The good:

A proposal I wrote with two of my co-workers was accepted for the 2008 NASPA (National Association of Student Personell Administrators) conference. That's crazy. It's so competitive to get something accepted to be a presenter, we never really thought it would fly. I think the appeal is that the work we are doing over here is literally the first of it's kind in the whole world. I wonder how many people will show up for it. Presenting is not my favorite thing to do. Maybe I can do all the power point leg work and let my co-workers do the talking.

The bad:

This week was International Education Week. I was on the planning committe undertaking this task of collaboration with all 5 branch campuses and QF to have a finale event tonight. After all the work, I didn't get to go as I'm confined to my sofa with my leg propped on a pillow.

The ugly:

The reason my leg is propped on a pillow is because I have a severe foot disfunction going on. My right foot started hurting about a month ago. Just here and there, usually in the morning. I knew I had occassional bouts of pf because I have overflexible arches. However this pain got to the point I started limping. So I had it checked out today. Got examined, got blood work, got an x-ray and BAM.

There was my foot lit up on that little white box and a bizarre bone growth jutting out. It was creepy. It looks like some demonic bird claw parasite clinging to the underside of my heel. I wish I had a photo of it. Anyway, my podiatrist says I have a severe case of pf and the largest spur he's ever seen. Oh joy! To fix the problem requires surgery, however due to the size of it he is afraid the scar I'd be left with may cause just as much pain as I'm in now. Hmmm. Dilema. So in the mean time he prescribed some anti-inflamitory and then....I got an injection.

For the love of gummy bears I never thought I'd have to take a needle in the bottom of my foot! I've had needles and tubes stuck in every part of my body, and I mean every part, except the bottom of my foot. I have a strong constitution but this hurt like a mother fucker. Plus now my foot is swollen on the heel, so it kind of hurts twice as much as when I went in there. I'm supposed to lay low for 3 days and stay off my feet as much as possible.

Patmos is a quiet island. The large majority of tourists here are old folks coming to visit a religous landmark. It has lovely beaches on the far side, away from the port. It's very tranquil and peaceful. Apparently the British royals, among others in the world, own some houses on this island for this very reason.


approaching patmos


climbing the mountain


view from the 'almost' top


grotto of st. john - not john the baptist, the other one


entrance to the grotto - after climbing 200 or so steep stairs there is a cave, which is said to be the final resting place of st. john, where he wrote the book of revelations (no photos allowed and an angry greek monk present to beat you with a stick if you try)


i rewarded myself with a little gelato


which i enjoyed at a little outdoor cafe with this beautiful pomegranate tree overhead

The kids loved the reverse trick-or-treat program. They wanted to have a Halloween party but couldn't get their shit together. So, they had it last night and called it November Nightmare. They had a costume contest to win an iPod. This guy won:


as Borat


Since everyone thought I was Alice from Wonderland when I dressed up as Dorothy, I changed up my costume a bit and went as Alice.


they all thought I was Dorothy

our pirate ship


the circle of islands are made from a blown out volcano


climbing it was tough because it was a fine layer of volcanic ash
(and it turned my socks yellow)


i claimed the top...'croftapalooza'


it was like being on a martian planet


plato wrote about 'atlantis' in terms of it once being the island of santorini. here you can see his description of the black, red and white cliffs that once held atlantis before it was buried in the sea during the volcanic eruption


we climbed back down the volcano and sailed our pirate ship to a cove where we jumped off the boat! argg.


we swam through the brilliant emerald water, as cold as it was, to find a sulfur hot stream,a little volcanic action hot tub :)


the water was blood red, which was a little creepy, but at least it didn't really smell like egg farts


we enjoyed a lovely sunset on the boat


once we got up the mountain of the mainland, we ate gyros and saddled the donkeys of doom...which we took back down the mountain, while attempting to take photos, while attempting to not fall off as they slip on the cobblestones full of donkey shit

This island is SO worth checking out!

Arabic is not an easy language to learn. Lots of new sounds, which means new pronounciations, and of course an entirely different alphabet. It's a bit overwhelming at times when you're trying to cram in all that information.

At this point I know about half the alphabet and we're starting to learn how the letters are strung together (it's like learning to write cursive before you learn to print).

I noticed a can of Pepsi tonight and took a closer look. Things started to make sense. I could see how the letters were put together to write out 'Bebsi". It's actually called Bebsi because "P" doesn't exist in Arabic. It was a reafirming moment for me. We need those small moments in life when you realize you ARE learning and that you ARE quite capable. It looks like this.



