Dear ECS: Here now in the Dolomiti

Dear ECS, 

Honey, what a two plus weeks we have had.  I write this as we fly back to Addis after 2+ glorious weeks in Italy up in the mountains.  Being in two little villages up in the Dolomite Mountains has been such a relaxing, enjoyable and expansive vacation – long enough for us to reset as a family and for your ol’ dad to squeeze in a ton of skiing.  So we have all been very, very happy.  The trip is succinctly summed up your description - “My favorite thing (about this vacation) was just being with my mom and dad.”  Me too, sweetie.

Stretching your skis

The highlight of the trip was your amazing progress skiing.  Before our trip, you had skied in some pretty idyllic spots, like Park City, Austria, and Colorado.  If I could have signed up for skiing in those places as at 17 years old, I would have. 

But in all those posts, you spent just a bit of time on skis (minutes not hours) and mostly just slushed around a bit on your skis.  This time, we started with having your own ski set up (your proud dad’s xmas preset to you this year).  Then, we got you enrolled in ski classes in two locations in Italy -- both Canezei and Selva. The ski classes were a combo of private, single day and week long, and all added up to a bit less than two weeks of instruction.

In addition, we skied with you a few more days.  Honestly, mom skied with you a bunch more time than I did, since truth be told I like skiing solo and aggressively much more than she does and she gets a ton of joy from watching you grow as a skier by leaps and bounds.  Me too. 

The trip started with you excited about skiing, but not really sure of the basics.  You have good balance, which is the keystone for skiing, and are really excited about skiing.  Those in tandem can get you far in most things in life, not just skiing. From the first couple of days on the really bunny hills, you progressed to the beginner hills used by adults, to the obstacle courses on those same ski runs.  Your turning, control and speed on the slopes all dramatically exceeding what I thought was possible, skiing with a lot of speed and then doing the snow plow stop to get back under control form the little jumps.  You like to go fast on the slopes, which are cool to see, but also like to be in control, which is even better.   

And by the end of our trip, you were riding the poma lifts solo, from start to finish.  Which is no mean feat, as the poma lifts runs pretty fast and requires good coordination and confidence with your skis.  Poma lifts are the hand small button seat lifts that you have to ride solo.  And you did!! The exit is legitimately hard, with the lift running and the skier having to slip off the little seat, all while the lift continues to run.  The long and short of it is that it is hard, as one of my buddy said over WhatsApp the poma lifts cause many an adult problems.  True, and what made your aplomb at riding the lift from start to stylishly throwing off the seat time after time so remarkable for both your parents.  

This last point is the most incredible to me and your mom.  2 weeks ago, we just hoped you would tolerate skiing on this trip and that it was a start of a love affair with the sport.  And then two weeks later, you are riding the lifts and insisting on going first and zipping all over the slopes.  It is a big lesson for me as your dad – as your joie de vivre burst from your face and body throughout the ski days in self-evident fashion.  I frankly underestimated your ability to learn new skills, and in two short weeks you blew through any expectations with your brain and body.  I could not be prouder of you honey, and hope we as a family have many, many more ski trips in our future.

And how was the skiing?

Ahh yes, the skiing for your mom and dad.  The snow pack was a little lower than I would have liked to get fully off piste, but that meant that I kept to pretty safe slopes.  The second half of the trip got in a nice weather pattern, with cold temps and fresh snow every day or two at night.  I came to really love the re-pow overnight, as it lead to beautiful blue bird ski days with some nice new snow to enjoy.  And because hardly anyone else in the Dolomiti during our stay was looking to get off piste, I kind of had it to myself.  So while the snow and terrain volume was less than previous trips, (like our trip in 2016 to Chamonix, it was still really good.  My legs are tired as I write this on the plane back to addis, and that is the best kind of test of whether we could get after it.  Getting in the habit of 2000+ foot vertical laps through powder can do that.

I had one really special experience while skiing in some woods.  I was ripping along, enjoying the fresh snow and picking a line through the forest.  And apparently so was this 200+ plus pound deer, who must have been chilling close to my line.  Because as I came through this little knoll, the deer began running alongside me, and after about 200 feet pulled away from me.  Deers can run pretty fast, in my defense.

