Happy (post) Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was lovely this year.  Early in November, while I was still working, I decided not to host, as I usually do, but as the day drew nearer, I started to feel more and more guilty about that choice.  Fortunately, inertia is a powerful force and by then I had already said yes to three different shindigs taking place the day after Thanksgiving and the day after that, so I stuck to my guns (or, more accurately, did nothing) and resisted the urge to host.  Instead, we went to our three different events and had all sorts of good food with good company and I only had to wash the dishes I used to make my potluck contributions!

Of course, being me, I overcommitted for the potlucks, so I ended up making quite a bit of food anyway.  Our first dinner was with some of the husband's friends from work.  We have been experiencing the Great Turkey Shortage of 2015 over here this year (the unfortunately timed result of avian flu and halal issues), so our friend ended up paying 99QR (about $35) PER KILO for the five turkeys she ended up buying, a veritable fortune in poultry, but the turkeys (prepared many different ways) were all delicious, so we appreciated her extravagance.  She also invited lots of expats from other countries and then directed them to make traditional American dishes, so I ended up spending time at one point talking to a lovely British couple about the finer points of green bean casserole and the curious combination of sweet potatoes and marshmallows and agreeing with a Kiwi woman who could not stop expounding on the virtues of this delightful American tradition with its delightful cuisine!  We brought our traditional cranberry jello mold with strawberries, granny smiths, and pecans (though, truth be told, many of the other expats were VERY suspicious of the "jelly"), my grandmother's curried chicken cheese ball (anything rolled in coconut is always a hit), and my patented German(esque) potato salad, because how can you go wrong with dill pickles and bacon?  E loved the potato salad so much he had it for breakfast before school this morning, finishing off the last little bit.  This party also had a face painter and a photo booth with props, so E had a dragonfly painted on his hand and J took far too many pictures with oversized sunglasses and bow ties.  We stayed for hours and ate more than we should have, just like every other Thanksgiving!

Look at the detail on that dragonfly!

E with his friend M from his class at school.

There are many, many more of these!

Later that evening, we went to the monthly soiree thrown by our neighbors that we rarely miss.  Because we weren't sure we were going to make it to that one, I hadn't cooked anything special, so we reformed the cheese ball and added new crackers, put the leftover potato salad in a smaller bowl, and threw some banana oatmeal chocolate cookies I had made earlier in the week onto a plate before we walked over.  These soirees are always potluck affairs where the attendees can perform musical numbers if they would like; this month's theme was Christmas music.  J led everyone in singing Jingle Bells, E hummed Walking in a Winter Wonderland while the husband sang (because E wanted to sing that one but then realized he didn't actually know the words when the time came to perform), and the husband and I did an a cappella version of Once in Royal David's City, his favorite Christmas hymn.  I never perform at these things usually, being happy in my appreciative audience member position, so this was the rare exception for me.  There were quite a few other numbers as well, including some really impressive singing, piano, and guitar playing by a young man from the Ukraine who pretty much blew the rest of us out of the water and some lovely ukulele playing by another very talented guy from Fiji.  Apparently, the festivities went on quite some time into the night but we left at 8:30pm, it already being quite a bit past the boys' bedtime.

We were pretty giggly after the first party!

Our hosts introduced us to a new Christmas movie before
 the party began...the boys were enthralled. 

The pseudo-duet.

I need to get better at selfies....

The next day, Saturday, the husband played in an early morning golf tournament...and his team won, for the second year in a row!  We met him at the golf club for the award ceremony and lunch, but while he was off winning, the boys and I were at home making more food for our next dinner that afternoon with friends from church.  For our final Thanksgiving feast, I made cornbread stuffing (with onions and apples), cornbread (for J, who loves it more than anything, my Southern baby), pumpkin and cranberry bread pudding, cranberry sauce, and turkey gravy.  Oh, and I also cooked two turkey breasts in the slow cooker.  As I said, turkeys were few and far between this year; I found these two randomly in the frozen food section and decided to donate them to the cause.  We also had many roast chickens for dinner as well, smothered in vats of turkey gravy.  That dinner was delicious all around, with lots of dishes I want to get the recipes for, including a fresh cranberry relish I could have eaten the whole bowl of and a chocolate pie that I had to stop myself from devouring completely!

E with the first of two trophies the husband earned.

