Dhowwwdazzeeee - an amazing goodbye party!

PICTURE POST!

My going away party was a day on a dhow out at the island. A beautiful day with beautiful people. What a way to say goodbye to Doha :( I will post my proper "goodbye Doha" soon - when I get the energy to type it up.

Emily is here!

Finally the countdown is over, my beautiful baby sister is here for 3 weeks in Doha!! :) I will be spending 10 days with her before I am off to Thailand and then she will get to spend some Daddy-Daughter bonding time before she returns to South Carolina. I am so happy that she is here and that we get to spend some quality time together before I leave. We went to the local henna place today and last night we filled our bellies at our favorite restaurant! Oh and our father has also taken us on a little trip to a random farm in the desert where we got to chase some chickens, and run around in date-palms pretending to be kids again. Oh the memories of desert farm gardens and our youthful imaginations!

Looking forward to all the time I get to spend with her! Our days will be filled with tanning, laughing, watching movies, coloring, packing, getting my TO-DO list done, stealing music, organizing my life, going to the farm, chasing more chickens (but not the peacocks), exploring for camels, hitting up the modern museum, lots of yummy food, and some tears at the airport.

A farewell to these guys!

Doha would never have been Doha without these fine gentlemen. They make up a large part of my Qatar memories! They were my first group of official students and I will never forget them, ever. Teaching them was a blast. We had our highs and we had our lows but I wouldn't change one minute of it. I am sure I have learnt way more from them then they did from me! We went to dinner to celebrate my new job, my big move, and to say goodbye! Seeing them all together again was great. We laughed, we ate way too much, and they have already said they will rescue me in Thailand if things go badly. I am truely blessed to call them my friends and even with some of them missing it felt like we were back at lunch at QF - everyone was there in spirit! Thanks guys for making my introduction to ESL teaching an experience I will never forget! Good luck with your studies and remember to SPEAK ENGLISH!

Tangled by Christina Thornton

My very talented friend Christina is telling people to WATCH THIS SPACE :) You really do need to watch it because I know it will not disappoint. There is already some great stuff on there! I personal own a CT original already on a t-shirt and I love it.

It will be one HELL of an adventure!

So people have been asking me this question A LOT - "What is after Thailand?" It was freaking me out because I didn't have any plans after Thailand, apart from a month or so of traveling, until TODAY.

After Thailand and travels I will return to AMERICA to see my family and catch up with my friends and then sometime in the SUMMER of 2014 I WILL be moving to Australia for 1 YEAR on a working visa.

This plan started from a conversation about opening a bar with Pip and Christina and we have now decided that owning bar might be a bit tricky and Australia for a year is where it is at! The wonderful Pip (link to her amazing blog HERE) has started the research and I do not see any reasons why we cannot make this dream come true! We will arrive in Australia to live in a hostel, until we find an apartment, and we will be jobless when we get there.

I am writing this post because one day I want to say - "remember that time we planned to move to Australia and we did?" This is happening, it is THE plan, we WILL do this, more memories will be made. more travels are ahead of us, and it will be one HELL of an adventure.

UPDATE - Megan is now game and moving with us also :)

Australia here we come! :)

2 weeks and 2 days - yikes!

I am horrible at updating my blog. I thought I was getting better but then September just became so busy. Time is going way to fast and I am not sure if I am prepared. Don't get me wrong, I am ready for a new adventure but I am not prepared in unfinished Doha business, Thailand forms, and packing (oh I am stressing about packing majorly because I always overpack). I did have a minor panic attack yesterday but then I reminded myself that I am actually more prepared than I think I am. Basically I just need to stop over thinking the little things because everything will be alright!

I only have one form left to complete - the medical (see last post for that rant as I don't want to go into it again... yes the story has developed). My sister is coming in a week and she is bringing me Auburn documents and mozzie spray. I need to buy a backpack so I can just pack all my stuff and relax in Doha for my last 2 weeks. My last day of work at CMUQ and TAMUQ is the 30th so I will have 11 days to spend with friends and family before I fly away to Thailand.

I have started to collect a bunch of travel quotes to have on hand to remind me why I am going even further away from home. Here are a few...

"The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life."

Agnes Repplier

"Any country where I am not bored is a country that teaches me nothing."

Albert Camus

"You can't control the past, but you can control where you go next."

Kristen Hubbard, Wanderlove

Medical or open heart surgery?

So this post is mainly a way for me to vent about how silly things are in Qatar sometimes... get ready for a whole lot of complaining. Stop reading now if you don't want to hear my "dramatic" story.

