Bowling & Pancakes

Saturday morning, I went across the street to the church to use the phone. I had to call my brother so he could come pick me up and take me to Manitowoc so I could rent the van. When I got over there, I saw that they were preparing for a pancake breakfast and carnival. How lucky!

So I went back to the house to get the kids ready for breakfast, but they were already awake and down at the park playing in the snow. So I walked down there to call them back to the house. The pancake breakfast was held in the gymnasium of the school that's attached to the church. They had scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes and donuts. It was very delicious and the kids ate their fill. They also got five tickets to play carnival games, so it was a bit like a temple fair, except that the games were a lot easier and run by students at the school.

One little boy was so excited about everything. When he got a "1" on the peg game (which is the lowest score), he would shout "YES!" as if he'd done really well, and when he caught another stuffed bunny rabbit in the fishing game to match the one he'd already caught, he shouted, "Now my rabbit has a girlfriend!" The girls thought he was hilarious, and they laughed at everything he said.

The kids played carnival games for a while and then we went back over to the house. My brother came to pick me up and we drove into Manitwoc to the van rental company. By the time I returned, Gene, Pokpong, and Japan had already built their first snowman! It was really good for a first effort. It had a long nose made of ice, and eyes, mouth, and buttons made out of stones. It even had the classic arms made from sticks.

Once we loaded all the kids into the van, we took a short trip over to the Walmart in Chilton so Pat and I could buy a phone. Some of the kids forgot their name tags, and so I had to scold them a little bit. I don't like to bring the kids down when they are having a good time, but safety is my primary concern and so sometimes I have to be "Mr. Meanie" if the kids are not being mindful of their own safety. Of course, we didn't have any problems at the Walmart, but I still don't feel comfortable letting the kids out of my sight without them having some way to contact me if there is a problem or if they get lost.

Pat and I got a phone at the Walmart, so we have an American phone number now. That was very important because a lot of our plans for this week required getting in touch with host families and other people. Since we arrived, we were in a communications blackout with no internet or phone service. The house we are staying at doesn't have a landline or internet, so getting the phone at Walmart was one of our top priorities.

When we got to Manitowoc, we learned that the library had changed its hours since last year, and so we only had a half-an-hour before they closed. That wasn't much time, so Pat got the kids to update their blogs quickly while I focused on getting the phone registered online so it would work. I also had to send out a quick email to the host families about bowling and the rest of our schedule.

It's taken me a while to catch up on my blogging, but that's OK, because Pat has picked up my slack. She's the "communications officer" on this trip, and so she's been keeping people in Thailand updated on our status while I handle organizing trip details with the Americans here. Like I've said before, it's been great having someone on these trips who is reliable and responsible. Pat handles the things that I don't have time to do, so that I can focus on taking care of the kids & making sure we make contact with hosts and other people we need to meet during this week.

I'm slowing managing to catch up on my blog, but in situations like Saturday where we only had half-an-hour of internet access, it's good that Pat and I could divide responsibilities. She took care of updating her blog while I took care of registering the phone and contacting the host families. Whew!

After the library, we took the kids to Hong Kong Buffet for lunch. The food was very tasty and the kids ate a lot. The fortune cookies were a highlight, because they seemed uncannily accurate. For example, May got a fortune cookie that read, "You will step on the soil of many distant lands in your lifetime." How cool is that?

Even though Pat and I divided chores at the library, we didn't have enough time to get everything done, so once we finished feeding the kids lunch, we drove around the block a few times until we found a street with public wifi access, and then we parked there until we finished contacting everyone. The kids didn't seem to mind since it meant a few more minutes of Facebook access, hahah! After that we took them to Beernstein's Chocolate shop. They weren't very hungry because they were still full from the Chinese buffet, but they tried a few sundaes and fountain sodas anyway. Sai also bought a few huge pieces of homemade chocolate to eat later.

After that, it was time to go bowling. We managed to contact most of the host families and so they started showing up just a little bit after we did. The first-time kids were very nervous about meeting their hosts, but they did a great job introducing themselves and trying to start conversations with their host siblings. Andrea Stier (In and Pokpong's host mom) kind of shocked In by giving her a big hug!

The highlight of the night for some of the girls was the arrival of two Korean boys being hosted by the Kupsky and Larson families. Once they arrived a gang of giggling girls suddenly formed in the corner as they intensely discussed every detail of the local Korean "superstars". Kay Larson told me that Arnold, her exchange student, had spent most of the afternoon deciding what to wear so he could make a good impression on the ladies. And he did! The funniest moment of the evening was when Jinny tried to secretly take a photo of Arnold with her phone, however she forgot to shut off the flash! When the phone's camera flashed at the handsome Korean boy, Jinny turned beet-red with embarrassment  Haha! Bangpan was also smitten by Arnold's charms. She came up to me at one point and said, "Arnold is so nice and handsome!" Once she found out he could play CNBLUE songs on his guitar, that was it. She stole Arnold away from Jinny and Sai for the rest of the night!

I was very impressed with the way the kids made an effort to talk to their host siblings while they bowled. It was a bit awkward and shy, but I could see that they were trying. In, for example, walked right up to Sophia and introduced herself. I was very proud to see her do that. Pokpong seemed very at ease around the Stier family too. I think he will fit in well with them. June and Didi got a chance to meet their hosts too. Ella Hecker seemed very sweet and I think she and June will get along just fine. Didi talked with Olivia and Emma Kolar while they bowled and once she gets over her shyness, I think Didi will really enjoy staying with their family.

Joey Larson broke his arm right just before we arrived, so he didn't bowl with the other kids.  In fact, he was pretty zoned-out by the pain medication he was on. So Gene mostly talked with Arnold. Sai and Brylee seemed to hit it off immediately, and I think they'll be behaving like sisters by the end of this trip. The Walsh family arrived with their son Connor. Lynn Walsh told me that Connor had been waiting all day to get confirmation about bowling night, so it was a good thing we finally got internet access! They were very excited to meet Jinny, and they told me they had arranged some nice girls to be Jinny's buddies at school, however, Connor seemed like a great kids, so I think Jinny will probably enjoy hanging out with him too. He's already got a list of Wii console games he wants to play with her at home.

The new host families had a lot of questions for me, so I stopped bowling and talked with them. Even after the kids finished bowling we still had things to discuss about the trip, so by the end of the night I had a bunch of sleepy, grumpy teenagers in my van!