Tonight was the 2nd Annual KAUST School Variety Night put on by the Harbor Secondary School here on the KAUST campus. The Secondary School is grade 6 through grade 12 and is the school that Spencer and Megan attend. They didn't participate but we all attended to show support for our school and our community. It was a very nice evening. There were 12 acts - both musical and dance. The kids did wonderfully despite some small problems with the microphones. The kids were from all over the world which made it very interesting - everything from Hip Hop to Indian dancing to lots of songs that you all would probably recognize from current popular music.
I guess the most interesting thing for me tonight wasn't so much the acts - although they were fun and very enjoyable - but it was a nice feeling being part of this community. The Variety Night was held at the cinema on campus which also has a stage. Megan left early, rode her bike and met up with some of her friends to attend. Spencer had Scouts tonight so he met up with them and they rode their bikes up to the cinema. Mark rode his bike over from work and met us and my friend Belky met up with me and the triplets to enjoy the show. I think it's so funny that the triplets seem truly amazed when we are out and about on campus that they know people. "Hey Mom - that's so and so from my class" ...."Hey, I know that guy."...it's pretty funny. Campus is not all that big and you see people you know everywhere you go - the market, Discovery Square (our little "downtown" area), the Sports Club. So for as difficult as it is to live here sometimes, I do really like the small community feel here and the wonderful people that I've met from all over and am really enjoying getting to know!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Hajj / Eid
Very recently was the Hajj which is the Muslim annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lifetime. If you are interested in more information about Hajj, Wikipedia has some good info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj. We are currently located about an hour north of Jeddah and Mecca is a little east of Jeddah. Due to the Hajj and the corresponding Eid holiday, Mark and the kids had the week off of work and school. Since we arrived early in October, we really didn't have time to plan a trip during the holiday so we stayed on campus. Most people left on vacation for the week which I'm sure we'll do next year. It was very quiet here on campus during the week - even quieter than normal.
Our sea shipment arrived on the Monday of our holiday week so that was nice since we got the kids bikes and a lot of their other belongings. We still haven't unpacked everything but I don't have bookshelves or very many places to store things here. I'm glad to finally have my kitchen equipment though (tupperware mostly). Since Rachel's bike didn't get shipped over, we decided to head into Jeddah to get here a bike. Just Mark and I and the girls went since we needed to have room to put the bike in the car. So off we went about 5:00 in the evening. You don't go in during the day when it's a holiday because most stores don't open. The shops and malls are packed and traffic is crazy in the evening with all the visitors to the city. As we were driving into Jeddah, it became prayer time (Muslims are commanded to pray 5 times a day and the times are very specific). One of the most interesting things that we saw was the people that would pull over to the side of the road, get out their prayer mat and say their prayers on the side of the road. Since we're driving through the desert and there aren't a lot of places to stop, you often seen men stopped on the side of the road "using the restroom" also :-)
So we went to the Roshon mall (one of the many malls in Jeddah) because it has a Toys R Us. Before we looked for a bike though, we spotted a Chili's and craving something American, we went in to have dinner. If there weren't women dressed in Abayas, you would have thought you were in the states. The menus were in English - no arabic to be found - and the food was pretty much the same. There was also a Fuddrucker's right next to it. Here's a picture of me and the girls in front of Chili's - Megan and I are wearing our abayas. Mine pretty much looks like a black graduation robe but I've included a picture of the back of it so you'll see that it's not so plain. A lot of abayas are decorated with designs and stones and they now have white abayas that are becoming popular in Jeddah. I think I've said this before, but Jeddah is more liberal than other cities in KSA, such as Riyadh. We still do see women with their faces partially covered (you can see just their eyes) and some even with a full veil where you cannot see any of their face.
We also looked for a dishwashwer that same night. The dishwasher that is provided in the home is really just pathetic. If you talk to pretty much anyone on campus, noone uses it. Now, doing dishes by hand, is probably my least favorite chore in the whole world. And there are 7 of us, so there are a lot of dishes and cups. I think I told Mark that if I didn't have a good dishwasher, I was going to go back to the states :-) So the next night, we went again to Jeddah to look for a dishwasher. This time we took everyone but Spencer - he's not a shopping fan! We were looking for a few other electronic things also - a transformer (convert 220 to 120 so we can use our American applicances) and a mouse for Spencer's MacBook. We did a little shopping and then prayer time started. At this particular store, we did not have to leave, but they dim the lights, you can still shop, but you can't check out during prayer time. We needed to talk to someone about the dishwasher so we waited through prayer time and then got my new Bosch dishwasher!!! Yeah! It even fit well in the car with all of us so we could take it home that night.
After we did that, we headed to the attached mall to get some dinner. We ate in the food court at a place called Al Baik (pronounced al bake I think) - it is a chicken place - comparable to KFC but not really the same. Mark likes to call it "al beak" because it's serves chicken - hahahaha. After dinner we went in search of an iPhone for Megan. We still have yet to track one down - the iPhone 4 is still new here and kind of hard to find. We made one last stop at a place called Ice Land. I was hoping that it would have a nice rink and possibly someone that could work with the girls for skating. I was pretty disappointed - it's another mall type place with an ice rink in the middle - it's not very big and not even as nice as some of the other malls. So I don't think we'll take them there to skate. There are other malls that are closer that have rinks for the girls to try out.
On the drive home, we stopped at what would loosely be called a rest stop near the secuity checkpoint outside of Jeddah. It is really like a shopping area with little restaurants and shops - some open air and some in buildings. I do not like driving past this rest stop in general because there are no on and off ramps for it. You just pull off and on directly from the freeway and when it is crowded, it is absolutely nuts. Well at Ice Land, we had gotten the kids a treat for the ride home and they were all thirsty and I had no water in the car (which I should have all the time). So Mark stopped at this area to get some water bottles. He pulled up to this area that looked like a parking area - there are no lines for parking and people just park anywhere but there were 4 or 5 cars in a line so it looks like a parking spot. We stayed in the car while he got the water. In front of us there was a lane for cars that were leaving to get through. This guy pulls up in front of us in this lane, stops, puts his car in park and gets out of his car to shop, effectively blocking the 2 or 3 cars behind him that were leaving. They all started honking and this guy just totally ignored them. I was just cracking up but what's funny is that kind of behavior doesn't seem to be out of place. Anyways, I could tell tons of driving stories (they have way too many round-abouts here) but I won't bore you with them. In general, if I never had to be in a car in Jeddah, I think I would never miss it.