J with trophy number 2.

The victorious team!

On the course--look at that sky and that green!

In a year that is still filled with uncertainty, we are certainly grateful for all our friends here with whom we could celebrate, as well as all our friends and family at home we hope to see again soon!

On the blog again...

Oh my gosh, I am so far behind in my posting!  So, here is the catch up plan: get back on track writing contemporary posts from today on as if nothing had happened and (bit by bit) get caught back up on the posts about our vacation to Greece and everything in between then and now.  For today, a few quick updates to get back up to speed:

--My temporary job ended after the first week of November.  It was all kinds of fun but very, very busy, especially there at the end during the conference itself (which was, in many ways, awesome, but in some very important little ways not planned well at all--when I am giving up my not especially good seat to the Korean ambassador because someone forgot to leave one for him and someone else is asking know-nothing me where the former prime minister of Australia should go to get her make-up done, you know things have gone dreadfully awry!).  I loved the editing work and the office camaraderie, and the glamor of the hobnobbing-with-VIPs conference was a bonus, but I was exhausted when I was through and able to decide beyond a shadow of a doubt that working full time here is simply impossible for me.  The editing part was great: I worked when I could, when I wanted to, while the kids were otherwise occupied, and I could do that more often no problem.  The needing to be somewhere during working hours (and evenings) was just untenable given all kids' schedules and needs, which I had suspected but was happy to have proven to myself in glaring relief.

--The husband's work situation continues to be tenuous.  The hospital did decide to cut only 25% of the budget instead of 71%, which appeared to be good news...but for some reason, pharmacy seems to keep going back and forth from the cut column to the save column, which is all kinds of annoying.  Do we want to leave?  Not right now, for sure, in the middle of the school year (again), but we're not sure we have a choice in the matter at the moment, until some more decisions get made once and for all. So, in the meantime, in the interests of self-preservation, we are applying for jobs elsewhere but no real bites yet and there aren't even that many jobs available right now anyway.  We are also moving forward with our financial goals, getting our house in order in case we do have to leave suddenly.  The husband has been diligent about keeping us on track so we are in good shape.  As we have started to say a lot, every month longer we are here, our situation upon leaving gets better and better, so that has given us some peace in a very tumultuous time.  Do I love the unknown of it all?  Not even a little bit, but we have no choice.  A friend of mine suggested I try "radical acceptance," which seems like as good a strategy as any and has the potential upside of not making me insane on a daily basis!

--Meanwhile, life goes on: our first PTA event, a welcome social, was a smashing success, as I will detail in a longer post at some point.  We are now on to our next event, International Day next weekend.  This event will require quite a bit more work by parent volunteers besides the PTA leadership, so we shall see how it all turns out.  Fingers crossed!  Being PTA chairperson is alternately gratifying and aggravating; I find I have little patience for parents who want to complain but refuse to look for or assist with solutions to problems.  Some days I have to throw my hands up in the air in frustration but there are enough little victories, like a fun opening social, to keep me going!

--I participated in a group yard sale a couple of weeks ago and got rid of a ton of stuff, which was great.  I have been going through our belongings again, in anticipation of having to move at some point, and since we have committed to not shipping a container back home, we will only be sending a fraction of the stuff we have here back home in the end.  Our goal is just to have a small-ish air shipment of books and irreplaceable household goods in addition to as many suitcases as we are allowed and can get using our air mile points.  Which means eventually lots will go so for now I am slowing culling the unnecessary and moving it out in small batches.

--Um, the weather here this week is insane: last week the Emir and many children all over the country, including the Muslim children at my boys' school, participated in a country-wide prayer for rain.  Today, we have a deluge complete with thunder, which is something we haven't seen in over two years here.  Roads are flooded, of course, because drainage and infrastructure are not so much a thing here, so many schools were cancelled, but not ours.  Apparently, we are on higher ground, and the buses and parents were able to get through, so cancelling was not deemed necessary.  But just for a taste of what others of my friends were facing during school runs this morning, take a look at some of the pictures in this article, as well as a video of the rain INSIDE the airport (embedded in the middle of the article at about 9:50am, scroll down a bit): http://dohanews.co/heavy-downpours-in-qatar-lead-to-flooded-roads-school-closures/
Crazy!

Almost biting off more than I can chew!

