been a great week

we quiz tomorrow, and I have the time slot after lunch! UGHH.... that's not good cause the students are always sleepy after lunch, they are more aware in the morning. so tomorrow I'm bringing cokes to drink after lunch to keep them mentally alert.
I have decided to stay out of the USA until November 9th. I will either teach here an extra month or travel a bit while waiting to come home. more on that later.
I'm showing some pictures of a rug that I am having made, it's from a picture of a tile floor I always liked in Texas. now its becoming a rug hand made out somewhere in Afghanistan. my student who designs rugs was at his village last weekend and took some pictures. I'll post some pictures of his village later. I have some blog posts that I have yet to write. one called "frustration" about what everyone goes through here working in afghanistan and the culture clashes. And the other is "apathy" about the presidential election.
I'm having tons of fun getting to know my friends dowstairs and we are always eating meals together or at the gym, so that's been nice. I am also looking forward to a week off in August and then I'll be packing up a lot of stuff and sending home soon...... tick tock tick tock... less than 3 months and counting........

been a great week

we quiz tomorrow, and I have the time slot after lunch! UGHH.... that's not good cause the students are always sleepy after lunch, they are more aware in the morning. so tomorrow I'm bringing cokes to drink after lunch to keep them mentally alert.
I have decided to stay out of the USA until November 9th. I will either teach here an extra month or travel a bit while waiting to come home. more on that later.
I'm showing some pictures of a rug that I am having made, it's from a picture of a tile floor I always liked in Texas. now its becoming a rug hand made out somewhere in Afghanistan. my student who designs rugs was at his village last weekend and took some pictures. I'll post some pictures of his village later. I have some blog posts that I have yet to write. one called "frustration" about what everyone goes through here working in afghanistan and the culture clashes. And the other is "apathy" about the presidential election.
I'm having tons of fun getting to know my friends dowstairs and we are always eating meals together or at the gym, so that's been nice. I am also looking forward to a week off in August and then I'll be packing up a lot of stuff and sending home soon...... tick tock tick tock... less than 3 months and counting........

I'm trying to find out about my taxes...

my boss emailed to ask when I wanted to fly home (delayed from end of contract sep 26th). So I am trying to get verification of the tax laws about exemption, everything i read online says 330 days out of country, but two people on base have said its prorated if you are gone less than that. It's important I verify that otherwise I lose a huge chunk of money by coming home too early.
AND, we all recieved an email that DLI is picking up another year contract with our boss in OKC for 2 or 3 teachers for one more year. I don't plan on being one of them.

great weekend....

was very nice, going in Thrusday morning and cleaning and organizing a bunch of stuff in my ROOM. got a LOT done, and then I relaxed some yesterday and also worked out at the gym, killed my legs blah. and I went to rug store on base and bought not 1,2,or 3, but 4 rugs(one runner shown above) . they are all shweet and an excellent deal of course because I kept saying well how about 2 for this, or 3 for this, etc etc and that's the way it works!!! we were taken off of imenent threat. I didn't ever mention it because no reason to worry I'm always safe here on base, but after the prison break in kandahar ( you may have heard something, if not KEEP UP WITH WORLD you lazy American! ha) we were told not leave base anymore, but now everything is fine and they cleaned up all the villages around kandahar and rounded up a lot of taliban etc... so we are back to normal ops. ( not like I have anywhere to go off base anyway, but eventually I'll be going to get a visa to Tajikstan or India for our time off in August.)

I am now telling my sisters that you are right , I have too many boxers here. I wasn't sure about the laundry situation before I got here, but it turns out i can take the laundry in every day and pic it up one day later, so I have plenty of boxers! I actually go about every day either taking it in or picking it up, i have 4 gym shorts so that's about my limit on days to wait. So thank you dear dear sisters for helping me pack and all. I know I know. I can't take it with me!! but in the mean time it never hurts to be prepared.... right? ha

chin beard going going gone...

