Hey All,

I swear I've updated everybody since September, but I sure can't find any evidence of it. So sorry, time really does just slip away.

I’m sitting in Dubai for a five-day weekend. As exciting as that may sound (and I thought it would be), I’m in a gym on a second 13-hour day of badminton; tomorrow looks to be the same. Luckily, the kids are great and the badminton is fun.

Basically, this trip accentuates one of the differences from home. Twenty kids, two coaches, and I traveled out of the country in order to play a game. I am along as the administrator in charge – visa/passport problems, ready to take a kid to the hospital, and stay in touch with the school. Alan and I are put up in a hotel and given a per diem. I actually thought I might get to go shopping, but the days are very long. We’ll see.

The reason we haven’t written much is that in many ways this year is so much like teaching at home. Once the trimester begins, our time revolves around writing lessons, grading assessments, contacting parents – all the usual stuff of teaching. The teachers at the school really are wonderful. Basically all of our socializing revolves around school. So far this year, we've attended a Winter Gala, a wine tasting, a night of guitar, a day long great race, 3 Thanksgivings, etc, etc, etc.  Alan and I are thoroughly enjoying our move here. We work hard and play hard.

Unfortunately, we also have had to live with one of the drawbacks of being far away. Alan made a quick trip back to Washington due to his brother’s short battle with cancer. Although, we knew about his illness, the severity of it took everybody by surprise, and Alan didn’t get back in time to see Bruce. Alan spent two weeks helping his sister Anne and his mom. Luckily, international schools understand the importance of bereavement leave and provide tickets home and time off.

We have just returned from Spring Break. Our “district” had a conference in Bangkok, so we used 5 days of our break to attend the conference. Alan and I attended a two-day workshop on the brain and how research should be reshaping our teaching. It was phenomenal! I’m all into dopamine now.

We spent 5 days in Bangkok and then headed south for a few days on the beach. We absolutely loved Thailand. I think everybody who visits does. My best meal cost $1. We didn’t really do the touristy/cultural things we ought to have, so we are going to have to return. Anyone want to join us? The Thai messages are fabulous.

We now are planning our summer. We will leave school one minute after the students in order to get home for DeYette’s graduation in Santa Barbara!!! We’ll hang out with her for a few days, and then Alan is off to Denver for a conference. I will fly to Washington, D.C. and Alan will meet me there for another conference. We’ll fly back to San Francisco where Alan has one last weekend conference. So June is booked.

July and August are open. We’ll go up to Seattle/Whidbey Island towards the end of August and fly back to Doha from there. School is starting quite late this year, Sept. 3, due to Ramadan. This is our third summer returning home without a place to live. We are trying to come up with clever ideas to remedy this. My latest solution (which Alan is ignoring completely) is to buy an RV/trailer. We’ll find a place to park it for the year, but we’ll have a small “place” to call home during the summer. I’m not sure if it really needs to be able to move; I guess it ought to. Those of you who have owned an RV, does this sound remotely reasonable? Any of you out there know of an RV that somebody would like to get off of his or her hands? Anybody have any other brilliant ideas? Are you leaving for the summer and want somebody to water your plants? Ah well, we’ll make it work somehow.

Hope all is well. Would love to hear from you too!
Love,
Carol and Alan