Killing Time

So, I have 50 minutes or so before I need to go to the other building to proctor an exam for the evening. It has amazed me that this year has passed so quickly, again.

So a brief update.
June/July-Went to Estonia with for a conference and met Mom afterward. I then went on to Austria, Hungary, London, and a stop in Istanbul on the way back.
August-Finalized the September vacation and school started. I had 2 classes of organic chem and 1 class of freshmen. I was blessed with good classes this year.
September-I went to Copenhagen and Reykjavik for the Eid holiday. I could have stayed in Iceland for a very long, long time. When I got back I started teaching spinning classes twice a week. It has been good
October-Continue teaching labs and spinning class. I finalized everything for the November trip and for the December trip.
November-I went to Italy for the Eid holiday. While I was there I took the Praxis 1 test and should be able to find out some of my scores tomorrow. (I could have called and found out my scores on Friday but it would have costed $30 on top of the $170 I had to pay for the exam. I'm waiting.)
December-It is only the 6th but classes are finishing and I'm counting down till when I go home. I leave at 1 am on the 18th to go to Amsterdam for 2 days. Then, on the 20th I fly to Alaska. I'm flying KLM this year so that should be interesting.

Here is what is coming up
January-Come back from home, recover. Start classes and spinning once again.
February/March- Teach and a Spring Break trip to Belgium and Luxembourg. I made Dad's year by telling him I'm going to Brussells. Then he started GIGGLING, like a little girl! Then he said, "You're going to Brussells, Sprout." Every conversation he works something like that in, I don't think he will ever stop.
April-I'm planning on taking a weekend trip to Abu Dhabi to see a friend.
May-Better get things ready to sell and move.
June-finish teaching summer session and head home.

So, I'm excited about moving home but it is going to be a huge change. Not just going back to be a student again or having to pay a lot more money for gas, but to be back in the US. Also, I won't be going to Europe on an extended vacation, that will be strange, especially after these last few years.

Anyway, Merry Christmas. I hope this finds you all well.

Random Thoughts

So a couple of random thoughts I've had over the last few days.

1. Garbage in, garbage out. If you eat poorly don't expect to feel good.
2. When you start a vacation, and you think you are in shape, or better shape than you were, don't over do it. On Saturday I biked at least 53.5 km, or 33.5 miles, which was a little much for 1 day. My butt didn't hurt (thanks spinning!) but my knees were killing me! I hiked the next day instead of biking.
3. Layne -3, Mosquitoes-7. I don't miss those guys.
4. Mmmmmm, pork.
5. The temp has been a max of 27C, which is fabulous! (look it up folks!)

Gotta go!
Hope all is well with you!

Targets and Quilts

So the physical fitness instructors offer practice archery time for their students but they let any one shoot. So on Sunday I tried it for the first time. I was a little frustrated at first, until I realized that I was closing the wrong eye. After I started closing the left eye my aim got a lot better. The picture below is from yesterday's practice session. It was my 2nd session and I got 4 in the yellow. Pretty good, if I do say so myself, but I'm still glad I buy my food from the grocery store.
This is a baby quilt for a friend. Another friend and I made it. The good news is that no new fabric had to be shipped over for the quilt so I have a little less here.

Aggie Muster is this evening. I'm hoping to have time to work out between the final exam this afternoon and Muster this evening. We will see what happens.

Victory is Mine!

Ok, so the problem with living here is that people don't always act rationally. So, my candy was stolen out of the box that I shipped. This happens here and there isn't anything you can do about it. So, I told the shipping company, Aramex, that since the item didn't make it to me that I would like to be refunded for the amount of shipping that item. Well, after many emails and phone calls I was refunded the cost of shipping the item AND the cost of the item! I won! I won!

Not too much else is going on. I'll be giving finals this week and lab will be done. I'm hoping to get my grading done by the first part of next week so grades can go out.

