Kimberly made my dreams come true when she surprised me with a weekend in Paris for my 30th birthday. It was a complete surprise that she had been planning since the summer. I knew she has something special planned for the weekend and had the idea that it would be a trip but never did I think that it would be this amazing! Kim sent me on my own because she knew if she came then I would be worried about her enjoying the weekend as well but if I was on my own I would be able to everything exactly how I wanted - like spending a full 12 hours looking at artwork.
    I spent my entire first day at the Louvre, wandering the various sections of art spanning centuries. I saw some of the most famous artwork in the world and thousands of others. I was lucky that the museum was open late that night so I was able to really see everything it had to offer. Don’t get me wrong, I could go back and spend another few days there, but in my short time I managed to see everything that I wanted to and more.
For lunch I splurged so I could stay in the museum and eat at the famous Angelina Cafe where I ate one of the most memorable meals of my life. It was so rich and luxurious I can almost still taste the creamy chestnut soup.
I closed down the museum and hurried to the Eiffel Tower. See, there were protests happening in Paris that weekend and unfortunately I had just found out that ALL tourist attractions were going to be closed the next day. Luckily for me, the Eiffel Tower is open late so I grabbed a cab and made it on one of the last trips up. It was unbelievable to be standing atop the brightly light tower and gazing out to the city of Paris. Oh, my heart still swoons at the thought.
On my second day, since the museums and other attractions were closed, I was able to wander the streets and see some of what Paris had to offer. I stopped by the Notre-Dame Cathedral to oogle it’s exquisite entrances, ate “french” onion soup (which was not as good as Kimberly’s TBH), and got lost on the streets lining the Seine. ​

​I wasn’t meant to visit Malang at all; yet on my third day in Indonesia I found myself on a train pulling up to the small, mostly overlooked city. My expectations were low for this quick, one-night stop over between the temples of Borobudur in the culture town on Yogyakarta and Mt. Bromo, the active volcano I would be climbing the next day. Unfortunately all of the direct trains had been sold out between the two stops, which left me overnighting it in Malang. Little did I know it would end up being my favorite serendipitous find in perhaps all of my travels. 

​The first glimpse I had of the Color Village took my breath away with surprise. I had just been picked up by Fauzia, a couch surfing friend who had spent some time at my place in Yangon a year before, and she was driving my wife and me to her family’s guest house on the outskirts of town. We were chatting away about Indonesian pancakes when we began crossing a bridge over a valley. Spread below it looked as if millions of paint cans had been dumped into the valley. I leaned across Gia to get a better look as hundreds of roofs came into view, each covered in multiple vibrant colors. I spotted people milling about, popping in and out of view as they disappeared between the sheets of color. Before I knew it we were engulfed by the city on the other side of the bridge and I craned my neck to catch any last bit of color. 

​Fauzia filled me in that night on the purpose of the Color Village, Kampung Warna Warni in Jodipan, or Warna-Warni (Colorful Village) as the locals refer to it. The project originated from eight college students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang as an assignment from their Event Management class.  The purpose was to clean up the area (known as a slum) and bring beautification to the town. The added benefit being the tourists draw that was soon to follow. The students received a grant to make the project possible and finished the painting just days before my arrival. 

​The next day I spent the entire morning walking through the narrow spaces between the houses of Warna-Warni. To my continued surprise there was street art displayed throughout the whole village. Students, villagers, and volunteers alike had all worked on the project for the past few months. As I wandered through the pathways I caught glimpses into people’s homes as meals were prepared and children were playing. Every inch of the village was doused in color, there was a bicycle leaning against a fence that was layered with multiple colors, clothing of every hue were hung along balconies, each individual brick in a brick wall had it’s own unique pigment. There were patterns, designs, artwork, colors, and paintings everywhere. I couldn’t get enough.

​I walked through the Color Village for hours. At one point I stopped to grab a drink from a little stall and began chatting with a woman who sold me a cold water. She was enthusiastic about the project and was very happy to have it finished. Soon, she hoped, lots of people would be visiting their village and she would be able to provide them with drinks. The woman explained how proud she was to live there now that it was “clean and beautiful,” especially for her children to be growing up there as well. 

​It was all of my favorite things rolled into one; a surprise find, meandering through narrow walkways, street art, and color! As my time came to make my way to the bus station, I enjoyed a few minutes of sketching in my traveling journal to serve as a reminder of this spectacular place, not that I could ever forget it. 

