Turkey

I have been wondering how I can convey all the wonders of Turkey to you in short, quick snippets, but that would be virtually impossible. So, grab a cup of coffee and settle down for a long read!

Day 1 – Istanbul

Three of our party of four (Cathy, Isabelle, and I) arrived in Istanbul bright and early after flying through the night from Doha. We took our bags to the hotel and, since it was too early to check in, stored our bags and started to explore the area. We are staying in the Sultanahmet district which is the historic old city of Istanbul – very tourist-driven and reminds me a bit of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

An early spring morning in Istanbul

We wandered over to a main street where we found a lovely place to grab some breakfast and then we found our way to the Grand Bazaar. It is huge and goes for blocks and blocks with small shops selling rugs, pottery, jewelry, etc. etc. The merchants are charming and friendly, but we restrained ourselves.

Early morning in the Grand Bazaar - it's not usually this quiet & empty

We wandered around until noon when we headed back to the hotel to check in, take a bit of a nap and wait for Jackie (the 4^th in our group) to arrive. The Lady Diana Hotel is a lovely small hotel located about 500 meters from the Blue Mosque – couldn’t be a better location. We can easily walk to all the major attractions, and there are many, many restaurants and shops nearby as well.

After Jackie arrived we headed back out to do some more exploring, then headed back to the hotel for dinner and an early to bed since we had a full day planned for Saturday. I was already in love with Istanbul after only one day. It is a very European city with many outdoor cafes and the people are so warm and friendly.

Day 2 – Istanbul

After breakfast on the rooftop of the hotel, we headed to the Blue Mosque. The tourist crowds were huge, but it is all very well-managed. We queued up and at the entrance you take a plastic bag to put your shoes in to carry with you rather than leaving them outside and having to come back and pick them up. Although signage says women must cover their heads, and we had our scarves with us, no one enforced it and most women did not cover. The mosque is huge and has a long history. The main area has beautiful painting and mosaic work on the domes and walls. By comparison to this the women's area is incredibly small.

We then walked down to Aya Sophia which was originally a Byzantine church. Its beautiful paintings were covered when it was converted into a mosque. It is now being restored – a painstaking task to uncover the Christian paintings without destroying them. I found this to be much more impressive and interesting than the Blue Mosque. The building is enormous and I loved to try to imagine worshippers filling the building.

After a midday beer we visited the Basicila Cistern which was very interesting. It is the largest of about 150 subterranean structures and is about 150,000 square feet with 336 columns. The water came from about 12 miles away via a system of aqueducts. The lighting in the cistern is very effective and added to our amazement and awe of it.

Inside the Basilica Cistern

That evening we walked around and shopped a bit and then stopped for dinner. At the end of our meal, the waiters started dancing and it was great fun to watch. It was an impromptu thing in honour of the owner’s birthday. All the customers got into it and were clapping and yelling encouragement. It was one of those serendipitous things that happens that is so much fun and so memorable!

Day 3 – Istanbul

Today we got a later start after a relaxing breakfast. We wandered around – mostly people-watching. It was Sunday, the weather was incredibly warm and sunny – a perfect spring day, and it seems the entire population was out and about. We decided to try taking the tram and made our way over to the Asian side of Istanbul. Not much happening there, so we headed back over the bridge. The bridge was teeming with fishers – I never saw so many fishing poles hung over the side of a bridge! There is a row of about 10-12 restaurants under the bridge.

Restaurants under the bridge and fishers on the bridge

We decided to grab some lunch there – according to the tour books it’s apparently an experience you have to have to eat under the bridge. We had a red snapper baked in salt. It took a long time to cook and we enjoyed watching the ships coming in and out of the port while we waited. The fish arrived and was flaming. When the flames subsided, the waiter cut through the hard crust of salt to expose and serve the fish. It was sooooo delicious.

Our flaming fish!

