Friday, February 12, 2010
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
We're back
It's been a long, long time since I've blogged. We were in a state of flux for so long and now that the dust has settled, it's time to start blogging again. We left Qatar in November 2008 and thought we'd only be in the US for a couple months to visit family, but after six months with no job, the job that came landed us in Texas. So, for now, our feet are planted here and we are adjusting to a new country (after almost 8 years away, there is a certain amount of culture shock that comes with being back in America), new jobs, and a new baby.
Here's a pic of our new little guy:
Here's a pic of our new little guy:
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Day at the Dunes
Though I've gone through the typical challenges that come with any move, there have been some sweet blessings along the way. One HUGE blessing was being able to come for a week during Christmas break last year. During that time, I met a girl who'd worked at the same summer camp I had worked at in Texas...she had grown up with some of my oldest and dearest friends from Camp Tejas! I know...so completely random and such a small world incident, is it any wonder we became fast friends?! How can you have the Jones' connection and not become very dear friends? Any friends of the Jones' family is a friend o' mine!:)
There are many other crazy connections that we have come to find out we have...I've done D.Now's at places where she used to go to church, a woman who was her mentor for a few years while she was living in Europe is best friends with my mentor-friend from Istanbul. Seriously, it's weird how connected we are and surprising that we haven't bumped into each other before. We've probably seen each others pictures in our friends' albums. Who knows?! It really is a crazy small world!
All that to say - my new friend, Elizabeth, had a friend from the states come to visit, which of course called for some arranging of fun activities. Living in such a small country means there is a very short list of activities from which to choose. That did not stop us! We were able to brainstorm up a day of fun in the sun (the only kind of fun to be had here, really) and we had a ladies day out in the dunes. SO MUCH FUN! We rode camels, tried on the national dress, ate some tasty kebabs in an authentic bedouin tent, and drove through the sand dunes like we were trying to outdo the stomach lurching involved with riding a roller coaster at Six Flags! Luckily I wasn't married to the driver, so I wasn't able to ruin all the fun by asking to be let out so I could walk in safety. :) Duning is seriously scary fun!
Snaps from our day:
This shot of me in the abaya is the traditional clothing worn here by the women. Westerners generally do not wear this; it was at the camp for tourist photos. Some days I wished I owned one so I could blend in...although it seems my eyes and skin tone seem to stand out more against the dark fabric. The more I stand out and struggle to find where exactly it is that I fit in, the more I am reminded that this world is definitely not our home. We're just journeying through...like nomads in the desert, not quite there yet.
There are many other crazy connections that we have come to find out we have...I've done D.Now's at places where she used to go to church, a woman who was her mentor for a few years while she was living in Europe is best friends with my mentor-friend from Istanbul. Seriously, it's weird how connected we are and surprising that we haven't bumped into each other before. We've probably seen each others pictures in our friends' albums. Who knows?! It really is a crazy small world!
All that to say - my new friend, Elizabeth, had a friend from the states come to visit, which of course called for some arranging of fun activities. Living in such a small country means there is a very short list of activities from which to choose. That did not stop us! We were able to brainstorm up a day of fun in the sun (the only kind of fun to be had here, really) and we had a ladies day out in the dunes. SO MUCH FUN! We rode camels, tried on the national dress, ate some tasty kebabs in an authentic bedouin tent, and drove through the sand dunes like we were trying to outdo the stomach lurching involved with riding a roller coaster at Six Flags! Luckily I wasn't married to the driver, so I wasn't able to ruin all the fun by asking to be let out so I could walk in safety. :) Duning is seriously scary fun!
Snaps from our day:
This shot of me in the abaya is the traditional clothing worn here by the women. Westerners generally do not wear this; it was at the camp for tourist photos. Some days I wished I owned one so I could blend in...although it seems my eyes and skin tone seem to stand out more against the dark fabric. The more I stand out and struggle to find where exactly it is that I fit in, the more I am reminded that this world is definitely not our home. We're just journeying through...like nomads in the desert, not quite there yet.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Summer in the Sand Pit
From what I hear, summer is over and school is back in session. It was pretty strange not to buy any school supplies this summer or use my time to gear up for the new year. At one point, Dan and I went to browse through a bookshop here and I started wandering through the school supplies admiring post-it notes, pencils, and pretty colored pens and Dan asked what I was looking for. I realized that it was just habit to stock up on all those stationery supplies that I'd need for the year for making grading more fun (boy, that is one thing I'm not missing...grading papers!) and for helping to teach note-taking skills, etc...
My new role as housewife has taken some time to adjust to. Thankfully, I've already had my share of two cross-cultural moves, so I was prepared in some ways for what it would be like to start over again in a new country. However, I wasn't prepared for what it would be like to be a stay-at-home wife...especially here in the desert!
I know many of you have wondered if I dropped off the face of the blogging world, and I thank you for not razzing me too hard about my lack of posts, but truly this has been a full summer for us. In my mind, I had this vision of having a sparkling house and healthy meals ready for Dan when he came home but for some reason, my vision never included how the house got to be so sparkling and how those meals came to be. Sure, I knew I would cook, but I didn't have a plan for how I would get the groceries and again the details on attaining the sparkling clean house eluded me.
