Author: dawnhirn

Dear Dawn · Encouragement · Travel

Russian Red Tape

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Dear Dawn, we’ve always wanted to go to Russia, but were told there were a lot of hoops to jump through.  Did Ron find this to be true when he booked you on the world trip?

Dear Hoops, Yes.  And we should all be thankful our countries care about our safety!   Most governments have tightened up independent foreign travel requirements.  Your best friend is the  US State Department and your US Passport – but you cannot get in or out of Russia without a visa as well.

Tourist visas are valid up to 30 days, so you should keep on schedule.  (You can enter and exit anytime during those dates).  Again this is an issue of doing your homework before you go.  Ron was our travel-booking Guru, but he let each of us be a part of the road we chose.  Is it worth the trouble?  DA!!


IMG_5284.jpegTyler,  Alexander Garden, St. Petersburg

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Beautiful Moscow.  And how do you get there?   Follow the yellow brick road..jpgGet your Passport, schedule your trip with your family, apply for your Visas and then just follow the Yellow Brick Road!

BP Red Square.jpg

Love to you and Russia,

Dawn, the family and Our BackPack!

Travel

Galoshes on the other foot!

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One more word on Russia:  If you are a Russian planning to take a trip to America, you have just as much – maybe more to consider.  For just a second, put the Galoshes on the other foot!

Getting a tourist visa here is neither easy nor cheap.  As you know security has been tightened (and I say thankfully so).    My opinion is that all foreign visitation should be done ‘legally’, or not at all!  (There are really no stages to the word legal.  It’s like pregnant:  you are or you are not!)

 Once the Russian citizen plans a trip, these are the warnings they get about The Dangers of America:

1.Don’t flirt. US etiquette prohibits flirting with a woman who is not your girlfriend or wife.  Never look at her legs.  (Where is that written?)

2.Don’t get straight to the point when talking to an American.  Instead of       saying “You are wrong!”, say “I’m not sure I agree with that.”  (oooo, husbands could learn from Russians how well this works)

3.Don’t be freaked out when Americans put their feet up on stuff.  (AKA “we’re slobs?”)

4. Americans are taught from a young age that they’re awesome.  You must deal with this.  (. . . whatever!)

5. (My favorite!) Almost everywhere (in America) there are hidden cameras.  Everywhere!  Don’t smoke, don’t take up two parking spaces and make sure plastic, glass and paper disposables go in the right places.parking Russ.

  *According to www.mentalfloss.com/russian-travel-tips-visiting-america

Sometimes it takes wearing somebody else’s galoshes to realize how blessed and entitled Americans really are!

Get started planning your trip to Russia today!

Dawn, co-leader of the Hirn Tribe!

Versailles, France
Family travel

Russia-debunked!

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russia-ob
Kremlin/St. Basils St.Petersburg

Russia!  The very thought of you . . . . .

tsar
Before trip jitters. . .

Cold

Unfriendly

Dangerous

Mysterious

We wrestled with each of these Russian preconceptions.   Did our homework.  Studied. Practiced our Previets and Spasibas.  But you never really know the people in a country until you spend time with them.  And here are some of our take-aways:

Cold – Of course it’s cold!  Check out the map.  Did you hear the one about the little Russian boy who was afraid to come to America because he heard the temperature occasionally reached 107-degrees Fahrenheit?  Another child countered:  “When I visited America it was -16 degrees Fahrenheit!”  Locations?  Phoenix, Arizona in the summer and Fargo, ND in winter.  Russia has her extremes as well!  Check your locations!  Dress appropriately!

Scary kids
Russian children welcome Colton to school!

Unfriendly – Russians in general have a wonderful sense of humor and warmth,  but they are protective of this treasure and share it with those they consider friends.

Ty Stocks Russ
Russian teen time-out.  (Just kidding!)

