How to Make a Spy Game

During our trip to Budapest we went to a place called TRAP (Team Race Against Puzzles) which was ridiculously fun.  The four of us were locked in a room with just 60 minutes to figure out how to disarm a bomb or "die".  I won't spoil it for you, but the puzzles were quite clever and inspired me to try to replicate them to a lesser degree for my son's 9th birthday party.  It was a big hit, so I thought I'd share it.  I'm sure it can easily be improved with your own ingenuity, so take the idea and run with it!

INVITATIONS (In code, of course):

¡Zbfwz!  ¡Zotfrvm rmgvmgz vckolgzi vo nfmwl!

Evm z oz czhz wv Giveli kziz wvhxlmvxgzi oz

ylnyz b xvovyizi vo xfnkovzmlh wv Giveli.

a=z b=y c=x d=w e=v f=u g=t h=s i=r j=q k=p l=o m=n n=m ñ=m o=l p=k q=j r=i s=h t=g u=f v=e w=d x=c y=b z=a

TRANSLATION:  

Help! Someone is trying to blow up the world! Come to T's house to disarm the bomb and to celebrate his birthday.

MATERIALS (Scrounged from around the house):

• 2 four-number-code bicycle cable locks
• 2 luggage locks and key
• some cash and change in a wallet
• an old book
• an invisible ink pen
• paper
• glow-in-the-dark paint
• a blank puzzle (sold in craft stores)
• a small suitcase
• an ipod or iphone
• some scrabble letters
• markers
• a room with a minimal amount of stuff in it.

It is important to have a room relatively devoid of stuff, unless you don't mind the kids ransacking through everything.  The more junk there is in the room, the harder it will be for them to know what is useful and what is not.  We used the guest room and chose to have almost no irrelevant objects around to make it easier on the kids to solve.  

There are three sequences of clues that must be solved in order to disarm the bomb:  The Blue Cable Sequence, the Purple Cable Sequence, and the Bomb Sequence.  It does not matter whether you start with the Blue or the Purple sequence first, but you must accomplish both of these before you can finish the Bomb sequence. 

I used one cable lock to secure one end of the bomb-containing-suitcase to the slats under the bed, and the other cable lock to secure the other handle of the suitcase to the underside of the bed, so that the suitcase could not be taken out and opened until both cable locks had been opened.  

THE PURPLE CABLE SEQUENCE

THE BOOK:  

In an old book, I chose one page and used a highlighter to highlight letters which spelled out a clue if read in the order in which they appear in the text.  If the idea of highlighting in a book is sacrilege to you, you could also just use a pencil to underline the letters.  And you could skip the dog-earring if you want to make it harder and require the kids to be more observant...  The message I wrote was  "PURPLE CABLE CODE: HOW MUCH MONEY?" I even highlighted spaces in the message, although if you wanted to make it harder you could omit the spaces.  

THE MONEY:

In a wallet I placed some money-- a combination of euro bills and coins.  You can hide it anywhere in the room. In total there was 26.82 euros, so I set the purple cable lock to the combination 2682.  

THE BLUE CABLE SEQUENCE

THE SCRAMBLE:

I selected scrabble tiles to spell out the sentence:  TURN OUT THE LIGHTS (In Spanish:  Apaga la luz).  On a blank piece of paper, I made underscores for every letter of the sentence, like in the game of hangman, leaving spaces between words.  Then I filled in a few letters, since otherwise it would be quite difficult to figure out. I placed the tiles and the paper together in a bag and hid it in the room.  

THE GLOWING SIGN:  

On the wall was a piece of artwork with a bunch of brightly colored abstract shapes.  Some of the shapes were letters made with glow-in-the-dark paint.  

When the lights are turned off, the message was revealed:  OPEN THE CRANE (Abre la grulla).

THE CRANE:  

My kids make a lot of origami cranes.  I opened one up, and wrote on the inside:  BLUE CABLE CODE:  MCCCXXIV  then I refolded the crane so it looked normal and left it on the nightstand.  The code is in Roman numerals.  I chose the letters which I thought were easier to remember, since in Spanish 1000 is Mil and 100 is Ciento and the rest I figured they knew.  However, I was wrong, and this is the one hint they needed.  If you want to make it harder, use L (50) or D (500).  The answer was 1,324 so the blue cable lock code I set to 1324.  

THE BOMB SEQUENCE

THE INVISIBLE NOTE:

In a folder, I placed 3 sheets of blank white paper.  On the top sheet, I used the Invisible Ink Pen (a going-away-present from the kids' friends) to write "THE KEY IS UNDER THE PLANT".  

 

In order to see the message, you must shine the black light attached to the pen cap onto the paper.  I left the folder with the Invisible Ink pen and a regular pencil in the room.  I figured they could use the extra paper to figure out some of the other puzzles.  You could place the pens and paper together or separately, as desired. Once the kids find the key, they are able to open both compartments of the suitcase, but first they need to get the suitcase out from under the bed where it is secured.  

