Thanksgiving

I asked the boys what they were thankful for this thanksgiving, and they said "pie" and "being able to go on sabbatical."

This is indeed a year in which we have much to be thankful for.

Reading the News

Is it a good thing, or a bad thing, to read the news about unrest in the countries to which one is traveling? I'm thinking in particular of the stories this morning about how the Bangkok airport has been shut down by protestors. Our flights take us through Bangkok several times over the course of the trip. I'm sure the airport will be open by then, but I wonder how unstable the country will be. The prime minister is being urged to resign, and call new elections. Hopefully any government turnover will be peaceful.

That said, there was a brief note that the protestors are mostly wealthier members of society who want to move away from a western style electoral system, and permit only members of certain professions to choose elected representatives. What a great homeschooling question. So much more real than a textbook discussion of democracy.

Hecticness

All is hectic here in the land of the lucky. What with homework, packing, and cleaning, I feel like I hardly have any time to my self. This feeling was not helped by the fact that my parents commandeered my room so they could put stuff in my closet this weekend :(

TTFN,
Aidan

Rat

Bizarrely enough, rat is one of the things I'm looking forward to eating. Even though I'm a normally picky eater, I've heard that rat actually tastes good. 10,000 tons of rat meat is produced in Vietnam alone! Rat is probably consumed on every continent except maybe Antarctica. Also rat inhabits every continent except Antarctica.

Paperwork

It's astonishing how much paperwork needs to be done before we go, very little of it really connected to the travel itself. Travelwise, both Richard and I need a document which gives us permission to travel internationally alone with the kids (in case something happens and we need to split up), as well as permission letters for various grandparents to travel alone with the kids (in case something horrible happens and they need to come pick them up).

There's the rental agreement for the house plus all the house directions (ranging from the location of the water shut off valve to what to do if the burner on the stove refuses to light), and transferring the utilities.

Then there's everything connected to school: letter of intent to homeschool, letter of intent to bring the kids back to school, power of attorney to Julie to enroll the kids for school next year, the accompanying school enrollment forms, letters to each of the school principals plus the district describing our plan and all the other letters.

And let's not forget taking care of financial stuff--powers of attorney, extra signatory on our bank account, all the directions for checking our accounts online, spare checks, new credit cards, travelers checks.

I keep telling myself that failing to get any of these done will not be the end of the world, but a little voice reminds me that not getting it done will probably prove quite inconvenient during the trip.

Brandenburg

I'm really just testing the Slideshow feature, but may as well say that Brandenburg, aka Brandon aka Fur Butt aka Burger Buns will be having a long vacation with his Auntie Melinda in Duvall.

Stuff

When we travel, we will each have one suitcase (thanks Dad!) and one carry-on day pack. Not a lot of stuff for each of us. Yet we think we'll manage just fine for 5 months.

Which brings me to packing up the house. Because we're renting the house while we're gone, we need to put away all our personal belongings. I spent a little time researching storage places, pricing out 5 x 5 units and concluded that this would be a relatively affordable necessary expense.

And then we started packing up our stuff. How did we ever acquire so much? There's no way we can fit everything that needs to be stored into such a small unit. Do we really need this much? Especially since we think we can live for 5 months out of 1 suitcase each.

Perhaps when we get back we'll discover that we really don't need all this stuff, and we will resume our home life with a major purge. Or perhaps, and possibly more likely, we'll acquire more stuff as we travel, eventually becoming a family of 4 with 4 suitcases, 4 day packs, and a random assortment of carrier bags and extra boxes.

Visa madness

Our passports have just returned with the India visas in them. They had been in limbo for several weeks: I put my profession down as 'writer' and this led to Kafkaesque confusions about whether I wanted, could have, could not have, or was prepared to deny that I wanted, a Journalist visa. We now have four Tourist visas, which is what we wanted in the first place, but I may be denied entry if I am carrying a pencil.

Next is Vietnam, for which I have just printed the forms, and then China. These are the three we have to get in advance. The others are of the "pay up at the airport" variety. For which reason we will be traveling with approximately 3 kilos of spare passport photographs.

Diving

We've spent much of the morning trying to pick a place to stay on Koh Tao and to get our dive certification. There is a nice but budget place that was recommended by a student at the law school, but it might mean the boys wind up sharing a bed--not the end of the world, but it would be more comfortable if we could find a better option. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the places on Koh Tao are not geared towards families. The family rooms are all a double bed plus one twin bed. I think it's really code for budget backpackers in a group. We'd rather not stay on the main beach. For some reason, endless beach parties is not a major attraction. One place said that even though it was quiet, there were plenty of parties where you might find someone "spooning the dog." I'm not sure what that means, but suspect it's not something I'd want to share with my kids. We need to pick somewhere soon though, since the places will start to fill up for high season.