We're not from around here...

We often find ourselves scratching our heads and realizing that we're just not from around here...

School's out...YEAH! We have 4 weeks vacation from school and we're looking forward to our big traveling adventure that starts on Sunday. Today the "littles" Bub, Potato and Brownie all spent their last day at Kindergarten for one month while Daddy, the "bigs" and I went out hunting for a mixer.

It's really a ridiculous concept, hunting all over a city of 10 million to find a mixer. They are simply not common here. We had to travel across the city nearly 1.5 hours to get to the "commercial kitchen items market."

It was a beautiful day, cold, but sunny with a brilliant blue sky. It seems that everyone is frantic readying themselves for the major holiday here. People everywhere are travelling home to be with their families. Some haven't been home in one year. Having left behind parents and even wives with young children the excitement to get home and reunite is palpable. Many of these workers who have come to the city for the year will bring home all they have earned and present it to their aged parents and family members to live on until the next New Year.

Yesterday we had a "New Year's Program" that the Kindergarten put on for the parents and prospective parents. It was darling. Each of the students showed off some element of their education for this last term. Brownie recited some poetry in the local dialect and then wowed us with a song in her new language, too. Bub and Potato were paired for a bilingual serenade of a song about a little angel.

Momma was melting for certain and Daddy was excitedly filming every moment...as they left the stage, just before the curtain closed, Bub tuned back, found my eyes in the crowd and shouted out..."Bye Momma!" (I am so crazy about that little man!)

Several of the parents gave short thank -yous and testimonials about the school. One mother was apparently either so moved by her child's wonderful education or confused the microphone with one she frequents at one of the ten BILLION Karaoke clubs around here...she broke out into song. The foreigners (we and a few others) sat stunned at this strange happening. The locals chattered on as though such spontaneous musical happenings are commonplace...

yeah...we're not from around here...

Today, after capturing the mixer that will be amazing the next time I'm making mashed potatoes for 30 as I've done twice now...we realize that we can't carry the 100 lbs mixer away from the store on foot. So we attempt to hail a cab...but our cab fortune is not good...so we stood there for a very long time...no cab.

Our friend here thought he might ask the proprietor of the store where we secured the aforementioned mixer, if she knew a private driver that might be keen to haul us the 1.5 hour trip home...

luckily she did...and within another 30 minutes we were on our way...

The vehicle is called a "mini-bus" here...but we think of them as like "matchbox vans." They're smaller in both height and width than a western-style "mini van."

This one apparently doesn't often haul people as we pressed into the single, bench, backseat. Though it appeared to be a back seat, we found that upon acceleration and conversely deceleration that the seat moved forward and backward. A few times Magpie said she thought she should lift up her hands because the seat's lack of anchor coupled with the driver's fantasy of being an Indy 500 driver...left her feeling like she was on a ride at the fair.

To add to the experience of sliding to and fro in the back of the mini-bus, we also enjoyed some techno-music...set to an amazing volume level...one that reminded the author of the volume level at a Def Leopard concert in the 80's when seated just next to the 20 foot stack of speakers.

The lyrics were surprising at first....English! But the lyricist was no wordsmith...as the lyrics in each of the 5 songs (reminding you now that we traveled 1.5 hours and only heard 5 different songs) repeated endlessly...

"Rainy Day, Rainy Day, Rainy Day, it's a Rainy Day." (This one lasted for an eardrum punishing 12 minutes, thumping and pumping as we wove in and out of traffic.)

"Burning, Burning, Burning once again. Burning, Burning, Burning once again." (another 12 minutes...my brain was burning with the sounds of space aliens and their space age techno rock rattling my consciousness.)

After 5 minutes of an intro of another "tune" Daddy proclaims from the co-captain's chair "hey, this one is 'I hate myself for loving you,' from Joan Jett in the 80's"... once the lyrics started...we all hated him for loving her....

It was a good thing that Mapgie, The Bug and I began dancing in the back of the mini-bus. Magpie dancing the Robot, The Bug doing some crazy, jerking hand motion dancing and myself bustin' a move with my head/neck techno vibe...because I would've had to have been hospitalized for insanity otherwise...

I shall forever remember those two girls cackling uncontrollably as we slid about on the seat, periodically hitting our heads on the roof of the "mini-bus"...

...yeeah, we're not from around here...

...but that's good...I hope we never grow so accustomed to the differences that we fail to appreciate the fun and adventure of it all...

...karaoke anyone?