And just like that, we're in!

I'm here!  I've made it to  Kuwait and I'm *almost* settled in to my new life.

Some of it will
 take some getting used to....

(Hello, 115°F/45°C daytime temps and 3am Call to Prayer from the Mosque next door...)

















And I *still* can't get over the fact that the glass on the windows is TOO HOT to touch!

But some of it is REALLY great!  I've found an instant group of like-minded friends who are as eager to go out and explore the world as I am :)



But before I get into that, let's back up just a second...

-*-*-*-

I set out on Monday, August 19th from lush, green New York....

and after a thankfully uneventful journey, made it all the way to Kuwait with everything

(including the little french horn that could) fully intact.

(This was the view for MOST of the flight....
not a ton of greenery in this part of the world...)

I finally arrived in Kuwait late Tuesday night after traveling through 4 different airports and I don't know how many hours of flying.  I was exhausted, but my tired, bleary eyes were happy to see some familiar faces in the form of our principal and a few people I'd connected with on Facebook.

In a very short amount of time,  I've already had a few exciting excursions, including:

a HIGH NOON,  115°F, 72% Humidity trek to the beach in Mahboula just to see what it looked like...

Dinner at the beautiful Naranj Restaurant (http://www.naranjkw.com/) 

with the school admin and all of the new hires

A post-dinner walk around the Marina Mall at night...

A tour of the Grand Mosque 

(more on that later)...

and a day at the Beach!

And in between all of that, I'm getting back into the swing of waking up WAY too early to catch the bus into school, navigating how to dress appropriately in a Muslim country, and getting to see my band kids every day of the week!  Onwards and Upwards!

- Sie

Food, forests, frustration, and finally, Flights

Well, I've finally made it to this point.

I'm about to take 3 flights to get from New York to Kuwait!

Flying home for a whopping 4.5 days was always going to be a bit of a mad dash, but I'm glad I did it!  (And had to, sort of) 

I arrived Thursday afternoon into the blistering heat of Newark Airport in mid-August, bleary-eyed and exhausted, but Damn, it felt good to see some familiar sights.

(a view of the New York skyline from across the river) 

The next day was my only chance to catch up with friends, eat sushi, and uphold a trans-Atlantic tradition of cider-drinking with the Mortimers, and then Saturday was dedicated to nothing but NATURE!

My dad and his girlfriend took me out for a 12 Mile hike around the Mohonk Preserve in beautiful, verdant Upstate New York that included lunch under a waterfall,

And a swim in the clear, cold water of Lake Awosting

It was amazing!

The next day I was rewarded for all of that physical exertion with a plate of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and coffee (Cawwfee, for the Brits reading 😉)

Sunday was all about celebrating my niece's 10th birthday and getting to see my stepdad's family for the day.

And then, this morning, a few hours before flying to a new country to work in a New school and experience a whole new lifestyle, I spent THE ENTIRE morning sorting out my shipment of boxes to Kuwait!  Ugghhhh. Not how I was hoping to spend my last morning in the US. 

 Just in case anyone is thinking of shipping personal items, be aware!  UPS looks like the best option because its cheap and well-known, but they will not ship personal belongings anywhere except the US abd Puerto Rico. 

Boy, that was fun...

But you know what?  I'll figure it out.  Life is always full of unexpected things, sometimes they're mishaps, or upsets, and sometimes they just are what they are.  And you crack on regardless.

So now I'm about to board the first plane, sample some fab airline cuisine, and start a big adventure.

Thanks to the Mortimer clan for seeing me off from the airport!  Can't wait til our next cider-date!

 And of course thanks to my parents for putting up with my blink-and-you'll-miss-it visits and general cloud of stress that was hanging over my head for the past 4 days.

Here goes!

Packed and Partying!

This.

That's it, my entire life packed up into 2 massive suitcases, 5 cardboard boxes, 2 plastic Ikea tubs filled with music books, and a French horn.  

                                 (And a partridge in a pear tree...!)


Its a weird feeling to think that EVERYTHING that doesn't fit in this photo has been sold off or donated to charity. (Or thrown in the bin...)

And getting to this point was possibly THE MOST stressful thing I've done in a long time!  But, I got through it with the help of some sympathetic ears (Meghan) and compassionate friends (Vicky) and managed to sort, list, pack, and weigh everything by late Friday night.

Then, the REAL fun started!  A quick ::cough cough:: drive up to Birmingham to throw an epic hen do (bachelorette) for my bestie, a zip ::achem:: over to Wales for some castle viewing with RhiRhi, and lightning fast stop in The Cotswolds to catch up with Jo and Baby Jim before dropping my hire car off in Rugby to start the wedding festivities!




Tired yet?  Imagine how I feel!  I covered this distance in 4 days:

But, it was all worth it to spend time with friends, take in the beautiful English countryside, and celebrate the marriage of one of my bestest friends to a really top bloke.

And so here we are, 5:15am in Birmingham airport.

Tired, slightly delirious, and sad to be leaving so many amazing friends.  

But, tomorrow's a new day and a new adventure awaits!  And seriously, the modern world is so connected that I'll be able to keep in touch with everyone until the next time I come flying in like a bat out of hell!

No Sleep til Birmingham!

Well, dear readers, I haven't posted anything in the past few days because as you can imagine, it's all hands to the pump to get packed up and ready to go by NEXT Saturday!

