Thus Untethered - Erich

Driving through southern Oregon, we cross over a waterway. The sign labels it as Lost River, and Alrica immediately states, “I found it!” This makes me wonder: what proportion of people crossing over that bridge make the same comment (or one so closely related as to be indistinguishable as far as the humor goes.) Probably pretty high.

Now you've found the Lost River too!

 

On the topic of proportions, if I were to ask people if goodbye is a beginning or an ending, which would win? My guess: an ending. “Hello” is the start of a conversation, “goodbye” is the termination. That makes sense. If I started with goodbye I’d be considered rude. And I wouldn’t get to enjoy much social interaction. (I know, reading this you most likely suspect I don’t enjoy much social interaction regardless of how my dialogues commence.)

But if we adjust the context, no longer about a conversation, but instead about an adventure, then goodbye can be the starting point. And so it is. Or will be? Or both?

Our new adventure begins with two goodbyes, to be followed rather soon by a third. It doesn’t start with three goodbyes. That’s because the third of these will happen mid-adventure, though certainly on the early side of the mid.

However, this is all unnecessarily vague. To be plain, we are leaving our home city of six years and taking to the road. Since 2017, we’ve lived in Reno, Nevada. Here our children finished schools of varied levels.

Carver finished high school and his undergraduate work. Syarra completed middle school and high school. So we have no further tethers to Reno or any other city. Thus untethered, we roam.

Carver is now entrenched in Eugene, Oregon. He will be pursuing his doctorate in physics at the University of Oregon.

That brings us to our first goodbye. We said goodbye to Carver, no longer a child. He gets to become an adult, design his own life, shape himself into the independent human he wants to be.

It’s great. Independent fully-functioning adults - the goal of the parent, right? Yet, there is a little hole in my contentedness at present, a nodule of sadness knowing it will be many months until I see him again. In time that void will morph into a kernel of happy memories of my times with my son. But right now – little bit sad.

Then, in three days, we say goodbye (our second goodbye) to Reno. Alrica and I have sold, donated, or disposed of almost everything we own. The little we have left will be crammed into the trunk of our one remaining car – the car which shall not be named – and we are off to the east.

In the three weeks that follow, we will explore new places, visit family in places we’ve been, and trend toward Syracuse, New York. Syarra is starting this fall at Syracuse University. That will be the third goodbye I was teasing earlier in this post.

After our youngest is deposited at her school, Alrica and I become digital nomads. We will be going to housesits, caring for animals, and discovering the wonders of North America. We’d love to see our friends as we pass near them. And, as you may have gathered from this post, we are restarting our blog.

This is a huge empty-nester adventure and it’s wonderful. Except for the saying goodbye (three goodbyes) which kicks it off.

That’s why I feel a bit like the river my wife so cleverly located as we passed over it. Sure, I know where I am. But, like the river, you could legitimately label me as a

Heading home - Alrica

Sitting on a bus listening to Colombian music on the way to Cartagena airport for our final trip home. Our plan had been eleven countries on four continents. We ended at 28 countries on six continents. Life happens. My dream has always been to see the world and I have done that, but I hope it doesn’t ever truly stop.

Lots of people asked us before we left why we didn’t wait until the kids were out of the house. I can emphatically say that traveling with kids enhanced our travels immeasurably. I try to be self-aware but it is always easier to see change in someone else and the children we are coming home with are different people. People who are more culturally aware, gastronomically adventurous, linguistically capable, and just independent. Two years of homeschooling on our travels broadened their education in a way that could never have happened from the US. And I can confidently say that they are ready to return to the classroom with no deficits.

And what about the adults in the family? Well, it is scary to step out of your life for a couple years. We sold almost everything we owned, gave up our daily jobs, and hit the road. There, we discovered a confidence that we didn’t know we had. We have made friends all over the world and confirmed our suspicion that there are good people everywhere. Our journey has been full of moments of great joy and intense frustration. We learned about what questions to ask, how people live, how to roll with unexpected situations, how to manage change, and to appreciate the little things in life.

So what are we coming back to? Carver was accepted into a program called the Davidson Academy in Reno, NV so we are moving there. It will allow him to learn at the accelerated pace that he needs while being with kids his own age. Syarra will be attending a full-time gifted school that seems to truly understand the importance of challenging kids while being flexible enough to support their needs. We hope that being with kids their own ages will allow them to make lifelong friends. And Erich and I are looking for jobs, hopefully ones that will allow us to continue to travel when time allows. All of us will continue to enjoy telling our stories and sharing our perspective.

