Hope for the holidays

Another holiday season is upon and although we aren't able to be HOME for the holidays, we have HOPE for happy holidays anyway! Skype allows us daily chats and video conversations with our children and grandchildren, so we are able to share in their holiday spirit and experiences. :) I have booked my flight for a trip home in January (Jan. 21-Feb.4), but Nelson has opted to remain in Qatar to do some fishing and avoid the stress and trauma that the flying and long travels causes him. I think I would walk on a bed of hot coals with nails in them to see my grandchildren. Men are simply more practical. Thank God he understands and allows me that failing. :) I am truly blessed with this man who is my best friend and who loves me in spite of my imperfections and impossible wants and needs!

As always, life is busy for me. I have worked harder than ever this semester in spite of reduced hours (16). My work on the Folktales and Fables Reading and Storytelling Project has taken a lot of my time and energy, not to mention it's one of those things that has been teaching me more and more about "schwei, schwei," or "slowly, slowly." I am an impatient American and find the slow turning of wheels frustrating, but am learning to adjust! My trip this semester to the Japan School of Doha was a huge success once again. Our program director, Dr. Khalid, has allowed me 3 trips this semester as a pilot to see how it goes. In two weeks, two more teachers are going on a trip to a different school. I can't wait to see how it goes and to report to Dr. Khalid. I am very hopeful that we will really fly with it next semester and that he will approve the research I'd like to do connected with it about service learning and reading aloud combined. My students are so energized and full of self-confidence after these trips. I really would like to find out how much it influences their motivation and academic achievements! Fortunately, Dr. Khalid likes research!

Nelson's early Christmas/birthday gift was an RC model airplane. Since my contract was renewed, he is going to need some more activities here! He loves flying RC planes and we have several friends who are also into it as a hobby, so he's hoping to get some of them up here to play with him! We (but mostly Nelson) take a lot of photos, too, so we want to spend some time working on editing some photos for framing for ourselves, or maybe even for sale at shows. We have some really awesome photos that really should be published, even if it's just on someone's wall. :)

So, at least one more year here after I finish this academic year. We just can't afford yet to move home to stay, unless I find a really awesome, well-paying job. Unfortunately, jobs like this in the U.S. don't pay for your housing, your relocation, or give you a transportation allowance or an end of contract bonus (one month's salary per year!). And some of them don't have the health insurance benefits either. There is so much to take into consideration before we can move home and then, I have to admit, we really would like to live and work abroad again and the first two places on our list are Oman and Egypt. We'd like to spend time in both of these countries, living and working for awhile.

In any case, this is my brief, uninspiring update in an attempt to keep up. I'm counting the days to home (42 as of today). I will be dividing my time between the grandkids in Kalkaska and Houghton Lake, a trip to the U.P. to see my sister and a couple days in the Mt. Pleasant area to see friends there, pay a visit to an ESLA meeting (the club I founded several years ago for MATESOL, bilingual and ESL degree seekers), and hope folks who'd like to see me will either understand if I can't get to them or will seek me out in those places. :) Hopefully, our friends and neighbors will keep an eye on Nelson and entertain him some...I think he already has plans for fishing with his Irish fishing buddy, Richard. He is also hoping to hit Dubai with our friends, Michael McKenzie and husband/wife duo, Michael and Crystal Young, who are running a marathon there the end of January! Being apart will be good for us: isn't is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder? :)

Keep in touch, write, call, skype, whatever. We love to hear from home!!!

Happy Holidays in advance in case I don't get back to an update for Christmas!

Maggie