Amundsons

Holidays hold our traditions.  It’s why we buy Cadbury eggs at Easter even though no one likes them, how the candy corn industry can make a full year of profits at Halloween, and why any Thanksgiving without turkey is just called Thursday.  Of the holiday traditions, there are none that come close to the big one. In the lineup of holiday traditions, Christmas takes the gold (then makes it glittery and twinkly).  These traditions are important, in a chaotic world they provide consistency.  Every year we go to Danikens for our tree, and my grandma’s Christmas angel sits on the top of that tree.   She has sat on top of Christmas trees before I was born and if my daughters have their way long after I die, she is tradition.  Nana’s cookies, presents, watching 24 hours straight of FixerUpper with Grammie, stockings, making a Snowman with Grandpa, candy canes, sledding with Papa, and hours and hours of cousin time arguing over checkers, it all adds up to one word-...

We have tried to stay as close to the girls' school curriculum from Greenville as possible. As an educator, I know the value of sticking with a scope and sequence, so I was a little apprehensive about how we would pull this off while traveling out of backpacks.  But when I saw that 6th grade was studying Volcanos and 2nd grade had Christopher Columbus on their list I kind of chuckled.  As a teacher, I would spend hours trying to create experiential learning and this trip was giving it to me on a silver platter (silver mined from a volcano and stolen from the new world). Teaching on a boat is the best kind of adventure! First up: Volcanos Our ship had its disembarkation on the volcanic island of Guadeloupe, giving us a full day to climb La Grande Soufrière.  After getting soft and eating too many Italian cannolis on the ship, I was rethinking my philosophy on experiential learning.  If the Camino was a marathon, climbing a volcano is a sprint going straigh...

Back when Jake and I were at the beginning stages of planning this year we realized we were going to need to somehow get from Europe to the Caribbean.  The sticker shock of an airplane ticket from Spain to the Dominican Republic left us wondering just how far the girls could swim.  Somewhere I heard rumor of something called a Repositioning Cruise.  Cruise ships like to sail around the Mediterranean in the late summer and fall, because of those hurricanes in the Caribbean (sounds like Business 101 to me).  Then when the weather gets cold in the Mediterranean, they head to the tropics for Christmas (Business 102).  This means huge fleets of ships are heading across the Atlantic in Nov/Dec.  The ships would be empty, but someone who took Business 201 decided to give amazing discounts and fill the ships with people who have more time than money (i.e. retired Europeans and the Amundsons).  When we realized all four of us could take a 17-day inclusive ...

Over a month ago we spent our first night in London, we were travel-worn and thought it best to just get some Indian food and spend the evening in so that we would be ready for a week of sights.  First of all, yes please Indian food, because wow can London make great Indian food.  We heard rumors before we arrived, and just 2 dishes into the curry we had verification.  So with full bellies, we were nestled into our AirBnB and Jake and I were trying to figure out a way to give our girls some context for this upcoming week.  How could we give them a feel for the British people, the rich historical traditions and flavors they were about to see.  Establishing a sense of place is essential when you travel, and many times film (good film) has a way of capturing a context and preparing your entry.  It was apparent to us there was one, and only one, true British film that could capture this for our girls.  The brave and not-so-brave knights of the roun...

In general, we eat the typical local food when we travel.  Eating like an American when you travel just isn’t worth it for multiple reasons.  First, it never really tastes like it does at home.  Sure it may look like a chicken nugget- but for whatever reason, it will never taste like a chicken nugget, and it will leave you sad.  Second, it’s very expensive to eat like an American.  For the most part in a city, you can find the box of strawberry jello at the specialty store, but it’s gonna cost you.  And spending 10x what you would at home for some jiggly jello just isn’t worth it.  Lastly, as the wise Anthony Bourdain once commented, eating like an American abroad is exactly how you get sick.  Markets and restaurants know how to handle and cook their local cuisine, they have been successfully cooking seafood for centuries, you will be fine!  But throw a little cup of cottage cheese in their kitchens, and you probably need to get ready for a l...

We have fallen in LOVE with Valencia.  Strange cities can become isolating if you don’t make the effort to step forward.  We worked hard right away to get out of the apartment and build a sense of place in this new community.  Now we have a  panadería  (bakery), a tienda (a small store), and I know where to go and how to order some fresh fish, all on my own (progress!!!!).  But our favorite is our park.  Valencia is a large city and although we have an epic veranda, we along with most of the Valencians, do not have private green space.  One of the reasons we picked our apartment is that it is right next to Jardines del Turnia.  And when we found out that our good friends and neighbors the Duffs were coming to Spain, we knew we were going to spend most of our time in the park. As you can see on the city map this 8km long park extends the length of the entire city.   It was a river at one point, however, when it tragically flooded the city...

After two months on the go, our backpacks are empty.  We are staying in an apartment in Valencia Spain for the month of November and trying to create some sense of home.  It was time.  The different place every night is equal parts exciting and exhausting.  Oh, and both Jake and I have Sabbatical stuff to do, I’m sure some of y’all were curious about that...  And although the girls had the world’s greatest museums at their fingertips, there are some things that are hard to learn without a table.   This is the front of our apartment, we are way up on the top and yes that is an ORANGE tree way down at the bottom.  Valencia (the third largest city in Spain) is known for a couple things: Valencia oranges, a world-class Aquarium on the Mediterranean coast, and most importantly the birthplace of Paella.  Obviously, this is where the Amundsons would choose to spend our time.  The next great thing about this city is my parents have come to hang out w...