Holiday Season Abroad

    I have such mixed feelings living abroad during the holiday season, as I absolutely love both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it often doesn't feel as though the holiday season is upon us.  I love the food, decorations, carols, holiday traditions, and time with family.  Last year, it was by far the toughest time during our first year abroad and find that to be true for this year as well.  Although it has been easier this year, as we have our Doha family here and have been quite busy, it still has been hard not being with family back in the States.

   Our Thanksgiving day this year was filled with working (unfortunately, it's not a holiday here), planning games for our retreat with the youth, decorating our apartment, and skyping with family.  It was so great to see family, even if it was on a computer, but challenging at the same time as we were missing out on some of the things we love.  I was a bit emotional on Thanksgiving, as I just missed family. It was a reminder of how truly blessed I am to have such a wonderful family who I love and miss so dearly.

  I am often reminded of how blessed I truly am, as my "hardship" this season is missing family.  I'm so fortunate to have such a loving husband, family, friends, job that I enjoy, and getting an experience of a lifetime abroad.

We received a fellow expat's decorations this past year, so we are thoroughly enjoying some real decorations this year.

We love our new decorations, but still kept our tree from last year. :)

Although, Thanksgiving just didn't feel the same, the rest of our weekend was fun and eventful.  We went on an overnight camping retreat with the youth from where we go to service.  It was a great way to build relationships with them and finally start truly learning some names.  The retreat started off with us driving through the desert in a sand storm.  It was incredible to see. The night was filled with games, songs, a message, small group time, etc.  There are a few pictures below...

To end the eventful Thanksgiving weekend, we helped host some of the US troops for a Thanksgiving meal with some of our Doha parents.  This helped it feel more like Thanksgiving, as we had turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie...along with some other tasty sides.  It was neat getting to know some of the men and women who serve our country and being able to see their bullet proof car. Unfortunately, we didn't end up taking any pictures...

Mark and I are so grateful for all HE has given us and can't thank our family and friends, near and far, enough for their continued support...we are incredible fortunate.

Much Love,

Kristin

ON YOUR MARK....GET SET....GO!!!! (Boat Races - this is for you Uncle Jim!)

So, when we told my family about moving to Qatar, my Uncle Jim immediately went into telling Mark and I about their fast boats.  Apparently there is a boat race in southern Indiana and Qatar races its boats there, too.  Somewhat random as I now think about it more... Anyways, he told us how fast the boats were, and that if we ever had a chance to see a race that we should go.  

Well, our chance came, as we recently have discovered that Qatar will try to host everything and anything here, and we took full advantage. A group of us from school went to the race on a Saturday afternoon.  It was a lot of fun! I can't complain about upper 70 degree weather, fast boats, and enjoying time outside with others...all the while it being in November. 

The race reminded me of the Indy 500 to an extent, minus the crazy crowd.  We watched the fast boats go around a circle in the water.  We quickly realized we were at the "right" corner, as we witnessed 2 fires (everyone was fine), a flipped boat, and another boat destroy the bouey for the boundary. With the numerous restarts, the race lasted about 30 minutes.  Qatar won with flying colors...it really wasn't much of a competition in that sense. 

Here are some of the pictures and videos we took...So, thanks Uncle Jim for the recommendation; I'm glad we went. 

 Watching the boats go into the water

 The gang getting ready to watch the race...

The view behind where we were sitting

Qatar with the VICTORY

Mark and I went back the following weekend to watch the larger boats.   We decided to go a bit early and get some work down outside...oh how I love November in Doha. 

Although they may have been faster and louder, the smaller boats were more fun to watch. This race with the bigger boats lasted about 10 minutes.

 Only had the Ipad with us, but you can see the splash line from the boats...

"Surprise" Birthday Party

So, last week my kids started asking me all sorts of out of the blue questions such as...

* Do you like surprise parties?
* What is your favorite color?
* Are you allergic to anything?
* What do you have planned for "Golden Time" on Thursday?
 (Golden Time - is free lesson if students behave all week and we get all our work done)

The questions were then followed later in the week with telling me they can't wait until Thursday and all of the class knows why, but me.  It didn't take long for me to realize that they were planning a "surprise" birthday party for me.  In theory, it would have been quite a surprise as my birthday is not for another month.  On Wednesday I noticed my kids whispering something to Mark, which is when I realized that he was in on it too.  I was impressed they sought him out at school to make sure he could come and help with the "surprise".