It is with mixed feelings that we return to the States. The politics aren’t what we prefer and what we left behind and we worry that we will feel stagnant. However, we look forward to getting to buy the big bottle of ketchup without knowing that we will have to throw it out when we move on in a few weeks. The US has a level of convenience that is uncommon in this world and will probably be easy to slip back in to. We are looking forward to settling in a part of the country that is new to us and we plan to take full advantage of this different adventure. Our door is always open to any of our friends, family, and readers.

Street-side and Seaside – Erich

Barranquilla is near the northern tip of Colombia. It's on the Magdalena River and nearly at the Caribbean Sea. It is tropical, hot, laid back, and has plenty of idiosyncrasies. (Of course, I would know nothing about having plenty of idiosyncrasies.)

Take street-side parking as an example. Now, I have seen plenty of signs that tell drivers where they are allowed to park or at times what they are allowed to park. But have you ever seen a place you are allowed to park your elephant?

It's hard to find a space to fit an oversized vehicle

I didn't actually see an elephant parked, but did find this guy.

Parked in the shade so he won't overheat

Don't worry. He wasn't in a designated elephant zone.

The fauna is not the only interesting thing here. The flora can be downright unusual and spectacular too.

Half cactus, half tree

While we were in Barranquilla we caught some public transportation. It was neither horse nor elephant, but actually a bus. And we visited a part of town called Las Flores. It was fascinating as there was a canal of sorts running right through the middle of the neighborhood. At places along it, people had laid out planks to cross it.

Here we enjoyed some amazing seafood. Being situated on the Caribbean and none too far from the Pacific has its advantages.

We enjoyed anillos de calamar (calamari rings), casuela de mariscos (seafood "casserole" but it looks more like a chowder than what we would consider a casserole), and tipicos de la casa (the special of the house.) If you enjoy seafood, you would love it. If you don't enjoy seafood, we totally ordered the wrong things.

Anillos de calamar

Casuela de mariscos

Tipicos de la casa

And just to end on a weird note, check out the decorations on this house. A spigot? Strange. But maybe in big rainstorms, they turn it on and drain the roof!

When it rains, does it pour?

I know, it's practically like a hydrant, right?

It's Not What You Say, It's Knowing How They Say It – Erich

During this journey around the world, we have taken a few opportunities to see some movies. And today we did so again.

I have commented before about the experience of seeing a film in another country, particularly one which is not English speaking. And seeing a movie in Colombia does not disappoint.

First, it was a great movie. We saw La Mujer Maravilla AKA Wonder Woman. And there was a lot of wonder. But I'm not attempting to be a movie critic. I want to talk about what it is to see a movie in Colombia.

First, when you go to see an American or other non-Spanish language film in Colombia, you must check which version of the movie you want to see. I don't mean 2D vs. 3D, though we did have that choice as well. I mean subtitulado vs. doblado.

Subtitulado means subtitled. The movie has the original soundtrack with the original actors. And there are subtitles in Spanish on the bottom of the screen. Doblado means dubbed. So a new voice track has been made by Spanish speaking actors speaking, unsurprisingly, in Spanish. We had choices. We could see the 2D movie with subtitles or the 3D movie with dubbing. That was an easy choice. First, we don't love 3D. Second, we don't understand Spanish well enough to listen to the movie in Spanish and follow along.

But I do know enough Spanish to really enjoy the subtitles. And it made me appreciate how much of language is not simply the words, but the idioms we use. I will give a few examples without any spoilers for the movie.

At one point a character is in training and is told to do the exercise again. In English the word used was "Again." But the subtitles read "De nuevo." Literally that would be "of new." They did not use "además" which would be a direct translation of again. Though perhaps a closer translation would be "furthermore." But I'm sure to the Spanish speaking audience "de nuevo" must have made perfect sense. It must be their way of saying do something again.

At several points in the film characters would say "come on." Now we all know exactly how to interpret that. There is no question as to why we use the preposition on in our minds. Or on our minds. One time I saw "come on" translated as "ven conmigo" or come with me. But most of the rest of the time it was translated as "vamos" or we go.

Why is it usually vamos but one time it wasn't? I don't know. I don't know enough about idiomatic Spanish to understand the contextual difference between the two situations.

