Sunday, May 31, 2009
Meredith running in her school uniform
Meredith attended a chinese language play school in Johor for 3 months. This is her running in her school uniform.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
An eventful trip back to Malaysia from New Orleans
I went back to Malaysia on April 16, I was supposed to stay in Malaysia for five days only and then fly back to the US with Boon Hong and the two kids. My trip took an interesting turn right from the start. My flight from New Orleans to Dallas was delayed for five hours and that make me missed the flight to Tokyo. The airport agent offered me a free hotel stay in Dallas so I can catch another flight to Tokyo the next day. I was pretty upset because that means I will lost another day in Malaysia. Then he offered me another alternative, rather than flying west to Tokyo, I got on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then I took another flight to Singapore from Germany. I had a long layover in Frankfurt and I even went down to Frankfurt city for a few hours to bump around. My total travel duration for that trip was 42 hours. It was the longest trip I took.
Anyway, we were supposed to fly back to New Orleans on April 26 from Singapore. Isaac has been sick since I got back with cough and runnig nose and it got worse progressively. Boon Hong took Isaac to the doctor the night before we depart and then again on the morning of our departure. The doctor we saw on the morning of our departure did an chest x-ray and confirmed that Isaac has pneumonia. We immediately cancel our flight that night from Singapore. Isaac was hospitalized immediately. He had antibiotic injection by IV and then nurse was giving a breathing device every few hours. It was quite a traumatic experience for little Isaac and the parents.
Isaac in his hospital crib in Puteri Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru. Puteri is probably one of the best private hospital in Johor area. The facility is pretty good but still not quite as nice as the hospital room we encountered in Houston or New Orleans. The hospital room in Houston has free wi-fi and satellite TV and there is also a guest bed for the family member accompanying the patient. Puteri hospital provided a folding armchair for the parent accompanying the child. However, we are very happy with the services there, all the nurses are quite friendly and helpful.
Meredith visiting her brother in the hospital. Isaac stopped crying when he gets to roam around the hospital hallway.
Isaac had to go back to the hospital for 3 more days of antibiotic injection after he was discharged.
Anyway, we were supposed to fly back to New Orleans on April 26 from Singapore. Isaac has been sick since I got back with cough and runnig nose and it got worse progressively. Boon Hong took Isaac to the doctor the night before we depart and then again on the morning of our departure. The doctor we saw on the morning of our departure did an chest x-ray and confirmed that Isaac has pneumonia. We immediately cancel our flight that night from Singapore. Isaac was hospitalized immediately. He had antibiotic injection by IV and then nurse was giving a breathing device every few hours. It was quite a traumatic experience for little Isaac and the parents.
Isaac in his hospital crib in Puteri Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru. Puteri is probably one of the best private hospital in Johor area. The facility is pretty good but still not quite as nice as the hospital room we encountered in Houston or New Orleans. The hospital room in Houston has free wi-fi and satellite TV and there is also a guest bed for the family member accompanying the patient. Puteri hospital provided a folding armchair for the parent accompanying the child. However, we are very happy with the services there, all the nurses are quite friendly and helpful.
Meredith visiting her brother in the hospital. Isaac stopped crying when he gets to roam around the hospital hallway.
Isaac had to go back to the hospital for 3 more days of antibiotic injection after he was discharged.Sunday, May 24, 2009
Our trip back to New Orleans from Malaysia
I went back to Malaysia on April 16 to help Boon Hong bring the kids back to New Orleans. They have been staying in Johor Bahru for the past few months since we went back for Chinese New Year. It was a rather eventful trip but that is the subject of another post. Anyway, we flew back from Singapore on May 1 at the height of the swine flu scare. We bought a lot of face masks, we make Meredith wear a face mask too. Isaac kept prying off his face mask and the mask was way too big for a one year old, so we gave up on making Isaac wear a mask. People in Asia are generally more nervous about swine flu due to the bad experience with SARS. Lots of people inclucing ourselves were wearing face masks in Singapore airport and Tokyo airport during our travel. When we reached Dallas airport in US, no one is wearing a face masks even though that airport has tons of direct flights from Mexico.
