ONE.WEEK.LEFT.

I can't tell you how excited I am that I will be going home soon!!! I wish I could be home today because it's my mom's birthday and one of my cousin's is getting married, but alas I have one week left.  Hopefully this week will be better than the last couple of ones have been.  I have a career fair on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I need to make sure that I look super sharp!

It feels weird to be moving out of the apartment. The six of us have been here for only ten weeks, and we're already leaving.  Claire leaves today, John might leave today, and the rest of us will be gone tomorrow. I haven't even started packing...guess I should get on that.

I definitely have a few regrets about leaving already.  I didn't go do everything that I wanted to, but that is usually a given.  There are a couple of museums I hope to get back to, but if not, I will always come back at some point I'm sure.  Seeing my art book on my desk reminds me that I didn't draw as often as I meant to.  I'm not super great at drawing, but I want to get better, so I bought a book.  It's got over 600 things to draw in it, and I was hoping to work over the next couple of years or so and complete it. Guess I can always bring it to Qatar.  I also didn't have my daily quiet time like I meant to, wanted to, and needed to.  There is this beautiful park near my apartment that I spotted the first day and had planned on going there to read and be with the Lord.  But, having to get up so early for work, I decided to stay in bed as long as I could and not take the effort to get up and go.  That is definitely something that will be changing in Qatar.  I'm not surrounded by a ton of Christians here, and I certainly won't be in Qatar, so I'm going to need to have that time.

One thing I am glad I did was going to Parade last night.  It is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life.  Over 200 Marines lined up at the Barracks and had a parade. Now, this isn't the kind of parade I'm sure you're thinking of.  This is a military parade, so there was lots of marching in formation (kind of like the Aggie band) and a silent drill team.  The drill team was the coolest part of the entire thing.  They marched as one unit, but they also tossed rifles back and forth, twirling them around their arms and their back. The leader even caught some without looking directly at the Marine tossing him a rifle. I was blown away by the precision and prestige this group of Marines had.