I bought my ticket to go to Bahrain the end of next month. It was a good deal, assuming that British Airways can fly by the end of next month. It was cheaper to stay 2 nights in a hotel rather than take a different airline and only stay 1 night. CRAZY!!!

I've almost got all the lodging for the summer trip taken care of, only 2 more places to find. I should be able to finish it up this week.

The other good news is that I finally starting to loose weight again. I've lost a total of 52 lbs since last February. I still have a ways to go but I'll get there!

I really wish Jolly Rancher's weren't kosher....

So, today's latest adventure was to find the ministry of publication to pick up my box from amazon. It was a mix of stuff, nothing big just a bunch of little stuff, and 1 giant bag of Jolly Rancher candy. I got the box and no Jolly Ranchers. Somebody in customs STOLE my Jolly Ranchers! They are halal, like kosher but for Muslims, so I knew they could come in the country fine but they are in the box. Any, I had to pay $50 for shipping! What kind of person steals candy? (Well, someone in Qatari Customs does.) I would have given them some if they asked!

The good news, and that is what I'm trying to focus on, is that the rest of the stuff came through just fine. I can start studying for the Praxis exam. This is exciting so I can start the next phase or the post-Doha part of life.

I also found out that I'll be working the in the research lab this summer. I don't like the research lab, if I did like it I would have a Ph.D. now. I keep telling myself that on June 16, 2011 I'll be on my way out of here. Today, it can't come soon enough.

Tomorrow night seems so far away...

So, God is good. I have been really worried that my work visa renewal wouldn't be completed before I leave and it was causing me quite a bit of stress. Well, I got my new visa and my passport back yesterday afternoon which means I can come home. Crisis averted.

Then I saw that British Airways is striking over the holidays. I was very worried since that is who I am flying to Seattle, then I saw that they are striking from the 22nd of Dec to the 2nd of January. I fly on the 17th of December and on the 7-9th of January, so hopefully there won't be any problems.

I have quite a bit of stuff to do before I leave but I'm not too worried. All I need are packed bags and that is almost done. I would like to have a few more things taken care of but oh well if they don't!

I will be leaving Wednesday night at 11:55pm and I won't be back in Doha until the 9th of January, YAY!! I won't be blogging from home (no offense, but I would rather play with the dog) so I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ten days and counting!

If I were to be really specific it would be 11 days, but I don't like that very much so I stick with the 10 day mark. My plane leaves at 11:55 pm on the 16th, so I do leave on the 16th, I just have the entire day here.

I am working on my to-do list for before I leave. Nothing too exciting, just some things that I want to make sure I get done, like clean out the fridge. So far this is what I have:
1. Clean out fridge
2. Pack suitcase
3. Take out trash
4. Get passport back from HR with new work visa
5. See #4
6. Finish presentation for church and get multiple copies available for presentation
7. Knit Brook a hat out of the red yarn that I dyed
8. Wind into a ball the red yarn that I dyed
9. Do laundry
10. Make mini apple pies for some friends and don't eat the extras
11. Charge all electronics. (This will take a long time, I have 5 iPods, 2 cameras with 2 batteries each, an eReader, a cell phone, and a DS lite. This is a multi-day process.)

Oh, the semester is finished for me. I have to proctor final lecture exams but other than I just have to move and set up a lab.

I hope all is doing well with you.

Cable and Bobble Hat

I finished a hat for me! This is the Hermione Cable and Bobble hat from the Charmed Knits knitting book. It was an involved pattern but not difficult. I made it out of baby llama from Peru. The brand is Katia, which is Spanish, that I bought on vacation in Estonia and made in Doha, Qatar. It is quite the international hat. I working on a scarf to go with it, not the same pattern but the same type and brand of yarn.

This weekend was not very productive. I did laundry, but it is still in the dryer. I didn't start many projects but I didn't finish any of them either. We have 2 weeks until the Eid Al-Adha holiday so hopefully I can get a lot done over that 4 day weekend.

