There and Back Again

Summer vaca

2012-08-17T05:14:00.000+04:00

Steve's daughter Shelley got married this month. Steve and I traveled to Pocatello, Idaho for her wedding. Afterwards we went camping around McCall, Idaho.

They're married!

Steve with his other two children.
We stopped first at the McCall smoke jumper station. Steve was a wild fire fighter for seven years. Those were the days when this sort of summer job could pay your college tuition for the next year.

This was a room with very high ceilings for hanging the parachutes before they were packed.

By 1981, Steve had 50 jumps and got his name on this plaque.

A plane similar to the ones he used to jump out of.

We stopped at Shoshone Falls.

We camped at a site north of Burgdorf hot springs. We decided to take a hike to Loon Lake, where a plane had crashed in January, 1943. The wreckage was still there.

It was a long, dry and dusty hike, so we took a bath (with our bathing suits on) in the tub at the hot springs. Niiiice! Afterwards we soaked in the pool.

Steve took some great photos of the old, rustic buildings in the light of the setting sun.
We also went up to Crystal Mountain, which is made of quartz and stopped at the ranger station on Carey Dome. The view was hazy because of a fire in Boise, but it was still nice. We wrote our names on the wall of the lookout. On the way home, we stopped at the Salmon River for a few hours and cooled off.
It was a nice vacation.

Picture of the day

2012-07-19T07:28:00.001+04:00

Are we in Florida? No! We're in Spokane! They're baaack! It's the attack of the pink plastic lawn flamingos!

Photo of the day

2012-07-08T19:47:00.001+04:00

Stanley, Idaho, with the Sawtooth Mountains in the background

Photo of the day

2012-07-06T18:19:00.002+04:00

A little blast from the past. This is the pavilion above Younggwang at night. It changed colors from purple to white to orange.

Photo of the day

2012-07-05T19:39:00.000+04:00

Our weekly staff meeting was a Spokane River rafting trip. Best staff meeting so far! This is Lisa and I before the trip. Oh, and Sajda, too.

Fourth of July!!

2012-07-05T18:10:00.000+04:00

Photo of the day

2012-07-04T18:20:00.000+04:00

Wild Horses Monument Columbia River Gorge

Photo of the day

2012-07-04T18:19:00.001+04:00

I think I've already posted this picture. This was taken on the Sognefjord in Bergen, Norway in 2009 with my sister Pilla.

Photo of the day

2012-07-03T03:51:00.001+04:00

Quail perched on the rock outside my kitchen window

Photo of the day

2012-07-02T20:47:00.001+04:00

Underneath the railroad trestle over the Spokane River

Photo of the day

2012-07-02T03:23:00.000+04:00

Raindrops on irises and whiskers on kittens...

New Citizens

2012-02-20T04:26:00.000+04:00

On Valentine’s day most people are planning romantic trysts or worrying about the lack of romantic trysts,but there is a group of people who are going to be celebrating Valentine’s day a bit differently. These people are former immigrants and refugees who will become American citizens on Valentine’s day.

I am the Citizenship and Naturalization Program Manager at World Relief here in Spokane. Seven of the people who will take their citizenship oath were my students last year. They are from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. While most of us are aware of the unrest in Sudan, eastern Europe is also unstable. These people have fled persecution to find a better life in America for themselves and their children. So many times I hear my students say “America is the greatest, most blessed nation on earth.” On February 14, they will be sending and receiving a Valentine’s day love letter from America.

With citizenship comes the right to vote in this election year, the responsibility to support and defend the Constitution and the freedom to pursue “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” They did not have these rights, responsibilities, and freedoms in their country of birth, but they now gladly embrace them.

Happy Valentine's day a little late!

Sharafeldin Siddig and his wife Mona Awasa

Laryssa and Vyachaslav Kononynkina

Igor Zubritskiy

Raisa Chayka, a brilliant and funny woman

We Finally Get Snow

2012-01-20T02:41:00.002+04:00

There was no white Christmas for us, sadly. But finally the snow has begun to fall. We've had about 2 inches since this morning, in addition to several inches last night. There was about a foot of snow in Olympia. It's predicted to continue to snow until Saturday. Yay!

Christmas and other stuff

2012-01-09T05:03:00.000+04:00

Bonnie and Ryan came to visit from Virgina. I was very happy to see them. Alex and Noelle came over with her children. It was an enjoyable holiday. I spent time with Steve and his children, as well. The only thing that would have made it better was if Jeremiah could have made it home. Yes, Jeremiah, that's a mother's guilt trip!

This is Number One Daughter and her boyfriend. They are students at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

Number One Son and Number Two Daughter. Number One Son is going to North Idaho College and Number Two Daughter is in high school.
Skiing is going well. At least from my perspective. I was afraid to ski down the cat trails by myself. Too dangerous! Who thought of this sport anyway? I think someone in Norway invented it on a dare. "Here - here's two boards, strap them to your feet and go down that hill! Dare you!" Now the cat trails are no longer a challenge, but I'm afraid of the blue trails. So I'm progressing.

