Week of April 25th, 2014

Starting off with a couple of follow-ups from previous entries.  Paul's team bowed out in the Elite Eight round of the debate finals last weekend.  He didn't seemed bummed and said he had a good time but didn't get a lot out of him.   We did talk about NY pizza and he wondered why they all seem so enamored of it.  Super greasy cheese falling off of a limp crust.  I'm with ya dude.  I heard from another Dad with a kid on the team that they felt strong about their written debate skills but were unprepared for the live debate format of the finals and that they were coached to be more confrontational than the other teams more conciliatory approaches.  Overall, an amazing performance from a bunch of Freshmen and the good news is that they are already planning on entering again next year when the topic will be;  “Resolved: Mass surveillance is not a justified method of governmental intelligence gathering."

I also followed-up with Paul regarding his break-up with the girlfriend.  I had Carolyn ask who initiated the split and he pointed to himself but did not further elaborate.  I respect his privacy there and did not pursue that line of questioning.  However I did have to tell him the story about meeting the parents at the election program and how I got the stink eye from the parents.  He laughed.  It is a small student community and there are mutual friendships aplenty.  The fellas are not taking sides but apparently, the girls are uniform in icing him out of get togethers currently, so he has been coming home from school a lot earlier.  He is learning some hard but valuable lessons.

Regarding the election, found out that I did not win.  Mixed feelings on that...have said that the Board's functions don't really fit my personality so am not busted up and work better storming the windmill as a rable rouser, but the competitor in me still hates to lose anything.  The three candidates I voted for all lost so that tells me that I was way off base in what I felt was best for the school.  Two of the three winners were the two Chinese candidates ,so my anti-Chinese platform obviously didn't play well.  I have a bunch of other thoughts on it that would only sound like sour grapes ,so I will simply quote Forrest Gump..."that's all I've got to say about that."

Had a discussion with Betty in the car this morning about sleep and how I must be getting older as I seem to be sleeping less.  Have typically woken up a few minutes before the 6am alarm clock, but now am up at least an hour before, and sometimes more.  Doesn't matter if I go to bed on time, late or after a long night getting boozed up, it's always 5AM get up time.  She said that older people needing less sleep is a myth so came home and WebMD searched and sure enough, that is a fallacy.  I have always loved an hour nap and with my current schedule, seem to work one in most days, so that probably has something to do with it.  I think I need to get off my ass more and get a workout in everyday instead of the occasional one.  I do crave soup all the time though and that is definitely old person stuff.  WebMD is silent on that topic.

Heard a great new term the other day to describe whitey in Asia...the White Tuxedo.  To define it, will use it in a sentence; I was driving in Shanghai and was pulled over by the police for an infraction.  When the policeman came to my window, he saw I was wearing the White Tuxedo and told me to get lost. 

Here's a tip when visiting Taipei.  You will likely take a taxi as they are everywhere and cheap, and when you do, make sure you have enough small bills/change to pay them close to the fare and always give them whatever extra you pay as a tip.  They aren't expecting tips as they are almost never given.  The reason that I always tell them to keep the change has to do with their aggressive nose picking.  I've alluded to it previously, but nose picking here is widespread...one might call it the national pastime...and the true champion nose pickers are the taxi drivers.  Heavily tinted windows are common in all vehicles with the exception of the taxis, so you can catch a glimpse of the drivers really working it and cannot tell you how many times I've seen them using that long pinky nail to dig really deep.  I saw this one driver yesterday going at himself with such gusto that his knuckle kept disappearing.  You do not want to accept anything he touches, which is why keep the change is an essential term one should learn in mandarin.  You won't find this kind of useful advice in any handbook. 

Have yammered on too long already so will plan to write up Vietnam next week, but I finally found my trip notebook and realized I missed a couple of Cambodian things.  We had guides for our two days of touring.  A driver and an English speaking guide.  Sounds kind of extravagant but the country is so terribly poor that making $8 a day is a good wage.  I think we are a good group to tour with as we are constantly joking and make our guides feel at ease so they can have a good time too.  Our two guys were funny this time.  They would complain about the VIP's, calling them Very Irritating Persons and how they were both MBA's...Married But Available. 

