Workday/Luncheon

Our school has this grand tradition of having teacher workdays on Thursdays (the first day of our weekend).  I don't like it very much because it makes for a really long week and a very short weekend, however, we do survive.  We had our last workday this weekend!  Jamie and I were amazingly unproductive.  One good thing that happened was the women at school hosted a luncheon potluck for the men.  This was the counterpart to the Valentine's breakfast the guys did in February.  The luncheon included very tasty food, good company, and pictures drawn by a class of 1st graders portraying each guy.  The pictures were priceless.  

Other than that we have just been trying to finish up the school year as quickly as possible (only 8 days left) so that we can head out to Ireland.  We're really excited to see you all when we get back to the States.  Some of you have already made plans to see us which has been great, but if you haven't just email us and we'll set something up.    

 

Guys at the luncheon.

The  picture of Jamie done by a 1st grader.

What an Amazing Teacher

First off, I think it is safe to say if there was a first year teacher award at our school it would be Tara's. She is the Renaissance woman teaching math, science, health and tutoring three students after school. Side note, I have picked up one language arts tutoring gig myself. Don't tell anyone I can't spel.

One Wednesday night Tara's Food and Nutrition class hosted their dinner for the semester. The students picked a Mexican theme and made burritos, Chimichangas, some good guacamole and bean dip, and apple filled tortillas. There would have been churros too, but someone used the tablespoon instead of teaspoon when adding salt. I think I had to call Grandma Gloria with that question a long time ago during a baking adventure when I was home alone. Tara and the kids worked from 2:30pm-9:30pm. The guests (parents and teachers) said the food was wonderful, and I think they meant it.  The students go through quite the transformation.  Few if any had ever cooked and some had never washed a dish in their life at the start of the semester.  In the end, the kids were satisfied with having completed a task that seemed much to large 30 minutes before the parents arrived, and Tara and I were able to reminisce about crazy restaurant life.

We have only two and a half weeks of school left now and are getting more excited by the day for our Ireland trip and coming home.

Here are some pictures from the evening.

Ray stepping in to do a little supervising.  No one lost any fingers.  Good job Ray!

The group from our compound.  Baby Dylan looks tired.

The Crowd of 50 people

A very tired Tara was given flowers from her class for "[making] this semester amazing" as one student wrote on her card.

Bake Sale and Khobar

This week has been kind of busy getting ready for our school's Fine Arts Night. It was an evening devoted to recognizing the arts complete with awards and a "museum" showing off the students' work. Jamie and I aren't directly connected with the arts, but my nutrition class was asked to host a bake sale at it. We chose items to make in class, plus the students had to make something at home to bring in. It was a hit! Combining money from the bake sale and general donations given, the event raised about 1000 SAR ($266) for an organization in Thailand called Freedom Wheelchairs. The organization gives people wheelchairs who needs them, repairs chairs, and helps people lead quality lives in a place where disabled are usually disregarded. I was really proud of my students and all the work they put into the evening. Now we are working on our big end-of-the-semester dinner project where we serve a complete dinner to their parents and teachers.

We also had our last big trip to Khobar. We ended up spending almost the whole day in town running errands and getting items to bring back to the States. It was also our last time at Lulu, the most amazing grocery store ever! It was sad, but we know we'll see it again in August. Plus, its exciting to think that we'll be back in the States in about a month!

Enjoy the pictures!

Tara

Selling items at the bake sale

Doesn't it look yummy?

A Family Reunion in Bahrain

Tara and I had an awesome weekend! Tara and I left one minute before school got out on Wednesday to go to Bahrain to see Seth. We even took Saturday off of work to have a long weekend with my brother. We weren't sure if he was actually going to get his leave approved, but he did. Seth was happy to escape his base in Djibouti, Africa for a few days, and now he only has two months left.

We took Seth out to the Tree of Life, which he thought was neat. There were a ton of workers out there digging big holes for pottery to put in a museum. They showed us some of the pieces they had dug up.

We also spent some time walking the shopping malls and street shops, watching movies, going out to eat, and visiting the Naval base in Bahrain. Ironman II and Clash of the Titans are good movies if you are wondering. The base was pretty cool to see too. Tara and I walked into their commissary and felt like we walked back into the United States. All the products and name brands we haven't seen in 9 months were oddly comforting.

Even though we didn't do very much, it was one of the best weekends we have had since being here. Spending some time with my brother was just what we needed before going into the lat five weeks of school and Saudi Arabia before we come home for a visit.

Enjoy the pictures

Brothers at the Tree of Life

The deep holes the excavators were digging at the Tree of Life

A rousing game of Monopoly . . . Seth won.

