Day 102 in the Kingdom, Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016

Today, I stayed "home" for my mental well-being.  As the Matchbox 20 song  “Unwell” states: “But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know right now you can't tell. But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see. A different side of me. I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired.“  

Hello tomorrow, I am assisting Ms. Neena, our school counselor, with the Human Sexuality Girls’ talk for the 6th grade girls.  So, as we were talking about the content of the presentation, I asked about where the pads and tampons are located in the school for girls to access if needed.  Well, guess what? We don’t talk about tampons.  We don’t bring that up because of the Muslim religion.  Now, I had heard about this before, but wasn’t actually convinced that this was the mindset, the practice, the belief.  Well, there you go.  It is.  So I have been instructed to only talk about pads and if a girl asks me about tampons, I should not tell them anything in front of the group and they should make an appointment with me privately in my classroom.  Yup, you can’t make this shit up. [Imagine my WTF look on my face.]  Want to know more, Google it. [Still shaking my head....]

India is coming up for us February 17th-20th.  Jake and I are leading a trip with one of my middle-school colleagues, Nesireen, who is from India.  We are taking 12 students to the two day International Schools Writers Conference.  We’ll be spending a free day in Pondicherry.  The school is paying our airfares, hotel, ground transportation and meals.  Pretty. Sweet. Deal.  I am looking forward to this and I am learning a lot about the visa process for the different passports as we’re working with the Embassy of India based in Riyadh.

So, when it’s 60 degrees, I’m freezing.  My body has adjusted to this new climate.  Our bodies are amazing.

___

Intelligent conversation:  I attended a workshop and these are my notes:  conversational competence might be the single most overlooked skill we fail to teach our children and ourselves.  There’s no reason to learn how to show you’re paying attention if you are in fact paying attention.  I value conversations where you walk away feeling engaged and inspired and feel like you’ve made a real connection or been perfectly understood.  [when I wrote this, I thought of my best friend, Lily.]  I need to pay attention, be present, be in the moment.  If I don’t want to be in a conversation, then I need to get out of it and not be half in and half out of it.  I must enter every conversation assuming that I have something to learn.  Everyone I meet knows something that I don’t.  If I don’t know something, I will say that I don’t.  Talk should not be cheap.  I should not equate my experiences with yours if you are telling me something personal.  Your experience is the not the same as mine.  Your experience is individual to you.  I will listen.  Why can’t people remember that real conversations are not promotional opportunities?  It takes effort and energy to actually pay attention to someone, but if you can’t do that, you’re not in a conversation, you’re just two people shouting out barely related sentences in the same place.  I strive to keep my mouth shut as often as I possibly can.  I keep my mind open and I’m always prepared to be amazed and rarely disappointed.  

Shawarma:  we’re eating this quite a bit.  The school ordered this in for staff during our Parent-Teacher Conferences. Delicious.

___

Fun fact: we’ve become “Dumpster Divers!”  We have treasures that we've picked up over the past few weeks that others have set out for rubbish collection.  Our collection includes: 2 cloth folding patio chairs, a small wooden table, a glass table, a pot with reeds for the patio, 4 sharp knives, a cheese grater, envelopes and labels.

Unbelievable!  That is the word to describe our patio garden transformation!  We’re hosting a Patio Warming Party this Friday and have invited our compound friends who are from Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland and South Africa. We’re serving Thai appetizers and I hired Kyle, who is a singer/guitarist, to play a 45 minute concert!  

New Patio Furniture from Sultan Gardens

Bahrain:  We visited this country again and stayed in the Al Juffair area which proved to be a better second impression!  We drank real beer, ate pork quesadillas [which was a dream] at the Texas Road House and I experienced a 90 minute Thai massage at  Ann's Spa.  The massage combined the benefits of Thai massage with the healing powers of heat provided by a Thai herbal ball.  Thermotherapy and compression were fused to alleviate muscle soreness in sensitive areas.  The Thai herbal ball was rolled across trigger points and isolated muscle groups of the body while steam promoted muscle relaxation and increased body energy.  The small yet powerful Thai woman climbed on the massage table several times and my body has never been twisted or stretched in those ways!  One very cool landmark with wind turbines is the Bahrain World Trade Center!  Learn about it here.

