Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Christmas.  We've been off of school for about a week and half now and not much is going on.  We're helping take care of some friends' animals while they are gone for break.  Other than that it's been a lot of relaxing, lounging, and visiting with the few friends who stayed here for break.

Our Christmas was not quite traditional, but enjoyable.  We had a Thai lunch with some friends which consisted of spring rolls, cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and a bit of duck.  It was scrumptious.

We leave in two days for Jordan and should have much more to talk about when we get back from that.  Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing the last week.

 I had our neighbor's kids over to make cookies and watch a Christmas movie. We had

a great time!

 

 Timmy stirring the batter while Brandon and Serah wait for their turn.

 

Jamie washing the car.  He has had lots of time for this

which he really enjoys.

A Wet Christmas

For those of you back in the Midwest, it seems to be a white Christmas.  Over here, it has been a wet Christmas.  It has rained five out of the last seven days on us.  Streets and walkways are covered in water.  It has been nice having a higher vehicle for driving through about five inches of water on one street downtown.  It really makes us appreciate the lengths that cities go to at home to set up water drainage.  In Saudi though, I'm not surprised the drainage is less than adequate for a heavy rain since it doesn't happen all that often.  It's like states in the south that don't deploy plows when it snows because it will melt quickly.

Keeping on the rainy theme, if you didn't already know, I (Jamie) like keeping my car clean.  It was getting a little dirty and when the rain hit I figured it would at least wash some of the dirt away.  I was quite surprised to see that it was making my car even dirtier!  It was turning black!  I was then informed that the rain over all the industry can be quite dirty.  All this junk sits up in the air (you've seen the burning torch picture) and then when it rains, it all comes crashing down.  How disappointed was I?  It is supposed to rain tomorrow, but I went ahead and washed the car today anyways because it wasn't raining and I could.  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

On a more normal note, we have a Christmas tree!  A real life fake Christmas tree!  You can't find them in Saudi and sometimes they will take them away from you at the Bahrain border if you are trying to bring one over, but we have one nonetheless.  We bought a used 7'10'' tree from someone selling one at work (they got a new one from Bahrain).  We were able to find lights downtown.   We even saw lights that played carols, but for our sanity we passed on those ones.  Our tree even has eight ornaments on it.  My mom sent a couple (without knowing we had a tree) and we were able to find some others at a very western, middle eastern, home decor store in Al-Khobar.  We saw our superintendent there and she bought us an ornament too when we told her we had a tree.  It was very nice of her and very much like her to do.

This is also our last week of school and then we have three weeks off.  We are finalizing our plans for our visit to Jordon at the end of the month this week.  At school, we are finishing up our secret santa gifts as well.  All in all, the Christmas season has been quite different over here, but there has been enough little pieces of normal (i.e. Christmas music in our home) that still make it feel a bit like Christmas.

Enjoy our tree picture!

Jamie

Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are thy branches!

Bahrain Adventures

This was our week off for the Hajj Eid.  These Muslim holidays keep getting better and better.  Since we had a car this time we went off to Bahrain for a few days.  If you don't know, Bahrain is a little island country off the coast of Saudi and is only a two hour drive for us in Jubail.

We had a great time.  Some friends of ours (Laura and Brent) offered to have us use their apartment in Bahrain since they would be in Jordan for the break.  Laura teaches with us and Brent works for Chevron.  They are both as new as us into the kingdom and Chevron set them up with this apartment while Laura had visa issues.  They have it until the end of the month only, so it was nice to utilize while we could and very nice of them to offer to us because Bahrain is not cheap!

Tara enjoyed the freedom of wearing whatever she wanted and even driving!  However, she may have liked being free from the abaya a bit much because the same day we got back into Saudi she got out of the car twice without her abaya!  She says she felt a bit exposed without it.

We also had the chance to eat some Mexican and at Hard Rock Cafe, enjoy a beer and a cocktail for Tara, see the tree of life, and do a lot of walking around the shops and relaxing.

I'll leave most of the story to the pictures.

Have fun finishing up all the last minute Christmas shopping everyone!

