The Singapore Airport is a Must See!

I've never been in a more incredible airport than the Singapore one! There are trees, water features, fresh flowers, potted orchids, a coy pond and a butterfly garden. This is IN THE AIRPORT! It's incredible. Oh and if you're kids need to blow off some energy they have playgrounds too. So we had a little bit of time before our flight when Dave found the butterfly garden. It was incredible. They were everywhere! This is a real butterfly that landed on Lilia's bottom! It happened so fast I could only get a blurry picture before it flew away.

We made it through the night!

Our bedroom was too loud to sleep in so all 3 of us snuggled into Lilia's bed. We enjoyed her sound resistant windows greatly. As we went to sleep I turned to kt and said "We wouldn't have this experience in West Chester."

Pulling out all the stops

I do not know how Lilia will sleep with all these fireworks, but we are trying everything. We no longer have any cushions. They are all stuffed in Lilia's 6x8 window. I have also have tried to spin the meaning of all these fireworks. I told her the fireworks are welcoming her back home. When the boom, she sometimes says "Welcome back Lilia!"

Dave's first thoughts back home

Exiting the taxi in our complex, I saw a number of red leaves on the ground. "The leaves have fallen" I thought, forgetting that the trees have been barren for months. Katie observed that the ground was littered not with leaves, but firecracker wrappers. Some set off right below Lilia's window. We are safe 9 stories up, but it would of been a number of sleepless nights.

Chinese New Years lasts for 5 nights. We came home when it was supposed to be over, but I can tell by what I see and hear that it is not quite done. On the street there are a number of vendors who carve out a bit of sidewalk and sell explosives the size of checked luggage. As for the sounds, I was just interupted by explosions that would end most town's celebrations not 20 feet from our widow.

We do not know how we will sleep tonight. I think a cannon just went off.

We're back

We have had an incredible time in Malaysia! It was restful and we were renewed from spending time with our friends, Kyle, Emily & Sydney. We left the airport feeling encouraged and excited to go back...then the plane landed and we walked off the air plane and felt the cold! At one point after we walked through customs and what not, I remember looking around and only seeing Asian people. It was weird. In Malaysia and Singapore there are so many people groups of people from all over the world. It's very international. Then I walked around our airport and there were only one type of people. It was like culture shock all over again. It was totally depressing riding home. We just left a taste of heaven! Not just the environment, but time with great people too. It's only natural to be sad. We know that once we get back into the swing of things life will feel normal again and we have awesome memories to think back on!

Sunset

Lilia & Daddy at the black sand beach

Lilia & Sydney

We had just finished dinner pool side with our friends when the girls decided to play in some dirty sand. Well it quickly got all over them. The funniest part was when Lilia was bending over, Sydney poured sand down the back of Lilia's diaper! Eventually they were both covered. So cute!

Lilia enjoying fresh coconut juice!

Palm Trees & Sunnny Beaches

Our time is winding down. It will be hard to leave the beauty of this place, especially because where we are going is so cold and a huge, polluted city! Anyway, it was such a time of renewal and rest, which is exactly what we needed. I think we're ready to head back to everything that's ahead. This time we have a semester under our belt and we feel somewhat equipped.
We are thankful that we have 2 more days. We will soak up the sun, take advantage of the pool and the laid back atmosphere!

Kyle, Emily & Sydney with us at the beautiful beach

Monkeys & Eagles

Boat Ride

Yesterday we took a 4 hour boat ride. Langkawi has 99 islands and we visited 3 on the boat. The first one was crazy because you get off the boat and monkeys are there to greet you. The aren't scared of humans and they want your food. Then you hike a bit into the mountain to a fresh water lake in the middle of the Andaman Sea. It's incredible. There are docks that you swim off of. We had a great time. We were with a lot of our American friends so we played games in the water and what not.
Next we went to a cove where the driver throws chicken meat into the water and eagles swoop down and get the meat. The boat driver said there are about 150 eagles on that island.
The last part of our trip was our favorite. It was just the 12 of us on a small beach on the most amazing water you've seen. We ate lunch there and just hung out in the crystal blue water. It was glorious!

Dave at the Seven Pools

Seven pools

Two days ago we went to the Seven Pools (you can probably google it if you want). It was awesome!!! You hike up 370 steps to the top of a water fall. My friend Emily did it 5 1/2 months pregnant! At the top are these smooth rocks that are like a natural slip-n-slide. The water goes down the rocks and into these pools of water. So we slid down the rocks and into the pools, it was so fun! Even Lilia sat on Dave's lap and went down one time. Then you hike half way down and there is a huge water fall. It was really pretty.

Back to Malaysia

Unfortunately I won't be able to post pics till I get back to our place in Asia. I'm using the internet in the lobby to keep you all updated on our vacation. It's been a great first day. The pool here is so beautiful. It's totally natural looking that you wonder if there will be fish swimming around with you. We are right on the beach, but it's not the best beach on the island. It's still pretty cool though. We had a fun first day of swimming, playing in the sand, collecting shells and rocks (for Julia) and exploring where we are. The room rental comes with a car rental too!!! It's a shabby car, but we have our own car! The crazy thing is that the steering wheel is on the right side and you drive on the left side of the road. Every time Dave starts the car he repeats over and over, "To the left, to the left..." He's been very cautious.
Tomorrow we are going to explore the "seven pools" which is this huge waterfall that leads into 7 pools. That's going to be really cool. I'll tell you more about it once I experience it.
We are having fun and Lilia is doing great!