Dangerous – Einstein said:  You have to learn the rules of the game and then learn to play better than anyone else.”  That is true when you visit any city anywhere!   The feared KGB is still around to enforce laws, with a friendlier name:  The FSB.  This  Federal Securities Bureau keeps the law. Carry your passport with you wherever you go when you travel though, or you may be facing some healthy fines!

Tr. mysterious
Trenton loves mysteries!

Mysterious – Of course Russia is mysterious!  Revolutions, regimes, from Tzars to Comrades, Russia has a lot of history and stories to tell.  You can read about it, or experience it for yourself.

Our suggestion?   GO see for yourself!

Dawn

Travel

Nomophobia

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Dear Dawn,   

My family has the ‘travel bug’.  (Don’t know whether to thank you or slap you!)    ha ha!   We’ve been saving our money and trying to plan this trip, transportation, great hostels, available food, and we’ve kept in contact with the US State Department for travel alerts.  It’s all coming together.   My greatest concern ( I’m embarrassed to say) is to be without my cell phone for the duration.  I guess I’m addicted, but it feels like I’m cutting off one arm.  How did you do it?”  

Dear Disconnected,  you are not the only one who could use some electronic rehab. This phobia even  has a name:  Nomophobia – fear of being without your mobile.   In part,  the purpose of our family trip was to get to spend quality time with our kids.  And we knew quality time ain’t sittin at a table eating dinner with everyone on his own device.

Back in 1779, Ned Ludd, took a stand against technology.   Convinced machinery would eventually take over his job, he smashed two time-saving machines at work.   His followers, the Luddites took up his cause arguing that technology replaces humans. I am no Luddite!  But I can tell you excess in anything destroys.  But seven months without mobiles was our choice.

Beside saving huge amounts of $$ on sim cards, here are a few of the benefits we enjoyed without cell phone service in the thirty countries we visited:

map skills.jpegWe practiced our map skills.India family.jpgWe found India!  And met a wonderful family who helped direct us.

Trieste Italy.jpgPolished our relationship skills, person-to-person.  Trieste, Italy

And eventually, we found our way home.  And we discovered,  being without cell phones for seven months enriched our experiences, made us more sensitive to those around us,  and strengthened our bond.

Someone once said:  “Life is what’s happening when your cell phone is charging.” Go experience real living!

Dawn

Family · Travel

We greet from St. Pete

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Greetings from St. Petersburg, Russia   “Zdravstvuj”

DR Russia2.jpegTry wrapping your tongue around that one. Just say “zdrah-stvooy.”    Oh yeah, that’s much better.  LOL.

Our Russian sounded a little like we were clearing our throats.  But the Russian people were most gracious helping us with our pronunciation – or lack thereof – and they assured us they spoke good English.  (Salt in the wound!)

Yesterday in my Facebook post, I told you about St. Petersburg’s  shorter older buildings built around 1914. Because the builders, common people who dug by hand and carried  around dirt in the front of their shirts, were dying by thousands from disease and floods, they call this city:  “The city built on bones.”

The boys adapted nicely to our trivia facts.  Travel is far and above the best way to be educated!  But Colton, Trenton and Tyler reacted much more positively to the torture museums we found in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  Nothing like a good old fashioned horror story to get their motors going.

Torture Museum Gum?.jpegHere Colton, always the clown, thought the torturer reminded him of one of his teachers.  So he reluctantly offered to relinquish his gum.

Church of the Spilled blood Russia.jpgThe guys were equally intrigued by the Church of the Spilled Blood.  Colton and Trenton also spent time looking for ‘evidence,’ but noticed no ‘drippage’ from the buildings.   At some point in their lives they will attach their memory of St. Petersburg, to the famous people born here: writer, Dostoevski, to the composer, Tchaikovsky, to ballet dancers, Pavlova and Baryshnikov.  But for now, they are carried away by the treasures of blood and gore.  Let ’em learn at their own speed!

Dawn

Encouragement · Travel

Another letter from What if . . .