Nice guys...you can see in that picture how slight of frame they are.  These two seemed as well fed and tall as any of the dudes, so you can get a feel for how generations of a diet low on protein can affect the DNA of a population.  At 14, Paul was way bigger than nearly everyone we met, and 11 year old Carolyn was as tall as a lot of the women.  As for me...we were strolling through the touristy stalls and I wanted to buy a t-shirt.  I finally found one I liked and the lady had to dig deep to find a size that would fit.  The tag said 4X, which kinda hurt but bought it anyway only to get it home and find that it was too small.  Moooooo. 

So far, we have spent time in Singapore, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, and it is striking how different the people are in a general level.   The Cambodians seemed to be by far the mellowest/most passive.  Perhaps it is due to them being over 96% Buddhist, but I think it is caused by the previous 40 years of being thrown back to the stone age and the fear that it could come back in an instant.  The people don't seem angry, nor do they feel particularly happy, they just are.  The lack of dynamism that is the fuel in other countries just doesn't exist and cannot equate it with any other place.  There are examples of the hell they've been through as you can see disabled and malnourished people everywhere, but the most poignant example I saw was bazooka girl.  That is what the guide called her.  She is a 25 year old woman whose family were all killed by bazooka fire.  She survived the attack but her face was horrifically disfigured.  Our guide says she just sits at the entrance of one of the temples eeking out an existence selling whatever she can and accepting the charity of strangers.  You root for this country and these people but wonder how many decades it will take to shake their past.

Week of April 18th, 2014

When I have some time to veg in front of the TV, there is no greater gift than stumbling across a good-bad movie.  May I recommend to you Four Christmases.  Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star as a dating couple that have to visit each of their wacky divorced parents on Christmas.  Expectedly cheesy at the end, but mindless fun for the most part and several of laugh out loud moments.

For Spring Break this year, we had the good fortune of visiting more of Asia.  The trip was 4 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia and then a few more in Hanoi and Halong Bay Vietnam.  Siem Reap was recently voted by TripAdvisor users as the 8th best tourist destination and is the city in Cambodia where THE temples are.  Angkor Wat is the most famous, but there are many others.  Have seen them in pictures/TV a million times but never really studied their history.  They date from the period of the Khmer Empire, about 800 to 1400AD.  That Empire controlled most of SE Asia including most  of what is today Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.  The temples were originally built as Hindu shrines, but later converted to Buddhist when that religion became dominant in the empire.  Cambodia today is 98% Buddhist today. 

The temples fell into ruin with the fall of the dynasty in the 1300's and were literally forgotten as Cambodia became a vassal state for the next 500 years and were reclaimed by the jungle.  Drought, the plague, the rise of a stronger Thailand and the switch to Buddhism are reasons given for the decline.  The story of a European explorer taking a photograph of a butterfly and accidentely discovering them in the 1800's was told to us a couple times.  Their rehabilitation has taken decades with significant interruptions due to war and genocide.  Each temple seems to have a sponsor that has cleared it from the jungle...Indian, Japanese and French at the ones we saw.

They are pretty amazing.  I think Angkor Thom was my favorite as it had bas relief (I love that word) that depicted everyday life rather than the religious themed ones at Angkor Wat. 

 

 

Perhaps I liked Angkor Thom better than Angkor Wat as we ran into this pack of monkeys running around.  They seemed friendly enough, at least not the aggressive face ripping kind. 

 

The ones carrying the babies were too cute.

Paul identified with them on a personal level.

Except for the clothes and lack of visible tail, they are dead ringers.  You can obviously see what side of the family the boy takes after.  Something I am embarrassed not to have known previously is the difference between apes and monkeys.  It is the lack of a tail.  Other than the monkeys, Angkor Thom was special as they had the elephant ride available.  15 bucks for a 25 minute stroll around the temple, which is a fantastic way to see the place.  In this photo, as I am mounting the beast, you can actually see him wince in pain.

A fun family moment.  After, they let us give them a whole pineapple for a snack.  Elephants are really great...second best in the animal kingdom to the giraffe in my book.

The third temple complex we visited on the first day was the one called Ta Prohm.  They have excavated that one in a way so you can see how they had been reclaimed by the jungle.  The banyan trees and their amazing root systems growing through the buildings looks like it is out of a movie.

We soon learned that it is right out of a movie.  We were told at every turn how Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed here.  I got the feeling that the filming of this movie in Cambodia is the best thing to happen to that country pretty much since the temples were erected.  Our guide thought that there was a channel that runs it on an endless loop.  With Angelina Jolie adopting a Cambodian child, I think she could win the Cambodian Presidential election (should they ever have a fair one of course).