I am staying in Doha for this upcoming holiday. This will be the longest I have been in Doha without going to work. Normally when I have a long weekend I am anywhere but here. It didn't work this time with a Thursday afternoon lab and trying to conserve money for my Christmas trip.

I hope all is well with you.

I blame it on the bug...

So just a funny story from last night. I was watching TV and knitting and I saw a bug on the floor of my apartment. So, I grabbed my Raid and sprayed him. I went and read for a while and then I went back to the couch forgetting that I had sprayed Raid on my floor and that makes in slippery. My foot slipped and it went underneath the couch but I didn't fall. So I sat down and looked at my foot and saw that a piece of the nail had been torn off. I removed the piece of nail and then saw that it was bleeding. I walked into the bathroom, got my foot into the bathroom sink to wash it off and then I did something horrible. I looked at my toe. I then started to feel woozy and realized that I was not going to be able to put a band-aid on my toe. So I looked to see if my coworker was home, he wasn't, so I called another friend down the street. She came down and while I'm waiting I'm walking/hobbling back and forth trying to not look at my toe. So she walks in sees me with my box of band-aids and I said, "I need a band-aid on my toe but I can't look at it without being woozy, can you do it?" She did, of course, which is how you know you have good friends, they come down do your house at 10 pm and put a bandage on your toe because you can't. Oh, and yes, I feel very silly about it now.

The other exciting news is that I have reached my latest goal on Weight Watchers. I have lost 15% of my starting weight and I am on track to meet my goal of having lost 50 pounds by Christmas. There is one problem with losing weight and that is clothing. My clothes don't fit any more, but I make them work, so I have to get new ones when I go home at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I have 36 days until I leave and 41 days until I'm in Alaska. (I'm going to Oregon first to see my sister's kids, and her too.) I'll be home soon and I can't wait!

I hope you are doing well!

Home again home again, jigity jig

So, we hoped that we would be able to get off the boat early and have some more time in Venice before we had to get on the plane. Well, we were the last group off the ship so we only had time to get the shuttle to the bus station, get some lunch, and then get to the airport. So we got our bus ticket, found where we needed to be (not easy with 2 large suitcases), and then went in search of lunch, pizza particularly. We found this little place that only required 1 bridge to haul our suitcases up and down so we sat down and ordered. The pepperoni on this pizza was amazing. (So amazing that we asked the waiter if we could buy some from him.) He said yes and wanted to know why we wanted it. I told him that we couldn’t buy anything with pork in it where we lived and, I kid you not, he said “Momma Mia!” It would have made hauling our suitcases over 3 bridges worth it just to hear that from an Italian.

We took the bus back to the airport, only 2€ compared to 13€ for the water bus, and got checked in. My friend frequent flyer on Emirates, who we flew this time, so she gets more weight in her suitcases which was nice because my sandals put me over on weight so they got moved to her suitcase.

We flew to Dubai and then waited for our flight to Doha at 2:45am. About midnight we realized that we weren’t hungry but if we didn’t eat we might be hungry when we got home, so we had McDonalds at midnight.

We got home about 4 am and I went to work at about 11 that morning. I was still sick so it was a short day at work that day. That morning when I got up I went to the kitchen to see if I could find anything to eat and I saw bananas in a bag on the counter. I thought that they were going to be really icky if I had left them out all week and then I looked in the fridge. There was milk and apples, and other stuff too but I was really tired. I realized then that my neighbor had got some food for me so I could have breakfast. How cool is that? It was awesome and I was very thankful that I hadn’t left any food out for the week.

So that was the trip in a condensed version. The next trip on the agenda is home for Christmas. I currently have 46 days until I am in Alaska and 42 days until I am in the US. I am starting to plan next summer's vacation. My interest was peaked about the Austria/Hungarian empire so I am planning on going to Austria, Hungary, and Estonia in July. I would like to go to Croatia next September so that should be interesting and planning will seriously start in February.