How to visit:
This stop needs to be on your Indonesian itinerary! Malang is a small town but at a perfect location if you are coming from Yogakarta headed to Mt. Bromo or visa versa. In either of these towns you can make arrangements to take a train or bus to Malang. It is about an 8 hour train ride from Yogakarta and soooooo worth it!

The day of love has arrived and it is very apparent in Yangon. Shop fronts with heart decorations, bakeries with pretty cookies, red roses for sale on every corner, lovers holding hands as they walk down the sidewalk, and restaurants filled with couples enjoying special treats. Although this may sound like any western city around Valentines Day, I am speaking of the sights I saw walking around Yangon today. The young generation of Burmese just love to celebrate western holidays and Valentines Day is certainly no exception.

Kim and I don't usually do anything too special for Valentines Day. We have made the occasional meal for one another and exchanged cards or small items of sentiment but the day has always stood as more of an opportunity to have an excuse to be extra thoughtful towards each other. Since this was our first Valentines Day as a married couple and the first major holiday we have been able to spend together in a while, I thought it would be nice to start a new tradition: Valentines Day Scavenger Hunt!

The plan:
Step 1: Go to the Japanese $1.60 Store and buy each other funny gifts
Step 2: Get picnic food
Step 3: Go to the park and enjoy a quiet picnic
Step 4: Hide the gifts from each other in the park and create a note/picture/treasure map to the gift
Step 5: Exchange said note/picture/treasure map, find gifts, and laugh

What actually happened:

Step 1 went off without a hitch. We made it across town to the Japanese $1.60 Store and went in one at a time to buy each other gifts. 

Step 2 was a little more challenging. We then went to purchase some food for our picnic but when we got to the grocery store it was very difficult to find food that would be suitable for picnic eating. We were at a different grocery store than usual and had a hard time finding anything that would transport well. Instead we decided to wander the streets and pick up some street food along the way. As we were looking for something tasty we stumbled upon Spaghetti Italian Kitchen. As you probably know, Kim and I are BIG Italian fans so it was just meant to be. 

Step 3 After our super tasty lunch we walked to the park only to find a huge festival there. See today is the 100 birthday of Bogyoke Aung San who was a Burmese general back in the 1940's. He was responsible for bringing Burma's independence from the British and is well praised by all Myanmar citizens. Throughout the park there were booths selling food and merchandise, concerts, photo exhibits, tributes to Aung San, and other celebratory areas. 

While we were there we found a caricaturist who happily drew cartoon versions of Kim and me as a crowd of interested bystanders looked on. The final product is quite . . . um . . . interesting. Introducing: Gangster Kim and Long-Faced Alisa

The park was very busy due to the festival, the fact that it was a Saturday, and that it was Valentines Day. Going to the park is a favorite activity for young couples, they usually pick a nice grassy spot and set up an umbrella or two for privacy then spend the afternoon smooching and cuddling. This made it impossible to follow Step 4 of our plan because there was no way we would be able to hide anything without someone running after us to return what we obviously left behind. 

On the bright side the busy park made for great people watching. I noticed two prevalent Valentines Day themes. The first being GIANT teddy bears. Seriously, I think the requirement for buying a teddy bear for your significant other is that it needs to be at least half of their size. 

The second custom I noticed was matching clothing. All over the city we saw couples with matching shirts, or specifically designed two part shirts. For instance, a man was wearing a shirt that said "Will you marry me?" and his partner's shirt said "Yes, I do." Sometimes I noticed a mother and daughter following the trend, or two friends, or even a group of people. I tried to be sneaky and grab a few shots of these shirts as we walked through the park.

Step 4 Since we couldn't complete our scavenger hunt at the park we decided to finish it in our apartment building later in the evening. We took turns going out into the building and hiding the gifts then making our notes/drawings/treasure maps. I was giddy with excitement as we exchanged our notes and followed each other around the building. It was so fun, I think as Kim got close to her gift I was literally jumping up and down. 

Step 5 Kim's note said "It's up high, you can see gold and hear lots of noise from the street."
This led me up to the top floor of the building where we had gone up once and noticed that we could see Shwedagon Pagoda. I found a bag tide to the railing with my gift inside. Kim had picked me out a funnel which is simply perfect because I make my own juice every morning and have the hardest time pouring it into the bottle that I drink it from. She is so thoughtful.

For my note I drew a treasure map along with this riddle: 
"You will find your gift on the floor above the fifth
but don't be fooled, it's not on the sixth. 
You will know you are in the right spot
if you hear singing and see 3 plants in pots.
Behind what you would use if a fire was in sight.
Don't be distracted by Shwedagon, the bright."
I hid the gift on the fourth floor (the third floor elevator door has a 5 on it) behind a fire hose. For the gift I chose a funny Japanese game that involves a gorilla who shoots out of a barrel when a certain peg is pulled out. The last picture is of Kim's face after she finally pulled the peg and the gorilla shot up to the ceiling and hit our kitchen light. 

