A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
He he... That's one of my favorite lines from Muppet Treasure Island... But, this has nothing to do with muppets and everything to do with dead stuff! :) Well, not really dead things, either. Just a big Dead Sea! We made some big plans with some friends, packed our bags and headed down to the Dead Sea for Thanksgiving this year! We ate our big traditional dinner the night before (on Josh's birthday!) and then took off Thanksgiving morning for a fun romp at the sea, some swimming, some relaxing, and some fun with friends! :) We made many forays to the hotel pool where the kids were fish! :) They had such a ball--and the view of the dead sea and the mountains on the Israel side was SO beautiful! (The pictures, of course, don't do it justice since it was pretty cloudy...) My favorite was Andrew, though, as he would climb up the side of the jacuzzi, make friends with whomever was in there, then jump off the edge of the jacuzzi into the big pool! He got away with it a few times before the life guard had to tell him to stop...Ha!! We took some time to float in the Dead Sea... That water is SO COOL!! You can SEE that it's a salt and water solution--the water looks almost greasy! It feels thick, sort of like unset jello, and you really do float like a cork! I can't wait to do it again! (Of course, poor Josh and Claire with their eczema...that wasn't so nice...) Peter refused to get into the water. He had a great time, though, playing in the rocks on the shore! He is a little climber! So, really, he had the best day ever! :) It was sure funny to watch him clamber over the rocks and giggle and squeal over the different colors and fun times he was having all by himself! At the end of our lovely day there, we took the time to walk around the hotel and the beach area of the sea and watch the sun set. It was SO lovely and peaceful! The colors were gorgeous and we enjoyed our evening walk together. I got some cool shots from the car...our first view of the dead sea, the sign that shows the turn-off for the baptism site, some cool buildings, a bedouin camp...and then some cool pics of the Israeli mountains across from us. Overall, it was a great trip. We really enjoyed our stay at a really cool landmark! We'll definitely go back again!
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This past weekend was a local holiday, so we took advantage and made a trip to Jerash with some friends! What a cool city! I will most definitely go back--we didn't get to explore too much as the kids got hungry (ok, so I did, too) and it's SO close that we can get there quickly. And besides, the live chariot races weren't going on since it was a holiday! I'm SO going to see that and take these guys! They would eat it up!!! So, here are some lovely pictures from our quick Saturday trip to the ancient ruins in Jerash! Um, sorry bro Wayne, I really didn't mean for my panoramic shot to make your face look so weird...
A super cool outing! I look forward to the next time! Devin came home from work today, came into the kitchen where I was preparing dinner, and told me he needed my help with something outside. So, out I went...and what did he need help with?? OUR CAR!!! HOORAY!! It finally came! We now have our own wheels to take us through the crazy traffic of Amman! :) Oh, I'm so excited.
Although, admittedly, I am a little bit sad at the same time. Riding in the taxis everywhere has been a good experience for me. It is really difficult for me to do new things. I know that most people laugh when they read that, since I'm ALWAYS doing new things, but honestly, I have a really hard time putting myself out on the line when I'm not totally sure of what I'm doing. Getting into a taxi with some random stranger who may or may not speak any English and trusting them to get me to the place I want to go when I don't even know where that is and I have all 4 of my kiddies in the car with me is something that I'm just not very comfortable with! However, after the initial shock wore off, it really has been very empowering for me. I've learned some Arabic VERY well (like 'right' and 'left'), I've learned a bit how to manage traffic here (just honk your horn a lot...and expect people to cut you off and try to run you off the road), and I've learned how to get around to some very basic and important places. So that's been nice. And sometimes it's been nice just knowing that I'm not going to have to park!! (Oh, I hate parking...I hate finding parking places...especially after my parking tickets in Helsinki....) Oh the other hand, now we'll have air conditioning! Woohoo! And I won't leave my windows down for all the exhaust from all the other cars to waft in for our enjoyment. Blech. And, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, without having to stand on a street corner and hope a taxi passes by that's #1) empty, and #2) willing to take me where I want to go! Even standing out on the road with the kids and hoping someone passes by who is willing to take us the 8km back to our house from the Children's Museum was pretty cultural for me...and makes for a good story... I'm sure that once in awhile I'll still take the taxi. Now that I've done it, it's not so bad to do it again. But with a car, well, many options are opening up! I just hope my GPS doesn't fail me and try to take me down a one way street!! Every year here, the diplomatic community organizes a Diplomatic Bazaar. Each and every embassy has a booth inside this great big building where they sell knick-knacks from their country. There's also a section where every country has a booth with food! Mmmm... Well, we wandered through the booths and looked at all the interesting things. We came away with a few knick-knacks (I got a Kimono dress from Vietnam...I've always wanted one!!), some yummy food (we got grilled burgers from Australia, Kebabs from Lebanon, and even some waffles from Belgium!!), but best of all, the kids got to play!! :) They had some bouncy houses/slides and a 'roller coaster' set up inside of a big tennis court! What fun! The fun was cut short when the power went out and the bouncy houses fell down...but it was great while it lasted!! :) So I have a language question today. When we were in Finland, we were told that Finnish is one of the hardest languages in the world. Oh, I agree! You conjugate the nouns with possessives, there are no articles, all the conjugations vary as to how the noun is spelled/what it is...it's a crazy confusing mess! And all those vowels...the words are hilariously long! I came to love it, though. No, I can't speak it, but I can recognize it when it's spoken and can pronounce it if I read it and I understand a few words here and there (I can count up to 1,000, too!), but one of the nice things is that there are no feminine/masculine forms, so you don't have to worry about whether your pen is a boy or a girl.
