Greece Redux: "Celebrity" Volleyballers

August, 2010

I couldn’t move on to the next country until I had closure over telling you about our time in Greece.

I’ll try to contain myself to brief highlights, but brief does not capture my typical blogging style.

We hit the Greece beaches on the first day, hitting the hottest, “volleyball celebrity,” beach filled with models. I don’t exaggerate. That’s what they told us at the gate. I laughed. Then they were completely right.

Avery, the eldest cousin at age 16, had just gotten his driver’s license and had to be dragged away from his partying friends in Scarsdale to come to Greece, to slum it with his younger cousins and elders. To console him, we tracked him down and steered him towards the volleyball celebrities and models. And, they did not disappoint. Note his beaming smile in every picture. He watched the models frolic in the water for a photo shoot, all advertising the drink Frulite (get this – it’s a drink where they add chocolate to orange juice! It made me want to vomit but Avery didn’t seem to notice).

The other Frulite model-based activity was a volleyball game, filled with female models in butt-baring bikinis who don’t know how to play volleyball, one real Olympic female Greek volleyball player, and a couple buffed male models who actually knew how to play and made the game happen. Avery immediately signed he and Ken up to play. Ken told me he had to play with the models, to make Avery happy.

The entire Freeman family showed up for the “celebrity” volleyball game a couple hours later. We sat in the small stands, we dominated the lounge chairs, we yelled as only New Yorkers can. We drank beer and got louder. We watched a whole lot more bounce than just the volleyball. Jen was nervous that Avery would embarrass himself on the volleyball sand, but she was relieved when he hit his first serve, right into a model on the other team, who, surprise surprise, missed the ball! Ken was one of the better players, along with the male models who were more than just eye candy for the female Freemans in the crowd. They didn’t bother keeping score, but Griffin and his cousins ran around telling everyone his Daddy and cousin won the game.

After that we posed some more on the beach, then the kids got henna tattoos. Griffin got a dragon and Boom a spider. Within a day, their tattoos started to swell. After a few days, Griffin’s started oozing puss, dripping down his arm. By the time we were leaving town, we had to put Griffin on oral steroids because his body was reacting by breaking out in an itchy rash and hives all over. Tina did her research and found out that Greek henna tattoos on the beach are known for giving allergic reactions to some people who get them. They put black hair dye, PPD, I think, in the henna to make it darker. More than a month later, Griffin’s finally cleared up leaving a ghostly white trace of a dragon on his arm.

Later, at the same beach, Lisa lured me into trying windsurfing for the first time. Ken said no because he thought his upper body wasn’t strong enough. Steve said yes, maybe because his upper body strength is solid. Lisa was an excellent teacher, and I got up pretty quickly then watched Steve struggle. Turns out it’s about balance not strength. But, Steve eventually figured out how to turn the windsurfer around while I didn’t. On my last, most tired, attempt I started flying over the ocean surface, incredibly fast feeling like a bird. I kept on trying to turn around but couldn’t. I continued heading south and finally pushed the windsurfer into the shallow and walked it back. Lisa swam back to help me. Then, Harvey huffed his way down the beach, telling me he almost called the Greek Coast Guard to come get me.

Griffin's First Playdate in 3 months

September 15, 2010

Griffin here:

I came back from an activity at school on the bus. My friend who's in fourth grade, Mateo from Argentina, said to ask my Dad if I could come over to his house. He lives in an apartment in the tower right next to ours. My Dad said yes. And his Mom said yes. So, we had a playdate. I got to look around their apartment which was a lot more interesting than ours. They had legos and all sorts of videogames. I played at their house for a little while then I went home. That was my first playdate in 3 months!

Then today after in-line skating after school, I came home and did a bit of my homework then I went to the pool. My friend Mateo was there. We played soccer in the pool. Then we came up to my apartment. I had a playdate with Mateo here. The first thing we did was playing legos. I made a totally new setup. Then we ate dinner. It was delicious -- meatballs and spaghetti. After that we wrestled on the bed. Mateo's brother Phillippe, I found a way to wrestle him down. I grab him around his stomach and never let go, and finally, he just collapses. Then, we had dessert, gelato and cake.

