Acropolis Goodbyes

 After having the Acropolis as a familiar backdrop and relatively frequent view and destination, it is weird that Gabi is now in her final week of her semester abroad. 

 

Coming!

 

So exciting to have Rania on her way.  She certainly had a pretty miserable ordeal getting her trip started.  She was supposed to leave Chicago on American Airlines, but the flight kept getting delayed.  Eventually, it ended up being cancelled, so they off-loaded all of her baggage (that was not until 1 am or so) and she had to make her way to a hotel (late at night as the shuttle system had stopped) before getting up early the next day for a different flight. 

 To add a bit more misery, we later found out that her luggage was also broken during this layover, so the cracks in the luggage are not so fun. It is still usable, but not ideal with the sharp plastic being broken in two corners. 

 

Night View

 They have been doing sidewalk and road widening work on the street across from our house all semester.  It slowly is making some progress - though there are certainly lots more work to be done. 

 

Millennium Park Ice Skating

 Rania had a lot of fun going ice skating at Millennium Park.  I think it may be safe to say that the girl who grew up in Minneapolis / St. Paul had a bit more confidence and experience that the girl who grew up in Kuala Lumpur. 

 

Classroom

 Here is the classroom view for Tracy.  Sometimes a picture of the everyday sights that we take for granted can be an interesting remembering sometime in the future.  Or maybe not. 

 

Celebrating

 So fun to see Gabi having a great time with her friends. 

 

Pool Construction

 The pool at Katana II continues to be under construction.  It is looking a lot better, and hopefully will be a nice improvement. 

 

Spotify Wrap

 It is safe to say that my Spotify wrap is heavily influenced by my daughter's use of our Alexa at home.  Considering, I couldn't identity any of the lyrics (or the tune) of the top song that was attributed to me, I think that it speaks quite poetically about my musical illiteracy. 

Taylor sure was grateful for me listening to her, though. 

 

Bukit Kiara

 Doug made a fateful decision on joining the Grade 6 field trip to Bukit Kiara.  It was a new hike, and Everette did a masterful job of leading and guiding (thanks to his scouting).  Instead of getting my nicer tennis shoes dirty, I went with older ones, which had no traction.  I then slipped on the very slick, muddy terrain in the rain - which didn't seem much at the time.  The next day, I woke up and could hardly move. 

 For the next couple of days, any sharp movement sent such incredible pain shooting through my hip.  So weird - and amazingly debilitating for something so ridiculous.  

Lesson learned about the importance of good footwear.