2012 for the Roans - RECAP!

This year has been one of the most exciting years of my entire life.  I attended a school in DC to learn how to adapt to life overseas in the State Department.  I said goodbye to all of my friends and family and moved half way around the world to Qatar.  I've made fabulous new friends, worked at a US Embassy, traveled to Thailand, played with monkeys, rafted down a Thai river, rode an elephant, my best friend in the whole world is having a baby, went camping on the coast of Saudi Arabia, swam in the Arabian Sea and so much more that I'm sure I'm leaving out.  I've been lucky enough to have done this all with my best friend and husband, Brian.  This year has definitely been an experience and I'm glad that we've gone through these events together.

Enough mooshy stuff.

So, for Christmas we had about 10 people over.  Jen made the turkey and I made:  green bean casserole, hash brown casserole, cornbread stuffing and cheesy broccoli rice goodness.  It was a good time, but we all had to work the next day, so we didn't stay up too late imbibing.

Tonight is New Year's Eve.  We are going to a friend's house across the compound from our villa to bring in the new year.  I'm going to make seven-layer dip and guacamole to bring some Texas to Qatar.  :)  I'm hoping next year will bring us more excitement and travels.  As of now, we have a Eurotrip planned for a few weeks in March, I'll be coming home to TX to meet my quasi-niece/nephew-Earls in late June and we are going to Albania in September for our friends' wedding.  It's already looking like an exciting 2013!

Wish you were here!  :)  

Happy Christmas from the Middle East...what?

We are a week away from the beginning of the holidays and I must say that, even in the middle east, there is Christmas cheer.  You wouldn't think so considering this place is full of Muslims, but the malls, restaurants, hotels and grocery stores all have ornaments, trees, lights, Christmas music, etc.  The real Christmas miracle happening is that it is…wait for it…50 degrees and rainy here.  Yes.  Hell has frozen over, people.  I think the Mayans were right…watch out on the 21^st! 

On the final day of Earth, my friends Donna and Jenne and I are hosting a Ladies’ night.  I’m going to make chicken pot-pies.  What a great meal for your last day on earth, right?  I haven’t told the ladies that the end of the world is my theme.  They think it is just another neighborhood ladies’ event.  T-hee.

For Christmas Eve, we were invited to some friends’ house down the street.  They are making dinner and I’m supplying the stuffing because (gasp) they were going to buy the crap in the box!  Not on my watch, sister!  :)  Christmas Day we are having some people to our house.  Jenne, our friend Al – who threw his back out and can’t fly home to see his family, our friend Chris – who works at the Embassy and isn’t going home to see his family and whoever else decides to show up.  Jenne is making the turkey and I’m going to make all of the sides.  It’s not a Christmas like at home with family, but it will be awesome to spend it with my make-shift family in Doha.  :)  I need to find Joon a Santa costume.

Other than that, we have been working in the backyard and playing some tennis.  I am terrible, but Brian is worse, so it makes me feel better.  :)  Just kidding, lover!...kind of.  OH!  We are planning our Eurotrip in March.  We have a credit with United Airlines that we have to use before April, so we decided to take a few weeks off in March and backpack through Europe.  As of today (five minutes ago), we are going to:  Budapest, Vienna, Berchtestgaden (Eagle’s Nest), Mayrhofen (skiing in Austria), Zurich, Lausanne, Verbier (skiing the Swiss Alps), Grenoble, Marseille (wine tasting in France), Barcelona, Doha.  Pretty cool, huh?  I only wish we could bring Tiger, our photo-taking tour guide from Thailand, with us to be our photographer!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Love and miss you all tons!  

Phuket, Day 5 - Bumper Boats & Elephant Butts

Day 5 was our last day of excursions.  We were going elephant trekking and white water rafting.  I did NOT want to go rafting, as I had mental pictures of mountains, huge waves, 20 foot drops, being sucked into a hole - never to be seen again, Kevin Bacon kidnapping me on the river and trying to murder me and my family...wait...that was a movie.  But you know what I mean.  It did not seem like fun, nor did it seem safe to me, but I did it.
Tiger picked us up in his usual garb:  white Crocs, white towel on the head, hard hat and hibiscus flower in the collar.  Oh man, how I miss that little dude.  He put a flower in my seat every morning, which always ended up in my hair and super-wilted by the end of the day.  We start our hour-long drive to the raft place and Tiger decides that we need to see a waterfall.  It was pretty enough, hanging bridge to walk on and take photos.  We were the only ones there until....the pung pois showed up.  Tiger quickly took the camera from me and went to town.  He would act like he was taking a photo of a plant or rock or bird, but was really taking pictures of the big women, stripping down to take pictures in the waterfall.  I think he mentioned a tsunami when they jumped in...he's kind of rude, but there are no big people over there at all, so it's like when we see Yao Ming.  He's a giant to us...we are giants to them.
After the photo shoot, we arrive at the raft-rental place.  We arrived before the other tourists, so Tiger asked the owner if we could see his elephant.  Apparently, the owner had one as a pet.  I forget her name, but she was beautiful.  I felt bad because her feet were all chained together so she couldn't run off.  She knew tricks, though!  To say thank you, she would curtsey, cross her legs, bow and blow her trunk.  She could also do a hula-hoop on her trunk as well as play the harmonica.  She was so sweet and I wanted to take her home, but I doubt I could afford the freight on her.  There's that whole, no elephants in your back yard rule, too.
We drive down to the water, or what there was of it.  The river was low.  Texans, it was low like when you go tubing and you have to walk your ass down the river or scape-your-hiney-the-whole-time-low.  I ask Tiger how in the heck we are suppost to raft down this booger.  WELLLLL, they open the dam once a day to allow for rafters to have white water.  COOL!  Except one time a day equals everyone who wants to raft going at the same time.  NOT COOL.  It was like bumper boats.  Seriously, you couldn’t even paddle because there was another raft touching yours.  I'd say there were at least 75-100 rafts out there.  Since there were four people per raft plus two professionals to keep us afloat, we had another pair with us.  They were two guys from China who spoke no English.  None.  Brian had his GoPro camera strapped to his helmet, so we have the whole thing in HD video.  Pretty snazzy, eh?  I thought so and so did the Russians, the Chinese, the Arabs and zee Germans that were on the other boats on top of ours.  We floated by a boatful of Arab teenagers and I yelled, “Marhaba!” (Means "Hello!")  I got the stink eye.  Whatevs...they had no idea how "in" with their peeps I really am.
The guides thought is was hilarious to splash all of the rafters with water using their paddles...that water was effing cold and it was not hilarious.  Tiger, meanwhile, did not raft with us...he was running down the river taking "action shots" of us....and pung pois (again).  Brian said the rapids were Cat 1-2, so they weren't too big, but I ate it a few times and had a butt rash from wearing shorts like a doofus.  When the locals who live on the river see the water rise, they come out and make fun of the people in boats.  It was pretty funny to see them in their lawn chairs, sitting in front of their rubber tree forest, laughing at us, while their pet elephants roamed around the property.  YES, they have wild elephants on their land like we would have cattle or horses.  Fun Fact:  Elephants can only sleep for 3-4 hours a day.  The rest of the time they spend eating.  If they sleep too long, their legs will fall asleep and they can't get up.  Towards the end, when the water was calmer, the guides let Brian captain the boat and then asked me to tip them.  "Miss...miss...you tip us when we get back...money."  I guess people don't normally tip them, so they wanted to make sure their hard work was compensated....the splashing and making me miserable and whatnot.
Once we got back, we had lunch without seafood, and saw their mailman.  A dude on a moped with two huge bags on either side...like you would see on a motorcyle, but bigger and overstuffed.  They guys also brought around the baby elephant mentioned earlier to do his tricks for the entire crowd.  I was feeding her some pineapple and the next thing I know, I'm being herded to the side of her and they made me get on her. Those things are prickly and not comfortable, but she was sweet and will forever be known as my favorite pung poi.
After lunch, we were going elephant trekking.  The only part of this I enjoyed was when it pooped.  I'll get to that in a bit.  The "handler" sat on her head, kicked her ears to make her move and stabbed her repeatedly with this hook thingy.  I felt so sorry for her.  It was hot as hell and the poor thing would stop in every piece of shade could find...again, he would kick her and stab her with the hook to make her move.  The last few hundred yards of the trek was up the river, so she was able to stay cool and moved without abuse.  She did stop once, though, to relieve herself in the river.  I don't know if you have ever seen elephant droppings, but they look like coconuts.  She dropped three huge poops into the river and I laughed my ass off while she pooped hers off.  Not sure why it was so hilarious, but if you know me, you know I talk about it a lot.  This entire paragraph is probably inappropriate, but I'm not known for being so.  POOP.
Once we made it back, Brian gave the handler cigarettes for a tip.  Those things get you a long way in Thailand.  Keep that in mind if you ever go.  They work better than they do in prison - not that I would know.  Seriously, I wouldn't.
We started heading back to the hotel and Tiger wanted to take us to a really nice beach as our last stop.  His friends owned a little cafe on the water.  Brian and I walked down the beach and Tiger was our photographer.  We climbed palm trees that had fallen over and I fell off.  Yes, he got pictures of it...you may or may not get to see them.
We got back to the hotel and said our goodbyes.  I'll miss Mr. Tiger "Meow" Woods.  He was the BEST and made our experience unforgettable.

