What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet.

Happy Earth Day! I continue to make my way through the final stretch of this year with May just around the corner. If I have been counting correctly then I have 48 teaching days left this year? There were definitely days earlier in the school year that I did not think I would ever make it to this point! Ramadan starts in June. We have half days and teaching is from 8:30-1:30. I doubt any of my kids will be fasting because the second after they eat snack they ask me when it is time for lunch because they are hungry. However I have heard that attendance does go down during Ramadan for those that do fast during this time.

2 more days until Game of Thrones is back! 

School wise we just had our second field trip of the year. We went to Al Wakra Park for Earth Day and the teacup humans were required to bring egg shells, egg boxes, and water bottles. April has been nice and all because I have seen more rain this month than I thought I would during these 2 years but it has started to heat up again. Imagine that, the desert getting hot again. Our field trip yesterday was no exception. The kids were great in the beginning and I am glad I got a class photo in the beginning because by the end of it some of them were absolutely miserable and just wanted to go back onto the air conditioned bus. Some tears were shed and I gained some upper body strength from carrying a child around. I can't blame them because I was not the happiest camper either. That park needs more trees and more shade! Some of their favorite parts may have been sitting on the bus singing Alice the Camel.

See there is some green in Qatar! But mostly there is tan. 

School wise things are good. Each week I try to do some kind of craft with them. Here are some pictures of things we have worked on. The main things we have worked on are number pairs/number bonds that equal up to 10. I had them trace and cut out their hands. This is always amusing to watch because some of their hands when they finish tracing look like baseball mitts. And they always want me to cut them out for them and I have told them nope. Do it yourself. Time to get ready for grade 1. They manage to get through it and they turned out pretty cute!

Underneath their hands they had to write the different number pairs that equal 10. I saw another KG2 teacher had this
as her bulletin board so of course I had to steal the idea. Teachers are kleptos! 

Leading up to the field trip all week we talked about Earth Day and how we can reduce, reuse, and recycle. Sadly you do not see much recycling in Qatar. I have yet to see a single recycling bin here. But we talked all week about turning the lights off when you are not in the room, using less water, and other things like that.

How adorable are their Earth faces? I know we aren't supposed to put stuff on the walls... I've kind of given up on that at this point. They wrote down their promises for how they would care for the Earth. 

Weather wise April has been pretty awesome. We have had some rain and some intense thunderstorms the other weekend. My friend messaged me and told me to go outside and enjoy the light show and Doha did not disappoint.

The light show! Truth be told I did not see this particular lightning strike.. thank you internet! 

Middle Eastern sunrises and sunsets are some of the most beautiful ones I have seen in the world. You truly do get to see that red sunset or sunrise out here in the desert and it is amazing. Nothing compares. 

I bought my ticket to come home for the summer! I had to do some calculations when planning because in order to be exempt from taxes I can only be in the US for 35 days. July 12 is the magical day! Technically I will be home for 42 days... so I am planning to hang out in Canada for a week. What the exact dates will be I am still figuring out. I am hoping to travel somewhere in the beginning of July before I come home. Only time will tell! Since I will be spending my 35 days home in the summer, this means I will not be coming home for Christmas. This bums me out a little but if everything works out with what I am planning for, it will probably be one of the most memorable and incredible Christmases of my life, even if it is away from home.

Not only have the students been learning and had a lot of growth but apparently I have too! I was feeling guilty thinking it made me a bad person or bad teacher because this month I have not been bringing my work home with me as much as I have in the past. Well that is because I have learned to adapt. Typically in the beginning the year, mainly before winter break, during my prep breaks I was not doing lesson planning. Usually I was completely and utterly exhausted and would stare at my laptop dumbfounded wondering what I should be preparing and where I was supposed to find energy to prep for lesson plans. Now it seems I have learned and found the energy during this time. One of the other KG2 teachers once told me "You will be amazed what you can get done in 20 minutes" and it is so true. Yay for adapting and not having to always bring work home with me! Now I have become one of those teachers that brings their work bag and laptop home with them... and it sits in my bag untouched while I pass out in bed early like a grandma. Less than 50 days to go... we are nearly there! Now for some teacher memes to make you smile:

November is a rough month teachers. Get through that and you are a superhero!