One morning during the break, Mark got up early and headed out on the road to Madina because he heard that there were baboons out that way and he wanted to get some pictures. Lizzie wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to get her up early and the other kids didn't want to get up early either - although later Spencer said he would have gone - oh well. So here are some of the pictures.
Our sea shipment arrived on the Monday of our holiday week so that was nice since we got the kids bikes and a lot of their other belongings. We still haven't unpacked everything but I don't have bookshelves or very many places to store things here. I'm glad to finally have my kitchen equipment though (tupperware mostly). Since Rachel's bike didn't get shipped over, we decided to head into Jeddah to get here a bike. Just Mark and I and the girls went since we needed to have room to put the bike in the car. So off we went about 5:00 in the evening. You don't go in during the day when it's a holiday because most stores don't open. The shops and malls are packed and traffic is crazy in the evening with all the visitors to the city. As we were driving into Jeddah, it became prayer time (Muslims are commanded to pray 5 times a day and the times are very specific). One of the most interesting things that we saw was the people that would pull over to the side of the road, get out their prayer mat and say their prayers on the side of the road. Since we're driving through the desert and there aren't a lot of places to stop, you often seen men stopped on the side of the road "using the restroom" also :-)
So we went to the Roshon mall (one of the many malls in Jeddah) because it has a Toys R Us. Before we looked for a bike though, we spotted a Chili's and craving something American, we went in to have dinner. If there weren't women dressed in Abayas, you would have thought you were in the states. The menus were in English - no arabic to be found - and the food was pretty much the same. There was also a Fuddrucker's right next to it. Here's a picture of me and the girls in front of Chili's - Megan and I are wearing our abayas. Mine pretty much looks like a black graduation robe but I've included a picture of the back of it so you'll see that it's not so plain. A lot of abayas are decorated with designs and stones and they now have white abayas that are becoming popular in Jeddah. I think I've said this before, but Jeddah is more liberal than other cities in KSA, such as Riyadh. We still do see women with their faces partially covered (you can see just their eyes) and some even with a full veil where you cannot see any of their face.
We also looked for a dishwashwer that same night. The dishwasher that is provided in the home is really just pathetic. If you talk to pretty much anyone on campus, noone uses it. Now, doing dishes by hand, is probably my least favorite chore in the whole world. And there are 7 of us, so there are a lot of dishes and cups. I think I told Mark that if I didn't have a good dishwasher, I was going to go back to the states :-) So the next night, we went again to Jeddah to look for a dishwasher. This time we took everyone but Spencer - he's not a shopping fan! We were looking for a few other electronic things also - a transformer (convert 220 to 120 so we can use our American applicances) and a mouse for Spencer's MacBook. We did a little shopping and then prayer time started. At this particular store, we did not have to leave, but they dim the lights, you can still shop, but you can't check out during prayer time. We needed to talk to someone about the dishwasher so we waited through prayer time and then got my new Bosch dishwasher!!! Yeah! It even fit well in the car with all of us so we could take it home that night.
After we did that, we headed to the attached mall to get some dinner. We ate in the food court at a place called Al Baik (pronounced al bake I think) - it is a chicken place - comparable to KFC but not really the same. Mark likes to call it "al beak" because it's serves chicken - hahahaha. After dinner we went in search of an iPhone for Megan. We still have yet to track one down - the iPhone 4 is still new here and kind of hard to find. We made one last stop at a place called Ice Land. I was hoping that it would have a nice rink and possibly someone that could work with the girls for skating. I was pretty disappointed - it's another mall type place with an ice rink in the middle - it's not very big and not even as nice as some of the other malls. So I don't think we'll take them there to skate. There are other malls that are closer that have rinks for the girls to try out.
On the drive home, we stopped at what would loosely be called a rest stop near the secuity checkpoint outside of Jeddah. It is really like a shopping area with little restaurants and shops - some open air and some in buildings. I do not like driving past this rest stop in general because there are no on and off ramps for it. You just pull off and on directly from the freeway and when it is crowded, it is absolutely nuts. Well at Ice Land, we had gotten the kids a treat for the ride home and they were all thirsty and I had no water in the car (which I should have all the time). So Mark stopped at this area to get some water bottles. He pulled up to this area that looked like a parking area - there are no lines for parking and people just park anywhere but there were 4 or 5 cars in a line so it looks like a parking spot. We stayed in the car while he got the water. In front of us there was a lane for cars that were leaving to get through. This guy pulls up in front of us in this lane, stops, puts his car in park and gets out of his car to shop, effectively blocking the 2 or 3 cars behind him that were leaving. They all started honking and this guy just totally ignored them. I was just cracking up but what's funny is that kind of behavior doesn't seem to be out of place. Anyways, I could tell tons of driving stories (they have way too many round-abouts here) but I won't bore you with them. In general, if I never had to be in a car in Jeddah, I think I would never miss it.
One morning during the break, Mark got up early and headed out on the road to Madina because he heard that there were baboons out that way and he wanted to get some pictures. Lizzie wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to get her up early and the other kids didn't want to get up early either - although later Spencer said he would have gone - oh well. So here are some of the pictures.
Someone in another car had given this baboon a bag of potato chips. He liked them and was not going to share with the other baboon.
Momma and baby
A baboon crossing sign
Another morning of the holiday, we took a breakfast cruise on the Red Sea from the KAUST marina. We didn't go very far, but it was nice to be out on the water and we got a nice view of the campus and neighboring Thuwal from the boat. I was surprised at how shallow the sea was so far from shore. The boat had to be very careful to go on a specific route to avoid all the sand bars that were in the water.