Jamie

Us in front of the famous Tree of Life

I bought Tara some overpriced lilies which she loved.  This is also a good shot of the view off of our balcony (top floor!)

You can see where the name Tree of Life comes from.

These tent cities went on for miles in the middle of the island.   I think they must be housing for workers because many (not this one) had cars way to nice to belong to the homeless

Whoa!  Slow down!  Tara LOVED driving most of the time.  I felt carjacked, but it was nice to have a rest for a couple of days.

This is the customs port between Saudi and Bahrain.  Including the toll, we had six stops both times and I had to get out of the car and let them poke around a bit in case I was smuggling stuff (which I was not)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone at home enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Even though we are so far away from the States, that didn't stop us from celebrating.  About 20 people from our compound and school got together on Friday afternoon for a wonderful feast.  We had everything from the turkey and stuffing to sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.  The really nice part was that everyone was together.  We had our get together at our principal's house and the weather was nice enough for people to be both inside and out (about 80F).  There were not only Americans, but also Brits, Canadians, and a Lebanese guy.  Quite different from what were are used to at home, but it made sense since they are our family here in Saudi.

It was also a celebration because this week is Hajj Eid, which means that we don't have school!  The reason we have off is this week is designated for the holy pilgrimage to Mecca.  Not all of our Muslim students are going, but quite a few are.  So far, the week has been great because we haven't done much at all.  Just some cleaning, napping, and Jamie took his first drive to Khobar, a city about an hour away where we go shopping.  He did a great job.  Tomorrow we are heading out to Bahrain for a few days.  Some friends of ours have an apartment there that they are letting us stay in while they are in Jordan.  We're excited to get out of the area for a bit and explore a new place.  Bahrain is considered the "Party Island of the Middle East", this is especially true for Saudi Arabia, because it is more westernized.  They have movie theaters, alcohol, and I don't have to wear my abaya!  How much more can you ask for?  Plus, if I want to I can drive, but I'm not sure that I want to.  We'll have to see how the drivers are.  Hopefully they are not as crazy as here in Saudi.

Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Tara

Sandra, Serah, and I checking out the table of goodies.

The feast!  It was wonderful!

Our neighbor, Steve, with his son Ariki.

Pictures of our Car

The time has finally come to post pictures of the vehicle I put money down on six weeks ago!  I didn't say anything about it at the time because I thought that if something happened and we ended up not getting the vehicle or had to wait a long time, like we did, you all would be wondering what had happened.

Let me tell you about the vehicle buying process.  It is not an easy process buying a used car like it is in the U.S., Canada, or probably many other places in the world.  I needed a blood test and a letter from my employer's Government Relations Office (GRO) to get a drivers license.  Then I had to wait for our very slow GRO to process the paperwork (another 4 1/2 weeks).  Finally, I received the license after some of us talked to our superintendent (who we really love) and she had a chat with GRO.  Last Monday, our principal took myself and another guy down to start the registration process of the vehicle.  We again had to bring in a letter from our GRO office.  The letter was missing a stamp it needed (of course it couldn't be perfect).  We paid the dealer a little money to get the stamps for us and the next day the letter with the correct stamp was mailed to us, which was then worthless.  Anyways, the dealer said they should be ready by Wednesday because they have to take them to a government office to process and that takes about two days.  They weren't ready on Wednesday (now I'm not surprised anymore).  I called again on Saturday and I got the O.K., but Dave, the other guy, is still waiting even though we did everything at exactly the same time, poor guy.  I went down with another guy looking for a newer car and another new teacher still looking for a car last night as Tara said.  When I got down there the dealer was going to get tires put on for me at his price, but my expense.  We get to the tire place and, you guessed it, they only had two in my size.  We left and the ride home was only slightly eventful, but I won't elaborate for my mom's sake.

So maybe it wasn't the fastest journey to getting a car, but it is just a car and we finally have it!  I hope you now get an idea of how Saudi Arabia can work.  But I must say that people in other companies have gotten drivers licenses in less than a week so we had a unique situation.

Before I show the pictures, I have to tell you that we haven't had the A/C on all week!  The weather is awesome!

O.K. now for the pictures and thanks for reading my rant.

