Felicitations, Ted!

Ted found out, a few days ago, that he passed his written French (comprehension and grammar) in order to get his "levels" as they say in the federal government. Massive relief in our house. Could not have asked for a better Christmas present. Even better than a Wii. Anyone who has talked with us in the last year knows that this whole business of Ted's French language training has taken its toll. As much as it sounds like a taxpayer-funded holiday to the rest of us, it is a shock to the system (from my second-hand perspective anyway) to go from being on the move, visiting construction sites, attending meetings, etc. to sitting in the same stale-aired, windowless room with exactly three people for eight hours a day, five days a week trying to plow through a book of French exercises . . . Now he just has to focus on the more difficult oral exam in March. Bonne chance, Ted!

In keeping with the French theme, I've asked Ted to write a blog about a travel book he really liked . . . "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle. Coming soon.

Book #7 - The Voyage of the Northern Magic

I first read the adventures of Stuemer family, not in this book, but as the series of articles that Diane Stuemer wrote in the Ottawa Citizen. The book that tells the entire story of their four-year odyssey circumnavigating the globe in a small yacht is titled The Voyage of the Northern Magic, published in 2002. When the articles first started their run in our local paper, I was home on maternity leave with Mitchell. It was 1997. I read of their experiences - every Saturday morning over coffee - over the next several years with equal parts admiration, envy and longing. Not that I have ever had any desire to live four years, or even four months, in a sailboat, but I did certainly share their desire to travel, see the world and live in the moment. I re-read the book this summer and enjoyed it on a different level - reading it more this time as a student trying to glean some tips on how they organized everything. They were an ordinary suburban family with three boys ages 11, 9 and 5 years when they left Ottawa. Here's an excerpt that gives a picture of what Diane Stuemer and her family had to pull together in their final weeks before leaving:

"By now we had sold our two cars and were running around in a rented car. There was an unbelievable list of details to sort out before we could leave. It's a good thing I'm a list-maker. I had read and read and read, so I had everything pretty well thought out, from medical kit to books. Address changes, radio licences, consultations with doctors, sprucing up our sails, creating an extensive medical kit (even down to IV lines and cathetars), setting up powers of attorney, banking, paying bills, getting inoculations, taking care of school books, these things and a million others filled page after page of lists. My list for August 26, 1997, was 63 items long, not including a separate shopping list. We had lists of what things we had left in our house. We had lists of instructions for our tenants. We had lists of what we had on the boat and where it was stored. What we lacked in personal experience we made up for in research. And lists. There are people in my family who make fun of me for my lists, but as far as I'm concerned they are what held us together" (p. 13).

The first time I read this book, probably about five years ago, I hardly noticed that little paragraph. This time, it grabbed me. I have started a similar list but we still have a good 18 months to cross everything off. I remember when we prepared to move to Saudi Arabia back in 1999, coping with a list of 50-odd items. We took unpaid leaves from work, sold our home, our cars, underwent various medical tests of the blood, chest and fecal variety to prove we would not be bringing in deadly parasites or viruses from the First World into the Second, and basically severed all ties so that we could officially and legitimately be non-residents for tax purposes. I also recall when my sister Sue was organizing things in Vernon, BC as she and her husband Ken got ready to move to South Africa for four years. We talked on the phone a few weeks before they left. She couldn't chat long as she had a list with 70-odd items on the go. It seems to be more of a female thing. This list-making, organizing tendency must be a trait we are biologically pre-disposed to develop.

Anyway, lest you mistakenly think the book is only a catalogue of their detailed preparations, let me just say that you will be inspired to read about all the friendships they develop and the good works they accomplished everywhere they went. Truly an amazing family. The work they began in Kenya continues today. Check out their website for more details at http://www.northernmagic.com/main_page.html. I was entranced to read about the "Friendly Islands" of French Polynesia (Marquesas, Tahiti, Fatu Hiva and Palmerston Island where they single-handedly resurrected schooling for the island children). I wonder if there is still a Canadian teacher there. If you know, leave a comment! Honestly, if we landed in a place like one of these islands, I fear we would never leave.

