, pretty soon you get to Lost River and Lost City. So I suppose I was just shy of Lost when I arrived at Red Oak Lodge last Saturday morning just before the 8am breakfast was to begin. I was scheduled to do a program on voice (as in "finding one's ____") from 9-11am.

At 8:50, after a couple of coffees and a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage and fruit, prepared lovingly by the kitchen ladies, I took a couple of minutes to just stand outside and look and listen. The piece of land is up quite high, so the feeling is of being on a plateau. All around me were the tops of snow-covered mountains, and it was absolutely silent. No birds or bugs or breezes making sound, just that insulated dense quiet, the sound of blood in the ears, of breath, of shoes on the gravel driveway.

I remember how loud Harrisonburg seemed when we moved into the city from Massanutten Mountain over ten years ago. Now, my definition of quiet is more the absence of human or electronic sounds, but it's so easy to forget all the background noise that is loudest when taken away completely, when compared to a place like Highland Retreat.

If you are ever looking for a place to camp, to have a family reunion, a nature-themed wedding or a professional development retreat, click on the title of this post for more information. It's a lovely place.

Oh -- and the speed limit, once you pass the office / welcome building, is 14 1/2 mph.

LG

Obama Abroad

As I write this, Barack Obama is celebrating his victory in the South Carolina primary. I wanted to share two things we noticed a year ago while living in Europe.


1.) While touring Brussels with our group of college students, John noticed Obama's picture proudly displayed in some apartment windows in an up-and-coming immigrant neighborhood there.


2.) While walking to posh Regent's Park, London (my mom says none other than Sir Paul McCartney has a townhouse there), we noticed our first Obama campaign poster in a window overlooking the beautiful park. We were really floored...an Obama poster in London in spring 2007???


I am acutely aware that people reading this blog come from a range of political persuasions (all of which you can find in my politically diverse extended family, and I've voted both sides of the aisle) but the interesting thing for me as someone who likes to travel is this: in electing someone to be (among other things) a figurehead of our nation, we are in many ways telegraphing to the rest of the world who we think we are. When we were in Belgium etc last year, we often felt sheepish saying we were American, given our current position among the nations of the world.


The head of the Antwerp program, before we left the U.S., made a presentation about the ways in which our students needed to keep a low profile . It was a rather funny PowerPoint presentation which included, among other things, not wearing a leather jacket with a giant American eagle emblazoned on the back, ha ha. But once we were over there, this was serious business. There were places of business we were told to avoid because there had been trouble when Americans went there (not many, but still!). And I remember wanting to go in those places, to prove that we are not all the same. Naive, yes. But still. You might also remember the conversation with Grumpy Flemish Bus Passenger in early March (search the blog for the anecdote).


I am certainly not saying that if Barack Obama becomes President that all of this will suddenly disappear, but I just wonder what it would be like to travel out of the country under something other than a Bush or Clinton administration. I've actually never done it, since my first trip to Europe was in 1993...


What would it be like, to put a different face on America? Guess we'll see.

End of an era?

Are we witnessing the end of China adoption? Or just the most massive slowdown I've seen since 2001, when we began paperchasing for JieJie? Consider:

JieJie's adoption process:
Jan '01, begin paperchasing
July '01, submit paperwork
wait: 15 months
Sept '02, receive referral in the mail
Nov '02, travel to China and complete adoption

MeiMei's adoption process:
Jan '03, notified our agency we wanted to paperchase for #2, are told there is a waiting period of a year between completing one adoption and applying for the next. Spent 2003 settling in and getting our papers together for submission as soon as allowed.
Feb '04, submit paperwork
wait: 7 months
Sept. '04, receive referral in the mail
Nov. '04, travel to China to complete adoption

In both cases, it was about two full years. Since adopting MeiMei, we've seen friends who waited longer to submit their paperwork settle into a third year of waiting, with no immediate hope for a referral. Obviously the Beijing Olympics is delaying things, as did the SARS epidemic (remember that?), but still, I've seen posts on adoption message boards that some adoption agencies are telling families to consider whether they can handle a wait of five years or more.