Phuket - Day 4, Monk Belly Rubs & Flying Monkeys

We arrive at the front lobby at 9am where Tiger is waiting for us in the soft-rockin' Forerunner...flower in the collar, but no hard hat since today we are going to tour Buddhist temples.  We had to dress respectfully - knees and shoulders covered.
During the drive to the first temple, Tiger asked, "Do you watch Rambo?  ..and that other good movie with the big guy - Predator?  Oh...and Black Hawk Down?"  He informed us that when he was growing up and the Rambo movies came out, he and his friends would "play Rambo."  He also likes the NFL and the NBA.  This is how the Thai's portray Americans...sports and war movies.  Interpret that how you will.
Also, during our drive, Phil Collins's "Another Day In Paradise" came on our soft-rockin' station and Brian and I took a moment to reflect on where we were and how lucky we were in life to have this opportunity.  It was a very peaceful moment, one I will cherish always and then Tiger pointed out a lady-boy.  He then introduced us to the phrase - coined for large people the rest of the trip - pung poi (pronounced pung pooey).  This translates to "elephant lady."  Used in a sentence:  Oh, that lady, she eats too much, she's a pung poi.  Every large person he saw was a pung poi.  And he would say it out loud, within their hearing distance.  Oh, Tiger...it's a good thing he usually wears a hard hat.
The first temple was the coolest to me in regards to design.  It is half way up a mountain, accesible only by 150 steep, rickety stairs.  You bang a bell with a small gong-thing every 20 or so stairs to let the monks know you are coming to pray.  Each bell had a different tone, so the sounds were songlike when combined.  Educational note:  Monks live in the same temple their entire life.  They are allowed to visit a neighboring temple for a few weeks a year, but other than that, they never leave their temple.  Back to the story:  We get to the top, completely out of breath because we are pung pois and see a monk right off the bat.  People make them lunch and bring it to them.  The monks pray with the people while they eat.  Throughout the temple, there are, what I would describe as, praying areas with Buddhas and candles.  People leave juices and water bottles for the monks.  Everything they eat or drink is from the local community.  They have no money and pay for nothing.  We tour through the temple, which is comprised of caves, with dirt floors, rock formations, monk rooms (for them to sleep in) and meditating areas.  Their room is just a small glass box with enough room for a small mattress and room to change clothes...probably the size of a large pantry.  Once we were to the bottom of the stairs, leaving to go to the next temple, two Thai ladies started talking to Tiger.  They asked him where we were from, he told them and then one of the ladies gave me a turtle shell ring.  Just because...she said it was for good luck.  I wore it the entire trip and we were never kidnapped, never got Montezuma's revenge, nor did Brian get hit on by a lady boy.
The second temple was much nicer.  It was actually constructed by the Princess of Thailand, so it was much more fancy....in an actual building vs. the side of a mountain.  Outside, people had brought food to this large gazebo area and the monks would come out and eat with them.  The monks had finished by the time we arrived, but we were offered the leftovers.  I politely declined, even though I wanted to be a pung poi and partake because it smelled so good.  The locals then gave the leftovers to the dogs.  Sidenote:  Thais LOVE their dogs.  Tiger literally cooks for his dog two times a day.  They eat the same thing as the dogs.  It's like another member of the family there.  Back to the temple...You pay to get in, but then they give you 60 coins equal to the entry fee to put into 60 Buddha statues.  You are supposed to say a prayer at each one, but let me tell you, with no disrespect to the religion, it was very tedious towards the end.  Tiger, in the mean time, was running around taking pictures of buddhas, and I don't mean the religious figures.  After the coin tossing, we went into the main temple where two monks were hosting a prayer session for the locals.  The walls had paintings of the birth of Buddha, which was very interesting, and I have to say similar to the Christian birth of Jesus.  It was uncanny.  Virgin mother, the whole shebang.  I mosied around and saw a neclace of teeth.  Yes, teeth.  Apparently, when people lose their teeth, they bring them as an offering to Buddha.  It was disgusting, but very cool.  After the monks' prayer was over, one of them came up to Brian and started patting his belly - Brian's belly, that is.  He was talking to Tiger, asking where we were from and in Thai he said, while rubbing Brian's stomach, "Oh, big American boy!"  It was pretty damn funny and something I know I will never forget.  A monk rubbed my husband's belly....HOW COOL, RIGHT!?
We left that temple and headed to the...wait for it...MONKEY TEMPLE!  This my favorite in terms of coolness and bucketlist-checking.
We stopped for lunch at this restaurant over-looking a river.  We were seated in our very own cabana with a beautiful view of the river.  I had to, again, practice my usage of the squatter toilet.  It was not a success.  In my mind, my new nickname was Tinkletoes, but I wasn't going to let anyone know that.  The food was great, except I don't like seafood...the soup had squid in it, there was fried shrimp and some other weird stuff floating around that I couldn't stomach.  So, I decide I'll eat the fried chicken wings.  First bite and they are bloody.  OH GREAT, I'm going to get diahrhea in the squatter bathroom now...how will I explain my feet then?  Alas, I was fine, THANK YOU TURTLE-SHELL RING, and we continued to the next location...where the monkeys were.
I could not wait to get my hands on a monkey.  I had been looking forward to this moment for months before our trip.  I couldn't wait to get a picture with a cute little monkey on my shoulder, feeding them bananas, you know...MONKIES!!!  So, we arrive and I saw so many....wait for it....construction workers, making a ton of noise, digging in the dirt with their tractor-things.  Guess what I didn't see.  Yeah...monkies.  Not ONE.  They didn't like the noise and had escaped to the top of the mountain.  Very disappointed, we go into the temple where I see more Buddhas, more cool caves, blah blah blah.  My day is ruined at this point because my sole goal of this trip was to play with a furry, little, bare-butted monkey.  I look up in one of the caves and what before my very own eyes should appear???  A MONKEY!  In the temple, there were monkeys.  YAY!  They wouldn't play with me, but at least I was close to one, right?  We go back outside and the construction had stopped.  HOLY CRAP, I'm going to get to play with monkeys.  They were everywhere!  Tiger bought some fruit, not bananas, because they preferred the fruit.  I walked down to their watering hole where they were swimming and, I kid you not, it was like white on rice.  They were all over me trying to get to this fruit.  I had one actually scratch me because I was playing tug-o-war with the fruit.  In the end, I got to play with the little dudes and I was a happy camper....covered in what I thought was mud, but was told differently by Tiger.  I'll let you interpret what else would be brown and all over my arms.  Yeah.
Another, non-monkey-related incident at this temple, we were standing by the fruit vendors outside and one of the ladies had a puppy with her.  It was very young - its eyes were not open yet.  Brian picked it up and it peed all over him.  Tinkle-t-shirt!  He should have had my turtle-ring.  We thought it was done, so he started loving on it again and the flood gates opened one more time.  It was funny.  Poor Brian...a monk called him chubby and a dog peed on him. It was not his day that day.
We head home after Tiger pointed out, and photographed, more lady-boys and pung pois.  I saw another elephant in the bed of a truck.  Apparently, that's how they roll in Phuket.  We also learned that Thailand's main crops are palm oil, cocounts and rubber.  The rubber tree farms are very cool and all of the houses connected to them have these nifty machines that roll the rubber sap into rubber sheets.
Once we were home, we went shopping, drank some Singha Beer (the Original Thai Beer), ate some street food (which, thank my turtle-ring I didn't get ill) and lit some more good luck lanterns.  It was a great end to an exciting, monkey-playing, monk-filled day.

