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From the Department of Euphemism
"She's very vocal, isn't she?" (Instructor, after-school activity)
"She really likes to join in conversations." (Parent of schoolfriend)
"Very participative in all class discussions. She is switched on, and confidently shares her experiences with the class." (Schoolteacher)
4/1/2007
Milestones
The months go by, and little or nothing gets written here. Partly this is because I have been busy; partly it is because there is more and more routine in Neung's and our lives, and routine makes for dull reading. Still, the last three months have seen us pass several milestones. She celebrated her first birthday in Singapore. We celebrated the first anniversary of her arrival in Singapore. She finished her first year of Singapore school. Some things we are now doing for the second time: we all spent Loy Krathong in Thailand, and Neung and I floated the krathong together then as the year before. We went to California for Christmas, as we did last year shortly after she arrived in Singapore. The second anniversary of the tsunami has been and gone, with -- as is to be expected -- much less notice from the world than the anniversary a year ago. Like last year, we went to the Thai temple in Berkeley to make merit for her mother.
And tomorrow is two years from the day we met Norng Neung.
I continue to be very proud of her. On her birthday this year, we had a big party. The problem with a large birthday party, however, is large numbers of presents, which we wanted to avoid. We decided to talk to Neung about this, planning to suggest that we instead collect some presents for her friends in Thailand. We began the conversation by reminding her of her small party in Thailand last year with her friends -- and, before we could go any further, she herself came up with the idea that we should take some of her gifts to them. So that is what we did. We asked some of her birthday guests to make a donation in lieu of a gift, we went on a big shopping trip with her and on our trip to Thailand in November we gave some presents to some of the children in Ban Nam Khem.
Such are the reversals in her life. She is a familiar guest in the kinds of resorts where her mother served. She who was once the recipient of aid is now a donor instead.
4/1/2007
We've Moved
As I have mentioned here before, our original plan when we moved here was to spend two years in Singapore and then return to France. Now we need to stay close to Thailand (and we think the education here is better, and we like it here) and so we are planning to live here indefinitely.
We had been living in a cool apartment downtown, close to Orchard Road. This was definitely a fun place to be for a short visit, but not the best option for the long haul. So we have moved to a townhouse complex (here) that has several advantages. It is away from the hassle and traffic of Orchard, it is closer to Jill's work, it is quite a bit bigger, and perhaps most importantly ... well, I will let Neung explain. On the first nice weekend day here, we went out to the pool. Neung was running ahead, and got to the edge of the pool area. She stopped, looked, and then turned back to us excitedly.
— Papa! Mama! Kids!!!
19/1/2007
Science Education I
— Papa! Let's do SCIENCE!
OK, I think. I can handle this. Basic chemical reactions, surface tension, density -- I can do this. So off we go to the kitchen. Whereupon my troubles begin. There follows ten minutes of frantic searching through cabinets, and five more minutes where I ponder on the perils of science education in the bourgeois household.
So now she has learned:
1) If you stir enough Sel Marin de Guérande into water, you can make an egg float;
2) If you mix baking soda with Balsamic vinegar di Modena, you get an impressive chemical reaction.
Looking back on it, I should have floated the paperclip on Evian water, and completed the trifecta.
19/1/2007
Science Education II
This all began when Neung revealed that her New Year's wish is that there be five of her: one to go to school, one to go swimming, one to watch cartoons, and so on. We talked to her briefly about cloning, and she became very excited, deciding that she would like a clone of herself as a baby sister.
— That would be great! Can you do that, Mama?
— No, sweetie, I can’t clone humans.
— How about Papa. Can he do it?
— No, he can’t clone people either. Plus, it’s probably not a good idea to clone people.
— Why not?
— Well [thinking hard] when they clone animals sometimes things go wrong, and they get sick or die. So your little sister might be born sick.
— So Mama, what would happen then?
— Well, she might die.
— Yeah -- and then we’d have to do it again.
19/1/2007