Tagine

So we went to our FAVORITE Moroccan restaurant on the weekend to celebrate me finishing another course. We will find any excuse to go to this restaurant...
Why? Well the atmosphere is awesome, you get free appetizers, desserts, fruit-bowl and Moroccan mint tea. And of course the food is just plain amazing. Seriously I didn't know that food could be so good. Well here are a few pics of the amazingness...

 Before we had any food...

 Waiting in anticipation

 Our food... mine is the veg Tagine with couscous. Brad's is a chicken one

Enjoying our desserts and fruit and tea after... too full to eat any more though!

Anyways... back to my cooking LOL

Cheers,

Serena

Any guesses???

So we booked our next two holidays! The school has the Islamic holiday of Eid coming up in November so we get a week on then. And then we get two weeks off at the end of January to the beginning of Feb. This is because we do not get time off at Christmas. Anyways, we decided to book our flights as we knew where we wanted to go.... here are some pictures to get me excited. Any guesses as to where?

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 This is for the first trip... laying on a beach

 This is also part of the first trip... going island and seeing some tea plantations. 

This is for the second trip... Mt????

Again part of the second trip.... hmmm 

Yup I am super excited.... now I just need to keep my head down and work on these course. 

Just a little update on my course work. After two and a half weeks I have completed my first course!! Woohoo. Now I am just waiting for the marks to come in, and hope that I passed LOL. 

Now 5 more to go!

Cheers,

Serena

OH CANADA... the rest of our summer trip!

FAMILY FRIENDS and.... DRIVING! Yup that just about sums up our summer in Canada.

We were so happy to be able to have 6 weeks to visit lots of people in Canada, and just to be HOME! I was extremely excited to re-unite with my car, not that I don't like our car here in Kuwait, but well mine back home is  my baby... so I got to spend many wonderful hours driving with my baby this summer. Anyways just a fun fact... We re-insured our car on July 22, and then took it off again on Aug 30.... and for a grand total of 8,000km was put on it in those few short weeks.... we kinda like to drive. Not only we were constantly on the go, but we were constantly having to put gas in our car. We are use to gas costing roughly 20cents a litre... and what was it back in Canada around 1.20!!!!!!! just a little different right.
Anyways, starting in Canada Brad flew to visit his family in Alberta, and I flew into Vancouver to spend time with my family. Brad then met me in BC and we traveled together after that... well kinda.

Here are some pictures of our trip... keep in mind by this point I was tired of taking pictures and always looking behind a lens. So for the most part I didn't have a camera with me...

My first day back.... My mom, Annie, and the cuties Axel and Dahlia came to pick me up in Vancouver, where we spent the day and night there... here are some pictures of that and then just more of the rest of summer!

Yup my first stop in Canada... Granville Island. We went to play in the kids store and then to the market, saw the geese etc...

Now on to the Island...

First a family foto.... the first time since my wedding since my whole family was together... 

now on to fun stuff

 Swimming in the pool with Uncle Brad

 Picking cherries with Grandpa... the helmet was just left on after biking riding... for no other reason is it on LOL

 The little Dutch boy and soccer player! 

 Dahlia turns one...

 pitting cherries...

 At the petting zoo in Beacon hill park.

 Going sailing with my Grandpa

 and my sister

 Brad pretended like he was a good captain 

 Okay maybe wasn't that bad... :)

 Axel the soon to be Captain

Ice cream at fisherman's wharf.

Next... hiking with some friends in Vic.

 The waterfall at Gold stream park

 Jumping in after the hike

Next I went to visit my friend Carling and her baby Avery in Kelowna...

I forgot to bring out my camera from my car... but I took this one just before I left in the morning.

NOW for the rest of the time I never once pulled out my camera... that or I had no idea where it was... but anyways... thanks to Greg, Brad's brother for taking pictures while in Alberta, otherwise we would have no proof of the "FARMING" experience that took place this summer.

 Brad packing silage

 Going to a country concert... Gord Banford

 Selling off some Buffalo

The farming experience... phew! 

All in all it was a great summer! I wish I had more pictures from all the different visits... but such is life.

Cheers,

Serena

Books.Reading.Essays.Assignments

Well Today officially marks the 3rd day of me being back to a 'full-time' student. 

How is it going you ask? Well I am already procrastinating by writing this, I am very addicted to going to the pool, and I have no problems doing the dishes anymore... just as long as I am not writing or reading LOL.

With that being said, I am actually quite excited about my courses for this semester. 

I am taking an offender rehab course, an effective decision making in law course, issues in women's health course, intro to philosophy, risk assessment and threat management, and last but not least a violence against women course. Sounds fun to me!!!

I counted up my assignments and essays to write, and from the 6 courses I am taking I have to complete 22 assignmets, 1 final exam and read many different text books and online readings oh joy! 

Currently I have read my unit 1 readings for 1 course, and started my first assignment haha...

I am very much looking forward to my Offender rehab course... why? because when I received my package in the mail with my course material in it, I was very much surprised. Normally when I get my courses in the mail, they weigh a tonne, and are filled with my books and things to read. When I received this course I was positive that there had been a mistake. First the boxed felt empty, and then when I open it up it was a piece of  paper stating that I was enrolled in the course, with 1 random dvd, and for the fun part a Saturday night live DVD... really is this for real, in my course I get to watch SNL... ok I can handle this. I am sure that I will have to read stuff on-line, but I still I can't believe that I am required to watch SNL... I am waiting to do this one on a stressful day :)

Below is a picture of my courses. I have laid them all out, and with the cardboard I wrote out all my assignments and test that I need to do. I am very much a checklist, countdown kind of girl... so I very much look forward to slowly (and I mean slowly) crossing of one assignment at a time :):)

Anyways, back I go to writing my paper... this one is about violence against women... and how to eradicate this serve social unjustice using a human rights perspective... fun fun

Cheers,

Serena

Back in the sandpit

Well we made it safely back to Kuwait. 2 1/2 months very by very quickly, and at the same time very slowly. It has taken a bit to re-adjust to living here. And it will continue to take a few more day...
We had a fabulous summer, and often would say to each other, do we seriously get paid to be on vacation for 2 months!!! It was great, and I am so thankful that Brad is a teacher!!
I will blog more on our summer in Canada, as I have already blogged on our journey through Europe, but I will save that for when I have more time, and energy... this jet lag is really bad this time around.

Just a few quick thoughts about coming back to Kuwait...
-the traffic was crazy, even when arrived at 4am.
-we tried to order a water with lemon, then after the waiter giving us blank stares we remembered that we were in Kuwait where you get a large or small bottle of water.
-DUST - lots of cleaning to go
-the heat, and more heat (on a side note, it only made it to 42ish degrees yesterday, not bad for summer).
-going to the mall was a highlight LOL.

I'm sure the list will go on, but I just noticed that I blanked for about 15mins... coffee here I come.

Anyways more to come when I can see straight
Cheers,
Serena