The KAUST Beacon
A view of our beach
A silly picture of Spencer (he doesn't like to have his picture taken and
he'll probably be mad that I posted this one)
KAUST Campus
The marina building - there is a good restaurant here too!
I think that catches you up on our life over the past month. The kids are back to school and Mark is back to work. We're looking forward to spending our Christmas in Athens, Greece. I am excited to see all the history in that city. Thanks for reading!!
Where to start???
It's been quite a while since I last posted. I've been extremely busy with work (it's our busy time of year) and I think I'm having a hard time getting adjusted to living here. I'm feeling a bit frustrated with how difficult it is to get things done and to get things I need for the house. The house is another bit of contention as it is way too small for 7 people and we're waiting to move to a bigger home somewhere on campus. No one can give us any idea how long it will be before one is ready and we may be able to move. So I wait patiently (or not so patiently).
But even though there are difficulties, there are some wonderful and interesting things here also. So I will try to share some of our experiences over the last month.
Let's start with Halloween...Halloween is not normally celebrated here in KSA but here at KAUST, there was an organized Halloween party and trick-or-treating for the kids. It's mostly for the younger kids so Spencer and Megan didn't really participate. It's funny because the kids kept asking when we could go "get" their costumes and I had to keep reminding them that there was nowhere to "get" a costume and that we had to be creative. The girls had their skating outfits so they were pretty easy. Alex couldn't think of anything so I suggested he be "static cling". He wasn't really happy about it but it was different and easy so that's what he did. He ended up winning the prize for most creative costume in his age group...I told him that his mom doesn't always make dumb suggestions :-)
One morning I received an email from one of the triplet's teachers requesting parents to help out on a field trip to the KAUST Museum. Since I've never had kids in school before and been on a "real" field trip I offered to go with them. I didn't have high expectations for this museum because the university is so new and still pretty small. I walked away though being highly impressed. It's a small museum that covers the history of Science and Technology in Islam and was very interesting and put together nicely. There were a lot of hands on exhibits and an interesting interactive movie also. Lizzie was in my group with one other little girl named Aya and we walked around and found answers to the questions that the teachers had put together for the kids. It was a very enjoyable morning!
On the day of the field trip, Spencer and Megan had parent/teacher conferences and acutally had the day off. Mark and I headed over to the school that afternoon and got to meet all (or most) of their teachers. They both seem to be adjusting well and are catching up with what they missed at the beginning of the school year.
One of the biggest things that we did this past month was to buy a car - finally! Buying a car here is really an experience. Mark and I had gone down to Jeddah and we visited a couple of dealerships and finally decided to buy a GMC Acadia. We had considered a Suburban but since it was more money, I didn't really want to drive a big huge car around campus and we won't be taking many major road trips. It's interesting because the dealerships here are not run on commission so no one is in a huge hurry to sell you a car. We spoke with a salesperson to find the price and then we left. You can do financing through some dealerships but it is not the norm and you usually bring cash or a check before they will order the vehicle. So deciding how to get the money here was difficult - we had thought about transferring money from the states and then when we found out that that took 5-10 business days we thought that was too long and Mark went to the bank here to get a loan. We didn't need to finance a whole lot because we had quite a bit of the amount we needed but we thought, let's get the loan and just pay off in a couple months. Well getting the loan took almost 2 weeks :-) Like I said - nothing is fast here. Finally we had cash in hand and headed to the dealership. We arrived there on Thursday (think Sat) at about 1 pm - right when they close for the afternoon. I was not happy! There were some people still there shopping and talking to salesmen so we waited a little bit and then headed out. As we got into our car, a salesman came out and asked if we needed help! Yeah!!! So we went back in and paid for the car, registration, window tinting and insurance (all to the same person). We walked away with a paper saying that we would have our car on Monday - en shallah (God willing). God must have been willing because Mark went down to Jeddah to pick up our new car on Monday evening!!!
That same evening, Mark decided he wanted to get us some food from this Pakastani restaurant called Zim Zam in the city of Thuwal which is the closest city (if you can call it that) to KAUST. He has gone to this restaurant many times with his coworkers and had really enjoyed it so he wanted to have us try it. We couldn't go to the restaurant because it is not a family restaurant (meaning no women). So he went there to order "take away" (this is what they say for carry out). This place is pretty much a dive and I don't think I would want to eat there anyways - yikes! Note the backhoe at the front of the restaurant which Mark said drove away before they left :-)
We invited our friends David and Belky and their little girls over to eat with us. The bread was incredible when it was warm - not as great after it cools down. The food was really good - I'm not sure exactly what the spices were but it was rice, chicken and lentils mostly. It was very greasy though and I woke up in the middle of the night with heartburn and couldn't sleep. So even though it was tasty, I'm not sure I'll be eating that again or maybe just the yummy bread! Here's a picture of Victoria with the bread that's almost as big as she is!
This is getting long so I'm going to continue on in another post. If you're still reading, I hope you're enjoying because it is fun for me to write and document our experiences on this adventure!
But even though there are difficulties, there are some wonderful and interesting things here also. So I will try to share some of our experiences over the last month.
Let's start with Halloween...Halloween is not normally celebrated here in KSA but here at KAUST, there was an organized Halloween party and trick-or-treating for the kids. It's mostly for the younger kids so Spencer and Megan didn't really participate. It's funny because the kids kept asking when we could go "get" their costumes and I had to keep reminding them that there was nowhere to "get" a costume and that we had to be creative. The girls had their skating outfits so they were pretty easy. Alex couldn't think of anything so I suggested he be "static cling". He wasn't really happy about it but it was different and easy so that's what he did. He ended up winning the prize for most creative costume in his age group...I told him that his mom doesn't always make dumb suggestions :-)
One morning I received an email from one of the triplet's teachers requesting parents to help out on a field trip to the KAUST Museum. Since I've never had kids in school before and been on a "real" field trip I offered to go with them. I didn't have high expectations for this museum because the university is so new and still pretty small. I walked away though being highly impressed. It's a small museum that covers the history of Science and Technology in Islam and was very interesting and put together nicely. There were a lot of hands on exhibits and an interesting interactive movie also. Lizzie was in my group with one other little girl named Aya and we walked around and found answers to the questions that the teachers had put together for the kids. It was a very enjoyable morning!
