It's raining! It's pouring! The old man is snoring!

OK, OK! I haven't had a lot of sleep lately so old nursery rhymes and songs are easy to recall. Nelson is not an old man, but he IS snoring. I am so jealous that he can sleep in. My brain wakes up at 5 a.m. nowadays no matter how long I could sleep in if I wanted!
We're still in Al Zuhoor as of this morning, but so much of my stuff is in Al Khor that I can't brush my teeth or even have tea or coffee! We only have the odds and ends left to haul up in boxes now.

This morning, we are meeting our truck/furniture moving guys at the villa with the last of the furniture for now. We found a small counter top that will fit between the stove and frig with room underneath for the gas tank. We found a nice little cabinet for our spices and miscellaneous cooking stuff to sit right next to the stove. We were very happy with a nice, slightly used living room set. I can't really describe it, so will post photos on Facebook and this blog as soon as we are internet capable again. They came yesterday, but somebody transposed a number and they can't get things working just right yet. Martin has internet next door so we can go there. Martin has been by two or three times to haul boxes and misc. in his Escalade for us. He claims it is for "the greater good" and refuses to allow us to do something nice for him in return because he hopes it will help him get to heaven (or stay out of hell). :) We WILL have a nice dinner celebration after we get settled in the next few days!

It has been an eventful week for us.....poor Nelson is so stressed from driving us to work and back, running errands, doing some work himself shoeing some endurance horses.....he needs a break! We had our first accident this week when a large cab-over truck decided it wanted our lane. Not a lot of damage, just the passenger door. But the guy didn't stop and kept on going. A local who saw what happened forced him off the road for us with his Landcruiser so we could call the police and make a report. The truck guys didn't want to call the police and just wanted to know how much. They tried to tell us with the limited English they knew that it would take hours for the police to arrive. It only took about 45 minutes. The policeman knew little to no English, so we had no idea what the truck guys told him, but they told him plenty. We were never even asked any questions. We had to go to the Traffic Department the next day. We were a bit nervous because we weren't sure what would happen. Well, the policemen at the Traffic Department were so very nice. We were surprised after some of the horror stories we've heard! And really got nervous when they asked for our debit card! :) One of them is going to Las Vegas next month and we had a fun time working out the English. He wanted to know what to wear....I told him to take a warm jacket for this time of year. While we would consider it perfect weather, he will freeze after the heat of Doha. When we tried to find out from him what he is going there for, it is "to see." :) No casinos or anything. He asked if Las Vegas is safe. I asked him if he ever watches CSI. They had a good laugh about that! Anyway, the debit card was because we needed to pay 20QR (about 5 bucks) for the report, completely in Arabic. We didn't understand at first why he was telling us to go to Doha Insurance. I guess in Qatar you make your claim directly with the other guy's insurance company instead of turning it in to your own. Fine by me! And we even found the place yesterday when we went to the furniture souks.

So.....it feels as if it's pouring for us right now. There is so much going on. I have to get to work on my action research for the presentation I am doing in Boston next spring with some colleagues about reading. The majority of our students really don't like reading and motivating students to read so they can subsequently improve all of their English skills. We really hope to find some ways to motivate students to read more! I love teaching Level 3, but I have to really work hard to help them achieve our learning outcomes...the leap from Level 2 to Level 3 is a big one and they are taking some time to adjust to the new level of difficulty. However, I am pleased with their progress. One student asked me this week what I eat for breakfast. Apparently, I seem very energetic to them at 8:00 in the morning! It was so funny. I do feel energized when I am teaching and move around the room to keep everyone on task. They don't see how exhausted I am in the middle of the afternoon though! I'm hoping Dr. Cabot's Liver Cleansing Diet will help me improve my health, and give me more energy! We'll start next week. It's really an extension of what we've already been doing. Here's the site if you want to take a look for more info: http://www.liverdoctor.com/.

Anyway, so much to do, so little time. I need to get to work this morning packing a few more things that need to go and sorting and tossing some junk that doesn't need to go! Stay tuned!