Holmsted Manor: The 40th Anniversary Day

October 15, 2015 iampmb3 4 Comments

I wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for this place!

Holmsted Manor is a place south of London that is run by Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a non-profit service organization that teaches young adults about Jesus and how to love and serve people the way Jesus did. My mom and dad met there 20 years ago, even though my dad is from Hawaii and my mom is from the Seattle area. Holmsted Manor recently celebrated its 40th anniversary as a YWAM base and we were there to experience it.

One of Dad’s amazing, long-armed selfie’s in front of Holmsted.

We were at Holmsted with the staff, this year’s Discipleship Training School (DTS), and some other families who had traveled there for the 40th anniversary. The staff also used the celebration as fundraising for general repairs of the Manor. These repairs included remodeling a bathroom, fixing special rooms, and removing the ivy that’s invading the house.

Brochure for the HM40 fundraising campaign.

In preperation for the event, everybody pitched in to help clean up the place. My family helped clean up the dining room by clearing and wiping down the tables and sweeping the floor. Other teams mopped, did dishes, or vacuumed. Designated guides practiced their lines for the tours which were being conducted for guests.

Once people started arriving, we decided to roam the grounds and admire the scenery. Sadly, the cool stream that used to flow around the Manor needs to be fixed and dredged, but they don’t have the funds to do so. There were also really cool trees in the garden. One was even shaped like a chair!

The gardens and what’s left of the stream.

Sis sitting in the cool tree/chair/branch.

Once we had gone all the way around the gardens, my family and I went to take a house tour around the Manor. As we walked around, my father and mother told my sister and I just as much about the place that the guide did. The funniest part of the tour was seeing how small the boys’ prayer room is. It might have a total of 8 square feet of floor space. We also saw where Mom and Dad’s dormitories were!

View of the driveway from Dad’s old bedroom when he was on Staff there.

At the end of the tour, our guide showed us that we were actually able to buy a tree out of the 40 different trees that were going to be planted around the grounds to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Our family decided to buy tree number 17, which is near a swing set that my parents used to hang out near, and the tree number is also part of the date of their anniversary, August 17.

The spot where the tree will be planted.

Once we finished the tour, my parents saw some old friends and started chatting with them. Us kids just stood there for 10-20 minutes, we started playing tag! After a while, it was time for the gathering to start. I must admit that I paid little attention to the actual talk, but did participate in the worship and prayer.

Thomas and I playing a game called “Ninja.”

3-person Ninja when Xiao-Yu joined the game.

Then our families walked around the gardens together. Once we had finished circling the grounds, they had to leave, so we said goodbye, but we just couldn’t quite say goodbye yet, so we all went to a restaurant for dinner together.

Dinner with Miss Kristy, the Chudleys, and the Hobbs at The Harvester.

This is an important day for my entire family. For my parents, it meant seeing the place where they met, and seeing old friends. For us kids, it meant seeing a place that is important to our parents, and meeting new people. Overall, we all enjoyed the experience that helped us understand the world a bit more.

Key Learnings, Planning, ProTips

Down Day

September 25, 2015 iamlabunda 2 Comments

We have been going hard for weeks now. We have all been thoroughly enjoying our travels but have gotten pretty exhausted by the pace we have been keeping. We have all begun to have shorter tempers and frustration levels.

Paul and I had initially talked about planning some rest days in our calendar, but somehow when you only have 2-3 days in any given place it is hard to make yourself stop. There is never enough time to see and do everything!

Last night we were out until 1:00 am with the kids. The Milan Expo 2015 was fun and worth our time there, but we are wiped out now! You should have seen us dragging ourselves home.

The USA Pavilion at the Expo. Interesting, but not as impressive as many of the other exhibits.

So, we slept in until after 10:00. Then we got up, hung laundry out to dry, I cooked some food (Risotto was a hit!), and we proceeded to stay in our pajamas…for hours. I admit, it is nice! We parents took care of some travel details. The kids worked on blogs, caught up on social media, and read. But that is all.

I’m sorry, Milan, that we have missed almost a whole day of time with you, but I am not sorry for the day we are enjoying! I promise we will hang out tonight.

All in all, it has been a good day. A necessary day. Congratulations, Kamaile: it is 4:00pm and you are the only one dressed.