After lunch we decided to add to the decadence of the day by having a Turkish bath. What an experience that was! We were each given a towel and pair of panties to wear after we put all our clothes into a locker. Then we entered the large marble room with a huge – I mean huge, there were about 20 women on it – round marble slab in the middle of the room - a very hot, steamy room. I lay down on my stomach was scrubbed all over my entire back, then flipped over and scrubbed on the front. Then I was directed over to sit along the wall on the marble seats where I was rinsed off with buckets of water being poured over me. The most interesting part of this was that in the middle of the huge marble slab, what appeared to be a bachelorette party was going on. About a dozen 20-something-year-old women were singing, one was drumming, and then a few of them got up to dance – all topless, some bottomless too - and completely uninhibited. The bride's friends dressed her in a frilly, ruffly white pair of panties and stretchy tube bra-type thing and she also got up to dance. They were all so lovely and the dancing was very erotic and sexy. After I was rinsed off I headed to the hot tub to relax a bit before getting a massage – and it was one of the best massages I’ve ever had.

After the massage I could hear some clapping and singing going on below and looked over the balcony to where another bridal group was serenading the bride. I managed to capture a small video of it that appears at the bottom of this post (and no, it's not x-rated).

We were so relaxed after all this that we simply couldn’t drag ourselves out to dinner, so we bought some cheese, crackers, wine, etc. and sat in our room and ate, then packed for our early departure on Monday for Cappadocia!

Day 4 – Cappadocia

An early start as we were picked up from our hotel at 5:30 am to catch our flight to Kayseri – a city in the area of central Turkey known as Cappadocia. We were met on arrival and taken to meet the rest of our tour group – 14 in all. We spent some time walking and climbing around some ‘fairy chimneys’ which are similar to the hoodoos in Alberta – rock formations worn down by water and wind.

Fairy chimneys

The area is full of them and many, many caves as well which were used by early Christians in the area. We then moved on to an area where the fairy chimneys looks look like mushrooms. There we were able to climb up to a small cave chapel and see the caves that were living quarters for Saint Simon.

me, Isabelle, Jackie & Cathy in St. Simon's Chapel

Climbing to the top of the hills we found spectacular views. We have been so fortunate with the weather on this trip – it’s been absolutely beautiful, spring weather – and in fact, it was very hot today around the stone, but there was always a breeze and once inside the caves it was very cool.

Our next stop was the town of Avanos where the Red River provides red clay for the pottery the area is known for. We stopped at a pottery workshop and got the requisite tour – complete with some shopping at the end; but I restrained myself, worried mostly about getting something back to Doha without having it all in pieces.

After our lunch break, we headed to the Goreme Open Air Museum which is a collection of 9 cave chapels and a cave church. This is where early Christians gathered and the chapels and church are covered in frescoes, some of which are in remarkably good shape considering the age of them. They are from anywhere from the 4^th to the 12^th century. We then went to a viewpoint that overlooked the entire area – and it was spectacular indeed!

We were then dropped at our hotel for the evening – a cave hotel. Our room is at the top of one of the fairy chimneys and we have a great view of the area. We have been told we’ll have a great view of the hot air balloons drifting over the valley in the morning.

Our room in the cave hotel - carved in a fairy chimney

One of the delights of the day was meeting the other people on the tour. The most inspiring was a couple named Monica and Frank who were 85 and 87 years old respectively and were doing a good job of keeping up with the rest of us as we hiked around these areas. They had met in Vienna after World War II and settled in Westchester County, New York, but have now retired to a home in Puerto Rico! Another couple – George and Odette – were Torontonians, originally from the Middle East. They were on the trip to celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary. There were two young couples as well – one from Britain/Australia, and the other was a Japanese woman and an Australian man. The final members of our group were a Turkish couple who spoke no English, so it was near impossible to communicate with them. The guide had to repeat all she said in English to them in Turkish.

Frank, Cathy, Monica, Isabelle, Jackie, me & Odette

We had dinner at a restaurant nearby the hotel and the atmosphere and the meal were both wonderful. At the end of the meal, the owner of the restaurant came by our table and we had a great conversation with him about the area and life in the small villages.

Day 5 – More Cappadocia

Thank goodness, we had a later start today, we could catch up on a bit of sleep after yesterday’s early start. We took a long hike through Rose Valley where we saw farmers working in the vineyards uncovering the grapevines that were buried during the winter, and planting other crops – all doing the work by hand because their farms are small and it isn’t economical to purchase farm equipment. Over the course of the two days we saw farmers plowing by hand and using mules to pull their plows. It seemed so quaint to us, but it is such hard work! Besides the farmers, we got up close and personal with the beautiful formations that are the result of erosion.

