Here We Go! Day 4 (Road Trip!)

We set out on this after cleaning up our last home.

First stop: the not so "Secret Lagoon" hot spring near Gamla Laugin. Just a pool that was like 28 dollars to swim in. We skipped it, but this sign was a nice touch.

Stop 2: Geysir! The guy at the top went off every five minutes or so. This place reminded me of a childhood trip to Yellowstone: sulfur smell, lots of tourists.

On to Friðheimar, a tomato and horse farm with a nice vegetarian restaurant inside the greenhouse. Very interesting geothermal heating system on the greenhouses, tomato beer, endless bread!

And Thingvellir National Park: beautiful lake; rugged, barren scenery with obvious results of tectonic activity.

Then on to the longest leg of the journey. Headed through Hvalfjörður Tunnel (amazing: more than three miles tunneled under the ocean) after getting some groceries. Good thing we got groceries, too. The next hour and a half was barren wilderness, and then we found our next home.

Cute little cabin on the edge of nowhere. I love this place! Had a nice meal, then closed the blackout curtains and tried to get some sleep.

Until these little bastards woke me up!

Here We Go! Day 3 (Huffin' and a Puffin)

Thirsty? Seljalandsfoss to the rescue.

So much Seljalandsfoss!!

The info signs at sights are awesome here. All have little stories from history/legends of vikings, hermits, and elves, delivered in a matter-of-fact way.

Beautiful day for a ferry ride to Vestmannaeyjar islands.

Over hill and dale (and sheep fences), we got a little lost looking for the puffin blind, but had a nice hike through a sheep pasture on the way.

We were ready to be disappointed, but eventually noticed a flock of puffins in the water, and spotted some of them making landing runs for the shore. They have a funny way of flying, really fast wings, that is distinctive. Glad Wendy got to see puffins for her birthday!

Stopped at this cute little farm restaurant for dinner, smell of manure outside, good beef inside.

And one more waterfall (Skógafoss) before limping home by 11: really hard to keep track of time when it's always light outside. Good sleep, and ready to move on to the next place.

Here we go: Day 2 (The gang's all here [allir eru hérna])

Bye, England!

Halló Iceland!

Cheers to Icelandair, who made their own special IPA, with an alcohol content inspired by their new airplanes!

Picked up a few stragglers in the airport parking lot, went grocery shopping, searched for a bathroom*, then headed to our horse farm in Hella!
*Our first two stops were at gas stations that didn't have any buildings at all, let alone bathrooms. We ended up storming some random Thai restaurant, and driving past billions of well-appointed convenience stores 5 minutes later.

Here's our farmhouse, with our sweet little Daxia Duster in the driveway. 

We made it! A little wine, a nice salad, and we're ready for bed.

And the sun is (sort of) setting. It's like 11PM...

Here we go! Day 1.5 (How to GTFO of PK)

Step 1: finish the Paris puzzle so we can leave with a sense of accomplishment. 

Step 2: Out the door with appropriate excitement

Step 3: 5 hour delay in a shitty airport. 

Skip steps 4 (long boring plane ride) and 5 (uninteresting night in London)  for 

Step 6: bloody Mary and a real breakfast in Gatwick airport, ready to head out to Reykjavik! 

Get ready, Iceland!

Lombok

We're lazing around by the pool on the last day of our stay on Lombok, Indonesia. Made it through our first semester in Lahore, which has been a struggle for various reasons, and it was nice to have a relatively long break to unwind and regroup.
We met up with Kim and Jay, a couple of teacher friends from our last school, for the first half of our stay. They're working at a school in Surabaya. It was nice to spend time with people we know, and know how to interact with. We both miss having good friends to talk to.
During their stay, we took a couple of snorkeling trips: one to the northwestern Gilis (islands) of Trawangan, Air, and Meno (disappointing, lots of dead coral and water crowded with douchey tourists doing their best to kill more coral); another to the more remote east side of Lombok around Gili Lampu (beautiful, healthy coral fields, mangrove islands, no other tourists in site). We also took a day trip to a southern beach (Pantai Selong Belanak) for a great day of playing in the waves.
They had to go back to work about a week ago, giving Rani and I some time alone, which has also been nice. We took a dive trip up to Gili Trawangan, where we saw an amazing number of turtles, some really interesting squids and cuttlefish, a righ-out-in-the-open octoupus (changing the color and texture of his skin depending on surroundings), and 6 FREAKIN' SHARKS!!! That's a first for us. They were small, and mostly hiding in some caves, but one swam out a couple of feet from me, and I freaked out for a second until I realized that I could definitely take him down if it came to it. Rani got really sick after the second dive and had to sit the third out, but she didn't miss anything on the last one except for a black rockfish.
Anyway, the rest of the time has mostly been spend by the pool. We've each read 5 or 6 books, and (mostly Rani) planned what's shaping up to be an epic summer touring the islands of the north Atlantic (Iceland, Azores, UK). We're settling into the idea of going back to Lahore, and to work, with mixed emotions.
I haven't taken many pictures this trip, but I'll leave you with the view from breakfast at the hotel.
Happy Holidays everyone. Peace, love, and best wishes for 2018!

If you zoom in, that's the Bali volcano letting off some steam.

Lahore so far

The night before we left, it really started hitting me that we were MOVING TO FREAKIN' PAKISTAN!!! I freaked out a little, and I looked like this for the entire day of travel. It really started settling in when we switched planes in Abu Dhabi: we stepped out into the oppressive heat, surrounded by strange new people, and knew there was no turning back.

