Clinton's visit to Cambodia

In early November of 2010 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia as part of a short tour through Asia. She was scheduled to address Cambodian students at a "town hall" type forum where approximately 600 students were part of a question and answer session. Jim was asked if ISPP had any high school students who would want to attend this and of course he quickly formed a group of interested students. He then asked his counselor to help him out and I insisted I could be helpful too... Well of course I just wanted to see Clinton speak. Students and chaperones had to show up at the event venue on the Mekong River about 3 hours before the start of the event. There were lots of security lines and everyone complied. Inside the room we noticed many female secret service agents / body guards which I thought was good to see. After a long wait Hillary Clinton did arrive and was all smiles and stories. She called on many female students and the occasional male. None of the ISPP students were called on unfortunately. Clinton was very inspiring to the hope full students who are part of that future of Cambodia. I thought she had some great advice to many of the female students who are still expected to be very traditional in their ways.
It is hard to see in this picture but here you can see Sophea who is one of the Cambodian teachers at my pre-school. She also attends classes at night and was asked to ask her question. She still talks about how exciting that was! She asked Clinton what inspired her.
Here are the cars outside the building ready to whisk Clinton away to meetings with the King and the prime minister of Cambodia.

The ISPP students who attended the event.

Halloween 2010

Our little friend LM came over to borrow a dress up outfit for Halloween. S&E have quite the collection to choose from and in the end LM settled on the Chick outfit that Auntie C once gave to E.

Gecko & Garden Pre-School held another Halloween Festival and this year was another hit. The teachers all dressed up to the delight of the kids. I dusted off my ladybug outfit but could not find the wings. I did find them back a few months later when I opened the Christmas storage boxes....

S&E at the giant spider web at G&G.

Getting ready for trick or treat by tuk tuk night. E is an adorable panda (made by our talented cleaner at G&G who makes costumes on the side.) The girls developed a love for panda bears after our visit to China a few months back.

And S is a cat with a kitten in her arms!

E's friend M joined us for trick or treating. Even papa dressed up!

S and her friend Y who is looking awesome!

A&S were the organizers of Trick-or Treat-By-Tuk-Tuk 2010.

It almost felt like Fall in the USA or the Netherlands with a bit of rain. E was perfectly dressed for "cool" weather.

People have gotten very creative for trick or treat crowd.

This one's a little scary!

Some people had the kids do games. E swinging over a bucket after digging through a bowl of pasta. There is always candy for everyone in the end though, even for the tuk tuk drivers!

Visit to Singapore

We traveled to Singapore during the Phum Ben Holiday in October 2010 to meet up with our friends JE and C & their kids whom we know from Cairo. We had a great time catching up with them and many other old CAC friends whom JE & C had invited for brunch. Singapore is a great city with endless things to do for everyone. We ate at great restaurants, shopped a little at some bookstores, saw several performances, went to the Singapore zoo, the Botanical Gardens, an Imax theatre, and some museums. Thank you JE & C for a fabulous time!

Checking out JE's new ipad. The kids are loving it as much as the dads.

At the apartment complex where JE & C live. The girls are dressed up and ready to go to the Esplanade Theatre downtown for the performance of Xi Gua Watermelon Girl & the Legend of the Lion by Players Theatre.

Lanterns on display at the Esplanade Theatre.

Crazy casino in the shape of a boat on top of three skyscrapers.

Singapore skyline.

Kids running around in a city park in down town while the moms are having a coffee at Starbucks! A real treat for me.

E on the Ben & Jerry's cow. Every western chain restaurant is available in Singapore.

"Scary" Halloween advertisement for an evening Halloween event at the zoo.

Water show at the Singapore Zoo complete with music and frisbee tossing.

My sweet girls and my favorite animals: the giraffes.

After lunch we spend about an hour playing in the water park at the zoo. The bucket would fill with water every 5 minutes and get dumped out. S & E loved standing under it to get drenched.

The zoo playground is incredible. S is flying down on the zip line.

Zip line high! Woohoo!

Zebras! S and E loved figuring out where we would go next on the zoo map.

The elephant show was spectacular but ended early because it started raining hard.

Merry-go-round at the zoo.

Still fun for everyone!

Flowers at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Giant mushrooms at the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

Awesome draw bridge in the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

Every park or attraction in Singapore has a water element to cool off. We just carried swimsuits and a towel everywhere we went!

Visit to the Peranakan Museum down town with C who is a real expert on the museums in Singapore.

Waiting for a taxi down town.

First Day of School 2010/11

After a wonderful summer it is time to head back to Cambodia to start another year at school. Jim at the ISPP secondary, Eveline at Gecko & Garden Pre-School and the girls at the ISPP elementary and de Wieken. That's a lot of school schedules to keep track off! The girls are ready though with new shoes, haircuts, and big smiles!
S with her fourth grade (groep 6) teacher, Ms. Jo. This is the first time since pre-k at CAC that S has an American classroom teacher again. Ms. Jo actually worked at CAC but before our time.
E with Ms. Nikki, her Reception (Kindergarten/groep 2) teacher. Ms. Nikki is from Australia and very sweet. E loves being in her class.
E and M back in the same class. This will be their third year together which is impressive at an international school! Here's to another successful school year!

Summer Vacation 2010 Part III -- The Netherlands

E, S and Baby M, who is 18 months and very mobile. And cute.

French fries with lots of mayonaise at Kijkduin beach.

Mother and daughter in purple.

S and E with cousin B on the beach at sunset. This is 9 pm and it won't be dark for another hour at least. E in a dress from Costa Rica from Nana.

Visiting Nelleke, Peter & family. They are old friends form Cairo (Sinterklaas Committee), now stationed in Sudan, and in Holland to deliver their third child. What a beauty!

More new baby visits though this sweet girl was born a while ago.

The daughter of my high school friend Mark and his wife Vera.

No trip to Holland is complete without a visit to our friends from the Montessori school. We were lucky with beautiful weather and walked to the beach in our old neighborhood.

Waves! A little different from the swimming pools in Cambodia or the lake at Deep Creek. But so much fun that everyone swam until their lips turned blue. Hot chocolate at De Kwartel next!

Oma and Opa are treating the kids and grandkids to a visit to Circus Renz in Scheveningen!

What was more fun? The elephants, the clowns, the acrobats or maybe the horses?

The cotton candy and pony rides were awesome, but so were the

cool light up spin around torches that Aunt Jantineke bought.