View of the area around Goreme in Cappadocia

We then visited an art centre where beautiful objects are created out of onyx, turquoise, precious and semi-precious stones. There was a demonstration of shaping onyx into various articles.

After a stop for lunch we visited an underground city where Christians lived for many hundreds of years in hiding from the Romans. The city we visited had eight underground levels of which only 4 are open to the public. I am a bit claustrophobic, and managed to make it down 2 levels, but after that the passageways were too low and close and I simply could not carry on. Neither could Monica and Frank and another couple from Argentina (Ricardo and Maria – also delightful), so we found a table outside and enjoyed apple tea – a Turkey specialty.

Our next stop was a Turkish rug making centre where we saw a demonstration and learned about the many different types of rugs – the materials and techniques used. Of course, we also were shown samples of the different types of rugs, and I am now the proud owner of a silk-on-silk rug that is going to take a place of honour on my wall. The design is called the Tree of Life and is in red and blue-green and I love it!

Our final stop was Pigeon House where pigeon houses have been carved into the rock to make homes for the pigeons that provide the poop for fertilizer. The pigeons were also used as carrier pigeons, taking messages between villages all along the valley.

That night we attended a Turkish Night which was a dinner (really bad typical Turkish food) and Turkish dance which, although pretty bad, at least gave us a taste of the native dances and costumes.

Day 6 – Cappadocia

This is the day we all four looked forward to the most. We were up very early to go for a hot air balloon ride this morning. Our new best friends, Monica and Frank were there too! They needed a bit of help climbing in and out of the basket , but they were such good sports and they loved it, as did I! Watching 50 huge balloons all take off and float along the valley and over the fairy chimneys was a once in a lifetime experience that I am still having a hard time believing I have had.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing in the courtyard of the cave hotel and then flying back to Istanbul. We checked back into our lovely little hotel and went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by a colleague back in Doha. It was a lovely place in an old building with excellent food - we must remember to thank Diane for the recommendation!

Will wind this up for now; but check back later to find out how the week ends!

Man, oh, man – Oman!!!

Have found paradise in the Middle East! A group of eight of us went to Oman for a 4-day Easter weekend. It was an amazing get-away, and all eight women came back to Doha intact and still speaking to each other. Oman is a beautiful country with real mountains (!) and more trees and greenery than Qatar and other Arab countries. The people are friendly and the infrastructure is far better than what is in Doha.

We spent our first day relaxing and lounging by the pool of our hotel, which was right on the sea so we had a beach to enjoy as well. Of course, we ate and drank our way through the day – we took it as our mission to find the perfect Margarita. They weren’t bad – especially considering we were in a Muslim country.

The next day we did some driving into the mountains, visiting the town of Quriyat on our way to Wadi Shab.

7 hot chicks in Quriyat

A ‘wadi’ is a valley or dry river bed. Wadi Shab is Arabic for ‘Gorge between cliffs”, and that is exactly what it is. After crossing a small river via rustic ferry, we started our trek to a spring-fed pool. Cliffs rose on either side of us as we walked in the blazing heat for about an hour and a half up to our destination.

We start out hike up Wadi Shab

I nearly didn’t make it, stopping about 300 meters short of the goal feeling like I had heat stroke. I sat in the shade and told the others to go on ahead, that I’d wait for them there. About 5 minutes later, one of the group came back and sat with me until my temperature came down and we had something to eat. She urged me on, knowing that a swim in the pools would cool my body temperature. All I could think of was that I’d have to be carried out. It turns out Jackie was right – the cool water helped immensely and I was able to make it out – exhausted, but intact.

The path we hiked through Wadi Shab

Tourism is relatively new in Oman and they haven’t mastered the art of leading groups and advising about fitness levels, appropriate attire, etc. Our drivers and our guide really should have given us more information. Our guide for the hike was adorable and once he figured out he was dealing with a group of mostly middle aged and older (only one under the age of 45), out-of-shape Canadian women, he was very helpful. He was a high school geography teacher during the week, and did some guiding on weekends.

The next day we did some kayaking and snorkeling. We are all beginners and, because it was windy and the sea was pretty rough, we remained in a bay rather than venturing out into the ocean. It was enough for us and we had a really good day. The water was beautiful and we all got lots of sun.