That was my second playdate in 3 months!

East Malaysia: Niah Caves

September 11, 2010

As we landed in East Malaysia, to a coastal town called Miri, threatened Koran burning was happening in the U.S. The Muslim world was offended, and Malaysia wasn’t to be left out of the protesting Muslim states. The Prime Minister of Malaysia chimed in, asking President Obama to stop the book burning. No one in Miri mentioned it to us. But, we carried the knowledge of how events in the U.S. impact us here, as we thought of 9/11 while hiking.

Miri is famous for oil – Shell is the only act in town. It’s not famous for much else other than being driving distance from caves. We weren’t sure if it was worth the trip there. The hotel was on the beach but you couldn’t get to the beach because they had covered it with huge rocks, smacking of a desperate attempt to keep climate change at bay. The town had no charm. It was only famous for smuggling alcohol and more, from the neighboring country of Brunei. But, Hari Raya holiday weekend tickets had sold like hotcakes, and we were too late to get affordable flights to more spectacular places. The only cheap-ish tickets were for Miri since no one else wanted to go there.

So, we gave Miri a chance. We started with the crocodile farm. Note the word “farm” rather than “Crocodile Sanctuary.” First sign you see when you enter the “farm” is that BBQ crocodile is for sale. Crocodile belts are for sale. We saw enough crocodiles piled around, alive, but often on top of each other, to last us a lifetime.

Just as Ken and I were starting to get depressed, after seeing a cute but highly stressed, pacing sun bear on a short leash being fed bananas by tourists, the crocodile feeding was announced. You must see the video, is all I can say. We’ve never seen anything like it in our lives. It was the most animated and buzzed I’ve seen Kenny on this trip. A feeder came out to a very high platform, and he first blew a whistle. All the frozen crocodiles moved for the first time since we’d been there, strategically positioning themselves, slowly. Then, the feeder threw a whole, dead, unplucked chicken far into the air. It just flew, and the crocodiles’ eyes followed it as it flew. The first chicken landed next to a small crocodile, and its neighbor promptly bit the winning croc’s leg, prompting a roar of outrage from the crowd. The small, winning croc plowed his way through the bigger, blocking crocs, to a safe chicken-eating haven. Another chicken flew in the air, landing in the water. There an immediate snap came from out of nowhere, from the depths of the pool, and a wild wrestle ensued under water. We only saw bubbles and rushing waves, to show that one croc won. More dead chickens flew. The crocs ate them in one gulp. It looked like they barely chewed. The other crocs looked on, completely still, eyeing the winners, looking ready to get revenge later.

Finally, the feeder blew a whistle and walked away. Kenny leapt up and gave the feeder the first standing ovation he’d received in his life. He yelled praises for his chicken-throwing skill and clutch performance. The feeder looked surprised then quietly smiled and walked away.

The next day we dedicated to the Niah caves. We hired a driver for the day, and Ken warned him in advance that, given the 4.5 kilometer walk to the caves, the driver would have to carry Boom back from the caves when he collapsed. In Greece, we’d had Nate and Zander’s wiry, eager-to-prove-themselves muscles to carry Boom back from long hikes. In Malaysia, Ken seemed to think we had to hire someone to carry him. Turns out our driver was actually a body guard for a politician for his day job (only admitted to me later when I plied him with Tiger beer). He just smiled confidently when Ken continually teased him about carrying Boom.

We hiked to the caves, caves that had only been discovered by Western archeologists in 1960. We figured out why it took so long for the west to discover it – it’s surrounded by swamp. You can’t drive or fly there. You can’t even land a helicopter there. The only way there is to slog through kilometers of buggy, fauna-filled swamp. That’s a nice way of saying, croc-filled swamp. How did we get there? A raised 5K walkway over the swamp, hugging the outside of the huge cave, dodging stray rocky outcroppings thrust out of the swamp. The closer we got to the cave, the more dodging the walkway did because there were more rocky protrusions coming out of the swamp than there was swamp water.

