Snapshots While Out and About

Here's some interesting chip flavors...

Here's an interesting towel...

It's amazing how they treat their maintenance workers! They shove them into modern day covered wagons in the heat...

Over here they use the British word of nappy instead of diaper.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday being the start of the work week here in the Kingdom, we celebrate all Sunday holidays on Saturday, (Mother's Day, Easter, etc.) My Mother's Day is just coming to a close, the day before everyone in the U.S wakes up to their Mother's Day. My celebration was much more low key than in previous years...Steven made me breakfast, I got some earrings and clothes at the mall, and he made me a delicious dinner. There was no hype on tv, the ever present Zales jewelry commercials gushing over how mom "needs" their latest piece of jewelry--weren't present. No Hallmark cards received. Just a really nice day. 

And it occurred to me, you need the hoopla in the States. Most of us women work, (almost every woman I know anyway) and we need that one, brief day to validate that we are moms TOO!, in addition to career women.

I don't need that here. As a stay at home mom, my role is vital to the family. I have to take care of my child, because there is NO ONE else to do it. I am appreciated by my family daily. The cleanliness of the house is praised regularly, the compliments after my good meals effusive. And Steven (and the rest of my friends) can't say enough about how smart Kellan is from the school lessons I teach him, and how mannerly and well behaved he is. I am succeeding as a mom, and I am appreciated by my family daily. Mother's Day here is nice, but not needed. I should retract that though, or next year I might have to make my own breakfast!:)

Cruisin' Soon!

Venice

It's official! I'm less than 90 days away from my 14 day Ultimate Mediterranean cruise! We booked months ago but now it's close enough to feel real! Steven's mom will be joining us and we'll be coming in and out of Venice. In addition to an overnight in Venice, we'll be visiting (in no particular order):

Kusadasi, Turkey

Santorini and Athens, Greece

Luca, Pisa and Rome, Italy

Valletta, Malta

Cannes and Nice, France

Messina and Taormina, Sicily

I'm excited because while we went to the Mediterranean on our honeymoon, the ports/cities of Luca, Valletta and Sicily are new to us!!! We are particularly excited about seeing Sicily and getting to introduce Kellan to yet more international travel! He already can count to 10 in Italian, can toast in Italian, says please and thank you in Italian, and can say hello and goodbye in Italian, French and Arabic! This means he will already be able to greet people in their native tongues in three of the countries we will be visiting:)

We'll be leaving in mid-July which translates to very hot weather! I think that just means we'll have to have more cold libations to cool us down ! OPA!!:)

Santorini

Norwegian Jade (our soon to be home for two weeks)

The Acropolis in Athens

Where is the Dressing Room, I Mean Bathroom?

One of the great challenges of living here in the Kingdom for women is the shopping situation. Oh, there are many clothing shops, some of them pretty great, many cheaper than back home. But one thing there is not: dressing rooms. Here in the Kingdom, dressing rooms are strictly for men, there are no facilities for women to try their clothes on before they buy. Can you imagine eyeballing arm loads of clothes trying to decide if they'll fit?! Did I mention the clothing sizes are usually UK and not US? On top of that, the material is rarely prewashed and sizes tends to run small, so shrinkage in the dryer looms largely in any guesstimate you must make?!

It's hard enough for most females to buy pants anyways, we all have different body shapes, but Saudi pants seem to be designed for, well, Saudi men. They're straight, no curves, no allowances in the areas we tend to need most. So how does one successfully buy clothes here?  Short answer: You don't always. It's a crap shoot. You eyeball the size, (or in my case, choose the same item in 2-3 sizes) and take it to the register. Then you're off to the alternate Saudi Ladies Dressing Room--the bathroom. That's right. 

You have to take your clothes to the bathroom after you've already bought them, to try them on and see how close, (or how horribly off) you were.  ( This only works if you're at a mall or shopping center. If it's a stand alone store that doesn't have a bathroom, you're out of luck and must wait til you've gone home to try them on.) 

As most residents of the Kingdom are either a) uncertain about what cleanliness constitutes, or B) truly don't care about cleanliness, the bathrooms are often a wreck, beyond anything we have back in the States. Wait, scratch that...think gas station bathroom and you'll be pretty close.

So the stalls contain  either the open plan concept ( hole in the ground with an attached spray nozzle) or they're regular western toilets but with an added crud factor that makes brushing against them a possible adventure in Hep B. 

So, that leaves the open and very public sink area. 

I have (luckily) never encountered anyone as I was changing (AKA: trying on clothes) but all I can do if it happens in the future is apologize and keep truckin'!

Once you've tried them on, A) if they were an epic fail, you're back to the store to return or exchange for another size. Most store give you 3-7 days for a return and up to 14 for an exchange. Not always having a car at our disposal, I prefer to fix my mistakes same day. If B) it was a success, you say a silent prayer of thanks to the sizing gods and make mental notes ( I keep a running written list in my purse) of the size, brand and store of the item that fit for reference the next time. 

It's exhausting, it's frustrating (especially when watching my husband whiz into his dressing room with a relaxed smile on his face!) and it's one more little bump in the road here. It does save me from spending a fortune on clothes though, as I'm too wore out after one pair of pants to want to do more.