Another cool bonus of skiing in the Dolomiti is the sheer size of this UNESCO-designated mountain range.  These mountains are stunning, and large, and the skiing is throughout the range. Our ski pass enabled us to have access to 12 resorts, 200 lifts and 1,200 kms of piste (for those interested in the groomers).  Absolutely massive. We stayed along the Sella Ronda, which is a roughly 40 km ski tour around this the immense Sella mastiff.   Mom and I took one of our ski days and did the Sella Ronda, which took us to four distinct valleys, all with sheer rock cliffs at least a thousand feet (mom was drooling over the rock climbing, honestly).  It felt like we were skiing in four Yosemite valleys, which is the highest praise coming from an American outdoorsman/woman, but one that somehow got stronger through the trip.  At one point mom said, “it is so pretty I am about to cry.”  And it made so much sense to me, she was feeling the beauty of this special place.

Getting fancy 

What food – we knew that the food would be good.  It is Italy after all.  But your mom and I didn’t really fully appreciate how good the food would be.  Italy has 20 regions, all of which have distinct food cultures.  The food for the north region we were in is hearty – makes sense with the chilly winter temps.  The wine from this area is also delicious, pinot noirs (“neros”) and lagrein grapes mostly for the reds, which fit our palate almost too well. 

By far the highlight of our gastronomy side of the trip was dinner at the one Michelin star gourmet restaurant at the Apline Royale in Selva.  The place opens at 7:30, which had us a little worried given your bedtime and all that.  And dinner did last much later than we had anticipated, so it was kind of a late night.  Despite the late night, it was so worthwhile, as by some quirk we were the only reservation for the night.  So we ended up having the entire restaurant to ourselves.  Mom and dad opted for the tasting menu, and then the chef crafted a kid-friendly menu for you, which was comprised of a starter of the most delicious and enormous raspberries, then linguine bolognese, followed by the most yummy vanilla ice cream.  You were not that impressed with the multiple amuse bouches, and even though you liked the bread with French butter, you wouldn’t taste the saffron crème fresh.  All told, the entire dinner was  magical, as we got fancy as a family and had an experience we had never had before and won’t ever forget.

Heading home

In sum, what a trip.  My favorite type of trip, our favorite type of trip, is one that allows us to pretend we live in the place we travel to. To pretend for a bit that we have a different life as a family.  To sample, to try on.   This trip really allowed us to live that fantasy.  Thanks for being such a champ, on the slopes, après ski, and in the restaurants.  You too Mu!

love,

dad

Dear ECS: Family Time

Dear ECS,

Hey honey, it is the heart of holiday season and we will be spending Christmas here in Addis.  The house smells great and we have a small tree and lights strung up.  It feels like Christmas, but not in the way of the holidays of my youth with the cold, and twinkling lights, and coziness.   This is our third holiday in a warm place in this crazy Foreign Service life, and honestly it is hard to recreate the feeling of my own childhood in a foreign land. 

But recreating my own childhood is not the point.  You love this season, with fun parties and events and most importantly family.  Your mom and I have very intentionally taken a broad definition of family since you were born.  You have dozens of aunts and uncles -- some that share your DNA and many who don't.  As a result, you have gotten to spend lots of time with loved ones, people who we think of as family.

In addition to the numerous loved ones sprinkled around the world, some of whom we have gotten to see recently and some who we keep in touch with over various technology tools, we have had the pleasure of hosting my sister and brother and law, then my parents (aka the babas), and now dear friends from SF (another aunty and uncle) over the last month.  These have been great times, whether playing in our house or compound for hours, or heading down south in Ethiopia to walk in the jungle beneath monkeys. 

Having loved ones visit us is such a joy, we are happy to show the places you like, the places we like, here in Ethiopia.   What I have found in these 4 years of living overseas is that visitors do something sort of magical, they make us see the places we live through new eyes once again.  

The feeling of arrival to Ethiopia and the discovery we felt way back in June of 2017 has mostly gone by the wayside with our routines and schedules and assessment of places we like, or don’t like.  When our family and friends come, the excitement and wonder that they feel in exploring the city and country is deliciously infectious.  For some reason that is beyond me, the renewal we get is much stronger than when your mom and I lived in various places back home. 

