I bet you thought I had left the building. . .

Wow! It's been a while since I have posted. Some things have changed. Friends have come and gone (that's been more difficult than I had realized!). It's very different to have friends leave Saudi and know that you won't see them again for a long time. When you are stateside and people leave a job as long as they don't leave the area you can always get together with them for lunch or dinner or whatever. But here we are 9,000 miles away and it's very difficult to see people if you don't go home every year. I like to travel and will usually plan trips home every other year or so. My last trip home it had been two years since the last time I was home. The older I get the more difficult the long trip home is. I was in Houston for a recruitment trip last month and the flight was 16 hours long. That tested my endurance! We were in Houston for only 2 days and then came back to Saudi Arabia. We were gone for only 7 days total (that included an extra day off on the return trip!). My sleep pattern was messed up for days.

I spent 10 days in Nepal last November. Nepal was an amazing trip! We spent 5 days trekking through the Annapurna region of the Himalayas. The trip was even more special because my friends went with me. It was physically the most difficult thing I have ever done without a doubt. But as everyone kept telling me I did it and I was proud of that. There were times when I did not think I would be able to complete the trek. If I want to go the Everest Base Camp I need to do much more specific and intense training. But that is a future dream. Maybe one day I will be back in Nepal. . . .