3 wind turbines between the buildings!

Street sign in Bahrain

And now we have President Elect Trump…….  On election night, which was morning here, I had the electoral college vote map on the big screen and the election was the talk of the school.  The students and staff were all following the results.  No one could even teach because of the chaos.  I actually could NOT believe the intense interest, but it all makes sense because 90% of our students are expats, like us, who are from other countries which are deeply connected and interdependent on the USA, meaning whichever direction and policies the United States moves, this directly affects their lives and families both here in the Kingdom and their respective home countries.  I was personally depressed regarding the final outcome, but as my Trump supporting friends here reminded me, they felt the exact same way when Obama was elected.  We had a good laugh over that.  

Normal scenery by our school.

Saudi Woman at International Day at the Dhahran Campus 

Recently, I have been starting countdowns to upcoming events such as 24 days until Thailand, 85 until India, 123 until England, 129 until Spring Break-destination TBD, 207 until Slovenia & Austria, 224 until MSP, MINNESOTA for the summer and 589 until we move back to Waukenabo.  Living here is psychologically and emotionally challenging, pushing one to depths of creativity and resiliency never experienced before…….

Normal scenery on the way to work

Please send some love to my daughter, Megan Mary.  Every time we have a face chat, we start crying. Here's her email:  mrubbelke@isd166.org. Thank you friends.

In trying to conclude this post on a positive note, here are the happy things about living here: quality time with Jake, making new friends, beautiful sunsets, teaching again [most days], saving money and the ability to travel outside of this country. That is it for today, I truly can not think of another positive at the moment.......

Day 72 in the Kingdom:  Monday, October 24th, 2016

It's just your average day, on the way to work, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to pass by a desert camel strolling along the side of the road, taking its sweet ol' time! 
The camel grins as we pass by and in his deep voice speaks ever so slowly, "Ohhhh, helloooo thereeee youuu people.  Have a lovelyyyy dayy todayyyyyy."  Photograph:  "Mr. Jacob" taken from our van window.

In other Saudi News, our villa patio is coming along nicely!  First, I met with the Alex Escobar, Estate Supervisor, to inquire about cleaning up the overgrown, unloved patio.  She is from Columbia and has dual citizenship with Australia. By having a passport from Australia, she and her husband can travel more freely around the world without the hassles of visas.  She’s a super cool woman and we’re fast becoming friends. In her free time, she raises money for a children’s charity .  Because we are new to the compound, we were granted a one-time free patio cleaning service, so I scheduled that bad boy right away! Then with my camera in hand, I conducted a one hour reconnaissance mission gathering ideas from other people’s patios around the compound. I felt so stealth as I snuck around taking photos of trees, plants, flowers and grass arrangements!  It was clear to me that I had been suffering from grass withdrawal and needed green grass to walk in, look at, smell and enjoy. After the patio was cleared, I hired our gardener, Ranzit Kumar Biswas from India!  He doesn’t speak any English and I can’t speak his language which makes for very interesting "conversations" and business transactions.  I drew up a patio design, showed him pictures from my recon and literally used my hands, body and facial expressions to communicate with him the patio plan!  Somehow, we managed to figure out the pricing, shook hands and the rest is history!  

Figuring out our communication!

Our gardener, Ranzit!

Tomorrow, Jake and I hired our private driver to take us to Sultan Gardens and purchase patio furniture for our outdoor paradise. I have to make sure the that delivery drivers are NOT from Yemen or Syria because drivers from those countries are not allowed on the compound.  

Proud Americans!