England, France, Germany, Italy

K’s European Food Education🍴

September 25, 2015 iamthemaimai 5 Comments

So, today I am going to blog about foods we have had through our Europe trip! First, I’m going tell you what I thought that country’s food was, then I’ll tell you what it actually was.😊😉🍴😋

I’m going to start off with Germany, the first country we went to.🇩🇪Before I came to Germany, I thought German food was all bratwurst and schnitzel. I didn’t even know what a frankfurter was until I heard we were going to be landing in Frankfurt.😂 And to be honest, I had no idea what a schnitzel was either, It just sounded German-ish. Until I actually went to Germany. 😏😂🇩🇪

When we got to Germany, the first meal we had was in a German pub.🍻 I ordered a schnitzel, Dad ordered shweinshaxe (pork knuckle)🐷, Mom ordered a schnitzel with mushroom sauce🍄, and Trey ordered a frankfurter with lentil soup. It turns out, a frankfurter is basically a german hot dog. And a schnitzel is sliced, breaded, and fried meat☺️. I had potato wedges with my shnitzel and they were good, but the shnitzel was amazing!

The next country we visited was France, which I knew a little bit more about than some of the other countries we visited.🇫🇷
Before we went to France, I thought French food was all croissants, baguettes, crepes, escargot, and macaroons. And mostly, that’s what it was! ☺️

We stopped to get some baguettes on the way down from the Eiffel tower and ate them on the grass. They were yummy, but nowhere near as good as the jambon (ham and cheese) baguettes we got on our first full day in paris!😜

We took an awesome walking tour of Paris but unfortunately, it was rainy and cold.💦We got some yummy crepes to warm us up!

On one of our last nights in Paris, We found a little resturaunt in the heart of the city and ordered some escargo!🐌 I wasn’t super excited to eat snail, but I was willing to try. I actually thought I might like it, because it smelled okay and you could eat it with bread and cooked veggies. When I tried it, it was worse than I thought it would be! It was sort of like a mushroom, (I don’t like mushrooms either!) only it was saltier (and yuckier!).

Then, we went to England. Before I came to England I thought all English people had Fish and Chips all day, every day. Plus some tea, and a bit of bubble and squeak (stir-fried veggies) for breakfast. Until I went to England. My theory about fish and chips was sort of correct, people did have a lot of it, but they didn’t have it all day, every day, just alot.🐟🍟 My tea theory was also only sort of true. Did you know that The U.K. Is as much a coffee country as it is a tea country?☕️

Coffe in the crypts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields near Trafalgar Square…☕️

Poppies fish and chips that we got in London. Yum!🐟🍟 They were so good! Especially with tartar sauce.😉

The last country’s food that I’m going to talk about is Italy. Before I came to Italy, I thought Italian food was pizza, pasta, wine,🍷 tiramisu, and gelato!!!🍦😄

One of the first Italian Queens, Queen Margherita, ate so much of this type of pizza they named it after her. It is also why the Italian Flag is red, white, and green. Red is tomato sauce, white is mozzarella cheese, and green is the basil topping. I can understand why the Queen ate so much of that pizza, it’s delicious!

Handmade pasta!🍝 Some of the best I’ve had in my life. Perfectly cooked and yummily made.☺️

Tiramisu in Italy is the best! 😛 So yummy!

I think I’ve had Gelato almost every single day in Italy so far. It’s amazing! 😛😋🍦

And that is basically all I have had so far in Italy😂😂 But there are a couple other things that I had no idea about that are very Italian. For example, bruschetta! Bruschetta is lightly salted bread with olive oil and tomatoes on top! It’s soooo gooood…

Anyway, that’s all for now!

✌️ ⭕️⛎➕ (aka peace out)

~Kamaile

Brussels, France, Germany

Europe Tour: T’s Favorite Pics, So far

September 4, 2015 iampmb3 2 Comments

So far, we have been in Europe for about three weeks. I have accumulated many photos of the different places we have been to, so I thought I would share a few with you guys. Below you shall see 5 pictures from Paris, Frankfurt, and even Brussels!

This is a view of the Frankfurt city skyline. This specific shot was taken from on top of a shopping mall, which is kind of odd. This is right after a free walking tour round Frankfurt that showed us cool stuff, like medieval churches, and sad stuff like drugs and prostitution, which is a pretty cool idea.