So, it turns out that doing ALL THE THINGS all at the same time is not such a good idea!  If I had had a choice, I don't think I would have set about getting a new job, planning the first PTA event, starting online and in-person training for teaching online Seminary, adding 10 new students to the buses, and getting back from vacation and right into school with new homework routines for two kids all in the space of a week.  Not to self, do NOT do this again if you can possibly help it!

But I couldn't help it this time around, so off I went and since this is (literally, without exaggeration) the first time I have been able to sit down at a computer without having to accomplish something that needs to be done RIGHT NOW THIS INSTANT, let me take a moment (but only a moment, because of course there really is more to do that I am just ignoring temporarily) to tell you how it's all going!

• My New Job: I started officially on a Thursday, the last day of our work week here, and was immediately given a HUGE amount of editing to do (three monographs all in disarray) by Sunday, so I worked 30 hours that weekend, got it all done, and almost passed out, but now they love me and think I can do wonders and feel so great about meeting their (completely insane) deadlines, so good on me!  The work has actually been fun, if very fast-paced, but I worked so hard in the beginning, I've been able to ease up a bit at the end of this week...though they did send me yet another essay to read on Friday morning when I was leaving for a day trip to Abu Dhabi (see  Seminary below), so after a quick trip to the business center, I spent my waiting time and flight time editing because they wanted it back by that evening at the latest.  Soon I will actually be done with the monographs I was hired to edit but I'll still have contracted hours left, so I'm trying to convince them I can edit or even, gasp! write their monthly newsletter and the conference program.  We'll see how that goes!  Regardless, it's been very, very nice to use my professional brain for a change.
• PTA: we had our first parent meeting just after we returned from Greece, our first teacher appreciation day breakfast a few days after that, and our first big event is coming up this Saturday.  Now, being PTA president is a big job under any circumstances, but here we have the added challenge that a large percentage of our parent population has no idea what the PTA even is or does and has very little understanding about things like potlucks and assignments and school-wide events, so we don't actually know how this social is going to play out.  At this point, a few days away, I am cautiously optimistic it won't be a disaster...but I could very well be wrong!  Meanwhile, I am making flyers (wishing I knew more about digital image editing, those two degrees in English doing me very little good in this case), running errands to the craft-esque store (no real craft stores here; this is an oddly stocked stationary store in point of fact), driving between the two campuses, and emailing ad infinitum--so busy!
• Online Seminary: this is my new assignment for church, basically scripture study class online for teenagers.  I have taught the face-to-face, early morning version of this class in the past and really liked doing it, but the training for the online version is trying to kill me!  First, there are a gazillion and five online modules with which I have been struggling (I am not a "hip" learner--video instructions do not help me!  Please give me something I can simply read, people!) and then it just so happened we were going to have a stake-wide training just now as well, so that was why I took a day trip to Abu Dhabi, a 14 hour day from start to finish, three hours of which were actual training and the rest I spent either in transit or in the airport (some of the time working on editing).
• School Bus: As I have shared before here, I am still the parent coordinator for the school bus, only now we have two buses going to two different campuses and many more kids, many of whom joined up on the first of October, which meant there was much emailing and calling back and forth to get those kids paid for and set up with the schools and ready to ride at the first of the month.  Some days, I think this particular responsibility I have is my least favorite of all.  80% of the parents are gracious and helpful but that remaining 20% are constantly upset about something and complaining right and left and I just want to scream at them that I am VOLUNTEER, for crying out loud, a volunteer who is saving you hours of your time and many levels of aggravation because you longer have to drive on our roads and helping your kids get to and from school safely and in a timely manner and maybe, just maybe, you should be a little nicer to me and not Reply All with accusations in ALL CAPS!!  Just sayin.
• Homework: I am really of two minds about the homework situation.  On the one hand, yes, I see the value in extra practice of concepts at home to solidify skills learned in class or to enrich instruction from the day.  On the other hand, I find 45 solid minutes at a minimum of homework for a second grader (and that is solid working time, not counting interruptions or wandering attention or anything else) to be excessive.  The 20 minutes of reading is absolutely fine, no arguments here, but the spelling brouhaha is so labor-intensive: 12 spelling words with a whole gaggle of "points" that have to earned each week by doing activities of varying intensities with the spelling words.  I'd say 75% of the activities take longer than 20 minutes, which seems like a lot to do every single day.  I'm already steering J toward those that require less effort just so he doesn't burn out on homework before the week has hardly begun.  Will he know his spelling words for the weekly tests?  Of course.  Will he have the energy to do all these really not spelling-based activities for such a long time?  No.  And don't even get me started on Arabic, where the homework sheets are once again completely in Arabic and so we have to send pictures of them to our Arabic-speaking friends just to get through the worksheets!  And now E also has homework, reading by himself and reading with me (which, again, we already do anyway and want to have him do as much as he is able to do) and many, many, many (like 30) sight word flash cards, which include words like it, a, Dad, and...going?  One of these things is not like the others, folks!
• Husband's Job: In other, hopefully happier news, the current announcement is that the husband's work will only be cutting 25%, so we are all pleased to hear that.  No one knows yet which 25% will be cut, which is unsettling, but after a week in Greece during which I didn't think about all this one iota, I came back with a very zen attitude about the whole thing and have ceased to worry.  In the meantime, the husband has been applying for other jobs and has gotten some nibbles, and I have dutifully scoped out schools and house prices in those potential areas, just to be on the safe side.  But for now, we are awaiting the other shoe and hoping to make it through the school year here, if not beyond, so we can achieve our goal to pay off all our debt.  Speaking of debt, are we extremely happy we finally sold our house in South Carolina over the summer, given the horrendous flooding there this past week?  Why yes, yes we are, especially since our house backed up on a ditch usually mostly empty of water and was right next to an area that routinely flooded, even during the most usual of rain storms.  Whew!  However, we are so sad to see and hear about all the devastation our friends in SC have faced and send them our love and prayers.

