Let the Shirts Speak for Themselves!

Hello Everyone...

So I guess the shirts really do say it all. Evan has been accepted to Syracuse and is planning to begin there in fall of 2010. So that is very exciting news!

And much less exciting news is that I am officially a certified Lifeguard. Just thought I'd post that since I had a shirt and I think Evan would be even more upset with me if I only posted his news. I guess this means that next summer our backyard pool will become almost as good as the YWCA - complete with the lifeguard and everything.

Evan and I finished school yesterday (we've had midterm exams all week), and Leah has her last day today (not sure she'll make it through all of her Christmas parties and Christmas assembly - the last day is always so tough!). We will be leaving Monday to head to Australia. I'm sure we'll have some good pictures after out trip for all of you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

xoxo

Jane

Thanksgiving in Cebu

Happy December Everyone! I can't believe that last month of the year is already here.

As you could tell from the photos, I was not in Singapore with my family over Thanksgiving. I went on a short trip to Cebu in the Philippines. It was my second visit to the same place - I also went to Cebu last year on Interim Semester in February. This time I went with a club I'm part of at school that helps the barrio of Maravillia.

I was SO excited to get to go back. I loved every minute of my first trip there. I was not expecting to get to go on this trip as a sophomore, but when a teacher dropped out of the trip at the last minute, a good friend of mine (a Junior who was going on the trip) asked the teacher if I could go. I was so thankful to get to go, as I will not be here in the next two years.

We took a midnight flight to Cebu, and then it was a 2 hour van ride to the house we stayed at. I got a total of an hour and a half of sleep, and then that first day was up until 10. Needless to say I was exhausted. The first day we spent delivering care packages (t-shirts, toothbrushes, etc.) to another nearby barrio. We returned to the house for lunch. There were 2 other friends of mine from my trip in February there, and we were all anxious to see the kids. We asked the teacher if we could go to the school (about a 3 minute walk down the beach) since it was their lunch break. She let us go, so we were able to see some of the kids we met last year. That afternoon we returned to the elementary school to do activities with the kids there. My friend and I were in charge of the arts and craft station. The SAS kids organizing the trip were supposed to have prepared the craft, but didn't really have anything except for a stack of paper, so Kat and I decided to make paper airplanes and have a contest. It didn't really matter what we did - the kids would have loved it no matter what.

The second day we went the the high school to teach. Their high school is really grade 7-10. So I would be a senior there. I much prefer to teach/play with the little kids, as I find high school a bit awkward to teach. But my partner and I ran spelling bees in the classes (about 30 minutes long). The kids had a lot of fun with it, and we ended up having a lot of fun, too.

The third day was the one I looked forward to most, as we were teaching at the elementary school. My partner and I were teaching 3rd grade - with 56 students! I would normally like even younger kids, but we were given the biggest class because we had both been there before. Also, I taught 2nd grade in February, so I had many of the same students, which was really fun, and they were all very cute. My partner, Dineth, is very good with kids. So I wasn't too worried about the number of students between the two of us. Unfortunately, a sickness was going around amongst the SAS students, and Dineth got sick the day we were set to teach. He came anyway, and helped as much as he could. I was able to control the students through most of the lesson. The trouble came when it was time to watch performances. I had a straight line of 56 kids, and was supposed to keep them quiet (since Dineth began to throw up about 2 minutes before the prayer, speeches, and performances began). It case you hadn't guessed, the back of the 3rd grade was giggling throughout the prayer - that may have only been a minute, but seemed to last forever. Nonetheless, the kids were adorable. After school that day many of them were out on the beach, and wanted to play their favorite games - Duck Duck Goose and Red Rover. What that means for me is being continuously getting up and down and running from side to side. Every turn, they always choose 'Teacher Jane'.

The worst part of the trip was that my camera broke! On the first day there it got sand in the lens. So then it wouldn't open. After a while it began to open but not focus. So I hardly got any photos this time. There was another student there who took over 2,000 photos, so hopefully I'll get copies of some of them soon. I'll post them if and when I get them.

I better head off to bed. Busy week coming up.

