Jet lag, how do I hate thee?

Let me count the ways. . . Despite all the research I did before we moved to Saudi Arabia, I completely missed the memo on jet lag.  Obviously I knew that traveling any significant distance involves some, but jet lag + kids is a whole different ball game!  Traveling 30 to 36 hours with kids is no party, but sadly in many ways that's actually the easy part of traveling long distances.

Night #1  We arrived late at night and were tired from many, many hours of traveling, so we all slept well.  I was thinking, great, we'll transition to the new time schedule easily this time.  Silly me.

Night #2  The night was a blur of the two older children coming into my room and me walking them back to bed.  And Emily calling from her bed "It's breakfast time!" and "I want to get dressed."  Or my personal favorite, "Mommy, my eyes are stuck open!"  I think I got out of bed around 12 to 15 times.  The kids kept saying things like "I can't sleep" and "But I'm not tired."  And I kept saying things like "Just lay in your bed and rest. . . .with your eyes closed."  It felt like I had 3 newborn babies, all on different schedules.

Night #3  Basically a repeat night #2, but fortunately I only got out of bed about 6-8 times.  The kids are sufficiently over-tired now so they want to sleep during the day.  I keep pulling kids out of bed and off of couches where they are trying to sneak naps.  And of course over-tired kids = grumpy kids = grumpy mommy.

Night #4  All 3 kids sleep until 1:30am.  Hallelujah!  I've actually gotten a few hours of sleep all in a row!  I wake up to the sounds of children in the kitchen and go out to find a breakfast party.  Feeling awesome-ish from my couple hours of continuous sleep, my children momentarily convince me that it is morning.  All 3 are eating breakfast and Elizabeth has even dressed herself and fixed her own hair.

Finally my semi-conscious, totally sleep-deprived brain realizes it is still very dark outside.  I look at the clock:

Ok everyone, back to bed!!  (Well, after I take pictures that is. . . )

Night #5  The girls only wake up once or twice each, but Erik wakes up around 3am and never goes back to sleep.  Fortunately he is old enough to mostly take care of himself.  Unfortunately for me, I have a hard time getting back to sleep after the kids wake me up.

Night #6  The kids all sleep through the night!  But sadly I can't sleep.  Ugg.  I really hate not being able to sleep, especially when my kids are sleeping and my brain is so tired that it is barely capable of forming a coherent thought.

Night #7  Everyone finally sleeps.  Or maybe I'm finally so tired that I just don't hear anyone wake up.  At this point I think the kids could come jump on me and I wouldn't notice.  I'm finally starting to feel like a normal, not-quite-so-grumpy person again.  And we're glad that daddy is back in town now too--he missed all the fun this week since he was on a business trip in Korea.

One more round of jet lag conquered!    

Summertime





I think it is safe to say that summertime has arrived here in Saudi!  The last few weeks have been hotter, and the breeze/wind has changed from a cool one to a warm one.  And sadly it's only going to get hotter as summer continues.  (To help my American family and friends 'translate' the forecast for this week, our highs will be ranging from 43 C = 109 F to 48 C = 118 F.)   

We have been enjoying nice weather for several months now (the picture below of Emily was taken at the beginning of March. . . ) while many of our family and friends back home were shoveling snow and scraping ice, so I guess it's our turn for some nasty weather. 

We are very lucky to have not only pools (that are cooled!) in our compound, but also a beach.  Since I don't need to wear my black abaya inside the compound, that means I can actually enjoy going to the beach. 

When driving past the beaches where the locals hangout, it is not uncommon to see women in their abayas (faces and hair still covered too) wading out into the water.  Although, there is a swimsuit option for those who prefer not to wear their abaya to the beach--the burqini: 

I had never heard of a burqini before moving here, but apparently they have been the source of some controversy in the past.  For example, in 2009 a mayor in northern Italy banned the burqini from pools and beaches saying that "the sight of a 'masked woman' could disturb small children, not to mention problems of hygiene."  During the same week in 2009, a Paris pool denied entrance to a woman because they had a "no swimming while clothed" rule. 