Phuket - Day 3, Introducing Tiger The Tour Guidee

For our first excursion we decided to go to James Bond Island.  It's the part in "The Man With The Golden Gun" where the plane lands in between two islands on this perfect, little sandy beach and I'm sure some kind of sex/shooting scene ensues.  I don't know, I've never seen it, but the place looked cool, so we went.
We were told to be at the frond desk at 8:30am.  I wish someone had taken a picture of my face when our tour guide, Tiger, arrived.  It was probably the face of "Is this guy serious?" mixed with "Should I get in the car with him?"  He was around five feet tall, wearing white Croc's, with...wait for it, a towel over his head with a white hard hat.  OH...and a flower tucked in his collar...a red hibiscus for mental picture's sake.
We get in the SUV and are on our merry way.
Let me side note for a second.  The SUV was a Toyota Forerunner, very nice and clean and had the MOST AWESOME musical feature.  It was a small touch screen in the back seat that we could control.  The music ranged from:  Kenny G, Michael Jackson (who I have a story about later), Bette Midler, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton...you get the gist.  We were soft-rocking our way around Thailand.
Tiger begins the conversation like this, "My name is Tiger, like 'meow', like Tiger Woods.  My friends say I look like Tiger Woods because of my black skin.  When my wife is not around, I am a Tiger, when she comes to visit, I am 'meow.'"  This was all in broken English, mind you. "My wife, she used to look like Olive Oil, but after two kids, she looks like Bluto.  She's a polar bear."  Tiger was OBSESSED with large people.  I'll get to that later. He then asked Brian what he did for a living and he replied with, "I'm in the US Military."  "OH!!!!!!!!!!  You    wear stars on your shoulders?!  You the big boss man?!  Do you shoot people with guns?!"  For those that don't know, stars on your shoulder makes you a General.  It was pretty damn funny.
After an hour of Tiger's hilarious commentary, we arrive at the dock to get in the "long boat" for the ride to James Bond Island.  This boat was probably 30 feet long, with slats to sit on, covered by a tent, powered by a car engine with a paddle.  Yes, a car engine.  YES, that's what I said.
We motor our way through mangrove forests and out to the ocean.  This place is fabulous.  The mountains are covered in greenery, the water is clear and huge rocks just pop up out of the water.  It's so neat-o and a very unique setting, for sure...especially with Tiger as your narrator.  There were two mountains that he called "Booby Mountains."  The entire time we were on our excursion, he had taken our camera and was our personal photographer.  This was a great thing as we now have TONS of photos of the two of us together; however, we also have TONS of pictures of large people in canoes, large people at the temples, large people everywhere, booby mountains, elephant butts, etc.  TONS, people.
We arrive at the island and it was swarming with tourists.  It was cool to see the place, but it had definitely been taken over by the locals selling crap.  This beautiful location now has tons of shanty-looking shops to buy touristy trinket crap.  It totally takes away from what the place COULD look like, but I'm sure there are other places nearby that are just as beautiful without the shops.  I could stop bitching and remind myself that we DID sign up for the touristy crap...what was I expecting?  So, there's that.
After the island, we had lunch at a floating city.  Seriously, the entire thing was floating in the middle of the bay.  People build on to whatever is already there and it keeps growing.  This restaurant, however, was my first experience with the "squatter" toilets.  It's a hole in the ground, with little planks to place your feet that you hover over and hope you don't get your feet.  I was not successful and tinkled all over myself.  That's all you need to know.
After lunch, we boated to another floating place that rented canoes.  Brian and I got in one canoe with a paddle-man and Tiger got into another canoe with his own paddle-man.  We canoed into caves, saw bats and natural rock formations.  It was amazing and one of the most beautiful places I've been.  Canoeing into an open-air cave....I really have no words for how beautiful it is.  It's like a scene from the movies.
Our canoe-paddle-man was Thai Muslim.  He told us this very quickly and subsequently asked where we were from.  We replied with Qatar...it's a safe country to reply with since he had just informed us that he loves Allah.  He somehow deduced that we were from America, though, and would say a name and do a thumbs up or thumbs down.  They were as follows:  Obama - thumbs up, George Bush - thumbs down, Osama bin Ladin - thumbs up.  GET ME OFF OF THIS DAMN CANOE.  Brian gave him his cigarettes as a tip, I quickly hopped back on the long boat.
Once we were out of the grasps of the Thai-Muslim-Osama-Lover, we headed back to the dock.  The tide had fallen significantly.  By significantly, I mean about 5-6 feet.  We could see nothing but the roots of the mangrove trees we were previously eye-level with.  We hopped off the boat and back into the soft-rocking Forerunner to head home.
Tonight we had our single-table roof-top dinner.  It was fabulous...the best food I've ever had and that is saying a lot.  Like promised, there was no seafood and the wine was room temperature.  The chef brought us some Chinese "good-luck balloons."  They were the lantern balloons that you light on fire and they float away.  They are beautiful and it was another cool thing to do that I had never done before...which seemed to be the ongoing theme of this trip.
Oh, and to get back to the Michael Jackson part...According to Tiger, "Michael Jackson is a lady-boy that loves tomahawks."  Do what you will with that information.

Phuket - Day 2, Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Day 2:  We woke up at 2pm.  Yeah, yeah, yeah...we are lazy.  NO.  We were jet-lagged and decided to take the first day off to recoup.  All we did was lay by the pool, meander to a late lunch, set up our excursions for the week and book our massages for the day.  I MUST tell you all that if you go on vacation...book the massages at the END.  It is a worthless cause to loosen yourself up for a week of exercise when you are completely out of shape.  BUT, it was nice thing to have on the first day.
We hung out at the house until lunch, we ate, and booked our spa time for later that day.  After that, we went to the front desk and chose our excursions for the week.  (Basically, the touristy stuff we wanted to do for the next three days).  We then went back to the room and laid by our pool until spa time.  Brian got a Thai massage and I got a Swedish massage - both 90 minutes.  I wanted to try the local cuisine, however comma, I was going to let him have a go at it first.
So we go into the spa, they tell us to change.  Since Brian got the "Thai Massage" he got to wear adult PJ's for his experience.  I, on the other hand, was given baby panties to wear.  I am not kidding when I say that these things would barely fit my 2 year old nephew.  Thai people are tiny and that's all I have to say.  So, I wore my own undies...while, I'm sure, I was made fun of in the local tongue while I was getting rubbed down.  BUT...ask me if I cared.  It was fabulous!  At one point, I looked over when I was flipping and Brian had a tiny person walking all over his back, legs and arms.  It did NOT look soothing - and he was sore for the remainder of the vacation.
After the massage, we showered and went to dinner at the hotel.  The restaurant had a single table on the roof at which a couple was dining...I wanted to do that.  We reserved the table for the following night and had dinner that night, I'd say, around 10 feet from the water.  It was amazing.  While we were eating, the Head Chef brought us the menu for the next night (the single table upstairs) to approve.  I told him I wasn't fond of seafood and he promised there would be none.  This place is amazing.
While we were eating, I asked the waiter if he could call the front desk to fill the bath tub...HE DID.  However, when we got home, the water was running cold and we just got in the pool.  Good effort, though! :)
Side note:  If you ever go to Thailand and want red wine, expect it to be cold.  We asked them to keep two bottles out for our rooftop dinner the following night so it would be warm.  ALL wine, and trust me I tried it at more than one place, is served cold in Thailand.