On the day of the field trip, Spencer and Megan had parent/teacher conferences and acutally had the day off. Mark and I headed over to the school that afternoon and got to meet all (or most) of their teachers. They both seem to be adjusting well and are catching up with what they missed at the beginning of the school year.
One of the biggest things that we did this past month was to buy a car - finally! Buying a car here is really an experience. Mark and I had gone down to Jeddah and we visited a couple of dealerships and finally decided to buy a GMC Acadia. We had considered a Suburban but since it was more money, I didn't really want to drive a big huge car around campus and we won't be taking many major road trips. It's interesting because the dealerships here are not run on commission so no one is in a huge hurry to sell you a car. We spoke with a salesperson to find the price and then we left. You can do financing through some dealerships but it is not the norm and you usually bring cash or a check before they will order the vehicle. So deciding how to get the money here was difficult - we had thought about transferring money from the states and then when we found out that that took 5-10 business days we thought that was too long and Mark went to the bank here to get a loan. We didn't need to finance a whole lot because we had quite a bit of the amount we needed but we thought, let's get the loan and just pay off in a couple months. Well getting the loan took almost 2 weeks :-) Like I said - nothing is fast here. Finally we had cash in hand and headed to the dealership. We arrived there on Thursday (think Sat) at about 1 pm - right when they close for the afternoon. I was not happy! There were some people still there shopping and talking to salesmen so we waited a little bit and then headed out. As we got into our car, a salesman came out and asked if we needed help! Yeah!!! So we went back in and paid for the car, registration, window tinting and insurance (all to the same person). We walked away with a paper saying that we would have our car on Monday - en shallah (God willing). God must have been willing because Mark went down to Jeddah to pick up our new car on Monday evening!!!
That same evening, Mark decided he wanted to get us some food from this Pakastani restaurant called Zim Zam in the city of Thuwal which is the closest city (if you can call it that) to KAUST. He has gone to this restaurant many times with his coworkers and had really enjoyed it so he wanted to have us try it. We couldn't go to the restaurant because it is not a family restaurant (meaning no women). So he went there to order "take away" (this is what they say for carry out). This place is pretty much a dive and I don't think I would want to eat there anyways - yikes! Note the backhoe at the front of the restaurant which Mark said drove away before they left :-)
We invited our friends David and Belky and their little girls over to eat with us. The bread was incredible when it was warm - not as great after it cools down. The food was really good - I'm not sure exactly what the spices were but it was rice, chicken and lentils mostly. It was very greasy though and I woke up in the middle of the night with heartburn and couldn't sleep. So even though it was tasty, I'm not sure I'll be eating that again or maybe just the yummy bread! Here's a picture of Victoria with the bread that's almost as big as she is!
This is getting long so I'm going to continue on in another post. If you're still reading, I hope you're enjoying because it is fun for me to write and document our experiences on this adventure!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Red Sea and Juice
First, the Read Sea...it's Thursday (meaning Saturday) and Mark wanted to head over to the beach to do some wind surfing. It ended up to be a little too windy for a beginning wind surfer so Mark and the kids just spent some time in the water. I snapped a few pictures before the battery on my camera went dead.
Mark, Spencer, Megan, Rachel and Alex decided to walk out to this "island" that is really like a large sand bar and not difficult to get to. Lizzie didn't want to go so we were going to start heading home since the wind picked up. Lizzie and I had gotten about 1/2 way back to the scooter when Rachel and Alex came running back to us because it was getting windy and a sand storm was picking up. So I sent them to the car and had to go back to the beach to get our keys. While I was there, one of the Coastline guys (the company that runs the beach) asked me if I needed help because they were getting everyone off the beach. They had told Mark and the kids that they needed to come in. He drove me back to the car where the triplets were hiding their faces against the car to keep out of the sand. They looked so pathetic that it was kind of cute. We hopped in the car and the triplets and I waited for the rest of the family.
Luckily, another nice Coastline guy picked Mark, Spencer and Megan back to the car. It was pretty much full sandstorm winds now and the people that worked there were all wearing face masks so as not to breathe the sand. Since we still have a rental car and it only seats 5, Mark had to ride the scooter back to the house. It was pretty windy and sandy but he made it just fine. The rest of us smushed in the car to get home.
So now on to the juice.....one of our favorite things about moving to Saudi Arabia is all the great juices that you can find her and how inexpensive they are. These are only a few of the juices you can find in our little grocery store on campus. In Jeddah, there are big stores that only sell juice, we've will defintely be visiting one of those soon!
Mark, Spencer, Megan, Rachel and Alex decided to walk out to this "island" that is really like a large sand bar and not difficult to get to. Lizzie didn't want to go so we were going to start heading home since the wind picked up. Lizzie and I had gotten about 1/2 way back to the scooter when Rachel and Alex came running back to us because it was getting windy and a sand storm was picking up. So I sent them to the car and had to go back to the beach to get our keys. While I was there, one of the Coastline guys (the company that runs the beach) asked me if I needed help because they were getting everyone off the beach. They had told Mark and the kids that they needed to come in. He drove me back to the car where the triplets were hiding their faces against the car to keep out of the sand. They looked so pathetic that it was kind of cute. We hopped in the car and the triplets and I waited for the rest of the family.
Luckily, another nice Coastline guy picked Mark, Spencer and Megan back to the car. It was pretty much full sandstorm winds now and the people that worked there were all wearing face masks so as not to breathe the sand. Since we still have a rental car and it only seats 5, Mark had to ride the scooter back to the house. It was pretty windy and sandy but he made it just fine. The rest of us smushed in the car to get home.