There is much speculation as to why this slowdown is happening. I don't have an answer, but I have heard that this cycle happens often in international adoption, that adoptions from a particular country can accelerate, crest, and then subside, for many different reasons. For now, I am just so, so grateful for my daughters, for good timing, and for this family of ours. I hope that our friends B & C, and BK & MC, and S & J, and F & K who are still, still waiting will hear good news soon.

You might read this and think I've forgotten about the babies, who are, after all half of this equation! There is good news on that front. I'm seeing more donations and volunteerism that improve the conditions at many orphanages in China, even those whose babies are not even eligible to be adopted by their benefactors (orphanages have to have enough staff on hand to do the adoption related paperwork, which only happens AFTER they have enough staff to care for the immediate needs of the babies). The increased wait times for hopeful parents do not mean increased waits for the babies, who are still likely to be around a year old at time of adoption.

But man, the wait...our agency (Americans Adopting Orphans) now has a one-dossier-two-countries program, in which you can adopt from a country other than China, and have time to settle in with baby #1, while waiting for baby #2 from China. This was unheard of when we were in process.

Times have changed.
LG

Our First Trip...16 Years Ago Today!

Today is the 16th anniversary of John's and my first date, and guess what? We went on a day-trip that day...previews of coming attractions, to be sure. I was living in the DC area at the time, and he was teaching at JMU. My best friend M ran into him on campus and mentioned I was coming down that weekend. He said "have her call me." She conveyed the message on Friday afternoon, and since I'd had a crush on John for months, I wasted no time calling him. I heard myself suggesting we get together (not at all like me back then!). I said how about Saturday? He said, vaguely, that he had plans, and my heart sank. In the next breath, he suggested Sunday, and all was well in the world.

The place we went is one of those places in this part of the world that you just have to know, or you have to know someone who knows how to get there, cause it's pretty far off the beaten track. I first went there in college with friends to watch a spectacular sunset. The last time we went there was with our friends from The Netherlands...and the hill almost killed our poor old Plymouth van! We haven't taken the girls there yet, but we will.

The place is known as Reddish Knob, and it's one of the highest points in the highlands between the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia. If you turn right instead of left just before the final ascent to Reddish Knob, you get to this place known as "Flagpole." That was our destination on January 21, 1992. It was cold and clear that day, with crunchy snow in patches on the ground. I remember being able to see my breath, and how rosy John's cheeks were, how blue his eyes.

We talked and talked on the drive there, but once we were out walking in the woods along the edge of Flagpole's clearing, I don't remember saying much, though I definitely remember what I was thinking: ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...nothing was said of romantic significance because neither of us was exactly sure what it was we were doing. Was this a date, a get-together, a...what?

We drove back that day, stopped at Luigi's on 42 (that storied location is now closed, all you ex-Hburgers, and Luigi's is now downtown in the old Gus's Taverna building) to get a pizza to go, and ate it at M's and my old house (yeah 309 Old South High!!!). Soon it was time for me to drive back to DC, and we said our goodbyes, promising to call.

I figured I'd play it cool and wait to call til Thursday. He called Tuesday. Soon there was a tentative exchange of Valentines' Day cards, and things developed that spring and summer until, by the time the leaves changed and the view from Reddish Knob was at its most spectacular, we were fairly sure this was a forever thing.

We've always loved to travel together. A few days before our wedding, in fact, to decompress from the matrimonial frenzy, we escaped to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia (an easy drive from Harrisonburg, just take 33 W and look for the signs) to walk, climb, see a view, get some fresh air, to talk, to listen, to be silent.

If you're interested in some winter hiking at Flagpole or Reddish Knob, just click on the title of this entry and, thanks to our friends at Shenandoah Bicycle, you'll find yourself linked to a page of driving directions to the Knob and to some other great places in this part of the country. Have a great time!

My book and movie recommendations

So often, people post to China travel & adoption related message boards asking for book and movie recommendations. I've posted my favorites lists so many times, I thought I would just post once-and-for-all on this blog. You'll notice a new feature in the sidebar, "my favorites," which has a few books in it so far, but will be expanded to include the best books, music and DVD's I can recommend. My criteria are:

1. I have to actually have read or seen the book or movie.
2. It has to be GOOD, so you won't see Da Chen's Colors of the Mountain here. It was three times as long as it should've been, so self-serving...it almost killed my book club!