Phuket - Day 1 - Roan, Party of Two

Our evening began in Doha.  It was the first day of the Eid celebrations and, let me just say, the Qataris do NOT mess around when it comes to fire works.  The entire sky was lit up like a lantern and the traffic was at a dead stop heading towards our house.  Our friend Jenne drove us to the airport and was dreading having to sit in that crap, so she took a long way home, albeit much faster.
Our flight left at 11:30pm and we arrived in Mumbai at 7:30am.  With the time change, the flight was 4.5 hours...and it SMELLED.  Some lady was changing her baby's poopy diaper in the row in front of us repeatedly.  Also, they served Indian food as the dinner...the entire plane smelled.  But, to cover the stench, the flight attendants walked through the cabin spraying bathroom spray.  No shit...full on, in your face, Lysol.   They DID, ever so nicely, warn us to cover our faces and close our eyes if we wore contacts, so there's that.
Sidenote:  Mumbai is probably the most poverty-stricken city I have ever seen.  I've seen homeless people and shacks in Texas, but these were on a whole other level.  Their houses, if you want to call them that, were built out of plywood, stacked on top of each other, three or four stories tall.
The next flight was 3.5 hours to Bangkok.  Nothing exciting happened on this flight.  I had an entire row to myself and slept the entire time...so did Brian.  We were wide awake for the last leg of our trip from Bangkok to Phuket.  It was only an hour and I stared out the window the entire time.  It was surreal to see landscape...real, green, rolling hills....with clouds in the sky.
Upon arriving in Phuket, we grabbed our luggage, went outside and waited for what we were told would be a man holding a sign saying, "Roan Party."  There was no man and there definitely was no party.  We had booked through Expedia and luckily, Brian found a man who was the Expedia rep standing outside.  After 45 minutes of him calling everyone and their mother, we get in a car.  So, we start driving...la-dee-dah....Brian looks at his snazzy new iPhone (which I thought was a waste of money) and realizes that we are going the wrong way on the highway.  We were heading south instead of north. My panic button goes off and I start thinking of all the shitty scenarios I read about at JMAS (Embassy school) and in two seconds had come to the conclusion that we were being kidnapped to a pot forest to be held in a mud hut.  I digress. The driver does not speak English and we do not speak Thai.  Brian calls the hotel and makes them talk to the guy and he says he understands...but does not turn around.  OH MY GOD WE ARE BEING KIDNAPPED.  While I'm stewing in my overreaction, Brian uses the Translate app on his iPhone and tells the guy we need to turn around and shows him on the map where we need to go.  LIGHTBULB!  So, we turn around...then he pulls over to the side of the road to call his home base, I suppose, to tell them he's going to take longer.  I think he's calling to tell them he can't kidnap us because we are so difficult.  Either way, in my mind, we were going to be safe....until we sat there for, no shit, 45 minutes.  45, people.  The only good/cool thing about this part was that I saw a baby elephant in the back of a truck.  Finally, I say, "I'm going to call the POLICE if you do not take us to the hotel right now."  The car starts moving and we arrive at the hotel 35 minutes later.  SOOOOOOOOO, 3 hours after we landed, we finally made it to the hotel.
Casa de la Flora, how I miss thee.  It is the nicest, most beautiful hotel I have ever seen.  We had our own house with an Infinity pool which was 5 feet from the beach.  The bathroom had a tub that took 45 minutes to fill, but if you were at dinner and told the waiter you wanted a bath, they would fill it for you so it was full when you got back to the room.  We had dinner, swam in the pool and went to sleep the first night.  We were jet lagging and didn't feel like doing much.  That concludes day 1....more to come soon!  :)

Phuket All!

Hello friends and family!

We are gearing up for our trip to Thailand.  We leave on Friday, October 26th and return on Friday, November 2nd.  We never took a honeymoon, so this is a birthday/anniversary/Christmas present for us.  We are both very excited - it's our first trip of many while we live over here and we plan to make a LOT of memories.  I'm going to play with monkeys, ride elephants and scuba dive!

Today is my birthday and every time someone new at work would sit at our lunch table, everyone would sing me Happy Birthday again.  Brian got me a KitchenAid mixer - which I have wanted since I was in college.  I am officially an adult.  I think the KitchenAid mixer signifies adulthood...I don't know why, so don't ask.  My  Mother got me a gift card for stained glass...I got 50 pieces of glass and they are on their way.  I also got some money from my MIL, Karen, and a spa gift card from my BFF in Qatar, Jen.  I made out like a bandit!  (kidding).  Just being around friends and my tiny family here (Brian and Joon) has made it all a perfect day.

Not for the paragraph about what many of my friends call "White People Problems."  It's a joke, but I have been complaining about not having a car lately, so here goes:  We have FINALLY decided on a car.  It took us over four months, but Brian and I have come to an agreement on what we both like.  As most of you know, I do NOT like to make decisions.  Like purchasing a car, for instance.  I will not pick one and make a decision to buy it, but if you show me one that I don't like, I will tell you...well, I don't like any cars except Volvos and Land Rovers.  Oh, and the Porche Panamera, but that is totally out of our price range.  The other day, we were leaving the Embassy and we walked by our friend Jared's car.  Brian always leaves him little drawings in the dust on his windows, so I see it often before and after work when he's defacing it.  I love his car!  So does Brian!  It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 4x4 and we are getting one!  :)  The end.

It looks like I'll be going to DC for a month and a half after the New Year for a Consular Course at the Foreign Service Institute.  This job will open many doors after we are through in Doha and I'm looking forward to the career shift, as well.  I wish I had been smart enough to apply to the State Department when I was younger.  There is so much opportunity out there to travel and see the world and get PAID for it.  You make lifelong friends and create memories that most people can only read about.  I'm very excited about our future and the places we will go!  So parents - urge your kiddos to go State Department after college.  It's awesome...and you could end up with Australian/British/German in laws...free places to stay abroad!  ;)

Until next time...everyone have a good one and I'll post about our trip when we return!

  

Not a happy post, but a needed one.

As most of you know, at this point, I suffered a miscarriage a few weeks ago.  For those of you that didn't, this is just my way of venting and making a record of my feelings at this point.

I had made it to 10 weeks, but the baby had stopped growing at 6 weeks.  The doctor's here were very supportive and helped me through everything.  The first ultrasound was normal.  The baby looked small, but was there and the doctor wanted me to come back in a week to monitor the growth.  The following week, I went back to her and she said there had been no growth and could not hear a heartbeat.  She told me it was most likely a "missed miscarriage."  So, she sent me to radiology for a "better" ultrasound than the equipment she had in her office.  Radiology found a heartbeat!  I was beyond excited.  I was crying and told Brian that my doctor was crazy because I had just heard the heartbeat.  My joy was shortlived.  I returned to my doctor after the heartbeat news and she informed me that it was most likely my heartbeat reflecting off of the gestational sac.  My roller coaster continued.  She told me to come back in yet another week.  I waited, very impatiently, but I made it.  We went back, but this time we went straight to radiology where she told me there was definitely no heartbeat and I had indeed miscarried.  In all honesty, I had prepared myself for the worst, so I wasn't a bucket of tears this time.  My doctor gave me my options to either wait and let the miscarriage happen naturally or perform a D&C.  She urged me to have the D&C since it had been three weeks with no miscarriage symptoms.  So we scheduled it for two days later.