In Turkey, I shopped on my way home from school. The school bus dropped me off near the market, I'd get what I needed and then walk home. Easy. In India, I had a housekeeper who did all the marketing and if I should run out of something while I was cooking, I'd just call the market and they'd deliver whatever it was that I needed. Yes, even if that meant two cubes of chicken stock! Seriously...grocery delivery was so nice!! It took me a while to catch on to the way things are done here. In Doha there is a serious lack of taxis. You can't just go out on the street and flag one down. You've got to call at least 24 hours (though 48 hours will ensure you get a ride) in advance to arrange the time you need a taxi to pick you up and while you've got a real person on the line you should also arrange for when you want the taxi to pick you up from wherever you've been dropped off so that you can get home. Thankfully, after several weeks of stressful shopping trips, trying to time my grocery shopping to end just as the taxi was pulling up so that all my dairy and meat products didn't spoil and my produce didn't wilt while waiting for the taxi, I learned a trick from my seasoned expat friend, Magel. Now I hire one car for a few hours and run all my errands during that time. Now my milk never spoils! It's so great to learn from those who've walked this road a little further down than we have.
One highlight of our summer was a trip to Malaysia to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We spent some time with our good friends Doug and Magel in KL and then went out to the jungle for few days. It was sooo nice to be with such dear friends and so wonderful to be surrounded by nature! It's amazing how deeply one can miss the smell of green! At times, I felt that maybe we'd gotten a little too close to nature in our jungle room. One night we slept with the light on so that the rat (Dan says it was a mouse...but it was the biggest mouse I'd ever seen crawling up our draperies!) and the large lizard (read: KIMODO DRAGON!) trying to mark their space in the rafters overhead would stay in the rafters and not try to bunk with us. Another night we were pretty sure a monkey had gotten into our room, but no, it was just the neighbors clinking a glass in their bedroom...that's how close we were to our neighbors' room, you could hear conversations as if they were inviting us to join in. Though our room wasn't exactly the romantic anniversary getaway I had in mind from the brochure pictures, it was definitely a memory maker - how many of you have gotten to share a twin bed in a room with a rat and a lizard fighting with each other, while hearing your neighbors chuckle over funny stories from their day? Exactly...not many of you, but those of you who've had the priviledge of doing that, I'm sure you've got fond memories of the occasion. :) I know we do! We also had a great time hiking through the jungle, walking through the tree tops on the suspended bridges, and riding for hours in a canoe through the beautiful jungles of the Teman Negara. It was truly an amazing trip. My man did an excellent job planning all of that for us! He definitely knows that jungles speak my love language. :)
Here are some photos from our trip:
My new role as housewife has taken some time to adjust to. Thankfully, I've already had my share of two cross-cultural moves, so I was prepared in some ways for what it would be like to start over again in a new country. However, I wasn't prepared for what it would be like to be a stay-at-home wife...especially here in the desert!
I know many of you have wondered if I dropped off the face of the blogging world, and I thank you for not razzing me too hard about my lack of posts, but truly this has been a full summer for us. In my mind, I had this vision of having a sparkling house and healthy meals ready for Dan when he came home but for some reason, my vision never included how the house got to be so sparkling and how those meals came to be. Sure, I knew I would cook, but I didn't have a plan for how I would get the groceries and again the details on attaining the sparkling clean house eluded me.
In Turkey, I shopped on my way home from school. The school bus dropped me off near the market, I'd get what I needed and then walk home. Easy. In India, I had a housekeeper who did all the marketing and if I should run out of something while I was cooking, I'd just call the market and they'd deliver whatever it was that I needed. Yes, even if that meant two cubes of chicken stock! Seriously...grocery delivery was so nice!! It took me a while to catch on to the way things are done here. In Doha there is a serious lack of taxis. You can't just go out on the street and flag one down. You've got to call at least 24 hours (though 48 hours will ensure you get a ride) in advance to arrange the time you need a taxi to pick you up and while you've got a real person on the line you should also arrange for when you want the taxi to pick you up from wherever you've been dropped off so that you can get home. Thankfully, after several weeks of stressful shopping trips, trying to time my grocery shopping to end just as the taxi was pulling up so that all my dairy and meat products didn't spoil and my produce didn't wilt while waiting for the taxi, I learned a trick from my seasoned expat friend, Magel. Now I hire one car for a few hours and run all my errands during that time. Now my milk never spoils! It's so great to learn from those who've walked this road a little further down than we have.
One highlight of our summer was a trip to Malaysia to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We spent some time with our good friends Doug and Magel in KL and then went out to the jungle for few days. It was sooo nice to be with such dear friends and so wonderful to be surrounded by nature! It's amazing how deeply one can miss the smell of green! At times, I felt that maybe we'd gotten a little too close to nature in our jungle room. One night we slept with the light on so that the rat (Dan says it was a mouse...but it was the biggest mouse I'd ever seen crawling up our draperies!) and the large lizard (read: KIMODO DRAGON!) trying to mark their space in the rafters overhead would stay in the rafters and not try to bunk with us. Another night we were pretty sure a monkey had gotten into our room, but no, it was just the neighbors clinking a glass in their bedroom...that's how close we were to our neighbors' room, you could hear conversations as if they were inviting us to join in. Though our room wasn't exactly the romantic anniversary getaway I had in mind from the brochure pictures, it was definitely a memory maker - how many of you have gotten to share a twin bed in a room with a rat and a lizard fighting with each other, while hearing your neighbors chuckle over funny stories from their day? Exactly...not many of you, but those of you who've had the priviledge of doing that, I'm sure you've got fond memories of the occasion. :) I know we do! We also had a great time hiking through the jungle, walking through the tree tops on the suspended bridges, and riding for hours in a canoe through the beautiful jungles of the Teman Negara. It was truly an amazing trip. My man did an excellent job planning all of that for us! He definitely knows that jungles speak my love language. :)
Here are some photos from our trip:
Sunday, June 01, 2008
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