Anyway. Check out the list from time to time. I'll be adding to it as time allows.
LG

Where we are Not Going

I suppose, with next summer's family travel season on the horizon, it's helpful to know where we are not going. We had a number of possibilities, but last week China fell off the list. We had tentatively agreed to chaperone another university group to Beijing and WeiHai for 8 weeks, but the group needed to be at least 15 for the program to "make" and they only got 12 to sign up, so perhaps another summer. I'm ok with it actually, although the girls would really have liked to go.

Where we might go:

Europe. Antwerp would, of course, be on the itinerary. John asked me what other parts of Europe I'd like to see, and immediately I said Germany! We'd gotten all kinds of info about bike touring in the Moselle Valley, and it looked so lovely. A couple of nights ago we watched Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel and he was in Berlin--great show, tantalizing food! I'll just skip the "art gallery for sleeping" (you have to watch the show to understand).

And then there is the whole thing with the possibility of getting a second car, depending entirely upon finances, of course. Here's a tantalizing option: we opt into the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program and get a deep discount on an XC90 and two free airline tickets to Gothenburg and an overnight stay there and a tour of the Volvo factory and a Volvo engineer will take us on the test track to show us all the cool things about our new car and they set up your European insurance for you so you can use your new car to explore before you return to Gothenburg to fly home. Sounds cool, eh? I've seen posts to the edmunds.com forums where people got about $6-8,000 off their car and they also got some fairly expensive add-on packages thrown in for free. Why is it so much less? To put it simply, it's because the car comes into the U.S. as a used car, which affects the taxes you pay on it. As far as paperwork goes, the local dealer handles it all. You just need to be able to wait about 2 months to get your car after you come home from your trip, which for us isn't a problem. So who knows? But right now, that's a great looking option, and I love the XC90. My Swedish neighbor says she just can't ever own a Volvo or a Saab, since when she grew up they were everywhere. I understand.

Maine is also a possibility. We love the Portland area, especially the islands in Casco Bay.

Minnesota/Wisconsin is also a possibility. My whole extended family is there, and we loved the kitschy family resort stuff in the Wisconsin Dells too.

Who knows? An unknown future is like an unwrapped present. It could be anything, and it could be a none-of-the-above that is actually even better!

LG

The Post-Holiday Purge

As happens most days, I was reminded of our time in Europe again today, during a seemingly unrelated event.

You know how, after the after-Christmas sales, every single store seems poised to offer you the Ultimate Storage Solution and every other magazine and newspaper article is telling you how to "get in shape and get organized!" (see the AWESOME essay by Jeanne Marie Laskas in last Sunday's Washington Post Magazine in which she says "get organized: get a DUMPSTER!")?

Well, a few days after Christmas I was already thinking of how to do a major purge of all the toys the girls weren't playing with anymore. It came to a head last Thursday when we moved our rooms around so that the girls' bedroom and playroom merged into one larger room. The movers were tripping over the dozens of stuffed animals who, I'm sure, are procreating in the dark while we sleep.

In order to get their new room organized, the stuffed animals went into some trash bags for a couple of days. Our stuffed animal collection, I kid you not, filled TWO LAWN BAGS!! Enough is enough. I told them today that I was going to dump them out in a huge pile and JieJie and MeiMei were to choose their favorite ten animals. The rest would be divided into two piles: those that looked a bit too worn would go to Goodwill. Those that looked brand new would go into a bag to be used for gifts.

But here's where it gets back to the travel theme...guess which ones they kept? Remember when our train was pulling out of Antwerpen Centraal and the girls said "Buddy!" and we both went "OH NO!" and I was about to hop out of the train and meet them later in Amsterdam? And remember how we scoured downtown Amsterdam for a toy store and wound up buying Hema the cat (named for a chain of discount stores) and Pink Pony? Those two stuffed animals were first to be rescued from the pile. And also among the treasures: the cat that JieJie pined for as we watched the Macy's Parade in New York.