The D&C was painless.  I was asleep the entire time and Brian stayed in the hospital with me all day.  Brian has been my rock.  He didn't know what to do at first, but he's been so strong and held my hand through it all.  I could not have done this without him (literally).  :)  That was a joke - trying to lighten the mood here, folks.

I have also had many friends to talk to here who have been through the pain and have continued to have healthy children.  I'm keeping my hopes up and taking care of myself.  Hopefully we will have good news for you soon!

XOXO

All is well in Qatar!

I'm sure most of you have been watching the news and seeing all of the terrible happenings in the region.  I just want to put your worries at ease for me and Brian.  Qatar is totally safe.  There has only been one protest, across the highway from the Embassy, and it was peaceful.  The Muslim prayers are always on Friday mornings and we were told that there would most likely be demonstrations after the prayers.  This is when the protest occured.  They never made it to the Embassy and no one was hurt at all.  No one even attempted to hurt anyone.  The government of Qatar will not tolerate hostility towards any Embassy in the country.  The local police force knew of the protests after the prayers and had their forces ready for action, which was not even needed.

I hopt this puts our famly and friends at ease a bit.  :)

On another, more awesome, note.  We have booked our trip for our Honeymoon/my birthday/anniversary to Thailand.  We will be staying about an hour north of Phuket for a week.  Some of our plans include:  elephant rides, canoeing in caves, snorkeling/diving, hiking and eating!  I'm so excited for the food...my inner fat kid is foaming at the mouth!

Other than that, everything is going well.  We are both working and staying very busy.  Brian loves his job.  Me, not so much, but I'm looking into other avenues at the Embassy.  It looks like I may be traveling to DC for a month in December or January for a month-long course to learn to be a Consular Associate.  Those are the people who give visas to the US, renew passports for local Americans, etc.  It will also open a lot of doors for entrance into working for the State Department when we get home.

We love and miss you all!!!

I can see the Eid light at the end of this Ramadan tunnel....

Ramadan is almost over!  It will be so nice to eat, drink and be merry during the day.  We have all of next week off due to the Eid (pronounced "eeeeed") holiday.  Brian is in Germany for this week and will be returning as soon as Eid starts.

I started my job on August 6th.  It's going fabulously.  Today is my first day without my mentor and I've already put out a few fires...or I'm attempting to.  :)  I'm really enjoying the work and the people so far.  My first morale builder:  Bow-Tie Tuesdays.  I didn't get a lot of participation, but the few who did it, got a good laugh.

We still have not purchased a car, but I think we have decided on a Volvo from the States.  That way we can get it paid off before we go home and be back at zero debt upon arrival.  Speaking of debt - I am officially debt free thanks to Brian.  He paid off all of my credit cards.  Now we have one left of his and then we are DONE-zo with credit, debt, bill collecting, etc.  DONE.  I'm very excited about having money with no one to owe.

My friend Casey came to visit for a week.  She called on a Monday and was here by Thursday night.  She stayed for a week.  We hung out at the pool, went to the souqs and took her to the mall here.  It was really difficult to find anything to do since it was Ramadan.  Everything was closed during her visit.  It was awesome to have someone visit, though.  I really miss seeing people from home.  Hint.  Hint...get out here, people...or meet us somewhere.  We are lonely!!!  Not really, but we do miss our family and friends.

We have adopted one more kitten.  I found him last night.  He is probably two weeks old and ADORABLE.  I need to stop.  This puts our kitty tally at four.  Yes, I know, pitiful.  Spinster Lauren.

It's been pretty anti-climactic here, which is always a good thing in the Middle East.  I hope you are all doing well!

XOXOXOXO - Lauren

Ramadan, Bat Mitzvahs and Birthdays...Oh, my!

Where to begin...

I got a job.  It is going to last at least 6 months.  My BFF in Qatar is going home to have her bundle of joy and I'm taking over her position.  She comes home, I believe, on New Year's Day, and will decide whether she's coming back full-time, part-time or not at all.  My hope is that she comes back part-time so we can split the work.  She's fabulous and we will be friends for a long time after this duty is over.

I hosted Emily's (the person mentioned prior's) baby shower a few weeks ago.  All went well.  Myself and my friends Stacy and Jenne hosted.  Jenne had to go home to help out with her Father, but she was there in spirit.  (At least, I drank spirits and pretended like she was there).  :)   It was a great time.  I met a bunch of fabulous ladies and hope to see them all again soon.  Half of them were from the UK, and I'm not sure who reads Facebook on here or not, but I SWEAR....those women can make anything trashy sound so exquisite.    Literally.  It's awesome.  Trash = Rubbish.  BS = Bollocks.  Cigarette = Fag...well, maybe not that one, but you get the drift.

Brian and I are TRYING - that being the key word - to buy a car here.  First we go to a car "lot."  By car lot, I mean a gravel parking lot with a small garage that has 4-5 cars in it, the rest are in the parking lot.  They are crappy.  I mean...CRAPPY...dusty, dented...and this place has no idea of depreciation.  Everything here is probably $1-$2k off of new-car price, used and 5 years old.  So we go in...Brian found a truck that he wants.  The salesmen (2 of them) tell us to sit down...mind you, we are in the middle of BFE in Qatar, so I'm not completely 100% comfortable.  We walk in, the guy asks where we are from.  Brian says, "We are Americans."  Brian proceeds to ask him where he is from.  "Syria."  (I'm thinking...'Shit.')  The OTHER guy says, "Well, that's not good."  So, I'm staring at Brian thinking, 'Let's get out of here,' but we stay.  He really wants that truck.  The guys call the owner of the truck...he doesn't answer because he is napping.  According to these salesmen, that is what Qataris do...nap.  So we leave...YAY!  We drive down the street to another dealership...see the exact same truck, make an offer and we are on our way.  No offense to Qataris, but depreciation will help you sell cars, people!

I've been doing a lot of stained glass lately.  I LOVE it and can't stop, so any requests, please send my way. I have, however, (I love you Nancye) been asked to create a Texas A&M piece.  Blech...But I WILL do it since it's for my cousin.  I have also been asked to do an OSU (Okalhoma State) piece that will be easy, but Brian says it's "not allowed."  I made my friend Stacy one for her Bat Mitzvah.  She just turned 50, but had never had the party, so a few of the girls from the Embassy gave her one.  It was a blast.  I am pretty sure I drank too much, but no one hated me the next day, so I'm assuming we are all still in love.  :)

We have three kittens that have grown so much and are the picture of health.  Joon, our Dachshund, could not stand them at first, but now she sits while all three of them love on her.  I'm not kidding, the walk by her and rub on her like she were their Mother.  It's adorable.

Brian has been working in the backyard, now that we have grass.  It's hilarious because when we lived in the states, he never "wanted a yard," and now he fertilizes, waters everyday, etc.  The grass has barely taken and he want to buy top soil to make it "even."  Needless to say, we will have a beautiful yard when we have our own home.

So, it is now Ramadan.  It is the Muslim holiday that lasts for a month.  You cannot eat, drink, smoke, chew gum...anything with your mouth, from sunrise to sunset.  If you are not a Muslim, you can do these things in your house, outside of view from the local population.  We went to the Qatar Distribution Center (QDC) which sells pork and alcohol.  Let me preface this with, people in Qatar are not allowed to drink alcohol or eat pork...there is a store for expats that sells both.  We went the day before Ramadan started, because it will be closed for the month of Ramadan.  There was a line outside of the door.  You grab your cart, stand in line outside the store and you are in the line to check out.  Way to celebrate your holy holiday, right?  So, Brian stands in line and I run around the store throwing things into the basket.  Just for comparison's sake...a CASE of Miller Lite is $55.  Yeah.  We spent 1055 QR...3.64 QR/$.