Sadly, Diane Stuemer died in March 2003 from cancer. The thing I really took away from re-reading this book is that, as much as she loved travel and adventure, it was her love for her husband and boys that led her to set sail like she did.

Book # 8 . . . not so great

I realize, as I write this, that I have not organized my top #10 list very well. I say that because I liked Book # 9 a whole lot better than book # 8. In fact, book # 8 should not have even made the top 10. But don't tell Elliott Hester I said that. He's the author of Adventures of a Continental Drifter. Perhaps the sub-title should have been my first clue: "An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust and the Perils of Street Food". The author is a former flight attendant who ends up quitting his job to travel and write about his escapades (of which he has apletny). They include:

• fighting off tranvestites in the South Pacific


• getting drunk on Estonian moonshine at the maker's 80th birthday party


• impersonating Samuel Jackson (he really does look like him too, judging by the book jacket photo) at a Film Festival in the Czech Republic


• joining the Finns in their tradition of dashing from steamy saunas into the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea (naked of course - this author likes to get naked)


• and so much more, ad nauseum

Okay so, yeah, it's fun to be young, single and stupid but this book got real old real quick for me. Obviously, I'm looking for more of the family perspective. It made me think about my current home of Ottawa. My experience of Ottawa inlcudes minor hockey, the corner milk store, the local school, my place of employment, my neighbours and friends' homes, my church and of course, Home Depot. If I were to paint a picture of Ottawa with words, it would read as safe, caring, maybe sometimes boring, but definitely comfortable. If Elliott Hester were to visit, he might hang out in Lowertown or Vanier and write about meth addicts, hookers, pimps, and the length of the line-ups at the shelter. We would have two vastly different takes on Ottawa, I'm quite sure. So I don't think I can really trust his perceptions of the South Pacific or any other place he writes about in this book. He's puposely seeking out bizarre, weird experiences and he manages to find them. I wonder what would have happened if he sought out normalcy in these places. Likely he would have found that too. It's all in the eye of the beholder. Give this book a pass unless you're 24 or younger . . .

Family Visits, Family Pics & "Family Travel" (Book # 9)

Book # 9 is Family Travel: The Farther You Go, The Closer You Get (edited by Laura Manske). Great book, please excuse the poor photo above. But more on that later. We've been busy . . . with family! We've had a lot of great family visits lately. Being way out here in Ottawa, we don't see family as often we'd like. It's usually famine but this past month, it's definitely been feast time.

First, Ted's Mom (Carol) came for a visit in October.




This was followed by a visit from my own Mom (Dodie). In fact, the two Nanas (as they both like to be called) actually overlapped for one day and one night.




One of the highlights of my Mom's visit was that she may have passed on her Scrabble passion to Mitchell . . . we had a few good games until little brother Jackson decided to pick up the board, causing letter tiles to spill all over the floor. This led to fisticuffs between the boys and the use of words by some of us that have yet to be printed in the Scrabble dictionary . . .




And another fantastic family event . . . my niece Tenille was recently married in a small, private ceremony to a great guy named Sean. My sister Sue helped organize a reception for them and I was so glad I was able to attend. Here are some pics from that fun family gathering . . . Tenille is a wonderfully unique girl, her hubby Sean will certainly never be bored.




And just for fun, here are a few Halloween pics. Mitchell was Link from Legend of Zelda. Jackson was a football player (Cincinnati Bengals, mostly because he was partial to the tiger stripes on the helmet).




