Christmas Season is busy even in Saudi Arabia

One would think your social calendar at Christmas in Saudi would be quite empty. Not so, not so. Triniti just recently wrapped up her ballet classes. She's hoping to get a real tutu and ballerina slippers from Santa. Just to keep things balanced she also wants roller blades and all the protective paraphernalia. We attended a winter band concert of Abraham's. He is playing the trombone in the sixth grade band. He had a small solo, maybe I should say duet, and since someone in the percussion section accompanied him. He did an awesome job! He's such a great kid, soon to be a real "teenager." Tuesday, David's high school had a catered Christmas dinner. We were lucky because it was held on our compound. The meal was delicious and the Christmas decorations were beautiful as well as shocking. I was so surprised at the variety of Santas, wreaths and holly. We had a blast. We laughed until our sides hurt during the "white elephant" gift exchange. Wednesday was Solomon's last game of Pee Wee Baseball. He has hit an in-field home run in the last four games. The coaches have started calling him "slugger." He sacrificed his body for the team when he put his bare hand out to stop a line drive whizzing by the pitchers mound. You could hear the slap from the stands. Ouch! He was quite proud of his trophy and tying for first place. Thursday the family attended David's high school drama class performance. It was his first big evening production, "Ebony Scrooge." It's a take-off of the original scrooge but this time scrooge is a 'girl.' The performance was great. Friday there was a Christmas tea for all the kids on the compound. I think this was the highlight of my week. It was held in the villa of one of our British families. They served us mince pies and lots of other goodies contributed by other families with children. About 40 minutes into the party Santa and an Elf appeared. Santa had gifts for all the children. He called their names, they sat on his lap and he gave them a gift. (perfect photo op for parents) Then we went caroling around the compound. I counted 44 people when we first got started. It was so much fun! Saturday, we attended another catered meal, this one was for my school staff, DEMS and their spouses. We had another delicious turkey meal. Excellent service and the waiters came out carrying dessert singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Again we were fortunate it was held on our compound. My fellow staffers were duly impressed by the Bialik outdoor Christmas light display. David always does a fantastic with the outside lights. Monday we had a cast party at our villa. We were invaded by a bunch a teenagers. After snacks and them watching their performance on DVD we went caroling around the compound again. This time with students from various religious backgrounds, they loved it. Merry Christmas to you all.

The oohs and ahhs as Santa passes out gifts

Solomon and Spencer

Have you been a good boy?

Cross Country

Getting ready to take the bus to Aramco

Abe running by David & Triniti on the course

This hill is where a bunch of runners got sick and kept on running

MS BOYS WIN!!

Congrats team & Coach Vento

Winter Concert 2007

The first picture is Abraham's musical debut on the trombone

 Just above is Abraham and his Louisiana buddy, Brock.
Brock has all the good manners and charm of the south. "Yes Mam" to anything you say. He is a great kid and we're glad Abe has made such a good friend from school. Sadly my batteries died after only two pictures. Better luck next time mom.

Solomon played PeeWee baseball at the Saudi Aramco Compound.  It was a great experience.  He wa on the “Dodgers” team.  His coaches did an excellent job teaching the kids the basics of baseball.  I can see part of the reason Aramco makes it to the “Little League World Series” every year.  His team ended up tied for first place.  Solomon hit a home run, over the heads of the outfielders  (They were playing on full size fields) in each of his last 4 games.  He’ll sign up again for the spring season in March.  I’m posting some pictures from the last game and pizza party.

Take Me out to the Ball Game...



David, Tammy & Triniti watching Solomon's baseball game on a nice cool night in Saudi. 
Abe is not here because he is at his first  Middle School dance

Taking the field

Solomon used his hand to stop a whizzing line drive

Trophy Time



An Nassim Halloween

Trick or Treaters...ready to start knocking on doors. 

We all met up by the pool entrance and took pictures before heading off to trick or treat around the compound. After getting loads of candy and prizes there was a party for the kids in the rec center. It was a dance with decorations, pizza, and goodies.  The kids has a great time.

Triniti as an adorable Minnie Mouse 

Solomon the fierce Indian ready with his bow



Abe as Captain Hook... Arghh!





Triniti visits Roz who coordinates this great annual event

 

Abaya Baby

We went for a short trip up the road to Jubail with our neighbors, the Johnsons.  Here is a picture of me in my abaya, Pam foot loose and fancy free with one, and Abraham.  We had a pcinic on the grassy area by the corniche then played a mini baseball game.  There were only 8 people total so it had to be mini size game.  Pam Johnson is my first grade teaching partner and Triniti's teacher.  Pam &Vargie and their son Luka are from New Zealand.   Vargie is the librarian for all 3 schools on our campus.  The LRC, Learning Resource Center, is an amazingly well stocked, current place.  I was blown away at the selection of titles and resources available to us here.  The Johnsons have been here for a very long time.  All three of there boys were born here. (the oldest two are in college and Luka is in 9th grade at the high school.

Camels & Cars

Our friend Rick Barnhouse has been taking David out car shopping in Saudi.  One night they saw some camels and they stopped so David could see them up close.

Along with the camels they also found a vehicle for us to purchase.  A 2000 Chevrolet Suburban, it seats 8.  We can hardly wait for all the paper work to be finished so we can pick up our "Bialik Bus" and begin to really investigate our new home.

