It is a month before we go to Thailand and 2 months before I head off to Morocco. It didn’t really hit me much until I realized that the kids may have nothing to wear in the 35C heat. Sure enough, I had the boys try their summer Tevas – too small; bathing suits – small; flip flops – small; shorts – much shorter but wearable. I don’t do to-do lists but things started snowballing when I realized we need to get the boys registered for school, my drivers license expires while we are away, boys need a typhoid vaccine, the Phuket daytrips everyone told me were fine to book there are basically all taken, etc. – so welcome travel panic !

My CSC travel arrangements are made – I have 2 layovers but given I am traveling alone, after coming back from 25+ hours flight from Asia with 3 kids – that will feel like a luxury. Atlanta-Chicago-Madrid-Casablanca where we will meet the local IBM team and then travel locally to Tangier for our assignments. I still don’t know what we will be working on but I have met my Morocco team mates. At least on the phone. It sounds like a fantastic group of people from China, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Germany, UK, Sweden and Japan. I decided I will represent the Czech republic for the variety of it. Doesn’t it sound like a football tournament? #ibmcsc

A little update on my Arabic…. it is improving. I guess if you start from zero, improvement is significant. I can say that I can read VERY VERY slowly and write OK. Of course, I have no clue what I am reading but hey – who needs to talk. I can spend at least 5 minutes on the 10 different versions of “how are you” and that’s all that matters !

السلام عليكم