Thank you, Asia "A Blessing for HKIS" (2 days until seeing Adam)

It has been a wonderful and emotional and long, exhausting, last day at HKIS.  I am so grateful for the kind words, well wishes, hugs, and gifts from my wonderful colleagues.  Goodbye to all!

I would like to leave you with this blessing:

May the light of God surround you.

My the love of God enfold you.

May the power of God protect you.

May the presence of God watch over you.

May you always know that wherever you are, God is.

Here is an image from yesterday's graduation pre-ceremony social.  Our 7-year cohort of Brenda, Heatherly, Hamlet, Simon, and Brent.  

Thank you, Asia "Forever Changed: 2021" (3 days until seeing Adam)

This is part 2 of a 2 -part reflection on changes. 

Our eleventh - and potentially final year - living abroad is coming to a close in a few days and we shall travel back to Green Bay to repatriate.  I'm excited to get back home.  I have been wrestling with the big question, "How has this experience changed me?"  I understand few will have the time or interest to really ask me that question.  (It is a hard one to ask and even harder to listen as they slog through their thoughts.)  So let me curate those thoughts here.  

Read on if you care to know more. 

I would say a big change is that my world view has changed.  I feel rather untethered from the US.  Political campaigns, mask madness, daily mass shootings, Covid numbers rising and falling, Black Lives Matter - all of these major events consuming so much attention and energy for my friends and family have not been my reality.  My heart is saddened by all the drama and trauma.  But at the same time, They were happening "over there."   My world for several years was more about realizing Kim Jong Un was far more bark than bite.  Then my world for several more years was more connected to HK Protests, mask mandates, and - most recently - National Security Law repercussions.  In 2020 when North Korea blew up the liaison office in the DMZ, I thought, "Wow.  I've stood in that building!" In my world when India shuts down due to ridiculously high Covid-19 deaths, my heart aches for a country I have volunteered and love dearly.  When war reignites between Israel and Palestine, I text a friend there to see how she is affected and speak to a student I know whose is Israeli.  In some way I have become a citizen of the world. 

After adjusting to apartment life, I have found I don't need nearly as much square footage as before.  Being in large homes even feels a bit overwhelming and unnecessary.  I now have a hard time even imagining all the things we used to store in our basement.  What were we keeping all that stuff for?  We have a shipment of "stuff" on its way over the ocean right now.  As much as I can't wait to reunite with my gong, I have a feeling I have kept too much stuff.  I have certainly appreciated the easy access to nature in both Seoul and Hong Kong.  Perhaps apartment living encouraged us to get outside more.  As we didn't have a back yard, we did find ourselves hiking or biking or heading to the beach.  That was 

pretty cool.  But now I absolutely look forward to sitting in my own back yard again!  And I can't wait to invite friends and family over for a back yard BBQ.

I have blogged a few times about public transportation, so I won't go into much detail here.  But, it has been amazing!  To have the choice of driving or taking cheap public transportation just makes so much sense.  Additionally, I can now drive on either side of the road.   

In some ways, living and travelling in countries in which English is not the primary language spoken has changed me.  I tune out strangers' voices.  I recognize a wide variety of languages.  I can read Hangul (but I don't know what it says.) I understand what it is to be illiterate.   I understand that a culture is held in its language; if you don't know the language, you won't really know the culture. I marvel at children and adults who speak several languages.  I am far more at ease speaking to someone from a different country than I used to be, too.

When we left Green Bay my hobbies had been primarily walking, acting, and singing.  Since then I have re-engaged in old interests and gained some new.  I have again played volleyball, swam regularly, and played piano (all activities from my youth).  I read a ton and wrote lots of poems, also interests since childhood that I hadn't had much time for.  But I also began blogging, took up hiking, weight-lifted, did circuits, a bit of yoga and learned how to play a gong! I started meditating and learned a bit of qigong. And, believe it or not, I did a deep dive into quantum physics and the nature of consciousness. While in Korea, I volunteered as an English teacher to North Korean Women Refugees and loved it.  I have also enjoyed many other volunteer service opportunities.  

And yes, my job spoiled me.  I loved having smaller classes and fewer classes than when teaching in Green Bay.  I loved the amazing students and ease of classroom management.  I loved the time I had as an educator for creativity and collaboration.  I loved taking students abroad for Speech and Debate tournaments and Drama. I appreciated all of the professional development opportunities. Most of all, I loved the better work-life balance that I have had (minus the Covid months).