Another huge difference is one of pronouns. We love our pronouns in English. We use them all the time. In Spanish, they seem to have a very different relationship with them. Sure, they use pronouns, but not nearly as often. As an example, if I want to say "I know" in English, I have to use the pronoun. If I just say "Know" it doesn't make sense. I mean maybe I am giving you a command to suddenly gain an awareness you were heretofore lacking. But aside from commands, we use pronouns.

As a challenge, I am going to attempt to write the next two paragraphs with no pronouns. (It's actually a test of how well I know what is and is not a pronoun, I suppose.)

In Spanish every verb is conjugated depending on the subject. So a speaker can just say "sé" a word pronounced as "say". And that would mean "I know." (The use of a pronoun was required in the previous instance, but as the pronoun was in quotes the writer feels justified that the writer has not failed the aforementioned pronoun prohibition.) Except Spanish speakers don't just say "sé", or at least the subtitlers didn't in the movie.

At one point important character was telling authoritarian character that important character just had to do a particular action. (Not specifying what the "particular action" is.) And in English the authoritarian character replied, "I know." (Again in quotes.) But the subtitles read "Lo sé." Literally the words means "I know it." So the translation did include a pronoun. But Spanish speakers include the pronoun of the object, which English speakers skip, and English speakers include the pronoun of the subject, which Spanish speakers skip.

Thank goodness I am through two paragraphs. That is hard to do!

Another instance was one of specificity. Let's say there was a bad guy called Bubba in the movie. (By the way, there wasn't, I just don't want to spoil anything. Though I suppose if you go see the movie now and you're just waiting for Bubba to appear, and then he never does, that might spoil it too.) Anyway, there were points where a character would say "It's him." But the subtitles read "Es Bubba." So they specified Bubba instead of using him. (Except it wasn't Bubba. Don't build up the false expectation, okay?)

My point is this: Learning a language is a lot more than learning the vocabulary and grammar. Because even when you know those, you will never say the things that natives would say. I would never think to say "de nuevo" instead of "además."

And English is full of idiomatic ways to say things. From our inconsistent use of pronouns (do I give up or do I give in?) through our poorly placed prefixes (inflammable means the same as flammable, really? And nonplussed is the opposite of what?) to our phrasal verbs (if you stop and think about it what does vomit have to do with throwing up? Your arm is not involved, and while it likely goes up your esophagus, it generally goes down soon thereafter.)

English is the most global language there is at present. And we native English speakers must be far more patient with those who learn it as a second or third or later language. Because even when you learn the words, the pronunciation, and the grammar, it isn't always what you say that gives your words meaning. It's how we expect to hear it.

No Exito – Erich

There is this story my mother sometimes tells about me as a little boy. I'm talking a toddler. So, at that age I was an avid fan of Sesame Street. And it had its various segments in which they taught you words with little songs and clips.

Well, one day my mother had me with her at a store. I don't recall if it was a grocery store or clothing store or something else. But the type of store is not germane to the story. While we were there I apparently dazzled some of the other women who were shopping because I saw one of the lit exit signs. Recalling my excellent Sesame based education system I pointed to the sign and said, "Exit, mommy. That says exit. It's the way, way, way, way out."

In Colombia, one of the big grocery store chains is called Exito. They are recognizable by the branding color of yellow. Each has a big yellow wall on the outside of the building with Exito written in black letters.

Of course, you might be afraid that seeing Exito in big letters, no one would be willing to enter. After all, the exit is the way, way, way, way out. Right?

Wrong. Because the Spanish word "exito" does not mean "exit." It means "success". And who wouldn't want to step into success.

It's a good thing too, because if you couldn't step into the Exito, not only would the store go out of business, not only would you likely starve, but you would miss amazing items for sale. Like this yard of cookies. Yes, you heard that right. It's a yard. It has an actual yardstick on the package.

A full 36 inches

Of course, the funny thing is that I never saw these European cookies in Europe. Only here in Colombia where almost no one speaks English did I see this well labeled in English box of cookies.

And no, we did not buy them. When you carry all of your groceries home in backpacks, a yard long box is not conducive to easy transport by mochila (Spanish for backpack).

Consult often!

The other thing note about Exito is that in several places in the store they have these kiosk stands where you can check the prices of things. Now, you are thinking, no big deal. We have those kiosks at home. And that's true, we do. But the difference here is that you really need them! You see about a third of the items on the shelves have no price labels. And of those that do, often the label is several inches, sometimes feet (maybe even a yard) from where the item is located on the shelf.

By the way, if one kept rapt attention on Sesame Street, you were likely to see those clips replayed in Spanish. So I would have also learned that "salida" meant the way, way, way, way out. And as you learn more Spanish, you see why that is very sensible.

