USA

We need to think about this blog entry a little bit

Since the birth of our beautiful baby daughter Sophie, Nadine and I have yet to take a real trip together without our little Thai souvenir. So shortly after our wedding five and a half years ago, we had two free airline tickets to Hawaii that were gifted to us. We decided that we should make that our 5 year anniversary trip. Mind you, that seemed like it would have taken alot longer than the five years actually felt, as It felt more like a good two years.

Once we completed our last day of school back in Omaha on June 2nd, we were at the airport the early morning of July 3rd on a plane headed for Maui. This was going to be a week away for the two of us sitting on a beach, relaxing, taking in the sights, and enjoying each other. It turned out to be a great trip.

A little beach we like to call Big Beach, as well as everyone else

During our time in Maui, we chose a new type of lodging, not a hostel, sleeping bag, or even hotel, we went with a condo in the beach town of Kihei (almost every town on Maui is on the beach). I think that we lucked out in the fact that we found a place that wasn't incredibly expensive by Hawaii standards, was comfortable, and best of all, our place had a view of the ocean and the mountains on the other side of island.

A little tour (tore if you are from New Mexico) of our condo

One of our first excursions in Maui was to visit the eroded crater of the Molokini Crater. This is a volcano that has eroded over several years, about 10 or so . . . thousand, and is now in the shape of a half moon. It's here you can join a couple of hundred other snorkelers and swim around reef that has grown around the crater. Before it became a popular spot to get a nice sunburn on your continental untanned skin, the US Navy used it as target practice for the Navy. You may be able to note the pot marks along the upper rim if you look closely.

From Molokini Crater, we travelled over to Turtle Beach to continue our conquest of wearing flippers and a plastic apparatus in the water, but this time in search of turtles in front of Malu'aka Beach. Initially, hand in hand, Nadine and I didn't have much luck in finding these massive creatures having their shells being cleaned all of their unneeded extra sea attachments by little fish. Within 5 minutes we saw a green sea turtle pass to our right in a lazy swim as the tide pushed him around the gentle waves. Over the next 30 minutes, we easily saw a dozen pushing around the corral and at one point being easily within 5 feet of one. We both agreed that we liked the green sea turtles more than the crater.

The water was quite blue around Molokini Crater

One early morning, around 2:45 local time, an unmarked van stopped in front of our condo and swooped us away to the very small industrial area of Maui. We were starting our day for the sunrise at the top of Haleakala National Park. From here, the tallest point on the island of Maui, we were going to ride a bike 26 miles downhill down to the coast, a total descent of around 9,600 feet.

The most important facet of your arrival at the top of this dormant volcano is to score a position along the fence for the best spots for photos. The only hiccup with this is that at 3:30 to 4:00 in the morning, it is freezing cold at that altitude with ferocious wind hitting you in the face. Needless to say, we were quite happy to be wearing ridiculous looking blue wind suits as we stood next to teenagers in shorts. Oh teenagers, they can be so dumb. Good thing, we were never teenagers. After some time, we actually encouraged the sun to hurry up and peek its head up over the horizon, because it was incredibly cold. In the end, the sunrise was quite stunning, even if the picture below doesn't do it justice.

House of the Sun

Sunrise over Haleakala National Park

This silly outfits didn't keep us as warm as we would have liked. Nadine is the one in the blue.

From the top of Haleakala, we jumped on our bikes to complete the best possible type of ride you could ask for, a ride completely down hill where you have to peddle for 200 yards out of a total of 26 miles. The ride took us down the volcano through farm land, forest, and small towns all with a big panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean.

We need big helmets to cover our big craniums and distract you from our ugly purple jackets. I bet you didn't even notice them did you?

One of the more popular tourist attractions is to drive the way too green northern coast of Maui to the town of Hana. It is aptly named the "Road to Hana." We tackled the road one morning before the rest of the tourists got up to drink their morning brew. For those of y'all that easily get motion sickness, this is a ride to ignore as it is a constant rotation of switch backs and bridges. The reward for feeling like a race car driver is even smaller towns, black beaches, and unique rock formations. The trip was nice with all of the photo ops and scenery, but probably a one and done activity for us.

The Road to Hana - a curvy, nauseous road of green

An awesome black beach close to Hana

Yes, I am a professional model. It's taken years to get that "Blue Ice" pose down. That's how I got Nadine to notice me.

A common ploy while on vacation in Maui or other popular tourist destinations in the United States is for time share companies to comp part of one of your trips or excursions in exchange for your assistance at one of their spiels. Going into it, Nadine and I both knew that this wasn't going to be a winning situation for the company, but we did have to put in our time for the money that they donated to our snorkeling trip. Part of the presentation by Regina was the directive to write down 10 places we would like to visit. So we sat there and tried to think of 10 of the most random places we could think of while she tried to find a lovely time share that we would find some lovely on a lovely island where it was just lovely. How about a time share in the Maldives, Yemen, Tuvalu, or New Mexico? I am sure that most of us haven't heard of these places. She has to look it up on the map, and she was never able to find that last one. "A New Mexico? You are not talking about the old one?"