Another random note. . . we have found it difficult to find sunblock over here.  It's gotten a little easier recently, but when I was looking for some back in February and March, I searched and searched, only to find some at one store that cost about 20 USD per bottle!  I suppose that there isn't much demand here for sunblock.  If you go to the beach like this: 

who needs sunblock?  (Btw, I didn't take the above picture, but yes, local women really do go to the beaches dressed like this.) 

Along these same lines, it is interesting to see how the stores deal with pictures of women who are not covered with either an abaya or a burqini.  Most of the swimming related things (pools, pool toys, floatation toys, etc) come from outside the country, so it is entirely possible that they will include a picture of a woman in a swimsuit.  To solve this problem, someone actually takes a black marker and colors over the women on each and every box. 

Note that it is only the women, not the men or children.  Or sometimes they just use these stickers to cover the 'inappropriate' images. 

With the temperatures rising, we are looking forward to spending most of the summer with our family in cooler climates back in the States!   

Khobar Corniche

A couple weeks ago we made a trip down to Khobar--the city about 90 mins away from us.  While Jubail does have a decent amount of stores for a small town, if you have specific things you are looking for you are much more likely to find them in Khobar.  Khobar feels a little more like home with its big malls (that have some stores with names we actually recognize), Ikea, larger grocery stores, and lots of familiar restaurants.  And every once in awhile it is just good to get out of Jubail.  :-)

We had several stops planned and were going to finish our outing by eating lunch at Taco Bell.  I've probably eaten at Taco Bell less than 5 times in my entire life, but it is strange what feels like 'home' to you when you are far away!  Anyway, we cut things a little too close and ending up barely missing getting in the door before prayer started, so we were locked out for about 45 mins.  Fortunately we were in a good place to wander around for a bit--the Khobar Corniche.

I wasn't familiar with the term 'corniche' before I came over here, but pretty much all of the coastal towns and cities on the Arabian peninsula seem to have one.  From what I can tell, it is basically an area along the beach with a wide sidewalk, parks and grass.  If I had to 'translate' the word, I would choose 'boardwalk'.

As we were wandering around we happened upon an open-air mosque.  I snapped these two pictures since there wasn't anyone around.  But sure enough, people (men) did come over to pray once the 2nd prayer call sounded.

There IS recycling in Saudi!

Here are more pictures that I took of the Corniche (on a previous visit) with my nice camera.  This is the first and so far only time I've been brave enough to use my camera over here outside of a compound.  I had a large-ish purse with my camera inside and I would wait until no one was around, pull my camera out, snap a picture and then drop it back in my bag--not exactly ideal photography conditions.  :-) 

It would have been easy to Photoshop the trash out of the picture, but this is SO Saudi that I left it in.  Sadly the locals don't seem to be overly concerned with taking care of their country and the parks aren't always that clean, despite the army of low-wage workers who are always working to keep things nice and tidy.

It looks like during warmer weather (a very relative term) these may have water running.  We'll have to check it out later in the year.  Overall I have always been impressed at how much work this country puts into making Saudi not feel like the desert that it is.  Tons of irrigation to keep things green (again a relative term) and colorful.

My New Favorite Lunch

Does anyone else have a hard time coming up with ideas of what to eat for lunch?  I am always on the lookout for new ideas, so if you have one please share!  The last couple months my new favorite lunch has been hummus, Arabic bread, cucumbers and tomatoes.  Or some days carrots and/or bell pepper slices.  I love that don't have to make 2 different lunches (and I'm not eating ramen noodles or mac 'n cheese) because Emily loves it too!  In fact she has become quite the hummus eater--she even refers to her meals as breakfast, hummus and dinner.  :-)

You can see my recipe HERE.  Each week I make a double batch (2 cans of chickpeas) and Emily and I enjoy it until it's gone (usually 4 or 5 days).  I've been trying some different toppings on the hummus, and in this picture you can see sumac.  I wasn't familiar with this spice until recently, but it's cheap over here (a 200 gram bag was 4 SAR--which is about a $1).  Sumac has a mild citrus flavor and over here is a common addition to hummus, salads and meat.

Ben sent me this picture of his lunch one day.  They have a cafeteria at work where he gets a buffet lunch with fresh, healthy food options for 10 SAR--or less than $3.  (Yes, I'm totally jealous.)  The salad you see in this picture is a popular one called fattoush (notice it also has sumac).