And now, about the book. This is not a guide book, not a work of fiction, not a how-to manual on family travel. Rather, it is a collection of 45 personal essays - some sad, some poignant, some hilarious - that share the theme of travel as a way to reconnect and revitalize a family. Some authors are familiar names such as Paul Reiser, Mary Morris, Michael Crichton and Calvin Trillin. My favourite essay in this collection is called "Honolulu Mamas" by Robert Strauss, about a son who takes both his mother and mother-in-law on a trip to Hawaii. He's a great writer - here's an excerpt:


"I had no idea what we would do for five days. More importantly, I had no idea if our mothers would get along. My mother-in-law is a firebrand who marched through the streets of Berkeley in the sixties. At the slightest hint of any injustice done to anyone anywhere in the world, her first comment is likely to be, "The bastards!" A piece of plastic litter blowing down the street will start her off on a crusade against the multinational petroleum companies ("The bastards!"). On the plane to Hawaii she insisted we hang on to the sandwich bag and other plastic items for recycling on the mainland. I still haven't found the courage to tell her that, on occasion, I have voted Republican.

My mother, on the other hand, can't stand confrontation. "Isn't that a shame" or "Isn't that awful" or "Someone ought to look into that" are about the strongest comments she can muster about something like, for example, the Chernobyl disaster.


Mom has spent thousands of hours in the beauty salon. My wife's mother washes her own hair and leaves styling to the wind. She grew up eating spicy Middle-Eastern food. Anything more daring than a boiled chicken breast send my mother to the gastroenterologist. As the plane approached Honolulu, this family vacation in Hawaii was looking more and more like a tsunami about to wash ashore."

Funny stuff. I highly recommend this book, whether family travel is in your imminent future or not.

Book #10 - Exotic Travel Destinations for Families

Exotic Travel Destinations for Families by Jennifer & Bill Nichols is my choice for Book #10. I didn't love this book but parts of it were interesting. A couple and their children travel off the beaten path to some exotic locales such as Bangkok, Ecuador, Morocco and Tibet. The first few chapters offer basic advice that is pretty obvious - things like make sure to get immunized, make sure your passport is up to date, etc. I guess I was looking for something more in-depth . . . I liked that the authors talked about the benefits of foreign travel for their kids, such as growing in acceptance of strange cultures and foods and becoming more adaptable to life in general. I also liked the personal tone of the book. But I have to say I was a little put off by what I perceived as a kind of preachy, arrogant tone when talking about the home-schooling aspect of things. Actually I think I may be a bit sensitive in this department . . . apparently the Nichols children love to read, learn and draw pictures and write stories about all the places they visit. For those of us with kids who equate holding a pencil with torture, those parts were a bit painful to read. Can you tell I'm a bit worried about the home-schooling business? Yes, yes I am . . . more books to come.

Travel Books - Best & Worst

Well, it seems the Elborns have become a bit negligent keeping up this blog. It's not that we haven't been thinking about, ruminating, cogitating, and pondering all the ins and outs of our year away. Just haven't been disciplined enough to keep the written record of late. But this summer was great. I'm blessed to have the kind of job that allows me a very generous summer vacation - 6 weeks in total. In addition to hanging out and having fun with Mitchell and Jackson, at the park and wading pool, and catching up on "play-dates", I spent a good deal of time engaged in one of my favourite activities: reading. And my choice of genre? You guessed it . . . travel books. I read some great ones and some lame ones. In subsequent posts, I will review my top 10 and maybe they will inspire you to travel abroad as well! (Ted meanwhile is completely engrossed with "Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse" by Peter D. Schiff). There, now at least I have a plan for the next few blogs . . .

Pokemon Video

Hey everybody!

Do you like Pokemon? I have the game Pokemon Pearl and I have all eight badges and I have beat the elite four. My best Pokemon are Groudon Lv. 100, Kyogre Lv. 100, Mewtwo Lv. 100, Infernape Lv. 100, Regigigas Lv. 100 and Mew Lv.100.

Check out this hilarious Pokemon video I found. It is the funniest thing I have seen all summer!