We are still trying to get our house together.  Brian bought frames for every concert poster I have autographed.  It was a LOT of money, but our house is much more awesomer (not a word) now that we have signed ZZ Top, The Shins, Radiohead, Dave Matthews Band, etc hanging on the wall in Qatar.

I also have to mention that the place we live, has a convenience store....it delivers.  That is all.  If I need eggs or sugar, that I would usually get from a neighbor....they will bring it to me.  HOW COOL, RIGHT!?

That's all for now.  I love you and I hope you are all doing well!  Please keep in touch and let me know if any of you need/want any stained glass...that isn't opposed to UT.  ;)

-Lauren

Sorry it has taken so long for an update, but I have been sickly for the past few weeks.  The dust/sand here is kicking my ass.  (And by ass, I mean my face).  I'm on the mend and feeling a bit better now, so you fine people get an update on me and Brian!  Yay for you, right!?  ;)

Tonight, we are having our weekly True Blood viewing party.  A few of our friends come over, I make dinner and we drool over Erik Northman for an hour.  It is good times, for sure.  Tonight I'm making grilled chicken and zucchini because...drum roll....Brian finally got our gas grill to work!  He's the best.

Speaking of Brian and his ability to fix things/make things cool (literally)...we now have misters in our backyard over the patio!  They are fabulous.  The temperature goes from 115 to 100 in a matter of seconds.  Let me tell you, 100 is actually cool for us now.  We also now have grass in our backyard.

The grass installation gets its own paragraph because of the guys who took out the hardscape.  So there was a foreman, I guess, ...the boss.  He came around every hour-hour and a half, I guess.  Work was done quickly when he was there.  Other than that, they sat on the stoop, chewed their tobacco, BS'd, etc.  As soon as the boss came by, they were jumping all over to make it look like they were busy.  The link to those photos is here.  I had my camera ready this time!  Well, all for one incident of a random worker coming by to see if they were ready for the bus home.  This guy had on a sparkled top hat.  It seriously looked like a disco ball, on his head, wearing his coveralls.  It was awesome, but his stay was too short-lived to snap a photo.

I've applied for a job at the Embassy, so please keep your fingers crossed that things go my way.  I will be replacing my good friend, Emily, who will be heading home for the States because she's having a baby!  I think we will probably split the position when she come back since she'll be busy being a Mom and all.  :)  I'm throwing her baby shower in a few weeks with my friends Jen and Stacy, who both work at the Embassy as well.  This will be the third one I've hosted, and I must say they get easier each time.  By easier, I mean less stressful...it could have to do with the fact I have two other people helping this time!

To keep busy, I've been doing some stained glass, reading book 3 of Game of Thrones and I watched the first four seasons of Mad Men.  I love that show!  LOVE IT!  If any of my advertising industry folks are looking for a show to watch, please please please enlighten yourself to the early beginnings of our jobs.  It's awesome.

That's all for now.  Sorry nothing too exciting is happening on our side of the world.  You people need to come visit!  :)

Souk Outing Gone Bad

Tonight we went to dinner with some Embassy people and afterwards, we walked through the Souks.  The souk area of town is basically a bunch of open-air stores with rugs, spices, clothes, jewelry...and animals.  This is the part that upset me.  They had rabbits, birds, chicks, fish, kittens and puppies.  All of the animals looked like they were cared for properly except for the dogs.  The dogs were all sleeping, it was 100 degrees, they had no food or water, were in tiny cages and all of their bones were showing.  There were at least 10-15 of them and my heart broke.  There was one little guy who probably should have weighed around 15 pounds and weighed around 4.  His little ribs were showing and he was barely breathing.  We wanted to buy him and save him, but they were charging 1000 riyal...which is around $350.  We just don't have the money to spend.  It breaks my heart.  These animals are dying and the "caretakers" don't give a shit.  I wish I knew some people in PETA to come and steal them.  It's cruel, heartbreaking and there's not a damn thing I can do unless I had deep pockets because once we bought them, it would cost ten times that getting them back to health.  There's nothing anyone can do, but I wanted to vent.  AND if anyone comes here and has extra cash, adopt a dog from the souk-bastards.  I am never going there again.  Ever.  If any of you come to visit, we will NOT be going to the souks.  We will get your spices at the grocery.  That is all. 

Memorial Day - I will remember the Picture Hanging Man

Today the maintenance guy came to hang our pictures on the walls.  We cannot hang them ourselves because the walls are concrete and we don't have the powerful drill needed to penetrate the wall.  The guy gets here at 8am, walks in with his tools and unpacks them.  The end of his drill does not have a plug on it, just two separate wires.  He tries explaining to me in broken English that he had to take the plug off because of the different types of plugs in Doha.  I'm thinking, "Okay, no big deal."  Homey goes to the wall with his two wires, sticks a screwdriver in the top hole, and proceeds to stick each wire into the remaining holes.  With my jaw on the floor, I watch in terror waiting for this man to electrocute himself, die and promptly get deported back to the US.  But no, apparently he's a pro, as he looks up from the wall with a shit-eating grin on his face of wall socket mastery.  He changes walls about four times, each time sticking the screw driver in the wall, followed by the two wires.  He...is...awesome/crazy/stupid.  I'll let you decide.  Meanwhile, the concrete-hole-drilling is making a complete frickin' mess of my house.  I kid you not, there was a layer of concrete dust on EVERYTHING in this house.  Everything, people.  So, the lesson here is - it is safe to stick a screw driver in a wall socket and do not build a house of cement because it's messy.  The end.

On another note, there was a huge fire at the Vellagio Mall here, which is the fanciest mall in Doha.  There were 19 people killed and many more injured.  Brian was at work and I was at home watching the crazy man with the screwdriver, so we are safe in case you were wondering.

I hope you all had a fun Memorial Day!  I celebrated by making Chicken Pad Thai, which was awesome, and cleaning concrete dust.

Until next time...

Gas is HOW MUCH?!

Today, Brian and I went shopping.  We needed some things for the house like a shower liner, felt for the chairs (they are loud as heck on the marble floor), bath mats, etc.  So, we leave the house and Brian realizes he needs to fill up the car.  We go to the Embassy-allowed gas station and pull in.  First of all, the gas price here is 1 riyal per liter which is equal to about $1 USD per gallon.  WHAT?!  Yes.  Then, once we pull in, it is full service.  We don't get out.  The dude pumps our gas, Brian gives him a voucher from the Embassy and we're done.  It....was....awesome.  That is all I have to say about that, but wanted to share.

Other than the fabulous gassy experience, we've just been cleaning up the house since all of our furniture was delivered.  Minus a few scratches on some of the furniture, everything made it ok...except I can't find the bottom to the blender.  It's the only thing we're missing.

Last night we went to the Embassy for trivia night.  Our team, The Red Hot Trivia Peppers, came in second place.  It was a good time and I got to meet a lot of the Embassy people.  I've been applying for jobs here.  There are a few hotels that are hiring Marketing Managers, so I'm hoping they will throw me a bone.  A few of my friends have said that it is difficult to get a job in town if you are here on Diplomatic status, so I'm not sure what my chances are at this point.  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.  If not, I'll have to hold out until something at the Embassy opens.

Joon is doing well-ish.  I think the sand in the air is getting to her.  She will walk around hacking out of nowhere, but she's eating a drinking normally, so she feels fine.  The sand here is a pain and is everywhere.  The dust storms don't start until winter, so I'll let you all know how that fares as well.

We are good on our end and staying busy.  I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day!  Our phone is working now, so give us a call.  It's local for everyone in the States.  512-773-2337   We are 8 hours ahead of CST, so keep that in mind.  :)

Until next time, party people!  Take care!

We're Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!!!

The subject line is due to one of the channels here playing only scary American movies.  I have seen Poltergeist three times since our arrival.