Me in front of the caterpillar that grooms the cat trails. This weekend was the first weekend that I felt confident enough to just have fun and not worry about form, where my feet were, carving, my body stance and all the other things you have to think of. Now all we need is more snow! I'm looking forward to it.

Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-11T03:15:00.001+04:00

This morning the moon was eclipsed by the earth. Fortunately for me, my bedroom window faces West. I set my alarm for 4:45am, hoping the skies would stay clear as they have been the last week or so. The skies were indeed clear and the moon was setting. I sat up in bed, looked out the window and watched the eclipse. Then I snoozed a bit, and looked again. After totality, I went back to sleep. I didn't see it turn red or pink. I didn't take a picture, either, though I did look at it through binoculars. Go here for some nice pictures, including ones from Palm Desert, CA and Phoenix. Click here to see what Deanna might have seen if she were up so early.

Dinner at the Davenport Hotel

2011-12-03T06:58:00.001+04:00

The Davenport Hotel opened its doors in 1914. It's a lovely building. Now. When I first moved to Spokane, it was a run down place that had leaky pipes and was causing environmental problems. In 2002 a local developer decided to restore the Davenport to its former glory. His company did a beautiful job. It is now a AAA four diamond hotel. I've never stayed there, but my parents honeymooned there in 1950. According to my dad, it didn't look like this at that time.

Both the Davenport's Fireside Room and the Davenport Tower's Safari Room has a special $15 dollar "happy hour" dinner. I don't want to say "early bird" special, because eating at 4:30 in the afternoon is what old folks do and we're not old!

The fireplace of the fireside room.

Steve and I met some skiing friends Ivan and Jeri. Later they went to a play. But Steve and I just played. To benefit the Spokane Symphony, the Davenport raffles off donated trees and gifts.

This one had several pieces of jewelry worth more than I can afford.

I think this one had $4000 cash in addition to other gifts.

This one had a queen size bed, all the bedding, a dresser and lamp, gift certificates to restaurants and $1600 cash. How about after dinner drinks in the Peacock Room?

It was a lovely evening with lovely friends. And I hope I win one of the trees!

Skiing Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-28T18:39:00.001+04:00

Usually the resorts don't open until the first week of December. But this year all the resorts were open Thanksgiving weekend. I went up with Steve on Friday and Sunday. The ride up to the top of Silver Mountain takes about 20 minutes.
I stayed on the bunny hill all day Friday and did too much. By the late afternoon I was tired and falling down a lot. On Saturday I went to yoga class to recover.

Sunday was better. I felt more confident and not so afraid. Yes, I was afraid on the bunny hill. All you skiers can go ahead and laugh now. In the afternoon, Steve felt I was doing well enough to go on the cat trail. "Cat" is short for caterpillar. They groom the trails with the caterpillar, but I suspect cat is short for catastrophe. He said the cat trail was just as steep as the bunny hill. It is not. It is much steeper. With his encouragement I managed to get to the bottom of that long and winding road without dying. The next challenge was the chair lift. Why is everything so scary? Well, I lived through that, too. I got on the lift without accident or injury. The wind was blowing a bit, but it wasn't too cold.

On a different note, it's Christmas at the Davenport Hotel. The Davenport is the hotel my parents honeymooned at in 1950. An extensive renovation was done a decade or so ago. It is a beautiful building.

Steve and I plan on having dinner here on Wednesday with another couple. Each year the Davenport sets up Christmas trees and gifts to raffle off to benefit the Spokane Symphony. Maybe I'll win one this year.

Getting Ready to Ski

2011-10-30T21:55:00.000+04:00

Despite my children's misgivings about my athleticism, I agreed to try skiing this winter. I think I'm just going to see how many times I can stand up. Because Steve is an avid skier, he accompanied me to the Mt Spokane Ski Swap where I could get good gear for cheap. I thought I'd model my new snow gear for you!

Is this jacket purple or gray?

Oh, yeah.

I'm skiing!

I think I missed my career as a supermodel.

Baby, it's cold out there!

Since I know nothing about skiing or snow clothes, Steve advised me on the best stuff. I think it's good. It's certainly kept me warm while I took these photos.

The Months of Fishing

2011-10-29T18:13:00.000+04:00

September and October are good months for fishing Kokanee salmon.

Kokanee are small, pan sized fish. They are delicious smoked, baked or fried. I wasn't allowed to touch the fishing pole because I don't have an Idaho fishing license, so I drove the boat while the fish jumped onto the hooks. The end of September and October were beautiful. The weather was clear and the air was warm until the sun went down. Lake Coeur d'Alene is beautiful.

They say that work is for people who don't know how to fish. This month I'd have to agree.

The Trip Home From Oman

2011-10-27T06:27:00.004+04:00

A long pictorial of my long trip home.

Flying out of Doha

Man-made islands in Qatar

Qatar

Kuwait

Tigris River

Fields in Iraq

Mosul, Iraq

Mountains in Turkey

The Black Sea (up at the top of the photo)

A coastal city on the Black Sea. I'm not sure which, perhaps Ordu or Samsun.

Moldova or Ukraine

Warsaw

The Baltic Sea

Iceland

Greenland
After Greenland, it was cloudy, so I couldn't see the ground. I landed in Washington, DC and had a short visit with Bonnie. Then flew the rest of the way home, getting into Spokane around 11pm.