Dubrovnik

I was most excited about this stop, and it was one of the shortest. The walled city has been preserved beautifully preserved, even after the 91-92 war. The city wasn’t cheap but it was interesting and I enjoyed it greatly. You can walk around the entire the wall of the city which is intact. The amount of stuff that got packed into a very small area was amazing. Our guide told us that if we are looking for souvenirs it would be cheaper to go down a block or two south of the main street. My friend and I are walking down the street looking for a shot glass for here, a patch for me, market and a yarn shop is possible. We found everything. I was walking and then I said “YARN!” She said “what?” and then I showed her the find. They didn’t have a lot of yarn but it wasn’t too badly priced and some of it was made in Croatia. I would like to return to Croatia next year for Eid and see what else I can see of the country.

The brown roof tiles are the old ones and the orange ones are the newest.

The city was walled and fortified for protection, we can see where the canon shot would go if fired.

A view of the city from up the way. It is beautiful.

Corfu

This was a very nice stop that I enjoyed. We got to the Achilleon Palace whose most famous owner was the Hapsburg family. It was a beautiful place and the road up and down demonstrated the skill of the bus driver. I was impressed with his skills turning the bus on hairpin turns as I would have given up. When I told Dad about this he said “it is all about how you set up the turn.” I was still very impressed. We went into the center of the main town and into a Greek Orthodox Church. Very fancy, not at all like the Lutheran Churches I have belonged to or have seen. I would’ve liked to have spent more time walking around here and exploring the island. The island was also very green which was great to see, especially have been in Doha for any period of time.

Athens

When in Athens, go to the Acropolis. That’s what everyone does and you could tell because the place was packed. Someone said that there were 6 cruise ships in the day I was there. The Acropolis was really neat to see, despite all the people. I also got to see the Olympic stadium from the 1896 games, the home of the Greek Academy of Sciences, and the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (the guards where miniskirts). We spent a lot of time in traffic on the bus which meant that I got a little motion sick, which wasn’t cool. Athens was just another huge city and I wasn’t too impressed with it and wasn’t sad to leave. Glad I went but I have no desire to go back.

Oh, and I caught a cold.
Miniskirts!

The 1896 Olympic Stadium.

The Acropolis. There were 6 ships in Athens the day I was there and you know everybody wants to go to the Acropolis.

Parthenon, there is a really good documentary about repairing/rebuilding it on Nova which you can watch on hulu.com.

I came, I saw, and I bought a postcard.

Mykanos

This was the one place that we didn’t have a tour arranged. We were only there a couple hours but it was fun. We went into town and the flood of people made me want to get away from the flow of traffic, so we went up. We went up the side and found a windmill and a wine pressing vat. The vat had been used that year and the leftovers were fermenting a bit so the smell was a little ripe.

Before I got off the boat I had talked to one of the workers about the place and she said that you could get gyros for 2.50€. So we found a small hole-in-the-wall place that had no tourists eating there and ordered. It was yummy. The gyro and a soda was 4€ which was the cheapest meal we found off the ship. I also found some Greek chocolate which was yummy. After dinner we watched the sunset, getting some great photos, and my friend went back to the ship. I wandered my way back and I’m sure I gave some people some laughs. I was on the main tourist street and I went into a store, looked around and then walked out. Well, I turned the wrong direction and then had to turn around again to head back to the boat. It wouldn’t have been so bad but I did this 4 or 5 times within a block area. I finally made my way back to the shuttle to go back to the boat.
The blue doors are to keep the 'evil eye' away from the members of the house. Basically, it is to keep bad things from happening to people in the household, like when we knock on wood.

This is where some people smashed grapes. It was very obvious from the smell that this had happened a while ago

Looking out over the town. Pretty I thought.

