Almost all Myanmar people practice Buddhism which means there are an extraordinary amount of pagodas, stupas, and pyas throughout the country. Out of them all Shwedagon is the most revered. If you are lucky to live nearby you may visit Shwedagon on a daily basis but more often it is the dream of many to visit it once in their lifetime to pay homage to the Buddha. There is a dense amount of history and meaning in every nook and cranny, the three hours we spent there seemed didn’t allow us to even skim the surface. The Pagoda, which is also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda, is 325 feet tall and is completely covered in gold. The crown, or very peak of it holds 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies plus a 76 carat diamond. It is said to be the oldest pagoda in the world at over 2,600 years old. It has been rebuilt and added too over the years and there is always at least one section of it that is getting work done. There are four entrances that lead up to the main floor, all grand and quite spectacular. Along most of the entrances are vendors selling all sorts of goods including religious items as well as every day items. We did participate in a few traditions while we were there, first I rang one of the giant bells - I'm not exactly sure what the meaning to this is but they were everywhere and it was very fun. While walking around the pagoda we each found the "corner" relating to our day of birth (Wednesday morning for Kim and Friday for me). Buddhist believe strongly in astrology and have many superstitions around dates. While we were at our corner we poured water over the buddha statues there to wash away the bad.
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Photographing my last wedding seemed strangely not strange. Andrea, my sister, joined me as my second photographer which was just perfect because we have been shooting together for the past few years and we always have a great time working with each other. Also, Nico & Teresa were married right in my home town (well, just next door). The day was beautiful and the wedding full of celebration. I couldn't have asked for a nicer wedding to be the temporary end to my official wedding photography adventures. Sunday we moved more furniture and items to the storage unit with the help of Brian and Kirsten. Then it was off to my Mom's house to say goodbye and get my cat, Macy, settled in - Mom will be taking care of her while we are away. It makes me happy knowing she will be well loved. Afterwards we joined my family at my Dad's house for a big ol' family cookout. It was so bitter sweet knowing that this would be my last family gathering for almost a year but it was so fantastic to have such a warm and loving last weekend. Boy do I love all of these people!!! Tears were most certainly shed as hugs were squeezed a little tighter and held a little longer. Monday was spent fervently packing our suitcases and clearing out the rest of the apartment. We made a trip or two to the storage unit and a run to grab another suitcase. In the end we each took two large suitcases and one carry on. Crazy to think that we managed to pack our whole lives away and pair down so much! It was a mad dash to get everything in it's place and be sure we had all of our important documents ready for departure. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning making sure we had everything in order, including downloading ebooks and cramming the car/truck with suitcases. Before we knew it Tuesday had arrived. Takeoff day. The day we leave the world as we knew it behind and set of on the adventure of a lifetime. It was a long and emotional day, one that we truly were not prepared for - emotionally at least. It started off by clearing out the last few things from our apartment and making one final trip to the storage unit. Our next stop of the day was to Sue's house (a dear family friend) to show Frank and Beans, our other two cats, their new home. We are so glad that they will have lots of room to run and play in the woods and get into lots of trouble I am sure. Then off to Kim's parents house we went. We wanted to be able to say goodbye to them and also drop off our vehicles that they would be storing for us. After an early lunch and a tender farewell to Sonny and Ellie May, Kim and I loaded up the car and headed to Augusta with Robin and Sue (a dear family friend). When we got into town we made a couple stops to get the toiletries we were taking with us along with a few other important items we needed to purchase like a portable speaker. Also, we had to stop off to get some passport photos for our visa application. Time flew by and way too soon we were saying goodbye to Robin, Sue, Andrea and Zane (who had come to give one last hug). Amanda and Josh brought us down to Portland to meet up with my Dad, Pam, and Brian for a quick dinner, it was nice to have a hearty meal in our stomachs to help settle them down a bit. Then it was off to the airport where we checked in and got ready for boarding. Our last goodbyes were to my Dad, Pam, Brian, Amanda, Josh, and Natilee (who had met us down there). With a few more squeezes we turned to find our gate. And there we were ready for boarding to a place unknown. It was beyond hard to part with everyone, words can't even say. It was most certainly the most difficult day of our entire travel. There we were, sitting at our gate boarding pass in hand, about to embark on a expedition that was so grand, so unthinkable, it seemed to be just a dream up until now - sure to dissolve before it was grasped. Yet, it was here now. All of the planning and prepping seemed to be all a blur. Boarding pass in hand it all sunk in on how real this was. Kim and I kept looking at each other with knowing eyes that asked "Are we really doing this?" Even without asking the question we both knew the answer as we handed over our tickets and stepped into the plane that would be the beginning of a journey that is sure to change our lives in every way. Stay tuned, Myanmar here we come!