I decided to shave the chin beard this morning , which is like my friday morning here. I'm wearing tshirt and jeans today with some black convers hightops so might as well shave up and lose the grey, that's right most of the grey is in my beard. ugh!

things have been going well. I love talking with the students and seeing them at break and keeping up with the ones I've had in class before. also my current group are all really nice guys. we had a big conversation the other day about the quoran and the bible, and we discussed religion, and they are always fascinated about how I pray. they are required to do so 5 times a day, and this means getting up before 4:30 am EVERY morning. yuck. and I was telling them about going to church and hearing a man teach us about the bible and how we prayed before and after that. They asked what do we do, and I showed them maybe we bow our heads, standing or sitting, and maybe some people kneel etc. It's very interesting that they know all the same history of israel, Abraham, Jonah, Shadrak Meshack and abednego, danial and the lions etc...

they also asked about after death, the idea of heaven or hell which is similar to theirs, and I was saying how we believe people who believe that Jesus was the son of God go to heaven. anyway always a joy, but of course I'm always wanting to get right back to the book and teach teach. but the few conversations are really great.

It's sad that a lot of Americans see muslims as crazy terrorists, thats only special groups. The majority of muslims are poor, and follow Mohamuds rules and really are quite devout and respectful of their religion and others, I guess the people I've met here anyway. i sort of compare it to people who blow up abortion clinics in the US and how i wouldn't want that radicalism representing all Christians either.

mon morn

my favorite shirt lately! I picked this shirt up in New Delhi while in india, it's made of linen in front and the back and sleeves are knit. man this shirt couldn't fit better or feel more comfortable in the heat here. its perfect other than I have to wash it in the sink. This picture also shows how I wear my badge every day, and then I'm using my shoulder bag for taking stuff to work and back every day, I keep magazines to read, school stuff, and cameras and ipod in there.
This next pic is a view from the back seat of the SUV I was in Friday going to Eggers. A convoy always has a minimal of 2 SUVs. behind us is where the radio jamming equipment is.

went to eggers last weekend on friday

was a good weekend. Friday I was able to go with a convoy over to camp Eggers. A friend on base, captain hauser had been transferred to live over there, so they had a convoy going over to take him and his stuff. and then we brought back a major fischer (from Edmond btw).

I had a good American style lunch which was awesome, and then shopped a t at the BX on base, wheat thins, chips ahoy cookies, gum. And then I shopped at the bazaar which is really huge on Fridays at that camp. Nothing much just a blanket, a small box thing, and this paper weight thing.

I watched some movies on dvd in my room and read a lot. THANKS MOM AND DAD, I recieved the box of PINWHEEL cookies and magazines from home. yeah! also just yesterday I got the box with the tshirt and Monocle magazine. yeah!

I'm set up now with stuff to read and browse through while riding in the van, at the mess hall, or reading on the treadmill.

The new DLI teacher arrived so we are 7 again. He's an oldert guy, a long time ESL teacher who's travelled and lived in many countries teaching ENglish, and an absolute professional. (he is from the same county in Kentucky that had a banker leave with all the cash, ruining the lives of many Hungarian immigrants back before world war II that ended up financing the political party of Himmler from the Nazis)

anyway, summer here has been fine, teaching has never been better, everyone seems to be getting along nice enough and I'm happy with the routine of teaching teaching teaching and some gym time and then dinner and room time.

wed morning for me is tuesday evening for you..

good morning from Kabul.

We are giving the book quizzes today. and then an after school meeting and the "weekend" begins. ha. I don't have any plans this weekend except I'm asking around to see if there are any convoys going over to Camp Eggers Friday so i can get my ID card replaced. also they have an awesome huge bazaar on Fridays at camp Eggers and I haven't been over there since winter time.

two of my buds on base or getting transferred to Camp Eggers so that reduces our mess hall table group of guys by 2, a major and a captain.

One of the things about living overseas is how far away you can feel every now and then, for example my parents went on a trip this weekend and all I can think about is their safety while travelling so I'm praying for God's protection. and I find this ironic cause I know my parents pray for my safety often since I am in Afghanistan after all. ha