The Cockroach Battles

This morning, I found a grown cockroach outside of our trash chute.  I didn't see the body first but its long antennae flicking around.  Adult cockroaches here are about 1.5 inches long.  Thelo argues that they're 2 inches long, but we haven't the guts yet to actually measure them. The first thing I did was message Robby through Whats App & implore him to come home to kill it.  His method: smooshing it with a small plastic bag around his basketball shoe.  No response.  So I checked the Internets to see what might kill it.  Vinegar won't work.  Neither will soapy water, though some people on the Internets claim it works.  Our easy roach killer: boiling water!  Atticus volunteered then backed out, so I had to do it.  He stood next to me for moral support.  As I poured a bit of water on it, it fell off the wall, landed on its back, twitched, then died. I left it there for the rest of the day, proud to have killed it but afraid to toss it in the trash.  Actually, I am such a wimpy wimp that I checked on it twice to make sure it was still dead.

It looks small, but it's actually large!

Strange, as a child, I was rarely fazed by squashing a spider or silverfish with a tissue.  I saw my parents do it all the time. (Remember watching silverfish squirrel around inside light fixtures?) But as an adult, I get a little queasy when I have to do it.

Onward to the cockroaches!  We will battle them all! (& leave the kitchen light on all night)

Seven year later...We're in Singapore (temporarily)!

I haven't visited this site since Thelo was born!  He is now nearly 7 and a joyful second grader.  Atticus is 9.

Since I've last written this blog, two more were born: Fibonacci Jahn & Pascal Lakshmi Loh-Ratan.  Both were named after mathematicians.  We were inspired by an email from my sister Angela in 2016 in which she shared that her kid Mei Mei was learning about the Fibonacci sequence & enjoyed watching a youtube video about it. Robby & I loved the video so much & were so fascinated by the Fibonacci sequence that we returned to the name when the twins were born.  "Pascal" felt too cute to pass by and a perfect pairing with Fibonacci, so we stuck with both.  We hadn't learned the twins' sex until they were born, though because they were identical, we knew that we'd get either two girls or two boys.  If they had been girls, one of them would have been named Fibo (Yup, that's how committed to the name we were!).  Anyway, loh & behold, two more boys were born & now we have four... We call the twins Fibo or Bobo & Pazzy.

Fibo

Pascal

Fast forward 20 months... Robby had been dreaming about sabbatical since graduate school, & his time had come, so he cast a wide net & landed on Singapore.  We left our home in Michigan on August 1st, stayed in California for 2 weeks, in which Robby did some work with Nissan in Palo Alto & borrowed a motorcycle (glorious for him). We saw family & stayed a bit with my parents in their new digs in Walnut Creek.  In mid-August, we took the 16-hour flight to Bangkok (layover in Singapore) & met up with Angela & her family, who had already been there for a few weeks.  Bangkok was a busy, trafficky mess, but Chiang Mai was a dream.  We also visited Phrae, 3 hours from Chiang Mai & almost completely lacking tourists.

Phrae is known for being near villages that sell indigo-dyed clothing.

Anyway, I LOVED Thailand - couldn't get enough of it & can't wait to return.  

Now, we've been in Singapore for 3 weeks.  Twins are 23 months old & just finishing up their first week of preschool at Learning Vision on Nanyang Technological University campus. Atticus & Thelo have completed 2 weeks of homeschooling.  Pics of our humble abode of the next 6 months are below:

Living room

The twins finally have a size-appropriate table.

Dining area with two bedrooms to the left.

Front door

Kitchen

A&T's work space

Our two bedroom/two bathroom apartment at NTU is furnished with not only furniture but with appliances & kitchenware. There's even a rice cooker, pots, pans, towels, utensils, & sheets! So it was a relief to discover that we didn't have to buy much.  You can see that it's plain but spacious, & we're fortunate to be close to the athletic fields & preschool.

Our biggest problem right now are COCKROACHES. Ugh! They have been entering the kitchen through the back patio area (where the washing machine & drying rack are located), which is enclosed. But there's a trash chute, & we think they're crawling out of the trash chute & looking for crumbs.  It's disgusting, & they fly!  They're big, much bigger than American cockroaches.  After a week of attempting to use natural deterrents (garlic powder & cucumber slices), we finally acquiesced and bought poisonous traps & houses.  We've killed at least 6 around the trash chutes since we set the traps out 3 days ago.  We've left the carcasses untouched because live cockroaches will each the poisoned ones & die later.  They've given Robby & me the heebie-jeebies, & I've never seen Robby clean with such passion, focus, & stamina.  We even bought a used robot vacuum to clean up after our crumby children.