The three of us at TGIFridays for our last meal together

Tara snuck this candid picture

Our GPS said the funniest pronunciations for place names. All the "Al" street names were pronounced "Alabama." "Mohammad VI" also turned into "Mohammad Virgin Islands"

6 1/2 weeks

That's right.  Only 6 1/2 weeks of school left!  The antsy, end-of-school feeling has begun.  Talk amongst the teachers is often what people plan on doing over the summer break.  Just about every lunch time we can be caught swapping bed and breakfast deals or traveling tips with our friend Laura who is also planning a trip to Ireland this summer.  We love our jobs, but are very excited to go back to the States and see everyone again. 

In other news, school just had a staff photo contest.  They had to be pictures taken between Christmas and spring break.  It was really neat to see all the places that people had gone to and the amazing pictures they took while there.  I'm proud to say that I won 2nd place!  It's a picture in the Siq which is the entrance to Petra in Jordan. 

We are really looking forward to next weekend because we get to see Jamie's brother Seth!  He is currently stationed in Djibouti for the navy and is meeting us in Bahrain for an extended weekend.  It will be great to see him, plus we get to miss a day of school.

That's about it for now.

Tara

  2nd place picture

Garden Update

Hello Readers,

Things have been pretty routine since we came back from Thailand so I'll just fill you in on our garden and other small news. We found a new grocery store with nearly everything! It is called Lulu's and is in Al Khobar, an hour away. Beef from four different countries, prickly pairs (Tara says it is a Jungle Book reference), portabella mushrooms, a place to get a pineapple cored and sliced, an American and U.K. import section, awesome cheeses, and more. It was almost too good and cheap.

Also, we have our plane tickets booked to British Columbia to see Tara's parents. We will be there from June 30th to July 8th.

On to the garden. When we were in Thailand our friend Cory watered the garden and did a great job. Our garden was unrecognizable when we got back.  We weren't sure if we were going to get anything out of it because it is in 8 inches of potting soil and then sand. Now it looks like we will at least be enjoying tomatoes.

Here is the evolution of our little project in pictures.

The beginning - January 14th

 The Planting

Stage One

Stage Two - February 18th

Stage Three - Post Thailand - April 19th.  Two plants were removed from the border because they were massive.  One is now growing in the sand and the other is in a hanging basket.

We now have seven of these little guys on one plant.  The other might be a dud, but that's o.k.  Maybe we'll make BBLT's (beef bacon, lettuce and tomato).

Thailand Part 2: Koh Samui

In Thai the word Koh means island. That's what we spent our last week in Thailand on called, Koh Samui. It was pretty much a tropical paradise with the hustle and bustle of busy beaches and shopping/dining strips.

We stayed at a pretty nice resort on the beach and spent a lot of time doing nothing. We decided a nice relaxing week before going back to school would be nice. Our time was spent lounging on the beach, taking naps, eating some good food (sometimes on the beach), and browsing the little shops on the streets.

We did do a little bit of adventurous stuff as well because I (Jamie) can only sit in one place for so long. Our first adventure consisted of swimming in a waterfall, riding an elephant, watching a trained monkey pick coconuts (kind of sad actually), visiting a mummified monk, which was not mummified, but just under decomposed, and visiting a caged baby tiger (also sad to see) and baby elephants. Our second trek was out to Angthong National Park to do some kayaking, snorkling and visiting the green lagoon. The kayaking and green lagoon were very fun, but unfortunately the snorkling was very bad. The water wasn't clear and there were only two fish sightings in our group. It was more like deer hunting in that sense.

We have now been back in school for one day and it is nice to be back. Only 9 and half more weeks!

I know it is a short blog, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Bye.

Oh I almost forgot to mention. While in Thailand we had four, one hour, massages each. The grand cost total was under $100 for eight hours of massage. Incredible!Our beach

There were some others (Meg and Dave and Charlotte) from school in Koh Samui Meg had her daughter in law and grandson with her who are Thai also. That was handy at times. Here we are on our new big friends.

Tara wanted to drive an elephant since she can't drive a car. Next on the list is camel riding!

A little bay in Angthong National Park

Jamie: "I think that is a giant clam Tara. Good find!"

One person playing while the other is working . . . typical

A long boat by a beach in Angthong

Naumang waterfall

The view from up on a hill in Angthong

A nice picture on the main island of Koh Samui

Even the airport was tropical feeling

A panorama video of the mystic Green Lagoon in Angthong. They say is was created by an underground collapse and is fed by the sea.

Kayaking