4 Days on the Other Side

The other side
of the move
of the world
of day and night
of weather...

Bags are unpacked
Jetlag almost conquered
Cold hands and feet
Educating kids how to dress for Fall
Admiration for our wonderful 3 coping
I'm-here-now-I-can-crash sickness finally on the mend
Semblance of routine emerging out of the chaos
Inventory of lost in transit
A need for shopping lists to finish set up
Oops discoveries: driver's license expired
First doctor trip proving health insurance holds

Erie unsettling unsureness
What did we just do?
Still feels like a visit
This seems too easy
Shouldn't we feel differently -
A monumental move from the other side of the world
should have more effect?

And then, a storm of tears over a tiny thing
Toddler retesting of every limit
Desire for screen time amplified
Attention spans at times maddeningly shortened
Sibling relations gone awry in a flash of nothing
Yep. Four days on the other side

Four day muse

Four days left here
And I'm finally feeling the last-days-scramble panic
To empty this house
While fielding 3 kids feeling cut loose and unsure
Pack concisely and sensibly
This we need yet
That will be picked up tomorrow
This we can pack
What about that thing?
How many bags?
How heavy are they?
All that mind whirling mess.
And tonight's goodbyes to a late looming friendship
Have opened the door
And leaving time emotions swirl and want to push their way in
I don't want to let them yet
Not ready
No time
And yet, if I don't listen to me,
how can I be the guide for my young ones
Uncomfortable
With surprising reactions
Of unnamed feelings
Within their own skins?

Transition Again

What we'll miss about Penang:

1. Impromptu suppers on the beach - year round
2. Multilingual, multi-ethnic environment
3. Mountain to hike right behind our place
4. Afternoons at Dalat school: library, friends, playground
5. Unchanging sunrise and sunset times year round
6. Cheap yummy street food
7. Roti
8. Chicken rice
9. Weekly wet market shopping
10. Cheap delicious fruit and vegetables year round
11. 1 ringgit (about 30 cents) ice creams
12. flowering trees in the park
13. free access to a swimming pool - with a slide!
14. Train travel
15. Biking everywhere
16. Chinese school
17. "Wet" bathrooms - splash all you like: drain in the floor
18. Cheap airfares
19. Tile floors
20. Home

What we're looking forward to in Canada:

1. Snow landscapes
2. Sharing life with grandparents and other family
3. Reconnecting with friends
4. glow in the dark golf
5. nature walks
6. Fall: colors, smells, crisp air with blue skies
7. Building snowmen
8. Free babysitting from family
9. Always clean air
10. Wide open wild spaces
11. Living in a house not an apartment
12. Participating in our home churches
13. Greater weather variations
14. Spring
15. Community activities
16. Quiet
17. Better quality assurance on purchases
18. Cheerios
19. Real milk and affordable dairy
20. Home

Hike additions

Mommy and Grace went back up the mountain all the way to the waterfall this time.  Grace had gone with Daddy up a different trail on a much awaited hike a few weeks ago. They lost the trail, ran out of water, got bee stings and spikey tree scratches hunting for the way down.  So she was rather nervous to be going again.  But we took the "easy" trail and found the waterfall.  Grace certainly recovered her joy of hiking and exploring - she readily agreed to follow the stream back down instead of the trail... and did it in bare feet!!

We met three young men camping/living by the waterfall. One of them offered mommy a small cup of coffee. She who doesn't drink coffee because of the jitters it gives her and doesn't like the taste... drank it and really enjoyed it!  Perhaps brewed-on-a-rock-in-the-middle-of-a-stream-waterfall coffee is a different drink all together :)