Anyway honey, we are so happy to celebrate Christmas and the holidays with you.  The leaps and bounds you have realized this year is astounding, the person who will open presents in a few days in our Addis house is so different than the one that opened presents in our Airbnb in Austria a year ago.  What a joy it is to be along for your growth and progress.

Merry Christmas! 

love,

dad

Dear ECS: No whale sharks, no problem

Dear ECS,

Hey honey, how are you doing?  We are wrapping up a busy weekend here in Addis, and have the pleasure of hosting Elsa and Tim.   It is nice to be getting into the holidays, and I for one am really looking forward to spending more time with you, your mom, and our family over the next week. 

You have continued to thrive and are such a delight on a daily and hourly basis.  Your vocab is exploding, which makes it so fun as a dad to spend time together and tell jokes back and forth and crack each other up. 

Your mom, you and I had a great short getaway last weekend to Djibouti.  Yep, we snuck away to Djibouti, which had more than a few of our friends befuddled here in Addis.  I have to admit, I was a little skeptical going on the trip as a result.  Then, we had a great time, swimming in the ocean, eating good French-influenced seafood and having great “whole family” time.

Beyond the general desire to head to the beach, we picked this time of year to explore Djibouti for a few days because it is the start of the whale shark season.  These massive, massive fish, which are the largest fish on earth and in the winter, come to warm waters off the Djiboutian coast. 

Our last day, we headed out for an all-day tour with the affable American Ken (who is highly recommended) that started with an hour on the main road that heads to the Ethiopia/Djibouti border.  It was interested to see that aspect of the transport and logistics work that brings in so much of our goods we depended on here in Addis and Ethiopia generally.  The size of the ports was pretty impressive and seeing the fuel trucks waiting to be filled and driven to us here reinforced the symbiotic relationship between these two neighbors. 

After an hour on the asphalt, we took a right turn on to dirt for some grand 4x4ing through a really pretty canyon.  The entire drive reminded me of the great basin and range topography in Nevada.  We wound through the canyon and eventually got back to the coast, where it was time to get in a skiff.  

Once we were safely onboard the boat, we headed downwind along the super rugged coast, which was dotted with numerous beaches.  To the north was the massive 6,000-foot ridge, a mountain that seemingly descends right down to the water’s edge.  It was hard to believe that we would be sleeping in our house in Addis later that night, as we felt in such a different climate and biome. 

Scanning the water for the dorsal fins, we kept heading west until Ken proposed some snorkeling for your mom and dad.  The setting was incredible, with a couple of these beaches within swimming distance, and some Djiboutian fisherman chilling on the beach.  We snorkeled, alternating being in the boat with you.  Having lived in the Bahamas for 2 years, we are pretty familiar with high quality snorkeling and diving.  The reef was good and hundreds of colorful fish flinting here and there.  The visibility was a bit worse than the Bahamas, but all in all it was wonderful to be back to doing an activity I grew to love deeply in Nassau. 

Then it was on a nearby beach for a picnic lunch and some playful running, and some more swimming/snorkeling.   The beach had great sand and my highlight was running on the beach with you as we both doubled over in delight and laughter with the joy of the day. 

After a couple of hours it was time to get back on the water and keep looking for those huge whale sharks.  We were now beating back upwind and the waves were pretty large, which had your mom concerned (me too, a little bit).  The choppiness made it tough to have a baseline to pick out those big dorsal fins and we got to the point that your mom didn’t; even care about the whale sharks.  Which is good, because we never saw any.  I like that the sharks are wild and seeing them is not guaranteed - the difference between a wild safari and visiting a refuge.  Of course, it would have been great to see these massive organisms.  Maybe next time.

We tucked back into the little harbor we had left many hours ago, with your mom visibly relieved that we were through the rough waters and back on land.  No whale sharks, no problem.  We had a great day and our memories are going to be part of our Korol family collective memories and our journey for years to come.  

On to more adventures sweetie. 

love,

dad

Dear ECS: It has been a minute

Dear ECS,

Hey honey, it has been a minute since I wrote to you (almost 2 months!).  Sorry about that--it has been pretty busy per usual for the entire Korol family and I haven’t been able to carve out the time to write.

