Put-put gulf

A lot has happened since I last wrote here. Rani and I had a nice, long summer in Florida, with a long road trip through Canada, visit to the Land, and some time in Atlanta and DC. The summer is a whole 'nuther blog post I didn't write...

I haven't been in a great headspace since moving to Doha. It's been tricky figuring out my place here, both at school and in the new community. I'm still feeling a little damaged from our time in Pakistan when it comes to dealing with students and parents and colleagues. And I'm trying to quit smoking, which turns me into a depressed, emotional wreck. Ah well, here's a little of what's been going on.

The first month was kind of a blur. Shopping, orientation at school and on the compound where we live, meeting the hundreds of teachers and student at this enormous school, medical checks, biometrics, various government offices for residence cards, drivers licenses, etc. Here are a few highlights:

Our first meal: eggs and parathas. A Rani/Jon staple. Not loving cooking without gas...

My first view of the math wing at school. It's a nice space with common area outside of 8 classrooms. I don't have my own, which is challenging, but it's nice working with a department of math teachers. Very collaborative and helpful.

First trip to the Qatari Distribution Center after getting my alcohol permit: pork 'n booze!

First trip down to the souk and along the water to see a nice view of the skyline at night

Presentation (from a graduate of the high school where I'm working) in the downtown offices of the organization responsible for coordinating the World Cup activities in Doha! Exciting time to be here, but right now everything (like, the whole city) is under construction.

Khalifa stadium, where we went to see the IAAF (track and field) championships.

Women's hurdles: the lady in front broke the world record here!

Steeplechase? WTF? This is a thing, look it up. Kenya dominates.

Recently got cool enough to walk around outside (like less than 95). Here's our first walk around the hood. That's what most of the buildings look like, and what the empty spaces look like right now. Lots of dust...

Rani and I about to run the first in a series of five 5Ks here. They start at 6AM because of the heat! I finished in my best time in awhile: 31:15. Beautiful run by the bay near the Museum of Islamic Art (in the background).

 Right now, we're on a short break in Istanbul. After a Turkish bath, a massage, great sights, and lots of good food and drink, I'm feeling a little more relaxed. When we get back, next step, now that we've both passed our driving tests, is to get a car and get mobile!

I'll leave you with a few shots from Istanbul:

With a few more cats, and a few more hours, they might just figure this thing out.

I think these are keeping the buildings up!

Miss you all!

End of an era (error?)

I am writing this on a plane somewhere west of Greenland from our fancy-pants Q-Suite cabins on board our flight to AMERICA.
We left Lahore for our final time last night/ this morning/ I don't know what day or time it is. We're glad to be moving on.

Ahh, so young and ignorant... Here's a picture from our first day in Lahore.

And our last day. Bye Pakistan!

The last few days (and weeks and months) have been tough to get through, as most count-downs are. I don't know for sure if I'm repressing a lot of emotions, but mostly what I feel is relief. It's time for a change.

Over on my professional site (which I just spruced up if you want to take a look: lindjonath.com), I decided to make my final blog post about things I'm thankful for, rather than how shitty the last two years have been. I'd like to repeat myself a little about the two or three things that have gotten me through on a personal level.

1. YOGA: This is our yoga group after one of our last classes at our house. We've been practicing together 2-3 times a week for almost two years straight. It's been something to look forward to, and we've gotten to be pretty tight with both the other teacher in the class, and the instructor (the guy on the right). We're really proud of how far we've come; we both recently pulled off crow pose!

2. A brief history of our time at home through puzzlin:

For me, puzzlin makes me think of home with my parents, usually at holidays, sitting around the big table after most of the hectic day is done, quietly working on puzzles with whoever was still hanging around, occasional mumbled commiseration over pieces that should fit but don’t, the linchpin piece you just can’t find, and philosophical metiphorization about the lessons that puzzlin can teach us about our place in the universe.

Puzzlin turned out to be a great way for us to pass time in a place where we didn’t really have much of a social life, or many options of things to do outside of our home. Now, puzzlin will always also remind me of quiet evenings and lazy weekend mornings listening to music and zoning out with puzzles.

I’m usually the sorter and organizer, methodical and shape-oriented; Rani’s great at finding visual clues and working with the overall picture. I prefer to take known pieces to the unknowns, while she prefers bringing the unknowns into the existing puzzle. Do with that what you will.

April 2018: We bought our first puzzle together in a hip little game shop in Paris during spring break of our first year. It was a mini-puzzle, and I remember the shopkeeper warning us that the pieces were really small. 

We should have listened; I had to take pictures of some of the pieces so I could blow them up to try to figure out where they went.