This is been me for the past week... and I venture this is what it will be like in
May-June. The kids are starting to get ready for summer to get here!

My teacup humans have yet to understand this concept and probably never will.
No matter how many times I tell them we are all going to the same place... they still
fight over those first few spots in line! 

You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.

I am back from my spring break vacation with the family spent in London and Dublin! I have been meaning to update after school one of these days, but my body had the nerve to be exhausted after an eventful and semi-stressful vacation (my fault completely).

My adventure to Europe started off with me being a genius who left her phone on the airplane. I thought that I had placed my phone in my purse- spoiler alert I didn't! Things like this kept happening to me a few times over the vacation. So I relied on my mom and sisters for all the Kodak moments. It was so good to see all of them and spend time with them! We also met up with friends in London and spent a few days with friends in Worcester. By the way, everything in England and Ireland is not pronounced the way it is spelled. The sooner you accept this the better. And be prepared if you go to London it is very expensive! Especially to get around on the Tube. And eating food. And just everything in general. It is amazing how much the prices drop once you are outside the city.

London calling! 

First stop was London! All throughout my time in London I became very familiar with the Underground. It actually is an incredible setup and much easier to understand, especially compared to what they have in Dublin. I forced myself to get familiar with it because when I first got there, I met my family at the hotel. I was originally going to be charged for a cab ride at the lovely price of 97£ AKA $137. So train it was for under 20£! My mom and I are huge Harry Potter fans so of course we had to do all the Harry Potter nerdy stuff. Unfortunately we were not able to do the Warner Bros tour because apparently they fill up really fast. We did however end up doing Muggle Tours which I highly recommend! Our tour guide was Tom Riddle and having him as a guide who was just as passionate about the series as us made it awesome.

We were late getting to the tour... we did some wandering around for a bit and
thanks to my sister's GPS we met up with our tour group! We spotted a guy in
a Gryffindor colored scarf and a Harry Potter bag and it was our tour guide! 

We saw all of the major sites like Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Tower of London, and Buckingham Palace. Oh and if you value your life at all please stay to the right on escalators! People in London are constantly in a hurry and do not have time for you to stand on the left side of the escalators which is purposely kept clear so that people can walk/run/sprint up and down them. Haven't the people of London heard our family motto before: there's no hurry!

Gonna go way out, way out! For all you Flintstones fans... 

Why hello there Benjamin.. it really was surreal seeing huge
landmarks in real life that you are used to only seeing in pictures

Of course we stopped by Kings Cross station! We did debate for a little while
of not waiting in line to get our picture taken. Perfect opportunity for a family photo!

No there's no place like London. We visited Trafalgar Square.. passed through Baker Street and Fleet Street... the amount
of history in London is incredible. We also went into the National Art Gallery where I got scolded for taking a picture of
my sister with the flash on by Van Gogh's sunflowers. Well we knew we weren't supposed to but we were being rebels. 

We did a lot of walking around London. I kid you not my Fitbit said
we did 20k steps one day and 32k another day. 13 miles in one day!
And then my Fitbit died and I have no idea how many steps I did in Ireland.

Next stop was Worcester. Don't ask me to say it because I will definitely say it wrong. We visited friends and stayed with them for a few days and got to see Stonehenge! It was ridiculously windy and pretty rainy but again another cool part of history to see.

Why yes we did go through 4 hours of total driving to see some wet rocks!
 

Walking through Worcester! We went inside that cathedral in the distance and it was beautiful. 

See it wasn't all rain and clouds in England! Occasionally we got some rays. 

