So husbands and wives are supposed to balance each other out, right?
I am a night person, for example, but John has a healthy (I sometimes say neurotic) respect for the importance of getting enough sleep. This forces me into bed earlier than I might otherwise go (though admittedly still not early enough), because I have someone to answer to when I can't force myself to get up with the morning alarm.
John, on the other hand, would go through life never lifting a finger to dust or scrub or clean if he could (though he's very tidy, which isn't really the same thing as being very clean). In an early discussion (argument) in our marriage, he told me "I just don't like to do housework" as if I, on the other hand, just live for scrubbing out the toilets. Since we're still happily married, it's obvious that we've found a balance on this issue, as well.
We have a problem, though. There is no balance when it comes to our desperate attempt to see as much of the world (at the moment India) as we possibly can before we die. Looking back over our two years here, I think we've traveled (or at least toured Chennai and its environs) during every single break the kids have had from school and then some. I think taking the kids out of school for a week so they can see Nepal is wonderfully educational, don't you?
Neither John nor I has fully grasped the idea of a "break." I'm only just recently wondering if we might be courting complete exhaustion.
It's just that every trip turns out to be so awesome! And who knows if we'll ever be in India again? And it's so inexpensive to travel within India! And there's so much we still haven't seen! And the kids are good travelers, so why not leave the Saturday morning spring break starts and not get home again until the Sunday before the kids have to be back in school?
Welcome to our Spring Break 2013 Kerala Extravaganza (with a couple of days tacked on all the way up north in Amritsar, because why not?) It was ... awesome, of course!
First stop: Trivandrum (new name that no one uses for obvious reasons is Thiruvananthapuram), capital of Tamil Nadu's neighboring state of Kerala. Ever since we got here, people have been telling us we can't miss Kerala, often refered to as "God's Own Country," and I absolutely understand what they mean. It's just beautiful, with friendly people, great food and fascinating culture.
We arrived in Trivandrum just in time for a late lunch, and then we relaxed at the hotel for the afternoon. See? We can relax. Here's Samuel with his welcome drink. Kerala is derived from the Malayalam (that's the local language) word for coconut, and I don't think I've ever seen so many coconut trees together.
This was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in on the trip. I remember when I was a teenager and our family went on vacation to Kenya (we were living in the Congo at the time). We walked into the White Sands hotel in Mombasa, and my mother seriously asked my dad if we were in the right place. This can't be the right place. It's way too fancy for what we paid. We aren't allowed in here. That's sort of how it felt to walk into the Taj Vivanta. Here's the view from our room.
Evie checking things out. Evie, by the way, has decided to go by Sarah at school. I knew nothing about this until I went to parent-teacher conferences last week. She still wants to be called Evie at home. Both Evie and Johnny have renamed their school personas this year. (Johnny is going by John at school.)
John took the kids swimming so I could sit and read a book for a while. Good man ... This is my view of them from the balcony.
See what I mean about the coconut trees?
And at sunset ...
The hotel grounds were beautiful. After a trip to the Padmanabhapuram Palace the next day, we came back to swim some more and get these photos of the grounds.
Samuel is not happy unless he's leaping from something ...
These frangi-pangis were the same size and weight as the ones we had in our yard in the Congo. The ones we have here in Chennai are larger and not so waxy ...
The kids thought it was cool that the pool seemed to drop into nowhere ...
Doesn't this flower look like something out of Dr. Seuss?
A couple of shots with the morning light ...
Coming up: The Padmanabhapuram Palace and other tongue-twisting wonders!
I am a night person, for example, but John has a healthy (I sometimes say neurotic) respect for the importance of getting enough sleep. This forces me into bed earlier than I might otherwise go (though admittedly still not early enough), because I have someone to answer to when I can't force myself to get up with the morning alarm.
John, on the other hand, would go through life never lifting a finger to dust or scrub or clean if he could (though he's very tidy, which isn't really the same thing as being very clean). In an early discussion (argument) in our marriage, he told me "I just don't like to do housework" as if I, on the other hand, just live for scrubbing out the toilets. Since we're still happily married, it's obvious that we've found a balance on this issue, as well.
We have a problem, though. There is no balance when it comes to our desperate attempt to see as much of the world (at the moment India) as we possibly can before we die. Looking back over our two years here, I think we've traveled (or at least toured Chennai and its environs) during every single break the kids have had from school and then some. I think taking the kids out of school for a week so they can see Nepal is wonderfully educational, don't you?
Neither John nor I has fully grasped the idea of a "break." I'm only just recently wondering if we might be courting complete exhaustion.
It's just that every trip turns out to be so awesome! And who knows if we'll ever be in India again? And it's so inexpensive to travel within India! And there's so much we still haven't seen! And the kids are good travelers, so why not leave the Saturday morning spring break starts and not get home again until the Sunday before the kids have to be back in school?
Welcome to our Spring Break 2013 Kerala Extravaganza (with a couple of days tacked on all the way up north in Amritsar, because why not?) It was ... awesome, of course!
First stop: Trivandrum (new name that no one uses for obvious reasons is Thiruvananthapuram), capital of Tamil Nadu's neighboring state of Kerala. Ever since we got here, people have been telling us we can't miss Kerala, often refered to as "God's Own Country," and I absolutely understand what they mean. It's just beautiful, with friendly people, great food and fascinating culture.
We arrived in Trivandrum just in time for a late lunch, and then we relaxed at the hotel for the afternoon. See? We can relax. Here's Samuel with his welcome drink. Kerala is derived from the Malayalam (that's the local language) word for coconut, and I don't think I've ever seen so many coconut trees together.
This was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in on the trip. I remember when I was a teenager and our family went on vacation to Kenya (we were living in the Congo at the time). We walked into the White Sands hotel in Mombasa, and my mother seriously asked my dad if we were in the right place. This can't be the right place. It's way too fancy for what we paid. We aren't allowed in here. That's sort of how it felt to walk into the Taj Vivanta. Here's the view from our room.
Evie checking things out. Evie, by the way, has decided to go by Sarah at school. I knew nothing about this until I went to parent-teacher conferences last week. She still wants to be called Evie at home. Both Evie and Johnny have renamed their school personas this year. (Johnny is going by John at school.)
John took the kids swimming so I could sit and read a book for a while. Good man ... This is my view of them from the balcony.
See what I mean about the coconut trees?
And at sunset ...
The hotel grounds were beautiful. After a trip to the Padmanabhapuram Palace the next day, we came back to swim some more and get these photos of the grounds.
Samuel is not happy unless he's leaping from something ...
These frangi-pangis were the same size and weight as the ones we had in our yard in the Congo. The ones we have here in Chennai are larger and not so waxy ...
The kids thought it was cool that the pool seemed to drop into nowhere ...
Doesn't this flower look like something out of Dr. Seuss?
A couple of shots with the morning light ...
Coming up: The Padmanabhapuram Palace and other tongue-twisting wonders!
Looks like paradise, seriously!
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