So now on to the juice.....one of our favorite things about moving to Saudi Arabia is all the great juices that you can find her and how inexpensive they are. These are only a few of the juices you can find in our little grocery store on campus. In Jeddah, there are big stores that only sell juice, we've will defintely be visiting one of those soon!
Strawberry and Mango are our favorites and these big bottles cost 9 SAR which is $2.40.
Megan is sad that these are empty :'-(
These little (single serve) bottles are
orange, mango,
mixed berry, mixed fruit
and apple and cost 1 SAR
which is about 27 cents.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sandstorms and More...
It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has happened and nothing has happened too. We're still getting settled into KAUST and adjusted to our new home. The kids have started school and they are enjoying their new adventure. They seem to be making friends and getting used to being gone all day and then having homework at night. I think I'm having the hardest time adjusting since I'm home by myself most of the day. I've started working out which is good and I'm trying to get used to a new work schedule. Here are some pictures of the first day of school.
Spencer started 8th grade - we weren't extremely about them putting him in 8th grade but they base it only on age and the cutoff is Sept 1. There was no evaluation on where he stood as far as academics so we're just keeping an eye on him so he doesn't get bored. He tells me right now that Science is really easy and Math is review for him right now. After a few more weeks, I'll see where he is doing and then approach the counselors if we think we need to. Megan started 7th grade and is making friends with a lot of the girls. They had a birthday party for a couple of the girls this week at the Rec Center and Megan went and had a great time. Rachel, Alexander and Lizzie started 3rd grade and all have different teachers. So they have time alone but then get to be together during lunch and recess. They seem to like it so far which I'm very happy about.
Mark and I have been shopping for a car. I think we've decided on a GMC Acadia - it will seat all 7 of us but isn't huge for me to drive around campus (and fit in the garage). We're working on getting all the money together since they don't do financing here like they do in the states - it is a very "cash" society. I've barely touched my credit cards since I've been here which is odd because at home I would not carry very much cash, put everything on the card and pay it off at the end of the month. Hopefully, we'll have a car here in the next couple weeks - that's probably wishful thinking on my part as it seems to take twice as long as you would hope it would!
We've been to church twice now. We meet at a home in Jeddah so it is an hour drive there and back. We are allowed to meet here in KSA but we are not allowed to invite non-members to our meetings. There are a list of rules that are read at church every quarter to remind everyone about how we should conduct our meetings here. It is a nice ward - mostly Philipinos but a couple American families also. The first week we went there was a primary activity right after church. The kids baked cookies with their moms and we all had a treat.
Spencer started 8th grade - we weren't extremely about them putting him in 8th grade but they base it only on age and the cutoff is Sept 1. There was no evaluation on where he stood as far as academics so we're just keeping an eye on him so he doesn't get bored. He tells me right now that Science is really easy and Math is review for him right now. After a few more weeks, I'll see where he is doing and then approach the counselors if we think we need to. Megan started 7th grade and is making friends with a lot of the girls. They had a birthday party for a couple of the girls this week at the Rec Center and Megan went and had a great time. Rachel, Alexander and Lizzie started 3rd grade and all have different teachers. So they have time alone but then get to be together during lunch and recess. They seem to like it so far which I'm very happy about.
Mark and I have been shopping for a car. I think we've decided on a GMC Acadia - it will seat all 7 of us but isn't huge for me to drive around campus (and fit in the garage). We're working on getting all the money together since they don't do financing here like they do in the states - it is a very "cash" society. I've barely touched my credit cards since I've been here which is odd because at home I would not carry very much cash, put everything on the card and pay it off at the end of the month. Hopefully, we'll have a car here in the next couple weeks - that's probably wishful thinking on my part as it seems to take twice as long as you would hope it would!
We've been to church twice now. We meet at a home in Jeddah so it is an hour drive there and back. We are allowed to meet here in KSA but we are not allowed to invite non-members to our meetings. There are a list of rules that are read at church every quarter to remind everyone about how we should conduct our meetings here. It is a nice ward - mostly Philipinos but a couple American families also. The first week we went there was a primary activity right after church. The kids baked cookies with their moms and we all had a treat.
Alex, Ethan and Lillibeth
The woman on the right is Belky and she lives on the KAUST campus.
Lizzie and Elena (Belky's daughter) on the right
Rachel, Abby and Erin (I don't know the little girl's name on the left)
Last Friday, we had what is called a Family Day after church which is basically a pot luck. I have never been to a pot luck like this!!! So much food - there was turkey and all sorts of rice and "something" dishes which were probably mostly Philipino. Tons of desserts and Lillibeth made homemade spring rolls that were just so unbelievably good! She is planning to teach my friend Melissa how to make them after she has here baby and they invited me to come!!! I've never seen so much food for the people that were there. It's nice though because a lot of the members of the ward are single men or men here without their families - so they get to fill up a plate and take it home with them. I think they probably could take home 3 or 4 plates!
Today, Lizzie didn't have a great morning before she went to school and Mark was trying to get her to cheer up. He snapped this picture of her on the way to school. She's so cute when she has an attitude - I'm hoping that the attitude cleared up before she got to school!
And now....sandstorms....they are not quite what I imagined. The weather here has been really hot and actually not as humid the past 2 days. That's probably because of all the sand in the air. Yesterday afternoon the kids didn't do some of their outside activities because of the sandstorm. I went to work out this morning and on the way home, I stopped at the grocery store, Tamimi's, to pick up a few things for the day. When I came out, we were in full sandstorm mode. It's not like you can't see anything (and maybe this isn't a real bad one) but it's just kind of creepy looking. It's really hazy and you have to be careful not to get the sand in your eyes. I snapped these pictures when I got home from the store.
I've promised some people pictures of me in my abaya and I promise that I'll post that next time - I don't have any pictures yet. We miss all of our family and friends and hope you are well!
Thanks for reading!