Then, there's Arabic. Oh my. Is there anyone out there who thinks that Finnish is harder than Arabic? They also conjugate their nouns--not as many forms as Finnish, but those irregulars are a killer! They conjugate their verbs, too...and their articles. The adjectives come after the noun--which isn't hard to remember since they do that in Spanish and French. Things are plural only if you have between 3 and 10 of them: if you have two, it's a different plural form, and if it's more than 11, it's singular! They are VERY strict about the feminine/masculine forms here. Obviously. If you accidentally addressed some guy using the feminine form...well...you're not going to make a new friend that day. There are some articles (and, but, or), so that's kind of nice to have little words to use to link things. There are other issues, too, like some of the sounds...holy cow! How am I supposed to make that sound?? You can't even write it down. And then the coup de grace: The alphabet. Not only does it look like it should be a lace border on your scrapbook page, but they write it totally backwards! With Finnish, yes, I couldn't even guess what the word meant by reading it, but at least I could READ it. With Arabic, not only can I not even guess what it means, I can't even read it! Ah well. I have to admit, I am sad that I didn't learn Finnish better. I don't know what I could have done differently to have learned it. I suppose I could have found a tutor somewhere, but then I would have had to find a babysitter... Oh yes. Now I remember why I didn't learn Finnish. He he he... This time, Devin has Arabic class 3 times a week at the embassy and has promised to teach me what he learns. The kids and I have an Arabic tutor that comes to the house once a week for our school time. I am determined NOT to feel that regret that I did after Finland for not learning the language while living in the country! Luckily, since we still don't have a car, I'm learning lots of Arabic and using it while traipsing around the city in taxis. There are always blessings that come with hardships, right? Even if you have to look at it with a microscope... :) Shukran. Bixa Today, I did the unthinkable. Something I've NEVER done once in my life before (I'm ashamed to admit it, but there it is!)-- I went grocery shopping, by myself, with ALL FOUR of my children. Oh, I know that many people have done it before me, and I know I'm not the last, but I've never done it before. Usually, Devin does the grocery shopping on the weekends. He takes one kid and calls it a 'date'. It's worked for us. Today, though, things changed a bit.
There were several reasons for this outing. First off, the kids and I NEEDED to get outside. We'd had a rough morning. It was one of those not-so-happy-to-be-together days. Doh. I know, I know, they happen, and thankfully they don't happen often, but it wasn't nice. We were going to go swimming, but the kids weren't obeying or finishing the tasks I'd set for them...then we were going to go to the park, but they continued to have issues. Finally, I just told them to forget it, we're not going anywhere! But we were getting rather low on food. It's really hard to shop when you don't have a car. Devin's been running to a grocery store, going shopping, then loading up a taxi with our groceries. Honestly, it's hard to do that for lots of reasons, the main one being the taxi drivers don't like it much and tend to try to rip you off since you're loading their car up with extra stuff (it's not like they actually get out to help you...and groceries weigh less than all 6 of us in a taxi and that doesn't cost extra, so I don't know what the issue is...) Anyway, it's been difficult to juggle the Saturday shopping, the taxi/car issue, and the kids wanting to all go with dad. Last weeks' grocery trip was, well, not much. So, today, since we were out of eggs and running low on fruit (our staple), I decided THAT would be our getting out of the house. Not necessarily a reward, but NEEDED. So, off we went down the road. We walked to the little 'store' area (I suppose you could call it a sort of strip mall, but not that glamorous) about 10 blocks away from our house. They have a 'mini' grocery store--not really a convenience store, but not a full-blown grocery store, plus a toy store, some cafes, a salon (as opposed to saloon), an appliance/electronics store... (where we found the nursery...but that's a story for another day) And today, we found not only a fruit stand-type store, but a butcher shop!!! This was a golden outing!!! The butcher shop was PERFECT!! I told them what I wanted, they ground the beef and sliced the steaks and deboned-deskinned the chicken right then and there!! The butchers were super nice and funny! They had a huge fish aquarium with giant goldfish swimming in it that kept the kids captivated--and some bird cages right outside the store with brightly colored parakeets that the kids just loved! The fruit/veggie store was completely awesome! The guy was nice--and the kids just went crazy (in a good way)! They pulled down the plastic bags and filled them up with all their favorite fruits and veggies and had a marvelous time! They were SO thrilled to be such a big part of the grocery shopping! Then we headed down