Packing for Poland

We celebrated Mother's Day a couple of months ago, the kids made cards and arranged to take me out to their favorite restaurant (hahaha..). It was Arabic mother's day, they don't know the difference and I'm ok with that. Then Mother's Day came around last week and they were ready to celebrate again.  Hey, who am I to squelch their enthusiasm for well..me? They were eager to buy gifts, but I had to convince them notes and something very very small would be plenty for me. It's hard when all I see is more to pack and ship.  They were happy with being allowed to choose their own gift for me and I always enjoy seeing what they think I'll enjoy. Mother's Day is on a Sunday, which is a work day in this part of the world (our weekend is Friday and Saturday) and it was particularly exhausting. I had planned to come home and cook dinner, but decided on the way home, I just didn't have it in me to cook.  That's been happening a lot lately, but I think it

Current life situation. 

Showing off his bottom teeth missing! Best part of the gap between the two bottom teeth! Mommy enjoying lemon mint ice!                .           It was a LONG week.. I started off the week exhausted and it didn't seem to get better even with extra rest. It was teacher appreciation week, the last full week of school (Ramadan begins next week severely limiting our teaching schedule) and all grades were having their end of year party Thursday afternoon before Ramadan begins next week. In addition to the exhaustion that comes with a week of anticipation, the weather made a shift to really hot (104f/40c) and then a dust storm graced us at the end of the week making indoor recess the new normal. In addition, I needed to get all of my end-of-year assessments completed in order to write reports this weekend. That didn't happen.  With our less-than-normal schedule and the teachers also knowing this was their last full week with their kids, assessments were started,

I've been doing a lot of thinking about our time here in Doha. I've been categorizing things into what I'm glad we're leaving behind and what I'll miss and a whole other mess of what's become normal (but maybe shouldn't be - I'll leave that for now). I don't want to spend too much on the what I'm glad to leave behind because it makes our time here seem less than it has been, but it's important to recognize there are downsides to every place and situation. So, here goes. 1) The climate. I remember telling friends before leaving (friends, you know who you are): yeah, it's hot, but we'll get used to it. And that we were coming from a very long and cold winter, where we were inside a lot, so this would be the opposite, but the same coping mechanism would apply...  Let me be the first to say, no.  Not true. There's something oppressive about the weather here. In August when we returned each year, the temperature tops out at 50 (120

There's a whole lotta thoughts coming out.. Fair warning. After four years in a place, things become normal.  For the past several weeks, I've been paying attention to the things which have become normal in an effort to condense my thoughts on leaving a place that has unintentionally become home. There's this strange thing that happens as a transition like this approaches, I've been through it several times and it's always the same. Transitions are part of the expat life, and it's the life we've chosen for ourselves and our kids.  During the decision process there's a tug-of-war inside. Is leaving really the best thing? What's so great "over there?" Would just one more year be a good idea? There's a feeling of total excitement when a decision is finally reached. You're moving on. It's going to be AMAZING! The lull of the next several months sits in - the waiting game. Still physically here, but there too. Our decision ca

Wroclaw (Vrohts-wahf)  wasn't on our radar, in fact we had to google it before our interview so we knew where the school was. Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, they were on our radar because they're much more well known cities in Europe.  Wroclaw is situated in the south west of Poland, very near the borders of both Germany and the Czech Republic. Here are some of the specs: Population - 650,000 people - making it the 4th larges city in Poland (oddly, this will be a nice small feel for us as Doha has over two times as many people). Language - Polish (but from what we read, English is fairly common) University Town - Wroclaw boasts 13 major universities with over 150,000 students! I guess we'll be right at home. City of Rivers - Wroclaw is home to the Odra River and several minor rivers as well. It is the city of 100 bridges (Actually with all bridges including: river, canal and footbridges there are around 220! - I wonder if we'll find them all..). Due t