Jamie

Tara is being rebellious on the compound!  She drove 10 feet into our parking space.

Here is the chauffeur in the 2006 Hyundai Tuscon 4x4.

It's finally here! (well, almost)

At the moment, I’m home alone, anxiously waiting for Jamie to come home WITH OUR CAR!! It has been a very long wait, but our time is finally here. The most exciting thing is that tomorrow we can take ourselves grocery shopping!

On to other things, we had a very busy week again. However, it ended well with us chaperoning homeless night. This was a fundraiser for the Habitat for Humanity trip that is going to Bangladesh in February. They were supposed to pretend to be homeless for a night, but it was more like a church lock-in. We did a few hours of community service, dinner at the “soup kitchen”, The Amazing Race competition, a bonfire, movie, and finally went to sleep about 1 am. Everyone slept outdoors and Jamie and I were lucky enough to be helping with the boys. They did a great job and actually slept for a while. It was exhausting, but a blast.

We pretty much did nothing the rest of the weekend. One nice thing that has happened is that the weather has cooled down. One day it was hot, and the next it was nice and cool. The highs are now only about 80 while it cools to about 60 at night. It’s kind of sad, but we’ve acclimated to the weather so quickly that 70s feels chilly. I even wore a sweater to school today and wasn’t hot!

We’ll post pictures of the car in the next few days so check back soon.

Tara

Students doing the spiderweb (look for the pink string)

My group of students washed all these dishes, organized them,
and then color coded them with paint.

Cooking in the kitchen with my students!

Follow Up

It's only been a few days since the last update so I will just follow up with what we were doing.

Parent teacher conferences went well for both of us. No one was yelled at or questioned whether or not we were doing a good job teaching their child. In fact, most conferences were quit pleasant and it was good to get to know the parents a little better.

Also, our superintendent made a visit to the school with a new HR person working on alumni activities. As always, when someone from the district office comes they treated us with Krispy Kreme donuts from Al-Khobar. The superintendent also talked with the new staff who are waiting on the drivers licenses and thanked us for waiting so patiently and being professional about our inquiries as to when they would be ready. She told us they would be ready on Monday and that the Government Relations office is expected to be better at communicating with us in the future. Our fingers are crossed that the licenses actually show up . . . this is Saudi Arabia we have to remember.

In other news, Tara and I have been playing tennis recently. We are borrowing one racquet from school and have bought another one. It is nice having the courts in the compound, but a pain when we hit a ball over the wall. Then we have to walk around (past the gate, four guard stations, and two Hummers with guns mounted on top) to get the ball. Is it weird that all this feels normal to me?

Tara is off cutting hair for our neighbor's boys right now. Word is getting around she can use a pair of clippers.

That's all for now. We'll let you know how things progress with the drivers license and acquiring a car next week.

Jamie

Technical difficulties

Here are the other pictures I was trying to upload, but blogger was having issues.

This is Phoebe. We got to be her foster parents for about 1/2 an hour
until another couple nearby decided that they wanted to keep her.
She was so sweet and playful, I was very tempted to
keep her myself.

Jamie with Phoebe.

A few of our girls at the Halloween celebration.

One of the doors for the door decorating contest.

Crazy weeks

Opps! I cannot believe it’s already Tuesday. With everything that has been going on these past two weeks, we completely forgot to blog. To be honest, school has consumed our lives.

Last week report cards came out, plus we had a Halloween party at school, complete with trick or treating and a haunted hallway. It was fun to see everyone dressed up and having fun. Jamie even had his debut theater experience. He played Frankenstein in “The Monster Mash” dance, which was put on by the staff. I have it videotaped if anyone would like proof of this.

This week has been even crazier. We had an extended workday on Sunday and tomorrow and Thursday we have our first ever Parent/Teacher Conferences. I’m a little nervous just because the culture of many of our students takes science very seriously. I already know that I will get parents coming in who will ask how their child can improve, even though their child is receiving an A in the class. It truly is a culture difference.