On the funny side of things, did you know there are complaints choirs all over the world?

dinner


one of 'those' guys that just weirds everyone out with his creepy stares and attempts at touching the ladies


chapel on mykonos


remember the end scene of 'bourne identity'...it was here, on mykonos, with the windmills


streets of mykonos

My older sister sent me an e-mail with this photo:





Ha! I'm gonna laugh about this for a long time.....

I have 2 days left before I hand over my rental car. 2 days. I've been navigating the roads of this ass backward country full of Cracker Jack licensee drivers for 3 months without incident...and I wait until 2 days before my car is due to do something brilliant like this.

Have you ever been driving through your neighborhood and the county or city suddenly put up a new road sign. There wasn't any type of cautionary "hey there's something new here" warning or light...they just slapped a new do-dad up there. Have you ever been driving through that neighborhood like you had for the last 3 months you lived there and missed that newly placed sign? Don't lie, you know you have!

You see driving is a conditioned response. We go into autopilot mode when taking regular routes. That's how you can go from work to home in a dream like state and not even realize you were driving until you pull up to your house.

For 3 months I've been entering and exiting my little world through a security gate. On the way out, if you have a permit, you use the right late and you drive past the guard hut. There is a giant speed hump to clear, but you just cruise on out. On the way in you usually drive past with a little wave, once again conquering the speed hump, unless it's late a night and the guards can't really see the sticker on your windshield...but anyway the point is you drive out with no problems and you may or may not have to pause on the return journey.

Well APPARENTLY the security company decided to install gate arms in the exit lane for permit holders. The EXIT lane! It was a white pipe. (notice the use of 'was' not 'is'). Not striped, or bright, or noticeable in any way, just white. White blends in with the light sand environment as good as a polar bear's camouflage in the snow.

Are you starting to envision the scene? Are your lips curling from ear to ear in a cheshire grin? Are you starting to chuckle? Yep, Lady Croft blew right through that pipe like a knife through butter! Well, make it frozen butter because I didn't cut the thing off, entirely.

I STILL can't believe it!!! I went up and over the speed hump, then started to accelerate as always. I didn't even SEE the damn thing until it was 2 inches from my windshield, then WWWWWWHACK! Right into my windshield, up and over the hood, and snapped my antenna off the trunk. PISSER!

The guards must have thought I was on crack. I couldn't stop laughing because I realized how absolutely ridiculous it was that I just mowed down a security gate! But honestly, why the fuck did they install an arm on an EXIT lane for permit holders??

I can pass off the scrapes along the top as a dirty car because the car is white. I should be able to buff the marks on the windshield (thank GOD it didn't break!)...but I can't hide the fact the antenna is a mangled bit of aluminum. BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER!

I'll just keep laughing about it and say 'hey, at least it wasn't your brand new car!" as I hand over some money for a new antenna.

I had such a great time today sharing my favorite holiday with people who've never heard of it! We held a 'reverse' trick-or-treat program in the halls and it was a big hit. This means some of us res life staffers dressed up in costumes and delivered little treat bags to all the residents rooms. So many of them took pictures of us because they had never heard of Halloween and thought it was really neat. Plus who doesn't like candy!

Last night I did pumpkin carving with my CDAs. None of them had ever done this before so it was a RIOT! It broke my heart at the end, when they were SO proud of their pumpkins and the boys said "Oh man, I'm going to keep mine forever, this is so cool!".....and I had to inform them that it will only last a week or so. I made sure to take a photo of each of them with their pumpkin :)


i found this entertaing candy...take a closer look at the bottom right corner....yeah, nothing like holding a gun to a kid's head eh?


i wasn't feeling good last night, so i made the classic 'sick-o-lantern'


all finished and glow sticks in place


i went as dorothy, so my supervisor decided to be the wicked witch


a lot of kids don't know the wizard of oz and kept thinking i was alice from wonderland....with a dog for rabbit


toto was a BIG hit


because he floated with i walked!


Happy Halloween everyone!

Yes, I still have loads of Greece pics to share but I was having a few issues. Meanwhile here are some recent shots from around Doha.


you don't see that sign every day


i nicknamed this 'pigeon palace'...it's a bird house!


notice that little flag on the light post?
doha put in a bid for the olympics!


down on the corniche


the weather is starting to cool and flowers are starting to bloom


the water really is beautiful here


this is the main post office, aka the bee hive


beautiful sunset!!