Introducing Leif's Twisted Tree Pullover

I finally finished it! 2 months late for Christmas, but at least it'll be delivered before the winter is over. Here's hoping it'll fit Leif, who apparently just doesn't stop growing.

Complements to my friend, Sarah, who designed this and don't judge her design on my knitting ability!

More photos of the sweater will be forthcoming...

Washington State Caucus

Yesterday I attended my local precinct's caucus to elect delegates for a presidential candidate. I'd never been to a caucus before, or even really paid that much attention to the process of narrowing down the candidates to the final two. But this year was different, for whatever reason I'm a lot more interested and I decided that I should go and just see what it meant to caucus.

The first word that comes to mind regarding my first caucus ever is LONG!! I'm quite sure the process could have been seriously streamlined. For example, the 30 minutes of listening to a lady say nothing at all.

But other than that, there were some cool things. The first is the act of walking to the local public school and watching my neighbors stream there as well, then standing in a room with a bunch of the people from my neighborhood, chatting and getting to know each other. One thing I totally miss about living in Seattle is the sense of community, and for once I felt it a bit yesterday.

I also like the feeling of trully having a say. When you go into the caucus you sign in and write down your initial candidate (or you can be undecided), then you go to your local precinct's room and they take a first round tally. After that people are allowed to stand up and talk for 1 minute about their support for this or that candidate. There were some really strong opinions in the room, but people were really polite about it. Everyone got a round of applause at the end of their speech, no matter how wacky they sounded. It was a good thing that the speech's were timed to one minute, however, because I'm sure some of those people could have spoken for a very, very long time. The 1 minute maximum kept this part moving right along, and it was by far my favorite part of the experience. It's cool to hear what people have to say and to feel like you can stand up at any moment and share your own views.

After the speeches, we all wrote down our candidate preference again and then the tally person tallied it up again. The results were quite different from the first round, so several people had been moved by the speeches. Next delegates were assigned in proportion to the tallies. My precinct has 5 delegates, and we voted as a neighborhood who they would be. It was pretty cool to see ordinary people have the chance to go to the next round (County Caucus) and represent our neighborhood. It really did feel like the government was by the people at this stage in the elections.

In all, the caucus was the most intimate feeling of voting that I've ever experienced. I felt that my vote really counted, and that my opinions mattered, as did those of my neighbors. Once the process leaves this neighborhood level of elections that feeling of intimacy leaves. Big numbers take over and my vote gets mixed in with the multitude. But, I'm glad for the experience and the ability to participate in this American tradition of elections. I like sitting with my neighbors and chatting about houses, pets and jobs as well as having a sense of common purpose. I think we all need more opportunities to experience this.

Did anyone else go to a caucus?

Overheard

Overheard today at school. Said enthusiastically by a 3rd grade boy.

"Sometimes my armpits smell like a man's!!"

Great.

Mt. Rainer

Mt. Rainer in all its glory in early October 2007.

(taken from the parking lot, no hiking required!)

My cousin and I heard that we were in for a nice weekend, so we thought we should go to the most famous mountain in the state. Mt. Rainer, at 14,410 feet (4,392 m) is the tallest mountain in the area. It took us about 2 1/2 hours drive from North Seattle to Paradise Lodge which is at an elevation of 5,400 feet and a great jumping off point to all sorts of trails.

Assured by the ranger that the snow wasn't too deep yet, we ventured up the Skyline Trail. This trail is a 5 or 6 mile loop with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. This doesn't seem bad, unless you're walking through 3 feet of snow! Despite the ranger's assurances, after a few miles, we found ourselves doing just that! I got pretty tired, but the views were so amazing, that it was worth it.
The views and the weather were amazing. Down by the lodge, the blueberry bushes were scarlet, and as we heading up, gleaming white snow and blue sky dominated. It was amazing because no matter where you looked it was gorgeous. You had Mt Rainer right there, or if you turned around you could see Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens and countless other peaks. We even heard the rumble of glaciers calving from the other side of the ridge. Mt. Rainer got so close, I felt like I could just reach out and touch it.

It's actually rather strange, Rainer can be seen from 100's of miles away, and as you get closer and closer to it it appears really big. But then, when you're practically hiking on one of its shoulders, suddenly it seems so doable. It's almost like it was luring us in. It made us think, ah... it wouldn't be THAT hard to go up there. But it is, trust me. And no, I haven't tried. yet.

We made it to Panorama Point (6,800 ft) for lunch and watched people backcountry skiing down from Camp Muir (the base camp for Rainer ascents). During our lunch I wandered around to the other hikers, asking if they were going to turn around to head back or finish the loop. While this may have appeared as me just being friendly, I had other motives. The 2nd part of the loop hadn't been broken through yet, and I didn't know where the trail was (and wasn't that excited about breaking the trail through 3 feet of snow myself). I met a nice guy from Alabama and his Mom. He was interested in making sure he "got his Mama off this mountain" (insert southern accent here), but wasn't sure of the way either. Finally I found someone who had been down the last part of the loop, and as we stood at the top of the ridge, surveying where we needed to go, we saw 3 toiling shapes coming up the other way. Perfect! All we had to do know was sit back and wait for them to make it all the way up to us and we'd have our trail. After a while though, our consciences got the better of us, and we headed on down. Poor guys, we did cheer for them when they got close and made sure to comment on the beautiful trail they had made.

