Dressing up - Halloween and Deepavali

Violet: "Mom, do we get off school for Halloween here?"
Mary: "Like a day off of school? No."
Violet: "You mean Halloween's not a public holiday in Malaysia?"
Mary: "No, Violet.  Halloween isn't a public holiday in the States either."
Violet: "Wh--what? What? You're kidding me, right?"

I guess I understand her confusion. Mt. Washington really does have the best Halloween celebrations! We love the Grove's annual party with the hayride - and the fantastic decorations at the Steiny's and Kelemen's. (And the beer at so many locations...) Trick-or-treating with all our neighbors is a blast. Last year, we were in Disney World for Halloween. And while that rocked in its own way, Violet's still irritated that we didn't have traditional trick-or-treating. So for the last month, I've been peppered with questions from Vi and Ty about how Malaysia celebrates the big holiday of Halloween. Just when they almost broke me with unending questions, the sign went up in our condo building for "Trick-or-treat sign-up." Yippie! To get ready for trick-or-treating, we made a door decoration. The scary pumpkin patch was all Violet's handy work!

Isabel came down to do Violet's vampire make up. Thank you, Isa! Isabel and I stayed at the apartment to hand out candy to some of the cutest little witches, princesses, and superheros. For many of the kids, I believe it was their first trick-or-treating experience. Brian took the kids to meet up with friends from the complex and seek out candy. Turns out trick-or-treating in an apartment building with 50 kids and 2 elevators is a logistical nightmare. We capped off the evening with a party of the PUGSOM family at Charlie's. The lamb curry was especially delicious. A very nice way to celebrate Halloween.

Speaking of dress up, Tyler's picture made the display at the entrance of GIS!

On November 1st, we had another very different occasion to dress up. On Saturday, the Hindu population celebrated Dewali - know in Malaysia as Deepavali. Deepavali, one of the most important Hindu celebrations of the year, is the festival of lights signifying the victory of good over evil. As I learned in the school's celebration, Hindus light many candles, making one light. Tyler's wonderful teacher who organized the school's activities, asked if any parents wanted to volunteer to assist with decorations, especially with the rangoli. After googling "rangoli", I decided I had to try this. A rangoli is a decoration made on the floor out of piles of brightly colored sand or rice. We used rice. The mums took a design and drew a large version of it on the floor. Then came our job to fill it in with piles of rice. It's kinda like an adult paint by number. A big thank you to all the mums who very patiently explained the best rangoli making techniques. We also worked on the sign on the wall. While I've never made rangoli and needed lots of guidance, I think I impressed the mums with my glittering skills for the sign! Tyler's class came down for a few minutes to help with the rangoli.

Tyler's teacher invited the mums that helped decorate to attend the Deepavali assembly at school. The mums said we were "going sari" and I really should dress up, too. Fortunately, Nicole and I are just about the same size and she didn't happen to need her sari on Friday morning. So here are some pictures of me after Violet's teacher dressed me! Tyler was in the the school's Deepavali fashion show. Multiple people called him John Lennon, but he couldn't figure out why.

This week is the kids' mid-term break, so they are off. With Brian also having Tuesday off, we wanted to do a nice 4-day weekend trip. LegoLand's water park, in Johor, Malaysia, opened a week ago, so we decided that a trip to LegoLand would be great fun. We were joined by our friends Monique and Dave and their kids. Johor is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from KL - straight down the North-South Highway. Singapore is just across the river -- about a 30 minute drive further south - so we decided to also spend a day at the beautiful, amazing, and fantastic Singapore Zoo. The zoo looked so much like Disney's Animal Kingdom, that it made me homesick. We were at the zoo from 11 am to 6 pm and didn't see everything. We will most certainly be back for another visit.

Violet enjoyed reading the map and guiding us to each exhibit. She's so my kid.

Outside the bear exhibit. I thought this was pretty cool to see in Singapore.

We returned to Johor, Malaysia, that evening and woke up the next day for LEGOLAND. The rides were fun, but the most amazing thing were the Lego structures. I've included a ton of pictures - because they were just so much fun to look at.

The big boys and little boys working on their race cars. Then there were several incline tracks to test the car designs.

Hello Death Star!

Dan and Kathy - here's a miniature of Angkor Wat in Cambodia!

Lego mini of Malaysia would not be complete without a mini mall!

Lego pirate scene, complete with water cannons

This sign reassured Dave that he'd meet the height requirement for riding the dragon roller coaster.

The boys took on the dragon on their own!

After the minions made rojak for dinner at the hawker stalls, we had a good nights sleep . The next morning we headed to LegoLand water park!

The lazy river tubes have block building platforms. As blocks float by, you scoop them up to build your creation. Super cool! 

Now we are back in KL for a few days. The kids are relaxing and I'm trying to work - so hard when the kids beg me to play Skylanders with them. We love everyone and miss you all. We were thinking about our Thanksgiving celebration here -- we need two weeks to import a turkey. Enjoy the fall weather for us - it's still hot here!

UN Day at GIS

Have you been to the Muppet's 4D attraction at Hollywood Studios, Disney World, FL, USA? There's this scene where Sam the Eagle organizes, "A salute to all nations (but mostly, America)!" Being in the US - from the US - we do learn about and celebrate other nations. But in the end, I feel like we tend to refocus somewhat back to the good ol' USA. As a child living outside the US, I was fortunate to attend schools in the exceptional Department of Defense School System. There, of course, most kids were American. And while we had international flair, we celebrated in a very Sam the Eagle way, saluting all nations, but mostly America. I think this is why UN Day at the children's school was so exciting for me. Because the school is not American-based, the celebration had no US filter. And while I, of course, still view it from an American vantage point, it was a thrill to watch and experience and to see my kids engaged. So far, this was my very favorite event at the Garden International School.