I kicked off the weekend by photographing another beautiful wedding! Abbey is a Ultimate Frisbee teammate from college and I was thrilled to photograph her and Jason's special day! Congrats you two!! This week (and next) was all about family! We knew we would want to set aside a good chunck of time to do fun summer things with both of our families before we left so Sunday Kim & I headed up to Avon to join her family for a couple days. We were sure to make a stop at Smalls Falls, one of the best watering holes in the area, a favorite of ours. Robin (Kim's mom) and I took a day to go shopping in North Conway. It was a blast spending time with her and getting all sorts of goodies for Myanmar. The rest of the time was spent laughing and lounging : ) After a quick stop home we packed the car back up and headed to Vermont. My Aunt and Uncle have a camp in Grafton, VT where they hold a weekend long gathering every July 4th. It is a fantastic time to see my extended family (the only time in the year we get to see them usually) as well as have a blast!! There were town parades, bingo, lawn games, fires, lots of rain, and (of course) fireworks!! Happy Independence Day all! While Kim was up visiting her parents on Saturday I went off to have a breakfast date with Katie over in Oxford. I then went over to a house on Range Pond to photograph a small and intimate wedding. It was a quiet afternoon with a potluck BBQ, and children running all around. For Amy & Chris I don't think they would have wanted anything different. On Saturday night we headed over to Meg's house where we invented a game called Adopt-A-Kitchen. It is a "TV Show" where Chef Kimmie goes into friend's houses and makes them dinner. She must make one beverage, one appetizer, and one entree by the end of the night. Part of the challenge is the Host's Choice items which must be included somewhere in the meal. Watch our version below for the fun the was had. A mini photo shoot was also had: Another beach day was held at Reid in the honor of Amanda's Birthday, but do we really need a reason to enjoy the long-awaited sunshine? I think not. We not only joined our family for a beach BBQ but also a group of friends for general beach shenanigans. It was a great day that was only made better by stopping at Lotus for Chinese food on the way home. Also, this is what happens when I leave my phone unattended. For payback I am posting all of these selfies from Sam & Drew as gifs for the world to see. Hehehe Monday I finally heard word back from ISM that they will be sending along our letters for our visas soon. I have been very anxious about getting the correct documentation from them so we can send out for our visas in DC so we can get them back in time before we go. With only 4 weeks until takeoff my stress has been running high mainly because I have not been able to get a hold of the ISM HR person that should have sent me the information weeks ago. We were planning on getting our visas before we go so we can fly directly into Yangon, making it easier on the pets. Even though we found out last week that we could not bring Ellie, we were still planning on bringing my Maine Coon Cat, Macy. When I got the note from ISM stating that they are working on my documentation we decided that it was time to purchase our plane tickets. Of course the flight itinerary that I had picked out and gotten approved was no longer available but I was able to find one very similar to it. After a call to my bank for them to up my daily spending limit on my debit card, I finally had our plane tickets purchased. I printed out the itinerary, receipts, and forms for Macy to have filled out at the vet later that day. This was exactly 31 days before we were set to leave and in order for Macy to be ready she needed certain shots done at least 30 days before flying so we were defiantly cutting it close. I then proceeded to call the airlines to inform them that we would be having a cat fly with us in the plane. The first airline was absolutely no problem (the one that would take us from Portland to JFK). The second one is where it became difficult. I got another very fast-speaking representative that easily took all of my information on our flights and Macy. He then proceeded to tell me the maximum detentions of the pet carriers that were allowed on the plane, I quickly scribbled these down and finished our conversation about baggage fees. After I got off the phone I looked at the dimensions of the carrier that he gave to me, they were in metric so I converted them into inches: Hight 8" - Width and Length 12" Hu? That seemed really small to me so I dug out my ruler and tried to invasion a carrier that small. I then tried to look online for one that small but it was hard to tell how Macy would actually look in them. Off I went to PetCo hoping that they would have small carriers for me to see in person, but they don't even carry them that small. And here it was, we had come all this way with our months of research only to find out that they only let mini cats fly in the planes. Seriously, who has a cat that is that tiny and not a kitten? With Macy's vet appointment drawing closer I had to make the decision and with everything in mind I realize that it simply was just not meant to be. This thought of course makes me extremely sad but there is no way I am stuffing Macy into a shoebox sized space for 25+ hours. I cancelled the vet appointment and began my search for a foster home for Macy. Now that we don't have a reason to fly directly into Yangon we will be traveling to Bangkok to meet up with the rest of my school and get our visas there the day before. I emailed ISM to inform them of the change and cancelled our plane tickets. I feel very defeated after fighting so hard and doing so much research for the past 5 months and to have it all come down to this. But alas, so it is. The rest of the week was spent packing and doing various moving related tasks, such as getting my wedding dress dry cleaned and packed away, and ordering our contacts for the next year. It seems that the more I pack the more messy the house gets. There is stuff everywhere but I am very happy to be purging items that have long been used. It feels so nice to have less things around, I wish I had been able to go through my things long ago. I know I will miss my things when we are away but it will also be nice not to be surrounded by stuff at ever turn. So far almost all of my boxes are either books or artwork. The many pieces of artwork have proved very difficult to pack up. I have a good number of oddly shaped ceramic objects (like my medusa below) that involved a great deal of bubble wrap and packing peanuts to ensure their safety. I hope that everything gets tucked away carefully. On Thursday Amanda came over and we made up her wedding invitations, we could not be happier with how they came out! Friday Amanda, Josh, Toothless, and I headed to Marche because it was Kim's very last day of work as the manager and head chef. From Kim:
