Sunday, April 15: We got up early to go to church, and when we got there, we were greeted by Lin! She was one of the ushers (along with Abbey Brill). Erng was really excited to see her, and Lin seemed to be having a great time with the Brill family. At church, Lin had to help hand out the programs at the doorway, and she also had to help collect the money for the offering. What a big responsibility!
After church, Erng made an apple pie with my mother. It looked pretty simple to make, and Erng said she would take the recipe back to Thailand and make one for her grandmother.
The pie was very tasty! Erng was very proud of her pie, and everyone enjoyed eating it. She is a good pastry chef! We were making plans to go up to Green Bay for the day when Mrs. Larson called and invited us to go to the zoo. I told Erng and Patty to wear lots of jackets and sweaters. It was very warm in Valders, so they didn't believe me, but I knew that it would be much colder once we got to Manitowoc. Even though they are only 20km apart, Manitowoc is close to Lake Michigan and so therefore the lake makes the city cooler, plus it can be very windy there too, and that also makes it feel cooler. So even though they were hot in Valders, they really appreciated having the extra clothes on once we got into town.
At the zoo, I stopped for a bit to talk to my friend. I can speak "Pasah Wolf", and so we chatted for a bit. :-)
After the zoo, we went to Beerntsen's Confectionery in Manitowoc. It's an old-fashioned chocolate shoppe, and they have a wide variety of ice cream sundaes too. The inside of the shop is very pretty, and I really like their chocolate. Erng had a sundae, but Jean did not. Apparently, Jean is worried about gaining too much weight over here!
I'm really proud of Jean, he's been very good at the Larson home and they really enjoy having him there.
After the chocolate shoppe, the Larsons went home with Jean and I took Patty and Erng to the library. America has great libraries, and even a small city like Manitowoc has a very big library with lots of cool books and resources. The Thai kids always enjoy coming to the library, because they always find something interesting to do or read. However, this time, we got there a little bit late, and so Erng only had time to play on the computer for a little bit before they closed.
We then decided to go to the beach to see Lake Michigan. It was a bit cold and occasionally rainy, but that's spring time in Wisconsin, so we can't let the weather stop us from doing things. We just bundle up and make the best of it! Erng played with the water a little bit. She can now say that she's touched the water of the second-biggest lake in the world (if Lake Michigan was in Thailand, it would stretch from Udon Thani to Rayong!). They had a rock wall protecting the harbor, so we decided to walk out on the wall to the lighthouse. There were two paths to take. One was an easy sidewalk, and the other was on the actual wall itself. So I picked the rock wall, because it would be more interesting and we might get to see some wildlife on the grassy area between the wall and the harbor. So we walked out onto the wall. Patty got way ahead of us, because she was too impatient to wait for us, but I had to stay behind and help Erng over some of the bigger rocks. It was a bit scary for her to jump from rock to rock, and so we took a long time to get out to the lighthouse. Along the way, we saw some Canadian geese. They didn't seem scared of us at all, and let us walk right up to them to take a picture. They are really big birds, so Erng didn't walk to get too close. When we reached the lighthouse, Erng was a bit cold and tired, so she didn't want to stay out there too long. We looked around and took a few pictures. Wisconsin is mostly grays and browns in the spring time, it's not particularly beautiful, however, if you look closely, it has it's own special kind of beauty. For example, the waters of the lake were different colors varying from brown to deep blue to a light aquamarine color. Also the rocks were covered with a hardy orange lichen which was really pretty when looked at closely. So even though Wisconsin might look a bit bleak in the springtime (especially when compared to Thailand's vivid colors), it can still be a very beautiful place if you know where (and how) to look.
After we left the lake, Erng was a bit hungry. When I asked her what she wanted to eat, she said, "A&W!" She told me that she's seen the A&W signs in Thailand, but she's never tired to eat it. So we went there for dinner. Erng had chicken strips, Patty had a chili dog, and I had a patty-melt sandwich.
When we got home, Patty and Erng did their blogs. They've both been very good about doing their blogs. I, on the other hand, have been really lazy about my own blog! Oh oh! Teacher is setting a bad example! Haha! Actually, I've been really busy with other stuff and so I haven't had much time to blog, but hopefully after I catch up today, I will update this blog more consistently. We're getting ready to receive the kids back this weekend, and preparing for our trip to Boston next week, so there's lots to do!
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