Yep - I do recognize that my reference here for UN Day -- Sam the Eagle -- is entirely US-based! While Disney has opened theme parks across the globe, including China, Mickey totally travels on a US passport. (For Nicole: I wonder if Mickey had trouble getting a visa for China?)

UN Day started with the kids being asked to dress up in "traditional" dress, or in the colors of their flag. Ugh. What to wear? Coyboys and Native American Indians? No. USA colors of red, white, and blue - well those are also the Malaysian flag colors, and the UK, and the French. So no. So the Pohl/Garibaldi family went with... BASEBALL! By the way, we found one other American kid in school on UN Day. I saw a Year 4 boy walking near me in a Detroit Lions uniform, and shocked the poor child when I called out that I recognized the jersey. So I guess our dress up idea is American enough, since the only other US family in the Primary school did the same thing...

Tyler's class

The girls from Japan looked amazing...

...as did the Korean girls!

Representing the Americas.

Violet's class took pictures by country. For me, the best part was seeing the kids' flags. Since a flag has two sides, kids with two cultural identifications could put one flag on one side and one on the other. For example, one of Vi's classmates had an Indonesian/French flag. His parents are Indonesian, but he spent the last five years in France before moving to Malaysia.

Vi and Ty, decked out in USA, grouped up with their class at the start of the school day and, after picture taking, headed out to the field. The classes paraded in with an MC introducing the classes and saying things like, "Welcome Year 2, with Brazil leading the way." And "Mr. so-and-so wore his kilt. Give him a cheer!" And "There's a student from the Netherlands. Shout if you are wearing orange!" (I had to ask my Dutch friend what that meant; orange is the color of the Dutch royal family descended from the House of Oranje). This was all staged to rockin' pop music (yes, mostly American, thank you; but with some Bob Marley mixed in -- I'm sure much to the appreciation of our Jamaican friends). At the end of the celebration, the kids all sang a song together. I've tried to put the clip into the blog, but I'm not sure if it will work. At the subsequent parents' assembly and breakfast, the Head of School let us know that in prior years, the kids paraded onto the field with their countries (think Olympic opening games). But this year, the school deliberately changed the arrangement. UN Day is about togetherness and understanding - so they walked in by class, together as one school. Bravo GIS.

From the parents' breakfast: Further proof that there is at least one US family in GIS Primary. Someone made blueberry muffins.

I'm regularly asked, "Why did you send your children to Garden International School. Did you know that the American School is a few streets away?" Of course there are multiple facets to the answer, GIS was a bit less expensive and it's a 15 minute walk from our apartment to GIS, while it's a 30 minute walk to the American school. But also, spending only two years in Malaysia, there was a part of me that wanted to expose the kids to the broadest international experience possible. Why move from the US to put the kids in school with a bunch of American kids, right?

I'll admit that in making this decision, I neglected to appropriately understand the magnitude of cultural difference in this adjustment, especially for Violet. But now having been in the school for over a month, I'm very glad we selected GIS; and UN Day made me feel even better. Violet is settling in and, while she still misses Park, she's again confident in the academics and in her social life. She's made many friends in school. Tyler is excellent all around and spends every minute at school with his BFF - see the pics of them from UN Day.


On Friday, Tyler's class held a UN Day food tasting. Each child was asked to bring in a food representing his or her country. I asked Tyler what he wanted to bring. His reply: "kiwi... bananas... pineapple." Okay, he needed a bit of help. But so did I, actually. What is American food? Tyler all out vetoed Maryland crab cakes. I also thought about some of my New Orleans favorites. But Ty didn't even know what gumbo was, so how could I make it for American day? Violet was pushing hard for "hamburgers and milkshakes" but Tyler didn't want that one, and also we heard that there should be no beef or pork brought to the school. We took the conversation to FaceBook -- thank you all for the replies, including trans-fat. We ended up selecting a theme: Thanksgiving dinner. We had chicken breast to represent the turkey and Tyler and I made some delicious pumpkin. We printed out pictures and Tyler told everyone in his class the story of the first Thanksgiving. (At one point seriously confusing someone about "the Indians" -- I clarified that it was Native American Indians.) It ended up a very fun activity for the kids and parents!

Scotland's haggis balls (made with chicken). F's mum didn't get my "Harriett. Har-ri-ett. Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis" reference. Who out there does?

Singapore - the best exhibit. The video clip running on the iPad is out of the picture frame...

Malaysia - not a fancy set up, but the best food, by far, hands down!

Belgian chocolates - on the top of the box - were the kids overall #1 favorite.

But Ty's favorite were the poffertjes, Holland's tiny puffed pancakes with powered sugar.

Speaking of food and Asian cultures, I purchased a weekly delivery from an organic farm. I got the "Asian box - large". Overall, it's excellent, but there were a heck of a lot of greens and I have no idea what any of them they are! We spent the week nibbling and asking "hmm, eat this one raw or cooked, hmm..."

I'll report again soon. We have another big week coming up: Halloween, Deepavali celebration at school (with rangoli making), and a trip to Malaysia's Legoland.