Jamie and I have also been getting involved in After School Activities (ASAs) and lunch activities. Sports are important here, but not even close to what they are like in the States. A lot of the Jr. and Sr. high students will do sports after school, otherwise they sign up for ASAs that the teachers offer. I am currently doing board games ASA for grades 2 and 3, plus a friend and I are starting a Hannah Montana dance steps ASA for the same grades next week. It should be fun. Doing the ASAs is fun because it lets me get to know students who I usually don’t see. Jamie is continuing with his Monopoly lunch club. We’ve also started to help out with a rock climbing ASA. Our school has a nice climbing wall in the courtyard and one of the teachers has worked on getting all the equipment needed for it (he also helped build it). We don’t get paid for helping with rock climbing, but it’s a great workout and we get to see our students in a very different environment.

The last big school news is that we are having a science fair in February. I signed up to be on the committee, and somehow became the one in charge. A few of my 9^th graders and I did a presentation for the entire elementary side of the school last Wednesday and the kids loved it! We already have over 35 kids signed up for the fair, which I think is pretty good.

License update: Jamie got an email today saying that the license is being worked on! We’re crossing our fingers that it comes to us next week.

Tara

Hunayda putting up a spooky spider

Our neighbor Kieran as a dinosaur. The "teeth" made it
difficult for him to see so he was always looking up. So cute!

A few of the Venezuelan girls.

Busy Weekend

Well, our week was pretty normal. We both agreed that it was a good week at school. We enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s tough to believe we are going back to school tomorrow because we missed our usual down time during the weekend.

For starters, we both volunteered at the middle school volleyball tournament that our school hosted on Thursday. I (Jamie) refereed, which was a first for me, but I did alright. Tara kept busy keeping score on another court for most of the day. Our boys team took second overall, and the girls were the champions for their tournament.

After the tournament, we headed over to another compound that was hosting their annual bizarre. A whole bunch of vendors from around the area were selling their goods for a “special price.” We did leave with a really cool stand with a bowl for setting our keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc . . . in that we put by our front door.

Friday, we went back to the bizarre where Tara picked up a nice pearl necklace and earring set from a New Zealand lady. After our shopping, we ran the Hash Harriers run with the group that does that on and around the compound. Usually, you wouldn’t host a run like this on a compound, but this was the most amazing compound we have ever and may ever see. It is right on the gulf and is built like a huge vacation resort. We were able to start the run with a little swim in the ocean and finish with a potluck on the beach.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Try not to drool when you see the compound pictures.

Take Care,

Jamie

Murjan Compound from the water

Championship volleyball team

Another shot of Murjan compound

Murjan Compound restaurant in the distance

Tara and I at the bizarre entrance

Well, it hasn't been the most exciting week so this will be short

We went down to Al Khobar yesterday. Al Khobar is a larger city about an hour South of Jubail. It has a much larger expatriate community because that is where Saudi Aramco oil company is based. We checked out the carpet stores and we could not imagine how amazing some of these carpets are (and also expensive). Maybe some day we will have one to show off.

As far as the car and drivers license goes, we are still waiting for my drivers license to be processed. All the paperwork is done. . . I think.

Finally, the stitches are out of my thumb, but it still isn't healed all the way to the surface so I am still keeping it bandaged and wrapped. If I accidentally bend my thumb it will open up again. Not that I can bend it very much because the fracture is still healing up.

That's all for now.

Jamie

A picture of the Al Khobar Corniche along the main hghway

Notice the clouds

OUCH!!!

Just when we thought things were settling back down over here and we were finding our groove again I (Jamie) get the wonderful experience of a Saudi Arabia emergency room. Yes, my thumb is stitched up and in a splint.

Here’s the story. I am the assistant editor of our schools newspaper and I was rounding up our photographers to go take pictures during our allotted school paper time at the end of the day on Wednesday (our Friday). Our school also puts kids to work for community service during this time each week. I saw them outside moving lockers across the parking lot into storage for a school wide cleanup effort. I directed the photographers over to them and decided to help move lockers while I was there. I opened the lockers’ doors and picked them up so they were leaning on my back. My hands are above my head now grabbing the inside of the locker with my thumbs out. I walked across the parking lot and had to pass through a wide gate to get to the storage shed. I was looking forward and down, there was a bar across the top of the gate. It was sturdy, the lockers were sturdy, my thumb was not so sturdy. My thumb buffered the two sturdy pieces of metal pretty well. I set the lockers down behind me and I’ m pretty sure I saw my knuckle bone. I went to the nurse, 15 minutes later I was at the ER, and an hour later I was home with six stitches and a slight fracture. Oh, and it is my right hand thumb. That’s my adventure.