You see the verb to leave is "salir" in Spanish. And the place you leave, the exit is "salida." Similarly, the verb to enter is "entrar" in Spanish, and the way in is the "entrada."

So if you find yourself one day in an Exito grocery store in Colombia and you want back out into the sunlight, don't follow the signs with the name of the store. Because, it's just as Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, No Exit. Or No Salida. Or actually Huis Clos, because he was writing in French.

But you won't get lost. Because regardless of language you can follow the green man from the universal symbol for exit.

Green means go! Or leave. Or both.

It's the way, way, way, way out.

The High Life – Erich

I am currently living the high life, higher than I ever have before. But by this I don't mean that I am supremely wealthy, nor partying excessively, nor under the influence of any intoxicants. What I mean is that I am living at a higher elevation than I ever have before.

We are in Bogotá, Colombia. Bogotá has an elevation of 2,644 meters or 8,675 feet. And we are living on the third floor. So you can see we are way up there!

It took us awhile to realize that the reason we get so out of breath when we walk about is because of altitude sickness. But even with the lesser oxygen content, we love Bogotá. And there are many reasons.

How about fruit as a reason. Colombia is a land of delicious fruits. There are familiar fruits like bananas, but so much fresher and more flavorful than at home. (Though not necessarily any better than Kerala, India.) There are fruits we have enjoyed in other places, but more plentiful here. As an example, passion fruit. Previously, Carver figured out that granadilla and passion fruit are one and the same. Except now we know that they are not. Passion fruit, called maracuyá here, is the same genus as granadilla, but not the same species. But both are readily available.

And then there are a whole host of fruits we've never encountered: Uchuvas (size and shape of cherry tomatoes but orange in color and with a tart flavor), curuba (looks like a small finger sized cucumber, but has more of a passion fruit interior with a kiwi mixed with toothpaste flavor), tree tomato (also called tamarillo, red/orange in color, but with a mix of tomato, spicy cilantro, and mango flavor), small red plums (size of cherry tomatoes, round and red, but super sweet and juicy), and guanabana (like a giant custard apple, though we had never seen a custard apple until Vietnam).

Four of the many new fruits

And while on the topic of fruit in Colombia, fruit salad is a major treat here. They make it with thin slices of bananas, apples, papaya, melon, peach, mango, strawberry, and more. Then it is drenched in a cream, something like sweetened condensed milk. And they put shredded cheese on the top. Oh, and if you're lucky, you get one of those small red plums!

In high school, I was in a musical in which one of the songs was called "Fruit Salad"

You can get your fruit at the local grocery store and there is lots of selection. But if that's not enough for you, try out Paloquemao Market! It is this large market in downtown Bogotá, with both indoor and outdoor sections. You can find dozens of fruit stands in the fruit section.

You could get lost here! Luckily Carver didn't.

You can find dozens of vegetable stands in the vegetable section. Guess what you can find in the meat and milk sections?

Carnes (meats) and lacteos (dairy) together? That's not kosher!

Here's a hint. You can buy four different kinds of ham in one stand alone!

Cerdo = pork; Cordero = lamb; Pollo = chicken; Ahumado = smoked; and Jamon = ham

And then there is the flower section. Thousands of flowers in hundreds of colors and varieties everywhere. I am trying to imagine how they can sell that many flowers. We did see plenty of people buying flowers, but with the numbers they have, wouldn't every citizen of Bogotá need to buy one to sell them all?

Floral overload

Other foods are the same but different here. For example, squeeze bags of food are very popular. You can see jelly in this picture. But you find your mayonnaise, sour cream, and a variety of yogurt drinks in them.

Why dirty a knife when you can squeeze?

Tony the Tiger is advertising Zucaritas here, but that is pretty much a translation of Frosties, which is the name for Frosted Flakes in many parts of the world.

Son bu-u-u-u-ueno!

Perhaps best of all, the mathematician in me loves the bread! See here, white bread is pan blanco, but whole wheat bread is called pan integral. And what good mathematician wouldn't want calculus with every sandwich?

The derivative of pan integral is just the pan. (Ha! Fundamental Theorem of Calculus joke!)

We tried two typical Colombian dishes, both of which we enjoyed. The first was a soup called Ajiaco, sort of a thick, opaque soup made of potato, garlic, chicken, and herbs. On the side you receive rice and avocado. But the idea is that you cut up your avocado into chunks and put them into the soup. Same with the rice, except you don't have to cut that into chunks. It's rice.