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Dear Dawn: Okay, you got me through the what ifs about my kids missing out on school if we take a trip like yours. But I’ve got plenty of what ifs left regarding the safety of these countries.  You’re telling me you weren’t ever afraid?

Hi again, What if . . . Ha!  Of course I was afraid.  But when I’m telling my kids to overcome their fears, I can’t add a list of my exceptions.

If someone were to offer you a free trip for you and your family, is there someplace you would refuse to go?  (other than Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, etc.)   Used to be Russia for me.  I’ve heard the cold war, communism stories – don’t need to see or be the evidence.  And even though the USSR had been broken up in 1991, in my mind I still saw ‘the enemy.’

And I didn’t want my kids to end up like this:

Ty Stocks Russ

Sad how we condition ourselves based upon our fears.  Eleanor Roosevelt lived by this motto:  Do one thing everyday that scares you.  Whoa.  I had years of fears to catch up with.  And as far as I could tell moms aren’t supposed to let kids see ‘em sweat!

When I marched forth into Russia with my comrades, I fully expected to see American-haters and men on buildings with Uzi’s pointed at my family.  But other than a few serious faces (how happy do you look in 16-degrees below Zero?), these are the things I noticed:

Scary kids

Took courage to send my youngest into the throws of evil Russian school children. Joke’s on me!  Just as Jesus once said: “A little child shall lead them.” 

School Kids Russia

Don’t let your fear of what could happen make nothing happen!

Start by doing a bit of investigation about the places and people that scare you most.  They also have children.

Dawn

Encouragement · Family · Travel

Baby steps

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Somebody said:  You don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step.”    Wish it had been me.

Did you ever taste Blue Bell Pistachio/Almond Ice Cream? Maybe that’s not your thing, but there is bound to be something out there that blows your tastebuds wide open!  Once you find your own fabulous flavor, you just can’t wait to share it with others.    

 Ron and I had found that flavor in world travel.  For awhile we were stuck in grief over the loss of one of our children; but once the beauty of living set back in, we longed to introduce our remaining three boys to the flavor of wanderlust.

awe-in-tut-tut-in-thailand
Tuk Tuk ride Thailand
boys-in-angkor-watt
Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Not ready for so big a bite?  Start small.  Baby steps!  One of the best benefits of discovering places with your family, is bonding. Bite off a small weekend get-away together in a city or state close by:  In Cherokee, Alabama find the Coon Dog Cemetery founded in 1937,  dedicated to the world’s greatest and luckiest coon dogs.  Over in Georgia,  you’ve got the Lunch Box Museum featuring 2000 lunch boxes, rare and otherwise.  Cumberland Island is 9,800 raw acres of wilderness, where the deer and the antelope play.  (Actually it’s armadillos, boars, alligators and feral horses.)   Or travel over to Louisiana to the Manchac Swamp cursed 100-years ago by a voodoo queen.  That’s the story anyway.

Any time away with your family is a baby step, and well worth the effort.

Might check out the book: Family on the Loose:  The Art of Traveling with Kids, 2012, Richards/Steel.  Rumble Books, Bellevue, WA.

Start small.  But start!

Somebody else once said:  “We travel not to escape life, but so that life won’t escape us.” And I’ve repeated those words one-thousand times.

Dawn

Family · Travel

Lighten your load

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“Dear Dawn:  my family and I would love to do this ‘extended’ trip thing.  But ‘you know who’ would have to carry all the luggage and supplies.  How did you do it?”

Dear you-know-who: During our pre-trip planning we drummed it into our boys they would each be responsible for their own stuff.  This is a painful lesson for kids who remember the days when tears would allow them to be scooped up into their parents’ arms and carried.  As you grow up, you realize: tears only bring rewards to actors.

Our daily city outings entailed loads of walking laced with public transportation which is economical and culturally educational. Can’t learn about a place in a taxi. We used 2 ‘day-packs’ to hold our day supplies like snacks, ponchos, sanitizer, kleenex, etc. and we’d alternate who carried them. (Colton carried Ryan’s Pokemon Backpack to “protect him.”) 