Next stop Dublin! But it would not be complete without me being a complete and utter idiot by leaving my bag with my passport and my sister's iPad... at the train station. We were on our way to Paddington Station to then go to the London City Airport to fly to Dublin. I went back myself to take a train back and meet them at the airport later on. Fortunately my bag was still there and I made it back to Paddington. My family took a cab while I made my way through the fantastic train system. And then I followed the pirate's code of 'fall behind, left behind' and arrived at the airport and went through security. I got some food and calmly waited with my Kindle for my mom and sisters. Did I mention that I do not have my phone and the Wifi was not working so I could not even use the iPad to communicate with my mom where I was? Turns out they were downstairs waiting for me and growing more panicky by the minute as each time a train opened up and I was not on it. Whoops! I can only imagine the wild scenarios that were swirling around my mom's poor head. I pinkie swear I will be more organized and not such a forgetful dunderhead on my next vacation! But yeah really I was just upstairs eating my little salad and reading All the Light We Cannot See. Which was a fantastic book by the way that received the well deserved Pulitzer prize last year.

Fortunately we all made it to Dublin in one piece! Our time in Dublin seemed to zoom by way too fast. For 2 of the days we did rail tours where we got to see all different parts of Ireland. Those rail tours leave promptly at 7am and last for a minimum of 10 hours. Our tour guide Bob was very friendly and informative. The first rail tour we visited Cork, Blarney Castle, and Cobh. One of the train stops we passed through was Thurles, which apparently is where the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded. Shout out to all the Gaelic football ladies! We each kissed the Blarney Stone and walked through the poisonous garden. It contained different plants like Lily of the Valley and ricin which of course made me think of Breaking Bad. In Cobh we visited St. Colman's Cathedral and also went through a Titanic exhibit since Cobh was the final port for the Titanic.

Blarney Castle :-* 

Our second day we spent exploring Dublin. We visited Grafton Street and did a lot of walking that day, but probably not as much as our 13 mile day! It was just so nice waking up each day and being with my family. It was definitely a well needed trip for me. I missed them much more than I realized and as always at the airport it was hard to say goodbye.

Ireland is pretty. 

Coolest glass ever. And Orchard Thieves is a delicious cider. An apple
a day keeps the doctor away right? 

Love my peeps. Cannot wait to see them in the summer. 

Our second rail tour was even longer than the first! We visited Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway. We could not have asked for better weather! The skies were sunny and shining when we got to the Cliffs of Moher. And at Bunratty Castle we also made a stop at Durty Nelly's, an old pub that was established in 1620!

Durty Nelly's! I got a t-shirt and everything!

All that green <3

Cliffs of Moher. Don't look down! What a view though. 

The hills are aliiiiiive... seriously look at this shot. You almost expect Julie Andrews to come waltzing through and singing.

And now it is back to reality. It was a tough transition this week. It has gotten better as the week has gone along. My flight left on Saturday and it was delayed and I ended up getting back home around 3:30 AM... and then leaving for school at 6:30 AM! Fortunately I slept a little on the plane and got a little nap when I got back home. And happy news I did get my phone back! But now it is April. The last trimester of my first year. Hard to believe it. From having my kids pee in the dark from September-December because I did not realize that my bathroom light was supposed to work. You mean the kids can have more light than just the sun shining through the tiny top part of the door? That was a nice treat for them to come back to in January! Lumos! Let there be light! How far they have come since September. And now we make the final push until June. Less than 60 teaching days left I can do this!

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Whew we are in the middle of March, report cards have been turned in, and parent teacher conferences are next week! 6 teaching days until spring break- not that I am counting or anything. I might be missing my family and absolutely unbelievably ridiculously excited to see them again! If only the cats could come along too.