Friday, October 8, 2010
I WANT TARGET!!
So yesterday was probably one of the most interesting and challenging days we've had since we've moved to Saudi Arabia (of the whole week that we've been here). There are a lot of things that we need for the house and we need to buy a car too. Thursday is our "Saturday" so Mark was not working and he rented a suburban to take the family to Jeddah to do a little shopping.
The day started out nice, the Bishop and his family from our new ward here in Jeddah came to visit. It was really nice to meet them - they are from Ohio and have 4.5 kids - their oldest daughter is Megan's age, they have a 9 yo son that is the triplet's age, 2 younger daughters and a new baby due very soon. We got to spend a little time chatting about living as Americans in KSA which was fun.
So we headed off to Jeddah about 1:30. It takes about an hour to get there and the drive wasn't too bad. Then we got a little lost in the city - it was acutally kind of pretty, we ended up driving along the Red Sea which was really nice. The streets are pretty confusing, they seem to like round-abouts and if you get on a big street, there aren't really a lot of places to turn around. I've heard how terrible the traffic is in Jeddah but right now, I'm thinking people were exaggerating - I will soon learn that they are not :-)
We finally make it to the Red Sea Mall - it doesn't look that big from the outside but it is really large. The shops look much like they would in the states with maybe a little more arabic but there are all sorts of western style clothing for men and women. All of the women there are wearing abayas and a lot (but definitely not all) with head coverings and some with the veil as well. We are looking for an abaya for me - I have borrowed one, but it's a little small and not very comfortable. After searching through practically the whole mall and me getting very frustrated, we finally find one. I spend way too much for an abaya but I have one that fits and that I like - I'll have to get a picture soon. It's interesting how even non-muslim women get into picking out abayas - some are very pretty - they have lots of embellishments and patterns on them now and in this culture, it is very much a status symbol for the women.
The kids are getting hungry so we decide to find a place to eat and head up to the food court. It is basically all craziness up here - totally packed with people, not a table to be found and it close to the 3:15 prayer time which means that a lot of the shops/restaurants shut down. The kids wanted McDonalds, but they were closing down so we head over to KFC where I think probably 4 or 5 people cut in front of me in line. So again, I'm a little frustrated :-) One of the most surprising things that I saw was kids riding around the crowds on scooters and skateboards and heelies all over the place. Seriously, I was very surprised that they let kids do this. In general, I just sense a lack of discipline with the kids here - or maybe it's the same in the states and I just don't go to the mall on Saturdays :-)
Mark and Spencer got some chinese food and I finally just went to a coffee shop to get brownies for rest of the kids. We ate and then decided to try to head out and find Ikea. This is where the adventure begins and I totally see where people say that driving is crazy here. There is like a main street and then along side them there are streets where you would drive to get to the local shops. People are weaving in and out - some are agressive and some are really cautious. We saw people stopped on streets and backing up because they went the wrong way and people going around them because they were in the way. Megan kept saying - "Mom, aren't you glad you can't drive?" and I really kind of am. I liked being in the Suburban because it's big and I felt protected. I think we will probably buy something similar just for that reason.
We made it to Ikea and anyone who has shopped Ikea before knows what an experience it is. It is huge and when it's crowded and you have 5 kids in tow, it really isn't that much fun. Plus wearing an abaya makes everything about 5 times warmer than what I'm used to. We got a lot of what we needed - sheets, towels, hangars but they didn't have some things that I wanted. It was about 6:30 at this point, and me and the kids were done. So we decided to head back to KAUST. On the way back, I just kept thinking how much I wished I had a Target where I could walk in and find everything I needed in one place. I was IM'ing with Belky last night and we decided that we would start a petition to get one - so....maybe in the future KSA will have a Target for all us Americans to shop at! :-)
Thanks for reading! Cindy
The day started out nice, the Bishop and his family from our new ward here in Jeddah came to visit. It was really nice to meet them - they are from Ohio and have 4.5 kids - their oldest daughter is Megan's age, they have a 9 yo son that is the triplet's age, 2 younger daughters and a new baby due very soon. We got to spend a little time chatting about living as Americans in KSA which was fun.
So we headed off to Jeddah about 1:30. It takes about an hour to get there and the drive wasn't too bad. Then we got a little lost in the city - it was acutally kind of pretty, we ended up driving along the Red Sea which was really nice. The streets are pretty confusing, they seem to like round-abouts and if you get on a big street, there aren't really a lot of places to turn around. I've heard how terrible the traffic is in Jeddah but right now, I'm thinking people were exaggerating - I will soon learn that they are not :-)
We finally make it to the Red Sea Mall - it doesn't look that big from the outside but it is really large. The shops look much like they would in the states with maybe a little more arabic but there are all sorts of western style clothing for men and women. All of the women there are wearing abayas and a lot (but definitely not all) with head coverings and some with the veil as well. We are looking for an abaya for me - I have borrowed one, but it's a little small and not very comfortable. After searching through practically the whole mall and me getting very frustrated, we finally find one. I spend way too much for an abaya but I have one that fits and that I like - I'll have to get a picture soon. It's interesting how even non-muslim women get into picking out abayas - some are very pretty - they have lots of embellishments and patterns on them now and in this culture, it is very much a status symbol for the women.
The kids are getting hungry so we decide to find a place to eat and head up to the food court. It is basically all craziness up here - totally packed with people, not a table to be found and it close to the 3:15 prayer time which means that a lot of the shops/restaurants shut down. The kids wanted McDonalds, but they were closing down so we head over to KFC where I think probably 4 or 5 people cut in front of me in line. So again, I'm a little frustrated :-) One of the most surprising things that I saw was kids riding around the crowds on scooters and skateboards and heelies all over the place. Seriously, I was very surprised that they let kids do this. In general, I just sense a lack of discipline with the kids here - or maybe it's the same in the states and I just don't go to the mall on Saturdays :-)
Mark and Spencer got some chinese food and I finally just went to a coffee shop to get brownies for rest of the kids. We ate and then decided to try to head out and find Ikea. This is where the adventure begins and I totally see where people say that driving is crazy here. There is like a main street and then along side them there are streets where you would drive to get to the local shops. People are weaving in and out - some are agressive and some are really cautious. We saw people stopped on streets and backing up because they went the wrong way and people going around them because they were in the way. Megan kept saying - "Mom, aren't you glad you can't drive?" and I really kind of am. I liked being in the Suburban because it's big and I felt protected. I think we will probably buy something similar just for that reason.