If I/we can make it through October, things should be more manageable.   And to think I was a little bored before summer...careful what you wish for!

Quick update

We're back from our fabulous trip to Greece for Eid and there is lots to share, many adventures to describe (why yes, we did almost drive a Fiat-sized car down a staircase on a Greek island!), and so very much to say about the food (the FOOD!), but suddenly, I don't have time for a travelogue at the moment.  School has started up again, the PTA is taking off, I've gotten a new assignment at church (online Seminary teacher, for those who know what that is), AND, biggest news of all, I've gotten a job!  It's only for the next 4-5 weeks, a freelance editing gig for a local organization, but they are on a very tight schedule, so I will be working more than full-time for the next little while to meet their deadlines.  I know, what?!  Something has gotten in the way of my busy blogging and television critiquing schedule?  Say it ain't so!  Alas, I will be MIA for the next little while, so I will just leave you with the following:

(SPOILER ALERT) So far I have seen very little of the fall TV season, but I have to say I'm disappointed that it's the Mormon character who kills someone and then commits suicide on the premiere of Quantico.  And why did he do this, you ask?  Oh, because he slept with a 14 year old on his mission in Malawi, got her pregnant, took her to get an abortion, and then kept the secret until he cracked under the pressure of day 2 at the FBI academy.  So many sighs, my friends, so many sighs. There are not enough words to describe the many ways in which this whole scenario is wrong.

And just a taste of Greece to tide you over, though there will be more to come, of course:

The Frankish Castle on Paros.

Typical architecture on Paros.

I had to get a new hat and new sunglasses at our first stop because
I somehow lost both between Doha and Athens.

On our way to the Parthenon.

Still going...it was a long walk up the Acropolis!

Very sweaty boys at the end of that day!

Enjoying one of our favorite meals, a giant pile of meat in the market!

The Kerameikos cemetery, one of our favorite places.

Up close and very personal with lemurs at Attica Zoological Park outside of Athens.

Favors and blessings

Time to accentuate the positive after that last post!

As I explained in an earlier post, our new neighbors did us a huge solid by volunteering to take us and our malfunctioning car to the repair place.  Earlier that week, when we first met at our bus parent meeting, I had offered to take them to school to get their uniforms one day and then again the next day for orientation and meeting the teachers.  Because I was going anyway.  And because they didn't have a car then (the day they drove us was the first day they got their new car).  And because moving to Doha is HARD, especially in the beginning (and sometimes in the during), and I remember what that was like and want to help ease the way in for nice people so they will feel inclined to stay.  And, in the end, it turned out to be fortuitous that I had garnered good will with these people since I ended up needing their help with the car and the boys and not only were they there, they volunteered!

