2007 Year in Review

This year has been typically adventurous for us, as we’ve been in 6 countries and 16 states. We started our year in The Bahamas, where we racked up a two year total of 24 visits from family and friends. We’re happy to be back in the US, but have noted a decrease in visitors since we’ve moved closer. Don’t think we won’t track to see who visits us in China to see if it was us or The Bahamas you really wanted to see!
The Bahamas was beautiful, and will probably remain one of the highlights of our time in the Foreign Service. We had beaches, great weather, good friends and a wonderful place to live. My work in Nassau as a Political Officer continued to be fantastic. Among other things, I got to spend some time working aboard a Coast Guard Cutter patrolling for migrants and drugs in the Caribbean and I saw the fruition of a lot of effort to establish a Human Rights non-governmental organization in The Bahamas (http://haitianministries.blogspot .com/2007/06/profile-on-bahamas-human-rights-network.html.) We will miss the people in The Bahamas the most, and didn’t enjoy our second taste of leaving behind valued friends that will recur for the next 20 years.
In July we came home for 6 weeks of “home leave” – a Congressionally mandated reintroduction to US culture. Not that The Bahamas was a big cultural challenge, but we were happy to enjoy one of the perks of the Foreign Service – funded time off to travel. During this time, Conor and I went on a men’s only RV trip (read: Kate won’t be caught dead in an RV) with my dad, and the 3 generations of Floyds had a great time with strippers and beer, err, driving up the California coast to Oregon. Kate joined us in Oregon for a great trip to Yellowstone National Park, which is the most beautiful place on the planet. (At least it is in the summer!) Then we drove cross-country with a 4 year old. Are we there yet? How ‘bout now? Now?
We’ll be in DC until August learning Mandarin before leaving for Shanghai. Our original panic over learning Mandarin appears justified. Chinese is a complete pain in the patootie. (www.pinyin.info/readings /texts/moser.html.) It has no words for yes and no. A simple thing, really, and one I will change when I’m invited to correct the language. Add to that the lack of a phonetic writing system, grammar rules that can only be described as a mixture of calculus and voodoo, the innate ability Chinese people have to speak faster than a hummingbird on crack, and you’ve only got an inkling of the trouble. The real problem: there are only 368 base Chinese words, with tens of thousands of meanings distinguishable only by tone and context. The word “shi” alone has 46 meanings. “Chang chang zhang chang chang chang chang chang ge,” means “Mr. Chang, the factory foreman, often sings long, happy songs.” Lovely language – I will be suicidal by April.
Kate is pregnant! I should have put that up front, but those of you dedicated enough to make it through a paragraph of griping about Chinese are rewarded with some real news. After a couple of years of trying, we (and by we I mean not me, thank God) are due at the beginning of June. Kate just finished 10 weeks of the nauseous, nothing-sounds-good-except-some-crazy-craving-that-Greg-has-to-go-out-in-freezing-weather-in-rush-hour-but-won’t-sound-good-when-he-gets-back-anyway stage of pregnancy. Honestly, it is a miracle that a pregnant woman can ingest no food yet still manage to throw up 8 times a day. It defies the laws of nature to create matter from thin air, and – properly harnessed - could be the key to solving the oil crisis. Kate is currently enjoying a happy respite until the get-this-darn-thing-off-my-kidneys stage of pregnancy starts, during which time she continues to love a lifestyle that gives her the chance to spend lots of time with Conor, and will begin Mandarin class soon. I suspect that her 10 weeks in bed sick was merely an elaborate ploy to get me to appreciate how our unique lifestyle requires someone dedicated full time to logistics and family sanity. I had a brief view of life with Kate out of commission and I didn’t like it one bit. Not that it was great for her either!
Conor continues to thrive in our active, unsettled life. He is flexible, easy going and scary smart. He’s 5 chronologically, but about 35 emotionally, which makes him about 20 years my senior. He loves math, which has me worried, but seems to be okay otherwise, so fingers crossed. He loves soccer, playing on the computer (www.toontown.com), and is a gentle and kind young man. He’s pretty excited about getting a little brother or sister, and is going to be a terrific help and example. He has suggested we name the baby “Super-Soft Hugs-a-Lot” after his favorite stuffed bear. This is unlikely, though “Super-Loud Poops-a-Lot” has a nice ring to it.
On to our sad news: Shadow passed away last year. We’ll miss him. He earned his name, never detaching himself from my side, and it’s hard to come home and not find him waiting (not-so-patiently) at the door. Never the brightest, he couldn’t be faulted for lack of effort - he would break down a wall (and often tried) to be with us and would have jumped off a cliff for us. We remember him as a great friend and family member.
As I look back over our year, I think about the amazing power of a little effort. The Bahamas Human Rights Network is doing great work for the rights of the disenfranchised in The Bahamas, as is the Bahamas National Council for Disability. Some of my favorite people in the world took very little money, added a vision of equality and a bit of elbow grease and are making something great. These are all normal people, abnormal only for their willingness to act on what most people just think about. It seems you can accomplish almost anything with enough determination, even learn Mandarin!
We leave 2007 hoping to continue to make new friends while reconnecting with old ones as we move across the globe. Until then, we hope that this blog brings us a bit closer, and helps us to overcome the distance that our new life may create between friends and family.