The hospital was just fine for the emergency visit. I went in as instructed by the ER doctor for a follow-up today and wasted 50 minutes before returning to work never having seen a doctor because the out-patient and ER kept telling me I had to be in the other place. I finally said I am not staying to see a doctor and left. Our school nurse said it looked good so I’ll just go back in later in the week to remove the stitches.

On a more positive note, I am unable to do many dishes for a while. Also, I have all the paperwork done to get a driver’s license and am just waiting for it to show up in the mail (if you have a US driver’s license you just need to do paperwork). Hopefully soon we’ll have a car to post pictures of.

Glad to have a good story for you. We were worried our lives were starting to sound boring. Be warned, the picture of my thumb is graphic.

Until next time,

Jamie

This picture was taken the a few hours after I got the stitches

The kids are officially back! Well, the high school and junior high are anyway, the elementary students still have one more week of virtual school. It was great to see our students back and see them so excited about being back. To quote one student, “I never thought I’d say this, but I am glad to be back at school.” School finally feels right again.

We had a celebration pool party on our compound on Friday before students officially came back to school. It was great to just relax for a few hours and school talk was strictly prohibited. We just ate, talked, and watched all the compound kids play at the pool.

We’ve officially made it two months in Saudi Arabia as of yesterday and are still going strong.

Here are some pics to enjoy!

Pool at our compound

Tara and Amanda at the pool party.

Here is a "torch" that we pass everyday on our way home from school

Closed school Open Desert

Well, this last week has been a bit different. We spent all week planning for our first week of virtual school, which started today. Tara has been much busier than me since she volunteered to handle a lot of the emailing to get the students setup on Blackboard (our virtual school program). I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of bumps in the road. I already had a student come in saying she didn’t get the delivery I sent out (we did some deliveries to compounds to get students materials). I imagine there are many more students who are waiting until we come back to tell us they didn’t get something they needed to do their work. All in all it’s a good learning experience for everyone, but school is just not as fun without students.

Secondly, we have begun the process of vehicle shopping. Tara insists on a SUV since the driving is crazy and I’m not arguing. We have a couple of leads, and hopefully soon we can post a picture of our new car (after I clean it, apparently that’s not a priority before selling a car here).

Lastly, yesterday we went out on our first Hash Harriers run. I’m not sure where the name Hash Harrier comes from, but it was a lot of fun. A dozen of us rode a good ways out into the desert to go for a 50 minute run. Traditionally there is a course setup with different splits and side routes and false trails laid with chalk or flour. There is a whole lingo with this run that I don’t understand, but if done right, no one gets lost. I wasn’t worried about getting lost since there weren’t that many of us, we weren’t real spread out, and we were in a desert where most parts were pretty high visibility. Tara was the only female running and I think she was the first girl to run the hash this fall. We were a bit nervous about keeping up with everyone, but we came to realize it was more fun than competitive.

We hope you enjoy the pictures.

Until next time,

Jamie

Dave and Nick checking out the dead goat remains. We think it was a goat at least.

Tara is running hard!

Jamie sitting on a Saudi toilet at an abandoned Saudi camp site. It wasn't even in the bushes.

Feeling strong


The runners and walkers after the run

Resting at a check point. I'm not sure what big piles of concrete were doing out there.

Painting the days away

Our break from school is coming to a close. It was only 9 days, but felt like a very long time, which is odd because usually breaks are never long enough. This may have something to do with the fact that we were confined to a small space (our compound) for most of the time. We did enjoy our time however. We did a lot of working out and swimming at the pool. We took every opportunity to leave the compound, which usually consisted of shopping. Our big project was painting the living room. I’m sure it was amusing to watch us since neither of us has had much experience painting. The word “Oops!” was often heard followed by “What happened? Wait, don’t tell me.” It ended up turning out beautifully, especially when we added a few blinds. There is still work to be done, but we’re happy with it thus far.