Let's hear it for taking trips, disasters and all!

Happy 2008!

Before I go to bed, I just want to write down who was here tonight to ring in the New Year. Who knows where we will all be next year at this time? But at 11:59:50, standing in an arc around our little tv with Carson Daly's New Year's Rockin' Eve and the brand new Times Square LED energy saving high tech 100th anniversary ball were:

Tom & Kay
Me & John
Duane & Susan
Barkley & Marina

And then John heard what he thought were footsteps coming down the stairs. JieJie and MeiMei had made us promise to wake them for the First Night fireworks, which we can see from our front porch, but it was the fireworks themselves that John heard. He went upstairs and came down with a sleepy MeiMei, who oohed and aahed at the pretty fireworks, and then we thought JieJie would be mad if we let her sleep, so he went back up and got her too (sans pants! Scandal!) and she watched sleepily. At 6pm, we told them it was time to listen to the Belgians ring in the new year on Radio2, and sure enough at radio2.be we heard "vijf...vier...drie...twee...een...en Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, allemaal!" and then a dance mix that somehow managed to merge Funkytown with Justin Timberlake with Prince with Kylie Minogue with goodness-knows-what...

So here's to you, 2007: one of the best years of my life, bar none. Traveling all over Europe with my husband, my girls....seeing London and Paris for the first time with them and Mr. K making the Eippel Tower light up...having our best friends and my parents come visit us in our home-away-from-home...realizing how much we can do, how much traveling we can do, how much fun we can have together, that we don't have to wait til they're older--and neither do you, if you're reading this blog for inspiration, just DO IT, just pack those bags and take those kids on the road! I will never forget, my friend M. from The Netherlands saying that Europeans learn as children how to travel, how to experience new places, new cultures (cause it's like going from Minnesota to Wisconsin, going from Belgium to Germany), so by the time they are adults they are far more gracious travelers, more gracious guests. I have to say I think this is true, and am truly grateful to our university for its studies abroad program. The benefits to the faculty and students are impossible to quantify. And yes, I'm feeling sentimental after too much champagne, but hey. It's New Year's night.

And being in Belgium changed the way we lived our lives when we got home. We spent months trying to figure out how to get back there, and now it's sort of like a low-grade fever. I've started my own business, and if all goes well, who knows? It's a portable kind of work that would allow us to live anywhere I had an internet connection, but it could take years to build up the kind of client base that provides a modicum of security. By then, the timing with the girls' school could be all wrong. Until then, I read blogs on www.expatica.com to live vicariously through other temporary Belgians.

So at this point we're trying to figure out how we can do some traveling in summer 2008, and today John hit upon a possible idea (which I doubt we will actually pursue): remember the quest for a second vehicle? Well, there are several car companies that will fly you over to their European plant and you can get a fairly deep discount on a new car (Volvo, BMW, some other companies offer this) by taking delivery there and having your car shipped to the U.S.--and Volvo practically has a travel agency associated with this overseas delivery program. You can get free plane tickets, hotel nights, all kinds of stuff, just for buying a car you might be buying anyway.

Who knows? We may go to Gothenburg...and my great-great-grandfather Frykman is supposedly an inspirational figure for Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, so who knows? We could do the Royal Tour of Sweden thanks to two of its great cultural icons!

Trust me, we're not really going to Sweden. It's the champagne. Right?

Happy New Year. I'm going to bed.

Family Homebody Journal

I continue to marvel at our inertia. It's as though we used up years of traveling mojo last January-May and it will take who knows how long to undertake another trip further than the grocery store (okay, I know, we went to NYC).

This holiday season we've walked to most of the places we've gone, or we've walked about as far as the fridge in our pj's. I've told the girls, who are surprised at sleeping in til 8am and finding that mom and dad aren't too far ahead of them, groggy downstairs with coffee and Washington Post, that this is the one week of the year you are allowed to be a lazy butt!

We were going to head up to DC and see the Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery's east wing, but the weather people were calling for rain and we just didn't feel like it. We've done lots of small get-togethers with friends and neighbors, and it feels right.