The Bialik Bus

 

Tooth Fairy

Triniti has been keeping the tooth fairy busy.  First she had to track her down a couple continents away, then exchanging USD for Saudi Riyals, whew!   

Here she is after losing one of her front teeth on September 5, 2007.

Exactly a week later she lost her the tooth next door to the first one.


What a difference a week makes! 



Got Milk?... trial and error

Got Milk?  We have learned many things through trial and error since arriving in the desert.  Before our arrival the support services office had made our beds, arranged the furniture, laid out towels and filled our cabinets and fridge with a starter supply of food. This was so wonderful. It was 10:30 pm when we walked in, had a tour and were left alone in our new home. We were wiped out after 24 hours of traveling. The kids, Solomon in particular, hadn't eaten much during our three flights. We were all hungry and so thankful for the bowl of fruit and sandwich goodies. The next day after touring the school campus and having lunch at the Mall of Dhahran food court, all the new families were dropped off at a local grocery store to do some shopping while our bus waited to deliver us back to our compound. Thus began our two weeklong searches for milk. We tried to find the same brand that was in our fridge when we arrived. Somehow we couldn't find one that we all thought tasted good. Even David was having a tough time... One night he bought one of every kind in the store. That was an experience. The label doesn't necessarily tell you what is inside. Several times we found ourselves with full cream or buttermilk over our cereal. Eventually we found Long Life milk. Believe it or not… it's not even in the refrigerated section. You buy it by the boxful, about 4 gallons worth. You can keep it in your cupboard and put it in the fridge when you are running low. It's good, really!!!

Our Villa

We arrived at our new villa @ 10:50pm. Solomon, our extremely picky eater, was famished. He had barely eaten anything for a full 24 hours. He didn't like anything on the planes. I will admit we were given some "interesting items" that I tried but didn't care for. I ate some things anyway to keep from being too hungry and to try to set a good example for the kids. They didn't even pass out regular peanuts, but smoked almonds instead.

We were so thankful when we arrived at our compound we discovered the school had supplied everyone with a basic set of food and drinks. We all really appreciated that first meal in our new home, cereal and fruit. When we arrived at the compound armed guards came out and checked out the bus and looked over all of the new staff. We had a couple veterans on our bus too. I was so glad they were with us. Once you clear the initial gate you turn past a camouflage covered shelter that has a swiveling machine gun in it. Yes! Then onto the next gate and more soldiers before a huge metal obstruction is lowered into the ground and the last gate is opened.

Back to our villa, it is ridiculously big. The rooms are massive. Currently we have an upstairs family room that has no real purpose because we already have a living room and family room downstairs as well as a large entry/foyer type room, dining room and eat-in kitchen. All the rooms are furnished.

The kids love it. They've made lots of friends. The compound feels a bit like a college dorm…people popping in and out of each other's villas, hanging out at the pool, kids in the rec room, or ladies planning shopping trips with our drivers or just borrowing eggs or sugar from the next door neighbor.

A Warm Welcome

We took three separate flights to Saudi. In Cincinnati we were given the "full treatment" by security. My guess, we were flagged due to our destination. When we arrived we found out that all the new families were also thoroughly searched at their respective airports. We had 10 carry-ons, full of electronics plus my purse. Every teeny tiny item was swiped and tested for explosives. We all had to sit down separated by search stations and were told repeatedly "Don't touch anything." You can imagine the looks we got from other people coming through security. :0)  Eventually, we were cleared and could repack and move on to our gate. When we stepped off the subway close to our gate, security alarms we're going off. We went on up the escalator and took the moving walkway to our gate. Where we encountered security guards lined up abreast of each other not letting anyone pass. It turned out to be nothing but it delayed us for quite a while longer. Thankfully we went to the airport 3.5 hours early or we might not have made it!

The rest of our travel was uneventful. It was a bit nerve wracking finally arriving. As I watched Middle Eastern women on the plane going to the restroom dressed one way and coming back completely covered up. Reality started to sink in. :0) Thankfully, we seemed to be the only flight arriving at Dammam International Airport at that time of night and almost all the departing passengers were for our school. The majority stayed on the plane traveing on to Doha.

My principal and her family ended up on our final flight due to a late plane arrival into Amsterdam the previous evening. My kids were thrilled. We had traveled to their "lovely" lake house a few days earlier and become pals. Also our buddy couple was on our flight as well as three other families. It seems I was nervous for nothing because security sent us right through, didn't open anything. Oh wait, the first official talked to David and asked him several questions, silly ones I might add. Then he talked to each kid and would ask them things like "Who is Abraham?" "Where is your Dad?" He talked quite a bit to Triniti. I thought it very interesting that he didn't speak to me, ask me a question or even act as if I was there. Not so much as to even mention my name. I said to David "and so it starts..." :0) We both had a good chuckle over it.

We were greeted by the district superintendent Norma Hudson, and H.S. Vice Principal Marcus Toneatto and some other staffers. They had a huge banner welcoming us with all our names on it. We did all the preliminaries... even the distributing of settling in funds in the airport terminal before we walked out to the buses.  After walking out I knew why everything was done inside. I can't tell you how immediately, amazingly hot it was. It felt like I couldn't breathe. Seriously. The humidity was way over the top. Words are not enough to convey the heat right about 110 degrees, and especially the humidity, and this was at 10:00 PM.
"How's that for a warm welcome?"