Miss you all. Hope you're having a great December. Have you had any good snowstorms yet?

xoxo

Jane

Singapore Marathon

This morning Lauren and I participated in a couple of the races in the large Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. We did not do the big one (full marathon) but Lauren completed the half marathon and I managed the stumble around for 10K. It was quite a morning with a total of 50,000 + runners in multiple races. They all start and end from the same points. The full marathon started at 5:30 am; the half marathon at 6:45 am; men's 10K at 7:45 am; and women's 10K at 8:45 am.

I was able to see Lauren begin her 21K half marathon and we were also able to meet up after. She finished in an amazing 2 hours. I finished the 10K in 62 minutes which means she had a better pace doing the half marathon than I did doing 10K. As they say around here, she is really "fit". We have no action photos, but here is one from our balcony after we returned home. Note the names on our tags - they belong to a colleague of mine, Theresa Tan, and her husband Check. The race fills up and we were late to register. Lucky for us, Theresa and Check signed up, but then planned a holiday in Paris (15th anniversary) and we were able to take their spots.

Cheers,

Jed

Evan's Handsome Senior Portrait

Quoted from one of this months travel magazines...

"In Singapore, which places a high value on order, prostitution is legal but careless disposal of chewing gum can invoke fines up to $500. (sale of the stuff is highly controlled). Jay-walking and spitting result in similar fines. On the bright side, Singapore saves canings for more serious offenses, such as vandalism, for which American teenager Michael Faye received a public lashing in 1994."

Leah makes the cover of the monthly SAS Newsletter.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving for some friends in what has become a mini tradition. Lauren and Alona worked hard to prepare the fixings and our home. We had our neighbors, the Figovs (Sean, Sue, Joel and Erin) from upstairs; Our friends Joanna and Dan Barry; our friends Susan and David Fedo and Leah's friend Ashmita. Notice that Jane was not with us. She had an opportunity to travel to Cebu in the Philippines for a service trip. We missed her, but I am sure she is having a great time.

We ate many of the traditional foods - stuffed celery, sugared cranberries, turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, and of course pumpkin pie, apple pie and a wonderful pumpkin cake that Lauren made.

We missed all our family and friends at home and hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.

Jed and Lauren

Eating local at the Hawker Centers

One of my favorite things about living in Singapore has been eating local. Almost everyday I work, I get lunch from a "hawker center" across the street from my office. Hawker centers were created by the Singapore government after they decided they could never be a 1st world country if there were many street vendors selling food on the streets as you still see in many SE Asian countries. So, Singapore built "hawker centers" where people can rent stalls and sell food. These are great places to get really cheap, and really good food. They are graded for cleanliness by the government (notice the B grade on the stall in the pictures). They tend to specialize in a particular food and each hawker center typically has many stalls. The one near my work is known as "The Golden Shoe" and has two floors of stalls. Some of the food you can find include wanton noodle soup, chicken rice, nasi padang, briyani chicken, mee goreng, and most importantly the local coffee and tea.

In the pictures you will see my two favorite stalls and they happen to be right next to each other. One is the stall where I get my tea each day. The coffee and tea in Singapore is a bit different. First of all, it is called Kopi and Teh (both Malay words). The Teh I order is called "Teh-C Siew Dai". Teh-C is a powdered tea made with carnation evaporated milk (the "C" stands for carnation) and sugar. It is quite sweet, but very good. I order it "siew dai" which means "less sweet" so they put less sugar in it. Lauren loves the "Kopi bing" which is iced coffee. Again, it is very good. This couple that runs this stand have become good friends, although I can not always understand what they are saying. In the picture you see their two daughters because it is currently school vacation here in Singapore.

The other stand is the best wanton noodle soup stand in all of Singapore. I get this for lunch about once a week. They always have a long queue. Often I order in the morning when I get my Teh-C and they have it ready for me, so I can skip the queue. By the way, the Teh-C costs SGD .90 which is about USD .65 and the wanton noodle soup costs SGD 3.70 for take-away, which is about USD 2.70.

I often say that the two national sports of Singapore are eating and shopping. Those who know me know that I don't like shopping (I am my father's son - a cheap yankee), but the eating is great in Singapore!

Just for you, Ryan O.

Lauren and I were given some tickets to the opera here in Singapore and we could not use them, so we gave them to Alona, our Helper. Here are a couple of photos of her and Cecil, her friend. Alona is on the left. I hope this satisfies you, Young Ryan.

Good luck on T-Day.