Santorini

This is where we went on the volcano hiking excursion. We took a tender to the island of Santorini and then a local boat to the volcano island. (Visiting Sitka every summer as a kid I always wanted to go on a tender and on this trip I figured out 2 things. The first thing was that if I ever owned/operated a tender I would name it the Chicken Tender. The other thing is that I get sea sick on tenders and that they were not as fun as they would have been when I was a kid.) It was fun to get away from the large masses of people and do some hiking. I think I only saw 2 plants on the whole island but it was still fun. After that we went to the main island and we had about 45 minutes or so there before we had to be back for the tender back to the boat. We took the cable car up to the top of the island and walked around for a little bit. Then we saw that the line for the cable car down was REALLY long so we, well I decided, to walk it. It was 588 steps down but these aren’t nice steps. These are wide steps that are being shared with donkeys and there ‘exhaust.’ This poop made it really slippery and about half-way down my legs decided that this was really stupid. We made it down, with our legs still attached, and got back on the boat. The elevators were so crowded that we had to walk up the 8 flights of stairs to get to lunch. Oh my body felt it the next day.

The stairs with the donkeys, and if you look really close, you can see the poop.

Budda in Greece! I thought this was funny on the volcano island.

Das boat. If you have x-ray vision you can see my room, I had an inside cabin. The yellow stacks are the logo of Coasta Cruise and go back to when the company started by selling/transporting olive oil. They kept the stacks that color to remember. Also, to keep with the olive oil theme they use A TON of it on board on pasta, pizza, veggies, and anything else you can imagine.

The volcano island that I hiked. Small with no vegetation but wonderful examples of sulfur in it natural form (yes this is the nerdy chemist!).

A day at sea

Our day at sea was fine. It was our chance to sleep in and that was nice. The ship had lots of activities going on so if you were bored it was your own fault. The food onboard was great. (Who knew that the Italian cruise company makes really good pasta?!) The only problem that I had with the food, especially at dinner, was that I didn’t know what it was, but, I wasn’t the only one. One of the dinners on board my friend and I were trying to place this other passenger’s accent. It was difficult but we finally decided he had to have spent a lot of time in Tennessee, and we were right!

I also did arts and crafts on the ship. These were only for adults, and some of the people were real overachievers. Globs of paint suddenly took the form of a floral display. This one gentleman in particular could make anything but that’s ok, none of the other knew how to knit!

The walled city of Urbino

So the first stop was to the town of Ancona. My friend and I took a tour to the walled city of Urbino, and 1.5 hours each way. It was an interesting drive. We got away from the tourist part of town and got to see some of the country side. It was a very nice change. The town was very pretty and we went into the castle and then to a viewing platform to get panoramic shots of the city.

I realized that I don’t know much about Italian history. I don’t know anything after the Romans (and I don’t know that well either) but it was interesting to learn about some of it. I didn’t realize how powerful the city of Venice was in its heyday.

Venice really doesn't have any cars!

Ok, I have known for years that Venice doesn’t have any roads in the city it is all canals. I knew this, but really, the only motorized form of transportation for the city are the motor boats. It was weird to not see a car for a few days. Also another form of protection for the city was that there isn’t a straight street anywhere.

So maybe I should start telling you what happened from the beginning. I arrived, with my friend, in Venice at about 2 in the afternoon after flying all night. We didn’t get a lot of sleep but we were functioning. The hotel we stayed at was right off of St. Marcos Square so we just had to get there. So, we got on the water bus, at 13€ each, and started the bus ride through the city. It was a great way to get there because of the route it took and I learned something, I get seasick on small boats. (Not a good thing to find out when confronted with no cars!) So we made it to St. Mark’s square and then proceeded to try and find the hotel. The first problem was that I didn’t know exactly where it was and after walking around for a bit we found it. By the way, St. Mark’s square is crazy busy at any time of day, well, at 730 am it was fine.

So, by the time we got there is was about 5 or so in the evening and we thought it might be best to look for dinner. We wanted pizza. So we asked the front desk where THEY would go for pizza not where the tourists go. We walked that way and crossed the Rialto Bridge. This is one of the major bridges across the Grand Canal and I didn’t realize it was a big deal until I saw all the postcards of it later. We looked for a place and we found a place right on the Grand Canal for pizza. I had ham(J) and mushrooms on mine and it tastes better if you fold it in half. The pizza is a very thin crust and I would have taken a picture of it but then I would have had to stop eating it.