On Thursday evening, October 13th, Jake and I attended the Town Hall meeting for American citizens working and residing in the Kingdom which was hosted by the US Consulate General Dhahran.  The security was very high and we saw soldiers fully armed and trucks and jeeps with mounted weaponry as we passed through several checkpoints.  It was fascinating.  As we entered the auditorium, we spotted the voting area and proudly cast our ballots for the upcoming election!  There were over 200 Americans at the event and we met several interesting people who have became friends.  Ian works for the Saudi Navy as a language trainer and lived in Thailand for 8 years. We are going to meet up so he can share several local tips for our upcoming Christmas vacation!  The town hall consisted of four speakers from the State and Treasury Departments.  We learned about the services the consulate and embassy offers Americans, current security issues and threats, upcoming changes in the visa process, tax issues between the Saudi and US governments and the role of US companies and the US government in the Kingdom’s major initiative, Saudi Vision 2030.  This was really fascinating to hear and begin to learn about because Saudi is changing and growing at an incredible pace. There are already companies, like General Electric, ahead of the growth curve and generating incredible business and profits.  There will continue to be many opportunities in the Kingdom for people and companies with vision to jump aboard this wave.   Check this out.  We also learned about the Consulate’s Warden Program and Jake and I are considering joining it as they are now seeking citizens for the Eastern Province.  Stay tuned for more details on this.

Here are some fun facts: New Saudi Traffic Fines effective October 2nd:  crossing red a traffic light 3000-6000 SAR [$800-$1,600] with possibility of retaining the vehicle; not reporting an accident or not stopping to help 10,000 SAR [$2,666] with 3 months sentence; usage of illegal license plates 3000-6000 SAR; putting socially offending stickers on the vehicle 3000-6000 SAR; taking over school buses while stopping for loading-reloading 3000-6000 SAR; decoding/painting/covering of the license plate numbers 5000-10000 SAR  [$1,333-$2,666] with possibility of retaining the vehicle; driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs 5000-10000 SAR with possibility of retaining the vehicle.

Jake is one of the advisors for the ISG Dammam Model United Nations Team and we will be traveling with our team in March for 6 days to the United Kingdom for the Model United Nations Conference in Haileybury!

The first scrimmage between the high school girls basketball team and the staff team was a blast!  The gym was packed for the first ever of its kind event at ISG Dammam! The women staff had the best time, were very competitive and can not wait until the next scrimmage coming up in November!

Our first Team Building Event!

This past Saturday, Jake and I hosted the first ISG BB Team Event at our compound, Sara Village. 14 girls attended and we spent from 10 AM-3PM playing games & icebreakers, enjoying pizza, taking photos and watching the movie “The Princess Diaries.”  Our event set off the fire alarm in the main building because of the popcorn machine smoke! The fire truck showed up which provided much excitement! The compound staff was great to work with and prior to the event I had to submit paperwork to security naming the nationalities of the students.  We hosted girls from the following countries:  Canada, Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Philippines and Syria.

We awoke at 4 AM our time to watch the third and final [Thank Goodness!] Presidential Debate.  My 6th grade students love to hear about the election and it’s very evident that the American election is a topic in their respective homes.

This Wednesday is the 6th grade Writing Festival 2016 where my students’ Personal Narrative Stories will be shared in at a formal event.  The students have been working very hard to improve their writing skills and some of the stories bring me to tears.  This job is really pushing me to learn and grow at rapid pace and gain knowledge in the Language Arts Common Core Standards and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Curriculum focusing on units of study in Argument, Information and Narrative Writing.  [HILL CITY, looking for a teacher for the 2018-2019 school year?]

Finally, today was United Nations Day and on the Middle School wall, this question was posted: "What do you see when you imagine a peaceful world?" By the end of the day, the wall was completely plastered with post-it notes and words of wisdom from some of the future leaders of our world. This kids continue to amaze me and I learn from them every day.

With my 6th grade boys-Sari, Saad, Hassan, Mueez, Adam and Mujeeb

With my Egyptian girls, Malak & Nancy

The time is really flying by as we are looking at November already next week!  Before you know it, we'll be home for a month!  This past Friday, Jake and I were having lunch at Sara's Diner on the compound, which is a 50's style restaurant and the wall is decorated with license plates from all the states.  I looked at the Minnesota license plate and started crying, right there, in the middle of restaurant.  Stay tuned......