That evening we went to the Souk to see if the Muscat souk was any different than the one in Doha. It was pretty much the same – just a few things that are more Omani – frankincense and myrrh, traditional Omani hats and lots of silver. The merchants seemed to be a little more aggressive than those in Doha, trying to lure you into their shops.

Display of Omani hats in the Muscat souk

Easter morning we visited the Grand Mosque. Here is a photo of me in my Easter Bonnet:

The mosque is very large with beautiful mosaics, carpets, chandeliers, and domed ceilings. It certainly was an odd place to spend Easter morning!

Dome of the Grand Mosque in Muscat

Interior of Grand Mosque in Muscat

We all had a wonderful time and are determined to return - especially since it is such a short flight from Doha (only about an hour and 20 minute flight). It's a great place for a long weekend get away. I am anxious to return to see more.

State-side

Saturday night I got back from Chicago, my first trip back to North America – land of bacon and decent water pressure! Although feeling a little jet-lagged after a longer than expected return flight due to a missed (by 5 minutes) connection in London, I am feeling rather good about being back in Doha. It was doubtful for a while, as it was so wonderful to see my family and to enjoy so much of those few things I miss about North American life.

When I arrived in Chicago (a bit earlier than scheduled, believe it or not), I rented a car and headed to my sister’s house. I realized when I arrived there that she was at the airport picking up my mother. I thought I remembered the combination to their garage door opener, but no, I didn’t; and so I couldn’t get into the house. It was rather chilly for this Doha girl, so I thought, “I’m not sitting in the car and waiting for them to get back. Hmmmm, I know! I’ll go shopping!” Two of my favourite bargain stores – Marshall’s and Dress Barn are a couple of blocks from my sister’s house. Well, let me tell you, the best thing you can do after you’ve been awake for 26 hours is to go shopping!

I spent a wonderful weekend catching up with my entire family. It was so good to see my two little grandchildren (the big one couldn’t make it). The biggest change I saw was in 3-year-old Layton who now speaks far more clearly than he did when I left Calgary. He is so funny and adorable (of course)! Five-year-old Anais is clever and so much fun - oh, and adorable, too. I love them so much. Thank goodness for Skype so I can keep up with them. Ayn tells me that Layton just realized a couple of weeks ago that Grandma isn’t living in her house in Calgary right now, and is quite amazed by it all.

Following a wonderful 90^th birthday celebration for my mother, I headed downtown for a professional conference. It was a huge conference and most of the sessions I chose to attend were interesting – but I ended up choosing a couple of duds. I had a couple of days after the conference to be a tourist in the city I grew up in. I haven’t walked so much in months. Chicago is a very walkable city, and there is so much to see . . . and so much wonderful shopping!!! I must admit I became a bit melancholy since this is the city Bill and I enjoyed so much when we were young and foolish, and it made me miss him very much. I managed to eat my way through the city enjoying all those things for which Chicago is so famous – Chicago hot dogs, deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches; and of course I had to have bacon every day!!!

The flight back, including the missed connection, necessitated a 5 hour wait for the next flight out. The silver lining was that it was an empty flight and we were able to take over entire center rows to stretch out and sleep. On the flights to Chicago I managed to watch 5 (count ‘em, 5!) movies; but on the way back I was too tired to stay awake for the length of time it would take to watch even one movie! Now it is back to the routine in Doha.

I just don’t know where the time goes – I can’t believe I’ve been here 5 months already! Things that seemed so foreign are now so “normal”. I went to the souks the other night, and it seemed like just going to the mall. I remember my first trip there I looked around and thought, “I never in a million years would have imagined being in a place like this.” I hope I don’t become blasé and completely lose the wonder of it all.

The Same, but Different

Today's Arabic lesson:

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Needs no translation!

A Tale of Two Celebrations

Yahooooo!

Me - welcoming the public to the Calgary Stampede in Doha!

The University of Calgary-Qatar hosted the Calgary Stampede in Doha today and it was a huge success! It was designed to reach out to the community and to let them know about Calgary traditions and culture. There were all sorts of things for the kids – bouncing thingies, crafts, pony, horse and rides.

Kids' having a great time on the bouncy stuff

Pancakes were served all day along with hot dogs, corn on the cob and cole slaw.

Bet you never saw people dressed like this at a Stampede breakfast!

