Sand Through My Toes

One Wake Up

and a late night into the wee early hours of the next morning!  Yeppers, I am finally on my way after 365 days in the sun, sand and wind of this very interesting country!  Soon enough I’ll be back stateside for roughly 12 days to spend time with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and friends.  Even though I have enjoyed the sun and sand here, looking forward to putting on my water shoes and enjoying the beach in South Florida! Not to mention a nice cold beer to boot!!!!

Ah, my siblings ….venture a guess when the photo was taken due to the t-shirts and the reel to reel in the background!  

Plus, how could I forget how to thank all my family and friends in Germany that took such great care of Bunny while I was away — don’t be afraid of those mean people that tried to kidnap you and hold you for ransom — Trish, Mark and Susan wouldn’t let anything happen to you!!  See you soon Bunny!!  

Now it’s Triply Official…

Last week, I received my Letter of Release.  Then, I was called to attend the Base Commander’s Weekly Meeting, with whom I spent 11 months with in the sand to receive  a ribbing and my “coin”.  I still appreciate the Colonel even though he is a South Carolina Gamecock supporter and his team did beat The Gators and I had to listen to his rhetoric in front of all at the meeting — but all in all, a great guy and geez, with Spurrier as his head coach, he should be winning games!

Now, the icing on the cake, the triple whammy, I now have in my hands my ULN (don’t ask as there are so many acronyms and I just nod my head like I know what folks are talking about) which is the official “show time” for my projected flights to my final destination!  I will be at the terminal bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the middle of the night — yeah right, interrupting my 8 hours of sleep :-(.  But all worth it as I get to meet up with my roomie of 7 months and a few others that have been at different sites throughout the year to make our trek stateside.

Hopefully all of you are enjoying your summer vacation and I too will be enjoying mine soon enough!!

It’s Official…….

I have finally received my “Letter of Release” from my fantastic year of teaching in the sand! No, the release is not this week but it is slated for the end of the month!  I am very excited to finish up, and be able to spend time with my family and friends before heading to my world in Europe.  I do have a tinge of sadness as I have met so many great people, including this last month here, that it will be difficult to say bye — the positive I do see in it though, I am not one to say good-bye but “see you later” and hopefully those words will ring true for quite a few of my new friends here in the sand.  I am in the process of packing up two small boxes and a medium size one so when I begin my trek across the world to get home my luggage isn’t too much of a burden to drag around. I’ll miss the images below but know that they were all necessary for my safety while here!!!