Christmas Day 2010

It just really didn't seem like Christmas this year - the weather being so warm, not a lot of Christmas decorations around the house, no Christmas music at every turn and not being home with our family.  I had a very hard time shopping since it's a pain getting into Jeddah to shop.  Mark and I went in one evening and I got a driver to go in another day and that was all the Christmas shopping I did this year.  But Christmas did come and even though it was different, it was a nice day - a day to spend with family and to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Mark and I were talking about how at this time last year, we had no idea what changes would happen to our family in 2010.  We had hardship and trials and many blessings and we are grateful for the wonderful family and friends that are in our lives that have supported us through all the decisions and changes that we've gone through this last year.

So, it's Christmas Day in Athens and the kids are looking forward to opening the presents that we did bring them.  I only brought small things that we could easily fit in our suitcases.  Both Megan and Spencer got Swatch watches - they have Swatch stores in every mall and I have fond memories of these watches from middle school :-)  I actually got a new Swatch also - although it's a bit fancier than the plastic type style.  All of the kids got a game for their Nintendo DS.  Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning.

A notebook for French class

Cooking Mama for the DS

Just being patient...

We enjoyed the very yummy pastries that we bought at the bakery the night before and basically just hung around the apartment all morning playing games and being together.  It was very low key, but very nice.  We decided to head out to Likavittus Hill - most of the major attractions were closed on the 25th and 26th, but the hill was open.   Likavittus Hill is the tallest point in Athens and affords a wonderful view of the whole city.

So we figured out which metro station we needed to get to and headed out early in the afternoon.  We knew there was a "funicular" that would take you to the top of the hill, but what we did not realize was that you pretty much walked half way up the hill before you got to this.  I have to tell you, that I don't think I have ever walked more stairs at one time.  An interesting side note about this trip (for me at least) was that even though we ate tons of good Greek food, I lost 7 pounds when we were on vacation because of all the walking we did.  I LOVE that kind of vacation!!!  So now I just have to keep it up now that we're back.

Rachel and Lizzie on the stairs up to Lykavittus Hill

A view down one of the city streets that we walked up.

So we walked and walked and walked until we reached the entrance to the "funicular" which is basically a little tram that takes you up the rest of the hill.  We rode up and snapped a bunch more pictures.

A gorgeous view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon

with the Mediterranean Sea in the background

The amazing city of Athens

The Temple of Zeus

We met another American family from Kalamazoo while we were enjoying the view and chatted with them for a while.  Then it was time to head down the funicular again (I still don't know why that is what it is called).  We got over there, put our tickets in and then realized that there wasn't enough room for all 7 of us to head down.  So we went back up to the top and this guy came out (the operator) and pretty much yelled at us for making the tram late.  I think his words were something like - "Now we're behind schedule and it's all your fault.".  Ha - Merry Christmas to the funicular operator!  So we waited for the funicular to return, hopped on and headed back down the hill.

Waiting to get on the funicular.

The tracks down the hill.

Smart Cars were everywhere in Athens -

notice how this one is parked

(backed into a spot where you would

normally parallel park)

We headed back to the metro station (the walk down the hill was much more pleasant) and back over to Plaka to find some Christmas dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant that we had passed the day before where he told Rachel that she looked like a movie star.  He was a nice older man that when he found out that we had triplets, told us he was a twin.  It was always very fun talking to all the people that we met!  We had a really enjoyable Christmas dinner - Rachel and Alex had pizza, I had some really good roast beef and Mark and the rest of the kids had a turkey dinner. 

After dinner, we headed home to talk to our families via Skype and wish them a Merry Christmas.  We hope eveyone had a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Eve in Greece

We got up on Christmas Eve morning ready to start our adventure.  We hadn't a chance to go to the grocery store so we all got dressed and decided to find someplace to eat breakfast.  We headed towards the metro station and found a much better way to get there (rather than the way we walked to find the apartment).  As we were walking we noticed some little girls with triangles (musical instrument) walking around.  At first I thought they must be headed to a little concert or something, but as we walked, we saw more and more kids with the same thing.  They would walk into a store and sing a Christmas carol and then the listener would give them a coin.  We soon found out that this is a tradition in Greece - here's a link with some more information.

http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/the-tradition-of-caroling-in-greece-plus-a-greek-christmas-carol/

We would see children doing the same thing everywhere throughout the city that day - even walking through the metro.  It almost seemed like trick-or-treating in the United States.