Cucumbers are very cheap and can be bought individually or in bags or boxes--kind of like you can buy apples or clementines in the States.  Emily makes sure that we save 2 cucumbers everyday. . . so that she can relax after lunch and before her nap.  This has become an almost-daily ritual.  :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy 2014!  I hope that you are all having a great start to the new year!  We got back from some traveling (Dubai, Muscat and Abu Dhabi) a few days ago and are settling back into life.  I'll be posting more about our travels soon, although it will take me a little while to work through all the pictures I took (over 1,000).  It was an interesting experience to travel to other Muslim/Middle Eastern countries (a first for us) and to see the similarities and difference between them and Saudi.  Saudi is definitely a lot more strict and conservative (a huge understatement) compared to a place like Dubai.

Since it is a question I've been asked a lot. . . a couple quick notes about Christmas (or lack there of) in Saudi.  Early in December we had a ladies lunch at one of the compounds.  I noticed that they had a Christmas tree up and decorated.  Little did I know, that Christmas tree would be the ONLY one I would see in Saudi this year.  No joke.  I would have taken a picture if I had known how picture-worthy it was.  :-)

Other than our Rec Center putting up some lights, there really were NO signs of the holidays.  Even the expats here don't do a lot of holiday celebrations and decorating since most of them leave the country for the holidays.  No homes or stores with lights and decorations, no bustling stores and packed parking lots, no snow, candy canes, tree lots, or Santa at the mall.  It was even hard to find wrapping paper!  And I'm not talking Christmas-themed paper, just any wrapping paper!  The only place I ever did see it (and buy it) was at the Toys 'R Us in Khobar--the 'big city' about 90 mins away from us.  But, interestingly some of the Saudis DO celebrate Christmas (complete with parties and gift exchanging), just very privately.

Since our sea shipment hasn't arrived yet, we didn't have our tree, ornaments or decorations.  But assuming they don't get confiscated coming into the country, we should have them for next year.  This year we had to be creative so that we could have a 'tree' for our Christmas morning.  (We actually celebrated Christmas a few days early since we were leaving for our travels on Christmas Eve.)

It was nice to spend Christmas in Dubai since they openly decorate the hotels, malls and stores for Christmas.  On Christmas Day we even went to a little Christmas Village one of the shopping areas (Madinat Jumeirah) had set up.  It made it feel a little more like Christmas.  :-)

The kids riding in the train at the Christmas Village:

A tree in one of the Abu Dhabi hotel lobbies:

Burger King Dinner

In Saudi eating at a restaurant has a few peculiarities.  The first thing to be aware of is which door you enter through.  There are separate entrances for 'singles' (meaning men) and 'families' (meaning women, children, and men who are with their family).  Most restaurants serve both singles and families, although you will occasionally run into one that serves only singles or only families.

Ben covertly snapped this picture outside of Burger King while we were waiting for prayer to end and the restaurant to open.  I am wearing my abaya (black dress) that I am required to wear whenever I leave the compound.

Once you enter the restaurant you order at a counter just like you would at any fast food restaurant in the States.  The only difference is that the counter has a wall down the middle, so that the singles are ordering on one side, and the families are ordering on the other side.

The eating areas are definitely completely separated--at Burger King the singles eat downstairs and the families eat upstairs.  We happened to be the first ones upstairs so I took the opportunity to snap a couple pictures.

You can see that in the family section there are separate booths that each have their own curtain.  The kids think the curtains are tons of fun.  :-)  In the singles section the tables are just open seating--no booths or curtains.

The booths with the curtains (and the covered windows) allow more privacy--especially for the Saudi women.  They then have the option of taking off their face covering (niqab) to make eating easier while still remaining 'modest'.

The food is basically the same as we would expect.  Although surprisingly the hamburgers are bigger (especially at McDonald's) and often have a type of white Saudi cheese instead of American cheese.  (Not a bad thing, although the cheese has a richer taste so between that and the larger size I have a hard time eating a whole hamburger.)

One interesting thing we've noticed is that the kids meal toys often seem to be old toys--ie having to do with movies that came out quite a while ago.  Although since they don't have movie theaters in Saudi, none of the locals would know the difference.  :-)