Well yesterday one of the 2014 group of people going to Abu Dhabi, hopefully all leaving in August, had a gathering in the Atlanta area.....my goodness I believe we had the biggest gathering of all!!! I think the final count of people to come was up to 58 (this included some with husbands and children). And hopefully this is going to be an indicator of what's to come....we all came together to make this a successful, enjoyable time. A HUGE thanks to Ava and her husband for opening their home to everyone; helping to setup all the food as it came in, and then cleaning up after our butts after everyone left (I was probably the last one to leave and boy was it a hot mess up in that house!).
As for the people I will be with it was great to finally meet some, I only knew one person at the beginning of this journey and have met many more online, but to actually come face to face and interact was very comforting. We hugged, talked, and laugh so much during this time and I didn't even get a chance to meet everyone. What was funny is I was the first to arrive since I was bringing the canopy, a table, and some chairs I wanted to get set up before it got busy, and Ava's husband was trying to set the sound of the background music and he asked, "is this loud enough? too loud?, and I told him it's not going to matter you've got a bunch of teachers coming together it's going to be so loud up in here! It wasn't too long after people started arriving that Ava's husband looked at me and said, "you're not kidding about the noise!" But everyone talking is a good thing, we found out we're alike, we're different, we're going for the same reason, we're going for different reasons....at the end of the day...we are here for each other!
As we said our goodbyes, I told everyone the same thing.....I'll see you in two weeks....at the airport...lol!! Most of us are hoping it's true...I figure if you put it out there the chances are greater!
Watch out sandbox you got some crazy folk coming from the A T L!
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteIt was super awesome meeting you. Franklin and I had a blast hosting and enjoyed meeting our new soon to be Abu Dhabi family. It was well worth the clean up afterwards. LOL. We worked together and got it all cleaned up and all the left over food stored within an hour or two.
Now the wait continues. Hopefully not much longer. Fingers crossed!
Ava
Wow Tiffany,
ReplyDelete~ I confess I pea green with envy of this adventure you're about to embark on. If you ever need an assistant, let me know. AD isn't the 1st place I'd choose but for the love of hockey, who cares. The experience of new culture and making, truly, lifelong friends is the end game here. Or it would be for me.
To say we MUST have dinner before you go is a gross understatement so keep me in the loop date, yeah? This is Trish, BTW. I've never Google+ ed before. Usually keep to FB, but is should open this social media net, I suppose. I believe I started a blog after my Mom past away...wonder if it's still there...that 1 angry entry.
Anyhoo...DM me on fb or just text your dates. I would really like to see you before your go!!
Cheers to your courage and spirit,
Trish
p.s.
HB stands for Hockey Bella~~ :)