After our 14.5 hour flight from Houston, we landed in Doha.  They don't have jetways here, so once we landed, we were loaded onto buses that took us to the airport from the runway.  It was HOT.  At 8:45pm, I would guess it was around 95 degrees.  I was surprised to see women in flip-flops, shorts and tank tops.  Of course, they weren't locals, but still.  I was told toes and ankles were the TnA of the Middle East and they were both frowned upon.  We were greeted by a driver from the Embassy who helped us with our luggage and  getting Joon from the airline.  She handled the trip just fine - no accidents in her kennel!  Outside of the airport, the driver went to get the car and our "sponsor" Jennifer waited with us.  She and I had emailed a few times and it was such a relief to know someone here.  We drove around Doha on our way home and the architecture, just at night, was unbelievable.  There is no skyline in the US that can compare.  Not so much the number of buildings, but the shapes and lighting.  It's amazing.  We finally made it to our compound where Jen showed us the pool, gym and restaurant.  We live next door to a princess who has a Bengal that "gets out occasionally."  Looks like I'll be needing to keep an eye on Joon when I take her outside.

The next day, Brian went to work.  Yes, after a long flight, jet-lag and still living out of a suitcase, he was called into work.  I stayed home and tried to organize, but since everything in the house is being moved into storage to make room for our household goods, there really wasn't much to do....so I read.  We've been here a week and I've read almost 8 books.  Now that we have the interwebs, I'm sure that will be changing a bit.

The work week here is Sunday through Thursday.  Brian's first day of work was on a Thursday, so we had the weekend to explore and catch up on our sleep.  We slept so much.  I've never experienced jet-lag, but it kicked our hineys.  I've never slept so much in my life, minus the teenage years when I could sleep until 4pm.  :)  That weekend, we woke up at 5am, when the sun is fully risen, and took off exploring the city.  We drove through The Pearl, downtown and out by the Embassy.  We found a grocery store near the house.  Let me preface this next part with my dress:  T-shirt (shoulders and neck covered), linen pants and close-toed shoes.  We walk into the store and I swear you could have heard a record scratch.  Gawking is an understatement.  I was waiting for the men to start smelling me or touching my hair.  I suppose you get used to it, but it was my first experience and I was very uncomfortable.  I wouldn't let Brian leave me to go look at sodas.  HA.  That was day #3 that we were here - I'm much better now.  I even wore a bikini to the pool.  :)

Speaking of the pool....it is one block from our front door.  There are tents set up for shade and the restaurant offers chair-side service.  I told Brian I felt like I was on vacation.  The pool reminds me of Schlitterbahn.  It's huge, there are three parts, with a slide for the kids, a little bridge that goes over it and one part is only a few feet deep for hanging out.  I had on 50 spf and still got a tan under the tent.  Seriously, the sun here is brutal.  You can bring alcohol to the pool if you pour it in a cup.  It isn't sold at the restaurant.  We got ours at the Embassy.  A case of Corona, a case of Sam Adams and 2 bottles of wine cost us $135 (american).  To be honest, though, it is too hot to drink here.  I'm serious.  My pee hasn't been clear or near clear in a week.  I can drink two gallons of water and still be dehydrated.

There are a lot of differences that I've noticed right away:  All roads are roundabouts.  Quesadillas are held together with a tomato/enchilada sauce instead of cheese.  People are AFRAID of dogs.  One worker ran out of our house because of Joon.  Beef here smells bad.  It looks like I'll be a chicken only girl from now on.  There is no central AC - we have units in every room, two in the living room.  You can smoke EVERYWHERE...the mall, restaurants, etc.  The grocery store, restaurant and KFC....they all deliver to your door.  I think it's mostly because of the summer weather when people don't leave their house ever.  The plugs...I thought an adapter would work on my hairdryer and nearly started a fire.  Brian laughed his ass off and then informed me I needed a "converter" and not an adapter.  There is a haze here that looks like smog, but it's dust/sand.  I had a sinus attack the first few days and my friend, Jen, called it the "Doha Funk."  Apparently sinus problems here aren't from oak or cedar, but from dirt in the air.  When it rains, it's mud-rain...dirt falling from the sky.  Diet Coke is called "Coke Light."  I think that is all for now.  I'm sure more will come and I'll relay in the next blog.

Until then, we are settling in just fine and our household goods will be delivered in two days.  I can't wait to have my stuff to make this place feel more like home.  I also can't wait to get a job.  Sitting at home all day and reading is not for me.  I don't ever want to stay at home again unless I have kids to keep me busy.  Joon is not the best conversationalist.  ;)

I hope you all are doing well.  Our Vonage account is set up and running, so give us a call - it's local for you and us.  512-773-2337 is the number, but remember we are 8-9 hours ahead of you, so no calling at 4am!  :)

I'm hooooooooooooooooooooooooome!!!

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while.  Needless to say, I have been super-busy seeing everyone.  I've loved every second of it. 

My second leg of the solo road trip was 12 hours, over 700 miles, from Knoxville to Atlanta, TX.  The second I crossed the TX border, Pancho and Lefty came on the radio.  I called my cousin Amy, who lives in Atlanta, and she let me crash in Ella's room.  (Ella wouldn't let me sleep in her sleeping bag - It barely fit over my knees).  Amy, her husband Mark and I stayed up a little late visiting with a few libations.  The next day we went to lunch with Jerry and Ellen O'Rear, Amy's parents.  It was my first real Mexican food in TX and heavenly.  :)

The final leg of my trip was from Atlanta to Austin, where I went straight to Katie & Kevin's.  (Katie is my BFF from childhood).  During my stay, we went to Uchiko, hung out with our friend Amanda, and I'm pretty sure Katie got the worst hangover in history from our late night porch-shenanigans.  

I then went to my Dad's house for the week of Easter.  I got to see everyone.  It was so much fun.  My sister brought her two boys, Sutton and Mason.  I must say that being around two very small kiddos has made me think twice about having one of our own.  :)  They are so freaking adorable, though.  I told Kaeli that I was saving my diaper changing for my first baby, so I was able to get out of poopy diapers that weekend.  Dad made TONS of food.  I got to eat my favorites:  hot beans, chicken and dumplings, chicken-friend venison with cream gravy, breakfast tacos.  This is why I lost weight in Virginia.  There is NO way I ate this well in Virginia.  :) 

I went to Mom's after Easter.  I stopped in Refugio to see my Great Aunt Wynona and my cousin Nancye.  I also stopped to see my "Mother-of-Color", Laura.  It was great to catch up.  My cousin Bill came to the ranch to visit.  We got to catch up for a few hours.  He wanted to come back out the next night, but the dude works too much.  :)  The best part was seeing my Mom and Step-Dad.  I got to spend a lot of time with my  madre and we caught up on a lot of things.  I was also able to show her where I will be living, which I think put her at ease a bit.

THEN, on Friday the 13th, I drove to Houston to see my friends!  OH THE FUN WE HAD!  It was a blast.  I first went to the Live Nation office and saw a bunch of peeps I used to work with and met a few new ones too.  The office is a lot quieter than when I worked there, but I'm sure April will liven it up.  :)  We went to lunch at Bubba's, which is where April and I used to sneak off to when I worked for her.  Buffalo burgers and beers!  Then we went to her & Jeff's house in Spring.  I'm so proud of them for what they've done and where they've been.  I hope our adventures will allow us the experiences they've had and places they've been.  April invited my friends Mandy and Melissa to her house on Saturday for a pool party.  It was great to see them and catch up on the last 5-10 years with everyone.  Jeff and April saved St. Arnold's Christmas Ale from last year for me.  It was GLORIOUS!  We got out the BB guns and were shooting beers cans with their two boys.  Also, the Gotye song "Someone That I Used To Know" will forever remind me of Jeff, April, Trent & William.  I think we may have had a few too many libations considering my friend, Melissa, chipped her teeth (plural) on the bottom of the pool.  (T-Hee).  All was well - they were fixed by Monday afternoon.  I also met their neighbor, Penny, who lived in Qatar for five years with her husband.  She shared a wealth of information with me about Qatar and enlightened me on what to expect and how to handle myself in public.  I am pretty sure I'll be keeping in touch with her during my trip. 

