theOlsonfive the life of an expatriate american family

Simone takes a break from the game

In School, Simone on 29 May 2010 with 2 comments

Thanks to Duri Campus for sharing this photo of Simone from Duri middle school softball. DSC_0125 (2) on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Duri Life

In Art, Lilly on 26 May 2010 with 2 comments

by Lillian Olson

The Ninth Amendment

In Lilly, School on 25 May 2010 with 2 comments

The ISR-Duri’s fifth grade Social Studies class is studying the Bill of Rights. Overall, I was so pleased to have one of the kids learning some American History, I thought nothing of it. They have been expats so long, they can’t find many of the US states on a map!

I was happy with all the amendments until this week when Lilly was assigned a report on the Ninth Amendment. She was crying and hiding under her blanket as she tried to express her fear. I was kind of shocked. What could be so scary? Lilly wouldn’t tell me so I had to read the chapter.

For those of you, like me, who need to brush-up on the amendments, the Ninth is one of the most vague and hard to pin down, but has been used heavily in the past half century by the Supreme Court to support a right to privacy. So, the ninth amendment is used to support many rights not explicitly listed in the original Bill of Rights. For example, the right to free association, the right to vote, the right to a clean environment, the right to wear long hair, have all been defencded by citing this amendment.

It sounds interesting enough, but it gets a little freaky for our 11-year old girl when you read that it has been used in cases such as Roe v. Wade to supports a woman’s right to an abortion. Lilly has barely learned about how babies are born anyway and then to read about terminating an unwanted pregnancy really upset her.

She wouldn’t share her presentation with us and couldn’t even say the word ‘reproductive’. She spent part of last night hiding under her covers and crying. I read the chapter and found that it doesn’t just touch on the subject, it is four pages long and while not overly descriptive of abortion, it gives enough information for her to understand and it scared her.

While I support a women’s right to privacy with respect to pregnancy, I don’t really think it is necessary for my 11-year old to learn about abortion at this time and it is coloring her perception of the whole Bill of Rights, which is a beautiful and important part of our government that she calls ‘just stupid’ now.

So what’s a Dad to do? Interfere, of course. This morning, I sent an email to her teacher to ask if it is really necessary to even mention the reproductive rights cases in Lilly’s report, or if the general right to privacy is sufficient. If he thinks it is critical to understanding the amendment and wants it to be in her report, can Lilly be assigned to do another less controversial amendment?

Like the Second Amendment, maybe – the Right to Bear Arms!

Update: Lilly has been assigned the fifth amendment and is having a much more positive time now.

Travel Requirement Number Eight

In Expatriate, Travel on 11 April 2010 tagged new with 1 comment

Detail 3 – Rejected Trips, originally uploaded by jwolson.

It’s getting very hard to make our family’s summer travel plans. It was never easy, but now, wow! Muy Complicado!

Ben gets out of school in Geneva June 1, and we want him to fly home to New Orleans. The girls and I will meet him there after they get out of school, June 4th or so. So we would need to get from Jakarta to New Orleans around June 7th. We have some flexibility on dates, though.

The ‘would like to have’ list includes: (1) If ‘affordable’ premium economy class or business class tickets were available, we’d like those. (2) No long layovers, please and (3) no more than two stopovers requiring plane changes, either. Also, (4) the ability to check through all bags to the final destination is required (funny how Air Asia makes you reclaim and re-check bags at each stop – is this a cost savings move? )

Our travel agent – god bless him- gave me no fewer than 11 options! Sorting through these by cost and the criteria have narrowed it down, but that took time. I started diagramming each trip on index cards and sorting them by the criteria to help me get my head around the options. I also fabricated plenty more criteria: (5) do we have a frequent flyer account with them? (6) can we minimize the time spent on domestic US flights (shudder). A friend suggested looking at a round the world flight for Ben with Star Alliance- so I threw that into the mix. Another friend told me they flew EVA air through Taiwan all the time and their Business Class is cheap. So, the agent is working on those, too!

The picture above is the ‘rejected trips’ pile. These didn’t make the cut for not meeting the ‘would like to have’ criteria for various reasons. The round the world option looks more expensive and forces us to make a long US domestic flight – but, who thinks 4 hours is a long flight anymore? A cheaper option would be to fly Ben to us in Indonesia then we all travel together to the US – in fact it would be much cheaper – but doesn’t is seem totally backward? The EVA flights have a miserable five hour layover at midnight in SFO and require an overnight stay in Pekanbaru each way too. Did I mention that requirement before? Make avoiding Pekanbaru overnighters requirement number (7)!

So, anyway, that is the current state of summer travel planning. We need to make Stacey’s plans later when her schedule firms up as well and Grammie’s plans to visit. Critically, I need to make the final decision and the reservations tomorrow. I’ve been working with the travel agent since March 25th – I thought I was ahead of schedule. But last night a friend said, “Wow, isn’t it kind of late to be getting your tickets for the summer?”

So, add stress my list of requirements. Number 8, I suppose.

Quiet Afternoon

In Ben, News on 23 January 2010 with Comments Off

I just got off of Skype with Benjamin a couple of minutes ago after our weekly Saturday video chat. Our chat is every Saturday morning at around 10 am there, which is 4:00 pm here. Ben looked good although he is complaining that he needs a haircut. He claims there are no barber shops in Leysin. His only tonsorial option is a teacher with an electric clipper with various ‘style attachments’. Ben said he only gives ‘buzz-cuts’ and has rejected this option.

Stacey will have to take him to the barber shop when she goes to visit in February. She will fly up for a four night trip in mid-February taking Lufthansa from Jakarta to Frankfurt to Geneva on Thursday and returning the following Tuesday. It is a three day holiday weekend in Switzerland and she thought she would e able to take Ben to Interlocken-Brenese-Oberland. But sadly all the hotels that Rick Steves recommends are booked. So a weekend in Geneva is the consolation prize.

School-wise Ben is doing fine. In fact he is doing better than fine. His grades remain A’s even with the start of the school’s Ski Season. He had four tests on Friday and fells good about them. Ski-wise he has been placed in classes with an experienced skier group that he is enjoying. But he is looking forward to his Mom’s visit for sure.