By the numbers

By the numbers… Our trip back to Indonesia for year 3.

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1- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our first year teaching in Indonesia in 2008.

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2- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our second year teaching in Indonesia in 2009 (a new laptop plus an old one which had a accompanied us both ways).

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3- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our third year teaching in Indonesia this summer (a new laptop and netbook for Janet, plus an old one which had accompanied us both ways) bringing our total number of laptops in the house to 4. My financial planner hopes this trend doesn’t continue in the future, but as our family depends on computers more for work and school (as well as for a stereo and telephone), two additional new computers makes sense.

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4- Number of the worlds oceans (out of 4) seen on our recent trip from Grand Rapids to Jakarta. While this may seem impossible, here is the explanation. Leaving Chicago to Hong Kong, our flight proceeded due north (see abbreviated flight path below) in which we traveled close enough to Hudson Bay (connected to the Atlantic Ocean) to see it. After that, we continued north flying significantly over the Arctic Ocean which was very iced over (see picture). Then as we approached Hong Kong, passed over the Pacific Ocean. Finally, as we swung over Jakarta (West Java), the Indian was close enough to view.

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5- Number of jet lagged members of the family. 19 hours of in flight time. It’s now 3 days later and we are still exhausted.

Our flight plan from an IPhone app showing our improbable route over Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean

Ice sheets over the Arctic Ocean

As cool as our flight path was... it didn't stack up against what Hope discovered in the Singapore airport transfer lounge. Check it out and put it on your Christmas list!