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Segueing into fathers day

Had a great fathers day in Aachen with Marion. Learned how to ride a segway..lots of fun!

Riding the Train "home" to Aachen

Sunrise on the St.Charles bridge in Prague

I read in the Lonely Planetguidebook that the St Charles bridge was best seen at sunrise.they were right.

Best unplanned day ever!

We said goodbye to Ben and Jolene this morning and sent them onto Austria. We didn't know what today would bring but we had the best day just wondering around, taking our time, seeing the sites and enjoying vacation. Ah...life is GOOD,

Loving Prague with Ben and Jolene

Final breakfast

I seem to be writing about a lot of final things. Well it is part of the process. We seem to be eating our way out of the country, one farewell meal after the other. Scenes from the hs breakfast hosted by " the other Mrs Brown" the principal.

Farewells in various degrees

Last official duty today helping out with the fifth grade transition ceremony. It went very well. Dinner this evening with a favorite student of Davids...he treated a group of us to dinner at his dads restaurant. Excellent food. Seeing things for the final time..this time. It is all becoming one big blur...

A letter home in the final days of desert life

Greetings from the desert where we find ourselves packed and ready to go with 10 days left until we depart for the last time. Leaving has proved to be bittersweet (I probably never really understood the meaning of this word until now)..I really want to go home, yet it is hard knowing there are people I will most likely never see again. One of the goals in moving overseas was to understand my SU better and why he has certain "walls" to his emotions. I clearly get it now.

We will be travelling to the US via Prague and Aachen. Ben and Jolene...as well as Dennis will be meeting up with us on June 11 in the Czech Republic. We will frolic through the city (a first for us) and then travel to Aachen to see Marion. Ben and Jolene will head south to Vienna for a belated honeymoon. We arrive back in PR on June 17th.

Moving back brings excitement and challenges...Charlie has moved back to PR (talk about circle of life) where he's living at the Good Sam. He's somewhat disgruntled with the management decision to fire all the former workers, so he's talking about moving out. I am not sure where he is thinking of landing next. We have offered to have him live with us, although we don't know if he can make it up the stairs. David is somewhat anxious to return to PRHS, he doesn't exactly know what he'll be teaching yet. He will miss teaching theatre for sure.

I'm not planning much past December as I've got a few trips (...Anyone to go to Isreal with me in October to see Anna? She's attending International School of Rothenberg in Jerusalem for fall term). I'll also be seeing New Mexico (state #50!), New York City, and possibly Alaska. Can't be bothered to think about working right now. I've got savings, we'll see how long the fun can last.

Ben and Jolene are well. He's still working at the army Air base near the airport in st Paul. Anna is interning at Duke, she arrives in NC next week. She still has yet to pass her drivers test so we'll see what she does for transportation.

As I write this i am looking at four suitcases which contain the remainder of our tangible life in Kuwait. The 36 boxes of other worldly possessions left two weeks ago. We are almost living a camping-type existence but We are safe and finding that we really don't need much to survive. A very similar experience to when we first moved here five years ago.

Today at graduation, a mom of a student that I have been working with ( and have known the family for five years) said " I cannot put what I feel into words" I know exactly how she feels. Too many emotions to process at one time.

Stay tuned for the wrap up.

Our final graduation

These "babies" were 8th graders when we first arrived. We taught quite a few of them. It was the best graduation we have witnessed in five years, which means it was more American than Arab.which isn't racist but Rather a comment on audience behavior ...Arabs love to Celebrate and Exclaim their Joy loudly! A nice one to go out on.