This is the Venus De Milo in the Louvre in Paris. The statue is a marble sculpture that was originally meant by the sculptor to be viewed only from the front. You can tell because of the relative lack of detail in the back. Also, the statue is actually from Greek times, so it should probably should be called the Aphrodite De Milo. By the way, I still don’t get why so many Greek statues are usually half nude!

This is a graffiti inscription that I found on a lamp post in Paris. I find this inscription amusing because Paris is known for amazing food and Parisians love their food!

This is the European Parliament in Brussels where most of the government works except when they go to meetings in Strasbourg once a month for four days to vote. This seems odd because it means thousands of people each month, which must be an extreme hassle. There are tons of people clogging up the train stations and other systems that cost a lot of money.

This is one of the many lock bridges in Paris where couples buy a lock, write their names on it, lock it on the bridge, and then throw the key in the river to symbolize their eternal love. This is a odd tradition to me, because it seems like eventually all the bridges in Paris could collapse due to the weight of the locks, like the original lock bridge almost did.

I am super glad to be able to travel to all of these awesome places, and I can’t wait to go see more in Europe! See ya later!

Ps. Many of you probably know that we are already in the UK, but as I am going through all of my photos, I will make sure to post the best in the next blog!

Uncategorized

London Walking Tour!

September 4, 2015 iamthemaimai 2 Comments

Today we did a free walking tour in Soho, Picadilly, and Chinatown in London, UK! 🇬🇧🚶🏽🚶🏽🚶🏽
In the morning we left our Airbnb around 9:30 and walked to the metro, which, here in London they call the “tube”.🚈 We rode the tube into Picadilly Circus where we met Gregory, our guide for the tour, outside a donut shop. 🍩
We walked through Picadilly, Chinatown, and Soho. These are a cuople of the interesting sights we saw:
1.

The Bag O’ Nails theatre! An old theatre that used to have shows every night, but now it is a private venue. One thing Gregory told us here was that if there is a blue plaque somewhere, READ IT!😋(Cause they’re special😅) At this place, these were the blue plaques👇

The first plaque read that, here at Bag O’ Nails venue on May 15th, 1967 Paul McCartney met Linda Eastman. Cool! I love the Beatles!😄
The second plaque read that, here on November 26th 1966 Jimi Hendrix first played here. Gregory told us that Jimi came to the venue thinking he was there to watch a show, but then, he heard his name and was called up on stage!😆 There, he played his right hand👋 guitar🎸 upside down for the show. (Jimi was very poor at the time, and when he was 15 his dad saved up to buy him a guitar, but it was right handed, and Jimi was left handed! So Jimi played his right hand guitar upside down.😛) After the show, someone came up to Jimi and told him “That was one of the best shows that I’ve ever seen.” That someone was Jimi’s idol, Eric Clapton. Wow! That must have been so awesome!😄
2.

The Spirit Of Soho mural! St. Ann’s dress is the neighborhood of Soho with the streets,🚸 resturaunts,🍴 shops,🏣 and everything else. On the bottom of the mural, there are four people standing in front of a yellow clock. Those people are (from left to right) Mozart, (Mozart lived in Soho for one year from age 8 – 9 while he was doing his tour of Europe.) Karl Marx, (He has a big red book in front of him. He appears to have a red thing in his left hand. It used to be a can of Coca Cola but the mural is so old that it fell off😓) Theresa Cornelys, (Opera singer and actress) and Casanova. Every hour Casanova blows a kiss to Theresa, (thats why his mouth looks so odd) and Theresa winks back. (thats why her eye looks so odd) We were there for the hour and we saw the Wink-kiss exchange and it looked so odd!😳😂

So, those are some of the things I saw on our London walking tour!
✌️ ⭕️⛎➕ (aka peace out)

~ Kamaile

Planning, ProTips

Laura, dear, what will you wear?