On day two, part of our tour took us to Tonle Sap lake (the largest lake in SE Asia) where we took a boat out to a floating viliage. 

About 700 people live in this villiage and about 20,000 live in similar ones around the lake.  Primarily fishermen, these villiages have stores and gardens.  Power is supplied by batteries and there is an industry for recharging them.  One thing they don't have are bathrooms, which makes you think twice about jumping in the water.  On the ride out, the banks of the lake are covered in garbage. 

Was nice to get on the water with a bit of a breeze.

Another stop on day two was popping into the Land Mine museum.  We went to a killing field the day before and while powerful, lacked the punch I wanted the kids to take away.  The Land Mine museum however did and is a must see.  The guy that put it together is named Aki Ra and was featured a couple years ago as a CNN Hero.  Conscripted into the military as a child, later became a leader in finding and removing land mines.  He then opened this museum on his own documenting their history and the horrors they caused.  Attached to the museum is an orphanage housing children that lost their parents due to land mines.  Incredible guy.  The displays showing all of the ordinance and documenting the quantity of mines and how many people were killed and maimed by them was impactful,

but what really hit hardest was the wall of testimonials written by the kids at the orphanage.  Written through the eyes of little kids, the honesty of the letters was touching.  Kids whose moms were drunks, or given away by their fathers, detailing the day their parents were killed by mines...hard to read but totally captivating and had to read every one.  One letter detailed how his father lost a leg to a mine and they fitted him with a wooden prosthetic.  Sometime later, his dad is in a field and they hear another blast and he worries that his dad was killed by another one. but the other men came back laughing as his father did step on a landmine but only lost his wooden leg.  They called him Mr. Lucky.

The downtown of Siem Reap caters to the tourist trade.  Night markets selling souveniers and restaurants of varying menus and prices.    It is Cambodia's third largest city and a huge source of foreign income.  I was struck by the complete lack of the Western world present...not a single Starbucks or KFC was seen our entire visit. 

The cuisine is a blend of Thai and Vietnamese influences and was good overall.  The only dish I found as unique to them was a curry cooked in banana leaves called Amok.  Discovered it early in our stay and was in love immediately.  Think I ate it 4 times with various meats added and know I will be searching for it the rest of my life.

The most unusual aspect of Cambodia was that the entire economy runs on USD.  All prices are given in dollars, they only accept them at shops, giving change in their own currency only if less than a dollar, and the ATM's only supply notes in greenbacks.  Have seen places where it is used, but not to the exclusion of that countries own currency.  So bizzare...are there other such places? 

Finally, I think my favorite thing about Cambodia is how they greet each other.  As it is 98% Buddhist, everyone greets you in typical Buddhist style by giving the Namaskara Mudra.

"What is Namaskara Mudra? Namaskara, or Anjali mudra, is the hand gesture that evokes greeting another being with the utmost respect and adoration for the Divine in all. As you can see, the greeting is expressed in a form of prayer coming from one's heart or the third eye.

The Namaskara Mudra can be expressed with palms at the heart level or at the forehead. Why? Because only with the heart, or with a deeper spiritual insight (third eye) can one truly see that we are all expressions of the same light."

Such an absolutely peaceful and beautiful greeting, I found myself giving it back to them right away.  Since returning, I have been experimenting with meditation.  Not sure if it is for me as it is all about clearing the mind and there are a lot of sick voices up there that won't shut up.  I have noticed a difference in that I am a bit calmer about life's little annoyances.  We'll see.

Except for the stifling heat, loved everything about Cambodia and Siem Reap.  If you can go, go, just try to arrange your trip in the Winter time.  Will tackle Vietnam next week.



Week of April 11th, 2014

Hiya...got back from vacation last Saturday and had a terrific time.  This week for me has been all about the school board election and am gonna detail that and put the trip recap off a week.  However I had to share this article I just read on Yahoo.  It is Trip Advisors annual list of top 20 tourist destinations.  Not sure when Trip Advisor took over the world of travel planning, but it has been a valuable and trustworthy source for things to do when planning a vacation for me in the last year.  You have to learn how to wade through the reviews and take them with a grain of salt, but now have a great feel for it and consider it my travel bible. 