Well, it was worth the archeologists’ slog. They discovered caves filled with life from the prehistoric era, 40,000 years ago. They first dug and found pottery and jade earrings traded from Indonesia. Then they hiked deeper into the completely dark cave, filled with bats and bat “black gold” – bat poop is worth gold to some. They emerged on the other side to discover a smaller cave, filled with 1200 year old paintings, perfectly preserved. And, we could actually see some of them too, still, although they had faded. The paintings were inspiring for us to see. We couldn’t believe it. They perfectly depicted their dead ancestors floating on a boat down the river to the underworld. They added some curly cues and other geometric designs for spiritual spice. And, in front of the paintings were real skeletons left in man-made boats. That’s how they buried their dead, curled up in fetal positions in wooden boats…hoping that the boats would help shepherd them to the other world.

We actually saw some dead bones and boats remaining from 3000 years ago. Then we turned around and walked back from whence we came, “torches” in hand (aka flashlights), the kids squealed with delight as they walked through the caves in the absolute dark, shining a spotlight on the bats overhead.

We also walked past bamboo poles stuck in the ground, extended all the way up almost 30 stories to the top of the Great Cave. Nest gatherers somehow, impossibly, shimmy up the smooth bamboo all the way to the top of the ceiling to scrape swiftlet (swallows?) nests off the ceiling, because they are worth thousands of dollars, often used for Chinese Birds Nest soup, believed to have healing properties, sold all over Asia.

Then, we walked the 4.5 K back, thinking we’d have a similar slog to the archeologists’, trying to coax tired Boom all the way back. We prepared our “bodyguard” to carry Boom, especially when Boom made us carry him down some stairs. We watched Griffin tire himself out, slipping off the side of the walkway, hanging on for dear life, but with only a 2 foot drop to the muddy cave floor below. Alice went piggy back on Kenny most of the way home. I had to rest repeatedly. Ken complained, making it an art form. And, Boom, ran ahead, with the bodyguard chasing after him. We lost sight of him. The bodyguard told us Boom would keep on looking back at him saying, “I’m first!” “You can’t catch me!” all the 4.5K back to the car.

We rested the next morning. Then our new best friend, our bodyguard, picked us up to take us to the Latak Waterfall. It’s a popular local jungle swimming hole. When we arrived there, it was raining, and hard. Then, we heard thunder. But, we looked around and saw no lightning. Repeatedly, which was strange. Is a lightning-less thunder unique to the rainforest? We plunged into the jungle, despite the thunder and a tepid, polite warning from the forest ranger who sold us our tickets -- mentioning to look out for slippery paths and thunder. Turns out we barely touched the jungle floor, again, hiking along a raised walkway most of the way, and by way I mean only 25 minutes of hiking.

We took a Pringles break under shelter from the rain, listening to Ken explain “evolution” to the kids, in one seating. Then, we reached the Latak Waterfall, with the kids relieved it wasn’t like the rapids from Taman Negara (see previous blog posting about near-death rapids ride for Griffin). It was just a single, long line of water dropping from a couple stories above. And, unlike the rapids, there was a rope blocking us from swimming under the waterfall. On top of that, a forest ranger or “guard” sat in a guard house to make sure we didn’t swim too close. Ken complained that our waterfall swimming leash was so short – “Why come to a waterfall if not to swim to the waterfall?” Then, Griffin made the same complaint, then Alice, then Boom -- it was a contagious complaint.

My bridled explorers moped their way to the water then immediately started splashing, wrestling, and throwing with delight. The local Malays stopped their chicken bbq-ing to come over and stand in the water with us, largely unable to speak English. One explained to me that they can’t swim. But, their kids got wet anyway, fully-clothed and they took pictures of their kids with each of mine. As usual, Boom was the star of the paparazzi, but Griffin was shocked and quietly pleased to finally be asked to be in a photo with the large family.

Soon, more than just Muslim Malays arrived. Some Indian Malaysians arrived, but only a group of men came. As the rain slowed to a drizzle, the men started playing a drum, clapping, pounding Coca-Cola, and singing traditional, foot-stomping songs in some Indian dialect, I think. Then, one leading singing man jumped up and started dancing, and each would take turns joining him, with shoulder shimmies, kicks, jumps, whirring around, mirroring each other as they danced and sang with all their hearts.