to the little grocery store to get some bread, cheese, and some treats. Josh and Andrew sat outside the store watching our bags of meats and fruits and veg, and Claire and Peter and I went in to grab our other necessities (like the eggs, which I had totally forgotten was the main reason we went out....) It was nice! Peter grabbed all our treats (blowpops, marshmallows, frosted flakes, Werther's Originals, and flavored milks), Claire helped me pick out the cheeses and the bread, and I grabbed the eggs. Off we went! The bags were really full and really heavy. Josh had to big bags to carry as did Claire. Peter refused to carry ANYTHING. Andrew carried the bread. I looked like a camel carrying 6 bulging bags (thank goodness for all of those awesome reusable shopping bags that we have!!!) but we made it home and all of us actually really enjoyed that outing together! We got some exercise outside, used our knowledge of good health and nutrition to find great food to eat, took care of the grocery shopping for the week, and all felt in much better spirits by the time we got home. I'm glad we went. The kids want to do that every single week. We shall see how long that lasts... :) But, as long as they want to go, I'll take them. It's certainly MUCH easier to go grocery shopping at little shops than in a grocery store! Maybe it's the easy in/out with the doors always open; maybe it was the sheer novelty of it all; maybe it was the promise of a treat...whatever it was, it was great and it worked. Here's to shopping with all of your kids--yet another new adventure for the Hendriksens! For Columbus Day this year, we decided to go to a local site. It's always good to do those things when it's a US holiday so we beat the crowds. We went to the Citadel. This place is super cool! It is the ruins of a castle outpost, temple to Hercules, ancient Mosque, Byzantine chapel, stone age cave, and an entire palace! There's also an archeology museum, among other things. Super duper cool. And the best part? It costs 15 cents for the entrance fee...for adults. Kids are free. He he he... We had a great time! We took our school and family photos there (I'm not posting them yet...sorry everyone), plus lots of others and had a marvelous time climbing on the ruins, playing hide and seek, and learning about everything! It's one we'll have to go back to! The taxi drive seemed to take forever, but as we were twisting and turning around the city, I was grateful at that time not to have my car. Ha! (No, still no car. They're STILL waiting on some clearances. Maybe someday we'll see it again...) I also had a great "I live in the Middle East" moment. Here we are, standing in the middle of ancient Roman ruins on a huge hill that overlooks the city of Amman, and the noontime call to prayer starts being broadcast across the city from all the mosques in surround sound! If that doesn't scream "we're not in Kansas anymore", I don't know what does! Amazing place to be. The kids kept saying how this was one of their favorite field trips so far... (Well, pretty much EVERY field trip we go on becomes their most favorite field trip so far!) But I loved the fact that not only did we learn something and experience some of the coolness of this area of the world, but we got all our pictures taken! It was so fun! This is our 'class' picture. I thought it was an appropriate picture depicting our personal outlook on homeschooling: Experience it! (I especially like the Jordanian flag that's shooting up out of my head. Thanks, Devin!) We are definitely out to gain experience and to explore and understand our world. Good times. Sometimes for our outings, we like to just go exploring. Sine we don't have a car...still...we went for a long walk! We found a little shopping 'center'--sort of like a strip mall! We got some treats from a little grocery store (chocolate milk, rolls, string cheese and rice cakes), then we went and looked for a nice place to eat our snacks. We sat on some long steps and looked around as we munched. The kids, of course, noted the toy store and children's book store directly across the way from us. I noticed that across a busy street, there was a Nursery--and it had a big sign saying that all of its outdoor plants were on sale! I thought it would be much more fun to go to a nursery and find flowers to plant in our yard than to go into another regular old toy store! Well, we ended up going to visit the toy store for 5 minutes (it really wasn't anything exciting...even the kids said that) and then we went over to the nursery. The guys didn't speak much English, but with a lot of sign language and pointing, we had a great time picking out some flowers to plant! Each one of us got to pick our own--and the best part? I spent 5JD for all 5 pots of flowers (there was one that was an indoor plant--it cost me 2JD, and the rest of the plants cost 50-75fils)--that's about $7!! The kids all carried their plants home and then we spent all afternoon in the dirt planting them! Andrew used his hoe--just like Mr. MacGreggor! We had a lovely time and the flowers look so pretty. I love finding new places and things! Many people have been asking how we are doing right now with all the protests, demonstrations, storming of embassies and deaths that are occurring in the areas around us. So, I feel like an update is in order so no one will worry TOO much about us personally (while still worrying and praying for those in the more 'explosive' areas--please!):
