"Smith&BoggsAdventure": the basics

The following information should be made known before the city recaps.

1.  Theme Song

Given our previous experiences of getting lost and making fools of ourselves all over the island that is Taiwan it was decided that 'performances' like these warranted a theme song.  One of us has a musical background (the guess as to which one should be easy for those that have ever heard me sing--or asked me to stop singing, for that matter) and she used her talents to write us an appropriately ridiculous theme song.

"It's a Smith&BoggsAdventure!  Anything can happen--we could go anywhere."

Sure it's lacking in length and general rhythm but it still suits.

To refresh your memory here's the (sharp looking) team on a previous adventure to Green Island:

2.  Goals

Before setting out on our epic post-contract adventure we agreed on what our goals would be.

• Ride an elephant
• Hike the great wall of China
• sing "Mulan" songs whilst hiking the Great Wall of China

 If we didn't do these things our trip would be deemed a failure.

And now to the adventure itself...

Formosa to the low-country (and everything in between).

It didn't go the way that we had intended when we set off from Taiwan for the great "Smith&BoggsAdventure."  It lasted a bit longer than we imagined that it would--different locations, too.  And there's no need to even mention that I have been the worst at keeping this blog updated.  Though there are two rather heavy, very extensive notebooks that would disagree with any lack of documentation on my part.  They are substantial in size and are held together with industrial-sized rubber bands.

On November 19th I boarded a flight home (to South Carolina) from Dublin, Ireland.  There were a lot of cities between Maddie's and my realization that it wasn't the right time for Berlin and my arrival in Beaufort--eight cities (and their outlying territories), four countries, a few more trains and a handful of flights (there was a boat, or two, tossed in as well).

We made the decision very early upon our arrival in Berlin that the job front wasn't strong at that time of the year and we'd rather spend our remaining time in the 'schengen zone' on traveling instead.  Though we had three months on our tourist visa I can't say there was the same amount of time for my bank account, so we landed on our end goal of being home for Thanksgiving.  I had big plans to surprise a few members of my family (and nailed it, thanks for asking).

Traveling the globe in an east to west manner (literally, as we made our way back to the Western world and the life/food we're familiar with) gives one a lot of stories to recount and quite a few languages to do it in.

• "Smith&BoggsAdventure"
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• Beijing, China
• Yekaterinburg, Russia
• Moscow, Russia
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• Berlin, Germany
• not classified in any particular portion of the adventure
•  "Smith&BoggsAdventure: Expansion Pack"
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Venice, Italy
• Cinque Terre, Italy
• Florence, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Sicily, Italy
• London, England
• Dublin, Ireland
• Beaufort, South Carolina, USA

 I'd like to take some time to recount how I went from this...

to this:
















From this...

...to this:

And, most importantly, this...

...to this...

...with a lot of this in between:

Individual city recounts are coming.  Get excited.  A lot of descriptions of food are yet to be had.

The best quotes and the hardest goodbye.

Here's the best of the best from the kindergarteners throughout the year (at least the ones that I remembered to write down):

• Jimmy raises his hand as if it's a gun, pointed at me:
• Me: No, thank you Jimmy.  No 'bang bang,' please.
• Jimmy nods and after 'holstering' his 'weapon' blows a kiss at me instead.
• "Teacher Lindsay and Jimmy and Jimmy and teacher Lindsay and--and--and--say sorry!"  ~Victor (sometimes explaining a problem can be so complicated in a second language)
• Pointing at my necklace:
• Jimmy:  Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy says, Jimmy says--uhhh--Jimmy says yes!
• Me: Do you like my necklace?
• Jimmy (nods enthusiastically): Yes!
• "We are now at Keelung Station."  ~Peter (playing with blocks; obviously someone's been paying attention on the commute to school)
•  Unauthorized love pats had occurred:
• Me: That's harassment!  I'm calling the proper authorities and filing a report on you.
• Jimmy:  No!  Ugh...Jimmy is angry.

Let's toss in a quote from an older class, for good measure:

• "Ouch!  That hurt my nipper!"  ~Alex (when a classmate accidentally hit him in the chest)

And the winner of the quote contest comes from a class that wasn't even mine but simply a long-term substitute situation...though I think he got it right:

• "Teacher Lindsay, you are not a serious people."  ~Rocco

I got a big group hug on the last day of kindergarten.

 

You can't say they're not creative.

He's actually asked me to call him by the name 'Easonosaurus' in class.

That doesn't exactly answer the question--though it is informative.

Sometimes when Amber is absent Peter gets lonely during snack time.  Good thing he has that framed picture of her to keep him company.

Celebrity lookalikes in the Elephant class.

I feel as though the app took a few liberties to compare Jimmy to Kevin Bacon.

 

  They did do a nice job with Alex though.  Come to think of it, he does look a little like Donald Faison.  Also (fun fact), Alex calls me 'Teacher Messy' and I haven't done a damn thing to correct it.

"Ted": pop-culture references ignite American laughter.

The following lines in "Ted" were responsible for fits of uncontrollable laughter by the two Americans sitting in the back of the theater, while the rest of the audience was absolutely silent.  Like, dead silent.

"But wait, you can't eat your pudding if you haven't had your meat."

"Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't."

***

In other news, the 'King Kong in Tokyo' line featured in "Spiderman" enjoyed a boisterous response by the Taiwanese.

It's complicated.

Information Desk Man (pointing back and forth between the two of us): Unintelligible Chinese mumbles, ma?

Me: I think he's asking if we're sisters.

Maddie (to the man): Unintelligible Chinese mumble.

Information Desk Man (confused expression): Hao (ok).

Maddie (to me): I told him you weren't my little sister.

Me: I thought 'little sister' was mei-mei.

Maddie: Huh.  Ok.  Then I told him you weren't my grandmother.