Our first view of Lahore! The airport was a little bit of madness, but nothing we hadn't dealt with before. The hardest part was trying to get our 12 PIECES OF LUGGAGE through security. They eventually gave up on scanning them and just let us cart them through, where we were overjoyed to see some familiar faces waiting for us. The school sent the whole administrative team to pick us up! Then it was a quick drive through a new city to our house at Swedish Flats.

We made it! We have so much space here, we're a little overwhelmed. We got in late on a Wednesday night, did some preliminary shopping the next day, and interviewed a housekeeper on Friday. 

Watch out! Rani's driving! We went out with our neighbor Jill (who's been here awhile and has been an invaluable help settling in) early Saturday morning for a driving lesson. Rani picked it up quickly, and is dealing with the challenges of driving here like a champ: right side driving, stick shift, traffic. I've been out once for some practice, but I'm fine being a passenger as long as she enjoys it. I'm a better navigator anyway.

Here's the local market, part of a roundabout. If you zoom in on the yellow sign, you'll see one of the popular last names here, which means I have to be careful not to make fun...

My first beer in Pakistan! A neighbor was nice enough to share some of her supply left over from last year while we work on getting our alcohol permits. I won't lie - this was a relief. 

The American Club, or International Club. One of the few bars in town. It's in a house and has a gym and a swimming pool for members.

Happy Birthday Rani! Again, Jill stepped in with some pancake mix and syrup so that I could surprise Rani with breakfast in bed for her 30th (heehee) birthday.

Got my alcohol permit! Went right out after school, across town to one of the fancy hotels, walked around the side to a shady little permit shop, and bought two cases of beer. There are exactly 5 different types of beer to choose from, all made by the one brewery in Pakistan (as is all of the liquor available). This guy is helping carry it to the car (this is not unique: white people here are rarely allowed to carry their own purchases. Last trip to the grocery store, an employee even followed us around and held our basket while we shopped).

Lahore is so green! Not quite what we expected. The heat here is something different than we've experienced before: oppressive and unrelenting and heavy. We both suffered headaches for a few days before we figured out that we just have to chug water constantly to keep up with it. I'm hoping it will break soon so I can get a good run in; if I tried now, I'm pretty sure I'd pass out.

Two things in this shot from our ride to school yesterday: 1. BIRDS!: everywhere in the sky, you'll see flocks of circling birds. Big birds, like crows and rooks and hawks. The crows at our home are vicious; I've been dive-bombed a couple of times, and I'm watching them beat up other birds, and even stray cats, as I write this. They also have the worst call of any bird I've ever been around. 2. That's a truck full of cows that I thought was funny!

We are settling in and slowly finding ways to deal with the small frustrations of a new place. Reliable internet has been a challenge, electricity goes out multiple times each day, our bathrooms are really small with weird toilets and lame showers... We each have moments once in awhile where it all gets to be too much, but overall we're staying positive. We'll figure it out! It's all part of the adventure...

Peace and love! We miss you all.
Jon

Transitions: Dongguan to Lahore

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote anything here...

For anyone I haven't gotten around to telling yet, we are MOVING TO LAHORE, PAKISTAN!!

After 5 years of working in Dongguan, we decided it was time for a new adventure. We spent a few frustrating months on the job search, and finally spoke with the director of the Lahore American School. We were immediately charmed with her, learned more pleasing things about the school as we did more research, and eventually ended up signing our next two-year contract with them.

The end of the school year was more emotional than I expected.

A good friend left me with a proper Chinese name. These characters mean "big river/ accept/ kindness". Made me cry... a lot.

A few of my 8th grade girls (a frustrating bunch of not-always-the-best students) put these together (because I look like an ice cream cone???) along with a video saying goodbye. Also made me cry... a lot.

Saying goodbye to friends and students and co-workers, taking my last run through the park, last visit to the local pub, last sunset off the balcony of our apartment... I'll miss the school and living in China, but I'm ready to move on.

So long Dongguan!

 Since we decided to move everything from our apartment as luggage, the travel was predictably annoying (12 suitcases!!!).

Emptied my Chinese bank account to pay for the luggage.

 Spent a few days in Bradenton with Rani's always-welcoming family, and I finally got to meet her brother.

Rani and Bailey together again at last

Then it was off to DC to visit with some fellow teachers from China (they're moving on to Indonesia this year) and attend a workshop sponsored by the Office of Overseas Schools. Meanwhile, Rani (with her mom and aunt) attended a different conference in NYC.

Kim, Me, and Jay at the Beer, Bourbon, BBQ festival!

Stayed in a straight-up dorm room for the conference. Accommodations weren't so hot but...

We did our work at the beautiful Madeira School nearby.

Then it was back to Florida, where we shortly moved into an amazing little beach house for the month of July. Lots of family around (my sister just moved here, and my parents were along to help out). I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Carrs, Linds, West-Singhs relax after a HOT day of moving for the first meal in Maria's new place. 

And relax by the pool for an early 4th of July party.

Oooh, that next picture looks good...

America is really doing beer right these days, which is probably another good reason for me not to live here. Here's a flight from a quiet night we spent at Motorworks Brewery in Bradenton. 

The moms relaxing on the beach.

Spent a few days at Universal Studios. Everything's fake except the rainbow!

And now we're wrapping everything up, trying not to get too nervous, hoping we didn't forget anything, and doing our final packing and saying of goodbyes.

Peace and love to everyone, especially those I neglected to contact directly. Best of luck on all of your adventures.