So after our expensive dinner, my portion was about 16€ or $24, we went walking in town. And then it got dark so we figured we should figure out where we were. Finding ourselves on the map took about 10 minutes. Then we walked back to the hotel. It wasn’t very far but since the streets are rather confusing it took about an hour and a half to find our way back. We also found out that businesses close at about 730pm on a Friday night. (There aren’t many locals left in Venice so people leave the town to go home.) We got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and crashed into bed so we could have the fullest day possible the next morning.

The next morning we got up, got European breakfast, and started walking around the city. Took lots and lots of pictures and then found a yarn shop (YAY!) and then went back to the restaurant for another pizza. We got back to our hotel about 1:30 pm, got the bags, and then went to get the boat to take us to the boat.

It was very easy to get on the boat, we dropped out bags off, got our boarding number and waited until with was called. We had to go through about 4,000 security checks before we got on the boat but it worked out ok. Our cabin was much larger than I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t large but we had room for our suitcases, carry-ons, and all the other stuff we carry around. I was pleasantly pleased with the size, especially for the price we paid. The ship was big and confusing. I finally figured out my way around the 6th day which didn’t do me a whole lot of good.

I don't know what this building is, but it was a pretty picture that I took from the cruise ship as we left Venice.

The tide was a little high the day our cruise left which meant that seating at some cafes was limited.

These carts are how things are transported throughout Venice, talk about some strong arms!

Rialto Bridge, with really good pizza off to the left with the red awning.

St. Mark's Square is a major tourist destination in the city, hence all the people.

Mid-October Update

So, pictures of my last trip are being close to getting done. I just need to go through and actually write the blog entries and pick the pictures that are best.

It has been 3 work weeks since I've been back and I'm ready for Christmas. Mostly, I'm ready to see my family and this week has been difficult. I know that I only have 2 months and 1 day to wait and then I'll be on my way to the States but it seems like a long time.

Work has been busy in the last 3 weeks. I've been grading a mountain of papers, prepping labs, and trying to get unused glassware ready to move to the other building. The last thing hasn't happened but I have great hopes that today it will start. We, as in Chemistry people, want to have the extras moved out of our current location by the time I leave for Christmas Break.

I've been knitting in the last few weeks. I'm trying to get Mom's blanket done BEFORE I get home, we will see if that happens. It is a simple pattern but small needles and skinny yarn make for a LONG project. Only 3 more balls of yarn to knit into it and then it is done. I'm also making another hat for my brother-in-law. I'm using some yarn that I bought in Italy that is different shades of green. I must say, that it is very manly so I hope he likes it.

I am trying to do my budget for the next year so I'm trying to pick out the places that I want to visit next summer. I am leaning toward visiting Austria, Hungary, and Estonia. I am not certain that I'll pick those yet, too many choices and not enough vacation time or vacation budget.

Hope all is going well with you!

The Darn Pink Shirt

So I have one pink shirt that I bought years ago at Old Navy. Now, I bought it, even though it has pink on it, because it has brown around the collar. I take it on trips with me that way if I need more space I can throw the shirt out and not throw out a shirt I like. This is a great thought but the shirt ALWAYS makes it back! One of my friends thought that I should throw the shirt overboard on my last trip but I decided to see how many places the shirt can go. So far the shirt has gone, and been worn in, the following countries:
1) Qatar
2) US
3) Finland
4) Germany
5) Estonia
6) Latvia
7) Lithuania
8) Poland
9) Italy
10) Greece
11) Croatia
12) United Arab Emirates
13) Czech Republic (I think)


Italy

Greece
Croatia

Not too bad for a shirt that I really don’t like very much. I don’t remember if I took it on the trip to Czech Republic last year, but I’m pretty sure it went. I wonder how many countries it can go to before it gets thrown away in favor of yarn?