What We Do with our Time

We don’t just sit around the house, you know. We do get out and do things, quite often actually. I just don’t always get around to posting about it.
For example, two Saturdays ago, on a day of freezing temperatures and mixed sun, hail, and snow, we went to the tulip fields. Why that day particularly? Because, as I pointed out to Donn when he was griping evincing a certain reluctance about the weather, if we didn’t do it THAT particular day, chances were good we would never do it, like all those days we didn’t go sledding and now all of a sudden it’s May and soon we’re off to Africa again. Lots of Saturdays aren’t free; for example we are busy for the next 3. So I’m glad that I prevailed, and off we went.

We had to drive a little ways into the countryside; the sort of drive that would have been quite normal for my photographer husband before the Era of Excessive Gas Prices, but that now caused him some heart anguish. I packed us all sandwiches and apples, in an attempt to lighten the burden, but it didn’t really cheer him up.
Also, I love Oregon in April.

We had a fun time taking millions of pictures. The cold weather meant that the place wasn’t too terribly crowded.

I was very excited with the macro abilities of my new camera. Donn nattered on and on about how it was a digital enlargement versus a ??? (I forget; something about how it was just cropping and not actually getting closer?), but as I pointed out, It’s me! I don’t care! It looked closer, and that’s all that mattered. There’s only room for one uptight professional in this family.

We went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, where they charged us $5 for parking in a muddy field, and gave us paper mats for the floor of our car. They had many, many little things set up for your enjoyment. We mostly ignored them, munching away defiantly on our sandwiches, refusing to pay for the dubious pleasure of riding tiny ponies around a tiny sawdust ring. But there were a lot of fun events and good-smelling food available, if you‘re into that sort of thing.
We saw a man making wooden shoes, “Like they did Back Then,” as Ilsa put it.

There was even a wooden shoe for people to leave their excess children in. Or something. Actually I don’t really know what it was for. Floods, perhaps.

Abel decided to climb the rock wall that was set up. It was supposed to be once up for $3, but the nice men let him go up twice.

All in all, it was a great day. It didn’t rain at all while we were there, although once we were safely in the car on the way home, the hail bucketed down, coating fields and houses with a misty white layer of ice. (I didn’t take a picture though)

Last week we went to the zoo. So you can see that we are fun people with a great social life. I’ll post about it soon. Insha’allah, as they say where I’m heading, in less than 3 months now.

What I Have to Put Up With

It was Ilsa’s turn to put away the dishes:

Here she is on a rainy day when told to do some sit-ups and push-ups for PE:

She does like to read, in the way that normal people like to breathe.

Yesterday, I found out that I have earned $1.60 from Amazon! I’m rather excited at my newfound and amazing sales skillz, but they won’t actually pay me till I get to $10. So I thought, why not exploit my daughter again and get her to review some books she’s read recently? I’m sure you can see why she is uniquely qualified to share her views on books.

So, if you’re looking for some good reads for your tween-age kids, here are some suggestions. I could force more out of her, but she’s–you guessed it–reluctant to stop reading long enough to tell me about them.

Inkheartis a really good book. It’s about a girl named Meggie and she has a dad called Mo. It turns out that her mom disappeared into a book called Inkheart when he was reading it out loud to her. Meggie was 3 at the time. And then the bad guys of the book appeared and for 9 years, he hasn’t told her but they have been on the run. One day she finds out and they go on an adventure and get her mom back. They meet this lady called Elinor (Meggie’s aunt) who is funny to the bad guys.
I recommend it to anyone who is 11 or older, because it’s a long book and you have to stay focused. It took me a while to read it. It is a great book.
The book is by Cornelia Funke, who also wrote Dragon Rider, which I also love. I have that book in storage in Mauritania.

The Book of Story Beginnings
This is a book about a boy named Oscar who was 14 when he disappeared into a sea surrounding his house in Iowa. This happened because he wrote the beginning of a story into “the book of story beginnings” and it comes true. He is the boy in the story. His little sister sees him leave and tells everyone but no one believes her as there isn’t an ocean in Iowa. Nearly 100 years later, he reappears because he drank a potion that his great-niece’s (Lucy) dad made. (He had been a cat. It’s a little complicated.) They go on an adventure to save her dad.
This book is really fun. I liked the whole thing. One of the best parts is when Lucy talks to Oscar for the first time and finally figures out what had happened to him.

More reviews to come.

Our House, in the Middle of Our Street

 

This is our living room from the upstairs. Ilsa is reading, as always, and knitting, her latest craft interest. Abel has covered the Moroccan leather poofe with his precious blanket and stuffed animals.

Photos

This is a surfer at Surfer’s Point.

This is a little barn in the California hills, surrounded by somewhat incongruous palm trees:

An ocean view:

Sunset at San Simeon:

Big Faceless American Companies vs. Developing Countries

I recently mentioned certain Big Faceless American Companies (BFAC) I will be visiting this summer (i.e. Starbucks) vs. BFAC I won’t (McDonalds—I don’t like plastic food). Ok so I’m a bit of a snob—in the nicest possible way of course. I also realize that Starbucks is just as much a BFAC as McDonald’s, but at least I like their basic product, and I miss it.
This got me thinking about upcoming Reverse Culture Shock. I remember last time I went home—there were so many things I’d forgotten about:
Dishwashers—I’d been at my in-laws 3 days doing dishes by hand when my MIL asked me why I didn’t use the dishwasher. I’d forgotten they exist!
Free refills—a uniquely American idea.
Customer service—that was I was really happy to re-encounter. “Is everything all right folks? Can I get you anything else?” You just don’t hear that at restaurants here.
Enormous stores, their fluorescent lighted distances softly beckoning, their ACs humming no matter the actual weather outside, their nondescript floors muffling your footsteps. I remember going into Culture Shock right in Safeway, in the cereal aisle. There was just too much choice! I was paralyzed into inaction, and eventually broke down, clutched a box of Corn Flakes, and departed, softly weeping. Ok it wasn’t quite that bad, but I was a bit overwhelmed–especially at the mall. I think the fluorescent lights make it worse, somehow. I don’t know why. Here in Mauritania, we have our own special version of various stores. For example, we have Macy’s:
And of course many modern restaurants—we’re cutting-edge here, we are:
We have “Pizza Hot”:
And, my personal favorite, Nouakchott’s famous Golden Arches themselves:
This year we have also gotten a Home Depot (painted orange, appropriately enough) and a 7-11, minus the Slurpee of course. I wish our camera was working so I could show you—they have copied the logos exactly. Inside, you’ll find exactly what you find in every other store in the country—tinned tomatoes, Wheatabix and Corn Flakes, packages of dry macaroni, little cockroaches scurrying out of sight, chocolate biscuits melted together, shampoo, palm oil, potatoes, onions, batteries and long-life milk—an odd mix of everyday items.
We even have the Michelin man:
I couldn’t get the picture of the University entrance to upload so you will have to wait.

PS No I don’t know why the Michelin picture is bigger than the others. They are the same size on my computer. The thumbnails can be viewed full size if you just click on them.