Welcome to Rice Whine: the official blog of the
Speiser-Sawatzky travel extravaganza. In
six days we depart. First
stop—Paris. In time we will see France,
Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and hopefully a few more
countries in south east Asia depending on time and money.
FAQ:
Why this combination of Europe and Asia?
Greg’s brother and sister-in-law
(Russ and Marg) have lived in Paris for many years and we have never made it
there as a family. My brother and his
family (Rob, Anjali and Fischer) are living in Singapore until 2014. We thought we could combine these
destinations into one amazing trip.
Why Sept-January?
Greg, a high school teacher, was
able to get a semester off from work and thus we are taking off during the
first school semester.
Are you going to home school the boys?
Yes, we
are going to “home school” the boys.
(Emphasis on quotation marks!)
Are you ready?
Ha ha
ha…
My hopes:
- Many adventurous and “wow” moments seeing completely foreign things
- We connect and have fun as a family.
- We eat good food.
- Thomas (the 8 year old picky eater) eats food other than rice and bananas.
- Boys learn things.
- I get to read and listen to music and learn to play chess and get better at scrabble…
- That I forget about work within a few days.
My fears:
- Serious illness/injury
- More stress than fun
- Boys get skinny
- We often wish we had just stayed home and not gone at all.
- Messy diarrhea
- Bed bugs
- Constipation from eating only rice and beans.
- Rabies (we did get the shots!)
- My colleagues discover many instances of gross medical negligence among my patients.
The next few days will be full and also very critical. I find myself stressing over things that I
know are inconsequential (what size shampoo container do I take…it is four
months but a big bottle is too big…) because I have this feeling like I should
be stressing over something. Preparing
for this type of trip is all very new and challenging.
It’s really hard to believe this is really going to happen
soon.-
-cynthia
