Coffee

There are themes that continue to rise though this year, and coffee is one of them. 

Coffee in Norway it is dark, bitter and never ending at home on rainy mornings.  There are no coffee cafes, it is something you enjoy from a thermos picking berries or around the fire with friends at home. 

Coffee in Croatia, not really a beverage, it is an event, a way of being.  “Getting a coffee” more means a minimum two hour event.  It is never “to go.”  “Getting coffee” is a daily ritual of life and a medium by which all of life events take place.  You go to “have coffee” if you date, break up, have a work meeting, talk to your family. It is done in the public squares, never alone and never with a computer.  It is always an impossibly small cup, that Croatians have the amazing ability to make last hours.  When the tourists leave, the only places that stay open are the coffee shops, which then serve wine and beer at night. 

Singapore.  There is a beautiful efficiency of Singapore, and with the highly sugared iced coffee that is everywhere, Kopi-O, seemed to fit the city perfectly.  Kopi-o is coffee made through a fancy sock filter and with as much sugar as you can get to dissolve. If you want it cold and to go, it is poured over ice, tied together with a rubber run and straw was a perfect companion to, well anything: a hot walk, spicy Indian curry, chicken rice or beef satay and the perfect answer to jet lag.    It was also the land of selfies - while we never did,  you can get your selfie printed on the foam of your latte at the famous “Selfie Coffee” shop.

Malaysia: Penang white coffee.  Now in Malaysia, the coffee grows in the surrounding hills and every corner has another “white coffee” stand often with  street vendor or two.  A drink for any time of the day this more milk than coffee version of coffee has me yawning in the afternoon but longing to find out more about the history.  It is also a place where labor is cheap so people send time on things, like 3D foam creations in your coffee. 

More adventures are sure to come, but grateful for the warm cup of joe in mornings. 

I asked for a “coffee with cream” and learned the magic of Croatia: cream = whipped cream!

This fun sign in Penang summarized about how I feel after finding a good cup of joe!

Someone had a hard time getting used to coffee size in Croatia.

Checking out the #Selfie Coffee stand in Singapore

Making the wonderful sock coffee to go.   

Getting breakfast for the girls with our coffee to go.  

Green Spaces and Green Living in Singapore

Singapore caught us all off guard.  One would probably not describe us “city people” but somehow we found our time in Singapore both interesting and comforting.  Singapore was never a place I had on my list of places I wanted to visit, but after 10 days in the city, I left amazed and wanting more.  What I loved about Singapore was this interplay between nature, art and technology as well as government and the individual. Every place we went, plants and nature were a part of the buildings.  The parking lots had vines growing up them, the hospitals had open terraces and garden walkways. The downtown corridor had solar run cooling fans on the street that provided shade during the day and lighting at night.  The entire Gardens by the Bay includes a massive cloud forest in a greenhouse, a stunning flower garden, museums, restaurants, outdoor gardens and huge tree sculptures that are run off of solar and biofuels created on site.

It was inspiring to see a city work towards a greener tomorrow.

The worlds largest indoor waterfall was a sight to behold. Inside a massive greenhouse the different ecosystems in a cloud forest were maintained and you could explore the different levels going in and out of the waterfall itself.

From inside the greenhouse, the afternoon storms came with their full force. The dome of glass what a spectacular place to watch the sheets of water cleanse the city.

Cruising along the bay on a scooter. To the left in this picture you can see the edge of the solar street fans / shades / rain protection / night light instillation they had along the path.

As a chemistry major and fine arts minor, this museum was my happy place. The lotus flower shaped building that appeared to defy gravity was filled with inspiring exhibits and beautiful quotes about the integration of science and art. The whole museum is surrounded by this lily pad pong, again blending nature, art and science.

Again these lines, I am no architect - but I love how the building, the usable space and nature dance together in this city, each complementing eachother.

The pond was the top of the waterfall in the Cloud Forest, a collection of art, history and science.

Just look at this life. This was in the flower dome where they had plants from around the world including an amazing collection of Olive Trees (which is saying something after spending 3 months with Olive tress) It must be a botanist dream job to work here. The textures and shades of green were mesmerizing.

