Private Soccer Tutor - and Pal! :-)

Jasmine walking on the sidewalk trying not to step on a crack and break my back ;)

The kids running as fast as possible to the soccer fields

**guess what?** the plumber is here! my message did get through, my shortcomings if not...not the cause of our nice doorman, for sure! When we left this morning, he asked me what time...I told him and even THAT got through - I'm more and more impressed every day w/ my understanding, etc ;)


and now for a match...like it's any real match ;)

I'm not sure who's worse at soccer..me or Jasmine! HA HA HA! I have some bruising to prove I've been playing soccer w/ Joshua and sometimesothe boys...but today....now today...when the BIG boys came and Muhammud taught Joshua some new moves..I did NOT play..I ran and sat...I cheered, kept score and tried out my Arabic ;)

So...today..I say...Joshua had a private tutor..but really it was his pal for TWO HOURS!! what fun we all had!! The last 45 min, I actually left Joshua w/ Muhammud (with strict instructions Joshua stays here or comes to the playground NOWHERE else no matter what!) I came back and they were playing w/ 3 other boy...all teaching him..and sometimes just being boys ;) M is 12, the other boys were 14 and 15.

Muhammud knew a bit more English than I knew Arabic, but we still found ourselves laughing at each other. He was VERY gracious to Joshua.....sometimes people are annoyed that we don't understand English - HA HA HA HA HA! but TRULY...with the STRONG change in dialect, different placement of words in a sentence, etc..it DOES make it hard to adjust our ears ;)


passing the ball back and forth running up and down the practice field.



Jasmine and I had fun at the playground together :-) don't even THINK of helping her up on this tire swing ;) She *can* do it herself...SEE! That smirk is for Grandpa R...she told me so!



I keep forgetting to show you the Maya Maya Italian leather purse Rob got me recently....it's cheap in Italy of course ;) And you can see my new keychain too!

Today as I was walking and people take double takes that my arms are exposed, my light hair flowing in the breeze and I think....ah....when we return to the US, I'm going to be staring at people the same way! HA HA HA! cuz I don't see any here ;)

that's just one of my long breezy blue skirts for being temp cool and culturally respectful :-)

Also - did you know the women who wear the full black EVEN cover their hands? YEP..they have black gloves on....not sure if I told you yet?!