Meredith wearing a face mask in Singapore airport. We bought a N95 face mask for her but it is too big for her face, so we let wear an ordinary surgical mask. I think it is not effective at all in stopping the virus and it makes it so much harder to breath properly. But it did gives us a false sense of security that we are doing something to protect ourselves. Boon Hong kept buying face masks every where we went even though we already have a few in our carryon luggage. She tried to buy face masks in the Guardian pharmacy in Singapore airport and then she bought some more masks in Tokyo airport. Now those masks just sits in closet collecting dust. Maybe one of our kids will make it to medical school in 20 years time and someone can put those masks to good use.
Meredith enjoying a cup of Vietnamese coffee at the Tung Nguyen coffee stand in Changi airport. I am surprised to see a vietnamese drip style coffee stand in Singapore airport, so I decided to try it and see how it compares to the Vietnamese coffee in the US. The price is S$4 which is almost the same with Starbucks but I can tell you that it is much better than Starbucks. I downed that cup of coffee and it kept me awake for the rest of the 30hours trip to New Orleans and I did stay awake for another 5-6hours after reaching New Orleans.
Isaac crying at the Vietnames coffee stand after fighting with Meredith to gain control of the spoon to stir coffee.
Tokyo Narita airport is great for kids, there is a nice play area for kids. It was early in the morning when we reached Tokyo, there is no one at the play area yet. So we feel we can let our guard down and let Isaac and Meredith play since all the other kids with infectious flu virus haven't show up yet. Anyway, that's probably what the other parents are thinking too when they tell their kids to start wearing masks when they see Isaac and Meredith in the play area.
Playground inside Tokyo airport
Meredith running in the tatami lined room.
Finally, we reached New Orleans, the kids remain jet lagged for almost 2 weeks.
We went out the first time a week after coming back from Malaysia to a crawfish boil at my co-worker house.
Meredith wearing a face mask in Singapore airport. We bought a N95 face mask for her but it is too big for her face, so we let wear an ordinary surgical mask. I think it is not effective at all in stopping the virus and it makes it so much harder to breath properly. But it did gives us a false sense of security that we are doing something to protect ourselves. Boon Hong kept buying face masks every where we went even though we already have a few in our carryon luggage. She tried to buy face masks in the Guardian pharmacy in Singapore airport and then she bought some more masks in Tokyo airport. Now those masks just sits in closet collecting dust. Maybe one of our kids will make it to medical school in 20 years time and someone can put those masks to good use.
Meredith enjoying a cup of Vietnamese coffee at the Tung Nguyen coffee stand in Changi airport. I am surprised to see a vietnamese drip style coffee stand in Singapore airport, so I decided to try it and see how it compares to the Vietnamese coffee in the US. The price is S$4 which is almost the same with Starbucks but I can tell you that it is much better than Starbucks. I downed that cup of coffee and it kept me awake for the rest of the 30hours trip to New Orleans and I did stay awake for another 5-6hours after reaching New Orleans.
Isaac crying at the Vietnames coffee stand after fighting with Meredith to gain control of the spoon to stir coffee.
Tokyo Narita airport is great for kids, there is a nice play area for kids. It was early in the morning when we reached Tokyo, there is no one at the play area yet. So we feel we can let our guard down and let Isaac and Meredith play since all the other kids with infectious flu virus haven't show up yet. Anyway, that's probably what the other parents are thinking too when they tell their kids to start wearing masks when they see Isaac and Meredith in the play area.
Playground inside Tokyo airport
Meredith running in the tatami lined room.