I placed the bomb inside the main compartment of a small suitcase, and locked it with a luggage lock.  The key to the luggage lock I hid underneath a potted plant, secured with tape, and placed inconspicuously on the nightstand.  

The key happened to fit two different luggage locks, so I placed the other luggage lock on the outside compartment of the same suitcase, after placing the puzzle pieces inside. 

THE PUZZLE:

On the blank puzzle I used markers to draw a guitar.  Then I wrote across the top:  "BOMB CODE:  WHAT ARE THE STRINGS OF THE GUITAR FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST?  It's in Spanish, but you get the idea.  I made sure to draw on or color the entire puzzle area so that the puzzle was relatively easy to solve.  

The passcode needed to unlock the ipod was "ebgdae" which are the names of the strings of the guitar from highest to lowest. My son plays the guitar, so I thought it would be fun.  And in case he didn't remember the names of the strings, the guitar and electric tuner were there in the room, so he could always just turn the tuner on and pluck the strings to see the names of the strings. 

THE BOMB:

To make the bomb, I took an old ipod and downloaded the Theme From Mission Impossible to create some fun tension.  I set it playing this theme looping infinitely.  Then under GENERAL SETTINGS I activated the PASSCODE LOCK.  You can do a SIMPLE passcode lock, which is 4 numbers, or a non-simple passcode, which is what I opted for.  

 If you first set the music, then set the timer just before starting the game, when the kids find the ipod they will first have to enter the security code, then the next thing they will see is the timer counting down, and they just have to hit the CANCEL button to inactivate the bomb.  Just before starting the game, I opened the CLOCK function and set a TIMER to 50 minutes with the alarm sound being OLD CAR HORN  (even better if you can find an explosion sound, but I didn't bother looking for one). 

       

I actually think 40 or 45 minutes are sufficient, depending on the ages of the kids involved.  My 11-year-old did it alone as a test run, and it took her only 30 minutes.  Six 9-year-olds took 35 minutes to solve it.  I also set the timer on my own phone at the same time, so that I could see how much time they had left, and gauge whether I should give out hints or not.  As it turned out, they only needed one hint.

INSTRUCTIONS TO GIVE TO THE KIDS BEFORE STARTING:

Dr. Evil has left a bomb in this room.  You have only X minutes to figure out how to disarm it. Everything you need is in this room. Be observant and work together, or you may not make it out alive! Good luck.

So there you have it.  If you try it with your kids, let me know how it went!  

Family Dynamics

We've always been a close family, but our first year here was not easy, and the shared experience of struggling together in a strange and unknown environment has undoubtably been a bonding experience. In addition, I believe we've come to respect and appreciate each other in new ways.

We moved here just before my daughter's tenth birthday.  She had her four closest friends over for a slumber party to celebrate her birthday and say farewell.  She gracefully dealt with our selling her bed, her bike, her skis.  That was painful even for me.  She accepted the move with great maturity, but she made her wishes clearly known, "Just two years." The night we arrived in Europe, she suddenly broke into inconsolable tears.  "I want to go home! I never even wanted to come here."  I understood that she was probably a little scared, and it hadn't been her decision, yet she had to go along with it.  Mark and I, on the other hand, were fully bought in, eager for the challenge.  We were dead sure that all our lives would be enriched by this experience in the long run.  

Her birthday happened to fall on the first weekend after she started school in a new country, in a new language.  Since two days was not quite enough time to make friends, we celebrated just the four of us by spending the day at an amusement park and eating the best vegan cake EVER. It was fantastic. It was exciting, and it still seemed like we were on vacation. Although she has had her occasional bouts of mild homesickness, when we had been here about 6 months and Z spontaneously said she was "glad to have come here"  I just about fell out of my chair in happiness.

We chose not to live in an expat area, and the kids are at a local school.  At the time we knew only one couple in the entire city. We were an island of Americanism in a sea of Catalan/Spanish people.  All we had was each other.  We became Team Wong-VanHaren. Because we had each other, we were never really lonely, but we did have to work together.

In the US, I was in charge at home.  Stay-at-home overachiever parent, teaching background, control freak tiger mom. I taught the kids everything from gardening to crafts to dancing to music to Mandarin to English.  I helped out at school.  I took them to China and Taiwan by myself for weeks at a time. Admittedly, Zoe spoke better Spanish than me, but I definitely knew more Spanish than Trevor when we arrived.  I was powerful and capable!  I was MOM, the center of the kids' universe.  But I sometimes wondered whether I was getting to be a bit of a helicopter parent.

