 |
| Catedral de Barcelona |
Dear
Friends,
I see
that I have dropped into the once a year writing mode, and not even at
Christmas. Summer is upon us, and I now have time to write.
After
three years of couch surfing around, Alan and I decided to pick a location and
spend the summer in one place. Napa, our old stomping ground – no. Orinda, my generous sister’ place – no. Whidbey Island/Fairfield,
our parents local – no. We picked Barcelona,
Spain. (Ok, I picked it, but Alan’s a great husband and agreed
to come along.) We graciously accepted our plane fare for home and turned around
and plunked it down on a 2-month apartment rental. Of course nothing goes quite
as planned. Alan flew back to Sacramento; checked in with my family; bunked
with Neill in Sacramento; attended a math conference; and now is spending 2
weeks with his mom and sister in Washington. (Although I feel a bit sheepish at
not returning home to visit, I did get to see my family twice this year.) Meanwhile, I'm galavanting around Barcelona and Madrid with Kathleen Carr, a long time friend who was willing to keep me company for two weeks. Life is grand.
This past
year has completely solidified our love of international teaching. A second
year in one school made the year a lot easier. We’ll stay at this school for a
bit more and then decide where our next local should be. At this point, the
best options seem to be in the Far East. Maybe visiting us in Bangkok or Viet
Nam or Singapore sounds more enticing than Doha to some of you!
Our
biggest delight this year was having DeYette join us. We told her the welcome
mat was out, and she took us up on it. She worked odd jobs at ASD, our school,
for about a month and a half before she landed a great job at Northwestern
University Qatar. She is an executive assistant in the Dean’s Office. She’s getting paid, learning a
lot, and loving her job. Too bad it’s in Doha. On the other hand,
she’s saving big bucks and
building her resume. She’ll be able to return to the
states in a few years and be readily employable – enshalla. In the meantime,
she’ll probably be able to get a
masters from Northwestern. All in all, not a bad deal. Her one wish is for more
expats around her age. You might get a glimpse of her in August. She is being
sent to San Francisco for professional development!
Neill is
now making a go of it in Sacramento working at the Rio City Cafe. A year in
Yuba City was enough. He has his own place with a dog. He's a pretty happy
camper. One of these days, we hope he can come visit us somewhere. It will
happen soon enough. Thank goodness for Skype.
As I
mentioned above, we had a Love invasion in February. Robin agreed to come to
Doha with my mother. Jay got wind of it and decided to tag along. And why
should David miss this family gathering? Robin and Mom got to sleep on real
beds, in a bedroom no less; Jay was on an air mattress in the dining room; and
David slept in the family room. Having 3 bathrooms was a godsend. I was able to
take off a few days, and we played tourist together. It was a long haul for
them, but we had a wonderful week. Dad did stay at home, but he can hear the
stories over and over.
DeYette
and I also made a quick trip back to San Francisco over Spring Break to be with
family. The wonderful/scary day arrived when my niece Annie received 2 new
lungs. We awoke in Doha to an email explaining that the surgery had already
begun. The beauty of working overseas is that our companies are thoroughly
understanding that there are times when we drop everything and get on a plane.
Everybody that DeYette and I work with were fabulous. We were on an 8:00 plane
that night. In the meantime, we had received the good news that the 12 - 14
hour surgery was routine. I know Annie won't quite agree, but she did amazing
from the start. First days out are tough, really tough. But there were
improvements from the beginning. Strangely enough, it was easier for us to be
there for two weeks straight than if we had lived nearby. By the time we had to
say good by, Annie was practically a new person. There are and will be blips
and bumps ahead for Annie, but this is incredible.
I am
trying to relearn how picasa works, and how I set it up. If all goes well, you
will receive emails allowing you to see some of our photos from the year -
Athens, camping in Oman, and our summer trip in Spain. I hope I'm not emailing the photos, but I'm
not quite sure at the moment. I know other people's photos can be/are a bore,
but lots of you keep asking. Hopefully, it also will make me get organized.
Hope all
is well in your world. I would love to hear what you're up to.