August 28, 2015 iamlabunda 4 Comments

The #SeattleBundas are back at it. This time we have an amazing itinerary over the next seven and a half weeks taking us all over western Europe: Frankfurt, Wurzburg, and Rothenberg ob der Tauber, and Weil am Rhein, Germany; Paris (including Disneyland) and Maison-Laffitte, France; Brussels, Belgium; London, Bath, Clevedon/Somerset, and Haywards Heath, England; Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Milan, and Venice, Italy; Thun, Switzerland. We also have a one-week Adriatic Cruise starting/ending in Venice, Italy and visiting the following along the way: Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia; Ancient Athens, Greece; and Ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

As many of you know, we have been committed to the carry-on only, One-Bag travel philosophy now since the beginning of the year.

Before our Japan trip in March, Paul spent many hours researching convertible backpacks. The bags carry like backpacks or they can be carried by a side handle or shoulder strap with the backpack straps tucked away. Also, when it is time to access the bags, they unzip and open all the way flat instead of having to reach down into the top to access like a traditional backpack.

We ended up choosing a couple different bags, all with many fabulous features. We purchased eBags TLS Mother Lode Weekender Convertible Junior backpacks for the kids because they have a slightly smaller form factor while maintaining the flexibility of several types of compartments. I chose the Minaal bag, with a very simple form factor and fewer sections. I tend to squirrel lots of different things away, so this forces me to stay streamlined and organized. Paul picked the Osprey Farpoint 55 travel backpack which has all of the features we looked for in addition to an attachable/removable day pack.

We each also carry a smaller day bag. Paul has the detachable day pack from his Farpoint, Trey and I have side pouches, and Kamaile has a camera case with a tiny bit of storage. Additionally, we purchased a set of eBags packing cubes for each of us. Everyone gets their own color so we can always identify whose stuff is who’s.

So, has it worked and do we still like this concept? Absolutely! Time after time we see others struggling with large suitcases as they labor from one train platform to another and are so grateful that we carry everything on our backs. So far, both Asia and Europe have had many stairs, cobblestones, and uneven pavement that makes roller suitcases very impractical. Plus, we have saved lots time and money as we have avoided checking our luggage.

One bag does mean a limited number of clothes. But what about laundry? If you don’t have many clothes, you do have to wash them every few days. We have found that it is very simple to wash things in bathroom sinks or bathtubs, or find a laundromat or laundry service. Hotel shampoo actually does a decent job. Keeping up with the laundry only requires a little forethought….You don’t let yourself run out of clean underwear more than once! You also can’t do laundry the night before a travel day because things might not be dry by the time you have to pack up.

I know, I know, all you really wanted to know was what I brought in my bag. Again, we started with research. Basically, I scoured Pinterest for ideas. (If you need a starting point, feel free to look at my pins @labunda or Laura Bunda.) There are many many boards for carry-on only traveling for all seasons and areas of the world. The are also tons of ideas for capsule wardrobes. Travelfashiongirl.com is a favorite site of mine. Paul and I have both also learned a lot from Nomadic Matt . com as well as ricksteves.com. Eventually I picked my favorite plan and modeled my wardrobe after it. I, who cannot follow a recipe, cannot follow a wardrobe plan either, it turns out. So I sort of followed this plan. And this one.

Very important, because I stick with mostly neutral colors, these 13 or so pieces can be mixed and matched to make many outfits. If you believe the articles and pics on Pinterest, over 25 outfits!

One dress, one pair each of jeans, black leggings, and green travel pants, a pair of khaki shorts, one black cardigan sweater, one 3/4 sleeve charcoal blouse, one gray long sleeve tee, one black cami, one reversible skirt, three short sleeve shirts (one blue solid, one black print, one with stripes), one blue tank top, and a scarf. At the last second I decided to throw in another gray cami that is not pictured. Also not pictured are a rain coat, swim suit, five pair of socks, six pairs of underwear, two bras, and a long sleep shirt. This is pretty much the same type of wardrobe that I brought along to South East Asia earlier this year.

Halfway there. Packing cubes are our friends.

My travel outfit consisted of jeans, the gray cami, striped shirt, sweater, and sneakers. Everything else was rolled and put into packing cubes according to category: tops, bottoms, toiletries, and everything else. Together with my bag, this all weighed about 10 1/2 pounds. A few more toiletry items and my Keens were thrown in last minute making my total a little under 13 pounds.

Just need to zip the bag closed and I’m ready to go!