At another point in that same week, another long-time neighbor asked if I could pick up some uniform pieces for his son when I went to get ours because his son and wife were still out of town and would miss the uniform buying period.  And of course I said I would, because I was going anyway, and I know how difficult it is to get off work to make it to these during the work day events.  I did mention that our car was in the shop (for the first time), so I wasn't sure which day I would actually go uniform shopping and our lovely neighbor offered his second car if we needed it, which was just so very nice of him.  We ended up using his car to transport ourselves to the repair shop and back, and we were very grateful, and then we had to take our car in the second time, on a Thursday night, so the car would be gone for at least the whole weekend, and our neighbor offered the car to us again to get us to church and then for as long as we needed it while his wife and son were gone.  And there his car sits, in our driveway, helping us out a jam while our car languishes in the repair place for an indefinite period of time.

Meanwhile, recently at church, the husband mentioned during one of the many "introduce yourself" sessions we have at the beginning of each school year here that he was going to stay in Doha as long as his job was worth it or his wife could stand it, whichever came first.  And a wonderful gentleman came up to him afterwards and asked how I was, how we were, and then volunteered to babysit the boys so we could take some time out for a date.  What was, again, absolutely nice of him and something we will obviously appreciate.  Long ago, when this man first arrived here, we took him to church a few times when he was carless and here he is now, offering the thing we need in the moment we need it most.

The husband gave me a pre-school blessing along with the boys and blessed me that I would recognize the people put into my life to help me and, I have to say, I've been happy to see these lifesavers for who they are.  Your network of friends, neighbors, and colleagues seems even more crucial when you're an expat, and I'm grateful for these and others who have helped and are helping us along the way!

Lows and blues

When I came back to Doha from the States last summer, it was a hard reentry.  I told myself it was because we hadn't even been in-country a full year yet, so perhaps we went back "too soon" and that was why returning to Qatar felt so...raw.  But then I went to my sister's wedding in February, and, even though I was only gone a week (which included 48 hours or so of travel time), I felt that painful reentry shock again, perhaps even worse than before because my trip had been so busy and short.  That time around, at least, I noticed something was wrong much more quickly than the time before, but that still didn't stop me from feeling incredibly cranky (PMS didn't help), wanting to spend (and actually spending) long periods of time in bed (only some of which was because of cramps--I come from a long line of sleepers: when the going gets tough, I sleep!), socially hibernating, and endless negativity.  I wasn't eating well or thinking very clearly.  The poor husband was seriously considering not letting me go back to the States ever again!  And yet, summer rolled around again, and off we went, this time for even longer than before, ten full weeks.  And now we're back, and once again I am feeling...a little off kilter.  I'm busy, don't get me wrong, but also somewhat unsettled and a bit...discontented.

This same sense of letdown happens even when we take vacations to other places where we don't see family or old friends, though to a lesser extent.  Those post-holiday blues are a little more understandable, actually: I spend a lot of time planning our trips and while we are taking them, I am constantly ON, shepherding us from place to place, cheerleading when things to awry, managing expectations, adjusting plans as needed, etc., so as soon as we get back and all that ends, it seems natural that I might take a few days to just chill.  But a few days is not a few weeks.  And these longer episodes are not me relaxing but rather retreating, burrowing, and hiding.

So, what does that all add up to?  To me, it sounds like a (perhaps not so) tiny little bit of depression.  You see, I'm no stranger to occasional bouts of the blues, and I have to say that being an expat has seemed to result in more frequent bouts so far.  I have never cried as much in my life as during my first two months here, not even after a stroke and a miscarriage!  I wondered if I would ever stop crying, but eventually, of course, I did.  And I am not crying now, or even sad, per se, it's just a bit of a downer to come back to all the craziness here after all the relaxation of the summer.

Because it was so very relaxing this summer!  Even when it was marginally stressful or aggravating, it was relaxing, because it was predictable, recognizable stress, the easy kind of aggravation to deal with.  I was only back a few weeks when the permanent knot between my shoulders disappeared entirely; it was sooo great!  And now...it's back, as the insane, unpredictable, mind-boggling stress rears its ugly head.  Boo!  And now the stress is even greater as we have found out that the hospital is facing an uncertain future.  Some lay-offs have already started to happen and the pace will only quicken, so we don't even know what will happen when the dust settles.  Lots of uncertainty abounds and I can do absolutely nothing about it!