There was a live band – Matt Masters and the Gentlemen of the Rodeo – they were great; and line dancing lessons had a lot of us up on our feet – some of the students joined us too!

I’ve never seen abayas and thobes at Stampede, but the locals got into the spirit putting their cowboy hats on over their abayas! The day was warm and absolutely perfect for Stampede celebrating!

Of course, there was another celebration going on today – far across the world, in Vancouver. The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games started at 5:00 a.m. Doha time, and I wasn’t up to see them from the beginning. I tuned in around 7:00 and spent the next couple of hours feeling a great deal of pride in my country and envy of all of my family and friends in North America, particularly those in Canada who are, no doubt, sharing in my pride. What I saw of the show was spectacular and I spent almost the entire time I watched with tears running down my face. I get rather emotional about the Olympics (no matter where they take place) and the whole national pride thing. The next 16 days will be stunning!

January Update

Wow! It’s been quite a while . . . . and I can’t believe we’re already near the end of January! It’s been a very busy month since my return from Sri Lanka. Work has been crazy busy and I am loving it!

I had the privilege of attending the Doha Debates earlier this month. The Doha Debates are funded by the Qatar Foundation and are held in their headquarters building in Education City which is where the many institutions that are under contract have their campuses (Georgetown, Texas A&M, Cornell, University of Virginia, etc.) It is an amazing campus with many beautiful buildings, and they are building a huge new convention facility that is beautiful.

Convention centre at Education City, Doha

Anyway, back to the debate. The debate topics are pertinent to the Middle East. The motion for the one I attended was: “This House Believes that this Afghan Government is NOT Worth Fighting For.” The format is that there are two panelists who support the motion and two who are against the motion. Each is given two minutes to state their case after which the moderator asks questions and argues a bit with them. After all four have had their say, there is some general back-and-forth between the panelists and the moderator, and then the floor is open for questions. I was so impressed with the eagerness of the young audience members and the questions they asked. The student who attended with me from UCQ is Pakistani and had a very strong interest in the debate. She had a question, but unfortunately was not called upon. There were so many people with questions there is no way they could get to them all. Here’s the web-site for the Doha Debates where you can view videos of past debates: http://www.thedohadebates.com/index.asp. The one I attended isn’t up yet, but keep checking back; it was very interesting.

I attended a meeting of the Qatar Natural History Group where a fellow who was organizing an exhibit on pearls and pearling at the Museum of Islamic Art spoke about pearls in general, and about the joys and frustrations (there are many of those) of getting the exhibit up and running. The VIP opening is Jan. 29^th, the public opening is January 30^th, but he advised us not to come until February 5^th when it might actually be complete!

The Natural History Group also coordinates ‘rambles’ on the weekends which provide an opportunity to explore some of the wonders of Qatar beyond the Doha city limits, giving a chance to get out of the city and explore the rest of the country. I went on a recent one to Fort Zubara which is a former police outpost on the west end of the country. About a kilometer away from the Fort is a deserted town site. Both sites are presently undergoing an archaeological excavation. There are plans for this to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Well, they have a heck of a long way to go. The fort is also a museum – but without much to display yet; in fact, there were empty display cases! The day started out to be a pretty lame trip, but then our leader found the head of the archaeological dig and he gave us a tour of the two sites. It was very interesting and he saved the day - it ended up being rather interesting after all! The site is on the other side of Qatar – and it only took us about an hour to get there. You can pretty well cover the entire country in a day!

Fort Zubara - outside and in

Excavation site at Zubara town site

One morning we woke up to fog! It was so odd to see, and the driving was even more interesting than usual! Most drivers did not turn on their headlights – daytime running light are not required or even available here. Some, however, turned on their hazard lights, some their brights, and some just their regular lights. It was an eerie morning, but the fog burned off by about 9:30. We had a Welcome Back Barbeque for students, faculty and staff at the University that day, and it turned out to be beautiful!

A foggy day in Doha town!

I have joined the Doha Singers! I sang in a choir in high school (just a few years ago) and really enjoyed it, so when a couple of women at work told me about the choir, I thought I’d give it a try. I sat in the soprano section and found that I just can’t screech that high any more. This week I will try the alto section! It was fun to do the warm ups and read through the music. I met some really nice people, too!

This past weekend four of us went to the camel races. It was so much fun. I had expected it to be sort of like horse racing, but it is nothing at all like that at all!! I tried to get a video to upload, but I kept getting an error so I'll have to let these photos tell the story for now.

The starting line - There is no starting horn or gun or "Theeeeere off!" It is just a mad scramble when the green curtain is raised. The camels start running, and the handlers are flying out of the way - right into the area where we were standing to watch. At least a couple of camels fall at the start of each race, but they get right up an run on. However, we did see one or two camels turn around and run the other way part way through the race. The race track is 4 kilometers long!

Below you will see a video that will show you how hilarious it was. I took the photos from a bus that we were on. The vehicles (mostly Land Cruisers) hold the race spectators - they ride along on either side of the camel track honking their horns and yelling and trying to avoid crashing into each other. We could not stop laughing!

This is a close-up of the 'jockey' on the camel - it's a robot! They used to use little boys - some as young as 4 who were not fed much in order that they wouldn't weigh much, but due to heavy criticism from human rights advocates (quite justifiable) they changed to using robots. They are controlled by remote and have these small whips that spin around and whack the camels on the rump to spur them on. PETA will be marching here next

After the second race we watched as these long carpets were rolled out. We thought there might be some dignitary, but it turned out the rugs were for prayers. The man in the front of this line is the iman who was doing the call to prayer. After the prayers (which lasted less than 5 minutes) it was back to the races!

This is (from left to right) Virginia, Jackie, and Cathy (all instructors at UCQ) on the bus that carried us around the track.

Here's the video:

Sri Lanka – The final week and back home

We made our way slowly . . . very slowly . . . to the beach resort at which we were to spend the final 6 days of our holiday. Along the way we visited the historic city of Galle which has an old Dutch fort that we visited.

Lighthouse and walls of Dutch fort at Galle

We also stopped at a sea turtle reserve where we saw this albino sea turtle:

When we were checking in to our beach resort hotel it became obvious that there was a problem since they couldn’t find our reservation. With the language difficulties, it took some time and the help of our driver before we discovered that the tour company hadn’t finalized our reservation. After contacting the tour company, they faxed the reservation and we were checked in – but for only 4 days instead of 6 days. We had to work with the tour company to straighten things out. In the meantime, we had to bid our wonderful driver goodbye, but not before we got a photo of us all with our vehicle:

CJ, Tuwon, Kathy & Lisa with our trusty tour vehicle

The rooms were pretty nice and the cleaning staff surprised us each day with a different towel sculpture on our beds each day:

We did enjoy our time in the Indian Ocean, but we quickly realized that we were not enjoying ourselves as much as we had hoped, s0 when our discussions with the tour operator to get the last two days of our reservation straightened out led us to the fact that there was indeed no room at the inn for the last two nights, the suggestion to move us to Colombo seemed a good one. Well, not so much . . . the only good thing we can say about Colombo is that when I am having a bad day in Doha, I can say, “At least I’m not living in Colombo!”

Crazy Colombo street

But we couldn't leave without having a ride in a tuk-tuk:

Self portrait in a tuk-tuk (can you tell I'm holding the camera?)

On New Year’s Day we headed home to Doha; and yes, I’m thinking of Doha as “home” now. Doha is lacking the family and friends that make Calgary and North America my true home, but for now Doha is where I am making a pretty interesting life. In fact, as we drove from the airport to the apartment I was struck by how pretty and modern Doha looked. In comparison to Colombo, Doha is pristine! As we drove onto our street we were pleased and surprised to see that they had graded and were re-paving the street! All three of us said very loudly, “Oh, my god!” and the taxi driver wasn’t quite sure what was going on . . . I think he nearly drove off the road.

We headed back to work on Sunday, and everyone has been sharing stories of their travels – Thailand, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, France, Nepal, Oman, Dubai, the Seychelles, Bali, and Germany were some of the destinations my colleagues visited. The chatter in the lunchroom for the past two days has been non-stop with everyone exchanging stories and information. Indeed, it is all about travel here!

So 2010 has begun. It is so hard to believe that Y2K was 10 years ago. I am looking forward to getting more knowledgeable about my work, getting to know the students better, singing in a choir – practice starts in two weeks, sailing lessons, golf, and a trip to Chicago in March. Lots to look forward to. I hope 2010 will be a healthy, happy and prosperous year for all!