Post #3 from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Day 43 in the Kingdom:  September 25, 2016

It's taken 42 days to get my cell phone working here. Yesterday, I had to go to the "Ladies Only" section of the Rashid Mall and into the "Ladies Only" STC store for my SIM card.  [This country.....ugh.]

It's taking more than 43 days for us to be able to wire money back to the USA.  [Again, this country.....ugh.]

We have not seen one drop of rain in 43 days.

Since my last post 14 days ago, the weather for each day has been:  103, 104, 104, 104, 102, 104, 104, 111, 102, 111, 102, 102, 105, 108 & a balmy 105. [And again, this country.....ugh.]

In the last 43 days, we've either been driven by a private driver or taken a compound bus wherever we need to go. This is a new lifestyle.

I met Xiu Mei Pan from China who works at "The Spa at Sara Village."  She is an amazing practitioner and I have already enjoyed two therapy sessions, a one hour massage and a one hour reflexology treatment. It was my first time experiencing reflexology and it was very interesting.  She definitely hit specific pressure points on my feet which corresponded to other areas of the body or systems.  When she whispered that the one hour session was over, I couldn't believe it.  It felt like only 10 minutes had passed.  I may have to try that one again, although the three outer toes held a lot of pain and I'm not sure I want to feel that again anytime soon, although that is exactly what I probably need.  Each one hour session cost $31.99. [This country......yes!]

On September 14th and 15th, we took a very short trip to the country of Bahrain.  Our hired driver, Bhilal, is from India where his wife and 6 year old son live.  He travels home for one month a year to see them, otherwise he owns his own driving company and makes a very good living in Saudi, which is what he must do since he can not make a decent living in India.  While here, he rents an apartment with three other men that shares a common living area for 1000 Saudi Riyals a month. [$266 divided by the 3 men.]  

To get to Bahrain, we traveled 25 kilometers [15 miles] on the King Fahd Causeway which included five security controls and six gates.  It only took us 2 solid hours to travel through security as often times the back-up can take 4 to 5 hours.  At the controls, they asked to see our passports, Iquama and entry/exit visas.  They checked underneath the vehicle, collected money and checked Bhilal's insurance. There was also a driving lane "For Ladies Only."  We saw many fancy, clean cars and loaded SUVs with license plates from Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait and Qater.

The Baharinin currency is the Dinar which is basically 10 Saudi Riyals.  One Riyal is $3.75, so we were doing some crazy calculations between the three currencies in our heads every time we made a purchase!  Let's just say that math is not our strong suit [I can hear Megan laughing now] so eventually we just estimated the conversion, said f** it let's buy it and be done. 

While there, we went to the movie "Sully" which was a REAL TREAT to be in a movie theater!  [There are NO movie theaters in the Kingdom, this country.....ugh.]  We ordered the combo and the popcorn was a mixture of regular and caramel!  Wow, that was snazzy!  I really liked the movie.

In the evening, we sat in the hotel courtyard surrounded by the aroma of tobacco and observed couples, men only and women only smoking from hookahs. It was an option to order a hookah. Instead, we ordered two tall Heinekens, admired the full moon and watched a giant music video screen only to realize that the music we heard did not match the video we were watching in the slightest.  I thought, "My God, doesn't anything make sense over here?"  Geeesh, bring another Heineken.......Ahhhhh, as I sipped my tall cold glass of beautiful beer, I sensed someone standing next to me, looked over and there stood one of my 6th grade students.  "Hello Mrs. Wyant."  OMG.  Seriously?  He pointed out his family sitting behind us. "Mr. Jacob" and I turned around and the family of 6 all waved at us.  Later, we made our way over for the "meet and greet" and as we approached, they all stood and remained standing the entire conversation.  The Muslim mom was completely covered and as I stood there sweating from the night humidity, I thought that the customs of this culture and Muslim religion really make the women endure more than they should in this climate!   As the family left, the waiter informed us that they paid for our pizza and beers!  Wow.