One big development since I last wrote to you is that you have started at your new school.  Classes are taught in Amharic and French, which is quite a challenge for an adorable three year old whose life outside of school is entirely conducted in English.  I don’t really speak any French beyond the requisite “ca va?”  It is a challenge that you are making look easy thus far, happily counting in three languages, and switching pretty seamlessly between them within a moment.

We have also had plenty of playdates – sometime you with your friends and sometimes your friends and my friends in tandem. 

We have also enjoyed having visitors over the last couple of weeks, a treat here on the other side of the world with long, long flights required from the States that cost an arm and a leg.  We hosted so many people in the Bahamas; by my count 80 visitors stayed the night in our townhouse there in the two years we lived there (well you lived there like a year and a few months technically). 

One joy of having visitors come to your city and house is that you get to show them the things you like – be it the trails we enjoy near the house, or our favorite restaurants and shops, or the best day and/or weekend trips outside of Addis.   Seeing and hearing about these delights reinforces the qualities of the city and country that we enjoy, in effect seeing the familiar again through new eyes. 

This process is a microcosm of seeing the world again and renewed through your eyes as a parent.  An example from last evening was seeing the shine in your eyes and wonder in your voice while we looked at this massive bird of prey, a kite, perched on a tree branch high above our flower garden before it swooped elsewhere.  That bird was stunning and powerful and special, but I would have probably not focused on this moment of beauty without you showing me the way.

What else have we been up to?  

Predictably it has involved lots of airports and airplanes – luckily two of your favorite things.  Your ability to travel well is amazing, and that same excitement you had on seeing the huge bird last night at our house is replicated a multitude of times on our numerous trips, be it a UNESCO castle or a cave church from the 10^th century.  Right now, you are super curious and want to understand the why behind pretty much everything.  Why is a great question to ask when traveling, and the answers often are so revealing of human nature and nature broadly.  I try as much as I can to engage each of those ‘why’ questions as an opportunity to share some little nugget I have learned in my time on earth.

Some of our trips this last many weeks have been with you, and some have been solo parent trips.  I visited friends in Paris and then did a boys weekend in Lisboa--both of which were sublime.  Mom was in Paris a week ago for a Duke girl’s weekend to celebrate her fortieth birthday (looking and feeling great @ 40 Mu!).   

We also met up as a family-visiting friends in Cairo – a city that was charming and steeped in millenniums of human history.  Then we have done some long weekend trips inside Ethiopia.  So a lot of movement and amazing places in the last couple of months. 

love you honey - mais amor,

dad

Dear ECS: Welcome back to whole family

Dear ECS,

Welcome back to Addis Ababa to you and your lovely mom!  You guys just got back from 2+ weeks in America with our family and friends.  The return has been wonderful, for all concerned, including your nannies and our driver.  Several of them have said over the last couple of days how happy you are and how happy that makes them to see you joyous upon returning home. 

I am pretty confident you are happy to be back, as last night we were hanging out by the fire and you looked mischievously at mom and me and said “I am SO happy right now” followed by the gem of “I love whole family.”  Me too, and I wish I could have told you those feelings in me, and your mom, in such a succinct and perfect statement.

Being apart was not great for your ol’ dad, but at this point it is a kind of normal.  And knowing that you were having such a great time in Germany, Colorado, Utah, and Maine made things easier.  That would have been quite the year for me as a 3 year old, but for you it is just August.  Or just part of August.

Your trip to America was ameliorated for me by doing some travel as well in the region, first a great group trip back to the Tigray region of Ethiopia with stunning rock churches and huge vistas.  In Tigray, we ate great food and observed a blood moon in a place with basically no light pollution.  

A personal highlight was standing on the edge of this huge cliff overlooking miles and miles and having this primal urge to scream from every fiber of my being.  So I did.  And that feeling has stayed with me somehow for the last 3+ weeks.  Pretty cool.  And then last weekend I went on a solo trip to Uganda, mostly because I had never been there and heard good things. Also because your mom had been already and was not super keen on going back when we still have a lot of new places to explore. 

Uganda vs Morocco rugby match 

It is funny to look at the calendar and see we are half way through August.  Where did the summer go?  Part of that probably comes from the fact that “summer” in Addis is the rainy season and hence doesn’t feel summery most of the time.  The summer here is more like the other 9 months.  But also it is time passing quickly, for pretty much great reasons of adventures big and small, great community and friends for you and your parents, fulfilling work for mom and dad, and stability at home. 