The next question I often hear: Do you want to burn your clothes by the time you get home? The answer is yes. Some of my clothing pieces I left behind in Indonesia when we departed. Several of the items, however, have earned an encore performance and have come along on this trip as well: reversible skirt, travel pants, charcoal blouse, and black cardigan.One week in and the scheme is holding up well. I have done two sink loads of laundry that hung dry on shower curtain rods and hangers. I think this whole plan is going to work again!

Do you have any stories or advice about packing for traveling? I would love to hear them.

France, Germany

Week in Review: Planes, Trains, and Autotopia

August 25, 2015 iamthebunda 2 Comments

7 days into our 2-month Europe trip & what a blur it has been! Hence, the cover pic (see what I did there?).

If what we’ve experienced, thus far, is any indication of what’s to come, then finding adequate time to provide regular, ongoing updates will be a quite a challenge. Therefore, I’ve decided to try and provide a weekly write-up during this time to give everyone slices of the #SeattleBundas life on the road that complement the myriad Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts currently provide. As always, feedback is welcome.

Monday – Travel Day (Seattle to Frankfurt). We spent the morning doing last-minute packing adjustments, which is tougher than you might think when committed to One-Bag travel. We also finished cleaning the house, changing the linens, etc., just in case family/friends need a place to crash while we’re abroad. • At airport check-in, I expecting a bit of a fight as our assigned seats–for which we paid extra to reserve–were mysteriously changed the night before. To my relief, the Lead Agent happened to be looking over the shoulder of the Agent helping us and fixed things before I even had the opportunity to inquire. • The 10.5-hour flight from Seattle to Frankfurt was long, but not too terrible. Condor Air served us a ton of food, so that was a plus. My seat mate was a large (as in big and muscular) Polish man. Initially, I was irritated that he seemed to take over 25% of my space. 3 hours in, however, and I felt bad that he was having so much more trouble getting comfortable in his seat.

30 seconds before boarding our SEA to FRA trip

Tuesday – We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and breezed through Immigration. The officer remarked how much he’d have to work to pay for such a long holiday. I told him that I’m certain I’ll be paying for it (in some way) for a while as well. • We took a short walk from the airport terminal to airport train station, then waited in line to activate our Eurail Global Passes. Our transaction was fairly routine, save for a small clerical error that needed sorting. Meanwhile, the scene next to us was quite entertaining. A Vietnamese gentleman was trying to get home via a different train and airport after missing an earlier connection. Meanwhile, his agent hummed the Star Wars Imperial March as he found him an alternate route. What? LOL • We took a short train ride from the airport to the main train station in Frankfurt. The station was gorgeous and had me excited for all the other stations that we’d be visiting during this trip. When you live in a city like Seattle, with its woefully inadequate mass transit system, you really appreciate things like this. • After a 10-minute walk, we checked into our hotel. The place was unspectacular, but we ended up getting a 2nd room at no cost when the realized that they forgot to account for our 4th guest request. Score! • That evening, we walked around the surrounding neighborhood and down the the Main River to begin the process of fighting off jetlag. We even found a little playground where the kids could run around a bit. • We finished our very long day with schnitzel, schweinhaxe (pork knuckle), and Binding (local Pilsner) at a nearby restaurant called Baseler Eck.

Wednesday – This was our only full day in Frankfurt, so we were determined to make it a meaningful one. Through the course of our pre-trip research, we kept hearing about how boring Frankfurt was compared with other German cities. In fact, more than a fair share of contributors from travel sites like TripAdvisor and Trippy recommended other cities when talking about Frankfurt. We decided that taking the proverbial road less traveled might be our best bet and hung out with Therese (our guide from the Frankfurt Free Alternative Walking Tour) and 15 other travelers. Therese largely led us away from Frankfurt’s few tourist traps and we learned, among other things, about the city’s efforts to legalize (read: regulate and tax) prostitution and drug use. Needless to say, this required some pre- and post-tour conversations with the kids. • At the end of the tour, a handful of us decided to eat lunch together before going off on our separate ways. Our lives are richer for having spent some time with: Therese, the Socio-Cultural Geology student and Part-Time Guide; Sebastian the Hotelier from Switzerland, by way of Eastern Germany; Justin, the Vietnamese-Canadian on a 6-month European hitchhiking tour; and the British trio on holiday from University. Safe travels, guys!

At the start of our walking tour. We soon found ourselves in what could be described as Frankfurt’s Red Light District.