But once we came here, the tables were turned.  I still need help understanding things, and knowing how to say things.  Within two months the kids were fluent in Spanish and understood Catalan, while I was still struggling to put sentences together.  They correct me all the time.  I can't help them much with their schoolwork.  The school doesn't allow parent volunteers.  They are gone from 9am to 5pm in their own world, and they are succeeding, all by themselves.  I think it's been wonderfully empowering for them, and they are very proud of themselves.  I have been forced to step back a bit, and instead of being critical of them, as I often was in the US, here I am in awe of how they have adapted to the new environment without complaint, and how they are kicking my butt in the language department.  I think it's great for them to see me working hard to learn something new in my old age.

I know that as kids get older they need more control over their own lives, and I had seen hints of rebellion in Zoe before we left California.  We had been through various phases, sometimes getting along famously, other times driving each other crazy.  A friend of mine, who I consider The Most Fun Mother Ever, had a sweet, obedient, high-achieving daughter enter middle school and suddenly didn't want to have anything to do with her mother.  I couldn't believe it!  I was not ready for that.  So far we have been very lucky. Things could change at any moment, but for the time being Zoe and I are closer than ever.  She reaches out to hold my hand while we walk down the street.  We are in a happy place.  She is blooming and growing and I am watching with wonder and pride.  Is it related to our coming here? We'll never really know, but I do think it has made some difference.  Although she has made really good friends here, has my English-speaking self become some kind of proxy for the home she loves and misses?   Have we found a better balance here where I am less all-knowing?  I still nag them about cleaning their room and practicing their instruments just as always.

The Disney channel does exist here (dubbed into Spanish), and I ask the kids not to watch it because I can't stand the way the kids talk in that sassy, overdramatic, spoiled brat manner that just seems so very American.  I'm not saying I think the Spanish are perfect parents. Personally I think the children are chronically under-rested due to their odd habit of eating dinner at 10pm.  But that aside, Mark and I both feel that kids here in Spain seem to have a closer, more harmonious relationship with their parents than kids in the US.  The twelve-year-old boys in Zoe's class still kiss their mothers hello and goodbye without shame.  Their classmates look me in the eye and greet me when passing, without any prompting.   I just don't see any sullen teenagers rolling their eyes at their parents.  The teens we've met seem happy to make small talk with their parent's friends.  I desperately want to know what is the reason for this fantastic child socialization!  One reason may be that just about all kids go to all day daycare starting at 2 years of age.  So perhaps they just have a lot of experience interacting positively with various adults. Another theory I have is that the Spanish tend to stay very close to family and home, not going away for university, not moving for job opportunities.  They visit with grandparents EVERY SUNDAY. Every weekend there is an obligation to attend the birthday party or wedding of an aunt, uncle, or cousin.  I think this tight family web of support may be one reason why you just don't see crazed gunmen and serial killers here.

Scary facts slightly off the subject but interesting:  The last mass shooting that occurred in Spain was over 20 years ago. And the one before that was in 1926.  The number of convicted serial killers in Spain: 7.  In the US: over 200!  What?!  The US may have 7.5 times the population of Spain, but we have 28 times more serial killers.   Maybe we ought to stay here after all...

How has the move affected our son?  Well, Mark has had a lot more time to spend with the kids in the last year, and he and T have developed a kinship around watching and playing soccer.  They also like to go biking together, or to the science museum, or the beach, just the two of them.  T doesn't prefer to hold my hand anymore, and makes a face when I kiss him.  I think he's identifying more with his dad these days, and that is great.  But I admit, I miss my little one.

Mark and my relationship has been greatly changed here as well.  I have always been very capable and independent.  In the US I often felt as though my world and Mark's world were quite disparate, and growing more so each day.  I could not help him with his programming, and I knew little about startups in the Silicon Valley.  He couldn't cook to save his life and couldn't have cared less about the garden, and he was more than happy to leave the children's education in my hands.  We didn't really need each other, since we were both self sufficient in our separate spheres. Moving here meant he had to get more involved in the kid's education, since I couldn't even understand the letters sent home from the school. He had to deal with logistics such as renting an apartment, going to the kid's school conferences, to doctor's appointments, etc.  Because my Spanish is not very good yet, I rely on him in ways I never did before, but hopefully not so much that it has become a burden to him.

After 10 years of listening to him speak Spanish to the kids at home, I hadn't realized how much vocabulary I had gained.  When spoken slowly and clearly, in limited subject areas, I can understand quite well, although I am now learning the grammar rules so that I can produce the language correctly. I mostly enjoy being a student again, although at times it can be frustrating.  Mark has been really encouraging and supportive of my efforts, and says he's proud and impressed that I have done so well here.  Even though I am sometimes annoyed when he corrects my pronunciation, I do appreciate his knowledge and expertise, and I am very proud of him as well.  I would be SO embarrassed to have a husband who spoke Spanish with that horrible American accent.  I think we both respect and admire each other, and are seeing each other with new eyes here.  For a couple who has been married for 13 years, that is a good thing.