America is changing and I'm not a part of it

Obama is going to be our president and even strangers today in the pool congratulated me about it. Seeing the headlines on yahoo's homepage made me realize that I'm really not a part of it. We've been out of the country since the end of August so we missed so much of the publicity, the voting and now the inauguration. This is a big moment for America and we're half way around the world. The same thing happened to Dave for 9/11. He was in Asia when that happened so his view of it all is so different from mine as I experienced in in America.
I'm not writing this so you feel bad or anything, it's totally fine. I'm just thinking out loud. It's just interesting, that's all.

Malaysia

I finally get a chance to blog. I think I was having withdraw!!! So we just had an awesome week at a hotel where we had a reunion with other friends in Asia. It was a great week, but right now I am in the Singapore airport on the internet, getting ready to board a plane to Langkawi, Malaysia. We will spend 10 days there with our really great friends, Kyle, Emily & Sydney. We are so excited!
At the hotel this past week Lilia LOVED the pool. Everyday she asked if she could go swimming. We were able to buy her floaties for her arms and she was "swimming." She is just like me as a kid, loves the water and can't get enough.
Hopefully we will have internet access on the island so I can update with some pictures. We are doing great and look forward to an even better week!

Goodbye is always hard

Tonight we said goodbye to mom, Karen & Lauren. It was really weird because it was so quick. We ate dinner at Simply Thai and then got in different taxi's. Tomorrow the girls head out around 10:30 for the airport. We are leaving at 7am for the airport because we are headed for Malaysia to meet up with lots of our friends and also for vacation. We can't wait to be in warm weather!
All in all I think the family had a great time. They were surprised at all of the people and how busy it is here. I think mom said at one point, "I feel like I'm in New York City, just with a lot more Asian people." You can ask to see their pictures and here their stories about our daily adventures!
Goodbye family, we'll miss you. See you again in July.

Acrobats

Friday night all the girls went to the Acrobats. It was incredible! I couldn't believe the things these people were able to do. Each of the girls pictured were wired in, but this wasn't the finale. They all did hand stands! I was so tense the whole time. If you ever find your self in this part of the globe, this is a must see!
I give it two thumbs up!

Culture Shock

Hey everybody, this is Karen, Dave's sister （妹妹）. My mom, her friend Lauren, and I are over here visiting Dave, Katie, and Lilia in EA. To say the least, this trip has been way different than I could ever have expected. I personally have never been anywhere that I could not speak the language and hardly anyone over here speaks English. I think because of the language barrier we've been a little intimidated to do too much on our own so we've been really dependent on Dave, Katie, and their friend Angelina's language skills.
Besides having a really difficult time communicating with the people here, it has been amazing. The food is so good, even most of the street food. The shopping is fabulous! Things here are so cheap, well mostly, especially if you go down the back alleys. Lilia is so big now, she talks all the time and you can actually understand what she is saying! The only scary thing here is the driving/biking. At first it definitely seems crazy and like it makes no sense at all because people are turning on red and bikers almost hit people and cars almost hit bikers, but after a while it's almost like a symphony...we haven't seen anyone get hit yet! Here's a couple pictures from our trip so far...ENJOY!

A park

We found this great water spot. It was beautiful and typical Asia. It was perfect to show the girls around.
(Oh and Sunday night I got my hair cut again. It's really short in the back. I like it and so does Dave.)

Lauren, Mom & Karen

The Starbucks Experience

We stopped into Starbucks while walking around People's Square. There aren't any coffee places here that come close to good coffee outside of Starbucks.

Thanks Nantmeal

Nantmeal,

Thanks so much for the gifts! Lilia loves the doll so much. She already kisses, hugs and carries it around with her. Marilyn wasn't able to bring everything, but we are so appreciate of your thoughtfulness and generousity!!!

Our morning

As we were walking back from exploring a man gave Lilia the leash to his dog. The dog was walking around the man in circles and Lilia was following around with the leash in hand. It was really cute.

Lilia & Aunt Karen, the hat's from Aunt Julie, thanks!

Shout Out to WCU

Hey WCU friends,
Thanks SO MUCH! You guys are way to generous to us. Thanks for the Phillies stuff for Dave, the sweater for Katie, Lilia's books, and the candy/food. We are really appreciative of everything!!!
It was like Christmas all over again! Thanks again.
We think about you all often.

They're Here!

Our family made it!!! It was so good to see them face to face, to hug and see them smile. It was great to see that Lilia didn't skip a beat in going to them and staying in their arms. She even fell asleep in Aunt Karen's arms on the ride home from the airport.
Karen is already itching to pamper herself with massages, hair washings and shopping. After all, she's on vacation. And I don't blame her. It's so cheap here, why wouldn't you!

So far it's rained here just about every Sunday。