Today I had an interesting start of my day. I was going through my morning routine with the kids talking about the calendar and counting the days of school. Then suddenly there was a loud bang and one of the windows shattered. I grabbed my kids that were sitting near the window that was crackling... it seriously sounded like Pop Rocks or Rice Krispies when you add the milk... and then got security. Some maintenance guys came out and broke off the window. Needless to say not much teaching was done because the kids were watching with fascination. When the sun shined on the broken pieces of glass it shined spots onto the ceiling, which the teacup humans found to be super cool. Fortunately it was a double pane window so it was just the outer layer of glass. I guess I just cross my fingers and hope the next layer of glass does not shatter next!

Snap crackle pop! This is what happens when one of your windows is
constantly hit by the balls kids play with at recess all day! 

Last week was pretty eventful. I still laugh when I think about one of the first expats I met who told me "Yeah it will probably rain 2 times the entire time you are here." Yeah we got plenty of rain this past week, thunderstorms, and some more flooding! It was even hailing at one point on our bus ride to school. Then one morning someone's pet tiger was loose on the expressway! Because why bother having a cat or a dog when you can have an exotic pet like a tiger right? No worries it was eventually captured again.

Check out these clouds right before it started pouring! 

I don't think Rajah makes the best pet... as Chuckie Finster
would say "Guys I don't think this is such a good idea!"

I have been getting more "artsy" in class and making more charts to hang up in the room for the teacup humans. As the kids always tell me "You're not a very good drawer Miss Kellie." but I try my best! I got some ideas off Pinterest. Pinterest seriously should count towards professional development. I spend way too much time on there searching for tips and ideas for lessons. And Teachers Pay Teachers. Seriously what did teachers do before these websites? Before the internet!?

They were able to recognize what the little 3D shape drawings were! A
step up from my laughable stick figures. 

Apparently Gus the Plus is another popular name teachers use. Maybe I will
try that next year! They crack me up though. "Linus the Minus is SO mean.
He is always taking away." 

Last week we had another spirit day and the theme was to dress up as your favorite character. I decided to go with a kid's classic and dressed up as Arthur the aardvark! I got all into it with ears and the shirt like the big dork that I am... and the kids thought I was a brown bunny. And I thought reading an Arthur book the day before would help them recognize me... nope! I ended up playing an episode of Arthur for them at the end of the day and they kind of got it. As for their costumes I had Darth Vader, 2 Spiderman (both were very muscular!), Batman, lots of princesses, a police officer, and Thor!

A-a-r-d-v-a-r-k! AKA nerd alert! 

It really is hard to believe that we are wrapping up the second trimester and moving into the final term. Sometimes it seems like so long ago that it was the end of August/beginning of September when I was setting up my classroom and then other days it feels like it was just yesterday I was just starting to get to know my teacup humans and what they were interested in. Now I sit here beaming with pride at them. But still giving them plenty reminders to not roll around on the rug, wrestle each other, and stop kicking and pushing each other at recess! I love my crazy energetic teacup humans. They teach me just as much as I teach them!

And now to end the entry with a beautiful sunset. Middle eastern sunrises and sunsets are seriously some of the most
beautiful ones I have ever seen. 

Stay tuned for England and Ireland pictures in the next post!

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

February is nearly over and March is right around the corner, which means that spring break is coming! England and Ireland here I come! I am meeting up with my family in London and we are taking on England and Ireland together. We have not had a family vacation in 4 years since we went to California and Arizona. I am unbelievably excited to see their faces and to share this adventure with them. Plus my inner Harry Potter nerd is absolutely excited to see iconic places like Kings Cross and the HP tour.

In the words of Sweeney Todd no there's no place like London! 

School wise things have been good. It is stressful at times but as Olivia Pope would say, it's handled. All I can do is put one foot in front of the other and keep trying different ideas. Some days lessons are awesome and then other days some lessons that you put so much thought and effort into completely flop. And while that can be frustrating, all you can do is be like Taylor Swift and shake it off and try again tomorrow.