Jed

October/November update

Hi everyone. We wanted to share some photos from a few events in October and November. Lauren has enjoyed spinning class at the American Club and recently there was a "spin marathon" to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness. The American Club team booked a two hour slot and Lauren and our friend and neighbor, Gretchen both participated for the full two hours. It was held at an outside area of Plaza Singapura, one of the many malls in Singapore. They did really well and were led by their favorite teacher, Arziz, who you can see in the picture of four of them below.

The second event was, of course, Halloween! There is a neighborhood in the north of Singapore called the Woodlands where many American families live because it is near the American School. Halloween in the Woodlands is crazy! We were invited to the Hurst's house. Leah is friends with Maddie Hurst and they live in the midst of the craziness. You can see some photos which really do not do it justice. Some houses have to be prepared with 4000 + pieces of candy.

Next, Jane and her friends from school came to our house to bake pies for the SAS food fest. At the food fest, all the various clubs at SAS run a booth to raise money for their club. The club these girls are in is a club that works with disabled adults who live in a group home. They decided to sell apple pie and spent the afternoon and evening baking about 12 pies!

Finally, the big event was the oldest boy turning 18. It is hard to believe we have an 18 year old. Our celebration was low-key with a nice dinner and, of course, cake. He also enjoyed opening his cards from family and friends. Many thanks for thinking of him.

That's it for now. Enjoy the photos below.

Lauren and Jed

October/November update

October/November update

Mom and Leah Smoking a Cheroot - Actual Video

Mom and Leah Smoking a Cheroot

On our trip to Myanmar in October, we watched local girls hand rolling Cheroots - Myanmar cigars that many of the men there smoke. The girls can roll about 1,000 cigars each day, and get paid depending on how many they roll. There is a short clip below of a girl rolling the charoute. The girls gave us a charoute as a 'souvenir'. Mom tried it - and so did Leah! I was too wimpy, and I'm glad I didn't, because neither one of them liked it very much.

Just wanted to post these videos to share the experience with you. It was very funny to watch Leah take her puff!

xoxo

Jane

A Bit Homesick

I understand the fall days, and leaves, have been beautiful this month. I know the clocks have been turned back, making us 13 hours apart, and queuing you for the winter months ahead. Football is on the TV, and our NHS friends are playing in the stadium. Turkeys are being ordered. All this makes me a bit homesick for New England, family and friends.

It is interesting to live in a place where we don't have seasons or cooler temperatures. Days are same-same, with the sun setting and rising at the same time of day-everyday. We don't have football, and our ovens are way too small to roast a turkey.

November is one of my favorite months, and Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. Although I miss this time of year in New England, I am thankful for how well I have it in Singapore. As ex-pats we live a great lifestyle, in our borrowed home (with air conditioning!), in the heart of the city, in a tropical rain forest. Jed will buy our cooked turkey from The American Club on his way home from work, friends will join us for dinner and we will give thanks.

So as much as I am missing home at the moment, and as grateful as I am for this life I am living, I am looking forward to joining you all back home to appreciate this wonderful season next year.

With Love~
Lauren

Rewards for the Summer Yard Sale

Hi all,

Thank you for your support of Leah's and Claire's yard sale this past summer. They raised enough money for Journeys Within Our Community to send a young girl to college in Cambodia for two years. Here is an email we received from JWOC. We thought you might enjoy it. Leah and Claire hope to raise additional funds this summer so they can pay for two more years for Seky.



Dear Leah and Claire,

I hope you are well. I wanted to write and thank you again for your very kind donation towards our JWOC Scholarship Programme. I am very happy to be able to write to you and let you that we now have a scholarship student to be supported by your kind donation. We have just completed a round of applications in which we had 226 applications! We were able to invite 54 for interview and have chosen 23 new students!

I am really happy to inform you about the student you are now supporting. The student will be writing to you herself shortly so I won’t tell you too much! Her name is Seky Nguon. She is just about to start her foundation year, studying Accounting and Finance at Build Bright University. Here is a small excerpt from Seky’s application essay that highlights her desire to study to help her country:

“..I want to get education and knowledge that I can get a skill to develop myself and make my family improve and also to develop society and our country. I can also share my knowledge to my friends and my neighbors who can’t continue their studies....”