So...back to breakfast...there were tons of bakeries with pastries that looked so delicious and tempting but the kids wanted something more and then we found a McDonalds.  Yes, even in Greece, my kids want to eat at McDonalds.  So we walked in to find that this particular place didn't serve breakfast - it was about 10:30 so we decided to stay and have lunch for breakfast.  Thankfully, one of the people working spoke English - and we would find over the course of the trip that a lot of people knew English - which was very nice for us!  The "toy" in the Happy Meal was a cup with an orange juicer on the top.  We thought that this was a little odd but we would soon find how many orange trees are in Athens - they are everywhere!  You'll probably see the cups in some of the pictures - all 3 of the triplets carried their cup the whole day and did not lose it - what a feat!

So after breakfast, we hopped on the metro to go to the Acropolis.  About 5 stops and one train change later, we arrived at the Akropoli station.  Even the metro stations had artifacts in them - a lot of them were found when they were digging for the train lines.

Lizzie soon realized that a lot of the statues were not 

clothed appropriately and didn't hesitate to point it

 out at first.

Outside the Akropoli metro station - a very pretty street!

We entered the Acropolis on the south side which wasn't the "main" entrance so we walked up the back slope which was pretty interesting.  We didn't have a tour guide and we found that the historic sites are not really well marked - not a lot to read or information to gather at the site itself.  But we enjoyed looking at the beautiful buildings and the view from the top.  We met a woman from Canada and talked to her for a while and exchanged picture taking which was nice so that we could get a picture of the entire family together. 

 

Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus - I believe that the seating

has been restored but the walls at the front are original.

The view from this vantage was truly extrodinary!

Almost at the top!

The Parthenon - I think this is one of our favorite

pictures from the trip.

The Old Temple of Athena

Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus

Lykavittos Hill - the highest hill in Athens

The next few pictures are just some pictures of the kids that I really liked.

When we were done touring the Acropolis, we headed downhill.  We weren't quite sure of the way to get back so we just started walking around the hill.  We ended up walking along the north side of the Acropolis on these little tiny streets.  We thought we were lost a little but after a while and quite a few "should we take this street?", we ended up in Plaka which is the "touristy" area of Athens with lots of little shops and restaurants.  We headed downhill and found this little family restaurant and decided to eat lunch.  It was a nice little open-aired restaurant.  The meal was served family style - the owner brought out a tray full of selections and you picked a certain number of items based on the number of people in your party.  We had stuffed grape leaves, cheese puffs, meatballs, moussaka, and many other items.  It was a wonderful lunch but my kids did say that the meatballs weren't as good as Grandma's.

A view outside the restaurant.

After our late lunch, we walked through Plaka a little and then found the metro station at Syntagma Square (Constitution Square).  Syntagma Square was busy with lots of people - there were characters for the kids to see, Santa was there, many people selling things including lottery tickets and all sorts of different pastries and donuts.  It was a very loud and interesting place to be.  We got on the train, to our station and back to the apartment. 

Spencer and Alex wanted to stay at the apartment (yes, mom, we locked the door and they had a cell phone to reach us) and walked up to the local supermarket to pick up some food for the next day.  We found lots of items that we knew and then some we didn't.  We had a hard time figuring out which carton contained milk and then when we got home, we realized that one side had Greek and the other English - duh!  We looked high and low for bacon but didn't find anything that was like American bacon.  I took one last look by the butcher where they had full pigs for sale to roast.  I did not buy one :-) 

We had also bought a Nintendo DS charger because we only had ones that used 120V and Greece uses 220V electricity - we did not have a transformer to use.  I had gotten the kids games for Christmas and we knew that it wouldn't be good if they couldn't use them.  When we got back to the apartment, we realized they were for Nintendo DSi (not DS) and it didn't fit - why do they continuously need to change things like that?  So Mark and Alex headed back to the store to see if they could find anything else and the rest of the kids and I headed to the bakery to get treats for Christmas morning. 