Look at numbers 8 & 9...we just got back from both.  Who would have guessed?  Uh, we did. 

This week was the first of two Meet the Candidates programs at school.  The school community is invited to meet the 6 candidates (for 3 spots) and the program consists of 3 minute introduction speeches by each of  us, an hour of questions from the audience, and then 1 minute closing statements.

I've taught a fair amount of classes in my day, have given speeches on work related topics several times and was a pre-race MC for the Beat the Bridge 10k for several years.  I don't search it out but am not typically afraid of a microphone or vamping in front of a crowd.  That was until the topic was the one I dread the most, which is boasting about me.  Have been running thoughts about what I was going to say in my head for a couple weeks now, wrote it down on Monday and then committed it to memory.  It was in the style you see here...obviously a bit more formal, but still had my "touch". 

Then Betty sends me an email the night before to wish me luck.  She starts with "I know you are going to do great".  Thanks for remembering honey...but then adds,"....just keep your humor in check until AFTER the election."  Shit.  I'm now officially bumped, but decide to ignore her and go with my gut.  Until 2:33AM on show day.  That's when I sit up straight in bed and look at the clock and decide I am going to tear the whole thing apart and start anew.  Took about an hour or two to sterilize and think it is OK.  Did get back in the sack for a few more winks but had to wake up at 4:30 to get Paul ready for his NYC trip.  Damn you Betty.  What I finally said in my three minute opener is at the bottom of the entry for posterity.

The opener seemed to go fine.  The other candidates are all very qualified...CEO's of this, Chairman of the Board of that.  Honestly, I cannot imagine why they would want to give up what has to be a limited amount of free time to do another thing.  Are they power freaks, hate being with their family, or just better than me?  One of the audience questions was how they thought they could devote the time it would take to be a good board member, so I smoked them on that one.  Most of that Q&A is a blur.  I remember one discussion about refunding the endowment and the other candidates used all the corporate financial terms while I said the same thing by saying that my goal was to stuff (the superintendent) Sharon's pockets full of cash.  I also recall some question where the discussion of work load levels for students in school, Western v Asian styles of education and part of my explanation included how "the school kicked Paul's publicly educated butt the first semester."  There were others like that I think, so you get the gist...Populist Me.  I definitely received the most laughs, so got that goin' for me.  The whole thing is on the web somewhere.  I'll never look for it but you can if you want and tell me what you think.  On second thought, would rather not know what you think cause I know you'd be lying if you said I did great.

One thing that distracted me during the proceedings in a bad way was that we had a time limit in our replies, and with 30 seconds to go, one of the election committee members in the back would hold up a yellow card signifying that time was almost up.  A couple of times when they did that during my ramblings, my mind went totally blank.  Not only couldn't remember what I was saying, but what the damn question was.  Think I rallied a bit.  Maybe.  Anyway, will be better prepared for that the second round next Wednesday. 

Another distraction was one of the audience members.  I've been to a few informal gatherings in the lead-up to this thing to press the flesh, and at one of the lunches I met this lady dressed in purple.  It happened to be her birthday and they gave her this lovely purple candle.  The gift giver says, "you know her...it's all about the purple".  In the last two weeks, I now seem to see her everywhere and she is dressed head to toe in purple every time.  And you can guess who is sitting dead center right in front of me during the program.  Why do some people do that?  Einstein used to wear the same type of shirt and pants every day so as to not have to devote any mental energy thinking about his clothes, but this ain't that.  Way too much thought goes into this life's work.  There has to be some psychological term for it and will have to remember to ask my sister.  I think how much I'd like to get a glimpse of her closet and for a brief moment during one of the other candidates monologues, I wondered if all of her underwear is purple too. 



Oh man...Barney doesn't wear underwear!  Now I'm grossed out.  I wonder if any of the other candidates had this thought?

In the audience were the parents of Paul's girlfriend.  I hadn't met them previously, but talked to the dad once when Paul invited her over and he called to give me the verbal stink eye.  I realized they were there when he asked a question as they have to introduce themselves.  After the program, I make a bee-line to introduce myself and he is rather cool and the wife has her arms folded and a look on her face like I just took a steaming dump on her shoe.  That chit-chat ended quickly enough, but that evening when I pick Carolyn up from school, she asks me if Paul broke up with the girl.  Having no idea, I ask her why she asked and she said the girl told her friend, who told her sister, who is friends with Carolyn and told her.  Meow.  Paul is still on the road so I don't know if it's true, but suspect the gossip pipeline at school is fairly reliable, and it would explain my sour reception by the parents.  Oh well, just lost two votes there...damn you Paul.    