We made our way back to our super huge luxurious room  [http://www.elitegrouphotels.com/elite-seef-residence/elite-seef-residences.php ]  and proceeded to scan the TV channels, all 2000 of them.  One was "Iran Fun."  That channel didn't come in. 

Jake's healthy outlet.

The next day, we took a taxi to the "The Skate Shack" where we purchased a TREK mountain box for "Mr. Jacob."  At this point in our Kingdom adventure, this purchase was a necessity for my husband's mental well-being.  He enjoys his "Tour de Compound", along with other riders who exercise in 3 mile circles around Sara Village.  Some purchases within a marriage don't seem logical, given this environment or lack of it and sometimes wives don't question, we just support.  LOL.  [This country.....ugh.]

While we can say that we've visited a new country, this constitutionally monarch ruled country with its archipelago of 33 islands in the Arabian Peninsula specializing in oil, fishing and pearls was nothing special. Once was enough for me, although if we want to go to a movie theater, we'll have to endure the five checkpoints and six gates to get there.

One of my favorite lines from the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" sums up how I feel SOME of the time:  "This is a new and different world.  The challenge is to cope with it.  Not just cope but thrive.”

The ISG Dammam Varsity Girls Basketball Season officially started last week with our first practice!  I walked into the gym where 18 girls in 10th-11th and 12th grades were waiting.  I said, "You here to play basketball?"  "Yeah. Yes. Yes Miss.  Yes Mam"  "Good, I'm Coach Wyant, line up on the baseline tallest to shortest, let's go." And so it began......  

One girl wore her hijab during the entire practice. I said if we don't make 50% of our lay-ups this first practice, we're running. Didn't make 50%.  I took off my whistle, said "Line up behind me, single file, we're playing follow the leader."  After lap #3, the girl behind me panted "Coach, how many laps are we doing?"  I said, "10."  I could hear the number 10 being passed back through the line and we continued running......in silence...... until the 9th lap when they were happy to be almost done!  [Let's just say that the next 3 days, I was VERY sore!] After 1 hour 30 minutes, we had our first team meeting. It was a great first practice.  Stay tuned for more news on the Leopards because I've recruited fellow colleagues and formed a staff BB team to scrimmage against my team and I'm organizing a team bonding event on the compound.

My Ukrainian Russian friend, Olga.

OLGA is doing well.  She has the middle school science lab completely organized and is working on her English skills.  She asked me what the word "defect" means.  You can imagine how my wheels were spinning after she left my classroom.  The next day, she asked me to read an email she wrote to see if it sounded proper.  The email was about one new microscope that was shipped to the school and not working and how it has a defect.  Dang, that shot my spy theory to pieces, for now.......

The overgrown, unloved patio.  

We're hiring a gardner from the compound staff to clean up and help rebuild our patio and landscaping.  Stay tuned for the updates in the coming months.










We've also booked our flights for Christmas vacation, departing December 17th from Dammam to Bangkok, Thailand.  Jake and I will explore the sights, including the River Kwai before we board the train on December 23rd to Suratthani and pick up our SUV and drive to the Poseidon Bungalows

Where we will be Dec. 23rd-Dec. 31st.

[ http://www.similantours.com/ ]  We'll settle in and wait until early Christmas morning, drive to the Phuket airport and pick up Megan and Jonah! We're looking forward to a day of snorkeling in the Similan Islands, trekking through the Khao Lak National Park on an elephant and hanging out at our beach bungalows! The kids will fly back to the states on New Year's Eve and Jake & I will be back in Bangkok ringing in 2017!

Here's the new addition to our villa, a clock with Arabic numbers!  Bought it at the second hand store on the compound for 20 Riyal!  

The sideways villa clock with Arabic numbers.