We have a system at JWOC to help support and monitor all our scholarship students. We now have a growing number of students, thanks to your kind support and assign each student an individual mentor. Andrea Ross, JWOC Founder, is the mentor for Seky. The mentors will be able to meet with the students on a more regular basis and follow their progress at university more closely. They will also be able to talk to the students about their time spent volunteering with JWOC and their future plans. Mentors will also be able to answer any specific questions or queries you have.

A further role of the mentor programme is to ensure students follow JWOC procedures. The guidelines we have for our scholarship students are there to reaffirm the original idea behind JWOC’s Scholarship Programme - to help create socially conscious future leaders for Cambodia. The main element of our programme, as you know, is that students must volunteer at JWOC in return for their scholarship. This gives the students not only valuable experience and skills, but an approach to life which recognizes the importance of giving back to their community. Our students are also expected to do their very best at university and provide JWOC with their grades regularly. They are also expected to update you regularly on their progress and are not allowed to ask you for further money. All students will be asked to copy both their mentor and myself in on all emails to you so we can ensure this. Should Seky need extra money for something she must speak to Andrea and she will discuss the situation with her and contact you if she deems it to be a fair request. This we hope promotes our original goals to have responsible and committed students but also ensures that you, having given already, are not constantly being asked for help. Often the students see their donors as their lifeline and don’t understand the boundaries needed to make a project like this successful. I hope that you will both support us and help us to achieve these goals. Please feel free to contact Andrea (andrea@journeyswithinourcommunity.org) or myself should you feel these rules have been broken or should you have any questions at all.

Thank you for your support of Seky. We look forward to watching her progress together over the coming months. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you have. Seky will be writing to you shortly and we hope you enjoy getting to know her.

Very best wishes,

Camilla

To My Family,
Love your blog; watch it from start to finish once a month. Makes me feel close to my loved ones. What a wonderful experience you have had.
xo Auntie Kathy

The girls and I wanted to take perhaps one last holiday in SE Asia. Jed really didn't have vacation time left, and Evan is so done with third world travel. How different can Myanmar be from Cambodia, Thailand or Vietnam? We were lucky enough to have our visa's granted by their government so we could see for ourselves.

I sense and appreciate the differences, albeit subtle, between all these countries. Myanmar, formally Burma until 1989, is the largest country in SE Asia, sharing borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. Buddhism has great influence on the daily simple life of the Burmese. They are a friendly people with a rich culture and on old history. It is rare for the Myanmar people to meet American visitors. They admired the girls fair skin, eyes and hair.

Myanmar has been through many wars, political unrest, and natural disasters. I didn't think we would ever have the opportunity to visit this country during our expat assignment. Since we have lived in Singapore, Myanmar has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest (on/off since 1989 for her outspoken criticism of the Junta) despite recent pressure for her release, in 2007 the government raised fuel prices 500% causing an uprising that led 10,000 Monks to march in protest (some were killed, some are still imprisoned). Cyclone Nargis hit in May 2008, killing ~140,000 people. Remember it took the Myanmar government 3 weeks to allow people in to help. The Myanmar people we spoke with are certainly unhappy with their government, and are hopeful for change with the upcoming 2010 election.

We traveled through Yangon, visiting the 2500 year old Swedagon Pagoda. We flew to Bagan, where thousands of pagodas, temples and stupas dot the ancient capitals landscape. We bicycled among the ruins and off the path into little villages. And when we couldn't cycle any more, we traveled by horse cart into the evening. Another early morning flight took us to Nyaung Shwe, the gateway village to Inle Lake. The villages, and our hotel, are built on stilts over the water. We witnessed the Intha people rowing their boats with one leg while they fished and saw their floating gardens that are built up from strips of hyacinth and mud and achored to the bottom with bamboo poles. We enjoyed the busy morning market and set off on a five hours trek through remote hill tribe villages and farms. Little education. No electricity, cars, plumbing or McDonald's. Lots of people wearing the traditional longyi, beautiful views and bright stars in a pitch black night sky.

Despite coming home with upset and uncomfortable bellies, we feel so lucky to have traveled within this unique country that was virtually sealed off the the outside world since 1962. We supported locally owned hotels and restaurants, rather than government owned and bought handicrafts directly from the artisans, rather than government shops. The hardship and the oppression of these poor people did not keep them from warmly welcoming us to their "Golden Land."

Thanks for reading.

Lots of love to you all.