Going for gold in Canberra

Our stay in Canberra was largely dominated by our quiet pet sitting existence and social catch ups. But on top of that the girls were still immersed in their school work and we encouraged all of them to set physical goals and challenge themselves in ways we don't always have the chance to. 

The first weekend we were in town we took advantage of participating in a local climbing competition. Tova and Zadie had never competed in climbing before and it was an activity of discovery into a part of the sport we largely ignore. 

Tova has wanted to learn to dive for a while now. She practices every chance she gets and is determined to go to Carleton University solely based on its pool having diving towers. She got to do three weeks of a diving workshop. The coaches were the perfect blend of upbeat, laid back and skilled. The workshop is open to all ages and it was great to get to learn in a group with humans between the ages of 6 and 65. There were even two visitors from South Korea that were part of the group. Aurora joined for the last week of the classes. They both made amazing progress and Tova enthusiastically joined her first diving competition. She is ready to move to Canberra to keep diving but that is not in the cards for us right now. 

Zadie has always been skeptical of group classes that don't include her sisters. When we first arrived in Australia I insisted she take swim lessons anyhow so she could learn to swim properly. Turned out that she loved the swim lessons. We took advantage of the intensive summer swim courses and for four weeks Zadie had a swim class every day. She had such a great time and I am astounded at the progress she has made. She went from a doggy paddler to a graceful looking lap swimmer. 

Sophia decided she wanted to run every day in Canberra. Unfortunately, a bad fall in the first week meant that she couldn't meet her goal to her own personal expectation. Nonetheless, she got some great experience with trail running on her own. 

Jakob wanted to continue to improve his movement and ability after his back issues flared up. He set out to be the main dog walker and met his goal with very good cheer. Three walks a day turned out to be just what he needed. 

Tova decided she wanted to bicycle 100 kilometres. Her plan was to just do it. We convinced her that it was best to build up to goals. Sophia was eager to accompany her on the goal so the two built up distance. One kind of hot morning they bicycled 50 kilometers. It was very successful but Tova decided she could not handle the monotony of 100 kilometers. Turns out it is too hard to talk while bicycling. 

All the girls agreed to try a small biathlon. They were not as well trained up for it as they could have been but they all completed the event and felt good about it. Aurora did her first long open water swim (1.2 kilometers). She decided she was not doing it for the glory so she would use her stroke of choice - breast stroke. She says she is glad she did it but that she would not jump up to do it again. Sophia has a swim, run, swim that turned into a swim run due to lightning. She learned that it is much harder to run after a long swim. Tova had a shorter kids event. The organisers, however, changed the swim distance from 100 m to 180 without updating their website. That was a surprise right before starting but she was unfazed and finished smiling. Zadie had a 100 meter swim that was much longer than that as her backstroke took her all sorts of interesting places. Not bad going from doggy paddle to 100 metre lake swim!. 

I set the goal of emptying out our storage unit. It was a much larger task than I expected and there were no prizes at the finish line. Still, it was a goal achieved and now we are impossibly more homeless than before. 

Thanks Canberra for helping us crush some goals we never knew we had. And now on to the next place and new goals. 

I give Aurora first place for this photo she took of Tova in a museum

Lots of climbing in Canberra

Dont think I was meant to take this photo but as Zadie is the only one in the pool here it is

Tower life

Race ready

Go Zadie!

Look at that final sprint smile

Was a fun but cold experience to dive in Orange

Back to Canberra

When you leave a place it keeps going without you. The cafes and parks stay busy, new social alliances are quickly formed to fill the gap you left, businesses shut and new ones open, and the trees and grass keep growing. Ten years ago we first came to Canberra. The arboretum had just opened a few years before and felt as fragile as my young children with its large stretch of saplings from around the world. I loved that fledgling arboretum, but at the time I joked that I'd need to come back in 10 years to really know what it would be like. I'd forgotten that hope until I suddenly found myself unexpectedly in Canberra at the teenage arboretum with my now bigger children.  The saplings can hold their own now and I no longer hover over them. Gone are the wooden supports and frail looking boughs. Still, like my children, many of the trees have a lot of maturing to do. I think I am going to have to come back in 10 years. 

It has been nice to revisit a place that is part of all of us. Canberra is like an old dear friend. The same charm, the same stunning nature, the same circular paths and roads forming gyres surrounding the lake. It has been so nice to reconnect with old friends. Meeting up with friends reminds us of how very dear they are to us. People age, but still, they remain the same at heart. Sometimes, I sort of wish I could spend my evenings by a lantern writing passionate letters to friends abroad. Somehow the details, thought, time and penmanship required of letter writing feels like it would maintain a stronger distance relationship. Alas, I have no lantern, no address, and no inkwell so we will just have to revel in the company of Canberrans while we have them close. Thanks Canberra for taking us back into your fold for a little bit and for being a fun space to play out the years end end and birthday season. 

Arboretum with black mountain in distance

                                         

Climbing competition

Oh Patch

Oh Levana!

Puppy love

She was scared at first but then decided carousels were great

Rapunzel gingerbread house

Making good use of the Canberra diving boards and instruction

A stroll through Telopea park

Aussie beach life

There is something inherently calming about the ocean and beaches. Maybe it is a situation that forces us to relax. We think we want to control everything but maybe the key to contentment is giving up control and just moving with the natural flows - the tides, the surf, the ocean life, the power. The white noise forces a stillness to our thoughts that is almost meditative. The sand is soothingly tactile and exudes warmth. People who live by the coast seem happier. Their dogs seem happier too. 