Our tour group in front of Paul’s Church

Thursday – We took the morning train to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (RodT), a medieval Bavarian town that was largely untouched for over half a millennia. On a whim, we decided to take advantage of our rail passes by stopping for a few hours in Wurzburg. We had no clue what to expect, but they Interwebs said that the town should not be missed. Wow! We spent some time visiting the Residenz, a massive and opulent palace built by Bavarian Prince-Bishops. I’d never heard that phrase before, but learned that these guys possessed a combination of secular and spiritual position–effectively giving them absolute power. Ego much? • We made our way to RodT a few hours later and were greeted by our first heavy rain of the trip. Nonetheless, the town walls and buildings were stunning. Kamaile leaned over sheepishly saying, “Dad, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s almost like Disneyland.” LOL • After checking into our hotel near center of the Old Town, we visited a Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. That place was far too creepy for me, but the rest of the fam seemed to get a kick out of it. • Not creepy, however, was going upside down with our dinner–beginning with trying out the local pastry called Schneeballs and ending with dinner at a place called Zur Höll (“To Hell”). Let’s just say that eating the best sausages I’ve ever tried in a building with foundations dating back to the 900s was awesome. • After dinner we went on a stroll around the city with The Night Watchman. We heard about this guy from a Rick Steves episode. Corny as they come, but informative and fun!

My “road warriors” arriving in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

The Night Watchman from Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Friday – Our train journey to Paris left at 09:00, so we dragged the kids out of bed for a 06:00 walk. We roamed the foggy, nearly-deserted streets and walked atop and 1000 year-old walls. Many Americans do not quite have the same sense of history that most of the world enjoys, so this was a fantastic experience for the whole family. • 4 different trains over 10.5 hours took us from RodT to Steinach, to Stuttgart, to Strasbourg, then to Marne le Vallee. Just beautiful! That said, I quickly put aside any romantic notions of biking the French countryside; thankful that we were on a comfortable, super fast TGV instead. • Side Note: In Strasbourg, we noticed a group of French military with assault rifles and very serious expressions. We later learned that another TGV was the scene of an attempted terrorist massacre. Thank God for the people–especially the 3 American friends–for laying their lives on the line to prevent a full-blown tragedy.

Saturday & Sunday – Consecutive full days at Disneyland Paris and then Walt Disney Studios. I’ll leave it the kids to post a separate blog about our time there. In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and declare now that, for me, Disneyland Paris > Magic Kingdom > Disneyland > Disneyland Tokyo.

Until next time…Auf Wedersehen & Au Revoir!

Paul

Uncategorized

On this day…

August 17, 2015 iamthebunda 2 Comments

On this day in 1996… We were 2 kids getting married in Tacoma with a handful of dreams, very few plans, and even fewer dollars in the bank.

On this day in 1997… We were desperately trying to find an affordable place to live to Kirkland, where Laura would soon be starting college at Northwest.

On this day in 2001… We had just learned that Laura was pregnant with our first child, but had decided to wait a little longer before telling anyone else.

On this day in 2006… We were both feeling super excited and super stressed, while unpacking after moving into our new dream home.

On this day, TODAY… We take off for Europe on the next leg of our #SeattleBundas Family Sabbatical.

There’s no way anyone could’ve predicted the amazing journey that we’ve been on for these last 19 years. I’m so excited about what the next 19 years will bring.

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Note: This is a copy of today’s Status Update for family/friends on Facebook.

Key Learnings

Foods, Friends, and Family.

July 18, 2015 iampmb3 2 Comments

Ever since I was able to talk, there was one prayer that we would always say. It goes like this: “Thank you Jesus for this food, and our friends, and our family. Please help us to make wise choices. In your name we pray, Amen.”

I wish to share this with you because the three topics that I am going to talk about today are Food🍔, Friends😜, and Family😀, and how I have specifically missed (or not missed) parts of each one during this trip.

“…I learned during this trip that you don’t need as much as you think you need to live.”

Some of the food that I missed during our trip was Mexican food. I totally didn’t think I would miss it, but the air here smells like a Mexican restaurant and it drives me nuts! When we get home, I hope that the first restaurant that we go to is Santa Fe, a really good Mexican restaurant in Kirkland, or the food truck at the bottom of the hill. The food that I thought I would miss was practically all American-style foods, but since there are tons of tourists here, I am able to have plenty of burgers, which is really surprising to me.