We made it to Ikea and anyone who has shopped Ikea before knows what an experience it is. It is huge and when it's crowded and you have 5 kids in tow, it really isn't that much fun. Plus wearing an abaya makes everything about 5 times warmer than what I'm used to. We got a lot of what we needed - sheets, towels, hangars but they didn't have some things that I wanted. It was about 6:30 at this point, and me and the kids were done. So we decided to head back to KAUST. On the way back, I just kept thinking how much I wished I had a Target where I could walk in and find everything I needed in one place. I was IM'ing with Belky last night and we decided that we would start a petition to get one - so....maybe in the future KSA will have a Target for all us Americans to shop at! :-)
Thanks for reading! Cindy
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Leaving Home - Arrival in KSA - First Impressions
It's been a while since I posted - life got busy wrapping things up at home. It was sure hard to leave everyone - especially my family. I miss my parents and the rest of my family but it's nice to know that we can use skype to talk and see each other so easily. So here is the update...I don't have very many pictures of this time so this will be a lot of words. I hope to follow up with more pictures soon!
We spent our last evening in Michigan with my parents, my brother Rich, Laura and their kids Cameron & Trevor and my brother Russell with his two boys, Nicholas & Nathan. We had our good friends the Lindows and the Johnsons stop by to say good-bye to us also. We were pretty well packed by late in the afternoon so when we got up in the morning to leave, we just had to throw our dirty clothes in a suitcase and say our final farewells. I really tried not to cry but I did - so did the kids. We made it to the airport very easily, turned in the rental car and got on our flight to DC. It was delayed an hour but we had a 6 1/2 hour layover in DC so not that big of a deal. I was so grateful that our luggage got checked all the way from Detroit to Jeddah so I didn't have to deal with getting it to the next airline in DC. My mom's cousin Lucille was nice enough to meet us in DC - she helped us through the airport and we had lunch with her. She hung out with us during our layover and we got to chat and enjoy some time together before our flight left.
The flight from DC to Jeddah was uneventful but VERY long - 12 hours. Next time, I won't have the kids pack as much to do because the plane had individual video screens and that kept everyone entertained the entire flight. I don't think anyone opened their backpacks at all. We flew Saudi Airlines and it was interesting how the movies were edited - for example, I watched Music & Lyrics and if Drew Barrymore's top was a little low cut - it was blurred in that area. Hugh Grant had a necklace on that I believe was probably a cross and that was blurred out too. Also, most women were dressed in western dress on the plane and as we got close to landing, changed into their abayas. Alex had to use the bathroom but got frustrated because the line was so long :-) I had worn black pants and top and brought a dark hoodie that I wore so I didn't stand out. It probably wouldn't have mattered, we were in the airport maybe a total of 45 minutes.
Nobody slept very well except for the little girls but we made it and landed in Jeddah about 1:00 pm local time. We did not step right onto a jetway as we do in the states, but you actually take stairs down to the tarmac and then hop onto a bus that takes you into customs. The heat hits you as you exit the plane like a brick wall. On our descent, Megan had some water drip from above her - the flight attendant says that happens all the time because it's so cold up high and then as the plane descends into Jeddah, there is a lot of condensation. You never know where it's going to drip.
Getting through customs was fairly easy - we found the desk for KAUST, filled out some paperwork and got through the first part of customs in about 15 minutes. We picked up our luggage with the help of a KAUST representative and while we were waiting for it, we saw Mark outside the customs area. Our luggage was scanned but not opened at all and off we went. It was good to see Mark! He was there with two cars for us - one for luggage and one for the family. Three KAUST representatives were there to help us...we got to the cars and off we went.
Driving from Jeddah to KAUST was not that interesting - a lot of deserty looking area although we did see camels. The most interesting part was that there were these HUGE homes with big high walls around them. They were gorgeous and then outside of the walls, there were piles of dirt and trash. Most people have told us that it is like that around the world in a lot of places - it's just odd to see such oppulence with such garbage around.
We arrived at our townhome where we will stay until a bigger home is available (hopefully). We are a little tight in this house. It is good size but there are only 2 bedrooms and they are not big enough for 3 beds. Megan is sleeping in the little maid's quarters downstairs. It has it's own bathroom but the shower is just a shower head next to the toilet - no tub or anything - it would make a huge wet mess if she were to use it. Also, to get into the little wardrobe, you have to move the nightstand. So it is not the best situation, but it is working for right now. Mark says I have to traipse into the housing office with all of my 5 kids and ask them when they'll have the bigger house ready for us :-)
We had dinner at the dining hall on campus - where we've had most of our main meals since we don't have a whole ton of groceries yet. There is a supermarket on campus which has a lot of things but there are bigger stores in Jeddah with better selection and prices so I am waiting until we get there to stock up on necessary pantry items. We need lots of things for the house too - laundry baskets, towels, hangars, etc. The dining hall is awesome and has a great selection of food so we haven't been suffering. The prices are great too! Yesterday for a great dinner, we spent 101 Riyals which equals $27. Another interesting thing is that they don't use change here very often. So if I'm at the grocery store and the cost is 141.60 Riyals and I pay 150, they will give me 8 Riyals in change and then some candy or a soda or something. The kids like it because they usually get the treat.