So, hello Singapore! We'll be here for 6 months.

Was Missing in Action... Now in Michigan

It's been 11 months since I've written in this blog.  Life has been busy, & settling into our routine in Michigan has had its ups and downs. We're very grateful to be here in East Lansing, where Robby has an assistant professor position in the Department of Telecommunications (in the School of Communication) at Michigan State University (find out more here).  A number of things have happened to our little family since we moved in January:

1. We bought our first house!  We were reluctant to buy because housing prices won't be rising any time soon...More people move away from East Lansing than into it.  But our mortgage beats renting, & we would have lived near loads of students had we stayed in a rental.  We saw 20 homes in 1 month & bought within a month of living here.  Our 80-year-old house has 80-year-old problems (original plumbing, windows, etc.), but we have tried our best to priorities its needs and not stress about maintenance.

2. I graduated from USC's Rossier School of Education with a Doctorate in Education (EdD) & defended my dissertation.  In the fall of 2011, I collected data then wrote Chapters 4 & 5 in the spring of 2012.  I am quite proud of my dissertation even though no one will probably ever read it.  I discuss teacher beliefs about students' capacity as English learners and connect these beliefs to their behavior in class and their relationships with students.  I focus specifically on ways in which teacher exhibit caring (I have a particular definition of caring that is drawn from various literature) & rigor of instruction (expectations & pedagogical practices).  I observed 3 teachers in Los Angeles public high school in the fall of 2011 - each of them with two sets of students (sometimes upper & lower tracks), & I interviews the teachers before and after classroom observations.  I'm such an English nerd: I made references to and quoted Macbeth at the beginning of each chapter, & I titled the dissertation "Which Grain will Grow...."  This was qualitative research, so my dissertation was rather long.  I can't wait to receive a copy of it in the mail!  & I can't wait to receive my diploma!  Graduation was disappointing.  We didn't have a keynote speaker, & the only speech given by a professor explained the meaning behind our gowns (bleh).  The only worthwhile memory was walking off the stage & hearing Atticus yell, "Mommy!" from the back of the crowd.

3. We traveled all summer: 2 trips to California (I took 3 trips), Germany & Switzerland for 2 weeks, Yosemite during one trip to CA, and North Carolina outer banks.  Needless to say, Robby didn't get much work done over the summer, but we saw lots of family & ate well in CA.

4. We had another baby!  He was born on October 24, 2012 at 7:08pm.  5 pounds, 13 ounces; 19 inches long.  We thought were were ambitious with our first child's name: Atticus Halcyon Loh-Ratan. We thought Atticus was an unusual name. Actually, our real estate agent just got back from Greece & said that there were lots of Atticuses there.  But we were even more adventurous with this second child's name: Thelonius Stark Loh-Ratan.  "Thelonius" is for Thelonious Monk, the famed eccentric jazz pianist.  We didn't like the spelling of his name, so we tweaked it a little.  Ever since we moved to MSU, we've rediscovered jazz music.  The university has a spectacular & very visible jazz band (it's a part of the College of Music), and we've seen them several times, so we've become very appreciative of live jazz music.  & Robby joined the jazz band at Lansing Community College.  He plays the tenor sax.  So we get the pleasure of hearing him practice occasionally at home.  "Stark" is a reference to Game of Thrones.  Robby adores the book series, and he loves what the Stark family represents (morality, loyalty, etc.).  Thelonius's nicknames include T.S., Thelo, & "dou miao" ("little sprout" in Chinese).

Well, I guess that's it for now.  I'll talk more about Michigan in my next entry. Lots to say about it.  I'm a California girl born and bred, so moving out to Michigan has required a lot of adjustment.  I feel grateful to be here, but, BOY, do I miss home.

Happy New Year!

Robby has left for East Lansing, Michigan, while Atticus and I remain in California. A few more weeks with my family, & it's goodbye! I can't describe how much it will ache to be apart from them, but making a new family means letting go of the old one.

Here's to a new year of drastic change and begrudging acclimation...

Choo-choo train!

Day Three:

We missed our 8 o'clock train from Portland to Seattle, and the seats on the 12 o'clock train were booked, but we were content taking the 3 o'clock since it meant more time in Portland. We wandered back up to the Pearl District to search for Tanner Springs Park. Then we headed back to the hotel, put down Atticus for a nap, packed, and took the light rail to Union Station in Chinatown where we'd catch the train.