I like to watch Tova at the beach. She bounces, she yips, she prances, and acts as if she has discovered the secret to the universe. I kind of get cranky when waves splash over me, but, the rougher the waves jostle Tova, the more enthusiastically she bounds back up. Zadie enthusiastically follows hot on Tova's heels. Her smile just as big as the waves whip her small body around. Her joy is more filtered but just as genuine. Aurora is not always the first to enter the water but when she does it is with full commitment and fun. She is equally happy wandering among the rock pools and studying rocks and shells washed ashore. Sophia takes many pleasures from the coast - happy to play in the sand with Levana, stroll through rock pools, read her book in the sand, or play in the waves. Levana adores the beach but is more of a make sand cookies and splash in small puddles kind of girl. The ocean can bring out the best in all people. 

We all really enjoyed our last few weeks at the beach. Australians really know how to do beach life. 

Penang and good-bye KL

The week we spent in Penang made me slightly regretful that we didn't get to explore some of Malaysia's more out of the way spots. City life definitely has many advantages and we were all very glad for the social scene in KL, but to really get to know a country, the smaller cities and towns and natural areas offer a better glimpse. Penang was part of the network of small British power  islands. The British created a trade hub on Penang in the late 1700's, much before Hong Kong became a major player. The new trade importance of the island attracted Chinese and Indian merchants and labourers. Penang only became part of Malaysia after world war 2. It was fun to get to explore a place steeped with both history and food culture but also home to primary rainforest (the British interest was trade not logging) and beaches. Over the week we explored the historic core, walked old clan piers, went to a science fair, hiked Penang hill, played at a theme park in the jungle, went to parks, ate, and of course swam and studied. 

Tova has a lot to say about one part of our visit so here she goes:      

Escape was very very very fun and there were lots of things to do. One of them which I think was the funnest is the trapeze you had to do the small trapeze first which is just you swing out hook your knees on the bar hang by your knees put your hands back and hang by your arms and then let go and do a backflip but nobodys backflips were ever that great except for mamas. Once you had done the small one if they said you were good enough you could do the sow which is the same thing just on a higher one and another person catches your hands. Another really fun thing was a water slide it was called the longest because it was the longest it was over a kilometer long and was very fun! Another thing that was fun was to go under the tipping bucket because it was the biggest in the world so it made a big wave. Another thing that I am happy I did but was only alright was the zipline it is the longest one in the world people say but I thought someone could have made it longer. There were lots more fun things to but it would take to long to tell you them.

And then with a final week in KL for a last exam our time in Malaysia came to an end. The bustling urban life of KL took awhile to get used to and we are all glad for a change towards more nature, but, the city still won our hearts and the girls say they would definitely come back.

Great seatmate on the train to Penang

Exploring the clan jetties

Interacting with street art

Lots of temples and historical buildings

My favourite street art

Making herself at home in the Peranakan mansion

Running down Penang hill

Beautiful Kek Lok Si Temple

Looking cool at escape

Trapeze superstars

Beautiful the way the water slides were interwoven with the jungle - not many places where you can see monkeys while water sliding

Eating is very important in Penang

My favourite meal in Penang

Favourite dessert - shaved ice and silken tofu with toppings

Penang park

Sitting exams

We never meant to adopt the British education system. It just kind of happened. None of us had ever  heard of the British exam system aside from in Harry Potter, though even then, I never realised that the books' exams were based on the real system. When exploring ways in which to help out Aurora's university application chances the British system of exam taking was the most versatile and travel friendly. Thanks to colonialism there are many countries in the world that use the British exam system either as their main form of education or as the most popular option among the private schools. There are not many other education systems that have such a global method of evaluation that is also globally respected. I like that no matter what continent we are on we can generally find others who have gone through the same set of exams. 

Last set of exams Aurora completed in Lima, Peru. This time we are writing exams in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Same exam board and same exam content but entirely different experiences. In Lima we went through the British Council, which despite its name, was very Peruvian in organisational approach. Aurora was always the only one taking the exam with a preceptor and the location would rotate among a few co-working spaces - except we would have to call them the night before to find out the location of the next day's exams. Aurora would show up to her exam three minutes before hand, as would her preceptor. Her preceptor followed the rules to the word, except when she felt it didn't really make sense or matter. In Kuala Lumpur the girls are registered with a private international school that accepts independent test takers. They are hyper-responsive and organized. The girls are required to show up an hour before the exam time and they take the exam with the schools students. The rules are followed precisely and the school sends out regular notices reminding exam takers of the rules and requirements. The night before the exam they send me a reminder message of the next days exam time and subject. Aurora smiles when she talks about sitting exams in Peru in numerous rooms alone with the same preceptor whose name she never learned -  but - she says she prefers the system here. 

The British really take their exams seriously and there are so many exams over a six week period. Sophia this time around had 10 exams and Aurora 7. Six weeks kind of feels like a long period of time. I am sure both girls are excited to be done with exams next week and move back into study mode. Still, it has been a good experience and all the kids have had a great time in Kuala Lumpur. Though we are all excited for something more natural, the city has grown on us. 

Studying hard

Things that happen in Tova's head

I am going to miss the industrious women who sell home baked goods

Pocket of nature in the city

Tova's comes to the science museum for this

Tova's inktober drawing for 'ragged' really appeals to me

That leaf is way bigger than Levana

She tells everyone her name is Anna

Oh Levana why are you so cute?

Who says you can't ice skate in the tropics

One of my favorite meals here: Leicha (thunder tea rice)

Tofu dessert

I wish I got a free meal like this with all my doctor's visits