I am missing a lot of friends that I have back home, like Piers, one of my best friends, and Awsumb (pronounced awesome), my best friend at ICS. I have actually found some other friends in Indonesia, the Johnsons who live just down the road from where we were staying. My biggest surprise was that I was able to still text my friends in the States, even though I am fourteen time zones away.

I am sad because of how much I miss my family. This year we missed the Fourth of July party at my grandparents house, and I was really looking forward to seeing family and awesome fireworks. What surprised me though it’s that we have been able to FaceTime family and friends back home, and that helps me not miss them as much.

That is how I have missed food, friends, and family throughout our trip. The biggest surprise was that I really missed good ramen even though there are a bunch of other Asian noodles!😜 But I learned during this trip that you don’t need as much as you think you need to live.

See ya!!

Indonesia, Key Learnings

Damn, I’m Grouchy

July 15, 2015 iamthebunda 4 Comments

It’s Wednesday afternoon here in Bandung. Sitting here at our favorite western-style-coffee-donut chain not named Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks, neither an Iced Hazelnut Latte nor a Choco Forest J.Cronut (see Wikipedia under “chocolatey, croissanty concoction created by the Devil”) can break my funk. I’m irritable. I’m snapping at Laura and the kids for the dumbest reasons. Frankly, I need to get a grip.

What’s the deal?!

It wasn’t the 3-mile walk we just took through back-alleys, a graveyard, and countless stares from the locals. We’re quite used to sticking out like sore thumbs and we’ve really come to love and appreciate the beauty in that which we once considered messy.

It wasn’t the nasty snarl of moto and mobil (car) traffic. While crossing the street was particularly hairy this afternoon–no doubt due to the many people scrambling in preparation for Lebaran (or Idul Fitri, a major Indonesian holiday)–it was way more fun than stressful. Kamaile even mentioned how much she prefers traffic here over what we experience in Seattle.

It wasn’t the overly persistent street vendor trying to sell me something despite the fact that I had no clue what that something was. I could’ve sworn he said it l was for weed, but that would make zero sense around here. According to this guy that I met while hiking recently, not only is weed illegal, but it’s really hard to get. But I digress…

Heck, it wasn’t even the heat. If you’ve been following this blog for the past few months, you know how much I like to complain about heat, humidity, and my sweat. The high today was 82F with 81% humidity. Funnily enough, I didn’t even mind.

As I write, I’m suddenly realizing that I’m grouchy because this SE Asia leg of our Family Sabbatical is about to come to a close. 4 sleeps and we head back to the states.

I’m excited to go home and see family and friends. I’m excited to eat decent Mexican food. I’m excited to sleep in my own bed and shower in my bathroom. I’m excited to have people over for BBQs and s’mores by the fire. I’m excited for some of the creature comforts that my comfortable First-World life affords (e.g. Hi-speed WiFi, my huge 4K HDTV, playing Destiny with Trey, etc.).

On the flip side, I’m sad to leave Waldemar and Rosemarie Kowalski, Pauline, Josie, Friska, Pak Asep, Ibus Assih and Apong, the Street Kids at Stasiun Hall (more in a future blog), and the many other new friends we’ve made during our time here in Bandung… I’m also frustrated that we didn’t make more progress connecting with potential local partners for the Kowalskis.

Pak Asep, Pauline, and the #SeattleBundas

Finally, I’m a little scared about what happens next. We remain on track to keep this train moving from a financial perspective, so that’s not the issue. We’re still planning on heading to Europe, but in the absence of firm plans or even plane tickets, we’re facing at least a solid month of uncertainty. In the meantime, I will undoubtedly wrestle even more with that voice of doubt that I’ve somehow managed to keep tucked away in far reaches of my mind these past few months: “Are you insane? Shouldn’t you be saving money? You’re throwing away your career! What about your family’s future?”

So, yeah… this is more of a vent than a blog, which at least would have the potential to be valuable to you. Regardless, I’m trusting that if you’ve read this far you can handle it. I’m also trusting that we’ve made and will continue to make the right decisions. For as long as Laura and I have been together, things just have a way of working out. God is good. All the time.

Keeping it real.

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