Atticus was super-excited to take the train. I couldn't count the number of times he said, "choo choo train!" But he was a handful. He wouldn't sit still, so Robby walked up & down the aisles of the train cars to keep him occupied. It was a beautiful three-hour ride up to Seattle - deer, lakes, steel bridges, even a sunset. We were busy keeping an eye on Atticus most of the time, but it would have been nice to sit back & watch the passing scenery.

Robby's relatives took us in when we arrived. They took us to the Space Needle to see the New Year's fireworks, which were shot out of the sides and top of the Space Needle. It's so comforting being with family after a few days of trekking through a new city and returning to a sterile room.

Whoa, facial hair galore!

Day Two:

Today, we decided to be more Atticus-centric and vowed to return from our first outing by 11:30am, so that he could get an afternoon nap.

We took the light rail & bus to the Hawthorne District, the so-called hippest neighborhood in Portland right now (comparable to Williamsburg, Brooklyn). We had breakfast at Jam on Hawthorne, another well reviewed breakfast joint on Yelp (275 reviews; 4 stars), which also had a large children's play area. We chatted with some table neighbors - a couple with baby girl. They were super-nice and told us all about their experience living in Portland. Atticus kept himself busy in the play area until breakfast came. The waitress served him water in the coolest sippy cup, and there was a stand with white paper & scissors, where patrons were encouraged to cut snowflakes (the entire restaurant had patron-made snowflakes hanging from the ceiling).

We hopped back on the bus & continued down Hawthorne Blvd. until we got to the Baghdad Theater. The street was line with vintage clothing stores, gift shops, & boutiques. We moseyed around until Atticus got annoyed having to sit in the stroller for so long...and headed back to our hotel. We got lunch from some food trucks near by (I got Pad See Ew, while Robby got Stir-fried Ginger Tofu with Rice) & ate in the hotel room before Atticus napped.

In the afternoon, we headed south to Portland State University. Robby wanted to peek around the campus to get a feel for it. It's an urban campus (as urban as Portland can get...not really, that is). But it did feel a little like NYU, where the university's buildings are intertwined with the city itself. There was no campus wall or entrance...no pedestrian quads.

We met Robby's friend for dinner at the hotels restaurant Red Star. This is the worst restaurant I've been to since we've arrived to Portland. It was over-priced & the food was mediocre. I ordered a side dish of short ribs, garnished with cucumber & yogurt & roasted hazelnuts. The hazelnuts were so hard that they were inedible. The ribs were too fatty & chewy that I spit out nearly every piece that I had eaten. Atticus's homemade chicken noodle soup was too salty & its tarragon flavoring was too strong. I was even more disappointed when I got the check. I don't even want to think about - it makes my heart hurt to think we wasted money on such a crappy meal. I wanted to each their for convenience - we could put Atticus to bed quickly if we ate near by - but I should have looked at its reviews first (mediocre: 166 reviews, 3.5 stars).

_________________________

The most definitive, appealing aspect of Portland that both Robby & I noticed:

PEOPLE IN PORTLAND ARE REALLY, REALLY FRIENDLY.

We have not met one mean person in Portland. We've had friendly banter with bus drivers, waitresses, fellow restaurant patrons, parents, old people...

There is definitely a fashion sense unique to Portland. Men with all sorts of facial hair, pea coats, tight jeans & either fashionable sneakers or large boots. Women layered in woolen skirts, knee-high boots, scarves, and cross-shoulder bags.

We also noticed that the city seems empty. Robby's friend informed us that most people go home for the holidays, so people don't come visit this time of year. Also, he enlightened us about this bit about Portland: people don't come for jobs because they're aren't any; they come because they want to live here...they like the lifestyle. So, people here tend to be like-minded. I can imagine one giving up a lucrative career in a big city in order to live a peaceful life in Portland. It's got a sense of community that I've never experienced anywhere. Robby is completely enamored with this small city, so maybe in the future we'll find our way back to the West Coast via the Northwest.

Portland, OR

It's been four months since I've written a blog posting. We have been busy with everyday life and packing for Michigan. We are finally out of our apartment in the lovely Culver City (sniff sniff), and our plentiful but humble belonging are en route on a move truck to East Lansing, Michigan.

Before we make the big move eastward, we are visiting the coolest town in the northwest: Portland, OR. We've heard so much about it from others & from the NY Times, that we decided to take one final hurrah trip before settling in the Midwest far from West Coast culture and family. We'll be here 3 days and in Seattle 2 days.

We're staying at the Hotel Monaco in the City Center. It looks upscale, but we got a suite for $150/night. It's got both modern and baroque-style furnishings, kind of Z-Gallerie-ish. It's a dog friendly hotel, so dogs stay with their owners in the rooms. & there's free wine tasting from 5-6pm every night, including live piano music and a painter's corner (with easel, acrylic paints, and canvases).

