lørdag den 30. marts 2019

Spring break visit

In Michigan it is time for spring break so Kristian and the kiddos packed up the car and ventured out for 8 hours of going east. We had sort of planned that they should have arrived last Saturday but we wanted to squeeze in a college visit for Teresa at Penn State. Well - she was notimpressed and I guess it is also of value to see places where you do not want to be😣 According to her they have better resources in her high school classrooms than what was available at the engineering program. but she survived and they all arrived safely Monday night where Kristian unloaded a bunch of stuff such as a small TV, some shelves, a lot of candy, and that gin I got as a gift but had hardly had time to taste myself. And honestly - living in a state where you can’t buy alcohol in most grocery stores really makes you appreciate a small selection in your own home.
I also took a few days of work. Unfortunately starting a new job in the private sector also means that vacation days are limited for the first few years so I try to spend them wisely and we had planned for a Philly visit even though Teresa has an SAT to study for.That day turned into another college visit however, as UPenn happened to have an available slot on Wednesday. So here we were. Teresa and I. At an Ivy League School.
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And according to Teresa the crowd was - ehm - slightly different than the one at Penn State. Such as Asian girls asking how little sleep you should prepare yourself for if you plan to double major😳 But campus was beautiful and seemed like such a good place to live.
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I am glad that she got to see that Pennsylvania also has nice stuff to offer. There are still more college visits to be done and way more thinking as well, but for now she needs to focus on her SAT.
Thursday we spent like this:
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Slouching in chairs at a car dealer ship because I REALLY needed to get a car! Did we get the car we originally came for? Bwahahahahaha. Of course not. Did we get something cheaper? Bwahahahaha. Of course not. But after 8 hours!!!!! of trying cars, visiting a mechanic, trying to get to the DMV, signing papers (and teaching the car salespeople how to say thank you in Korean - they do sell Kias after all) I now have this parked outside:
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And I know it is a car you either love or hate. Kind of like cilantro. I happen to love it, but Teresa is very disappointed. She did admit though that she thought it looked slightly nicer after we bought it (she still doesn’t get to drive it though!).
Kristian and Luca also managed to make it out to our beloved Atlantic Ocean. The place where Denmark is just on the other side, where the air smells like salt, and the sound of waves is all you can hear despite Manhattan being in plain sight:
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At home we have been working on a puzzle almost every night:
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And sitting there with a puzzle while having your mind free to chat has been such a needed activity. As kids become teenagers having time like this feels like a rare treat.
But all good things come to an end, and they have just left for the drive back to Michigan. We did debate whether they should have stayed another night, but getting up Monday morning after spending all of Sunday in car, returning home late to an empty fridge was not really a pleasant option, so they left today. Luckily I get to see them all again in just 2 weeks where I’ll fly back for the weekend

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