So, what to do?  Expat blues blogs (yes, they're a thing!) tell me to "increase my self-care" and "find a new interest."  Yeah, not so much for me.  "Do not isolate yourself" works since that's impossible. I've got lots to do, which might now include downsizing a house in addition to the PTA and the library. "Go workout" is good advice whenever and yes, I've started that now that the school schedule has settled.  "Pick up a camera?"  Meh.  "Eating healthier" is part of the plan...just as soon as we get back from our Eid break trip to Greece (scheduled and paid for before all this happened).  "Give yourself something to look forward to." Actually, I do have some work to do for our Greek excursion, so there's always that: cope with the current place by planning the escape to the next place may not be healthy or recommended, but it's totally me!  And finally, "write it down" is what I'm doing right now--score!

So I'll keep you posted!  And good thoughts and prayers are appreciated!

School's in session

The first day of school finally (FINALLY!) came.  I thought it would never arrive.  The bus situation in the morning went relatively smoothly, but, before we headed to the bus, we got the requisite "morning of" pictures.  And here they are!

J super smiley!

Yawning--did I mention we got up at 5am since the buses
leave at 6:15pm?  Yeah, yawns all around!

E said "I hate it when you wet my hair and I look 17!

Which camera do we look at?

They can never keep their hands off each other!

J even got to take a picture of Daddy!

When did my boys get to be so big?  Not quite 17, but getting there!  I still don't love uniforms, but they certainly do make for sharp photos!

The first day of school turned out to be a mixed bag: E LOVED his day, even though his classroom teacher hasn't gotten her residence permit sorted out so he has been with his teaching assistant and his PE teacher for the time being.  J, on the other hand, had a DISASTROUS first day with many, many tears after school and emailing and calling between me and his (new to the school) teacher BUT he did rally and the second day was a smashing success.  Whew!

Seattle's best (Summer 2015)

Shortly after we arrived in the States, we took a side trip to Seattle to see my fabulous friends L and P and their child D.  P and I went to college together and L and I went to grad school together and then they got married and then I haven't seen them since, which was all sorts of tragic so I was so happy we got to see them and the kids got to meet!  And, of course, as I always say, all roads lead to Seattle!

We just went for a long weekend, but it was all sorts of fun, even if it was unseasonably hot for part of the time.  We walked a lot, ate a lot of frozen yogurt and fabulous food both at home and out, played a bunch, and talked and talked and talked.  Sigh.  Loved it, all of it!  And I didn't take too many pictures because I was having too much fun!

Look at the water!

A troll!

Love the captain pose at this playground near the beach.

We went to see the locks and the salmon.

They were being dragons taking over the castle.

Public sculpture is awesome!

In the giant glass ferris wheel over the water--so fun!

Don't let L fool you with her smile; she's terrified of the height. 

Near the market, happy as clams...

Until they realized the wall was covered in chewed gum: blech!

On our way to the airport.

Love the love!

Life goes on Doha-style

So today was new student orientation and meet the teacher day at the school(s).  We are not new students, of course, but we needed to be there for that meeting to introduce the PTA, so we were.  In total, I think there were maybe 12 new students attending, if I'm being a generous estimator, though I know there are at least that many new students in our compound alone, not to mention those in other compounds.  So...not well attended.  But, on the plus side, at least there was orientation at all this year, so there's that!  So many, many baby steps.

Then we were off to meet J's new second grade teacher, Miss S (we do first names here--it weirds all the newbies out and is a good barometer for me for how flexible the new folks are).  Miss S commented on the first name business but didn't insist the kids call her something else, so that's a middle of the road reaction. We'll see what she does next. She did manage to make J and his classmate L laugh while chatting with them, so that was a point in her favor.  She did seem to know her way around a classroom, so I'm waiting with guarded optimism to see what shakes out for him this year.  Her classroom wasn't put together at all and was quite depressing, actually, but it's entirely possible she arrived here two days ago and is still sleep-deprived and doesn't have all her "stuff" together.  I'm concerned because I've had some deep reservations about this year for J, mainly having to do with his class grouping.  Until now, the school has kept the Western expat kids together, a deplorable strategy in terms of inclusiveness and diversity BUT a hugely successful strategy for a child like mine, who loves rules and can't abide rule-breakers, since the other classes were filled with children for whom rules are a brand new invention. This year, however, I guess they have decided to break up the band and scatter the Westerners throughout the four classes, a move I support in theory, but I will be interested to see how it works out in practice.  Fingers crossed!

