spring time is crazy!

You last heard from me here in February and I cannot believe it. February was a long time ago!
Things that have happened between February and now:


  • I missed my first flight. It's pretty embarrassing but it happened. I read the time wrong on my ticket and arrived at the airport at exactly the time my flight was leaving. With my level of awareness of time and 5 years of international living, it's amazing it had not happened to me already, if we're being honest. I was headed to Hong Kong for an IB course and consequently missed the first day of the 3-day course (and didn't get to see my friend Naarah!) Hopefully I learned my lesson and will always quadruple check my flight times from now on. 
Here's a time-lapsed video of a tram ride in Causeway Bay!
 



The street where I stayed - right in Causeway Bay






At the end of the course, we had to summarize our learning. Because it was an arts focused course, our presentations took different formats. My (music teacher) group did a little song, but I won't post that here ;)


  • I went to Riyadh for a high school band festival! Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia and is known to be more organized and busy because it's the biggest city in the country. I mostly saw the school that hosted us and the hotel we stayed at, but a couple visits to malls made it seem pretty similar to Jeddah.... the main difference I felt initially was that I should cover my hair because I didn't see any uncovered heads around me, but that ended up changing. Riyadh is more conservative than other areas of the country (specifically Jeddah) but nothing was really that different to me (as a visitor). The two students I brought to the festival had a great time being a part of a band and said they'd definitely do it again!

  • ChoirFest MiddleEast was in Dubai and I went with our community choir in March. Though we were the least experienced choir there, we had a lot of fun, did a master class, and visited the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, which was super interesting. I have no photos of this time because I dropped my phone when I got back from Hong Kong and was running out of storage on my phone. Suffice to say, my phone and I are not in a good place right now.

  • I started work on my master's degree! I am doing a masters of music education program online that will take me about a year and a half, maybe two years. So far, it's been just ok, but I'll start a new course in about two weeks that interests me more.

  • Spring Break occurred and I visited Becky in Qatar. The dispute between Qatar and a couple other Gulf Country Coalition nations meant I had to fly through Kuwait, but it was worth it. Becky, Sarah, and I had a great time hanging out, eating, and getting into trouble. I had biscuits and gravy for the first time. 






if you get the chance - visit Qatar! Lovely, calm, interesting, accessible - overall, a great place to be.



  • I moved! I no longer have a roommate and my house is giant. All the houses here are giant. Still working on decorating it and making it into less of a beige cave. 

  • I've continued to teach lessons and prepare myself for ABRSM exams. I have a couple students who are taking their exam in May and I decided to push myself on my piano skills and sign up for one myself! We'll see how they go - I'm very unfamiliar with the structure. So next week I'll have a piano lesson with somebody who knows what they're doing just to see if I'm doing okay. 

So, yeah, I've been busy! Busy with good things. Coming up we've got a ton of grading before Ramadan starts, Ramadan, graduation, a whale shark live-aboard weekend in the Red Sea, a weekend trip to Dubai, and hopefully a lot of netflix (in the interest of balance)!

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