Two Suitcases

It's official! Scott and I are living out of two suitcases a piece. The movers came and packed up the rest of our stuff for our "quick shipment." Hopefully we timed it right so that our first big shipment and this quick shipment will arrive in California at the same time. It's been quite a job. We have a lot of stuff. Really, a lot of stuff! Then there's the confusion of what to do with opened toiletries and medicines. Do we pack them? Do we dump them? Do we leave them behind? Mostly, we dumped them.

We are planning to have a gigantic yard sale in August. Moving around like this really opens your eyes to how much unnecessary stuff you have. We are giving our maid and pool guy quite a bit of stuff. It's all new and nice. They each already asked us to give them whatever we weren't going to take back with us. We were able to sell a lot of our large items that we bought here and are 220v. Benny has been moping around all day as we have been organizing and packing. He hasn't taken this move well from day 1, poor guy! He'll cheer up when we take him to the boarding facility on the 15th. He'll stay there until we fly out of here on the 23rd. Scott and I will also move out of the villa on the 15th and into a new luxury hotel, The K. I am looking at this as a mini vacation for me. I work until the 19th and the rest of the days will be resting days. The last few months have been pretty stressful and I'm ready for it to end!

Last week was the last full week of school. Next week we have two days of school, but the majority of my kids have told me they are not coming :) So, last Thursday I ordered them all burgers and fries from McDonald's. I let them bring in their electronic toys, which were Blackberries, i-pads, i-phones, PSP's, and laptops. These are third graders!!!!!!! Why do they have these things? I didn't even get a walkman until the 4th grade. We just partied all day. The best part was when I played them a couple episodes of Leave it to Beaver. They LOVED it! They were laughing like crazy at little Beaver and his antics. I think he reminded them of themselves. I took Beaver in because I had nothing else. I never imagined they would love it as much as they did. They were chanting, "Beaver! Beaver! Beaver!" as they walked out of the school building at the end of the day.

Scott's been busy doing turn over with the guy coming out here to replace him. I've been busy cleaning up my classroom and putting stuff away. We've both been running on full speed for so long. We know it'll be full speed ahead once we get to Port Hueneme as well. A dozen days and we'll be back on American soil!

So, since I'm finally leaving this place I decided to make two lists. What I'll Miss and What I Won't Miss About Bahrain.

What I'll Miss
My maid
The food
The base and its small town feeling
My friends
Filling up my Jeep for $15
My students
Being able to travel so easily
The amazing malls
The jewelry stores
Always feeling safe
The kind people

What I Won't Miss
The heat
The crazy drivers
The heat
The ants
The humidity
The lack of fresh produce
Hot water coming out of the cold tap
The heat
The limited TV show selections
The crazy drivers
Not being able to wear what I want when I want
The humidity
Having to cover up my shoulders and knees at all times
The heat
The AC units breaking down all the time
The crazy drivers
Not being able to drink water or even chew gum in public during Ramadan
Trying to convert Bahraini Dinars to US dollars to figure out if I'm being ripped off or not
Having to repeat my food order 4-7 times until the person on the other end understands me
The humidity
Running out of gas for the stove/oven while cooking and having to call for a new tank
The heat
Locals jumping to the other side of the road when we walk Benny
Not eating a decent Mexican meal in 2-years!
Having dry hair and skin form the desalinated water
The crazy drivers
Going to Starbucks and asking for cream for my coffee and getting a wallop of whipped cream
The humidity
Giving directions based on local landmarks rather than by address
No one is ever on time
Using bottled water for everything including cooking
Having to use transformers to get our electronics to work
Blowing out the transformers
"Tomorrow" really means in two weeks
The HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!