But I'll tell you one thing, Old Navy better watch out when I come home to the States in December. I'm going to reserve a dressing room, and camp out! If you see a girl with two arm loads of jeans, stacked high above her head, don't worry, that's just me, enjoying the little pleasures of ACTUALLY TRYING CLOTHES ON BEFORE YOU BUY THEM!!:)

Success!!!

Oh Dear, Or: What I've Learned About Saudi

I've officially been here two months now, have gotten to get off compound several times.  Here are a few things I''ve learned about my new home.

1. You can get antibiotics over the counter with NO PX!  When Kellan had an ear infection, I was able to go to the pharmacy, ask for Amoxicillin, and only paid 15 Riyal or $4 for it!  The insurance companies back home are ripping us off!

2. Saudis do not eat snack food or microwaveable food as we know it.  You can find basic chips, cookies and crackers, but for the most part, they do not do fruit snacks, pretzels, party mix or any kind of quick microwaveable pizza bites, corn dogs, burritos, etc.  When you do find chicken nuggets, they are almost always raw and need to be deep fried.  Almost nothing can just be microwaved, including the frozen vegetables which need to be heated on a stove.  You can find hot dogs, but because of the ban on pork, it will always be all beef, chicken or turkey.  I have not found any turkey or beef bacon, (yes, they make beef bacon but I haven't tasted it yet) and ground turkey is next to impossible to find, though they do have minced chicken and minced mutton.  The beef they have here is usually Australian, and while good, it does have a distinctly different flavor then American beef.

3.  Produce comes in a much more limited variety than we are used to.  It's hit or miss to find fresh broccoli; more often you'll have eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and cauliflower.  You can usually always find tomatoes, onions and potatoes.  Sometimes you'll find green beans and you'll always have cucumbers.  On the fruit, you can usually always find apples, kiwi, oranges, bananas, grapes and pears.  Very rarely you'll find blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and cherries.  When we do see them, we buy two or three packages of them at a time, sometimes paying over $7 per package!  You don't know when you'll see them again, so you always buy more than one when you see something you really want.  And you pay whatever it costs; you can't afford to be choosy on price when it comes to rare items.  A few days ago I found Ritz snack mix in our little compound BX.  I bought two boxes for 28 Riyals or over $7 a piece.  And had I had more cash on me, I would've bought more!  On the plus side, bread is plentiful, cheap and good!  From fresh rolls, to the arabian flat bread, to chocolate croissants, you name it, you can find it.  I bought some delicious sweet rolls the other day for 50 cents!  Water is cheap also.  A 24 pack of Aquafina costs about $4!  Again, we are getting ripped off in the States on water, and water is harder to come by here!  What's the excuse America!?

4. Okay ladies, this paragraph is for you.  They do not have tampons here.  You heard me right.  They do not sell them, I have not seen them.  I've heard fables of women who know someone who found some in Riyadh, (the capital city on the opposite side of the country) but have never seen any in person.  They only use pads.  ICK!!  Thank god I was warned before I came here.  I bet my customs person's eyes bugged out of his head in the airport when they scanned my bag and saw a five month supply packed into every crevice of my luggage!  Hahaha!  Take that, prudes!

5.  It's more amusing than annoying the lengths the sensors will go to ensure there is nothing visible to tempt men to wickedness.  Case in point, they use black sharpie to scratch out women on packaging.  I should open a sharpie shop...I'd be rich!!

6. It's amazing how excited you get about things you'd never eat or go to in the States.  Back home I wouldn't have been caught dead eating Little Caesar's pizza; just too many better pizza joints around.  But here, I almost cried when I saw it, and I swear it was the best thing I'd eaten in a while!  It was right next door to a smoothie place, so we had fresh fruit smoothies and pizza!



In the end though, as much fun as living here is...it's always nice to see that Saudi gets the best of American exports!!

Call Me Superwoman!

Yesterday I triumphed! I got up feeling great! I got Kellan up, made breakfast, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, swept and mopped the floor, cleaned all three toilets, sat Kellan on the potty, (three times with no mistakes made!) made lunch, did his schoolwork lessons, did two loads of laundry, washed all the sheets, made the beds, vacuumed all five rooms, baked homemade cookies and made handmade Valentines for Kellans class, gave Kellan a bath, laid him down for his nap, made a spectacular roast beef for dinner, (my first ever time making it!) AND had time to get some makeup on before Steven got home at 3!

I AM A DOMESTIC GODDESS!!!

(Whew, I'm pooped!:)

Dinner At Durrat's

A couple of weeks ago I finally got up the courage to go off compound in the evening and agreed to go out to dinner. It helped that we were going out at 4:00 pm, so it was still bright and sunny outside and the traffic hadn't had time to get revved up to full blown mayhem!

We were taken to a well known Chinese Food restaurant by one of Steven's co-workers. It was clean and very nice inside, but the I was pleased with the next surprise.

We were taken up a flight of marble stairs, (almost all stairs I've encountered in Saudi are made of marble!) and led to a series of doors. Inside the first was a little private room. This was the family section, where women can eat in seclusion without fear of being seen by "stranger" men. This enables them to  remove their hijab (scarf) and even veil if they want. (I promptly removed my scarf!)

Before the server comes in, they always knock and wait for permission to enter to give women time to prepare if needed.

The food was typical Chinese fare, not exactly like American Chinese as we know it, but close. 

It was nice to get out, a thoroughly enjoyable experience!