So I’m off on the Disney World adventure this afternoon. Two of our Mathcounts students were among the 4-highest scoring of all international schools, and (since one was the overall highest scorer) I get to be the official State Department Overseas Schools team coach! The award includes an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando, so we are heading out tonight.

As I was getting all the last-minute paperwork in order, I started thinking about the huge distances involved in this travel. We fly from Jakarta to Seoul, then to Chicago, then to Orlando. At the end of the tournament, we return via JFK (New York) and Seoul. I added up the distances involved in all the different legs, and got a total of 21,954 miles. Since the circumference of the earth at the equator (according to Google) is 24,901 miles, we are traveling 88% of the way around the world.

That made me curious as to what would be on the exact opposite place on the planet, and my curiosity led me to this (unscientific) site. It turns out that we are pretty close to being exactly across the planet from Bogota, Columbia, and that not many other places match up with other land masses. Checking it out, we were almost directly across from the USA when we lived in Mumbai, but because we were in the same hemisphere it shortened things up a bit.

In any case, it is time to hit the road for more than 36 hours of total travel time – one way! I leave the house at 5:30 pm on Tuesday and figure to get into the Disney World hotel around 7:30 pm Wednesday in Orlando – or 6:30 am Thursday back in Jakarta.

Jet lag city, here we come!!

Breck and I had a chance to go with our respective grade levels on an “Extended School Program” – what we called in India “Week Without Walls.” He took off for the beauty of Bali, and I headed into the terraced rice paddies near Bogor.

It was a week full of adventure and learning with 200+ 6th graders, and  – while I am glad to be back – it was a lot of fun! Here are some shots from the week (the same ones posted earlier on Facebook). Enjoy (and envy me as I now prepare for my trip to Disney World!!):

Since Karla, Rob, and Shari had a mini family reunion last night, I  thought I’d join them!

Alea participated in the school’s dance production this week – Step Up 4 – and we had a great time going as a family. I got to see both productions (1 in the afternoon and 1 in the evening), while Breck and Susan just got to see the evening performance (Breck was actually at his very first tennis experience, which he apparently loved and is excited about continuing!).

Congratulations to Alea as she worked hard for a good cause, moving it on stage with her GK Club members!

With Susan out of town for the week at a conference in Italy (lucky girl!), the kids and I have the house to ourselves. As a good father, I know that I should do my best to keep them on their toes, and I take advantage of every opportunity to drive them mad!

Nearly, every day, we have an Indonesian ice cream man pass through our neighborhood at least once, and often two or three times. We’ve never bought from him, and probably never will, as the quality of his freezer is sketchy, to say the least.

We always know when he’s around, however, because of the tune that he plays as he pedals by. I can’t remember what the ice cream trucks of my youth sounded like (actually, I probably could if I tried, but that level of effort would make my brain ache), but this tune is memorable. I found a recording of it, cleaned it up a bit in Audacity, and played it on “repeat” for about 5 minutes this morning.

Alea and Breck were not pleased.

But it was fun to do!

Want to hear an Indonesian ice cream tune? Be my guest: