Hook 'Em Horns!

There are just certain things that you miss when you don't live in Texas. Like Bluebell Birthday Cake ice cream. (I actually found it one time here, at Megamart, in the little individual containers, but I wasn't sure how many times it had been melted and refrozen, so I passed!) Fresh flour tortillas. (I have had fresh tortillas here a few times...homemade by friends in the know!) Seasons. (Okay, so we do have to break out the sweaters and portable heaters for a month or so in January/February!) A gas station on every corner. (Even if it just costs about 15 bucks to fill up my Accord!) Michael's and Garden Ridge. (The money saved by not having those places may be a blessing!) Maybe what I really miss is the convenience of all these things. We learn to make due here...I now always make my own Spanish rice from scratch and have learned that Australian torilla chips aren't that bad! You can get mums at the plant souqs and we even have a pumpkin patch at the school this week. The pumpkins are mostly small green ones, but they did import some large orange ones from Jordan, I think, and priced them out at only about $40 to $50 a piece! (Makes up for the gas prices....)

So what does all of this have to do with the Longhorns, you ask???? We do miss our football! We were even able to remedy that, in part, by bringing a Sling Box back with us from the US this summer. ( see http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/slingbox.htm ) What a treat when, last Saturday night, we watched the Texas - OU game LIVE! It was on at 11 am central, so that meant we could catch it at 7 pm here. In great excitement and anticipation, we gathered our plates of spaghetti and huddled around the computer screen in the study. (Yes, Will and Jake, we were eating in front of the tv....spaghetti, no less!) We were in Football Heaven! It only got better, though....45-35, game over! Sam dressed for the occasion the next day at school.

Now listen...some of my dearest friends are OU grads and fans, even if they do call me minutes before the game and blare Boomer Sooner in my ear. I love Aggies, too, and even have a few in the family. But, there is something about orange that sends chills up my spine, to this day. Maybe that's why I may spend that $5o for a pumpkin yet. (Not really, Keith!) Oh, the simple pleasures!

(Pic snapped by my friend Kristie and shows view of legs of Sam Shrull and Will and Jake Van Hoozer after volleyball practice one Saturday. Can you guess which shorts belong to who? Clue: Kristie was the caller that graced my ears with the OU fight song! )

Moses Walked Here!

View of Promised Land from Mt. Nebo

'Go up unto....Mt. Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.' Duet. 32:49

We had a wonderful journey to Jordan last week during our Eid holiday. What an amazing place! We flew into Amman on Wednesday, were picked up by our smiling driver Ra'ed and enjoyed an Arabic meal at the balcony restaurant of his friend. We were treated to a lovely meal and a view of the city.

Early Thursday morning we started out for Mt. Nebo. Wow! We were able to stand and see the Promised Land much the way that Moses would have seen it for the first time. The site also contained an old church that is being excavated and some floor mosaics that we were able to view. After taking in the landscape in that part of the world, I have a new compassion for the woes of the Israelites who wandered in the desert!

serpant cross - Mt. Nebo

After Mt. Nebo, we took a quick trip to Madaba and entered the Church of St. George to see the oldest existing mosaic map of the Bible Lands. It was beautiful, but Greek to me!

Our final stop of the day was the Crusader Castle at Karak. We explored every nook and cranny of that huge place...my guys love that crusader history stuff.

We finished off our day on the balcony of our hotel in Petra and enjoyed the wonderful sunset over the mountains. I had to keep pinching myself. Was I really there???

When In Rome....

Oh, what a night! Last Thursday Keith and I joined three other "fun" couples for an evening of food and frolic, Arabic style. We attended a Suhoor Meal at the Ritz Hotel. The Suhoor is the late night Ramadan meal. Traditionally, the day long fast is broken at sunset with the Iftar meal, usually something light. After Iftar, men scurry to the mosques for the evening prayer (you don't want to be on the roads then!) and then to various locations with their families for the Suhoor Feast. Our meal at the Ritz was certainly a feast and some of the best food I've had here. But what about the frolic, you ask??? Besides our friends, there were lots of other ways we were afforded a laugh or two. There was a magician, a juggler, a whirling dirvish (that guy spun around for easily 30 minutes!), henna, a falcon and, of course, the shesha (which I affectionately refer to as the Arabic cigar) for those who wished to partake. We came, we saw and we laughed our way through! No wonder these guys do this every night of Ramadan....it's so much fun!

Fun Couples in group picture, from left to right: us, the Knoxes (David and Sybil, kneeling), the Logues (Karen and Ed), the Moores (Julie and Ken).

Photo Credits: group picture - Syb's camera taken by table attendant, henna hands - Keith (good job, Honey!), falcon - Karen or Sybil (I always get those two mixed up! LOL!), pic of Keith and me - Sybil

Market Monday

I wish I could say that every Monday I went to the market to prepare for the week. That would mean that I am really organized. Although I cannot, with a clear conscience, tell you that Monday is always a market day, I can tell you that I did go to a market this past Monday. May not be what you think of when you conjure up thoughts of "market". But, only in Doha....

I met my sweet friend Julie and new friends Ellen and Ann and we headed to the plant souqs. It was time for a little color. Call us crazy, but we did buy a few plants, thinking that soon it would be cooling off enough for them to flourish. The plant souqs here are a little different from nurseries in Texas....they are of the drive through variety. You have heard me mention honk chicken. Well, you can also get honk plants. Just pull on up and lay on the horn. Voila! Instant garden. This particular plant souq area also offers fresh (?) fruits and veggies, dried seafood delicacies and baskets. See for yourself!

Julie is involved in a senior class fundraiser at the American School....a pumpkin patch. She is in charge of making the scarecrows. No small feat here in the Middle East. So, after the drive through plant souqs, we headed to the nearby animal market in search of hay. Oh, we found hay, allright. A few other intersting things as well.

Now, lest you think that all we do is run around from adventure to adventure here in Doha, look here.....

I do have some responsibilities in my expat wife world!!!