We found this charming little bakery where we bought a box full of treats and a few other things for the morning!  No one spoke English here and so it was difficult at first until another customer helped us out a little.  I bought some baklava which was just so good I can't even describe it!  The kids got some cookies and we got a few croissants for the morning too.  Then we spotted a little fruit market nearby where be bought 3 oranges for about 40 cents.  After my "no speak Greek" to them, they patted the girls heads and wished us Happy New Year. 

It was a wonderful first day in Greece - we were pretty much exhausted and headed home to bed looking forward to Christmas morning.





Three Continents in 24 Hours

Continent #1 - Asia

The kids were done with school, Mark got home from work, I had wrapped presents and packed all day and we were ready to head off on our first adventure from KAUST.  We were all excited except for the fact that our plane didn't leave until 11:05 pm.  A friend from church had offered to let us park our car near his home because the Jeddah airport doesn't have long term parking - weird but true.  So we left somewhere around 6:00 and headed south to Jeddah.  I dislike driving in Jeddah because it's so crazy but I particularly disklike it around rush hour.  So this was not a pleasant trip and my eyes were closed quite often.  But we made it safely!

We were all hungry but thought we'd stop somewhere on the way to get some food.  I've probably said this before but it's kind of hard to get around Jeddah and if you want to get to something on the other side of the road, you often have to drive a couple of km to turn around to get there and then do the same thing on your way back.  So as we drove, everything of any interest in the food category was on the left hand side of the road.  We knew there was a McDonald's close to our friend's home so we decided to just stop there and as we pulled up...guess what time it was....prayer time....and we were sad because we wouldn't be able to get any food for 30-40 minutes.  Hungry kids stuffed in a car for 30 minutes was not a good idea so we drove to our friends house, dropped them off and headed back to McDonald's.  We waited in the drive thru line until they opened again, got a bunch of cheeseburgers and fries and went back.

Then off to the airport.  It was a little later in the evening and our friend Alex, knows better ways to get places since he lives in Jeddah and he got us to the airport easily.  We checked in and headed off to wait for our flight. 

Continent #2 - Africa


We landed in Cairo about 1:00 am local time (2:00 Jeddah time).  Our flight to Athens didn't leave until 10:30 am the next morning so I had booked a night at the Marriott so we could sleep a little better and not be exhausted before we left.  Our luggage was checked all the way to Athens, we had gotten a shuttle from the Marriott scheduled, got our VISAs easily and went through immigration quickly.  It was probably only about 45 minutes after we landed that we were checking into our hotel! 

The hotel was gorgeous - decked out for Christmas.  We were sad that we weren't able to enjoy it very long.

Alex at the JW Marriott - Cairo 

Christmas tree at the JW Marriott - Cairo 

 A view from the window in the morning

A funny thing happened, our friends the Ketcheson's ended up being at the same hotel as us in Cairo.  They came down in the morning to see us at breakfast.  They were headed to Peru for the holidays when their flight through London was cancelled due to the terrible weather that Europe was experiencing.  They had to totally refigure out their flights and then ended up still leaving Saudi Arabia on Monday and spending a few days in Cairo before flying out on Christmas Eve on the rest of their journey.  We enjoyed seeing them and it was fun to know someone else so far from home!

 All of us with the Ketcheson's - David, Belky, Elena and Victoria

We headed back to the airport and boarded our flight to Athens.  A few things that I've noticed when we're flying internationally rather than in the states are:

• Often there are no jetways - you take a shuttle to the plane and then up the stairs to board.
• No fees for luggage
• Meals are always served and you don't have to pay for them

Continent #3 - Europe

We arrived in Athens about 12:30 pm local time and got our luggage easily after going through immigration - nice that no VISA is required for US citizens! So the next step was to find our apartment. I rented an apartment though VRBO.com which we always used when going to Florida. This was our first experience using it internationally and it was definitely acceptable. We found our way to the metro station at the airport and got our tickets.

Alex in front of the picture of a "hot dog" plane

near the metro station in Athens airport.

