So my last post came after summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, and I must say things haven’t slowed down since then! Upon returning from Tanzania I dove directly into a three week tour of the good ‘ol US of A! First stop was Chicago for a LeaderShape training that challenged me both personally and professionally. It was incredibly rewarding and really energized me for the work I am doing back in Doha. I got to connect with some old friends and also meet some people doing incredible things in education, social justice, and leadership development.
After Chicago I flew over to Las Vegas to meet up with Kristal
and her family. It was the first time we got to see family since the
engagement, and it sure was a good time! We were in Vegas for a lot of reasons,
but one of the most important was to celebrate Blair and Lynn’s Bachelor and
Bachelorette parties. Blair is Kristal’s cousin and is getting married this
summer. In Vegas we had a bunch of Kristal’s cousins, her parents, aunts and
uncles, and even grandparents! Her family LOVES Vegas and for her grandpa it
was his 35th (yes 35th….) trip to Vegas. It was amazing
hearing them tell stories from back in the day and to see them in their
element. Did I mention we got to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day there as well?
After Vegas it was over to New Orleans for a student affairs
conference. Brandon and Dad flew down to meet us there and our friends Erin and
Kyle drove in from Austin. It was a great conference that Kristal and I both
presented at. We got to see friends from graduate school, old colleagues, and
of course friends and family already mentioned. New Orleans was an incredible
city and we spent most of the time and an eating and drinking tour to take it
all in. Some of the highlights were Pat O’s, a swamp tour, real Jazz on Frenchmen Street,
Mardis Gras World, a ghost tour that actually terrified us, and a steam boat
down the Mississippi. All of that was between being at a conference from
8am-8pm every day! Did I mention we celebrated my birthday there?
By the end of it all we were sad to leave the states but SO
ready to get back to Doha. Kristal, Kevin (from Evan & Kevin) and myself
were actually on the same flight back from the US. It was a direct flight from
Chicago to Doha and work had paid for each of us to fly business class. We had
a wine and cheese party 30,000 feet in the air, with all of the flight crew
laughing at us.
Being back in Doha has been great and full of making the
most of our time before summer hits. We have had some CRAZY weather including
multiple sand storms that are so serious was had two “Sand Days” which left the
entire apartment covered in a layer of dust. We did engagement photos in the
Souq and Corniche (which can be found on Facebook), we went Dolphin watching in
Musandam, Oman with friends who moved to Dubai, and this weekend we head to
Bahrain for a Formula 1 race! Although it has been quite busy we are really
having the time of our lives.
That about covers it for now. Want to give a shout out to
Zach and Kristina Devesty on their new baby girl, Arden, who was born last
week. We can’t wait to meet her and am glad to hear everyone is healthy. It has
been great catching up with a lot of you the last few weeks and hoping to see
more folks as the academic year winds down. Keep in touch!
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