Vanishing Turtles, Roller Disco, and Love Letters

Last weekend the family and I went to a festival to celebrate the 9^th anniversary of the Science Park.  As usual, there were a dizzying amount of food booths, dancing and singing performances, and many men in suits giving speeches that I could not understand. They even had a gigantic wedding ceremony where 20 lucky couples got married on stage at the same time.  I thought that was a bit strange until I learned about all of the fabulous prizes that they received... washers and dryers, an all expense paid two week vacation on a nearby island, brand new computers, etc...  Marty and I considered getting married again, but decided that it would be best if we avoided the limelight and sat this one out.  Our school gave out many free food tickets to the students who planned to attend, so everywhere we turned we ran into families from our school. 

Dancing person in a costume

The marriage procession begins...

I don't know what this is... Marty was taking pictures

Jumpy castle!

And the food madness begins...

Cute little fried eggs

I don't know what this is... something on a stick

Yes, you guessed it!  A french fry covered corn dog. 

At one point during the morning, we ran into Felisha from grade 1.  She was there with her parents, siblings and grandmother.  Her grandmother had apparently heard good things about us and was eager to tell us all about it.  About three minutes into the conversation she asked if the girls could go with her and the other children to look at some fish on the other side of the festival grounds.  I agreed and continued my conversation with her mother, but when I finally caught up with them about ten minutes later I stopped dead in my tracks.  For there before me stood my two children each with a clear plastic bag and gigantic grins on their faces.  In Pilar’s plastic bag was a baby turtle, and in Carmela’s eight smallish fish.  Felisha’s grandmother had a large smile on her face too as she walked over to me, shoved a bottle of turtle food into my hand and announced, “Here, take it!” 

Well, there was little room for negotiation.  This was a very thoughtful gift, just not one that we particularly needed at this time in our lives.  I mean, after all, we were still reeling from the gift of five LARGE fish from our Kung Fu master, one of whom had recently suffered a tragically slow death and then to top it off was partially consumed by his tank mates.  So many lessons about the circle of life to be learned, so little time. 

Needless to say, I thanked her profusely, all the while thinking, “Crap!  We have just gone from no pets to 14 pets in a matter of one week!”  The girls of course were beside themselves with glee and especially seemed to enjoy the fact that a grandmother had tricked me and there was nothing I could do about it.  Luckily, the turtle bag seemed to have a hole in it and its oxygen supply was dwindling fast.  I had to continuously air the bag up myself, but that seemed to freak it out, so being the concerned and responsible pet owner that I am, I bid my family adieu and booked it home to set up two more faux ecosystems in our living room.  The fish were put into an old small tank from our first go around with fish, and the turtle got Tupperware. 

Over the next day, five of the small fish died, and the Tupperware turtle tank transformed into a small oasis complete with a colorful sandy beach, deep swimming pool, and rocky cliffs with which to bask upon.  Although he was not eating and climbing upon the beach appeared difficult, Turtalie the Turtle seemed content.

Then, Thursday night, all of that turtle bliss came to a crashing halt.   The girls and I arrived home around 5:30 to an apartment filled with blaring music.  Marty’s computer had apparently turned itself on, clicked on our itunes account, and was playing music for the entire floor of our apartment building.  I quickly turned the computer off and then heard, “Mom, where is Turtalie?”   I walked over to the “tank” and it was empty.  First we thought that Marty had come home during lunch, found it dead, and then flushed it down the toilet.  But when Marty came home, that theory was shot down.  Then we thought perhaps someone came into our apartment, listened to some music, and took the turtle…but who would leave two laptops and an iPad and opt for a turtle?  Not terribly likely. 

So…. I searched the entire apartment multiple times, but came up empty handed.  All I can assume is that it must either be in a very good hiding spot and we will begin to smell it in a few days when it dies, OR it crawled under the front door, went down the several flights of stairs (or took the elevator) and liberated itself.  I just assumed that there was no way a little turtle could scale four inch tall walls, but one of my students informed me that oh yes, the smaller the turtle, the better the climber.  Good to know!  Now all I can hope is that no more gifts of animals will be bestowed upon us anytime soon.  Of course, that is a pipe dream because as soon as our Kung Fu master heard that the turtle had escaped he said, “Oh, you need turtle!  I know where to get turtle!”  Oh brother!  I can’t wait until we go on vacation this summer and have to find pet sitters for two months.

On a lighter note, the girls begin their after school Rollerblading class this week.  I was concerned about where I was going to find rollerblades, but when I asked the school secretary if she knew where I could find some she said, “Oh, let me call the P.E. coach at the regular school, he can bring some for you to look at.”  Not a day later I got a call from the office and ‘Coach Shark’ was downstairs with skates for us to try on.  I kid you not; he brought two pairs of high quality, adjustable, PINK inline skates, pads, and helmets complete with rolling suitcase for the girls.  He had a stool for them to sit on, took them for a trial spin, and then said, “Just pay me next week.”   I was speechless!  That was the easiest, least painful shopping experience I've ever had.  We spent yesterday morning trying them out at the local outdoor skating rink not two blocks from our apartment, and I am proud to say that in a mere two hours, the girls were on their own, rolling down hills, and having a blast... AND because they are adjustable, I was able to put them on and show them a few of my roller disco moves… that was until of course I did one backward spin too many and ended up on my well padded gluteus maximus.  Marty and the girls thought it was terribly entertaining of course, and it was suggested by my spouse that since I am not as young as I used to be, perhaps I should invest in some pads too.  Pshaw!  As my father always says: “You can’t hurt steel!”… but I suppose you CAN bruise it a tad.

Mr. Gao hard at work teaching his children how to skate

P is down and C is up

C is down and P is up

Whew!  We are pooped!

Last but not least as a belated Valentine’s treat…

Last week my grade 1 students’ assignment was to write a friendly letter to a person of choice.  Below is letter written from Daniel to Felisha. 

"I really have a crush on you.  Do you know what I like about you.....BECAUSE YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
-Daniel

I had taught them the word “crush” earlier in the week as part of a vocabulary lesson.  After a week of hearing that they had crushes on chocolate, crushes on me, crushes on their Mom, I was happy to see that Daniel had a solid understanding of the word’s meaning. 

I just love the power of words, don’t you?