Baby time...we think

Okay, so, Andrea’s water broke this morning, and we are anxiously waiting for things to progress before we head to the hospital.  We will do the best we can to keep you up-to-date.  Take care,

Ben and Andrea  

Two Shoolies and a ‘Potamus (or, no luck yet)…

An excursus (for those who are in need of a definitive—though not exhaustive—lexical word grouping on “shooley”):

Singular: Shooley

Plural: Shoolies

Pregnancy: Shooley-making

Labor Pains: Shooley-ripples

Labor: Mount Veshoolius (for the morphological paradigms of the word “shooley,” see appendix a)

Baby: Shoolipotamus (pl. shoolipotami)

Any good thing: Shoolirrific

(Feel free to come up with your own.)

Well, I [Ben] am here in Thailand, and patiently awaiting the arrival of Regan Elise (that is, our shoolipotamus). We are staying at the Juniper Tree, which is a phenomenal resort, until we move into the Dwangtawn Hotel for our ELI conference next week. In the mean time: we are walking each day and swimming about in the pool hoping for shooley-ripples, but no luck as of yet. Good news though, the hospital has internet access, so as soon as we go in for Mount Veshoolius we will turn on Skype and make ourselves available (well, as available as one can be in that situation). We are also working on getting a webcam, so that we can pipe our little-wiggly shoolipotamus onto the world-wide-web (no, you cannot watch the Mount Veshoolius). If you have any questions or comments please refer them to one or both of our email addresses.

Have a great day,

Benjamin John and Andrea Vukovich Peters

Sorry, this is the best I could do taking a picture of myself.  I know what you are thinking, that shirt is working awfully hard. I have two weeks to go yet. 

Juniper Tree Haven

This is where I have been spending the last two weeks. My room is really a house of it's own, a traditional Thai style house, where it rests on stilts about 6 feet off the ground.  It has been perfect to be able to rest here, as the last few weeks of pregnancy have taken more of my energy than I expected. 

This place is set up to support families serving overseas. It is meant to be affordable but also to provide a relaxing vacation for those who could not otherwise afford much.  The name itself comes from 1 Kings 19:4-8, the hope being that people leave here rejuvenated and ready to go back to their countries.  Many of the families here right now are from Mongolia and India, so they are thawing out a little, while I am all bundled up. I never thought I would see the day when 70 degrees made me shiver.

This place holds about 80 people, and is totally booked up most of the time, so I am so lucky to be able to stay here, especially while I am here alone. There is a nice community and tons of people offering to help me all the time.  I met a woman this morning who is a labor and lactation consultant, and she was so happy that we will both be here through when the baby is here.  She is excited to help, which is just one more comfort I am grateful for.  The managers are keeping a good eye on me too, I think they are a little nervous that I will go into labor before Ben gets here. 

They serve the meals family style, and so you sit with different people all the time. There is so much to learn about the different countries where people are living.  It is very impressive to see how people have changed their lives to serve in other countries and help develop education and infrastructure.   

This is the outside of my house. It is a beautiful place to sleep and relax in the last moments before the baby arrives.  Hopefully these pictures help give comfort to all of you who are concerned about me being here alone.  I am more lucky than most girls. I can't imagine having to work up until the end of pregnancy.   Thank you to everyone who is constantly checking on me through email and skype. I appreciate the concern and the thoughts you hold for me.  I will keep you posted. 

Well, ben is still back in Cambodia teaching, as I have shown to the left.  I miss him terribly. He will join me in three days, so I am trying to be strong.  I know it was good for him to stay there and teach longer, he is very much appreciated by his students. He may have mentioned this already, but he is tutoring a few students, all who have had trouble passing the TEFL test.  It is $100 a shot and that is just money they don't have. When he agreed to tutor them they thought they had really won the jackpot.  Teachers in Cambodia might charge for this, and English isn't even their first language. To have Ben offer up his time was unbelievable to them.  He is a great teacher and all the guys in his many classes need and appreciate him.  I need him too though, and so I am quite antsy for him to get here, especially cause I have a bit of a cold currently, which is surprisingly difficult in a tropical climate when you are 9 months pregnant.  I think Regan Elise is just waiting for her daddy to get here, and then she will join us in this crazy world. Your thoughts are much appreciated. 