I updated my bulletin board again! So now technically I don't have to change it again until the end of April woo hoo! I found these gumball machine templates online and with Q-tips I had them paint on 100 gumballs. Some of them got a bit overzealous and did more than 100. A lot of them were not keeping track and would ask me, "Miss Kellie I forgot how many I have. Can you count?" I got a lot of practice counting to 100!

Yesterday we celebrated our 100th day of school! I might be off by a day or two because I was talking to some of the other teachers and they were saying it was next Sunday or Monday. Honestly I am glad I got to celebrate it yesterday because it was the end of the week and it is exhausting getting everything set up for it! I just remember in elementary school how the 100th day of school was always a big deal. My kids were so excited for it. We have been counting the days with straws and all week they have been like "4 more days until we get to 100 Miss Kellie!" or "1 more day until we get to 100!" For homework I asked them to bring in a collection of 100 things.

A giant aluminum 100 with little candies on it! I forgot to hand out the candies to them which they reminded me multiple times throughout the day. So they will get the candy on Sunday. 

One of my students wrote down 100 different words. "I have been working so hard on this Miss Kellie!" I was very impressed. And his penmanship is much neater than mine.  

100 stickers! My students were like "We get to take the stickers home right Miss Kellie?" Um no. 

100 pictures! 

I was on Pinterest for days looking up ideas for the 100th day. Apparently some schools have the teachers and kids dress up as what they would look like when they are 100 years old. We did not do that but they drew pictures of what they would look like if they were 100 years old. We had our 100th day trail mix where I brought in 10 different things and they had to take 10 pieces of each item. We made 100th day crowns because we are 100 days smarter! We did different activities like writing your name as many times as you can in 100 seconds, I would eat 100 _____, I can tally up to 100, etc. They had a blast and the looks on their faces when they saw all the goodies they were getting for their trail mix was priceless.

100th day treats! Complete with marshmallows, goldfish, chips, gummy bears,
M&Ms, hershey kisses, popcorn, cheerios, cornflakes, and the least popular plate which
was shredded wheat! Popcorn and gummy bears were two of the favorites. Tip for
next year: get mini marshmallows instead of the regular sized ones! I think
one of my favorite quotes was "Miss Kellie I am not going to eat the chips because
they are not healthy." But she chowed down those marshmallows! 

Miss Kellie is 100 days smarter. 

Wednesday we had our very first field trip! It was a very fun and eventful week for my teacup humans. We saw Alice in Wonderland at the theater in the souq and the kids loved it. The movie is up on Youtube and each day during lunch I let them watch 20 minutes of it to compare to the show we saw. I had them decorate white rabbits with cotton balls and decorate teapots with patterns as little activities during the week to get them excited about it. They were even excited for the bus ride and were singing for the majority of the way there. They sang their ABCs at least 10 times, The Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and even Jingle Bells. Fortunately they started playing I Spy and took a little break from the singing. The funniest part was that they have absolutely no concept of time. We were on there for 5 minutes and the questions start. "How many more minutes until we are there Miss Kellie?!" "We have been on here for HOURS." "Are we there?"

Welcome to Souq Waqif. Where seeing a man riding a horse is common and acceptable. From far away I first thought it was a camel! 

Then we got there and the show was great. It was fun and interactive and got them up and dancing every now and then. And they were familiar with some of the characters. "It's the Cheshire Cat Miss Kellie!" Actually I think they were calling it the treasure cat. We had to do about 10 minutes of walking through the souq to get to the theater and I think between that and all the dancing the kids were exhausted. It was a popular school trip and there had to be kids from at least 4 other schools. Most of my teacup humans took a little nap on the way back. And it blew their little minds that we still had school left when we got back. 2 hours left until they could go home. I think they definitely slept good Wednesday night!

Alice in Wonderland! 

Alice loved to dance. 

It was a jam packed week. We also had our school photos taken on Monday. I am curious how those are going to turn out because they had the kids take their pictures in groups of 2 or 3. I think they are planning to put all the pictures of the groups together in one big photo. At least I hope they do! We had one of the time slots in the afternoon and my kids were definitely getting restless. But I cannot wait to get a picture of my first class!

