Make your own rice paper rolls

Tonight, despite having food in the fridge to eat before we move in a few days, we decided to go to a great Vietnamese restaurant in Oakland, Bình Minh Quán.  The Life Academy staff went there after graduation and Brooke knew it would be right up my alley.  It was.

I love the make-your-own rice paper roll platter: tons of fresh herbs with grilled shrimp, fish cake, pork, chicken (and maybe something else).  It's fun to dip your own dry rice paper into the warm water, put it on your plate, load it with various yummy textures and combinations of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors.  I want to go back.  We might have to go to Cam Huong before we leave for our favorite bánh mì.

Packing & Purging

Brooke and I have spent the day packing up our little cottage.  The living room at the moment looks like something out of the TLC TV show Hoarders.  There's stuff everywhere, but it's been productive.  We've been going through old school stuff (from Schwäbisch Gmünd, Melbourne, and SFSU) and throwing lots of stuff away.  We did what we thought might be impossible and have gotten rid of a lot of books.  (We love our books.)  We have a pile that we're going to send to Amazon in exchange for Amazon credit and a ton of others that we're going to take to Half Price Books in Berkeley and hopefully get some money for.  I've never sold books to them so I have no idea what we'll get.

Basically, our belongings are going into one of four categories:

1. Stuff worth taking with us to Kazakhstan (clothing, any books we want to use to teach with, special kitchen stuff).  If it's going to Kazakhstan, it will go as luggage with us on the airplane.
2. Stuff we're putting into storage for next year when we come back or stuff we might want to ship to a future assignment.
3. Stuff we're donating (mainly clothing and books for our schools).
4. Stuff we're selling.

Fortunately the furniture is all sold to the future tenants, all except for our beds which we're giving to our niece and nephew in Las Vegas.  We're very happy not to have to play Tetris with the sofa and table in the back of a U-Haul.  Actually, I'm sure Brooke would have a bit of fun with that.  We went to Target today and bought some plastic bins for packing books.  She was pretty proud of herself when she found just the right sized books to fit into the gaps.  The downside: the boxes are often pretty heavy.

There's still a lot more to do and it would be great not to have to pull and all-nighter the night before we move like we usually do.  Gotta reserve the U-Haul.

Another few steps closer

We're getting another step closer to moving to Казахстан (Kazakhstan).  I filled out our visa applications and sent them to the Embassy in Washington, DC today.  It's the first time I've needed a "letter of invitation" to apply for a visa -- a remnant from Soviet times.

Aside from that, I was up in the attic today pulling down our boxes so that we can start packing things up.  Brooke has already started.  We're lucky that the new renters of our cottage have bought most of our furniture so that we won't have to move it.  One of Brooke's colleagues bought our TV cabinet today so the TV is sitting on some boxes.  There is a lot of stuff in here and we're going to have to figure out what exactly we want to take with us to Kazakhstan and what will be put into storage for later.  We'll have a fully-furnished apartment provided as part of our contract in Almaty.  Our school has advised us to bring anything we want as luggage rather than shipping it due to issues with customs in Kazakhstan; the school is providing us an allowance for excess baggage.

Emotionally, it's a tough time.  My uncle passed away last month and my Grandma just last week.  Our family is having memorials for them in a couple of weeks and it has been a tough time for all of them.  We're also coming off the high of postsession, a time of year where we teach a group of students an all-day, three-week long art or PE class.  Brooke was teaching a food and culture class.  My class is bicycling and boating (kayaking, crew, and dragonboating).  I've taught that class for three years now and this year was the best: great co-teachers, students, and activities. It was good to end on a high like that, but it's really hard to say goodbye.  We love our schools in Oakland, colleagues, students, and where we live in Berkeley.  We're excited though for the opportunities that we'll have overseas and the chance to learn a new culture, language, and to teach new subjects.  I hope our friends and family will take us up on the offer to visit us at our new home in Central Asia.

All done, California

After four years of teaching in California, we're packing up our things for another international move.  Michael and I are moving to Kazakhstan!  We're sad to be leaving California, our friends and our students.  But, at the same time, we're very excited to be moving on to a new adventure.   We'll be working for Quality Schools International, a network of international schools providing an American-style education in over 35 locations around the world.  We'll be teaching in Kazakhstan, at Almaty International School.   Michael will be teaching Social Studies and English to 12- and 13-year-olds, while I'll be teaching 1st grade!   It will be a huge change from high school, but I'm really looking forward to it. 

So, last Friday was the last day of school for us here in California, and it was hard to say goodbye to the people that I have come to love.  At the same time, I'm happy to think that my world of friends is about to expand.  Kids I don't even know now will be "my kids" by the end of the year.   And a city I've never seen before will be "home".  It's not the first time we've moved internationally.  I know there is a lot of work to do between now and then, a lot of surprises will come up and a whole bunch of new situations will be thrown at us.  But we'll also get to grow as professionals, learn a new culture, and see new places and meet new people.  Best of all, we get to go together!

So, all done California!  We've loved living here.  We've loved teaching here.  We've loved the landscapes, the people, the schools where we've worked.  We promise to come back and visit.