As for school, we don’t know much more than we did last time we posted. Tomorrow will be our first day back to school and there will probably be a bunch of meetings to figure out what to do. We are all just taking it in stride and trying to find the best of the situation. If nothing else, it gave us more free time this week because we didn’t know how to plan lessons without kids. Plus, this will give us more flexibility to do things such as open a bank account and look for cars to buy.

Here are some pictures and a video for you to look at until next time.

Tara

Jamie trying out his new swimming gear.

Tara working hard!

The finished product

Our new "blue" living room, plus the new blinds (from Ikea!)

This video is more for listening. We got locked into Ikea

during prayer time and they played the prayer over the intercom.

This type of thing doesn't surprise us anymore. In fact, it has actually

become a normal part of life.

Royal Decree and BBQ

Hello everyone! We have decided to do a quick mid-week blog to update you on some news. The Saudi government has declared by royal decree that schools do not reconvene until October 10^th for middle and high school students and October 17^th for elementary students. This is a precaution against H1N1. We think they are worried because people have been traveling so much over the break, especially all the Muslims going to a very crowded Mecca over break. I haven’t heard of any swine flu on this side of the country and there has been none reported in our schools.

There are a few worries with this, but they should be fine. The worst case scenario is that our school year is extended. I personally don’t think this will happen because our school district was smart. We had a virtual day scheduled for October 19^th. A virtual day is when school continues online in case students can’t come to school. It’s too bad we aren’t ready for it yet, but next week we prep and the following week classes continue virtually. We will be five days behind, but should be able to make them up via long days or on weekends.

On a more fun note, I was able to fire up the grill and make some good cheese- burgers for the first time since being here. I was given an old gas grill a few weeks ago from our vice-principal, but didn’t have any propane. Today we had our school driver take us grocery shopping and to a place to exchange our tank for a full one. For those of you that use a gas grill, get ready to be jealous. We paid 16 riyals, or a little over $4 for a full tank!

Briefly, let me tell you why we don't have a ton of pictures of Saudi Arabia on our blog. It's not o.k. to whip out a camera and take pictures in a lot of places. You run the risk of taking a picture of a Saudi woman and her husband, or the Mutawa (religious police) seeing you. We probably could get away with taking more pictures, but we're not risking it. We probably will take more pictures when we have our own vehicle and can take pictures out of the window. For now, pictures of Saudi culture are going to be few and far between.

We hope everyone is doing well at home and you should be hearing from us again later this week. Enjoy the pictures.

The proud owner of a free grill and cheap propane!

One of our friendly geckos on our patio wall

We found that the dates with almonds stuffed inside are very good

Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak! Today is the last day of Ramadan, which means a week off of school for the Eid celebration. You might ask what we are going to do with all this time off. With no vehicle we are asking ourselves the same thing. Prospective plans are to do some painting in our house, do some cleaning, schoolwork, and lots of working out and swimming in our pool. It will be nice when everything is back to “normal” although we’re not quite sure what that is yet.

School has been continually going well. Tara’s 8^th grade students have been learning about the brain and senses. We had our first dissection this past week, cow eyeballs, and the students loved it! Jamie has had a successful start to his lunchtime Monopoly club. Because it is so hot out right now, students don’t go outside during lunch. Monopoly club gives them something to do and they seem to really be enjoying it. Blink has also become popular with those who don’t want a long game. Right now, Tara is the reigning champ and is yet to be beat by any students.

As for the weather, it has been cooling down. Highs are only about 105 F, but it still makes running around the compound difficult. We are up to about 2 miles running outside before the heat becomes too much to bare. We usually end our workouts with a trip to the pool which is always the best part.

Tara and Jamie

Jummana and Noor playing Spiderman Monopoly.

The boys were really getting into it.

Sami and Amna starting their eye dissection.

Salim showing off the aqueous humor and lens from his

cow eyeball. He kept calling it an omelet.