It was a gorgeous day, and a gorgeous place to visit. Unfortunately it's going to have to wait until the snows melt next summer before I return.

September hike: Melakwa Lake

On a whim, Anna and I decided to go for a hike on what we thought might be one of the last sunny Saturdays of the year. We didn't really know where we wanted to go, so decided to head out east on I-90 since that got us out of Seattle and into the mountains the fastest. We ended up getting off at the exit for Denny Creek and parked at the trailhead for Denny Creek/Melakwa Lake just west of the Snoqualmie Pass summit.

The way up was nice, especially since the blueberries and huckleberries were at their peak. Soon our mouths were all blue from tasting them. While the first part of the hike took us under a large overpass of I-90 and from which lots of traffic noise could be heard, we left all remnants of modern life bejomd within 30 minutes or so of beginning.

Melakwa lake was a decent day hike, though not on my top rated list. (Though, as I said before, the blueberries and huckleberries were superb). Here's picture of the lake itself:

Anna and I enjoying the sun and the great outdoors.

Rachel Lake

In July I had a lovely camping and hiking trip with my parents and Jenny and her parents. We all stayed at Lake Kachees just off I-90, about an hour east of Seattle.

Here my parents and I are in middle of our huckleberry-blueberry picking walk. Though it was a tiny bit early in the season, we found enough to make GREAT pancakes!

Jenny and I ditched our parents for a day and went up to Rachel Lake. It was a 8 mile, 2000 foot elevation hike that left me quite tired (Especially after all that sitting around in classroom this past year!). But it was really worth it

Here's a photo of the trail. It was gorgeous, trees, boulders, flowering heather and peaks of old snow fields. Here's some Columbine Flowers:

Part way up the steep part of the trail, we came upon this fabulous waterfall! It gave me a really good excuse to take my pack off and rest.

Rachel Lake.

October 28, 2007

It's October.
I have a job now. I teach 3rd grade at the same school that I student taught in last year. In fact, I have one of the younger sisters of a student from last year. There's something to be said about that.

Teaching is hard, but really worth it. The kids are fantastic. Sometimes they drive you crazy, but in the end they help you take life into perspective and make you laugh.

My brother, sister-in-law and nephew have moved back to Washington State. I love being able to see them every few weeks. They currently live on my old island home, and I've just returned from visiting. There's also something to be said about walking with your nephew up the same steps to the same church you walked up as a kid to.

Speaking of my nephew (sometimes it's hard to get me to stop) he says my name now. A lot. And he can say complete sentences. It's amazing how quickly he learns things these days.

I wish I could learn that quickly.

current status

6.15.2007/ 8:36

Teaching certificate: yes

Done teaching for the year: next week.

Job: t.b.a.

Master’s: August.

Ready for a break: definitely.

Yeah for random emails!

I think that the best things that have happened to me this month is that two of my former students randomly emailed me this week! Thanks Viktor and Zoli, you totally made my day!!

It's spring time, I love it! There's flowers everywhere, and I'm back to enjoying the sunrise over the Cascade mountains as I commute to work.

My street has a bunch of flowering cherry and plum trees, and it reminds me of Japan. I think it would be fun to have a cherry blossom viewing party... want to come Mika and Tara?

Nothing else to say: just school, school, school.

Write me, I miss you.

A Valentine's Day Poem, courtesy of a 5th grade student

Ms. Ellingson

So light and
Beautiful.
Her short calm curly hair
is fluffy and brown/golden,
pritty in its own way.
Her bright blue eyes
Always
makes me smile.
The large buffy eye-
brows make a dark
sadow over her
Long
eyelashes. Her
face formed
like an angel's.


There are no words.

Happy Valentine's day everyone.

P.S. I'm moving this weekend, I'll send a change-of-address email soon.

Mt Baker itself-gorgeous!

Happy me kayaking on Baker Lake a couple weekends ago.

phew, a cloudy day

You know you're a Northwesterner when a cloudy day after a long stretch of sunny ones is a bit of a relief. Around here, you feel guilty being inside if it's nice outside. That's why it's been so long since I've updated this blog, or emailed anyone. I mean, who knows when it's going to be the last sunny day of the year? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I've gone camping, hiking and just plain enjoying living in such a gorgeous part of the world. Come visit, you'll see what I mean.

So, a brief update:
I'm still an avid member of the "Jack" club, soon to be finishing season 5.

Still in school, at school, and learning about school.

Despite going to Cape Disappointment, I still don't know why it's called that.

My car, Duna, is now a trusted partner in my adventures.