We've also traveled via the wonder of technology. Mom and Dad in Arizona got a webcam and loaded up Skype, and so did we. Today was our first video phone call. I kept thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles...it's just so crazy to think that all these George Jetson gadgets are now a reality. JieJie and MeiMei still thought it was pretty cool - they climbed into my lap and just kept saying "Gramma and Grampa! Gramma and Grampa!" like they couldn't believe their eyes.

So, looking ahead to 2008...I wish I could tell you where we're going, but I either a) don't know or b) can't tell you before we go for reasons which I will explain later. For now, "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" (Happy New Year) and thanks for reading.

5,000 hits!

To celebrate, here's a little ditty called "Feest" from K3 (pronounced Kaaaaaahhhhh-Dreeeeeeee!!!!) which stands for

Karen (the red-head, the flirtatious one, my favorite w/her husky voice)
Kristel (the dark-haired one--she's a mom!--ever the levelheaded one)
en (that's "and" in Nederlands)
Kathleen (the Baby Spice of K3, cute, blonde, perky, slightly spastic)

Yeah, yeah, the song is not too far off from Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Streets" with its list of places in the world, but hey, it's appropriate for the Family Travel Journal.

OLE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOW7pleZgk

And for those of you who want to learn a little Nederlands, here are the lyrics:

Feest Lyrics by K3
Is feest in New York en in St. Tropez
Barcelona en LA
Acapulco, Santa Fe
Iedereen doet mee,
't Is feest in New York en in Tokio
Kaapstad en in Mexico
Rio de Janeiro
Overal op aarde is het feest
Eskimootjes rollen in de sneeuw (Ole!)
Afrikaantjes vechten met een leeuw (Ole!)
Indianen dansen rond een totempaal
En wij gaan straks naar Spanje allemaal (Ole!)
Brazilianen zingen van La Bamba (Ole!)
Mexicanen houden dan de Samba (Ole!)
Weet je wat, we komen pas op het journaal
Als we samen feesten allemaal

chorus etc.

Let's hear it for 5,000 hits!

Hey - the Family Travel Journal, started initially out of curiosity and a sense of "hey, I want to keep records of travel anyway, so..." is about to go to 5,000 hits! Gotta love the internet. Once we hit that magic number, I'll write a spoof essay to celebrate, so send those links, folks!

Happy Holidays,

LG

Sigh...Radio2 keeps me company

I am a radio person. I grew up listening to the radio and recordings of old radio shows. I heard stories about grandparents hearing major news reports on the radio and then running out in the street to talk about the news with neighbors. My dad told me funny stories about working in college radio at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I worked at my college radio station, then at a public radio station, and am now getting into freelance voiceover work. When I walk into the kitchen in the morning, the first thing I want to do is turn on the radio.

When I travel, I love listening to the radio to immerse myself in the sounds of the language, and to hear the range of musical tastes.

So when we were in our sweet little apartment in Antwerp, instead of tuning into Armed Forces radio or BBC, I often listened to Radio2 (jingle singers...'Raaaahhhh-dee-oh Tvaaaaayyy, All-tied / dicht / by yow" actually spelled Radio Twee: Altijd dicht bij jou).

And thanks to the wonder of the internet, when I'm missing my home away from home, it's there...www.radio2.be (rah-dee-oh-tvay-punt-bay-ay). And they play a combination of music that NO AMERICAN RADIO STATION WOULD TOUCH WITH A TEN-FOOT POLE! In the past hour I've heard:

The Specials: A Message To You Rudy
Kate Bush
Abba: Lay All Your Love on Me
Gilbert O'Sullivan: Claire
Tina Turner: Private Dancer
Udo: Isn't It Time
Garth Brooks: White Christmas
random Dutch-speaking/singing artists interspersed...
awesome new Euro-pop interspersed...
AND NOW THEY'RE PLAYING MIKA'S "LOVE TODAY"!!!

He's singing, over and over, "Love Love Me" and the retro-disco beat is pumping.

sigh. Radio 2, Ik van je hou!