We have hundreds of pictures of these

Here again you can see the architecture of this mall dance with the palm trees, beautifully lit from below. This mall even contained a rain collecting system that drained into a waterfall in the mall, that created a river through the center creating a river like those in Italy with boats that took shoppers along the length of the mall.

This is art. This piece profoundly spoke to me. This is a sculpture in the flower dome, and a part of a collection with a husband and a child. If I could artistically represent how I feel this year, it this sculpture. She is fluid and soft, yet made of bronze. It appears to defy gravity as the pieces appear disconnected yet are all one. She is open to the world around her, yet strong and stable in who she is. You can fill the sculpture with so many meanings depending on what you bring to the conversation. It inspires thought, questions, examination and emotion. I can’t think of another piece that has been of art I have ever been so inspired by.

Solar powered street fans make walking in the heat more enjoyable.

The whole city is set up for the rain. The bus and subway systems were clean, efficient and ran on time and also made the commute dry and comfortable.

What Home Schooling Looks Like.......

We are not teachers and knowing how figure out the school aspect of this year was a major challenge.   We are blessed that Alaska does a great job supporting homeschooling and after talking to friends we enrolled the kids in Mat-Su Central (a school designed to support home schooling) and were linked with an amazing councilor.   We met a few times talking though our goals of the year, looking at where the kids were at and where we hoped they would be at the end of the year. We decided that we would do an online Math program - Think Well and an online writing program - Write at Home that would support the girls though the year.  The other parts: culture, language, science, reading, physical education we would help organize and coordinate.

I could go on forever about how much more rewarding and fun this has been than I expected, but instead, here are some picture from the past week of what homeschooling has looked like for us.  The video is Lily taking her final test for European geography before moving on to Asia.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
”

— Marie Curie

This was a beautiful and highly interactive exhibit on Richard Feynman and his incredible work in Singapore.

The art in Penang is everywhere and adds to the already overwhelming beautiful visual stimulation.

We spent hours at this beautiful interactive exhibit at the Science and Art Museum. The girls created their own cities and played and danced with a highly engaging displays. If we were not so busy at the museums, I might have actually written more about them.

Art is meant to be played with, lived with and interacted with.

Much of what we hope to learn on this year is just seeing an other ways that people live and learn and help them find their own personal inner callings. Like the old and the new in this picture we have tried to blend traditional and non-traditional learning to give them wings to fly.

More fun at the Art and Science Museum. Particle physics, building atoms and computer boards.

We took so many pictures in this “meditation” room in the Art and Science museum. It was beautiful interaction between light and texture.

i love the way light and angles can change everything.

more fun

The street art in Penang has also been a fun addition to art part of our year.

And you get to interact with the art.

This teacher is grateful to have had this year to really dive into the girls education and to have so many helping hands that made this year possible!

Singapore (updated Pics & Video)

Going to Singapore is like going into the future.  Even though it a very large city, they still try to protect the Earth. There are tree’s and plants everywhere.  Singapore is also one of the most cleanest city’s in the world.  I very much noticed those details when we visited. There Zoo was also probably one of the best Zoo’s I have ever gone too.  They have a huge building just full of plants, they call it the cloud forest.  We enjoyed a light show made out of tree structures with real plants on them.  I am not a city fan, but WOW.  

Lily Zink

These giant trees, perform a light show two times a day.

Biggest ferries wear in the world!!!

They call it the Singapore Flyer.

Looking down at the modern Singapore, on our ferries weel carts.

At the Zoo.

Practicing our meditation at a loud Zoo at night.

Watch out!!!

Don’t want to go swimming here.

In the Zoo, the monkeys get to run free.

They have these everywhere!!

Fresh orange juice to go.

CREEPY!!!

It’s definitely a boy.

You had to wear a bunch of shawls to enter here.

One hundred Buddha’s.

Singapore Zoo

River Safari

Eating local foods.

Still reading at 1:00 am

Shop until you drop, just don’t stop!!!