Mitchell

A Blog from Mitchell

Hi everybody, I'm going on a trip around the world. I will be going to France, Africa, Dubai, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and other countries too. It will be so fun. Also, I was wondering if you had an account on Club Penguin. So if you don't, I suggest you don't read this because it won't make ANY sense at all.
So on Club Penguin I really badly want to know how to get a golden viking helmet. So if you know how to get one please email me. My email adress is visorakdude@hotmail.com.

Bye for now! Mitchell

How Long Till We Take Off??

Check out our Countdown Clock!

Found this amazing little countdown clock device on my nephew Josh Fuller's blog. He and his wife Michelle have a very interesting blog that I check every couple of weeks or so . . . they happen to be counting down how many days until Josh's birthday as well as how many days George Bush has left in office, whereas I am counting down how many days until we embark on our year off. The things we look forward to are so individual aren't they? Anyway, assuming we were to leave on August 1st, 2009 (as good as guess as any), that means there are exactly 768 days to go! Hmmm, maybe we should apply for those passports now . . .

Happy Birthday Mitchell!

And now, just for fun, a few photos of things going on in the last month . . . our friends' rock star party - yours truly and hubby arrived as the Blues Brothers (he's Ellwood, I'm Jake) . . . Mitchell's laser tag birthday party complete with Avatar cake . . . and the beautiful tulips Ottawa is famous for . . .





Another long weekend. Another blog. Maybe when I get better organized or have a bit more time, I will get in the habit of blogging more than just once a month. This was a full weekend - Mitchell's 10th birthday complete with party at Fun Junction (loved the laser tag) and Ted's mom Carol was up for a visit. Took in the tulip festival and the gorgeous spring weather. Gave our heads a shake that our oldest child is already in the double digits . . .

Also had a bit more time to read and research and talk to a few people about travelling around the world. Through a colleague at work, I was put in touch with a woman who is about to leave for a 9-month journey around the world. Got lots of great info about the pros and cons of RTW (round-the-world) tickets. After that conversation and reading the websites of the two major RTW alliances (One World and Star Alliance), I think that is the way we will probably go. Because Star Alliance includes Air Canada, that seems like the better choice of the two for us.

The advantage of travelling on a RTW ticket is you pay your chunk of money up front and then don't have to worry about buying tickets all along the way (or worry about running out of money to get home :) The other big advantages are you accrue reward miles with one carrier, such as Air Canada if that is the one you select to assign your points to, and you end up paying less overall particularly if you are flying to far away places like Africa and Australia. There is still considerable flexibility in that you don't have to nail down dates of travel for each country and you can make changes. Another advantage is you have your proof of on-going travel, which some countries require upon entry in order to give you a visa. The main stipulations are that you fly in one direction and your trip must include one Atlantic crossing and one Pacific crossing. It gets a bit more complicated than that obviously, in terms of how many countries and continents you're entitled to visit, but that is the RTW ticket world in a nutshell.

Another great thing that came out of this conversation with my colleague's friend - she told me about a great book which I now have on loan from the good old public library. It's called First Time Around the World (The Rough Guide) . Need I say more? I'm loving all this research! It really does increase the anticipation.

Let's Get This Blog Started . . .

Easter Monday 2007. We've had 4 consecutive days off which has meant lots of time to dream and discuss as a family about our upcoming RTW ("round-the world") adventure. We decided we should start a blog, like the rest of humanity it seems, to record our travels and even our thoughts and ideas leading up to our trip. So, even though we don't start our year away until Summer 2009, God willing, this is the beginning of the blog . . .

I have always loved to travel. Serious wanderlust. Fortunately I married a like-minded individual. And fortunately our two boys are definitely up for sharing this adventure with us. Mitchell is now in his last term of Gr. 4 but will be just finished his Gr. 6 year when we go. Jackson is in Senior Kindergarten and will have just completed Gr. 2 by the summer of 2009. Home-schooling is one thing I'm a little nervous about. Like most young boys, the school aspect is somewhere near, oh let's see, the bottom of the list of their priorities. But we know this will be an incredible education for them in ways we cannot even imagine yet.

We'll keep you posted!