                               

Finally, I must end with the positives about our adventure life here in the sand box..... We are having a blast together.  We go out to eat to eat on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  On Wednesdays, we have authentic, homemade Chinese dinner at the Oasis restaurant.  On Thursdays, we are at Bo Diddly's Poolside Restaurant for fish & chips or grilled ribeye and on Saturdays, Senjay, the chef from India, grills us salmon or lamb chops at Harley's restaurant.  On these three days, we eat with our friends, Ann & Clay from Florida and Carolyn & Chris from Oregon.  

I continue to follow home by reading Google News every morning, the Aitkin Age, scanning Facebook and sending/receiving emails from friends and family.  Again, if you have a moment, please check in with my mom by sending her a quick email:  wyants@frontiernet.net.  

Until next time, my friends.  

Post 2

TODAY:  Day 29, September 11^th, 2016:  GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and stand up for the National Anthem! 

Yesterday I experienced a 1.5 hour Access Consciousness Bars Therapy session by a masseuse from the Czech Republic.  She was trained in Canada, Poland and the USA.  It was a new experience which I enjoyed and benefited from. I will try it a second time.  To learn more see:  https://youtu.be/X2HWH9fG_40. 

We are enjoying a 9 day break from school while the Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha [Festival of the Sacrifice.] See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha.  We have seen semi loads of sheep on the drive to and from school this past week. 

Jake and I took the shopping bus this morning to LuLu’s and bought the most delicious hummus, tabouli and two felafels for lunch!  http://www.luluhypermarket.com/SA/all.

It took 26 days to obtain the necessary identification [Iqama] and entry/exit visas in order for us to travel outside of the Kingdom.  It took Jake FOUR trips to Samba Bank to set up our account and yet the international beneficiaries [Bremer and Members COOP] are still pending, so we are unable to wire our money back to the USA at this time.  Nothing moves smoothly or quickly here.

Gas is 70 cents a gallon. 

The Sri Lanken jeweler and his wife have two shops on the compound which sells only eco-friendly gifts and unique Middle-Eastern items such as camel hide luggage.  His brother designs leather journals and was commissioned by the Games of Thrones producers to design the leather bound books for the series.  There’s a compound fun fact!

We had a Mad Max Moment on the highway last week with our driver, Sunil.  There was a bad accident that rerouted traffic.  The second there was an opening in the median, cars, semis and vans started back tracking on an on-ramp OR cut across the desert back to the main highway!  Guess which one Sunil picked?!  It was a frickin free for all.  We couldn’t believe it.  All we could do was clutch the seat in front of us and hold on!  There were a lot of comments in our van such as “Holy Sh**”, “Oh Oh Oh!” ‘Dear God!”

So the canteen, a.k.a the cafeteria, is the exact opposite of Rippleside.  Think of the stoplight.  If that contraption were in our canteen, the red light would have blown up after 10 seconds of lunch beginning because kids come and go, sit where they want, visit, laugh, stand, eat, play on their cell phones, read a book, play with a soccer ball in the corner and SOCIALIZE.  I have duty once a week and I only need to make sure that kids are NOT running in canteen. 

We had our first emergency drill at school.  I was impressed with our procedure, however, Olga filled me in what happened to Miss Heba, our Middle School secretary when she painted our classroom paddles which we hold up outside to indicate our class……Earlier that day, Heba had an EXTREME reaction in our staff lounge and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  Before school was over, Olga stormed into my classroom.  In her Russian accent:  “Amy, give me your bottle.”  “My bottle?”  “Yes, your bottle right now!”  “Olga, you want my water bottle?!?!” I asked puzzled.  “NO!  Amy, your bottle dat is red on one site and green on de otter site.” “Oh, you mean my PADDLE!  From our emergency drill!  Got it.  The word is paddle, not bottle Olga.  Why?”  “I need it because the paint that Miss Heba used to paint the bottles contains poison!!!!” Damn straight I gave Olga my “bottle” and I have not seen it since.  Olga has my back. 

6^th grade writing assessments were last week over the course of three days:  My students received one prompt each in narrative, informational and opinion.  The students wrote for 45 minutes .  Our language arts department met for two afternoons and began the process of evaluating their writing based on a nine section rubric.  Good stuff.