What The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Is REALLY Like

So, after arriving an hour early for the parade (yeah, you really DO have to get there at 6:30am to get a front row spot!), this was our view. We were in perhaps the 10th row of people, and somehow managed to preserve a small air pocket in the crowd for those times when the girls got too heavy for our shoulders and we simply had to put them down.

We got off the subway at 72nd and Central Park West and at first just gravitated toward the crowd right there, like plaque in a carotid artery. Almost right away we realized it might be wise to go up a block or two. Indeed, it was a bit better. We were walking toward the parade route when JieJie blurted out "Potty!" Oh, no. I told John I would take her, and of course MeiMei wanted to go too, so instead of waiting for the parade, the three of us wound up walking in the opposite direction, trying to find a merciful shop owner who would let us use the bathroom.

You need to know something about Starbucks Coffee. They are pretty lax about letting non-customers use their bathrooms in most of New York City. I guess they figure the majority of people who are able to will buy at least a cup of coffee...so is it generous or mercenary of them to share their facilities? Anyway, even though there was a Starbucks right on that very corner, the line was so long we wouldn't have gotten JieJie in there in time. I headed for a Korean grocery across the street, figuring even if they didn't let us use the bathroom, we could get food, since the girls hadn't had breakfast yet either (such a great mom am I, let me tell ya). But they said "no bathroom." I'm going COME ON, where do YOU go when nature calls? But I thought ok, we'll keep looking. NOTHING was open (except the aforementioned Starbucks) so finally I went back to the little grocery and looked around for a small door of some kind. Indeed, there was a tiny, Alice-in-Wonderland door by the freezer case. A grandmotherly woman came around the corner who looked like she worked there, and I said "can she please use the bathroom? She really has to go." The grandmotherly woman showed JieJie the way in...sweet relief! So we took our bag of snacks and went back to the parade route.

The parade itself was really short, compared to the three-hour yakathon you're used to seeing on tv. The balloons don't look as big, the Broadway and tv and flavor-of-the-month stars either go by too fast to see or don't deign to ride in the parade, just waiting at the Herald Square site for their big moment. Still, I'm a people-watcher and I was not disappointed. One balloon came by, for some Disney show, and JieJie said really loudly "Look! It's the girl from that show we don't watch anymore!" and everyone around us laughed. Then a Pierrot doll balloon came by and some other guy said "Look! It's that balloon that people used to be able to identify, but now it's just kind of creepy!"

But the best moment by far was when this random guy just started saying "Excuse me...pardon me...can I get through...Excuse me..." and everyone around me parted to allow this soft-spoken twentysomething man in coveralls to walk right past us. He got all the way to the front row! Those of us who instinctively moved aside looked at one another and immediately just went "WAIT A SECOND...Why didn't WE think of that?!" Incredulity. Oh well, sometimes the most devious plan is the most obvious.

So look at this picture of Shrek (see how it's not as big as you'd expect it to be?) And notice in the upper left corner the lucky son of a gun standing on his second floor balcony, observing the unwashed masses below. Not only does he live in an apartment on Central Park West, he has on-demand access to a bathroom during the Macy's Parade.

So of course the moment everyone waits for is Santa. Some old-timers told us that the best thing for the girls to do is to yell what they want most, so Santa is sure to hear them. JieJie got up on shoulders and yelled "I want LOTS OF CANDY!" and MeiMei yelled "Bring me a TEDDY BEAAAARRRR!" John and I looked at each other, thinking there's no way it could be that easy!

After the parade was the best of all. Most people go to relatives' or go home and get ready for guests, so you can go all over New York and there are very few crowds! We walked a bit through Central Park (gorgeous--wait, you need this picture), and then over to Columbus Circle. It was still closed to traffic. How many times do you get to see one of the busiest traffic circles in the country totally empty of traffic? And then we noticed that the municipal workers were swinging the traffic lights back out over the road way. Who knew that they were built to swing away from the parade route? How cool. We sat on the reviewing stands and watched the guys do their work, before continuing down Broadway to Times Square...where we ducked into a Starbucks to use the bathroom.