It has been such an eventful day. A fantastic random restaurant find, a surprise festival, Myanmar culture mixed with western traditions, a warm day in the park, a caricature of ourselves, a SUPER fun scavenger hunt, and starting a new holiday tradition with my love. Happy Valentines Day from Myanmar to you!

It was another Friday night which means Friday festivities! A bit of a change from our usual scene, Kim and I headed to 50th Street Bar & Grill for a teachers event. 50th Street is a very well known expat establishment downtown. It has a very classy feel like that of a fancy NY pub. As I have come to learn here in Yangon, the nicer looking the establishment the higher the prices. This is the only place in town that you will pay $30 for a steak. In their defense though, this is probably the only place in town to get a decent steak. You could probably put every restaurant here in two categories: local and expat. As we tell our couchsurfers, with the local places you pay local prices and with expat places you pay expat prices. Plus the extra tax and service charges. Not trying to complain here, it is just a fascinating separation between the classes. 

All in all it was a fun evening meeting other teachers from around the city. There were two other international schools there: International School of Yangon and Yangon International School - people are not very creative with their school names here (if you are keeping track you will know that my school is called International School of Myanmar and yes, there is a Myanmar International School in town also). It is strange to be in an environment (outside of school) where you can understand all of the conversations going on around you. 

As I circulated the room and meet new people we had the same exchange of conversation over and over again: What school are you with? How long have you been here? Where are you from originally? Do you like it here? How long do you plan on staying?  And so on and so forth. I did get to get to know some pretty cool people and am looking forward to seeing them again soon!

Art Show openings are held a little differently here. Unlike the evening openings that they have in the States, almost all openings here are morning events - often on weekends. With the opening there are a slew of treats available to munch on and tables to hang out at while drinking tea and talking about the artwork. There were a variety of food items at this opening including some sort of fried noodles, hot dog type things, and lots of little fried foods. 

When we went grocery shopping this weekend we realized after we arrived at the store that we were getting hungry. Everyone knows that it is a bad idea to shop on an empty stomach so we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading in. We just wanted a snack so we decided to share one of these Hot & Roll. It turned out to be a crepe with a choice of toppings. We went for the BBQ chicken one which included cheese. It was actually quite tasty.

*These were taken by Kim on our recent trip to Inle Lake, be on the lookout for that post because it was epic!!*

Our much anticipated Farewell Party was hosted by Meg and John on Saturday. We were so looking forward to having a chance to see everyone one last time before we left. It was so fun to see co-workers, friends from all over, and of course family, gathered together for festivities. There was tasty food (of course), lawn games, a fire, Twisted Tea keg, and fireworks. Yay! 

Sunday I set off for a week long AP Art workshop in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. ISM (my school) recommended the workshop for me to help gain some knowledge about Advanced Placement Art classes before I begin teaching it. I will be teaching AP 2D Design. It was very hard for me to leave at this time where there is still so much to do before heading to Myanmar in less than two weeks (eeeekk!!!) but I knew that it was important for me to develop these skills. I was also hoping that the time focused on education would help me transition my teaching mindset to a high school level. And, as I thought, it was exactly what I needed. 

The workshop ran from Sunday to Friday on the campus of St. Johnsbury Academy, a private boarding high school in the vast mountains of Vermont. I stayed in the dorms and ate in their amazingly fantastic cafeteria. The workshop was just one of many AP workshops held at the Summer Institute. The AP Art session was led by a well experienced art teacher who was also a "reader" (evaluator) for the AP art portfolios. She led us through the AP evaluation process, the requirements for portfolios, and shared past portfolio examples. We were also tasked with completing a mini version of the portfolio ourselves. We had to make a concentration of 12 art pieces in the form of Artist Trading Cards. This is the series that I created:

Here is what my week looked like. It was very college-esk. Including working in the studio until all hours of the night and hanging out with fun new people. I'm so glad I got to be involved in the week which included a trip to a mountain buddhist monastery (with an introduction to buddhism class) and a exhibit of our work at the end of the week. 

In the meantime Kim was very busy back at home getting all of our belongings moved into storage. It was a long, difficult task that involved the help of Brian and Drew. Many days were spent moving truckloads from the apartment into the unit. By the end of the week Kim headed up to spend some time with her parents at their house in Avon.