An update from the Kingdom

Hello my dear friends and family. I hope the holiday season finds you well and keeping warm! I can’t believe how cold it has been in Tacoma…The weather here is gorgeous. Highs in the mid to upper 60s and lows probably in the low 60s. It actually does feel chilly when there is a breeze and mornings and evenings require sweaters. We’ve actually had quite a bit of rain lately. It rained for almost a week straight with some pretty fantastic thunder and lack of drainage thrown in there.

I have survived until winter break! Things at school have been very busy. Some of you I’ve chatted with about the state of the school. There are a lot of ups and downs, some great days and some very stressful. There are a lot of changes being implemented by new administration. The changes are for the good of the school and some of the school staff and students are on board and some of them aren’t. It’s kind of exciting to be a part of but also very frustrating at times. We have been having kind of a rough time with our grade 12 students. My take on it is that they have really never been held accountable for anything and now there are multiple adults at the school holding them accountable for all kinds of things like coming to school, going to class, doing their homework, being polite to teachers, not pulling the fire alarm….you know, the regular stuff. They are getting a lot of “tough love” right now, which they will hopefully appreciate sometime in the future. We’re getting all caught up on college stuff for them which is nice. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them during our advisory time once a week.

The apartment has come along nicely. I have all the necessary furniture. It feels kind of grown up to have furniture that I have bought instead of hand me downs. I really sorta splurged on my TV but it was a pretty good price and it is awesome. I don’t have anything on the walls yet so it still feels kind of bare. The issue is that the walls are cement, so I really have to decide where I want everything before I start hanging stuff. I also need to buy the appropriate tools and supplies.

I will probably start renting a car in January. I’ve decided to rent instead of buy. It’s not that expensive and then I don’t have to worry about maintenance or repair work if something goes wrong. I just give it back and they bring me another car.

The weekends I’ve stayed in Bahrain I’ve managed to go out a few times with friends I’ve made at school. I had no idea there was such a large US military presence here. It is pretty apparent when you go out depending on where you go. No worries though, I went to college in Tacoma! Haha. We found a place called Dublin’s that I really like. They have a great band that plays covers of popular stuff and takes requests. They are really good. Plus if you go on ladies night and order from a certain menu then it’s free!

I’ve been lucky to be able to visit the family pretty regularly. We had a great time over Thanksgiving though we missed my mom who was in the states. It has been a few years since we’ve all been together for Christmas so we are looking forward to that. I’m at my sister’s right now enjoying time with her family. On Tuesday night we’ll head to my parents and be there until Dec. 30. Then we’ll leave the nieces with my parents and the rest of us will head to my place. Heather and Erik will celebrate their anniversary and I’m going to a black tie masquerade with some teachers on New Year’s Eve.

I hope all of you are doing well and have a safe and happy holiday season. I do have some pictures to post and I will get them on the blog over my break. Look for them soon! Miss you all.

P.S. There is now a bed in the guest bedroom. I repeat, there is now a bed in the guest bedroom…