Our Minnesota principal and his wife, Jon and Cheryl, invited us to a social at their huge home on a different compound last Thursday after work. [Administration is provided with nice pads!] There, we met the most lovely couple from Syria.  He’s a neurosurgeon and she works at our school. I shared Jonah’s 10^th grade story of “Timmy the Tumor”.  He knew exactly what I was talking about.   Visiting with them about the current state of Syria absolutely made my head spin. Their family is still there and so far they are in a safe zone.  Again, the stories that people share and the amazing resiliency against tremendous odds is absolutely awe-inspiring…..and to think that some back home are all bent out of shape over a round-about…..

The temperature has been hovering around 105 to 116 degrees.  Sometimes at night when it’s ONLY 98 degrees, I walk the perimeter of the compound security wall which is a solid 3 miles.  Otherwise, Jake and I are becoming regulars at the Lagoon pool.  We sit in our same cedar pool lounge chairs situated underneath the bamboo thatched umbrella while I read the Arab News:  http://www.arabnews.com/.  Yeah, we feel pretty cool…..

First major cultural FU:  So there I was, at the Dhahran Mall  http://www.dhahranmall.com/  without Jake.  He was at the bank for the third time.  Our school van stopped after work for two hours, so we split up and shopped.  Well, after 15 minutes of being there, I heard the prayers start over the loud-speaker.  Oh NO!  Shops started to close.  I power-walked up to the third floor food court and got my spinach chicken lasagna order in right before they shut off the lights. I sat at the nearest table and waited 15 minutes while it baked.  I could feel staring as I realized that I was the only white person, let alone a white woman sitting there.  I could hear Mitchell’s voice in my head saying “Mom---always be alert, situational awareness.”  Men would walk by and glance longer than felt comfortable.  Saudi women dressed in black with their faces fully covered carrying the most expensive designer bags one can buy strolled by behind their husbands.  I started feeling nervous.  The prayers were audible over the speakers which I find quite eerie.  Finally, my lasagna is done so I picked it up and moved to a table along the wall without making eye contact with anyone.  Men everywhere. Looking, staring, I inhaled my food and threw half of it away and got the f*** out of there.  As I shared my story on the van ride home, my colleagues reminded me that I sat right in the middle of the “Men Only” section. OMG.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.  At the time, I didn’t even think about the segregation of seating.  Lesson learned.  Big time.  I felt glad that no one approached me and although as a Western woman, I am allowed to walk alone in public places, I have informed Prince Jake that I am not doing that again. 

Our Middle School International Week is coming up in October.  We’re supposed to wear clothing that represents our country—What do you wear when you’re an American?  I seriously don’t know what to do.

WOW Week for the middle and high school students is scheduled for February 16^th-26^th.  Week Outside the Walls is a time when students are encouraged to travel all over the world.  Multiple trips are offered and scheduled.  Those who do not travel internationally are able to particpiate in unique camps and learning opportunities at our schools and in the KSA.  This year, some of the trips that my middle schoolers are offered include the Grand Canyon, Thailand, Jordan, France, just to name a few.  WOW is built into our school schedule to support the growth of world citizens and to expand our students’ perspectives and understanding of others. 

Indian head wobbling:  So I work with several women from India and noticed the consistent wobbling of their heads when they interact with me.  I really did not understand what was going on until I asked my colleague who has traveled all over the world.  What I took as “attitude” is actually cultural. I feel better!  New knowledge!   

Learn more:  PHOTOS:  Enjoy the varied images of our life in the KSA.

Homemade pizzas delivered to our villa for only 40 Riyals=$10.66.

 

I remodeled the bidet with a kitchen shelf!

Some of our groceries!

One of my favorite Saudi homes on the drive back to the compound.

Our kitchen!  It's starting to feel like home!

The view from our living room window!

The front of our villa!  Home sweet home!

Coke products in Saudi!  This is for my brother!

On the way to work out at the Sports Complex!

This is "Trash Lake", 1/2 mile from our school.

Right outside the compound supermarket!