We are past the halfway point of the year which is an exciting accomplishment. Just another step closer to having my first year under my belt!

All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

If you had told me a year ago "Hey guess what? Next year you are going to visit Sri Lanka and fall in love with the country. You are going to hold a monkey, ride an elephant, see some dolphins and whales and swim in the Indian Ocean. This will be a well deserved break from your teaching job in the desert." I would have laughed in your face.

We made sure to pick a hotel that was right on the beach! 

Sri Lanka was absolutely incredible! It is such a beautiful and colorful country. I got to see so much of my favorite color- green! Sri Lanka was not even on my radar of a country to visit until one of my friends mentioned it. I said yes to being her travel buddy and the rest is history!

Things I learned in Sri Lanka:

1. Their school year starts in January. They go to school year round and have monthly breaks in April, August, and December.

2. The school uniforms are white. Girls must have their hair in braids.

3. The Queen is the oldest hotel in Kandy. Queen Elizabeth once stayed there.

4. When you see white flags hanging in the streets it means that someone died. While we were there they were mourning the loss of one of their members of Parliament.

5. Sri Lanka's Independence Day is on February 4th.

6. Egg hoppers are a breakfast cuisine that are delicious.

7. Sri Lanka recycles!

8. They went through a civil war for 30 years that recently ended in 2009.

9. First Asian country known to have a female ruler!

10. Their currency is Sri Lankan rupees. $1 = 143.54 rupees. and 1 Qatar riyal = 39.42 rupees.

The places I circled are where we visited. As you
can see there are areas that we did not get to. I guess
I will have to go back! 

Sri Lanka flag

Egg hopper! Yummy fried egg

Yay for recycling! Take note Qatar. 

Ca-ching!

We stayed in the southern part of Sri Lanka at the Royal Palms Beach Hotel in Kalutara. We arrived Friday morning. We had a driver named Mangala pick us up from the airport. He was very kind and informative. It was about an hour and a half of a drive from the airport and he told us about the rubber trees and rice paddies.

The golden brown parts are the rice paddies. 

Inside the hotel lobby 

View from our hotel balcony AKA my favorite spot. Who wouldn't like sitting on the balcony reading your kindle listening to the waves crashing? 

Made a friend on my first day. No I was not breastfeeding him! 

She may murder me for posting this. Alanna did not volunteer to have the
monkey on her. Which makes this picture hilarious. 

The first day we relaxed at the hotel. We watched Say Yes to the Dress in our ridiculously comfortable hotel beds and took a glorious nap. This was followed by lounging at the pool and adult beverages. Our hotel offered an all-inclusive package. If you ever stay anywhere that offers this- DO IT. I did this when I went to Mexico and it is well worth it and easily pays for itself. $40 each day for all the food and drinks that I want- I will take that deal!

DO IT. 

Saturday we had our first day trip to Mirissa for dolphin and whale watching. We had to be up bright and early because our driver Nishantha picked us up at 3:30 AM! Funny enough we ended up getting there an hour early. To kill some time I played with some adorable puppies! There are so many stray dogs in Sri Lanka. I just wanted to scoop one up and sneak one back to Doha with me. Dolphin and whale watching was fantastic. I am happy that I have a strong stomach because for at least half of the trip... many people got seasick. It is not my favorite thing to be out on the ocean listening to the sounds of people retching. Loudly. We were out to sea for about 5 hours... imagine 2 and a half hours of listening to people puking. Woo hoo for headphones and blaring my music to tune it out!

Whale watching. Hello Indian Ocean! 

Waiting in the marina/dock area ready to go!

Out to sea. That is one of the other whale watching boats. 

I love this country. 

Getting ready to start moving. 

That view though!

Hard to tell but that black blob is a whale! 

Sunday was a chill day at the hotel. We had to be all rested up for our next day trip to Kandy! 