I do so like green soup and rice! Thank you, thank you, Sam from Colombia!

The other was bandeja paisa. It included several different items together on one platter. There are a variety of seasoned meats included fried pork, ground beef, and a hot dog like sausage. There are thick dark beans. And there is rice. On the top is a piece of arepa, which is a small, round, fried corn bread. It's also served with a fried egg, a slice of avocado, and a fried plantain.

If you had to have a national food, this would be a good choice

We also went through a mall and saw a few things I've never seen before. Such as?

You know the men's room right?

Familiar

Right next to it is another bathroom with smaller sinks (which were orange) and toilets that is clearly labeled as the boy's room.

Not so familiar

It's not uncommon to see a McDonalds in a mall food court. But have you ever been to a food court which didn't have a full McDonalds, but only had a dessert section of McDonalds? All they sell are the desserts.

Who needs entrees?

We happened to be there on a Sunday morning. And there was a church service going on right outside the food court. Do you think it is weird to be praying while knowing behind you someone is buying McFlurries?

 

Personally, I was excited to see Mujer Maravilla just hanging out in the mall too. Complete with her lazo de la verdad. And that's the truth!

Mujer Maravilla! What more does anyone need to say?

I know! It's a lot to see and do. And being from much lower lands, we do get winded sometimes. But that's no problem. You can just find some artistic concrete benches on which to relax.

Doesn't Syarra look comfy?

Because sometimes you want to be low key, even when you're living on high!

Jiggety Jog – Erich

Some say thirteen is an unlucky number. I've never personally agreed with that. I mean, it's prime. How bad could it be?

There's a story about Richard Courant, he was a great mathematician. He was the founder of an institute at New York University, and they were building a new structure, Warren Weaver Hall, on campus for it. The plans called for the building to have this huge lounge on the top floor for faculty and graduate students to hang and have activities. And that top floor was the thirteenth.

Well, Courant was looking over the plans for the building and saw that they called for that top floor to be called the fourteenth floor. He went to the architect with a demand: "This is going to be an institute of mathematics! We are not skipping the number thirteen!"

For me, thirteen has treated me well. And today is no exception. Today we are flying to Bogotá, Colombia. But it comes at the end of a thirteen day return to the U.S.A.

Carver needed to take some AP exams, which occur in May. Last year he needed to do so as well. We managed to find a school outside of Istanbul, Turkey where he could take them. This year, we figured we would simplify the process. We would just hit the United States before heading to South America and he could take them there.

There's an irony in the fact that it is much easier to organize the taking of American tests in Turkey then in the U.S. Bureaucrats! Thankfully our friend Tamara got on the phone and made things happen.

We wondered about returning to the United States. And in many ways it was weird.

See, you gotta admit, America's weird.

There were good weirdnesses, like people generally following the rules of the road.

BB8 made from legos? Okay, weird in cool ways at times.

There were bad weirdnesses like the high price of internet and prepaid SIM cards, very much in opposition to pretty much everywhere else. But we did speak the language, and that certainly helps.

We stayed with my parents and it was wonderful to see them. I even got to see my mother on Mother's Day, which is not something that has occurred in many years. Even when I lived in the U.S., I was in Pennsylvania and my parents were in Florida. It wasn't a quick jaunt over for a Mother's Day lunch.

We visited Tamara and her family. There we experienced "the world's best Thai food" and "the world's best pizza." So claimed the advertising. Though, I think I may have experienced better than each of those elsewhere in the world: Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. (Thailand you expected, right?)

We also headed to Ft. Myers Beach. This is where Alrica grew up. Here we met up with Aunt Adana and Uncle Don. Alrica and Adana got to drive around town and visit Memoli Lane. (Yes, of course they were visiting Memory Lane, but we really did drive down a street called Memoli Lane.)

Grandma Fawn got to talk to all three of her kids (and three grandkids) for Mother's Day.

Aunt Adana took the kids sailing. And we all had some good time for fishing. You can see our mighty catches, none of which was a "keeper".

Syarra caught a catfish

Carver caught a catfish too.

Alrica caught a crevalle jack.

And I caught a lane snapper.

And now as we head away again, it is with a bit of sadness. However, this time it won't be so long until we return, and we return for good. Plus, it isn't nearly as scary anymore. We've done the international travel thing a few times.

The thirteen days treated us well. Let's treat it well back. Try to remember: thirteen is just a number. It needs your love too. As do fractions, but baby steps. We'll get there.