We knew which stop we needed to get off the metro but once we got off we were a little lost.  Our street maps never quite matched the street signs because of the Greek letters.  We knew we were near the President Hotel and a nice man nearby told us the general direction.  We headed that way and were soon walking down tiny little streets with 5 kids, backpacks and 3 pieces of rolling luggage.  While we had been at the airport, we decided to buy a couple of SIM cards to use in Mark's and Megan's phone while we were in Athens.  It was relatively inexpensive (5 EUR for the sim card and we put 20 EUR credit on each).  This was very handy because I ended up calling the gentleman who had rented us the apartment.  He came down and met us and we were soon there.  In hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but in the middle of all of it after a long trip, we were all a little cranky.  We soon got over it though.

The apartment was located in the Ambelokipi area and was fairly close to the metro stations, some shopping and restaurants also.  It was a small 3 bedroom apartment and I mean everything was small!  There was enough sleeping space, but the dishwasher was tiny with only one rack and there is was a small washer/dryer.  I'll tell a little side story now even though it happened later in the week.  I always pack for our family like I will be doing laundry somewhere in the middle - it is difficult to pack for 7 people everything you will need for a week without taking tons of luggage which we don't like to do.  So I "assumed" that the dryer would actually dry the clothes but our rentor informs me when we get there that the dryer doesn't work very well and he would never use it.  Well, when he said it doesn't work very well...he meant that it doesn't work at all.  I left clothes in there for maybe 3 hours and they were still very damp.  Everyone must hang their clothes out to dry but I was not happy because for a family of 7, that is A LOT of clothes.  Plus to really get them dry, it took like 2 days!  I'm pretty sure I could not live like that :-)  We washed the minimum that we needed and that was that.  Most of the light switches were outside of the rooms and there were no electrical outlets in the bathrooms so I had to use my curling iron in the hallway while using the bathroom mirror - kind of amusing.  All in all, the apartment was nice enough and had what we needed plus it was less expensive than 2 hotel rooms in Athens - so I would do it again but I would pack more clothes!

Here are some views from our apartment balconies (there were 2 balconies)

Our first night in Athens, we headed out to find some good food for dinner.  We headed up to the shopping area near our apartment and we were finally invited in to a restaurant (we would soon find that is standard practice in Greece).  Neither of the two men working there spoke english, but luckily the menu had english information on it so we communicated well enough.  We ordered many things, Megan really enjoyed the french fries with cheese and BACON on it :-)  The little kids ordered hamburgers which were nothing like hamburgers in the states and they didn't really like them.  I had souvlaki which was awesome and I can't remember what Mark and Spencer ordered.  The funniest thing was that we were sitting waiting for our food in this little restaurant and all of a sudden the waiter walks in the front door from outside and brings in the salad.  All of the food ended up coming in that way and we finally figured out that the kitchen for this restaurant was actually next door. 

For those of you who have been to a Greek restaurant in the Detroit area or in Greektown, you probably have experienced saganaki where they light the cheese on fire and yell "OPA!".  Well, we asked about saganaki here and they do have it but it's basically just fried cheese (which is still very tasty) but no fire and no "OPA!".  They looked at us like we were a little crazy when we asked about it - hahaha!

Greek salads in Greece do not have lettuce -

veggies and a big chunk of feta - YUM!

 Rachel and the hamburgers she didn't like

but the fries were good!

The sign outside the first Greek restaurant we ate at -

we have no idea what it says!

Well, that was the end of the first 24 hours....more to come soon....thanks for reading!

Al Balad

Last night Mark, Megan and I, along with our friend Belky, headed into Jeddah tonight to go shopping at Al Balad.  This section of Jeddah is near the city center and contains lots of these little shops called "souks".  Mark left work early at about 4 pm so he could drive us down to the city.  This shopping area is only open late in the day so there is no point to head down there any earlier than this.  In general, it is not acceptable to take pictures with people in them unless you have permission to take them so we don't take a lot of pictures when we go into Jeddah.  So here is a little blurb and a picture from a publication here at KAUST about this area. 

Known by many as a shopper's paradise, the various souks of Al Balad ("the town" in Arabic) offer the adventurer everything from gold to frankincense and electronics to abayas.  Starting at Nassief House, look beyond the shops and meander through the narrow alleyways lined with three- to five-story buildings harking back to the days when Jeddah was a walled city and just four gates allowing restricted access.  Constructed of coral and clay, the height of the centuries-old buildings provided the residents daytime shade on the ground and rooftop breezes in the evenings.  Unique wooden shades on the balconies provided ventilation and privacy while still affording those inside a good view of the street.