We are past our halfway point in Addis and looking in earnest about what is next.  That process still has to play out, but I can remember so clearly you and I arriving in Addis the first night way back in June of 2017, getting off the airplane and eventually to our house.  To this very living room where I write this with the fire crackling, and so many fond memories for all of us.  None of us knew what to expect and what was to come here in Ethiopia.  And now we are closer to the end of our time here than the beginning.  I would love to know how you perceive time at your tender age of three and whether it feels like a long time here in Addis Ababa.  That seems fundamentally unanswerable, but we do know you have been living life to the fullest and enjoying your life here in Africa.  Your mom and dad can certainly say the same. Whole family.

love,

dad

Dear ECS: “I wish we lived in Italy”

Dear ECS,

After a week vacation in Sicily, we all wish we lived in Italy.  Not that life in Addis is bad, just that vacation life in northeast Sicily was so sublime.  So it wasn't such a surprise, when you said  – “I wish we lived in Italy.” Life since the last blog post has been good, and busy.  Ethiopia continues to be endlessly interesting during a period of enormous changes; we are very fortunate to be here as history happens seemingly weekly.

But, as you have personified all of your three years on earth, the Korol family still loves vacations and hence we took advantage of the 4^th of July to head to Sicily, with a sprinkling of Dubai.  The short sweet vacation was with two other couples and your buddies--their three year olds.  Surprisingly, the travel from Ethiopia to Sicily was relatively easy -- we flew to Catania, Sicily with just one lay over in Dubai.  

Our vacation was that delicious combination of lingering while also feeling like we took advantage of pretty much every moment.  Of course, many of those moments were sitting in the back patio of our agri-tourismo farmhouse looking up at Etna volcano with the tangerine trees in the foreground.  Breakfasts that take 2-3 hours in that setting are so sublime, and different from the way we tend to eat back breakfast back home in Addis.  You tend to love the strawberry yogurt, which is not a shock, but also the wonderful fruit on offer everywhere.

Your parents enjoyed those breakfasts immensely, but we really embraced the seafood.  Addis and Ethiopia are landlocked, so the only fish that is regularly around is Nile perch.  Nile perch is good, but nothing like the swordfish, octopus, tuna, clams, and mussels your mom and dad tried to fit in any chance we could.  I had anticipated the food in Sicily to be the heavy version of Italian food, without any rationale basis for that assumption.  Nope, I was wrong.  Thankfully.  The best meals were lighter fish stews and combination platters, with the light touch of fresh sun kissed tomatoes and capers.  Interestingly the land-based food nearly always had a sprinkling of pistachios, which is a another delightful staple of the Sicilian diet.

Beyond the food, it was wonderful to be immersed with our friends, a non-stop play date for kiddos, moms and dads.  We found a nice mix of enjoying the tranquil farm in the northeast of the island (which is surprisingly large), checking out different towns and villages in this area as well as a day trip to the north coast.  The variety of the spots was really enjoyable, one day exploring one of the main villages used in the filming of the Godfather movies, maybe a thousand or 1,500 feet of relief above the sea and still quaint and small with the World Cup watching on a grand patio overlooking the landscape, and then the next day at equally charming village to the south, this one right on the water with a huge castle right over the sea, the walls of the castle merging seamlessly into the limestone cliffs.  It was also cool to wander to the north, which was unexpectedly an entirely different bio with lush, verdant hills, which had your parents thinking of Jamaica as opposed to a landscape more akin to drier Southern California on the northeast coast.  Cool to see the difference of climate just 40-50 miles apart. 

Watching you play with your friends was endlessly enjoyable, be it you snuggling with your friend as you slept while your parents dined or playing tug of war playfully with your other friend on the pebble beach at the Isola Bella nature reserve.   One cool thing in seeing the you play was how fellowship and love transcends language, as each of you three kids have various native languages (German, Italian, English).  There was some overlap, but not a ton, and so you guys communicated with laughter and squeals of delight and hugs. 

Now we are back home in Addis – it is nice to be home.  Your mom is in Khartoum, Sudan for the workweek, so it is just you and me, which is fun.  She is missed and will be home soon.  Until then, lots of cuddles and goldfish are in our collective future.

Love,

dad