Autumn Update

So sorry for the long silence, Old Kathleen fans!

I survived the summer and we are now well into fall. The heat and humidity of August, September and October is starting to break and I have actually gone for a couple of walks on the Corniche. I realized recently when I was on the first walk, that it was the first time I had been outdoors in Doha for more than 10 minutes since May! It felt wonderful! I was a sweaty mess by the end of the walk, but it was glorious to be outdoors.

Since my last update, I enjoyed a Baltic cruise at the end of August. Four of us boarded the Costa Luminosa in Copenhagen. Costa is an Italian cruise line and of the nearly 3,000 passengers on board, only 80 were native English-speakers. Lots of Italian, Spanish, German and Russian was being spoken all around us. With all those languages being spoken, no wonder most of the entertainment was dancing!

We spent an evening and a day in Copenhagen before we boarded the ship. The evening was spent at Tivoli Gardens and it was a beautiful evening. The flowers were so lovely and since the weather was so nice, and it was a Friday evening (end of the work week) there were many, many people out enjoying the rides and attractions.

We had pork (yes!) ribs for dinner at a restaurant in the park.

Yes, that's lettuce gro

wing on the roof of this building in Tivoli!

Copenhagen is a very safe city and very easy to get around. Our hotel was centrally located, and right across the street from a sex shop! I got up in the middle of the night, looked out and watched a couple of sex-trade workers - very interesting!

The next day we realized we couldn't possibly see everything there is to see in Copenhagen in one day, so we took the hop on-hop off bus tour and got an overview of Copenhagen including, of course, the Little Mermaid!

We boarded the ship late in the afternoon, settled into our cabins and went off to explore the ship. It was my first cruise and I wasn't sure if I'd be seasick or not, so I used a patch that was attached behind my ear. Alice had recommended and bought it for me. It worked, but made me incredibly thirsty!

The cruise took us from Copenhagen to Tallin, Estonia which was the delightful surprise of the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed our time traipsing through this quaint medieval town. The people were welcoming and there was a lot of interesting architecture to see.

Me and my new boyfriend in Tallin, Estonia

The next stop was St. Petersburg where we did a marathon 17 hours seeing the magnificent Catherine Palace, had a river/canal tour of St. Petersburg, and in the evening we had a private tour of the Hermitage.I was so impressed with our guide's knowledge - she never stopped talking the entire day. I just wish I could remember all that she said! She really lighted up when discussing the art in the Hermitage.

The CatherinePalace, Pushkin, Russia

From St. Petersburg we went to Helsinki, Finland. We chose to take a tour to Porvoo which is the oldest city in Finland. The traffic in all these countries was so horrendous that we ended up with little time to spend in Porvoo - less than an hour, but it was interesting and I would have loved to have spent more time there.

Then on to Stockholm here we had only 8 hours to see the city. I thought Stockholm was beautiful, and I would certainly want to go back when I could spend more time there and actually get a feel for the city.

Me and my Swedish beau (I just seem to pick up men everywhere!

All in all I would have to say I'm glad I had the 'cruise experience' but it is certainly not the way to see countries in an in-depth way. The ship was elegant and, as expected, food abundant. I had just lost 10 pounds, having spent much of the summer exercising in the gym and following a low-calorie diet. I am pleased to say that I only gained 1.5 pounds on the cruise, and going back to the gym right away upon my return to Doha helped me to lose that quickly!

The school year got off to a roaring start as we admitted nearly 50 new students. Now, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but that brought our student numbers up to 180 - and only a year previous we had only about 60 students. So we are very pleased that our numbers are growing. It is so nice to see the students on campus.

A couple of weeks after the start of classes I flew to Chicago to attend the wedding of my sister-in-law, Carol. She was an absolutely beautiful bride, and she and Mike just beamed all day. My daughter, Ayn, and her two children (Anais and Layton) were there as well - Anais serving as flower girl and Layton was to have been the ring bearer; however, just before the ceremony he got cold feet. Even bribery wouldn't get him down the aisle (mom promised him the motor bike he wanted), so his sister - ever the one in charge - grabbed the pillow with the rings and headed down the aisle with her basket of rose petals!

We had an all-too-short visit with the Chicago family. We were also sorry that my son, Ian and his family and Ayn's husband, Chad were not able to be there to make it a true family reunion. I was, however, delighted to meet my nephew, Hans' fiancee, Amanda. They will have the next wedding in October 2012.

Then it was on to Calgary for a 10-day visit where the weather was absolutely beautiful - the perfect IndianSummer. I went for many walks with friends and neighbors, caught up with Ian and his family,spent more time with grandchildren, and generally enjoyed being in my home. I have been struggling with making a decision about whether to keep my house or to sell it when I return to Calgary when my contract in Doha is over. After only a day in my home I realized that I feel so comfortable there that I want to stay in my home when I return to Calgary.

All too soon it was back to Doha where I returned to a new apartment! I had to pack up my apartment before I left forChicago/Calgary, and when I got back to Doha it was to a new apartment with a whole lot of boxes. After a 24-hour flight, entering an apartment with everything you own (except the things in your suitcases) in boxes, it was a blessing that the first box I opened had the toilet paper and some towels so I could brush my teeth, wash my face and fall into bed. I had to be at work 7 hours after I arrived home!

Living/diningroom Kitchen

My bedroom

It took me about 4-5 days of unpacking boxes every night after work to finally be able to find everything. The apartment is on the 13th floor (no superstition here) and looks to the north. I see a bit of the sea and at night the lights are lovely to see. There is a wonderful gym in the building and I have made good use of it, going almost every day. The apartment itself is spacious - has lots more cupboard and counter space in the kitchen than my previous apartment. I actually have some empty cupboards! The furniture, although not very attractive, is at least far more comfortable than the last apartment. My favorite part, tho, is that the air conditioning doesn't roar like it did in the old place. It's actually very quiet. There are a few problems, tho. The internet is included in our rent, but the connection sucks and is quite slow. Skype is hit-and- miss at best. There are a few of us with some real humidity problems, too. I hung my laundry to dry on a recent Friday and it was still very damp on Wednesday!! The building engineers are supposed to be doing something about it, but a couple people gave up and bought de-humidifiers (at considerable expense). One guy pulled over 90 litres of water out of the air in his apartment over the course of 4 days. He has a gauge that measures the humidity in the air. He came to measure my apartment and one day it was in the low 80's and yesterday it was 89%. I think we have a problem!