On the way down, we spotted an On the Border and since there is not a lot of Mexican food here, we had to stop and have dinner.  We arrived right at the end of prayer time which was perfect and we were seated and had a really nice dinner. 

That's our car in front of the restaurant.

Some of the guys that Mark works with recommended that we park a little ways away from Al Balad and take a taxi in.  The streets are very narrow in that section of town and it's hard to find parking.  Although Megan really didn't want to take a taxi (even though she had never been in one), we decided that it was the best option.  So we asked our very nice Philipino server where was the best place to get a taxi.  Next thing we knew, he was out on the street trying to wave one down for us.  Although he was not successful (very busy street), we thanked him generously.  He recommended that we drive down a little further where there was a mall and we would easily be able to find one there.  When you get a taxi in the city, you bargain the price before you leave for your destination.  The servers at On the Border told us that they will try to charge you 20 SAR ($5.33) but we should only pay 15 SAR ($4).

So we hopped in the car and drove down the street a little ways to a mall - I can't remember how to pronounce the name of it and definitely wouldn't spell it correctly so I'm not even going to try.  We got a taxi and bargained for our ride to Al Balad, hopped in the car and off we went.  Our taxi driver was Pakistan and was a very friendly man asking us where we were from.  He spoke a little english but not very much.  It was a little bit of an exciting ride as it always in Jeddah and he dropped us off in front of the Corniche Building which houses a bunch of shops on the bottom floor.  You walk through and you are in this amazing shopping area.  It is definitely NOT a mall.  The streets and walkways are concrete and very uneven.  And all the shop owners are trying to get you to come and look at their wares.  They will call out to you "Sister, this one is...." and show you what they are trying to sell.

A rack full of abayas

Our main goal was to purchase Megan an abaya as she has been wearing one that we borrowed from Belky.  She wanted something that had tighter sleeves around the wrist and something that looked "young".  We must have looked at 9 or 10 different shops until she found one that she liked in a small size.    She finally picked one out but it was a little long so the shop owner cut and hemmed it for her while we waited.  We paid 80 SAR for her abaya ($21) which was WAY less than what I paid for mine at the mall.  I snapped a picture of Lizzie wearing it this morning because Megan wouldn't model it for me.  She liked the colors on the sleeves and you can see the sleeves have a sheer black with the pattern continued underneath it.  The scarf comes with the abaya and is trimmed in the same colorful fabric although we haven't ever worn the scarf.

After we purchased the abaya, we just did a little more shopping for the holidays.  I bought a couple of presents to send back to the states, some additional presents that I can't mention in case my kids read this, a cute yellow pair of shoes for Megan for 35 SAR ($9.33), and tennis shoes for Spencer 45 SAR ($12).  We were approached constantly by many different men selling the exact same cologne and many beggar women asking for money.  You have to say a firm no when you're not interested in something but the shopkeepers will keep showing you different things they want to sell.  And you always need to ask for a discount.  If they say no, you can start walking away and they will usually give you one.  I'm not that great at the bargaining yet but Belky does really well so she helped us out!  I will have to learn this fine art.

So when we were done shopping, we had to find our way back to a place that we could pick up a taxi.  We found one and again bargained for our ride back to where we parked our car.  At first the driver wanted 30 SAR and we said no and he came down to 20 SAR.  This ride back again was interesting.  We went on all these backroads to get back to the mall and then had to cross a street with no light and cars coming in all different directions.  Thankfully we made it across safely - yikes!  We stopped in the restroom at the mall and then got in the car to head back to KAUST.  We stopped on the street on the way out to snap a picture of King Fahd's fountain which is the largest fountain in the world.  It shoots water 1024 feet above the Red Sea.

Not a great picture because we weren't that close but you can see a couple other pictures on wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Fahd's_Fountain

I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!  It still doesn't quite feel like Christmas here.  We have a small tree and stockings hung up but no snow or cold weather just is very different (not that I'm complaining).  Only a couple more weeks until the kids are out of school for winter break and we head off on our holiday to Athens!  Can't wait!

Thanks for reading!!!

Variety Night at KAUST

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!