This week I set out thinking - "right I will get my medical and visa done for Thailand then I will be done and can relax for the rest of my 5/6 weeks" - yeh, right, haha! My medical... the Dr. looked at the paper and said "I have never seen a form like this"- I knew it wasn't going to be easy. She really had no idea what the form was and she had no idea what a check up was! No lady I am not sick, I just want you to ask me the questions, take my temp, and sign the form saying that I am good to go. She wouldn't do this until I got all the vaccines on the list after I told her I didn't need them. We finally agree that I am going to get the top three and of course they only had one. So she sends me off to get the others and says come back and she will sign it. So I leave and the next place only has one out of the 2 and they say that Doha is all out of the last one I need. Great! Yay! Hot and sweaty I go back to my clinic to find out the shift has changed and the new doctor says "I cannot sign this because the director is not here and the director must sign it" - IT SAYS PHYSICIAN'S SIGNATURE not DIRECTOR OF HOSPITAL SIGNATURE. So my medical didn't get signed yet, my arms hurt from both the shots, and I am left thinking... All I wanted was a check up not the "go ahead" for open heart surgery. Really?

My visa isn't a big deal but the traffic was. So here is the rant - LEARN HOW TO MERGE. One on, one off, one in, one out! It really isn't that hard people of Doha! It would make the traffic actually better! There would be less traffic! When I got to the Thai Embassy I was missing a bunch of letter and forms but the lady was nice and once I hand that in I will be golden.

I just really don't want to go back to the doctor to get it signed because the place just makes my BLOOD BOIL. Not to mention when I am sitting there talking to the doctor and she is asking me the questions on the medical we keep getting interrupted by a lady who speaks only bedouin Arabic - she clearly didn't understand the number system or waiting her turn.

To top this week off my AC broke, again. Sleeping in the heat is no fun. Sleeping with it on couldn't happen because it leaks and I have never been the kind of person who likes to fall asleep to the sound of the rain. Thank goodness I tracked down the AC guy on the compound today and he had some free time to come fix it! I can't wait for a good nights sleep - maybe I will take the medical task with a smile on my face now :) 

Football is BACK - WDE!

I love Saturdays in the FALL! Football is back and even though I am miles and miles away I am still super excited for AUBURN FOOTBALL :) Here is to hoping that we don't have a repeat of last year though - it would be nice to go to a bowl game this year. Today I am wearing my Auburn Jersey with PRIDE!

I do wish that I was going "home" for a game but I guess I will have to just read about the games after they happen, unless they are at a reasonable time on my side of the world then I will find a way to stream a game or two!

I miss tailgating, game day wake ups, ESPN GAMEDAY, orange and blue, shakers, screaming until you don't have a voice, WEAGLE WEAGLE, nova, touchdowns, wings, rolling toomers, standing for hours in the student section, and being with my Auburn Family.

So here is to Auburn's fits touchdown...

War Eagle, fly down the field!

Ever to conquer, never to yeild! 

War Eagle, fearless and true, 

Fight on your orange and blue! 

GO! GO! GO! 

On to vict'ry, strike up the band! 

Give 'em hell! Give 'em hell! 

Stand up and yell, HEY! 

War Eagle, win for Auburn,

Power of DIXIELAND!

2013 hype video - 

JUST BECAUSE!

Click to view video

Everyday you should do something JUST BECAUSE you can. So today I have started up a fundraising campaign through charitywater.org to raise money to help people receive clean water through water projects. This month 100% of your donations will go towards water projects in India. I would like to believe that people do things JUST BECAUSE they can - so please donate! 

JUST BECAUSE!

Click link to donate

Oh those freshman!

This week I had to do a presentation with our summer employee Maha about plagiarism to the new "freshes" at Texas A&M. We also had to do 1 hour activities with smaller groups. The presentation was a little nerve raking but the group activities were fun because they were smaller.

This week I realized two things -

1.

I wish I was a freshman. I just wanted to befriend them all. They looked so worried with their piles of books and scary schedules. CMU orientation is going on this week also and they all just looked so star eyed and scared. This one kid on the first day must have let his father convince him that a suit was a great idea so he was walking around campus in a grey suit with sneakers on his feet. Thank goodness he had friends because my heart was melting for the little guy! I also have seen 2 of my JUMPSTART kids enjoying their orientation days and this makes me EXTREMELY happy!

2.

I have really missed my months off in the classroom. I loved being in front of a class, answering questions, and challenging them. I haven't had a class in MONTHS so it was nice to remember what a classroom was like and a good reminder that I will soon be teaching again!