I watched from the water, laughing with Ken, as I dunked myself, feeling renewed and a bit less stressed from my Kuala Lumpur life. We went back to the hotel where the kids begged us not to make them go to a local restaurant, as we usually insist (hotel food = bad and expensive; local food = cheap, fresh seafood and delicious). We relented, or really I relented. They knew I was really the one who pushed us further, that way, often too far. So, I gave in, knowing that a night of horrible food lay ahead of us, but my parents, Courtney, and Tamara would be pleased that I was “taking it slower.”

So, we spent our last nite, watching the sun set over the oil tankers on the horizon, with an awful Robert DeNiro “family” movie (“Everybody is fine”) playing on the grass for a buffet dinner/movie night at the hotel.

PS Our camera is broken. :( We have to send it to the US for repair. In the meantime, you'll get many blogs filled with crappy pictures from us.

Griffin's Post:

September 9, 2010

I have a four day weekend because of Hari Raya. We are going on a 3 day trip to East Malaysia. It is a two hour flight to get there. We are going to see caves. People used to draw on the caves. They didn't draw with blood. They could have. I don't know what they used to draw because in the old days what kind of ink was there?

School is pretty hard. It's hard to get around the school. There are such long lines in the cafeteria. The only things I look forward to are snack and lunch and playing soccer at recess. I had Mandarin class today. "Nu hi qui qui de pao" means the girl quickly ran. "ting" means listen. "ting" means stop. There are two different types of ting. One is long and one is short. The listen ting is long and the stop ting is short.

"Shuo jung wung" means speak mandarin. All of these might not be spelled correctly but I don't know how to spell them. There are a few symbols. But I can't remember them.

The symbols are important. In fact, if you say the wrong symbol (character). Like, if you say I want dumplings but use the wrong symbol, then you might actually be saying I want sleep.

From, Griffin

The reality of living on the other side of the world

September 8, 2010

I am tired. Very tired. Not from bad things but lots of good or fine things. The good things are being with my kids in the morning and some before dinner with the kids and Ken. And exploring Kuala Lumpur and nearby has been good. Other good things are being a part of the psychology department and teaching here at HELP University. All the faculty has been so welcoming - taking my family out on the weekend, taking me out to lunch, etc. Another good thing has been meeting people associated with various mental-health-related projects here, trying to get my mental health research and program work off the ground. Even my commute is pretty good, same as in NYC, but with a better subway line (LRT) to a bus to HELP University. Running with a running group on Saturdays and running on a track a couple times during the week around our local park has been very very good. Being class mom for Alice's class has been good. Throwing myself into any social opportunities from the kids' school, my work, mental health organizations, and exercise has been paying off. But, I'm very very tired come afternoon, and dead come evening.

Lots of good, I know. I'm lucky. But, there's a reality to it all.

Ken sleeps in late since he's up late working, usually. And, he's not thrilled with his new role of being the stay-at-home day come afternoon. He's been mentioning his "lot in life" lately. He's been exercising a lot.

So, I get the kids ready and to the bus in the mornings. My alarm is set for 5:30 but I'm usually up much earlier. Often, on the hour every hour from 2am on, I'm jolted awake on edge, checking the clock. I nearly jump up at the alarm, and I get ready, trying to squeeze in a few minutes of meditation or yoga before the kids get up. Griffin was having some anxiety returning to school, post-Greece, feeling confused by all the newness of it, so he started meditating with me for 5 minutes before the other kids wake at 6:15. On my 2 teaching days, I try to dress myself fancy before I wake the kids so that I can go into work early, right after their bus leaves at 7:10am.

That 35 minutes before the kids wake up is my saving grace in the morning. Getting to work early feels like stolen time too.

Teaching has been surprisingly good -- I've only taught one undergrad class so far, but they seemed curious and asked some interesting questions, but come the third hour of the 3 hour class with 150 people, I could have been dancing naked on the table, and they'd still look like they were nodding off. That's a long, painful third hour. I've never lectured that long or to so many people. They insisted I use the microphone after I avoided it the first half of class. I was wiped afterwards.