My last day of work was sad yet happy all at the same time. A bunch of my regular customers came in to say goodbye and get one last meal made by me. They all wished me good luck, said they were going to miss me, and told me not to drink the water. I never saw myself working in an open kitchen (where the customers can see and talk with the chef and cooks) but now I know that when I have my own restaurant it is going to be an open kitchen for sure. I loved that the customers got to see how their food was made and all of the work going into it (and could tell that it wasn't just popped in a microwave). I didn't realize how much I loved interacting one on one with the customers, getting to know their names, their order preferences, and all about their lives. Joking and chatting with them as they came in made my job so meaningful and pleasurable. At the end of the day when I went over to turn my keys in I realized how much I learned while being at Marche and how it has made me grow as a chef and become a better person overall. I got to work under a great chef named Justin who taught me a number of skills that I will be taking with me wherever I end up. He was also the first chef to buy me my own professional chefs knife which means more to me than words can say. I will certainly miss Marche but I know that there are grand adventures to be had. The weekend started out with celebrating my little brother, Drew's 14th birthday. Every year I let him pick an activity to do on his birthday and this year he decided to go to an amusement park. So off we headed to Six Flags New England for a day of thrills. After the four hour drive we were beyond excited to get on some rides. We got our jitters out on some small rides before we headed for one of the roller-coasters. Little did we know that Drew is afraid of roller-coasters. Yep. But that didn't stop us from having a blast jumping on and off different rides and hitting the water park. It was a great day and we were exhausted after. That didn't stop us from waking up early and heading to the beach to meet up with the family. The day was filled with grilling, ice cream cake, ocean exploring, and laughing. Although we decided to leave our phones and camera in the car at Six Flags we have plenty of photos from the beach. On Sunday Kim and I headed to one of our favorite festivals in Maine, the annual Old Port Fest. One Sunday a year they close down all of the streets in the Old Port (downtown Portland) and fill it up to the brim with vendors, stages with live music, Maine craftspeople, and lots of food! We spent the sunny, sunny afternoon seeing the sights and tasting the treats. I joined an old frisbee teammate to photograph her and her fiancé for their upcoming wedding. We met up on the Eastern Prom then headed to Portland Headlight to splash in the Andrew Wyeth-like waves. On Monday Kim had to go to the dentist to get some work done on her teeth. It was not fun but we are very glad to get it taken care of before we go. She was also able to get her very last round of shots done which means we are all vaccinated!!! Kim and I were able to join my family in watching Drew graduate from 8th grade. I simply cannot believe that he is going to be in High School next year eeeeeeeeeekk. I don't know what those HS teachers and administrators are going to do with him. June 10th came on Tuesday and with it our 4 year anniversary of when we met as well as our 1 month anniversary of our wedding. This past month has flown by but we could not be happier. We decided on an easy night of dinner out and visiting one of our most favorite lookout spots where we have had many dates. It was a lovely night to take a break and just enjoy being with each other. And a photo from just a couple months after we met : ) Before we knew it, it was Wednesday and we were back at it. It was Field Day at school which meant children running around having a blast all day. It is always fun to see kids be kids. Here is our annual Rainbow picture before the start of the day. I'm sitting on the playground. Thursday and Friday flew by and before I knew it I was watching my West Paris students walk out of the building for the last time and, arms loaded, I shortly followed. My last week of teaching elementary Art in Maine (at least for the next couple years). Still as I am writing this it doesn't seem real. I'm not sure when it will hit me, the fact that I will most likely never see any of the students that I have worked so closely with again. The students that I have laughed with, been inspired by, shared my passion with, the first children that I have truly called students of my own. I have been getting ready for this for a while now and there were times when it didn't feel like it was ever going to come but alas, it has ended. This is a letter I received from one of my dearest students: In each of my last classes I shared with the students where we will be headed. I put together this presentation to give them a bit of a feel for Myanmar and then I gave them time to ask whatever questions they had for me. These questions ranged from "When are you leaving?" to "Do they eat bugs?" - from "How are you getting there?" to "Are you afraid?" - from "Who is going with you?" to "How long will you be there?" It was a great time to be personal with the students who have challenged me and inspired me daily for the past two years. This is the presentation I shared with them: To end what was a very surreal and emotional week, my co-workers took Kim and me out to dinner on Friday night. In an echo of our many after-work drink dates, it was simply the perfect way to cap my time at Rowe. I'm going to miss my Rowe family, the students and fellow teachers who made my time at Rowe so meaningful. |
Alisa & KimTwo expats living, teaching, and eating their way across this beautiful world Archives
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