Enjoying Canada and a good friend...

We reintroduced the girls to s'mores, but we failed: they both preferred plain marshmallows

On the way home: loaded stroller with tired, cold girls and the meager leftovers of our marshmallow feast.

We've made it to Halifax! It took us roughly 32 hours of uneventful travel - we are thankful that it was entirely uneventful, though glad to be here long enough to forget the tiresomeness of 32 hours in transit...
It looks like we made it out in good time. According to this site, eastern Bangkok is being sacrificed to save the inner business districts (the airport is in the east, just outside the main flood barriers of inner Bangkok).

Now we are trying to adjust to Halifax time (the girls woke at midnight last night and stayed awake till 6!), and to readjust to cold temperatures and constantly wearing more than one layer of clothing, and the numerous other little cultural readjustments necessary - car seats, silence, big servings, distances, prices and currency, cell phone plans... 
Yesterday we went shopping for a cell phone plan for our phones and a few groceries.
After visiting all three cell phone providers and asking questions about the limited pre-paid options (about an hour or so), we concluded that we can't get what we need, nor anything that really works for us.  How different from Asia where a SIM card is often given for free at the airport (!) and every little corner store carries pre-paid cards!
Then we went for groceries. We got into the store before realizing we had to get a cart outside. We saw an unused one, so Michael went to get it. Nearly 10 minutes later he comes back with a cart! He wasn't allowed to take the free one in the store and was directed outside. Upon finding the carts outside he discovered they were the kind you need a coin to release one.  So he had to draw money from the bank machine, get it exchanged into coins, rediscover which coin was needed by trial and error, and then finally catch up with me just as my arms were getting too full to shop any more without a cart. Another surprize or two came when we checked out: the question if we wanted bags or not, and the cost. But, we did remember how to get our coin back from the cart :o) And with all that driving, I only forgot which side of the road I was supposed to be on once - and that was in a parking lot area.

And a few pictures from the days before departure:

impromptu activity to keep kids occupied while Mommy packs - yeay for balconies

 Despite having meetings right up until the day before we left, things did not get too stressful.  I guess we have far too much practice at this traveling thing!  We even managed to host the IT team for Asia Friday night.

While Daddy played ping pong with them here...

...the girls played behind them off the wall

Which worked well until the guys decided to try run-around ping pong...

posted from thaitravelblogs.com

How can there not be a post about flooding here at this time?
We are at the point of the arrow, so not at much risk of any flooding ourselves (and we're leaving for Canada on Tuesday for a month!), but please do remember and consider helping the thousands of people dealing with so much from this years flooding - whether Thailand, or one of the many other places: Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines....
It's a very wet year for Asia!

  I think I must be crazy....

We attempted the beginning trial of home schooling these last two weeks.

before Mommy totally finished all her Thai language classes

(still have two left!)

immediately after mommy had to attend two days of workshops

while Daddy worked at the rest of the conference

bringing us to the hotel for lunches with old and new friends

bringing people home for supper

just before some large gatherings for important Area-wide meetings

for which we are partially responsible for logistics and support

just before we fly to Canada for a month

I think I must be crazy

All the same, the girls would be home all day

- their preschool is on mid-year break

All of us eager to try this out

Can't say we established much of a schedule

or figured out a rhythm right for us

or learned where exactly preschool left them

But we have had fun

done things differently

started some promising things

I hope!

Morning routine successes: God-time prayers

God time readings

sunshine pancakes to welcome the day

 

Playdough modeling

nature notebooks decorated

first drawings!

park playtime with other home school families

printing practice