Then, I've been so excited after each mental health program/research meeting -- possibly developing a crisis team here in KL with other child mental health therapists. Possibly, helping develop an anti-bullying program, now focused on getting the teachers to be less violent or verbally harsh towards the kids in the schools. Or, working with an anti-poverty preschool program for immigrant kids who are not allowed to go to Malaysian schools. Or, help World Vision with its new anti-poverty initiative up North to help families feel more connected to their schools. All meetings I've had in the past week. All interesting, with me rapt and with intense focus. I come home wiped out afterwards.

On Friday, we'll go see some exotic caves and jungle in East Malaysia, flying a couple hours to get there. We'll be fascinated, working hard to get to and get into all the sites there. We'll come home wiped.

All good, just surprisingly tiring, this new world.

Griffin's After-School Activities and Hari Raya

September 8, 2010

Griffin's post:

This Monday after school activities started. I have Mandarin on Monday afternoon. Soccer on Tuesday. In-line skating on Wednesday. We have language in regular school, and I go to Mandarin for language during the school day. So, I have 3 Mandarin classes per week.

Soccer is a little weird. Like, I'm not used to it. But it's fun altogether. It's weird because it's a little hard to understand what to do. Everything just happens so fast. There are 30 people in soccer, 4 and 5th graders too. And, some friends to keep me occupied.

I had an in-line skating lesson today. I got on my gear. You need to have elbow gear, hand gear, knee gear. The hand gear has to go right down to half of your forearm. And a helmet. I got all that on. It was a bit hard. I got up then just started skating. It just seemed so easy! Exactly like ice skating. They gave us time to skate around the area. So, I started just pushing off with my feet and then I found out how to turn. I put one foot down and pushed with the other foot. Then I figured out how to stop - I put my feet in an arrow shape and it slows me down and I stop. Then they taught us how to get down and up. You put your knees in a v shape. You put your hands between your knees. You put one foot up then the other. Then there were two classes. Classes for people who knew how to skate and those who didn't know. I was in the class who did know.

It is Hari Raya holiday in two days. That's the end of Ramadhan. The end of Muslim fasting where they celebrate. My friend Widie in my class who rides my bus to school is from Indonesia and is Muslim. He even fasted on his birthday today. His mom would buy something for him for 400 ringitts if he fasted.

So, in a couple days, during Hari Raya holiday, we are flying to see caves in East Malaysia.

Griffin

September 5, 2010

Griffin here:

The video below you is a Hari Raya event (Hari Raya is the end of the Ramadhan fasting, it's a celebration). They did fake karate fighting, though it looked like it hurt. It seemed one guy always won. It was special fighting, but it was a religious celebration. There is a woman in one picture picking rice paddies.

There were men dancing traditional Malay dance. It was very beautiful.

They performed the dance in a mall.

Some people came over and took us to an indoor playground at the mall. They were friends from mom's work and they were Chinese Malaysians. Their names were Chee Leong, Pei Shee, and Aletea.

Ken's Soul

Ken here. Today, I sold my soul. Our Indonesian cleaning lady explained to me that there were no fireworks for Malaysian Independence day out of respect for Ramadan. Then, she looked at me and said "You Christian, right?" Time moved like the martial arts fighting in Matrix. What should I say? She's from Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Didn't they have some bombings by Islamic extremists not too long ago in Indonesia? What if I tell her I'm Jewish and she tells one of her friends and some radical forces her to allow him into our apartment, or access to our kids? She was already fascinated that we're American. "I like American food - pizza, McDonalds, spaghetti."
I had prepared for this day. I had mentioned my concerns to my rabbi and to Griffin's Hebrew school teacher. I had prepped the kids not to mention that they were Jewish to anyone ("But WHY do they hate us, Dad? It's not like we have a gun or anything"). I thought of my own Hebrew school education, and the ethics lessons centered on the choices Jews made during the Holocaust: fight, convert, run - what would you have done? But I was still caught off-guard by the cleaning lady before I had drunk my coffee.
Colleen and I recently found out that the September 11 terrorists had used Malaysia as the primary meeting ground to plot the attack. Somehow, that fact escaped us in all our trip planning.
All this flashed through my mind in about a tenth of a second. "Yes" I replied after slightly too long a pause, sat down with my computer, and continued preparations for my fantasy football draft. -ksf.