My School, such as it is

2011-09-10T19:29:00.010+04:00

I work at a school in the al-Hail neighborhood, hence the name of the school is al-Hail. Last year all the grades were in one building, but this year the enrollment has increased so much that the lower grades are now in their own building(s). School is in a villa complex. This is apparently what most schools do until they can build their own building. So classes are in the living room downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs. We have four classrooms in a villa. Two are for English teachers and two are for Arabic teachers. We each teach a period or two, then switch classrooms. In this way, students receive Arabic and English teaching. In moving from one school to the next, most of the resources and supplies got lost. You know how it is in a move. Last Tuesday was the day before Nursery and Foundation students started. The central courtyard, which will be used as a playground and PE space, was torn up. The workers were installing large poles upon which will be attached a large canvas tent. It is essential, in my opinion, to provide shade during recess here, as temperatures can reach as high as 45C at this time of year. The teachers were very concerned that the parents would see this mess, with holes in the ground and not be pleased. Fortunately, most of the holes were filled in by Wednesday morning. Thursday and Friday are the weekend. I was hoping the workers would be working all weekend, or at least on Thursday. Today there were poles in the ground but no tent.

That is my head teacher, Lesley, a wonderful Scots woman, who is stressed out beyond belief. She cries every day.

Last Wednesday my classrooms had nothing in them. Today was different. Today I had a whiteboard and a bulletin board. I had made some decorations to hang up, but don't have anything else.

This was the first day the buses brought the students. That seemed to go fine, but after school was another story. The students have name tags with information on them but the information does not include their bus numbers. The bus drivers drove onto the courtyard (which I hope does not happen again), then milled around calling out the names of students they had on their bus list, while teachers tried to find the right bus for the students. It took only an hour and a half to get all the students on the buses.
UPDATE: Today was the first day for my students. Believe it or not there was a lot of complaining by the parents. I told them they should tell administration, which they did. I reckon this was not a good day for admin. My parents were shocked their students had no desks. This is, after all, a private school and parents pay tuition for their students to sit on the floor. Our villa is supposed to have two English teachers' classrooms and two Arabic teachers' classrooms. One Arabic teacher saw his classroom had no desks and left. I don't know if he came back or not. Most of those students went into Jonathan's room. He was a real trooper, but he has the living area for a classroom and can accommodate 30 or more students easily. I had two of his fourth graders in my third grade class until we got desks and he could take that class because the other Arabic teacher took Jonathan's home room class. One other hitch in our collective get-along is that the toilets don't work in most of the villas. I thought mine did, but found out at the end of the day they did not because there was a stench coming from the bathrooms. The bus routine remains "carnage" as my car pool mate says. Today, though there were more students, it took only a hour and 10 minutes to get almost all the students on the buses. One of my students didn't know what bus he was on, we couldn't find out, the women in admin reception kept walking out instead of helping us, and the buses all left without him. It's Sunday, the second day of my week, but feels like Wednesday, the last day of the week! It's carnage indeed!

My Little Kitchen

2011-09-04T17:54:00.006+04:00

You know the old saying "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen?" Because my kitchen gets fairly hot when I cook, I often don't cook. It has two fans in it. One is an exhaust fan above the sink, the other is a... well, a big fan. Yes, that's my kitchen. All of it. It's up to date and modern. It has granite countertops. Who decided it was a good idea to put this big ole fan in this little kitchen? When I turn it on, it blows out the flame on the stove. By the way, I was cooking spaghetti sauce. With Indian beef. I guess those cows aren't all sacred. I'm taller than my refrigerator.
Here's a few random tidbits: Did you know that Arabian numbers, the ones we use, aren't used in Arabia (or Oman)? I live in the region where coffee originated, yet I'm drinking instant coffee. Coffee is expensive, but gas is cheap, about 120 baizas a liter, which works out to roughly $1.25 a gallon.

The White House

2011-09-03T11:46:00.000+04:00

Ok, I know I'm overdoing it today. I thought I had blogged about the White House, but I guess not. The White House is actually Safa House and I can't find out anything about it. Not much in Oman goes on the interwebs. I'm fascinated by this house.

It's surrounded by a wall, as most houses are. There is a brown brick house right near the entrance inside the wall. A guest house? On one side, the neighbor is the residence of the Ambassador of Morocco. The other neighbor has a beautiful house more in the Omani style.

It has nice gardens planted with oleander and bouganvilla.

That's Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the background.

Sun going down over the Ambassador's house.

Niches in the Grand Mosque

2011-09-03T10:37:00.001+04:00

Along the side corridors are niches. Each of the corridors have different themes, but each niche in the theme is different. They were quite beautiful. They were decorated with gold, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, tile, marble or bricks.

This is a detail of the previous niche. It is lapis and mother of pearl.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

2011-09-03T10:06:00.000+04:00

This is the Women's Prayer Hall

This is the Main Prayer Hall

You can't really get an idea of the size of this room from these pictures, so I stood under the chandelier. It's a little blurry, but I'm in there somewhere.

Read about this mosque here. This mosque really is grand.