There were some planned demonstrations/protests for yesterday and the day before--but apparently it was mostly hearsay. However, I was told that yesterday there was quite the beef-up of security at the embassy (lots of tanks and hundreds of military guys). Personally, I don't feel afraid. I haven't seen anything that's really threatening here. Luckily, our embassy here is the hub of the middle east. If things get worse, we'll be the first to know and we'll be evacuated first. The places where there has been the most damage have been the places that, historically, are always rioting and looking for a reason to fight anyway. There have been demonstrations and protests all over, but for the most part, it has been ok. We have radios, and all the embassy has an SMS system where they sent out security threats on our cell phones, and we've only had one, which was the other day telling us of a few planned/anticipated demonstrations that mostly didn't pan out. Everything's scary if you let the news media tell you what's going on. They WANT you to be fired up by their portrayal of events--otherwise they're not doing their job. And besides, they're looking at the really big picture and making it look small (if that makes any sense). We're looking at it from the inside out. It doesn't look so grim this way. We're not sitting back and saying 'all is well', but we can't live like scared cats, either. So, we pray and we keep moving on and we pay attention to what's going on. That's all we can do, right? What that person did with their movie makes me furious. Practicing your 'freedom of speech' is all fine and good, but he spared absolutely no thought whatsoever to what that would honestly mean when he pressed the upload button. Ridiculous. While he sits in his nice little house in California, lives are threatened all over the world. But in all honesty, I think most of these places were just looking for a reason to start in on us. It would be nice if our government wouldn't sit upon their thrones in a thoughtless stupor, but from what I've seen and read lately of their response to what's going down, I don't think we can hope for too much from that end. I have to admit, my 'favorite' protest was in Lebanon. They burned a KFC/Hardees in protest of the movie and the visit of the Pope. Now really, what kind of sense does that make? Ha! "Would you like your chicken extra crispy or burned?" Ok, so it's really NOT funny, but one must deal with it as they can to not get too worried, right? But, we're ok. I think we're going swimming today. And we'll probably walk instead of take a taxi. :) I love my little phone. It's so cute. It's an 'old school' flipping one and it's pink. Devin picked it out for me when we arrived in Finland. Yesterday, I had girl time with Claire. We went to the mall near our house so we could find her some ballet shoes, and we did some shopping around as well. We enjoyed a little sojourn at the 70%off rack at the Gap and Claire got a new dress and some shirts. As we were shopping, I was getting ideas for upcoming birthdays/Christmas. I took out my phone to type things into my calender to remind me to tell Devin. I noticed that it was almost dead. When we got home from the mall, I plugged in the recharger and went to get my phone. No phone. What??!? I poured out my purse (which isn't hard, since it's TINY), and had Devin call my phone. It was nowhere. I went back to the mall to the Gap and asked if it was there. No luck. One of the employees let me use their phone, but my phone wasn't even ringing anymore, which means it's dead. It's a Nokia, and they don't really use those around here. I probably left it on the seat of the taxi that I took home from the mall. It is gone. If someone manages to charge my phone somehow...and you were in my contact list and get a phone call from someone speaking Arabic, ask them to return my phone, please.
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Who Am I?
As a Stay At Home Mom of 4 wonderful children, I have the amazing opportunity not only to home school them, but to do so in many different places! I am married to the most amazingly wonderful (and handsome) man in the whole world! Together, we seek out, every day, that Joy in the Journey that makes life exciting! Archives
November 2020
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Emily's books
by Dan Brown
I like that the plot twists and turns a lot...and it makes you think. However, I don't appreciate Dan Brown's endings in his books. I find the endings incongruent with the rest of his stories--why make it a romance for the last chapter...
by Shannon Hale
I loved this book. I'm a sucker for fairy tales/fantasy. This was so well written! I can't wait to read all the rest of her books!
by Shannon Hale
I'm reading this one again. I liked it the first time I read it. I'm still liking it for the second time around. I like all of Shannon Hales' books.
**Still lots of fun the second time around! I do like this book for a comfortable...
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