Summer of 2012

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.