Welcome to the world , Sweet Aliana.
Aliana was born to Erica and Mike, Feb 26th 1:03 pm after Erica's hard 19 hour labor ending in a C section. They are a happy, beautiful family and we have the joy to celebrate Aliana and be with them all here in Korea. 'Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of light.'

A few friends..and fun

The little cabin is the Long's place in Montesua a couple of hours out of Antananarivo.
We visited Vicuna, a wonderful nature, preserve where we could visit with several different kids of lemurs and the crocs were enormous and the chameleons amazing.


This beautiful beach is in on Ile Ste Marie where Karen and I had 4 days of sun, snorkel, sea lice and fresh vanilla beans with our desserts.

This little smiley boy was Rachel's favorite at the school where she volunteered last year.
I sang with them, played and danced with them and hated to leave these darling children.
These two girls go to the school I visited.










The smile on this lady is sunshine.





More pics of lemurs hopping, hanging and
holding on..





Karen and I waiting for our little plane to Ile Ste Marie..

This is paradise.








Neighbor kids Jay, Karen, Olivier and I out for dinner before Jay leaves for London. Thank you for a wonderful 2 weeks.

Manwana Tuuko from Madagascar

Well, it has been over a week with Karen , Noro, Jean Claude, the dogs:, Lola, Calu, Moka, Spike and the tortoise, Fred, by the way , he follows me around like a puppy!

 We just returned from the Longs lake cabin in Montesua a lovely, quiet place, very much like a lake cabin in MN! We swam in the lake to wash etc, , when we returned from The weekend I noticed my 'slave' bracelet I bought 5 years ago here in Antananarivo was missing. The maid, Noro said that the lake claimed  it for the crocodiles when we were in Montesua. The people although Christian, are very superstitious. I really was fond of that bangle..

The driving is treacherous, but Karen is fearless, passing huge  trucks on curves etc, while other trucks are coming at us in our lane and we go off the shoulder but fortunately when we were doing that, there was a shoulder. The landscape here is like no other; huge boulders in the hills with all of the red earth homes and roofs of thatch. People walking everywhere in the streets, everything for sale, but what is good is that people are 'not in your face' all the time hawking their stuff like in so many other 3rd world countries.

 The beautiful green rice fields are such a contrast to the red hills, the blue, blue sky with amazing cloud formations. We had 2 exciting thunder storms, lightening so close, so much rain, no electricity but candles are wonderful. As the cabin has a gas stove we still could have our morning coffee. 

We then drove to Vicuna. It is a beautiful animal preserve with its own lemur island. It is so exciting to have bamboo, brown and white, diadem sifacas and makis: the ring tail lemurs jumping on your shoulder and all so soft. On one of the islands there is a sign " Be careful: We bite". 

They were the first primates that never evolved as all of the primates have done  in Africa, as there are no predators to have caused the changes in the lemurs. But so much of there habitat is being lost to poverty. So much of the primeval forests have been cut down because the people are so poor they burn it all for charcoal.

 It is a cautious time here, with the last coup de ta(s)  and the new pres in place. We have to be careful when we go downtown.

We are together for one more week. This Thursday Karen and I fly to Ile St Marie to snorkel, enjoy the sun and sea, and maybe spot a whale. We hopefully will not encounter a cyclone or more rain storms or sharks..

john has been in London, no woff to Boston to see Steve and KAte , ski a day with them, then on to Iowa. for hiring. Oh, right now, the nuns are singing again. Every morning at 5 am I wake to their singing. Quite lovely. The convent is next to the Long's home. More later, blessings, alice

It is 3 :30 am and I am still jet-lagged. It was a wonderful Christmas holiday with our family and friends in chilly South Florida. We are in a major cold snap in Seoul, with snow. It is funny here, The Koreans don't have snow removal equipment and there was a 14 inch snow fall. Soooo the snow is pushed into piles in the middle of the streets and the already ridiculous traffic mess is compounded with these snow piles.
On Sunday we are having our annual 'After New Years Openhouse'. So we are bringing our tradition from MN along with Dorothy Goldbergs' coffee ice cream and cream soda punch. It is becoming world renowned! Thank you, Dorothy! all the way from our Stony Brook days in NY.
John leaves for London in a couple of days for a month-long hiring stint and I wlil visit the Longs in Madagascar for 2 weeks. I was ready to cancel my trip there because I was reading the US embassy warnings on Madagascar but the warning was for the coup that occurred in March not in January! Please come to Seoul for a visit but now in January. This is the same advice I used ot give regarding vising MN!

Thanksgiving in Jeju Island

It is Monday and we have just returned from lovely Jeju Island off the southern coast of Korea.
We golfed, played cards, hiked, enjoyed the sun and sea and climbed a caldera next to the sea, ate lots of fishy stuff...(still can't get away from kimchi though..)
We have so much to be thankful for: note our beautiful pregnant daughter Erica.
We enjoyed a fabulous black pork Korean BBQ for Thanksgiving eve and had a wonderful time with Lynn and John Gaylord, 2 administrators from Seoul Foreign School. It is so fun to get to know new friends, esp. through travel and shared experiences.
We shall be with Lisa, Mike, Kate and Steve and our adorable grandbabes , Allie and Nate for Christmas in Ft Myers in only 3 weeks!

Winter is here in Seoul

Well it is 25 degrees this morning, brrr.
We had 12 for dinner last night. So fun getting to know faculty and having them visit each other. With a faculty of 200 it is difficult to visit with each others' schools.
We had a lovely visit with the Carlsons and the Taylors. Both couples visiting Korean families from Stony Brook and Wendell setting up a business for prospective Korean students for Minnehaha.
I went to the ER for my chest cold thing and was sent off to a holding room for possible H1N1 patients. If I wasn't sick when I went in, I sure was going to get sick staying in that holding room. I refused the H1N1 tst: $500 ! So after paying the $150 for a few tyenol and advil and other Korean meds, I went home and waited to get better.. ugh.. am waiting..
We will go with friends to Jeju Island for Thanksgiving to golf, explore lava tubes, see the sunrise at sunrise peak , eat raw blowfish, hike. When we made these reservations it was still 80 degrees, so seemed like a great plan at the time... We all hope it will warm up.
Have a great Thanksgiving!

Siem Reap with Erica and Mike

We just got back from a fabulous visit to Cambodia and the most memorable Angkor Wat Temples.
Erica and Mike are great travel partners. We love Amok, Curry, pumpkin soup and were awed by the temples, friendly monks and sweet smiles of all of the people.
We were a bit worried about the overflowing banks of the river and felt terrible fo rso many of the people whose homes were completely under water due to the typhoon that hit us in Southeast Asia.