Officially, I arrive in Kuwait on August 20th, but before then I have an action-packed week and a half that includes
- my best friend's hen do ("bachelorette party" to us Yanks) in Birmingham (wooo!)
- a quick trip to see some castles in Cardiff with one of my favourite Welshies
- a stopover in the Costwolds to for a visit and a pub walk with another friend (hopefully)
- setting up a church and a village hall
- a FREAKING WEDDING!!! of two fabulous, talented, amazing brass players

and then

- a 7am flight back home to NY (with a cheeky layover in Dusseldorf, hello breakfast beer!)
- 4 days at home to see the parents, grab lunch with a few old friends, hike, bike, sail, and stroll through beautiful Upstate NY.

**and FINALLY**

-  NY ~> PHIL ~> Doha ~> Kuwait!  Leaving at 5pm Eastern Standard Time and arriving THE NEXT DAY at 8pm Arabian Standard Time.

But before all of that, my life currently looks like this :

Why, yes, that is a whole bunch of bubble wrap drying on the washing line!  I drove up to Stockbridge just to pick it up from a lady that posted it on Freecycle!

A.  It was free
B. It's my tiny effort to keep useful things out of landfills.
C. yay, free!





If you're ever considering uprooting your entire life and moving halfway across the world (for the second time...) here's just a small sample of the things you'll need to do:

     

1. Sell car
2. Close bank account
3. Find a new bank
4. Cancel phone plan
5. Research shipping companies
6. Pack
7. Finally eat all of the random things in the back of your cupboard
8. Cancel gym
9. Turn off direct deposit on everything
10. Cancel broadband
11. Pack
12. Clean
13. Sort out post-car transportation
14. Use all of the gift cards you've been saving for a rainy day
15. Drop everything to meet friends for a drink
16. pack
17. Sell EVERYTHING ELSE

It's a blast, really.....



Anyway, that's life right now.  More pictures when I can actually see the floor of my flat....

Ku- wait....WHAT?!

Entry Visa Approved!

After 7 years of dormancy, here it is!  My return to the blogosphere!

Yes, I'm pretty terrible at staying on top of this, and yes, I usually post all of my pictures on Facebook, but what the hell, let's give it another go.


I've been in the UK for a whopping 9 years - teaching music, making friends, and playing *a lot* of softball.  I really love my life and my friends in the English Countryside.  But, I miss teaching in one school, being an active member of the faculty, and creating a haven for the band geeks to hide out in when they're sad, happy, excited, etc.

Alas, Life is too short to stay in one place, or stress about work visas and immigration status for the 3rd year in a row..... so I started looking at what my Plan B would be if Plan A (Indefinite Leave To Remain in the UK) panned out.

Well...it turns out that Plan B was just a little too good to pass up, and here we are!

So, in case you haven't figured out what's happening, I'll give you a quick recap -
    Starting in just a few weeks, I will be upending my entire life to move to the tiny, sweltering hot country of KUWAIT!!!

vs.

oh my god,
 what
  am I
    getting
     myself
       into
         ?!






I'll be returning to the world of American music education as the Director of Bands at the American School of Kuwait!

Words cannot describe how excited I am to be based in 1 school for the entire week (!),  and that my students will get the full Mad Music Teacher treatment EVERY DAY!!  I'll be part of the International School community, living in a city made up of 70% expats, and I've even registered for the Adult Softball League!


Obviously, I'm ridiculously excited and cannot wait to explore a new country and culture, eat ALL of the food, learn all of the local vernacular, and travel to ..well, EVERYWHERE!


But in the meantime, I'm sifting through 9 years of teaching materials and trying to decide what stays and what goes.....

Wish me luck!

- Sierra 

She's baaccckk!

Big things on the horizon.  More info very soon!

The sun is shining, the air is cold, feels like the start of something new!

Hello lovelies!

As I've said in my last post, I am determined to start blogging again!  New school year, new town, lots of things in store!

But first, we need to get you caught up!  So let's see.  I finished my Masters in Music at the University of Surrey.

 I timed it perfectly to be able to send off my visa application before the closing date AND be able to attend the commencement ceremony with the MMus students that I started the program with.

An attractive, educated looking bunch, eh?












I also did a bit of performing at Live at The Ivy, the Music Department's open mic/cover songs/piss-take night.  I decided to throw in a few shockers as this was one of my departing gestures at Surrey.

First, I learned how to play the bass:

Rockin da bass on Janis Joplin's "Piece of my heart"

Then.....

I sang....

"I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!!!!"

...Rage Against The Machine!  


It was probably one of the nuttiest things I've ever done!











                                                                             *~*~*~*
                       
At the end of the year, I created my own group, The Stag Hill Chamber Orchestra.  The group is predominantly Surrey students (both old and new) and a few local members of the community.  We performed Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in an itty bitty church up a big hill just outside of Guildford.

The views looking out over the countryside were breath-taking!



















The concert went off so well, we decided to reprise Peter and the Wolf at a Diamond Jubilee Street Party in my neighborhood.  We performed right next to my house, while the neighbors set up tables and bbq-ed in the green between our houses!










The S.H.O also did a bit of studio time, lending their talents to a few tracks produced by Andy Land and orchestrated by Jess Littlewood.

We've worked together quite a bit.
You can check out the video for our cover of "Crossover" by Magnetic Man here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diF73zQlwgM 

and an original track called "Hide" by Syrencia here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkddmZvUSRY

Check back here for another video coming out soon of our cover of  "Guilt" by Nero.

So as you can see, I've been a busy bee!  Conducting, performing, entrepreneuring!  Basically, just living life to the fullest!  

Since finishing that school year, I've moved down to Southampton to be closer to work and start a new chapter of life.  But that will have to be a post for another day!  So stay tuned!

Much Love,
Sierra