June 2018: our first proper 2000-piece puzzle, bought in Dubai (in honor of the Paris trip) before we found a local source, and completed on the dining room table after we realized how big it was…

October 2018: We utilize an old bar from the back room to put together a proper puzzlin station, giving
the activity its own spot in the corner of our living room.

November 2018: The beast. We started this motherfucker, realized how goddamn big and ridiculously impossible it was, put it away for awhile to do an easy one, and finally finished it in March.

December 2018: A nice break from the beast.

As we entered the final hundred days of our time in Lahore, we began needing the distraction more and more.
Mad puzzlin ensued:

April 12: a nice easy interlude with lots of contrast and patterns. Also introducing the PUZZLE MAT, bitches! That’s right, we’re this fucking serious.

April 28: The puzzle mat came with two janky-ass puzzles whose pieces are kinda too small and all fit together, even if they weren't supposed to. You’ll see what happened with the other one at the end.

May 11: We were intrigued by this panorama puzzle, even though it was ALL FUCKING BLUE, RANI!

May 22: A last-minute purchase on our last grocery run. 

May 31: Janky #2: I had planned on having our last few hours waiting to go to the airport to finish this guy, but a couple of teachers from the hood stopped by to send us off, and it didn’t end up happening. We left this as is, hoping to inspire others to puzzle in our stead.

And, I'm going to just quote the last paragraph from the other blog:

Finally, I really couldn’t have gotten through this time without my wife. We made it, babe! For all of the support, advice, commiseration, puzzlin, workouts, daily life-threatening drives to work, bitch-sessions, jokes, snugglin’, Netflix marathons, trip planning, upside-down couch sitting, ceiling projecting, crying, laughing, dreaming, laughing, wondering, laughing, laughing: THANK YOU RANI!

Florida Xmas

Happy New Year, everyone.
The last few months in Lahore have been a kind of a blur. We've been working on finding new jobs, which is a process full of stress, uncertainty, and disappointment. However, we're both getting really good at interviews, and in the process we've met some interesting people and learned about some great schools around the world.
Just at the end of November, we began talking with the American School of Doha in Qatar. The staff we've talked to are all friendly and enthusiastic, the administration seems progressive and interested in doing the kind of things we're interested in doing, and, while this part of the world was not on our list of preferences, Doha looks like a much more manageable place to live than where we are now. We have signed contracts with the school, and are currently working our way through the mountains of paperwork that go with getting a work visa for Qatar.
Which is one of the reasons we decided we needed to visit the States for our winter break. Mainly, we needed to officially get hitched! We headed out of Lahore on the night of our last day of school for one of those disgustingly long travel days that fill us with dread. Twenty or thirty hours later, we arrived in Orlando, to be greeted by another lengthy immigration process for me. This time I asked, and apparently, it's just something I have to expect now when returning to the US. Once out of their back room, we were greeted by Wendy and Suresh, then had a couple more hours of travel to Bradenton.
We went directly to the county clerk's office (travel smells, greasy hair, rumpled clothes, and all), walked down a long hallway of property tax collectors, probation officers, and various other county functionaries to a little desk at the end, where we filled out some paperwork, paid some fees, and were ushered into a small room across the hall, where the clerk led us through some vows, signed a paper, and that was it!

Our professional wedding portrait!

The rest of the time in Florida was a really nice break. Long walks by the water with my new wife and mother-in-law, home-cooked meals (with lots of pork!), and the comfort of being in a place where we know how things work. A few specifics:
Christmas was really special. I got to take part in Rani's family's traditions, which are similar to the one's from my family. Christmas morning stockings, then presents passed out by the youngest cousin.

Rani with her bottle of maple syrup BBQ sauce. Thanks, Dad!

Rani, Wendy, and I had spent the previous day preparing a massive Christmas feast, which turned out amazingly well (best meal I've had in a long time).

That's my little big sister down at the end behind the candle!

My contribution was a Brussels sprouts salad that turned out to be a great hit. Here's how to make it:

• Start with this recipe.
• Replace the broccoli with Brussels sprouts, quartered and steamed.
• Double the bacon
• Add
• Shallots, thinly sliced, coated with flour, and fried in oil (cool on paper towel first)
• shredded Parmesan cheese
• toasted pine nuts 
• Soak the steamed sprouts for an hour or two in the dressing, then add all the other stuff.  

Got to see Maria and Jeff, their family, and their new house! How great to have some of my side of the family down south as well!

We also spent a nice day at Myakka state park, got some medical stuff done for the job, and, since it's Florida, I got to go swimming in December!

After Bradenton, we spent a couple of days at Universal Studios in Orlando for a last dose of America, before getting on the plane. Now we're recovering in Dubai for two nights before heading home. We'll be working on keeping positive and looking forward to Doha as the countdown begins for our last 5 months in Lahore.
Peace and love,
Jon