And since my decade in Asia has coincided with a shift from first half of life to second half of life, I have to say my sense of Self has shifted.  I know who I am on a completely different level now.  I am far more attuned to my heart that I used to be.  I see through a lens of connection, not separation.  Of love not fear and trust in where life leads. Perhaps one could say, I have peace in my Soul for these years have served as a sort of refinement of who I am.  And for that, I am most grateful. 

Thank you, Asia "Forever Changed: 2011" (4 days until seeing Adam)

This is Part 1 of two parts.  I am reposting a post from May 22, 2011 called "Forever Changed."  At the time, it had a whopping 3 views!  Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, when I again reflect on how I have changed.  Enjoy.

Our first year living abroad is coming to a close in a few weeks and we shall travel back to Wisconsin  to visit friends and family.  I'm excited to get back "home."  I expect some people may be interested in how this year has changed me.  And while I've given thought to what I've enjoyed this year, what has been challenging, and what I've missed from back home, I haven't yet given much thought to how I've changed.

So let me try it here.

I would have to say the biggest change is that I've been untethered from the USA and North America.  We used to think, "Let's go to Utah (or Florida, or California, or Mexico)" now we think "Let's go to Malaysia (or the Philippines or Australia or Cambodia or Vietnam or Europe or on safari in Africa)."  Our children used to think "Let's go to the Dells."  Now Anna says things like "When can we go to Paris, the city of Love?"  This is pretty huge because it implies a different world view than before (for all of us).  Globalization already had been making the world smaller (or flatter, depending on who you read), but now globalization is also a part of my existence and very real.

Changing from living in a house to living in an apartment has been less significant that I thought it would be.  Some friends and I were musing about this today.  We worried that living in a big city would mean the end of nature in our lives.  We used to sit on the deck in the back yard and enjoy the flowers and trees, etc.  We worried that apartment life would feel so confining without a back yard to go to.  What we've found is that Korea (at least Seoul and the surrounding communities) has made a concerted effort to create green spaces (extensive parks and biking trails) for people to enjoy.  Also, the mountains are replete with trails.  It is not hard to find nature here at all, and that makes apartment living less sterile and confining than one might think.  So, while I yearn for a back yard BBQ and the chance to sit on a lawn chair, I've also come to love hiking and biking on trails and playing with friends and family in a local green space.

In some ways, using public transportation has changed me.  First of all, I'd never used the city buses in Green Bay (and I don't know that I would now).  But now I feel more comfortable taking a bus or a subway or a train.  I did know how to ride a subway before, but now I know how to get around  by bus waiting as much as 20 minutes for it to show. An odd side effect of being on a bus with strangers who probably don't speak much English is that you stop talking all together.  No one on the buses talks unless it is to quiet their child.  Mostly, they listen to ipods, read, or doze.  But rarely does anyone talk.  Yesterday I was on a bus that was so crowded all the seats and the aisle were elbow to elbow people.  Probably 55 - 60 people were on the bus, and the bus was SILENT.  Between the quiet nature of public transportation and the language barrier, I've found that I no longer say the customary "Hi. How are you?" or   "Excuse me." etc.  No more potential for "small talk" with a stranger, unless that stranger speaks English too.

Recently I realized that this year has allowed me (or forced me) to explore different interests.  For the past few decades my hobbies have focused on singing and acting and walking.  These are three thing that I love!  While in Korea I've not had the opportunity to sing or act BUT I have been able to resurrect old interests like playing volleyball and piano.  About two or three times a month I've been playing duets with a friend from work.  I've also taken up yoga once a week.  There is a pretty large group of teachers who like to play volleyball, so I've been able to do that again (even ended up on this weekend tournaments' winning team!)  I've taken up hiking and more biking.  It's been fun to pursue new interests and resurrect old ones!  I believe I'm becoming more physically diverse.  That's pretty cool.

The last way I believe I've changed is that I've gotten spoiled.  To define that further, my job here has spoiled me, and I love it.  I haven't had to work at a dizzying pace this year nor have I had to work tirelessly at home with a huge paperwork load every night.  This is an amazing thing!  It means I am pretty much stress free and relaxed for a good portion of each day.  This is not to say that I am not working hard or to my fullest potential.  On the contrary, I believe I've got more time for planning, thinking, and creativity.  I have more contact with my students since I have fewer students to care for.  I get to be myself in the classroom and that is a joy.  I believe it would be hard to return to 150 students to care for and 150 papers to mark.  For one who has sought balance for much of her life, I believe I've found the best balance here.  Lots of time with family; lots of time with friends; productive time at work; (more time needed at church, though).