My closing was pretty strong and I end that with a blurb about how this election and how that "being a candidate has forced me to go outside of my usual circle and talk to people that I would not otherwise have had a chance to meet and in doing so, have made a lot of wonderful connections.  Regardless of the outcome on April 21^st, I am already a winner." 

That is absolutely true.  I walk around the halls these days and many people smile and come up to talk to me.  They like our Sultan picture, something I said or just to thank me for running.  While I am certainly not a shy guy, I am very guarded around new people.  Think it has to do with the fact that I know my uncontrollable crassness just comes roaring out like projectile vomit, so I've trained myself to wade in slow.  Betty on the other hand can walk into a room of strangers and have 10 new best friends in 10 minutes, which drives me crazy with envy.  The quantity of all these new interactions coupled with the rote replies of a candidate and the need for me to put myself out there is helping me be a better mingler.

After the program was some chit chat with the audience and I was talking with the head of the PTA with whom I am friendly.  This schools PTA is pretty damn impressive.  Have had to study up a lot on the school to be ready to speak about it for this election and in my opinion, the PTA does more for the school than the Board does by miles.  In my heart, I think I would be better serving them than the Board as I consider myself a grunt.  Roll up the sleeves and get dirty, thank you sir, may I have another, and tell me how high boss.  Board is wine and cheese and the PTA is cheap beer and peanuts...this school is sorta fancy, so maybe some imported beer and a nice healthy wrap.  I'm telling the PTA lady this (more diplomatically of course) and say that if this school board thing doesn't work out that I would be coming to her to see what I could do to help them.  She says they already have me on their radar in just such an event and already have a few ideas...that they would love to have more male parent involvement.  So win lose or draw, looks like I'll be getting some work to do.

Here is the speech from Wednesday.  I have to write a new speech for next week...think I'm gonna let it all hang out.

Good morning, my name is John Imbrogulio and I am candidate # 3.  I have two children at TAS…a 9^th grader named Paul, and a 5^th grader named Carolyn

I was born and raised in Southern California, but have much experience in international education.  I majored in International Relations at American University in Washington DC and spent two years at university overseas, first in Australia and then in Argentina. 

Since school, I have worked non-stop for 28 years and have had 3 careers  in fields that are not only international in focus but instilled in me skills that will serve the TAS school board well. 

My first career was in Customs Compliance.  While at a Nordstrom, a major retailer in the US, being the Customs Compliance manager forced me to be detail driven to master the minutia of International laws and Federal regulations, while at the same time having to sell the importance of Compliance to the entire company.  It is one of those jobs that if it went wrong, you ended up on the news and then on the street.  I will always be proud of the fact that I led Nordstrom to the first 100% compliant audit in the history of the US Customs service.

My second career was in International Transportation where I was tasked with planning shipping schedules across the globe to meet our internal and external customer needs.  This included sourcing partners and negotiating contracts that provided the company both service and value.

The third stage in my career started unexpectedly two years ago when a job opportunity arose for my wife of 20 years, Betty, to move to Taipei with Costco.   For lack of a better term, I am now what they call a “Trailing Spouse”.  This new career has no job description, but I think we all try to define it in our own way.  With my kids getting older and more independent, I have been searching for meaningful ways to keep active and this has led me to spend a lot of time at TAS.

Time prevents me from detailing all of the love I have for TAS, but I will share one thing.  I woke up far before the crack of dawn this morning to get my son to school for his trip with his after school debate team to travel to NY to compete in the finals of a world-wide forensics competition.  It’s a huge deal.  I know that sounds braggadocious, but I take no credit.  I give it all to the school for  motivating and inspiring the kids to try out for this, and then providing the mentors to shape them into finalists.

I can say without hyperbole that the two years my kids have spent here has changed their lives in profound ways that are not only evident today, but know will make them adults that I will look up to. 

Not only has TAS had a positive impact on them, but it has made me a better parent and better person.  I find myself more and more eager to volunteer at the school and with the incredible gift of time I have been given, I can think of no better job than to be working for, learning from and serving TAS. 

I hope you will remember me when you cast your ballot.