The sweet sorrow of parting (one week removed)...

To all the crazies out there still reading this blog,

I hope all is well in your life, family, home, or what have you. Things here are moving right along. I had a wonderfully full week of teaching at NPIC, and have even taken to tutoring three students on the side helping them out with their English language acquisition. They’re great guys, and I would tell you their names, but they’re rather difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to spell. So, let’s just call them Juan, Dominique, and Zissou…they’re awesome! So, that’s been a bundle of joy, and speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea’s sister Stephanie and husband Steve had their first child last night. Hooray!!! And, doubly speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea is doing splendidly in Thailand. I leave in exactly one week to join her, and am fairly certain that both of us are chomping at the bits to once again be together. We are hoping that Regan stays in her mommy’s womb until I can join them, but if she doesn’t, then I’ll just ground her. That’s what parents do, right?

Uh…what else, well actually, I have one quick, and rather funny, anecdote (for Dr. Funk). As an English department we gave our first test two weeks ago, so last week we were fervently grading and reviewing them with out students. One of the questions on the test was: “I play tennis, and I (fill in the blank) tai-chi.” The answer, of course, is “do,” I do tai-chi. What provided me with great joy and even laughter, were the answers I got: eat, drink, throw, drive, etc. It was straight up Mad Libs! Hmm, I just realized that this might only be funny to someone who has been living in Southeast Asia for six months. If you didn’t find this story humorous, then I profusely apologize. I got a kick out of it though.

Well, that about does it. I won my soccer game last week, yeah! And I have another one this Sunday. I have taken to playing left side defense (for those who care). Last week during warm-ups a little Khmer kid ran over to me and really wanted to help by working me out. So, we spent a good twenty minutes just kicking the ball back and forth. He was probably twelve or thirteen, but at about minute two, I fully realized he was way better than I was. Go figure!

As I said, I hope all is well. I miss you all, and can’t wait to either Skype are exchange emails with you. Be thinking of us as we both transition to Thailand, and subsequently parenthood.

Ben

PS-I refuse to mention that Florida won the national championship. I despise them and everything they stand for.

This is my last day of teaching before leaving to deliver. I really enjoyed teaching this small class,(a few are missing) they were such nice people. I hope I have an angel of a child and I am able to go back to teaching them.  Some of them shared their beliefs and lives with me in their writing, and those who share in my beliefs are up against a lot here. Keep them in your thoughts if you can.  They all have a lot to fight in order to be successful in life, and they want so badly to be able to find a good job in the tourism industry.  

here is the jeep ben loves, it is a bit of tank, but that is what we need on those dirt roads, hopefully it stays in one piece. 

I created a photo album on facebook for those of you with access, it shows more of our time in cambodia, and where we live.  this cute photo makes me miss my shooley, don't you all miss him too? he is so great!!! his posts are a little more eloquent that mine, as my little sister pointed out to me... thanks soph.

Split screen sadness...

I am alone in Cambodia. Yes, Andrea left for Thailand yesterday, which signals the beginning of the beginning of parenthood. To put all the worried parents to rest, I received an email from Andrea late last night detailing her arrival in full, so for now she is safe and sound. In the meantime I am living the bachelor’s life for two weeks: eating out, skimping on showers, and staying up late. Right now we are on holiday for the New Year, so we have had the last week off from teaching. Most of our time was spent preparing for Andrea’s departure, the arrival of our little one, and grading tests. Today is Saturday, so I will be getting a hair trim (my hair is getting crazy long), playing in a soccer game, and going out to eat with Bryant later tonight. Monday classes begin again in earnest, and I am greatly looking forward to putting these idle hands to work.

For New Years we stayed in and watched “Mummy 3: Curse of the Evil Chinese Emperor Who Is Also a Big Dragon,” and it was as bad as it sounds. Sad to say though, we did not get to watch the Rose Bowl, and New Years day was just not the same. What can do you though? We are in Southeast Asia and there idea of good sport is badminton! Not exactly USC versus Penn State, but I digress. I miss Andrea fiercely, I will be busy teaching until I leave, and I guess that ends my update—sorry for the rambling. Take care, and enjoy your New Year.

PS-While Andrea is in Thailand her Skype will be a_b_peters (the same as it has been), however mine will change to benjamin.john.peters for the next few weeks.