Feeling up free time by building a rock formation

What do you do while you are on vacation?

After our quick and productive week on the island of Maui, we went straight from the beach to the shower to the plane, and back to the non-island of Omaha.

Alright, next up . . . somewhere in Europe.

Peace,
John and Nadine

Shhh, Xiping is Sleeping

At Westside High School where I teach, one of the mantras is that students will have an international experience. Thus, our school hosted 42 Chinese students and teachers for a total of 6 weeks in April and May. I was interested in hosting a teacher from China since I got a taste of China during our around the world trip, and I still had a lot of questions. So I wanted to a learn a little bit more about the country.

So one April evening, two large school busses rolled up into the Westside High School parking lot from the airport, and out came 42 Chinese students and teachers. As soon as they entered the building, each student was swept away by their host family. My Chinese teacher was Xiping, the only male English teacher, and we jumped in our car and went to the house where he would spend the next two and a half weeks.

Hosting Xiping was an interesting experience in that I tried to figure out his outlook and point of view on various topics. He initially was very quiet and reserved and his answer to every question was, "Maybe." Would you like to have to eat breakfast? "Maybe." Do you need anything to help you sleep? "Maybe." Eventually he opened up as his English continued to improve, and shed some light on life in China. During his time, he even gave a television interview.

Myself, Nadine, our winking Thai souvenir Sophie, and Xiping

Not being the biggest cooks and aficionados of Chinese food, we weren't sure exactly what he would want to eat, since it wasn't going to be Chinese food. It turned out that at the beginning he ate a lot of peanut butter and bread. When I offered him the very American breakfast of cereal with milk and orange juice, he decided it might be best if he ate his staple diet of peanut butter and bread along with a warm glass of water. Eventually, we were able to get him to eat a more varied diet. When it came time to eat out, he really enjoyed a local Chinese restaurant whose owners were from his hometown of Tianjin.

Not only did Xiping stay with us, but he also went to our school everyday to observe the American school system. I was under the impression that he would sit in my classes and experience an American class, but during the two and a half weeks, he never actually attended any of my classes. Instead, from the time that he arrived at school with me, he would meet up with the other teacher, Color, to check on the students in the school, explore the school, and play on the computers provided to them from the school.

The biggest problem for Xiping was that he couldn't sleep. We did offer him a comfortable bed, rather than having to sleep on the floor. Actually, he might have preferred that since beds in China tend to be as hard as a rock. Like good hosts, we even provided him with clean sheets and a blanket. We could have given him warm water and then rubbed his back when he went to bed, but that might be a bit odd. The problems originated from the fact that the city of Tianjin was exactly 12 hours behind the U.S. So when it was 8 in the morning in Omaha, it was 8 at night in Tianjin, and his body was winding down when all of the bodies at the school were just winding up. Eventually his body caught up and he was able to sleep.

The time came for Xiping to leave, I asked if he was ever interested in visiting anywhere else in the U.S. like Texas, he promptly responded, "absolutely." I then asked just for the sheer fact of interest if he would be interested in visiting the state of New Mexico, and his response says it all, "Where? Probably not so much."

Finally, part of hosting Xiping during his visit to Omaha, is that I will go on a trip to Tianjin and Beijing at the beginning of October for 10 days with 30 or so students and 4 other teachers. That's a great result of hosting Xiping, but a trip with that many students to China should prove to be an interesting trip.

Peace,
John

Brand new video of Sophie and I performing the milkshake

Final State of the Belly Report

Moments before going to the hospital

With time to spare, Nadine and I tried on the hospital clothing wear, gowns and underwear

So the trip that started in the Cook Islands, left us pregnant in Thailand, and concluded in that great state of Texas finally came to completion August 3rd at 9:55 p.m. in Omaha, Nebraska. The reason it has finally concluded after 20 hours of labor at 9:55, our Thai souvenir Sophie Christine entered the world. She made her appearance on the world stage with a head full of hair on her 8 pound body and a set of lungs that would give Pavoriti a run for his money. Our only original hope, outside of being intelligent, athletic, and good looking, was that she be healthy, and that she was.

The new family of 3

As we both sit here in the hospital happy and fatigued, we are faced with our next big adventure, raising this child to be a responsible world citizen. Pretty big stuff. After her first trip when we take her home, we need decide where to take Sophie on her first travelling trip? We could take her to New Mexico, but we love this child, so we won't put her through that. I think initially even more challenging than trying to cross a Saigon road full of scooters is going to be and try to figure out how to correctly change a diaper and not drop the contents on the floor.