Ahh that balcony. My favorite spot.

The dining area where I consumed at least 5 pounds of bacon. 

Monday was Kandy day. It was quite the eventful day that began with our pickup at 4:30 AM. Elephant day! I got to ride an elephant named Pooja. Unfortunately it had chains on it. A little disheartening while you are riding it and with each step you hear the clang clang of the chains. We had our awesome driver Nishantha again- no tuk tuks for us. Driving around with him was a bit what I imagine the knight bus to be like. We were constantly weaving around cars and motorbikes and tuk tuks. We were speeding around and then sometimes suddenly coming to a full stop- definitely an adventure! We got to see elephants and learned a lot about them. For instance, they make paper from their dung. I did not buy any but was definitely intrigued by that fact. Other elephacts: they can comfortably carry 25% of their body weight which is equivalent to 45 fully grown men. Male elephants can go through a period called musth. This is when the elephants have increased testosterone levels and can be very aggressive. Do not approach them! Only 5% of male elephants in Sri Lanka have tusks. There are 40,000 muscles in an elephant's trunk. Compared to the human body which has 639 muscles, that is a lot! We also visited a tea factory, a spice garden, botanical garden, and the Temple of the Tooth. Nishantha was driving us to our next stops which apparently was a Kandy dance and then a gems museum. I looked at him with a blank stare and said "...do we have to?" I was completely and utterly exhausted. I wanted nothing more than a big dinner at our hotel and then to crash immediately in my comfy bed. So we did. 

This is a tuk tuk. They are everywhere. The good thing is that when you go on highways they are not allowed on there! 

No I did not buy any! It was tempting though. 

The streets of Sri Lanka 

They drive on the other side of the rode. So weird to get used to! 

Pooja <3

Just a herd of elephants walking down the road. No biggie. 

They want to get in the refreshing water!

They love to lay in the water and it is the cutest thing ever. 

We visited the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and got to see them feed baby elephants milk. Tourists used to be able to, but
I guess it got very popular. As you can see from the crowd. 

Taking a selfie with the elephants at Pinnawala

The tea factory Kadugannawa. We got to sample some at the end!

All the tea leaves. They get weighed here.

I love that the tea leaves get their own elevator. 

The woman operated this crazy contraption to grind up the tea leaves.

Temple of the Tooth

They're a big fan of gold

Temple of the Tooth

Temple of the Tooth

One of the stupas. A stupa is a place utilized for meditation. 

I saw a boy climbing up and posing in the tree so of course I had to
copy him. 

Look at all those bats! I cannot wait to tell my kids about this because
we talked about bats for a week and they love the book Stellaluna.

The monkeys from Jumanji made a guest appearance at the botanical garden. 

                                     

Palm tree lane

There were pretty flowers too!

The next 2 days we had relaxing pool and beach days. I got some color and caught up on some reading! Then on Thursday our last day I devoured the last bits of bacon I could get my hands on and then Nishantha gave us a little city tour of Colombo before dropping us off at the airport. It was exciting because it was Sri Lanka's independence day! They had a little ceremony at the hotel where there were drummers and dancers. They also gave the hotel guests white balloons and we released them followed by the people in the ceremony releasing doves. 

So cool to watch!

Their costumes were fantastic

I loved their costumes and dances

Getting ready to release the doves. 

Some sight seeing in Colombo

Fountain in Colombo. The statue is the president who helped them achieve their independence. 

Sight seeing in Colombo

Sight seeing in Colombo. 

Yes. Even in Sri Lanka you can get a whopper. 

Stadium in the shape of a lotus flower

Fountains in Colombo

I got spoiled by all the colors. Did not want to come back to tan city! 

Sri Lanka was a wonderful vacation spot and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was the perfect getaway that was just what I needed. Never in a million years did I expect travel opportunities like this to fall into my lap. Hard work pays off! All I can do is embrace it and enjoy.