I was hoping to get the kids started in school right away, but they only do intake interviews on Sat and Tues so Tuesday it was. Megan and Spencer will be in the secondary school and the triplets will be in the elementary school. The nice thing about our current home is that it is right across the street from the schools so the kids can walk very easily. They are excited to start and will begin on Saturday. The work week here is Saturday to Wednesday with the weekend on Thursday and Friday so we will go to church in Jeddah on Friday. I'm looking forward to meeting more of our ward. I already have a friend in our ward that lives on campus named Belky - her husband David is a professor here in Applied Mathmatics and they have two adorable daughters named Elena and Victoria. I am very grateful for the church and that it allows me to already know someone anywhere I go. They have been so helpful and welcoming! Belky has driven us all over the place because we are still without a car (we will be buying one soon!).
We've had some little pest problems since we got here :-) We had ants in the kids bedrooms and we had a little mouse visitor that was caught today. Nothing too different than the states but it was nice that I could just call someone up and tell them and they came to take care of it. I think I could get used to that. People are extremely friendly here and very helpful!
So some of the things that we have to get used to:
We spent our last evening in Michigan with my parents, my brother Rich, Laura and their kids Cameron & Trevor and my brother Russell with his two boys, Nicholas & Nathan. We had our good friends the Lindows and the Johnsons stop by to say good-bye to us also. We were pretty well packed by late in the afternoon so when we got up in the morning to leave, we just had to throw our dirty clothes in a suitcase and say our final farewells. I really tried not to cry but I did - so did the kids. We made it to the airport very easily, turned in the rental car and got on our flight to DC. It was delayed an hour but we had a 6 1/2 hour layover in DC so not that big of a deal. I was so grateful that our luggage got checked all the way from Detroit to Jeddah so I didn't have to deal with getting it to the next airline in DC. My mom's cousin Lucille was nice enough to meet us in DC - she helped us through the airport and we had lunch with her. She hung out with us during our layover and we got to chat and enjoy some time together before our flight left.
Waiting in DTW for flight to DC
More waiting...
Our very large airplane from DC to Jeddah
Nobody slept very well except for the little girls but we made it and landed in Jeddah about 1:00 pm local time. We did not step right onto a jetway as we do in the states, but you actually take stairs down to the tarmac and then hop onto a bus that takes you into customs. The heat hits you as you exit the plane like a brick wall. On our descent, Megan had some water drip from above her - the flight attendant says that happens all the time because it's so cold up high and then as the plane descends into Jeddah, there is a lot of condensation. You never know where it's going to drip.
Getting through customs was fairly easy - we found the desk for KAUST, filled out some paperwork and got through the first part of customs in about 15 minutes. We picked up our luggage with the help of a KAUST representative and while we were waiting for it, we saw Mark outside the customs area. Our luggage was scanned but not opened at all and off we went. It was good to see Mark! He was there with two cars for us - one for luggage and one for the family. Three KAUST representatives were there to help us...we got to the cars and off we went.
Driving from Jeddah to KAUST was not that interesting - a lot of deserty looking area although we did see camels. The most interesting part was that there were these HUGE homes with big high walls around them. They were gorgeous and then outside of the walls, there were piles of dirt and trash. Most people have told us that it is like that around the world in a lot of places - it's just odd to see such oppulence with such garbage around.
We arrived at our townhome where we will stay until a bigger home is available (hopefully). We are a little tight in this house. It is good size but there are only 2 bedrooms and they are not big enough for 3 beds. Megan is sleeping in the little maid's quarters downstairs. It has it's own bathroom but the shower is just a shower head next to the toilet - no tub or anything - it would make a huge wet mess if she were to use it. Also, to get into the little wardrobe, you have to move the nightstand. So it is not the best situation, but it is working for right now. Mark says I have to traipse into the housing office with all of my 5 kids and ask them when they'll have the bigger house ready for us :-)
We had dinner at the dining hall on campus - where we've had most of our main meals since we don't have a whole ton of groceries yet. There is a supermarket on campus which has a lot of things but there are bigger stores in Jeddah with better selection and prices so I am waiting until we get there to stock up on necessary pantry items. We need lots of things for the house too - laundry baskets, towels, hangars, etc. The dining hall is awesome and has a great selection of food so we haven't been suffering. The prices are great too! Yesterday for a great dinner, we spent 101 Riyals which equals $27. Another interesting thing is that they don't use change here very often. So if I'm at the grocery store and the cost is 141.60 Riyals and I pay 150, they will give me 8 Riyals in change and then some candy or a soda or something. The kids like it because they usually get the treat.
I was hoping to get the kids started in school right away, but they only do intake interviews on Sat and Tues so Tuesday it was. Megan and Spencer will be in the secondary school and the triplets will be in the elementary school. The nice thing about our current home is that it is right across the street from the schools so the kids can walk very easily. They are excited to start and will begin on Saturday. The work week here is Saturday to Wednesday with the weekend on Thursday and Friday so we will go to church in Jeddah on Friday. I'm looking forward to meeting more of our ward. I already have a friend in our ward that lives on campus named Belky - her husband David is a professor here in Applied Mathmatics and they have two adorable daughters named Elena and Victoria. I am very grateful for the church and that it allows me to already know someone anywhere I go. They have been so helpful and welcoming! Belky has driven us all over the place because we are still without a car (we will be buying one soon!).
We've had some little pest problems since we got here :-) We had ants in the kids bedrooms and we had a little mouse visitor that was caught today. Nothing too different than the states but it was nice that I could just call someone up and tell them and they came to take care of it. I think I could get used to that. People are extremely friendly here and very helpful!
So some of the things that we have to get used to:
- Heat AND Humidity - we can see the Red Sea from our home and it is very humid. There is always a humid haziness during the day.
- The constant hum of air conditioners - we have 4 units in our 3 BR townhome which I would say is probably about 2400 sq ft.
- The layout of the homes are set up for maids - the kitchen has a door to close it off from the rest of the house so you have to walk way around to get in there. The rest of the space isn't set up very efficiently either - this seems to be a trend in the design of a lot of their buildings.
- Blue sky ALL THE TIME!!! This one won't be hard to get used to - just have to remember the sunscreen.
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