When I grow up, I want to try living on a sailboat.

After a life of consciously not being addicted to TV, I am now watching it entirely too much (it's great for procrastinating).

I've gone to watch the spawning salmon jump up the fish ladder 3 times now, and wanna go back again.

I miss you guys.

5th graders are hilarious, and somehow they don't realize it.

6 friends of mine have gotten married in a 3 month period, and I haven't gotten to go to ANY of them.

I want a dog.

The method of "rolling out of bed to wake up" doesn't work when your bed is on the floor.

Traffic jams are nice when there's a sunrise over the Cascade mountains.

And I miss you guys.


Oh, I added my picture website to my links here on the right... you should check it out sometime.

one reason why you shouldn't build on a tidal flat

Whew… the past few weeks have been a bit crazy. I’m a student again, and that, uh, well, takes some adjusting to. This is good for me to remember what it’s like for when I’m back to being a teacher in the future. My classes this summer have been about teaching methods, classroom management, professional issues, etc. They’ve been more interesting than I thought they’d be, and that’s a good thing (I was expecting extreme boredom). I’m still just not used to coming home and having this much homework though (and it’s so gorgeous in Seattle in the summer, it’s terribly difficult to be inside doing papers…).

I’ve also had a wonderful string of visitors the last few weeks, and there’s been bridging of all sorts of my various “worlds”. So far I’ve seen Pete, Heidi and Zannah from my Indonesian world, Laura from my ESI world, Jennifer from my early-childhood world, Marta from my Mexican world, almost all my Ellingson family (not my sister yet though!), and lots of people from my Friday Harbor world. Now, I’m still missing some pivotal Trinity Western people (soon to be remedied) and MESP (Brook-I know I need to call you!) and Japan. So, with all this said… I’m getting good practice at hosting people, so come on over-I’d love to see you. And it has been too long… trust me.

Thanks to my new set of wheels, and said guests… I’ve been learning more about my lovely new home city-Seattle. Did you know that when Seattle was first built, it was on a tide flat and the toilets would explode if you tried flushing them at the wrong tide? I bet you didn’t…. Happily, this is no longer an issue.

Well, even though I’ve been horrible at returning emails… please don’t give up on me! I love hearing from you.

talk to you later…

So, far this has been the best part of the summer... look how big my nephew is! Believe it or not, he's even cuter in person!

the view from where my parents are staying this summer, I'm trying to work... really!!

Not too shabby of a camping spot, hey?

check out THIS waterfall!

one week left of freedom...

I'm in Seattle, and I have a car (finally). But good things come to those that wait! And I got the much-dreamed of Subaru wagon (it even has a sunroof!) hooray for freedom to go places without begging, borrowing or cajoling others for rides!

School starts next week, and apparently it's very intensive. After the meeting I had with them on Monday, I believe them now. So, I might not be having that much fun this next year, but I think it'll be a good program nonetheless. I'll be interning in one classroom during the entire school year which should be interesting. I don't know yet what grade or where, but I'm pretty curious to see how American students are, compared to Japanese, Hungarian and Indonesian students. I'm sure they'll be just as amusing, but I will understand them when they mouth-off to me, and that'll be a change.

So, until next week, I'm enjoying staying in my pajamas past 8:00 am, and having time to read and explore Seattle a little bit. Luckily for me, my cousin who has been subletting my place the past 3 months, is looking for a job now and so has lots of time to play around with me! And I have a great camping trip lined up for this weekend, ah- you gotta love the northwest in the summer.....

moving furniture

So, I’m back in the U.S. My last few weeks in Meulaboh were a whirlwind. And the most I can say, is that I certainly felt very loved and appreciated by the people I worked with. I had a great going away party at the beach, complete with a fabulous sunset and moonrise. I also had a surprise helicopter ride (I got to sit in the co-pilot seat WITH NO DOOR! just like in the movies… ask me about it some time, I’ll get all hyper for ya). A few friends were able to meet me in Medan, so I didn’t have a lonely moment to cry about leaving…. until the never-ending flight between Singapore and San Francisco.

Since coming back to the States, I’ve been hanging out with my family. It’s been really nice seeing them. And a great relief to be able to see my Grandma… at age 96 I wasn’t sure I’d get to see her again with her surprise hospital trips this spring and all. But she’s doing really well now, and still beating me at Scrabble and cards.

So, now, I’m trying to find a car I can afford, finish up my 2005 taxes, get my loans straightened out, and eat as much ham and cheese as possible (something I didn’t get in Indonesia). It’s funny what you crave when you’re away. God willing, I’ll be moving back up to Seattle with my OWN wheels within the week (but who really knows…)

So, for all you Indonesian friends: I miss you a ton already! My Japan and Hungary friends: I’ve been missing you for a while… and I still miss you! And for my American/Canadian friends: hopefully I’ll get a chance to catch up with you soon!

I’ve found that if you move enough…. everything is weird. So, that’s one way of keeping life interesting. My Mom, though, recommends moving the furniture around.