After meeting with J's teacher and seeing some old friends, we headed over to E's new campus to meet his new teacher, Ms M.  Don't even get me started about how far away his new campus is--the school facilities themselves are ADORABLE, but the school is located in the middle of nowhere (and that's really saying something for Doha!) so it's a trek and a half to get there.  But off we pushed with a new girl E's age who moved into our compound over the summer and her mother.  And there we met E's new teacher and if I am meh about J's teacher, I am beyond thrilled about E's.  She actually came to us from the school we were trying to switch E into last year, and she was all sorts of welcoming and engaging and interested and interesting and it was the kind of teacher meeting you hope for.  Plus her classroom was all sorts of bright and fun and playful and looks like the kind of place where E will be very happy.  She also said, when I introduced myself, "Oh, everyone said I was so lucky because I had the PTA president's child in my class!" so points for remembering that and more points for saying it.  I think we'll get along just fine!

And it was a good thing that that meeting went well because quite a few of my impromptu meetings with parents on the way out went less well.  Apparently, everyone was waiting around for a PTA to form so they could complain to someone instead of taking their concerns to the admin directly.  Yaaayyy...sigh. The current set of problems revolve around transportation and since I figured it out for my compound and am now in charge of the PTA, everyone thinks I should do the same for them.  Umm, no, that's not actually my job.  It's your job to rally the parents near you and work it out.  I'm happy to share our information and contacts, but the legwork is your responsibility, not mine, and not the PTA's.  I think I had to say that about 20 times today, making enemies every single time, no matter how much I sugar-coated it.  Double sigh.

And THEN, as we were on our way home, the car AC went out completely.  This is a DIRE event in the heat of summer.  We had had this happen once before and we took the car in promptly, but they couldn't find the problem and then it started working, so they told us to bring it right in if it happened again.  But I had the boys in the car with me, plus I was leading the new family back in their car to our compound, so I pulled over, told them what had happened and was getting ready to give them directions to the houses when they volunteered to take the boys in their car, follow me to the Honda repair place, and then take us all back home.  Which was INCREDIBLY nice of them, and completely necessary since the boys' cheeks were already flushed and E was crying about the heat, so we shuffled them off to their nice, cool car, I rolled down my windows in a futile attempt to convince myself it wasn't boiling in the car, and off we went.  Did I mention the school is really, really far away from everything?  Well, it turns out it is as far away from the industrial area where the car repair shop is as anything can be and still be in the same town.  By the time we got there, I was dripping in sweat, sitting in a pool of sweat, and brushing the sweat out of my eyes so I could see.  On the way home, the wife insisted I sit in the front seat because "look at you; you need the AC!"

Eventually we all made it back, from our very long, very trying day.  I'm ready for school to start so we can just get on with things--hopefully in a car with a functional AC!

Provo Summer 2015 (Part 1)

We began our trip to the US this time and Grandeur and Grandest's house and spent lots of time playing with cousins and exploring during that first week.

Drawing was a popular past time!

J got a new hat!  E also got one later, a real-life cowboy hat because
he informed me he was going to be a cowboy when he grew up.  Since when?!

At the base of Bridal Veil Falls.

Climbing as far up Bridal Veil falls as we could barefoot. 

We made it back down safely!

And we went swimming with our cousins--I love that we are
at the age where I can relax in the shade while they play around
in the water, sometimes completely out of sight when they go on
the water slides.  Amazing! 

We went to see the dinosaurs at the zoo with our cousins.

Lots of love!

And a bald eagle, much to E's delight! 

He even found one of the merry-go-round.

J on the zoo train.

E at the mall.

Playing with sidewalk paint at the grandparents' house.

It was a restful beginning to our big summer, with no schedule and nothing much to do besides play and get over our jet lag, which they managed very well, thank goodness!  And even though everyone around us kept complaining of the heat (and, in fact, those were the hottest temperatures we experienced all summer), to us the weather was a relief after the punishing heat at the end of the school year in Doha!