The kiddos were cute the day on Thursday telling me they were excited for Golden Time, and then I noticed some whispering more than normal, but tried to keep up the act that I didn't know what was going on. The kids had arranged for another teacher and Mark to distract me, while they quickly got the cake, set up the classroom, and got ready to surprise me.

I walked into the room to absolute chaos of kids yelling surprise, stuff written all over the board for me, and cake and gifts being shoved into my face.  I appreciated their thoughtfulness.

Here are some pictures from our party.  Mark was able to stay for about 10 minutes before his next lesson and then the kids ate lots of sugar and then went home. ;)

They put blue and green sprinkles on it to represent my favorite colors! :)

 These are my 5-4 darlings!

 One of my students was so excited to tell me how he changed the schedule from "Golden Time" to "Party Time" 

2014 Eid Holiday - Paris and Normandy

Although we had a rough start to our Eid holiday with our car breaking down and such, we were anxious for our travels ahead to France.  It was a bit of a rough start in France, as after we took 3 flights (we try to maximize our dollar ;) ), we then took the public transit to our hotel.  Unfortunately, we had trouble finding our hotel and found ourselves asking local French women for help.  Any stereotype we had prior to this trip about the French immediately changed, as the women we asked not only called our hotel using their phone to see where the hotel was, but one of them also walked us back to her place to get her car to take us there herself.  She was extremely sweet, and although there was quite a language barrier, we did our best to communicate how much we appreciated her help.

The weather in Paris was quite cold, but this was our nicest day by far.  It truly felt like Fall, as it was sunny and in the 60s with the leaves changing colors. We started our day in Versailles the typical American way, Starbucks Pumpkin Latte with McDonalds English muffin sandwich. 

In front of the Palace of Versailles 

We enjoyed the audio tour learning about the Palace and all who lived in it before.

The Room of mirrors where the Versailles Treaty was signed at the end of WWI

Water fountain show

After spending a couple of hours inside touring the main palace, we spent several hours in the afternoon walking the grounds (gardens+various other buildings).

Angelina's was recommended to us by several people before coming to Paris, and we quickly discovered why...it was delicious! I wouldn't recommend the hot chocolate, as it was too rich for even me, but the dessert was delicious! Angelina's Cafe was founded in 1903, and have definitely perfected their recipes over the years. 

Mongolian BBQ Dinner

Waiting in line to get into the Musee D' Orsay, as it was free Sunday for most of the museums and Paris. Mark and I are not art enthusiasts, but wanted to check out this museum based on a recommendation of a friend.  We saw many works from several well known artists.

The original love lock bridge...this has become quite the trend worldwide.  

Notre Dame of Paris

Humpback...

Mom, I saw these and it made me think of you.  These would be cute at the cabin. 

Fat Tire Bike Tour de Paris - beginning 1 of 2 bike tours for the day...yes, we are a bit hardcore. :) We first went on an afternoon bike tour, immediately followed by the night bike tour. 8 hours of biking=great times in Paris.

One cool aspect of the night tour was that it ended with a night cruise alone the Seine River.

It was a chilly night on the bike tour, as we were not as prepared for the cooler temps in Paris.

Went to a local pub recommended by our tour guide with friends from the group, who also went on both the afternoon+night tour. 

Love Wall- love was written in numerous languages all over the wall.  

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris

Making dinner in our hotel/apartment...nice way to save some money, but was a bit interesting to make tortellini in a skillet.

Views from the Eiffel Tower - definitely worth going to the top!

less than half way up the Eiffel Tower

Paris Statue of Liberty

A great way to spend our afternoon...drinking some wine, having cheese+crackers, and enjoying the views of the Eiffel Tower.

Indiana Cafe' - had to snag a photo...

I love Mark's face/yawn in this picture...this was a great vacation, but we were on the go most of the time.

Enjoying free glasses of wine, because we snagged a coupon from the bike tour company.

Recommended restaurant...the food was pretty good and reasonably priced, but it wasn't hot.

Mark is enjoying Paris' best ice cream, while I'm trying their macaroon's - - not a huge fan of macaroons, probably wouldn't enjoyed the ice cream more, but it was quite chilly outside.

We rented a car and drove to Bayeaux, France to tour Normandy.

Famous in France...using apples to make ciders, etc.

About to embark on our 10 hour tour of Normandy...it was GREAT, but a bit of an information overload.