Proud parents

So this officially concludes our RTW trip 2006-2007, but this doesn't mean an end to our travels, just a change in the way we travel. We will keep you aware of any future comic travel experiences that we take on as a trio.

With that, my next dream trip would have us travelling around the Americas starting in Alaska all the way down the western coast of the Americas to Chile and back up the eastern coast through the Caribbean to Nova Scotia. Now if I could only find a few sponsors. Or maybe I should try to figure out that swaddling thing first.

Final question - Where should we travel first with Sophie in tow and why?

Peace
John, Nadine, and Sophie Christine

A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman,
Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common.
-Benjamin Franklin

Daily, Nadine and I think back to our travels, and for good reason, her belly is growing on a daily basis from our time on Koh Tao, Thailand. Soon our Thai souvenir will arrive, but until then, I figured I would show you the progression of Nadine's belly across continents and countries to what it is now, large and kicking.

State of the Belly Report #1 - Saigon, Vietnam

State of the Belly Report #2 - Kunming, China

State of the Belly Report #3 - Hogsback, South Africa

State of the Belly Report #4 - Rome, Italy

Brand new State of the Belly Report #5 - Omaha, Nebraska, USA

As you can see, our reminder of Thailand is growing daily. Oh Thailand.

Within the week, we will decide whether we will be living in the frigid winter of Omaha or the frigid winter of Denver, either way, it will be frigid, and don't forget cold.

You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
-Dave Barry

John, Nadine, and Sophie Christine

Prelude of our final flight of our around the world trip

Greetings all and hope y'all are doing well. It has been roughly a little over a month since Nadine and I have been back in the States, and there have been a few things that jumped out at us from our home country.

Stepping off of the plane in Texas, two things jumped out at us as we drove to our first meal in the U.S., (*and we're not proud of this*) McDonald's, this country is clean, really clean. You don't have any trash blowing around the streets. I would go as far as to say that I feel comfortable dropping some food and not feeling like I should pick it up in 5 seconds, per the 5 second rule, but at least 7 or 8 seconds. That is how comfortable the cleanliness makes me feel.

The second item is that people here in the U.S. are big-boned, a.k.a. fat. Not everyone is, and especially not you the American reader. Not only are we Americans heavier, we are also much larger. Walking around Asia, Nadine and I felt like giants with our height, but in Texas, we felt like medium sized, thin mesquite bushes blowing in the breeze. Everyone and everything is big in Texas, but I guess you can't forget the motto: Everything's bigger in Texas.

Contingents from Odessa, Texas; two from San Antonio; Tulsa, and Omaha

And finally my third impression, people eat fast. I am always the last one to finish, and Nadine is second to last. We're not sitting there playing with our food making miniature mashed potato castles, we're just eating at a leisurely pace. But by the time I would comment to everyone that this food is pretty darn good, and rich for that matter, after my first bite, people would be setting their forks down, pushing away from the table, letting out a burp of relief.

Who would have thought that my second snow in a year would be the day before Easter in Odessa

Nadine and I initially spent two weeks apart to spend time with our respective parents. With my folks, we dashed over to San Antonio to watch my niece's cheerleading competition. Entrance to the competition was $15 per person! Just returning from our trip, that price felt like 3 nights in a hotel in Thailand.

Fortunately and unfortunately, being that my dad has a tough time walking with a bum knee, I kindly asked the lady if they had a wheelchair he could use. Instead of paying that hefty little fee to watch our niece, Maria wheeled us, ok, just my dad, down a long corridor underneath the convention center and directly pass the entrance table to the cheerleading auditorium.

Now this is what I found really silly, we waited two hours for Morgan to perform for 3 minutes, and they wanted to charge us $15 a person. Wow. At least Morgan did well and had her favorite uncle there.

Whose diaper fits better?

You have to look long and hard to find diapers on some kids all around the world, but you know you are in a different world when the dogs are wearing diapers.

To complete our time of leading a non-regimented, wake up when you choose life, we were going to make stops with friends and family on our way to Omaha, Nebraska. But before we left the thriving metropolis of Odessa, Texas, the local newspaper did a short article on our trip. If you notice the picture, I think they decided to photoshop Nadine's photo with that of someone else. Doesn't look anything like her.

I guess this is for Sophie

So the end of our travels saw us visit San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Tulsa, and finally into Omaha. We currently spend our time looking for permanent jobs in Omaha, San Antonio, and Denver, but there has been one contingent pushing hard for Denver. Via a gift basket including some clothes that turned out to not be for me, but for little Sophie Christine who has scheduled a cameo appearance the beginning of August.

Hope all are well. This is our second to last entry pertaining to this trip. The final one will include a picture of our Thai souvenir when it finally arrives.

Stay classy world!

John, Nadine, Sophie Christine