If any of these changes sound intriguing to you, I encourage you to think beyond your usual "world", even if it is just to look at a National Geographic magazine or go for that bike ride you've been talking about but never do.  You're never too old to learn something new.  Give it a go!

Thank you, Asia "Count Down" (5 days until seeing Adam)

Count Down

7 years has passed 

6 pm deadlines for grades to be submitted: MET!

5 more days in Hong Kong

4 more nights of sleeping in a bed before boarding a plane

3 more days before turning in my computer and HKIS ID

2 pets re-homed and settled

1 super blood moon signalling the change

0 regrets

May 26 photo at the conclusion of the lunar eclipse of the super moon.

All photos by © Brenda Brayko.  All rights reserved. 

Thank you, Asia "First Lines" (6 days until seeing Adam)

Between 2010 and 2021 while living in Korea and Hong Kong, I have continued to write.

I have written 239 posts on this blog "Oh, The Places You'll Go", millions of emails - pretty sure - and at least 70 poems.

Here are the FIRST LINES of my poems in no particular order.  Well, actually that's not true.  The order in which they appear is the order in which they occur in my Google Drive.  That is, my poems are ordered by when they were last modified so these lines are ordered thus.  It is more or less a chronological ordering; I think you will recognize that. Enjoy.  

(Remember, this is a poem made of poems!)

First Lines

Here at KIS

Have arrived in Korea.  We are very tired.

First and foremost, I'm looking forward to hugs with family and friends and lots of

There's something about Burger King 

I'm a psychopath.

Since your inception 2 years ago you've had 5,265 visits

Just get something on the page.

Who am I?

When I was six my family lived in the country

When I beheld its yellow eye my heart

The summer I was 15 my whole life was lifted

Surely the current is strong, the water is freezing

haphazard

Today begins the march toward Calvary

A one-inch puffball becomes a mouse

Hidden in the early morning darkness

I used to dream bigger

The change is nearly imperceptible

It goes something like this,

Your Siren song cannot lure me

Twenty-five years together

They look out over the seascape from shore

Rock.

As the heart ever beats

When we left Green Bay we had no idea

A silhouetted shape of His suffering rises starkly

Distant skyscrapers line and stack like legos

A sensitive boy of almost 9

The air is heavy like a wool jacket

The students were carefully prepped

I got plump you got grey

So here we are in this life

The charming girl with the big smile and the non-stop chatter

You're growing me up

I am from the Driftless area of bluffs and streams, fossils and crystals

The day is sunny and hot in the Philippines

I've been wearing 50 for a week now

No one ever told me that learning was the Answer to the question of Life.

Who are you, Kolkata?

The tide is low at Tai Tam Bay

In life your spirit was big and strong and vibrant

You are newly born on the other side of the veil

You breathe in and out.

Your arrival took us by surprise.

An unfoldment of a dance whose only purpose is to dance

I see butterflies every day.

Birds of early morning call urgently across the jungle below.

May you know who you are.

Fight by staying put.

"The sky is falling. The sky is falling."

Rigby and I stand on the 115 year old stone footbridge at Tai Tam

From up here

Fresh, crisp air of a blue sky of lazy, white adrift

Uncertainty

Get up at your leisure.

You cried for nature and the outdoors.

It sucks.

It's lonely in here

Oh, Covid-19 you sneaky shit with an invisibility cloak

You are stepping out there beyond my purview.

Slow down.

Come in!

Dear

God

54 is realizing how old my parents are - I mean, I am now the age they were. . .

As I contemplate Sharon Olds' "Ode to the Tampon"

When I walk through the woods, feel the wonder of it, notice the bees and smell the flowers

You took away my peeps again.

On this day

Find a home for Rigby

Thank you, Asia, for providing the time and inspiration for so much poetry. 

Thank you, Asia "From everywhere" (7 days until seeing Adam)

Photo credit: Kylie U.

Something that I doubt could or would happen to me in Wisconsin in the course of a day.

First, meet an Iranian in a line at a government office and strike up a conversation which ends up being an hour long and highly interesting.

Next, go out with a lovely circle of friends in which there is a Scot, a Brit, a few Aussies, an American (me), a Hong Konger, and a Botswanan.