Finally, we reached New Orleans, the kids remain jet lagged for almost 2 weeks.We went out the first time a week after coming back from Malaysia to a crawfish boil at my co-worker house.Memorial weekend picnic by New Orleans lakefront
We attended New Orleans Chinese Baptist church since we moved to New Orleans. On Memorial weekend, the church group organized a picnic at New Orleans lakefront. New Orleans is bounded by Lake Ponchatrain on its east side. This lake is about the size of Singapore or perhaps bigger. I didn't know New Orleans has such a nice lakefront area until a few months ago when I stumbled it while cycling. Anyway, we are excited to finally go a picnic organized by this church group and get to know people who normally just say "hi and bye" better.
Meredith running around with her "buble blower" toy, she hardly goes anyway without bringing a bottle of buble these days. She is obsessed with blowing bubbles.
We just got to know this nice family with kids lately and they are leaving New Orleans for Washington DC soon. The problem with New Orleans is it has high crime, bad public school, prone to damage by hurricane, and lack of proper chinese food, so a lot of chinese families just make New Orleans a temporary stop over in their career. Once they got what they came here for (be it education, work experiences) they start making plans to move to other parts of the US.
Meredith running around with her "buble blower" toy, she hardly goes anyway without bringing a bottle of buble these days. She is obsessed with blowing bubbles.
We just got to know this nice family with kids lately and they are leaving New Orleans for Washington DC soon. The problem with New Orleans is it has high crime, bad public school, prone to damage by hurricane, and lack of proper chinese food, so a lot of chinese families just make New Orleans a temporary stop over in their career. Once they got what they came here for (be it education, work experiences) they start making plans to move to other parts of the US.New Orleans Greek Festival
We have been back in New Orleans for about three weeks now. Actually, this weekend is a public holiday in US, it is memorial day. We have 4 days weekend. The weather in New Orleans is really nice now hovering around 70F, I guess this is the calm before the storm, before the dreadful heat of the summer sets in next few months and the threats of 2009 hurricane season looming over us. Anyway, this weekend was fantastic, we visited the Greek festival in town. It is held on the ground of a greek church right by a big lake in city park. Houston also has Greek festival but this one is way better than the one in Houston. There is a live band playing Greek music, lots of greek food, lots of dancing (the people in New Orleans love to drink and dance).
This is the ground of the Greek festival. Nice weather, nice food, nice Greek music.
The crowd was huge. It was hard to push our double stroller around in the crowd.
On the way to the greek festival, Meredith peruse her mum's lipstick to a horrendeous outcome. She smeared the lipstick on her mouth.
We stayed at the festival until 9pm at night. There are lots of people dancing to the Greek music. They sell a lot of cheap wine at the festival which helps promote the dancing.
There is a children playground at the festival with a sand box area. Meredith jumped right into the sand box because she has been playing sand at her play school everyday.
It took Isaac a while before he gathered enough courage to put his feet into the sand. Once he stepped into the sand, he was delighted by the new sensation.
The Greek people grilled whole lamb at the festival. We tried the lamb, it was good but a bit too dry, somehow I think it should be more juicy, the Greek guy sell a box with 1lb of lamb meat for $12.
This is the ground of the Greek festival. Nice weather, nice food, nice Greek music.
The crowd was huge. It was hard to push our double stroller around in the crowd.
On the way to the greek festival, Meredith peruse her mum's lipstick to a horrendeous outcome. She smeared the lipstick on her mouth.
We stayed at the festival until 9pm at night. There are lots of people dancing to the Greek music. They sell a lot of cheap wine at the festival which helps promote the dancing.
There is a children playground at the festival with a sand box area. Meredith jumped right into the sand box because she has been playing sand at her play school everyday.
It took Isaac a while before he gathered enough courage to put his feet into the sand. Once he stepped into the sand, he was delighted by the new sensation.
The Greek people grilled whole lamb at the festival. We tried the lamb, it was good but a bit too dry, somehow I think it should be more juicy, the Greek guy sell a box with 1lb of lamb meat for $12.
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