After Houston, I drove back down to Victoria to work.  My company sent some work to my Dad's house, so I hung out there for a few days to see the parentals and finish my work.  This was the first "goodbye" experience with family.  It sucked.  That's all I can say.  I know I'll be back in a year or so, but ugh....no me gusta.  I said goodbye to my Yorkie, Leya as well.  She will not be able to go with us because of her age.  I don't think she would like the heat and the veterinary care is not up to par for her needs.  I grabbed Joon and off we went back to Austin.

I had an appointment with Katie on Thursday, April 19th, so I headed up there on Wednesday afternoon.  She fixed my teeth!  Finally the stained one in the front is white and I love it.  LOVE IT.  She also repaired a crappy filling my last dentist gave me.  We hung out with our friend Amanda on Thursday night and Katie's husband, Kevin, made his famous burgers.  I seriously have dreams about these burgers.  My good friend John, and his girlfriend, came to visit that night as well.  Joon terrorized Katie and Kevin's two cats, Major and Monty, all weekend.  Those poor kitties were probably glad to see us leave.  Kevin - thank you for carrying my bag up the stairs! 

After Katie's, I drove to Goliad to see my Mom, Aunt, Uncle, two cousins and their fiancee's.  That brings us to now.  Last night I went to my Aunt and Uncle's house at the ranch and they made burgers for us.  Then the kids took over.  We had some beers, played a board game and sat around the campfire.  The weather was great and so was the company.  I love those kids...and their future-wives.  :)  I always have fun with them and am excited for both of them and their bright futures.  Mom and I have been relaxing all day, which I need, because I have a feeling this next week will be very hectic. 

Brian flies into Houston tonight and I'll drive up there in the morning.  After that, I have NO IDEA what our plan will be.  I'll write again before we leave to update again before our journey overseas begins.  We leave on April 30th from Houston to Frankfurt to Doha.  It's getting real!!!  Can't wait.

Solo Road Trip to TX - Leg 1

Today I began my road trip from DC to Texas.  It was very bittersweet.  I can't wait to see my friends and family, but I hated to leave Brian.  The only thing making it a little easier on me was the fact that I will see him in a week for Erin's wedding. 

I started in DC around noon heading west toward Knoxville, my final destination.  Northern Virginia is BEAUTIFUL.  I had no idea and wish I had more time to go out there on a road trip and make stops.  It is very "Americana."  The hills are rolling and very green.  Greener than I have ever seen - like what I would picture Ireland to look like.  There were big red barns everywhere, wineries, livestock, rolling hills, mountains in the background....so pretty. 

All was well until I got close to Roanoke.  I was listening to the radio and heard the emergency warning for tornadoes touching down everywhere.  I was thinking to myself, "There is no friggin' way I am going to stop now.  I have to get to TX to see my peeps!"  So, I continue driving through hell and highwater.  It was very frightening, but I made it through 

I finally made it to Knoxville after one tank of gas & almost 500 miles.  (I love my car's gas mileage).  Tomorrow I am heading to Little Rock or Texarkana.  It depends on my love of driving tomorrow.  Today the drive-love-level was very high, but I have a feeling it is going to wear off soon.  :/

Now I'm sitting in my hotel room drinking a beer and about to eat my delicious dinner of Lunchables - turkey & american cheese.  Blech. 

Until tomorrow....

Home, Sweet Home!

My time in DC is coming to an end.  I've one week left in the District and I can't say I'm very sad about it considering I get to go home to Texas for a whole month!!  I can't wait to see my friends and family EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Brian will be here, in DC, through all of April, but will be returning to Texas for Erin's (his sister) wedding on 3/30 for a few days.  Then he returns to DC for more training.  I think he will be home for good the last week of April.

I'm sure you all have heard by now that we had to call off the wedding due to Brian's school schedule.  It extended through the weekend we originally had chosen.  There isn't enough time to reschedule before we take off for his assignment.  It's sad, but we are saving quite a bit of money that will be much needed on assignment.  With all of that said, we had actually already been married since November.  Our official anniversary is 11-11-11.  Easy to remember!

Those are the main updates for everyone at this point.  I'll start my road trip on Saturday...in six days!  I'm kind of scared, but I'm sure everything will be fine.  I'm not going to drive after dark...so it will be 4 days of fast food and sodas!  Woot.

Can't wait to see you all in a few weeks!!!  :)  This time has flown by.  It seems like yesterday Brian was asking me what I thought about him applying to this program.....

Settled in DC

We are settled in DC.  Finally!  We were in the Navy Lodge for a few weeks and Brian met some of the guys in his class and they were living in Crystal City in furnished apartments, with full kitchens, real bedrooms and actual closets.  You don't realize how important walls and couches are until all you have for furniture are two full-size beds and room for 5 shirts in the closet in a tiny hotel room.  We are much more comfortable now.  It's a longer commute to school, but well worth it.

On a prior note, Brian and I went on quite an adventure to find libations one night in Anacostia - across from the base.  For those of you who do not know, Anacostia is probably the highest crime-ridden area of DC.  It is straight up ghetto.  Unbeknownst to me, there is no alcohol sold in the ghetto.  Who would've have known.  We looked for two hours.  It was a culture shock for me, for sure.

I am in DC for two weeks before my next commute to Virginia Beach.  My work computer is up and running perfectly now, so it's not as difficult as working from the Navy Lodge where the internet worked when it wanted.  I will be in VB for a whole week, so my VB-ians, let's get together!  This is all pending I still have a job in two weeks, though.  :)

Other than those tidbits, we are still schooling and enjoying the new city.  It's cold, cold, COLD here, so I can't get out and explore as much as I'd like us to, but I'm sure we'll manage.  I've gotten lost a few times and ended up in front of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.  You've gotta love accidental sight seeing.  :)

Hope you all are doing great!  Peace out!

Movin' on up (moooooovin' on up)!

We are officially residents of Washington, District of Columbia.  I never thought, ever, that I would leave TX, much less live in DC or marry a boy I dated in college.  :)   Here we are beginning a journey that most people could only hope to take part of.  We are very lucky to be where we are and I'm grateful for Brian and the past and current career choices he's made to get us here.

We started our move on New Year's Eve.  We packed my car, packed Brian's rental (which smelled TERRIBLE) and headed to DC.  We were 26 miles south of Richmond when my car had a blowout.  Brian changed the tire and we made it to a tire shop in Richmond.  They took us right in and we got new tires for the car.  After all was said and done, we were out $750, were both not feeling well and were tired as heck.  We decided to stay put and got a hotel room in Richmond.  We were in bed before the New Year!  What a way to start it, eh?  At least we were together.   The next morning, we finished our drive to DC to our friends', Mark & Kledia's, apartment.

We finally made our way to the Navy Lodge on the Bolling Air Force Base (AFB) and unpacked both cars.  Then, we returned the rental and settled into our new home.  I picked up some groceries for the tiniest kitchen in the world.  It has 2 burners, a small fridge, a microwave and a small sink.  It's definitely better than nothing, but nothing at all what I'm used to using.

I am commuting back and forth from DC a few days a week and staying with our old neighbors, Vince & Sarah.  The drive sucks.  That is all I have to say about that.  I check in and start my Spousal Embassy Training this Friday, so hopefully the commuting will lessen due to timing conflicts in DC.  I am very excited about the school and what I will be learning.  Haynes hasn't even started interviewing for my position, so I'm not sure how much longer my commuting will last.  It's very tiring, but I don't want to leave my boss high and dry here either.  I'll make it work...just makes it tough to actually enjoy my last few months in the US.

Other than those tidbits, there isn't much going on.  I'll catch y'all up when we have more updates!  :)