The world is both bigger and smaller because we chose to explore it.  What a gift it has been to meet, come to know, love and value people of different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs and ethnicities.  

Thank you, Asia.

Thank you, Asia "Food and Friends" (8 days until Green Bay)

 It seems like nearly all of my pictures with friends include one of two things - views from amazing hikes or beautiful dishes of food.  This will mostly be a bit of a tour around Hong Kong's culinary scene.  I am far from a foodie, as I have no vocabulary to talk about food.  But I certainly do enjoy it. 

I have come a long way from first having yogurt at the Luther College cafeteria, thereby expanding my Midwestern palate.

I would have to say that my present top ethnic food choices are Thai food and Indian food.  I don't believe you will see any pictures of Indian food, (perhaps because it doesn't look that appetizing in pictures.)  Pictures that follow have been taken within the last two years in Hong Kong and are representative of many amazing meals with cherished people.

On Lamma Island Brent and I hiked and then had a set lunch at a seafood restaurant.  This is their calamari.

This is the sticky rice at Ruam, a Thai restaurant in Wan Chai that Brent and I enjoyed when only two were allowed at a table due to Covid restrictions.

One of Adam's favorite restaurants was Veggie SF.  I returned there alone this year, missing my son.  This is the vegan  dish "Trip to Bali," Indonesian Gado Gado salad with coconut rice and tofu.

One of the fun things to do is make and assemble Vietnamese fresh spring rolls at home.  Don't forget the sweet chilli sauce or peanut sauce.

While we couldn't get to Macau for the amazing Portuguese egg tarts there, I did manage to get one in Hong Kong.  Best when fresh and warm with a light, puffy pastry.

A restaurant I was just introduced to this year was Artemis and Apollo, an upscale Greek restaurant in Wan Chai.  Here the Wombies were gathering to wish Kelly well before her maternity leave. She is now mother of TWO boys.

More recently I returned to Artemis and Apollo with my good friend Michelle so that we could say our final goodbyes and enjoy the best lamb chop ever!

One of the kinds of restaurants our family first discovered while living in Seoul is called a shabu shabu style restaurant.  With a burner on your table and broth brought to you, you can get all the veg and meat you want, and then create your soup right there. Not long ago, we finally ate at a shabu shabu in HK.

I couldn't leave Hong Kong without finding some Peking duck.  Here we were at an upscale restaurant in Soho called The Monogomous Chinese with our good friends the Forresters enjoying their duck.  

Around Brent's birthday we headed to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant called Nadaman in Admiralty with our good friends the Morris's.  Alec and Robbie have been friends since fifth grade. 

sashimi

Robbie, Alec, Bruce, Brent, Brenda (Michelle taking the picture) 

as our meal is prepared on the grill by the chef.

Not long ago we headed to a German restaurant in Kowloon called Biergarten Fass with our friends the Shirley and Ian.  Brent finally got some rösti potatoes after many years away from Monroe, Wisconsin.  The beer was good, too.  Oh, and we were sitting inside a beer barrel!

One of Brent's favorite places to go for Vietnamese pho is in Central to Nha Trang.  I love it too but prefer the chicken version rather than the beef.  

And, then there's the Korean BBQ that we missed have so much that we ended up going two weekends in a row.  First with the Lovelins - Dave is the HS principal and Theresa is a good friend and school nurse. . . Here we are with all the side dishes. 

and the meat on the grill. . .

and the kimchi.

We returned the next weekend with Don and Kathryn Drake - Don is the Associate Head of School at HKIS and had been my principal at KIS.  I taught two of their four children and took a third to India on Interim.  Our families have known one another for nine years!

Of course not every amazing meal must be found in a restaurant.  Mhel our domestic helper has been cooking us amazing meals all year long, including salmon about once a week.

Upon returning to Hong Kong last summer after dropping Adam off in Wisconsin, we were home-quarantined for two weeks.  What a blessing to have a meal dropped off at our door by our friends Gayle and John.  (Who recently dropped off a loaf of bread in our final days in HK.  Thank you!)  

We shall cherish our memories of Hong Kong and all of the variety of cuisine available here.  But mostly, we shall cherish all of the laughter, sharing, and moments with one another and with friends while at some of our favorite restaurants.  

First photo credit to Russell R.

All other photos by © Brenda Brayko. All rights reserved.