IMG_5822

 

Everyone was given one roller/carry-on pack to fit their clothes-2 short, 2 pant, 4 shirts, sweater, undies- for 7 months that ‘they’ were required to carry(we navigated 20 flights) and we had a large family supply case(Ron carried).  We didn’t dress for style, but for function.  The Norwegians say:  “There is no such thing as bad weather; just bad clothing,” and we agree.  Russia required layers.  And layers!  Often we dressed for warmth with summer gear as layer number one!

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Here’s the deal:  Before you leave, carry a practice backpack.  Load it up with what you need and carry it everywhere you go.  Give it a couple weeks and you will no doubt jettison the load down to exactly what is essential.

Heavy load Russia.jpegTeach your kids to stand on their own two feet.  And when it comes time to give someone else a lift, they’ll be ready!

Lighten your load!

Dawn

Dear Dawn · Family · Travel

Should you stay or should you go?

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Dear Dawn,  I wish I had the courage to take a year off with my family. But what if the kids miss something valuable and have to repeat a grade?

Dear What if,

I get it. Should you stay or should I go? Good parents always ask themselves the same question when making a decision: “Will my kids have to repeat a grade or require years of therapy as a result of my choice?” Someone wiser than I once said “Work backward from death.” Now ask yourself: “is repeating a grade the worst thing?”  Makes you put things into perspective.

Our family needed a reset button because we were headed in a direction I didn’t like, going from ‘living life large’ to becoming introverted, fearful and hesitant.  Ron and I longed for our kids to discover this wonderful world God had left us, but even more we wanted them to grow to be problem-solvers, independent, confident young men. We had high standards and knew that in life’s game of “Show and Tell,” “Show” was always better than the “Tell.”

It wasn’t easy. Being a family is never easy. But parents,  it is worth the work, worth the investment of time into our most precious treasure – our kids. We saw so much positive change in each of our boys during this adventure.   They seemed to like who they were, which is a strong foundation for life. We solved every problem — as a family.  Together we faced difficult situations, juggled emotions and bad moods, made decisions and determined direction. Everyone had a map – no GPS!

Taking a year off with your family is not for everyone. You must be prepared to become a ‘gap filler road-school teacher,’ which requires a lot of work. But learning takes on a new angle when you do life up-close and personal, as a family. Don’t let your fear of travelling to the unknown direct your steps forward. Don’t wait till your kids need to reset their priorities and principles. Do it now.

So, should you stay?  Nyet.

You should go.  DA!                    Trenton and Colton in  Russia

Great travels!  Dawn

Encouragement · Faith · Perfecting Dysfunction

Puttin’ up yer dukes

dawnhirn1 Comment

Dawn color punch.jpg
One of my friends shared something very personal with me this week:  She, like many of us,  felt God had let her down.  Unlike so many of us, she had the guts to express her disappointment and share her journey back to faith.

I get it.  When we lost Ryan, Ron and I were ready for a fight with God.   We both had a terrible time understanding how a loving God could allow such a tragedy.  It’s been 16 years, and we are no closer to understanding now than we did then.  But the stories shared by encouraging friends are building blocks to restoration. And God continues to bless this family.

My friend has come back into the fellowship of her church and the understanding that she doesn’t understand everything about God;  but, she understands a few things about God.  And one thing she knows for certain is that He has never forgotten about her.

Few of us have the courage to actually admit we get angry with God.  But honesty and  transparency is a gift to and from your friends – the TRUE friends who will never use confession against you.  My friends have helped me understand that just because I question why He allows bad stuff to happen to good people, doesn’t necessarily mean lightning is gonna come out of the sky and fry me. God respects an honest spiritual struggle.

journey.jpegThank God.  And friends!

Have a great weekend!

Dawn