Griffin's Day Off

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September 1, 2010

Hi Blog Readers! This is Griffin.

Ramadhan is a special holiday. All the Muslims fast until 7pm, at sundown. We went to a Ramadhan buffet. I felt bad for all the people who had to fast. It was really really good food. There was a band playing. The food looked and tasted different, but it was all very good. We cooked our own seafood at the table. There was a pot where you could put stuff in and cook it.

I had a day off from school for National Malaysia Day which is Malaysia's Independence from Great Britain day. We went to a playground at Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur. I started swinging without anyone pushing me. The same thing happened with Alice. If you look in the picture you'll see that I climbed to the top of the swings on my own. It was a really good playground for gymnastics. There were these bridges, I climbed off them, swung, made it to the bottom of them and swung to the ground.

We walked around the park until we came to the National Mosque of Malaysia. In all mosques, non-Muslims are not allowed. Mosques are a place where people go to pray to a God. There are other parts to the mosques than you see in the picture. If you look closely, I am holding a stick in my mouth you may not be able to see.

When we were in the park we tried to get a taxi. They tried to make us pay a flat fee but we wanted to use the meter instead, so we said no to all the taxis.

The subway system is different than America. Instead of just $2.25 always, like in NYC, it depends on how far you are going.

I have been painting watercolors lately, as you see in the picture above this writing.

I am having a great time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Love, Griffin

ps Note that Griffin just wrote a blog posting, about 5 postings below, of his time in Greece too.

Alice's Malaysia World

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August 31, 2010

I love our apartment. There are lots of buildings around if you look outside on our deck. It's very fun too since it's like you're going to fall right down but you aren't. There is a building that is just getting built right next to us and a little bit far away, but I'm looking at it right now. It has lights on two cranes sticking up. There are three lights on each crane.

In the morning today, I went to the pool first. I swam underwater from side to side. It is very fun. We have a humongous pool and a water slide. The slide gets boring, though, after a while. After that we hung out in the house for a bit. Nanny and Papa skyped us and showed us their new kitchen. They have to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner down in the basement now. Then Boom Boom turned on some music and we all rested.

Today is Malaysia's Birthday, so we did not have school today. I felt great to know that we didn't have school. It wasn't so fun in the morning because I had lots of problems with my annoying little brother.

We went to Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur today. We played in the playground and while I was pushing Boom on the swing, a girl said "A dark cloud, it's going to rain." So, I told my Mom and Dad. My Dad was resting on the bench. When Daddy was about to get up, the thunder came. It was big loud thunder. Then Mommy and Daddy talked a little. Mommy said we're going to the Deer Park. Then it started to rain. We started to walk down. I saw a mouse deer and another mouse deer and another mouse deer. We saw shelter up ahead and went under it away from the rain, then I smelled big deer poop.
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I saw a little baby deer. It was running all around. 10 deers were under the shelter. They don't want to get wet, that's why. We went to the National Mosque. I took some pictures of it with my camera. Then we walked back towards Chinatown. There were lots of people with big carts around. Purses. People riding motorcycle with ice cream on the back. It was tough getting around without getting lost at least once but I was lucky, I didn't get lost. Then we got some dinner. Mine was really good, rice and chicken.

Then I went home on the subway. We stopped at Ampang Park stop, near our house. Then we went and bought me a Hari Raya outfit for the Malaysian Muslim holiday at school. Then I saw a "Tuck Shop" and it reminded me of the Tuck family! In the Tuck family, there is Spencer, Caroline, Graeme, Courtney, and Matthew.

I took a picture of Boom Boom's shoes too. He just got them. They are flip flops. His pinky toe is hanging off. I told him that when he bought them. But he said, "I want those shoes still!"