Day One:

We headed out of the hotel at 9am northward toward Mother's Bistro & Bar, a well-reviewed (700 reviews on Yelp - totally unheard of...700+ reviews?! - 4 stars!). The decor was amazing - like a tea room...chandeliers, vintage mirrors all over the walls - the whole place had a warm glow to it. Plus, there was a children's play area. This aspect of the restaurant was key because if Atticus hasn't eaten by 9am, he is a huge, grumpy monster, so the play area took his mind off his belly. We were amazed (second time I've used this word in this paragraph) by the idea of having a kids' play area in a restaurant. Where else would a business be so considerate? It would be totally unheard of in LA, where child-friendly & child-unfriendly places are clearly demarcated.

After breakfast we walked through Chinatown, a desolate, empty neighborhood with many boarded up windows. Our desination: Lan Su Gardens - a Suzhou-style garden with stone mosaic walkways, water fountains, coi, rocks & water, & a Tai Chi class going on on a terrace. It was a peaceful sanctuary in the middle of an already peaceful city. The only question that circled through my mind was WHERE ARE ALL THE CHINESE PEOPLE? The streets of Chinatown were vacant of businesses and residents, none of the tai chi practitioners were Asian, & the instructor wasn't Asian either. So What's the deal with Chinatown? & why does it still exist if there aren't any Chinese people to occupy it?

After meandering through Lan Su Garden, we wanted an after-breakfast dessert, so we searched for Voodoo Donuts, a popular local donut joint that has over 1,700 reviews on Yelp & gets 4 stars! It got some publicity from the Food Network show called Man Vs. Food. We waited in line for about 15 minutes then chatted with the man behind us from Costa Mesa. The pink interior was partnered with an upbeat Kanye song, so we were especially excited when we got inside. Voodoo Donuts has an array of unusual and creatively named donuts: bacon maple bar, voodoo doll (in the shape of one & filled with raspberry jelly), Optimus Prime (shaped and frosted like the Transformer), donuts topped with cereal, like Captain My Captain (Captain Crunch) & The Loop (Fruit Loops), Tangtastic (topped with vanilla frosting & Tang, & Old Dirty Bastard (Oreos & peanut butter). Robby ordered the famous Cock and Balls (basically a Boston Creme in the shape of a you-know-what) and I ordered a chocolate frosted and a Mexican Hot Chocolate cake donut, which was much spicier than I expected. We were pleased.

Chinatown was pretty depressing, so we headed to Powell's Books in the Pearl District, one of the largest, most well-organized independent bookstore that I've ever been to. It's enormous. One entire floor is dedicated to children's and young adult literature. I felt happy supporting a local business...after having made so many Amazon purchases for Christmas this month.

Robby suggested that we check out snow boots for Atticus, so we went to REI, which gave us a chance to walk through the Pearl District. Robby said that the reviewers on Yelp either loved or hated the Pearl District. Some people complained that it was too bourgie and expensive. The streets were lined with yoga studios and well-manicured boutiques.

We spent too much time at REI. We found great snowboots for Atticus, but we started looking through the sales racks for ourselves. Atticus was bored and hungry, and he hadn't gotten a proper nap (only an hourlong nap in the stroller at Powell's). We were being selfish parents at that point, dragging him to dressing rooms & making him wait while we fished for the right sizes. By the time we left REI he was livid. When we got to Lovejoy Bakers to get him some food, he exploded into a million pieces, yelled at the top of his lungs, rolled all over the floor.

We hurried back to the hotel, realized that we needed to eat, so we stopped by a parking lot lined with food trucks. Unlike Los Angeles food trucks, these were anchored to these parking spots and were housed in little trailers. They weren't actual trucks. We quickly bought food & returned to the hotel room...with Atticus screaming all the way there. Nothing appeased him, not even the pacifier. I couldn't blame him for being angry with us.

Robby ordered a pesto chicken sandwich, which he raved about, I ate an Indonesian tofu salad, & Atticus had a pork bun. All the food was delicious, & I was especially impressed by the large portions. After the early 4pm dinner, Robby urged me to go to the free yoga class in the hotel. It was pretty good, and there were only 2 students. I wore the yoga pajamas that Robby gave me for Christmas. It's got stick figures doing yoga poses on them. Super-adorable.

We turned in early, having put Atticus down to sleep at 7pm, watched a few episodes of New Girl, and called it a night. An eventful - later parent-centric - day in a wonderful city.